Posts by Alfred

65

Attention Governing Body: October 2, 2014 is only 940 days away...

by Alfred in

in 1823, john aquila brown (a man who is not mentioned in any wt publication) came up with a bizarre mathematical calculation which totalled 2,520 years (in an unauthorized attempt to predict the end of the gentile times).... several religions recycled this bizarre calculation, including the adventists and the bible students... when armageddon didn't come on the variety of early 20th century dates predicted by several "dooms-day" religions of that time (including charles taze russell's bible students who predicted that the big a would start in 1914), they all finally realized that this 2,520-year calculation was nothing more than arbitrary mathematical speculation derived from erratic biblical extrapolation.... except for the bible students who continued to move up the date for armageddon 2 more times (1918, 1925) and then decided to use wwi as the starting point for the "last days".. all the while, one thing that seems to remain intact is the october 2, 1914 date.

oddly, for the watchtower bible & tract publishing cult, this particular date still marks the end of the 2,520-year period (that john aquila brown referred to in his bizarre 1823 book "the even tide")... again, no mention of this in any watchtower publication.

but, for jws, that date still remains the starting point for the period of time often referred to as the "last days" or even "the generation that shall not pass".. because of this, the governing body has been forced to change the definition of "the generation that shall not pass" countless times since the early 1970's.

Alfred

905 days remaining....

52

Question for Dogpatch (Randy): What will it cost to produce the new 16-page Watchtower & Awake?

by Alfred in

when literature used to be sold d2d, i remember how the society never missed an opportunity to trash other religions for "peddling god's word for profit" while boasting about how the watchtower only charges for the cost of the paper and ink.. in the book "witnesses of jehovah", the author mentioned that randall watters used to be involved in print cost analysis and determined that, while we were selling wt & awake mags for 20 cents door-to-door, it was really only costing the society 4 cents per copy to produce.

that's a whopping 400% profit!.

obviously, things have changed... the paper is different, as well as the ink and printing methods in general.

Alfred

Devil Fish ... I think you just gave the Watchtower Real Estate Investment Corporation a great idea... they should give you at least 10% of all profits that this idea will generate... You can send me half of that for bringing up this subject on this thread...

52

Question for Dogpatch (Randy): What will it cost to produce the new 16-page Watchtower & Awake?

by Alfred in

when literature used to be sold d2d, i remember how the society never missed an opportunity to trash other religions for "peddling god's word for profit" while boasting about how the watchtower only charges for the cost of the paper and ink.. in the book "witnesses of jehovah", the author mentioned that randall watters used to be involved in print cost analysis and determined that, while we were selling wt & awake mags for 20 cents door-to-door, it was really only costing the society 4 cents per copy to produce.

that's a whopping 400% profit!.

obviously, things have changed... the paper is different, as well as the ink and printing methods in general.

Alfred

When literature used to be sold D2D, I remember how the Society never missed an opportunity to trash other religions for "peddling God's word for profit" while boasting about how the Watchtower only charges for the cost of the paper and ink.

In the book "Witnesses of Jehovah", the author mentioned that Randall Watters used to be involved in print cost analysis and determined that, while we were selling WT & Awake mags for 20 cents door-to-door, it was really only costing the Society 4 cents per copy to produce. That's a whopping 400% profit!

Obviously, things have changed... the paper is different, as well as the ink and printing methods in general. But based on the current quality and weight of the Watchtower & Awake mags, what would be the Society's cost to print a 32-page magazine versus the thinner 16-page mag?

14

KM Sermon for April, "We are providing a Public Service"

by Quarterback in

just thought about the suggested sermon for the april magazines in the km.

it suggests that jw say that they are doing a public service.. a public service, is a service that is rendered by the government.

doesn't that writing commitee know the meaning of such words.. i wonder if they are trying to mislead by using this wording, or, they just don't get it..

Alfred

The public service JWs provide is waking up lazy people Saturday mornings, thereby reducing widespread obesity.

17

I just asked the JW website for a home visit...

by TimeBandit in

jw
friends

i just went and filled out the form asking to be visited.

i hope they come soon so i can work my super apostate magic!

uh, if the super apostate magic doesn't work, i'll just let my huge great danes out onto the porch and freak the witnesses out followed by kicking them off my front porch... .

Alfred

Billy... wouldn't that make your annoying neighbors even more annoying?

13

To Those of You Partaking at Home This Year. . .

by leavingwt in

jw
friends

.

have you abandoned the wt idea of two classes of christians?

while still a believer, ray's books helped me to see that the idea of there being two classes of christians was a 'unique interpretation' of the watchtower society with no basis in scripture.

Alfred

using pretzels and beer as emblems this year...

124

Are JWs the worst restaurant customers?

by Alfred in

jw
friends

(a little background info before i ask my question...).

my sister-in-law (non-jw), who manages a popular chain restaurant near a kingdom hall, just found out that my wife and i have recently faded, so she decided to get something off her chest the other day... you guessed it: she wanted us to know that jws are the worst customers ever!

she then told us some really embarrassing stories about how jws would request a table for 15 to 20 people (after a sunday meeting) and then (when the bill came) some of the jws would start deliberating amongst themselves on whether or not the waiter was diligent or not (to justify the low tip he was getting anyway).

Alfred

shamelessly bumping just because it's memorial night...

17

How did/does your congregation view going out to eat AFTER the Memorial?

by OneDayillBeFree in

for us it used to be a big no-no, but i think it has slowly grown more acceptable since many of our elders would be starving during the whole reject jesus party.... i always thought it was a bit funny when i saw brothers and sisters almost celebrating with a big feast and drinks on the night that the good ol' messiah sacrificed himself for all humankind!

it seems now more recently that since it is the only thing witnessess can celebrate, they go all out!

maybe i'll join in the festivities too.. so what about you guys?

Alfred

Never heard of it being a no-no.... In my area it's a tradition... (for more info, see the following thread)

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/207581/1/Are-JWs-the-worst-restaurant-customers

58

So what do your Jehovah's Witness friends and loved ones think of the generation teaching?

by garyneal in

after the little skit at the last assembly where one brother was asking another for understanding about the generation teaching i thought, "wow, these people will believe anything the watchtower tells them.

" the 'more mature brother' practically said verbatim everything the watchtower said as his explanation.

evidently, this is one of the sources of the increased 'murmuring' that the talked warned against.. so, has anyone brought this up to their witness friends and/or family?

Alfred

Believe it or not, I got this response from an experienced elder: "What change? There was no change. Just an explanation on what is meant by the word generation. The doctrine is still the same as it's always been."

I had to really bite my tongue because the only thing I could think of saying is: "Are you a f**king idiot???"

Really frustrating. There wasn't even a hint of cognitive dissonance in his head... just plain stupidity...

74

Will Embracing the Internet lead to Increased Growth for the Watchtower?

by jwfacts in

more important than the reduction in the size of the new magazine is that the watchtower will be actively promoting its website and encouraging people use it to download magazines.

my concern is that this has the potential to lead to an increase in growth for the watchtower.. the door-to-door preaching work has been one of the most inefficient means imaginable to gain converts, and done little more than tie up the time of active jws.

now, by directing people to the internet, witnesses can spread their message at an alarming rate for little cost.. do you feel that this has the potential to lead to a surge in growth of jehovah's witnesses?

Alfred

The last time I checked, the Top Ten Sites (other than Google) were... Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo, Live email, Wikipedia, MSN, BlogSpot, Bing, Microsoft.com and Ask.com...

The Society claims that JW.org gets 400,000 daily hits... I don't know if that's a good number of hits or not but this site is ranked somewhere around 7,500 !!!

Also, the reality is that most people don't turn on their computers to get their spirituality on, they go to their neighborhood church or turn on their TVs Sunday morning. That's plain reality.

If the WT really want to broaden their internet presence, they sure have a L-O-N-G way to go...