Posts by Hoffnung

33

The Apostle John thought the end was near...

by pirata in

i used to always justify that the apostles (and paul) thought the end was near because the "mini-end" (jerusalem's destruction in 70ce) had not yet happened.. then it dawned on me that 1st/2nd/3rd john were written in 98ce (at least according to the back of my nwt), after jerusalem's destruction.. 1 john 2:18 (new international version)warnings against denying the son 18 dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.

this is how we know it is the last hour.. not only was it the last day, it was the last hour..

Hoffnung

Hi Leolaia, thanks for your comments. Looks I have some research to do. Now I know where to look

Hoffnung

34

Is the information on JWfacts.com accurate?

by Nobleheart in

jw
friends

i'm researching and going through so much material to try and find out whether jw doctrines and beliefs are based on the bible, as well as if they're consistent.

i'm a jw currently and i have many doubts at the moment.

fortunately this site is helping me so much, as there's always someone who's posted the same question i had in mind.

Hoffnung

Hello Nobleheart,

As Blacksheep already suggested, please draw a list of all the Neo-Babylonian Kings with the years they reigned. Your WT Lib Cd-Rom has this information available. The last king will be Nabonidus, the 1st one Nabopalassar, Nebuchadnezzar's father. count all these years together. You know the moment the Babylonian empire ended, 539 BCE. Calculate the 1st year of Nabopalassar. Please find now in your WT-Lib the moment Babylon attained its supremacy status. in the Insight book you will find under 'Assyria' that it was in the 17th year of Nabopalassar. calculate what year this was. Now take your bible and read Jer 25:12. Here you find bible prophecy confirmed that between the 17th year of Nabopalassar and 539BCE there are exactly... 70 years, as foretold in the bible. Jer 25:11 confirms that NationS (plural S) will have to serve the King of Babylon 70 years. Now you can take any bible verse that states in which year Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem. Depending on the verse it was his 18th or 19th year (depending on the viewpoint of the writer). please calculate now in which year BCE this took place. The math really is straightforward.

The most quoted verses by the organization are 2Chron36:20, 21 and Daniel 9:1,2. Both refer directly to the verses in Jer 25, and thus can only be used together with Jer 25.

To top it up, both verses in Zecharia (1:12, 7:5) say the jews were fasting already for 70 years at that time. As Zecharia wrote his book around 515-520 BCE, and 70 years before 515-520 BCE, brings us to 590-585, it confirms what you found above.

the only real difficult one is Jer 29:10. Because Hieronymus ('Jerome' in french), used 'in' instead of 'for' in his Latin Vulgate, and this error was copied in the english King James version and all its descendants, quite a few bibles use the same word incorrectly. However, the specialist in the use of this word, a professor in Switzerland, who spent his entire oeuvre on this, stated that the Akkadian 'le' cannot be translated as 'in' in this particular verse. I am quite sure you will be able to find translations in your own languages whith the correct translation.

the simple logic above blew me and my wife away. Please do not hesitate to reply if you cannot agree with what I wrote above.

I am also living in Europe, and English is not my 1st language either. Maybe I can give you a hand with the language issue. Please check your PM.

keep your hope alive, you are getting closer to finding truth, and truth will set you free.

Best Regards,

Hoffnung

37

Comparing the old elder's handbook to the new...

by undercover in

as i've read through the new elder's book, something kept nagging at me about it.

then i went to compare one passage in the new book to the old and it hit me.

i've mentioned it on a couple of posts, but i wanted to start a thread on it.... what hit me was that the new book was like an instruction manual to supervisors in a plant.

Hoffnung

Just funny to know: you who have a downloaded copy are well ahead of most elders, most of the non-english congregations in Europe still have not received them yet. Yet another proof that you have to be on a big no-no website to know 1st what is going on the inside, and this months before the official news network of the biggest printing and publishing group in the world informs their workers. How sad for the poor workers.

But to be honest, what to expect of a group of top-shepherds, who, after many years of gathering the expertise of thousands of other shepherds, writes a book about how to take care of the flock, and at least 70% is about procedures whether or not to get rid of a sheep. Not to mention there are extremely few pages discussing the caring bit. This is far away of the advice of THE specialist in shepherding, who said some 2000 years ago: "If a certain man comes to have a hundred sheep and one of them gets strayed, will he not leave the ninety-nine upon the mountains and set out on a search for the one that is straying? 13 And if he happens to find it, I certainly tell YOU, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that have not strayed. 14 Likewise it is not a desirable thing with my Father who is in heaven for one of these little ones to perish." Matt 18:12-14 (NWT with references, published by the WTBS of NY). This shepherd repeated several times and showed he did EVERYTHING to make sure no sheep would get lost, and he provided quite some tips on how to go about it. As a contrast: Many are the congregations where the flock has been decreasing 30% or more, and the elder-shepherds still ask why this is happening...

The new manual explains in great deal that a shepherd should exchange his caring attitude for the battering rod. Shepherding just saw its Industrial Revolution, where sheep are forced to become more effective production units, or else...

17

List of Branch Offices being closed?

by ThomasCovenant in

jw
friends

hi, i've tried searching for some recent posts on rumours or otherwise of branch offices being closed but cannot easily find anything.

does anyone readily have a list of the ones earmarked for closure?

i did read about central america but also recently some european too.

Hoffnung

Worldwide 23 bethels are in the process of closing or are already closed. Several others are trimmed down. But I do not have a list. The number of 23 comes from a bethelite (trustworthy)

33

The Apostle John thought the end was near...

by pirata in

i used to always justify that the apostles (and paul) thought the end was near because the "mini-end" (jerusalem's destruction in 70ce) had not yet happened.. then it dawned on me that 1st/2nd/3rd john were written in 98ce (at least according to the back of my nwt), after jerusalem's destruction.. 1 john 2:18 (new international version)warnings against denying the son 18 dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.

this is how we know it is the last hour.. not only was it the last day, it was the last hour..

Hoffnung

Hi Leolaia, thanks for your comments. Can you recommend me a thread or a book which explains this further? It seems to be quite difficult to find a good explanation of revelation at all. (Not to mention the climax book from 1988 was a joke at best...and they made us study it 4 times..."sigh")

11

Is the donation of Blood allowed for JW?

by Hoffnung in

this might seem to be a silly question, but if jw are allowed to accept certain blood fractions, they could consider participating in providing these fractions?

would be ok for a jw to donate his/her blood, if it is under the condition that it can only be used for the production of specified fractions?

has anyone asked the society (gb) this question, or is there already a thread on this?

Hoffnung

This might seem to be a silly question, but if JW are allowed to accept certain blood fractions, they could consider participating in providing these fractions? Would be Ok for a JW to donate his/her blood, if it is under the condition that it can only be used for the production of specified fractions? Has anyone asked the society (GB) this question, or is there already a thread on this? If not, what is the reasoning behind it?

33

The Apostle John thought the end was near...

by pirata in

i used to always justify that the apostles (and paul) thought the end was near because the "mini-end" (jerusalem's destruction in 70ce) had not yet happened.. then it dawned on me that 1st/2nd/3rd john were written in 98ce (at least according to the back of my nwt), after jerusalem's destruction.. 1 john 2:18 (new international version)warnings against denying the son 18 dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.

this is how we know it is the last hour.. not only was it the last day, it was the last hour..

Hoffnung

Did anyone research if Revelation could have been partially fullfilled in the 132 CE revulotion led by Simon Kochbar and which led to the final destruction of Jerusalem and death of some 580.000 jews and the christians being thrown out of synagoges all over the place?

18

Interested Person kills Bethelite in German Kingdom Hall, later is killed by train

by processor in

on saturday, 35 jehovah's witnesses gathered in their kingdom hall near frankfurt and sat over coffee and cake (for whatever reason, maybe pioneer school or some other event).

suddenly a 20-year-old man (according to most sources "not a jw yet, but wanted to become one"; though one source claims that he would have been an auxiliary pioneer) took a knife from the cake buffet and killed a 45-year-old bethelite (maybe a circuit overseer).. today the murderer was killed by a train - supposedly suicide.. .

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20101108-31031.html.

Hoffnung

They have sent a letter to all congregations in Germany, which was read from the platform and attached on the announcement board. It confirmed the killer was an active brother, baptized since 2 years, and the victim was a bethelite of 41. it also said there was no fight or quarrel preceding the attack. newspapers say the killer had foreign origins. (was not an original german). Very sad for the family. The bethelite was already dead when the rescue teams arrived. He did not have a chance at all.

30

Finally dared to register

by Hoffnung in

finally i registered today.

being a lurker for quite some months, i convinced myself it is time to give my own 2 pence from time to time.

i am living in europe and i am still 'in', although by now i must be counted as an inactive jw.

Hoffnung

Hello all,

thank you for the support. It was some story I wrote as 1st post, but I need to "unload" some stuff. We are indeed married, and I am happy we did. It took some time to break my thoughts about our religion to her, and we had lots of discussions since. As most of you must remember, it is shocking, to learn that many doctrines are not bible based, and as it was a shock for me, it also is one for her. the discussions these days are not about the doctrines, she is not into that, it is more about the effect it has and will have on our lives. there is this continuous fear we will loose our friends and family. She is not very happy I registered today on this board, but we agreed to disagree.

Hoffnung

30

Finally dared to register

by Hoffnung in

finally i registered today.

being a lurker for quite some months, i convinced myself it is time to give my own 2 pence from time to time.

i am living in europe and i am still 'in', although by now i must be counted as an inactive jw.

Hoffnung

Hello all,

Finally I registered today. Being a lurker for quite some months, I convinced myself it is time to give my own 2 pence from time to time. I am living in Europe and I am still 'in', although by now I must be counted as an inactive JW. What it all started off was a conversation I had with one of my cousins. Most of my family are active JW's. He mentioned a book written by a Norwegian brother about Babylonian Chronology, and he was quite inspired by it. I told him I was interested and he made sure I got my copy. I guess most of you know this brother was Furuli. I was reading a few pages at work during breaks but I found it too boring. A work colleague noticed the book and asked if he could read it, he is into all that kind of stuff. I agreed. A few weeks later he gave it back and said he could not agree with the author. I found that quite strange, having never known that 607 BCE was not supported by classic historians. Anyway, it did not interest me so much, as by that time I had started getting to know my fiancee, and you all understand I had different interests. As we loved each other too much, we had the "joy" of experiencing the "loving care" of 3 elders in a back room, each in our own congregation. When it was all over, I was DFed, and my fiancee wasn't. The appeal comite made some remarkable comments, like: "it would be better your fiancee was DF'ed as well, cause then you would still have someone", and "it is a pity that we recognize some repentance, as it is too late, this should have been visible the 1st time". So much for loving sheperds. So I had no family any more, no friends, a lot of doubts and a lot of free time to examine everything. so I read the book, and indeed I could not agree with Furuli's statements of what is in the bible. What struck me most, was that according to him, Jer 25:11, 12 had a "fuzzy" meaning. I could not agree less, the context, Jer 25, is self explanatory. Anyway, i researched on the net, and considered all the information I discovered, pro and con. that takes quite some time. I ordered Olaf's book about the Gentile times, CoC, Christian Freedom of Ray, too sad he is not with us any more, and I had a difficult time digesting all that I discovered. Although I really felt freedom for the very 1st time ( I am a born 'in'), I still loved my Fiancee, and I wanted my family back. So I filed for reinstatement, and after a relatively short time I was back 'in', making these wolves in sheep clothes who DFed me in the 1st place feel happy. And I discovered I could not bring myself to go in Field service any more. My conscience was bothering me I was trying to spread a message I could not support any more. Despite some weak efforts in the beginning from well intended brs, which did not last very long, nobody bothers me any more, and the secretary does not ask for my report either.

If I had any delusions left, they are all gone, these WT articles were the GB is claiming divine support, are so appalling. I am not buying any more into this crap! JW these days only need 8 paragraphs to explain they have exchanged Christ's rulership for following the lead of Gerrit Lösch and his 7 fellows. What was it again they hold against catholics and other christians? following men instead of Christ?

I would not like to leave my 1st comment without a heartfelt "thank you" for all the people on this board, who helped me discovering not new light, but "the light". Many thanks to people like Ray Franz, Randy, perimeno.ca, Barabara Anderson, Bill Bowen, and recently Roberto Di Stefano who help others like me to discover the truth of "the truth".

Best Regards,

Hoffnung