Bungi Bill

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Posts by Bungi Bill

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  37

  K.I.S.S. Keep it simple (for the) STUPID! Considering 1914 anew

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  have you ever seen a stop sign?.

  what if it were a "decelerate until stationary!

  "sign, instead?.

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  Bungi Bill

  "Intelligent JW Apologist"? Certainly on matters such as the finer points of Koine Greek, rather a mythical creature, I would have thought! This is not at all surprizing, though, given the WTS's anti-education hard line.

  To justify their date of 1914 does require a goodly measure of creative accounting. In particular, notice that Russell did not arrive at the date 1914 from counting forward "Seven Times" from 607 BCE:

  - rather, it was the other way around!

  This date of 1914 was borrowed from Nelson H. Barbour's Second Adventists - who arrived at it by a particularly nebulous bit of creative accounting, after their prophecy of 1873/1874 being the date for Armegeddon failed. Then, the psuedo-science of Pyramidology appeared to support this date.

  Bill.
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  13

  Australian Ex-Witness claims to be Jesus Christ

  by Rank&FileGuy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  part 1:.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkikbn39xq0&nr=1.

  part 2:.

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  Bungi Bill

  There is nothing at all new in this:

  - the pyschiatric wards of most hospitals have always had more than their share of patients who claim to be either Jesus, God, the Seventh Angel of Revelation , or something similar.

  I vividly recall one evening when I had to bring somebody into the Accident and Emergency Dept of a major hospital:

  - while medical staff were attending to badly injured or acutely ill patients, two psychiatrists were dealing with a badly deranged woman, who was adamant that she was the "Seventh Angel" mentioned in the book of Revelation. To prove her point, she was quoting heavily from a green-covered version of - guess what - "our" own New World Translation.

  Needless to say, despite then being a very active JW, I kept right out of that one!

  Bill.
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  32

  ...WBT$/JW 1975.....Harold Camping`s May 21 2011 Rapture...

  by OUTLAW in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  now we know how stupid we look..when we knock on peoples doors... with the wbt$ message... .

  "armageddon is just around the corner!".

  ..................... ...outlaw.

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  Bungi Bill

  All I know is that - on this side of the International Dateline - we are already now well into the afternoon of Sunday, May 22nd 2011. Nothing significant has yet occured, and nobody has been yet raptured that I can see!

  How do things currently look on your side of the International Dateline?

  - or has it got something to do with midnight, May 21st 2011, local time in Jerusalem?

  Bill.

  PS: What a crock of #!%t!
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  11

  ANy idea on the media coverage when the end did not come in 1975?

  by on the rocks in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs
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  Bungi Bill

  There was surprizingly very little said in the media about this:

  - I do recall one newspaper reporter in Australia making some sarcastic observation that "Armegeddon may be late!"

  - Apart from that, the only other media commentary that I have ever heard of was from John Dart, the Religious Affairs editor of the Los Angeles Times. Hereported that JWs had expected the end of the world to occur during the fall of 1975, but that now, this "isn't all that certain."

  Fred Franz's predictions could not have been that newsworthy! (I wonder why?).

  Bill.
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  76

  After Exiting the Witnesses - Are you O.K. Not Knowing about the Future ?

  by flipper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it seems that religion has always been considered the opium of the people.

  or at least many tend to gravitate towards religion to have or solidify some sort of future with a supreme being overlooking them hoping to have a reward either in heaven or in the jehovah's witnesses case - living forever in a " paradise earth ".

  it seems that people can't just live day to day and let each day come to them with whatever happens.

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  Bungi Bill

  Ditto Slimboyfat!

  Bill
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  18

  What was your reaction when first introduced to the "1914" doctrine?

  by highdose in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i studied the paradise book, you may remember there was a whole chapter it in about the dream, the tree getting chopped down, time, time and half a time etc.

  now i was very young ( but of course spirtualy mature (!

  ) when i studied this but i remember seeing the person explain this doctrine to me and it was like.... " ok now you see this scripture here?

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  Bungi Bill

  When I was first introduced to it, the events of WW1, 1914, 1919 etc. etc. etc. were less than 50 years previous; "The Generation" was that of my grandparents, who were still very much alive in their late 60s; and "The Balloon was going to go up" in 1975, less than ten years in the future.

  All very plausible stuff!

  Even after the 1975 #%*&$-up; as others here have noted, the WTS mounted an offensive in the 1980s, and things still looked positive.

  As time went on, though, one had to face up to it that the WTS was going to have to do some fast talking to explain way their previous utterances about "The Generation" :

  - once it became plain even to the dimest of dimwits that that "Generation" had in fact departed, yet still nothing had changed.

  That was about the time I woke up to the sham that the WTS is, and decided that I had already heard enough fast talking to last a lifetime!

  Bill.
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  76

  After Exiting the Witnesses - Are you O.K. Not Knowing about the Future ?

  by flipper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it seems that religion has always been considered the opium of the people.

  or at least many tend to gravitate towards religion to have or solidify some sort of future with a supreme being overlooking them hoping to have a reward either in heaven or in the jehovah's witnesses case - living forever in a " paradise earth ".

  it seems that people can't just live day to day and let each day come to them with whatever happens.

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  Bungi Bill

  The short answer - Yes, quite okay about it;

  - the JWs didn't know the future, anyway, they only thought that they did (or at the very least , tried to fool themselves - and everybody else - into believing that they did!)

  Given the choice, I would much rather own up and admit outright that the future is an unknown - than be shackled to an outfit that only thought it knew what the future held, but in reality knew no more than anyone else did. That is a much more harmful situation to be in, as you only end up frittering way your present.

  PAST = a canceled check.

  FUTURE = a promissory note

  PRESENT: cash in hand - use it while you have it!

  Bill.
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  1

  Rutherford's Power Grabbing

  by Band on the Run in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  wikipedia has an article about the dispute over wt presidency in 1917. no reference to jws in the title.

  i read the article, obviously.

  something is wrong in these accounts.

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  Bungi Bill

  The actions of the deposed Board of Directors do suggest a measure incompetence on their part, together with a certain lack of moral courage.

  Perhaps being their being previously overshadowed by a strong president had something to do with this?

  - i.e. when their turn finally came in which they had to perform their duties as a Board of Directors, they were (i) Uncertain of how to go about doing this and (ii) Were possibly quite intimidated by the prospect of having to face down another strong leader - and one who also loud, rude , vulgar, aggressive , and utterly ruthless into the bargain!

  Bill.
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  16

  Can you be appointed as an Elder while attending college?

  by doubtful in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what is the current stance on this issue?

  i've heard of a lot of ms who were going to university, and yet i've never heard of that being the case for elders.

  someone on this board also mentioned recently that they knew of man who was denied appointment as an elder despite otherwise excellent qualifications because he was a college student.

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  Bungi Bill

  EmptyInside,

  You make an excellent point that young persons going into the workforce directly from High School are every bit as exposed to "worldly influences" as those attending college.

  There is no scriptural basis for the WTS's downer on college education - and there is no logical basis for their portrayal of a typical university as being a den of iniquity (while, presumably, the workplace isn't!)

  The only conclusion one can reach from this is that scriptures are only for newly interested persons or weak publishers:

  - for "mature" JWs, directives from the Governing Body are what really count.

  In other words, it is all about conforming to a set of man-made rules - waking up to this fact some 17 years ago is what sent me fleeing from "The Truth."

  Bill.
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  53

  Do Active Witnesses Find Meetings Exciting?

  by Band on the Run in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  kh meetings were utter hell.

  the boredom, particularly for a child, was awful.

  i feel it was a form of child abuse.

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  Bungi Bill

  When I first began a "bible study" with the Witnesses, I heard them rave about their meetings. The impression that I was given was that the mere attendance of such a meeting at the Kingdom Hall was a truly mind-altering experience.

  After going to the Kingdom Hall for the first time, I just thought that I had somehow missed a point somewhere - and that underneath it all, there was still indeed a mind altering experience to be had! I even kept up this pretence through all the years that I was most active as a JW:

  - but, no, the reality was that the meetings at the Kingdom Hall were never at all in any way special.

  - and that is the good news!

  What has deeply disturbed me to this day is the way in which I followed the "counsel" of the WTS / FDS etc. etc. etc to bring my children to all the meetings;

  - no matter how much the subject under discussion was way beyond their level of comprehension.

  - irrespective of the fact that sitting for two hours of such mind numbing boredom is a challenge for an adult, and can only be torture for a small child.

  - disciplining the children when the inevitable happened and they got bored and made a disturbance. (I now feel particularly bad about having done that on all too many occassions).

  Those posters who have labelled this as child abuse are very correct, and it is this more than most else that I now resent the WTS for.

  Bill.