There will always be somebody around that has to be different - no matter what.
Regarding those who described the Special Talk as "Awesome", I would hate to see their idea of "Bloody Awful"!
Bill.
Bungi Bill
JoinedPosts by Bungi Bill
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The "WOW!!" moment...Theocratic Ministry School was a sham!
by Terry ini just remembered something from long ago..... i moved to california in 1974 after i had been in "the truth" for 11 years, having full-time pioneered and also having served time in federal prison over the so-called christian neutrality issue.. i felt completely confident that my bible education was the best on planet earth.
i had honed my skills by door to door preaching, discussion, arguments and attendance at the theocratic ministry school.. i began working as an artist in a huge company that manufactured all kinds of art, sculpture and wall hanging.
the head of the artists was a wonderful young man, skilled artist and devout christian who took me under his wing.
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Bungi Bill
If all you knew of the Christian churches is what you learned from the WTS, then you would indeed have a totally skewed view of things:
- a bit like having looked through a builder's dumpy level at the reflection of an object off a distorted mirror; instead of looking straight at that same object!
It took a bit longer for the message to hit home for me, but finally hit home it did; i.e. that nearly everything we were told about the Christian churches was incorrect - particularly as regards bible scholarship. I can remember even being told that, "once you back your preacher into a corner over bible doctrine, he will probably say that The Bible is a lot of nonsense." It was even being touted by the JWs that the churches were claiming that "God was Dead."
The reality, however - as Terry discovered in one evening, and I found out over a longer period - was quite different.
Still, what can you expect from an outfit that has no scholarship, and nothing but disdain for academic learning?
Bill.
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Did you beleive you were A intellectual when you were a JW
by jam ini am embarrass to say when i was a jw and a elder i. thought i could sit down and speak on any subject with.
anyone intelligently.
i felt the schooling of the wt had.
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Bungi Bill
I knew quite a few elders like Jam describes:
- i.e. just because they had been appointed an elder in the congregation, they seemed to think that they automatically knew more about every conceivable subject than the rest of us did.
The younger they were, the more pronounced this feeling of superiority seemed to be (One I recall even affected a distinctive peacock strut after his appointment).
As for me, I never considered myself anything other than "unlettered and ordinary" - just like the apostles! I certainly never bought into the idea that reading the Watchtower and Awake magazines gave you the equivalent of a college education (unless it was for a Diploma of Idiocy).
Bill.
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Pennsylvania witnesses shot at
by Siddhashunyata inhttp://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?aid=/20110501/news90/105010338/-1/news.
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Bungi Bill
In the district where I lived when first contacted by the JWs, such incidents were not altogether unknown. Unfortunately, there are persons around who still own firearms, but are not in any fit mental or emotional state to be trusted with the things. Combine that with a serial nuisance such as the JWs, and the above can all too easily happen.
However, to argue with somebody who is threatening you with a weapon is one of the heights of stupidity. I have been held up at gunpoint (though not while in the field service). Not having any particular desire to be awarded a medal for getting myself shot, it was very much a case of saying "you win" to the gunman!
Bill.
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Bungi Bill
I didn't attend / wouldn't attend / already wasted far too of my life listening to such nonsense already!
However, of one thing you can be sure, this one would have been no more special than any of the other "special talks" that there have ever been !
Put in military terms, this special talk should have been entitled "Sierra Squared, Delta Squared." (As ladies are listening, I had better not translate that code!)
Bill.
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My Experience as JW
by umadevi inhello, i am new to this site and it is comforting to know that i am not the only one that has problem with wts.
i'm 36 and single parent with 8 year old son.
i work full time from 8am to 5pm in order to support both of us.
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Bungi Bill
Speaking as somebody whose whole life has been totally messed up by following an elder's instructions to "find another job":
- don't, don't, don't take any notice of this jerk, or those like him!
As other posters have already stated, neither he nor anybody else is going to pay your bills for you, and your first concern is the welfare of your child.
Unfortunately, your experience is all too typical of those becoming involved with any cult:
- You first go through the "Lovebombing" phase, in which everyone appears to be very loving, helpful and understanding.
- Once, though, they feel that they have got you sufficiently snared, they start to reveal their true colors. In the case of the JWs, this includes their applying pressure on you to become an unpaid distributor of Watchtower literature.
Stevenson, in his 1967 book 1975 - Year of Doom? , stated "No other religious group would demand so much from its members, in return for so little." Many - even the majority - of us on this site found out the hard way that Stevenson's observations are all too true.
With this in mind, you might well want to consider whether any further involvement with them is wise!
Bill.
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Not at Homes
by Bungi Bill indo the jws still emphasize following up on "not at homes":.
making "every effort" (or any effort at all) to contact all persons in their "territory"?.
this last month, april, was supposed to be a time of extra effort on their part.
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Bungi Bill
WontLeave,
Sadly, it is all about keeping up appearances, and little or nothing about helping people - the very things I used to hear "Christendom" being berated for.
THEN: the realization hits home that - all too often - when you point the finger at somebody, you discover that there are three fingers pointing back at you!
Bill.
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The only organization that God directs.
by man in black induring the decades in which i was a jw, so many times i heard comments about how the wtbts is the only organization that god is directing here on earth today.
in fac there was a popular story in the late 70's about how the us army once came to a district assembly to observe, and learn how to better organize large groups of people.
( i remember the speaker commenting on how many attendee's thought the tribulation was starting because the army was there.
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Bungi Bill
Terra Incgnita,
You are quite correct, of course.
I just like to cut through all the circumlocution, and go straight for the jugular!
(Probably comes from having to deal so often with consultants).
Bill.
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Whose "mouthpiece" was Pastor Russell: Jehovah's or the Adventists??
by Terry ineither charles taze russell obtained his ideas from jehovah or he didn't.. if russell didn't get them from jehovah---from where?.
let's take a survey of the facts about william miller and subsequent adventist teachings.. then, we can ask this question again!.
when william miller (baptist farmer turned theologian) predicted the 2nd coming of christ in 1843/44 a large segment of america's population believed along with him.. miller was invited to preach in church after church.
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Bungi Bill
Quite a number of different groups later emerged from the wreckage of William Miller's "Great Disappointment" of 1844. These included some that are still here today, such as the Seventh Day Adventist Church and the Christadelpians. It also included others, however, that have since been and gone.
Amongst the latter was a group led by Nelson H. Barbour, which was known as the "Second Adventist Church".
The Second Adventists "did a William Miller", and predicted that the world was going to end in 1873 (Later amended to 1874).
When this failed to eventuate, one of Barbour's followers (somebody by the name of Elliott) suggested that perhaps The Lord had in fact arrived after all in 1874 - he had just done so invisibly!
This idea of Christ's invisible presence was eagerly embraced by Nelson Barbour, who also now predicted that the end of the world would occur in 1914. When C.T. Russell met with Nelson Barbour in 1876; he, too, adopted both ideas. (Of course, Barbour and Russell later parted company - not over these issues - although much later, Barbour did discard his 1914 date).
This is where the Witnesses got the idea from that 1914 is a key date in bible prophecy - a fact attested to in Raymond Franz's Crisis of Conscience. It is also the origin of their doctrine about "Christ's Invisible Presence."
Incredible as it may now seem, for a time during the 19th Century, the pseudo-science of Pyramidology was treated very seriously. A Professor Charles Smyth published a book in 1864, entitled The Great Pyramid - Its Secrets and Mysteries Revealed. Russell quoted heavily from this and other similar works, and must have been quite excited when "chronology marks" on the Great Pyramid of Gizeh appeared to mark such signficant dates as the year of The Exodus, the death of Jesus Christ, AND - the year 1914. (the website http://www.gizapyramid.com/pyr.htm contains quite a discussion about prophetic timelines in the pyramid).
While C.T. Russell's predictions about 1914 did not originate from a study of Pyramidology, he did use it as further evidence to point to that date. Too bad that this "evidence" was from a pseudo-scientific source! (Moral of the story - if two dates appear to line up, it means nothing at all!).
Certainly, neither of these foundations of JW doctrine - the date 1914 and Christ's Invisible Presence - are orginal ideas. Both were borrowed from the Second Adventist church ; and the "Invisible Presence" doctrine was an escape clause dreamed up, not by the group's leader, but one of his obscure followers.
Bill.
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The only organization that God directs.
by man in black induring the decades in which i was a jw, so many times i heard comments about how the wtbts is the only organization that god is directing here on earth today.
in fac there was a popular story in the late 70's about how the us army once came to a district assembly to observe, and learn how to better organize large groups of people.
( i remember the speaker commenting on how many attendee's thought the tribulation was starting because the army was there.
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Bungi Bill
When the JWs make this claim to being the ONLY organization that God directs, what evidence do (or can) they produce to back it up?:
- A big fat zero!
It all comes down to "We are the only organization that God is using, because we say we are."
Bill.