Hoffnung

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Posts by Hoffnung

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  9

  Article about the JWs (German speaking)?

  by ex-Special Pioneer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  glaubensgemeinschaftnein zu zeugen jehovasrainer wehaus, aktualisiert am 20.01.2011 um 17:10 uhreine zeugin jehovas verteilt "wachturm" und "erwachet" foto: hornersiehe auch vatikan.

  johannes paul ii.

  wird am 1. mai seliggesprochen kirchen.

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  Hoffnung

  Hopefully the other states see the value in this decision as well and remove their special status, most important in Hessen where the big german brach office is located
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  44

  Have you answered the knock on your door?

  by Inkie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  have you answered the knock on your door?.

  [b]e like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.luke 12:36.. .

  behold, i stand at the door and [song 5:2 ] knock.

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  Hoffnung

  Hello Inkie, thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions and going into detail about your life's journey. Your story is quite convincing I must admit. It seems your ideas did not develop overnight because of some "emotion", but is based upon lots of research. As you must have noticed in other treads, I indeed also see it is quite easy to refute many doctrines of the JW with their own NWT and publications. Although waking up is a very liberating event, it is quite scary in the same time to discover my faith was mostly in a human organization and not in God, in fact, when it all became clear, very little faith in God is left, although some remained. It is not so nice to realize I have to start almost from scratch, and hindered by some wrong conceived ideas that are still lingering in my head. Can you elaborate a little bit on where Paul is contradicting Jesus in the bible? And also I would like to know if some discussions on the other forum are still available for research. How was your anointing experience in February 2001? Can you try to describe that? Thank you for your time.

  Just one other bit I did appreciate, I think it is in another thread, it is where you show that by the use and glorification of the name Jesus, Jehovah is glorified as well, as Jesus means 'Jehovah is salvation' (which is better in hebrew of course) and this explains why the name Jehovah or the tetragrammaton is completely absent in the Ancient Greek Manuscripts, and there is no reason to use that name any more as an identifying mark. Proving the Witnesses to be wrong once more.
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  50

  In memory of Charles Taze Russell who died 92 years ago.

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  pastor charles taze russells wife, maria, divorced him in 1906. the writings of maria russell e-document contains an eleven-page enlightening introduction that outlines her fall from her husbands affection because he said she was endeavoring to take over the editorship of his religious journal, zions watch tower.

  is that true?

  also discussed is the question of mrs. russells acumen as a writer which her husband and followers called into question.

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  Hoffnung

  Every time I read something from Barbara, my thoughts are summarized in 3 letters: WOW!!! Every single time. Please do not give up. You are continuously helping people to get on with their life. Your Watchtowerdocuments website is awesome.
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  10

  Has mind control become required for real progression today?

  by sabastious in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  reading through combatting cult mind control has got me to thinking.... cult behaviours are found in an alarmingly high amount of groups.

  just start naming off large groups off the top of your head:.

  national football league.

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  Hoffnung

  Mind control is a marketing tool used by many. JW employ to the extent it is destructive for their victims, as they are completely dependent on it. That it is a very effective tool, the nazis proved with their Ministry of Information (aka propaganda), and it destroyed Europe almost completely. Mind control must be kept under control. Just how do you go about it? That is one hell of a question.
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  9

  Another religion using Watchtower judicial methods?

  by donuthole in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i saw this on reddit this morning.

  not sure who the religious group is but if you change just a couple of words (church to congregation) it reads like a jw letter - the kind you get when they are wanting to get you into a jc or disfellowship you absentia.

  it's weird how similar these high-control/judgment groups really are.

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  Hoffnung

  Sadly JW have no monopoly on the outrageous expulsion/shunning issue. Even some small groups in Europe other then the Witnesses commit the same crime (christadelphians for example) . To be honest, expulsion of unrepentant wrongdoers in itself is not bad or wrong. Every religion/organization has to have a such a kind of policy to protect themselves. It all depends on what the goals are and to what extent current members and family are encouraged to break with former or unrepentant members. Other churches limit their expulsion to a removal from the membership list and forbidding the individual to identify themselves as members, and remove all the benefits that might be attached to it. Private association should remain an individual decision. As the goal of JW is to silence former members and to cut them off completely from their family, it is way off the hook and a discrimination to the largest extent possible.
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  37

  Hello

  by FirstLastName in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  [if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>normal</w:view> <w:zoom>0</w:zoom> <w:punctuationkerning /> <w:validateagainstschemas /> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:saveifxmlinvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:ignoremixedcontent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables /> <w:snaptogridincell /> <w:wraptextwithpunct /> <w:useasianbreakrules /> <w:dontgrowautofit /> <w:usefelayout /> </w:compatibility> <w:browserlevel>microsoftinternetexplorer4</w:browserlevel> </w:worddocument> </xml><!

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  Hoffnung

  Welcome. Nice you were able to move on after the abuse and quit the mind controlling elders as well. Just a stupid question: how did your ex husband change from JW to drug dealer? Was he not reproved/DFed for this?
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  28

  Questions for Doubtfully yours or Elpiro - The happy annointed Jehovah's Witness

  by Hoffnung in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hello doubtfully yours or el piro or other happy jw,.

  there are 4 questions for you.

  1. the issue i have is with paragraphs 1 & 8 of the study article on page 21 of the 15/09/2010 watchtower.

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  Hoffnung

  Hello Doubtfully yours or El Piro or other Happy JW,

  There are 4 questions for you. Can you have a look into it?

  1. The issue I have is with paragraphs 1 & 8 of the Study article on page 21 of the 15/09/2010 Watchtower. Paragraph 1 reads:

  "CHRISTENDOM’S churches have human leaders, such as the pope of Rome, the patriarchs and metropolitans of the Eastern Orthodox churches, and the heads of other religions. Jehovah’s Witnesses recognize no human as their leader. They are not disciples or followers of any man. ... The international congregation of anointed Christians and their “other sheep”companions want no leader other than the one Jehovah has given them. (John 10:16) They subscribe to Jesus’ statement: “Your Leader is one, the Christ.”—Matt. 23:10."

  I fully agree with this paragraph. Christians should only recognize Jesus as their leader, no human.

  Then in Par 8, last sentence, it reads: "The anointed and their other sheep companions recognize that by following the lead of the modern-day Governing Body, they are in fact following their Leader, Christ."

  This claim is not different from what many other church leaders claim about themselves. The governing body are humans, we know their names and faces. Gerrit Losch was a circuit overseer in Austria, just to mention one. Consequently JW witnesses as religion are following humans and not Jesus as leader, as they have written themselves.

  My 1st thought when I read this article was this: To be in agreement with paragraph 8, the 1st sentence of paragraph 1 should read:

  "CHRISTENDOM’S churches have human leaders, such as the pope of Rome, the patriarchs and metropolitans of the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses and the heads of other religions.

  My question is this: Do you feel it is right as a christian to follow the lead of these humans instead of Jesus, thereby clearly contradicting Matt 23:10?

  This is important for me. It is one of the main reasons I am an inactive JW now, together with the overlap generation teaching.

  There are also 3 other questions I would like you to answer (they are shorter):

  2. Jesus commanded all christians to participate from the bread and the wine during the memorial, this command was repeated by Paul, and in John 6:53 and surrounding verses, Jesus made it an absolute condition for salvation. So why are JW teaching that you should abstain? Is this not barring the access to salvation?

  3. The 587 vs. 607 issue. The question is not whether the chronology is correct or not. The problem is that it is ALWAYS presented to a new student in such away that makes you believe the 607BCE date for the fall of Jerusalem is a generally accepted date. It is not. Please take an encyclopedia and check for yourself it is 586 or 587 BCE, according to scientists (Furuli is not a scientist by the way, but a JW living in Norway). So my question is this: Why is a JW student not pointed out to the fact that science and the Society do not agree on Babylonian chronology in the "What does the Bible really Teach" book. The believe in 1914 is too important to hide this. Why is the Society hiding this fact? Is this not dishonest and immoral behaviour?

  4. JW teach that blood and its 4 main components are prohibited by the bible for medical use. Fractions of these main components are a matter of conscience. Why is the use of the 4 main components not a matter of conscience? The bible is completely silent on the subject. Why is the Society forbidding something specifically where the bible is not specific? Is this not going beyond what is written in the Scriptures, and therefore condemned?

  Thank you in advance for your efforts.
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  22

  Members of Governing Body preach door to door?

  by ZionsWatchTower in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  does anyone know if they still make this work?.

  *sorry for my bad english.... .

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  Hoffnung

  We once had a zone overseers visit from Maxwell LLoyd. Although not a GB member, quite a big wig. A brother approached him to make a FS appointment for return visits, and he accepted it. He admitted though he had not been in Field service for quite some time.
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  56

  If you could ask one question to an active JW to get them to open their mind about their beliefs, what would it be?

  by Franklin Massey in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this question was posed to me by a poster named ice cream.

  i don't know my answer yet.

  it's one of those, "if you could have just one wish.." kind of questions.

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  Hoffnung

  Aguest pointed out to a very easy one: the bible commands all christians to participate from the bread and the wine during the memorial, and in John 6 Jesus made it an absolute condition for salvation. So why are JW teaching that you should abstain? is this not barring the access to salvation?

  Another one but more technical is the 587 vs. 607 issue. For me it is not just that the chronology is incorrect, even according the bible, the matter is ALWAYS presented to a new student in such away that makes you believe the 607 date is supported by science and archeology. So one of my questions would be this: Why is a JW student not pointed out to the fact that science and the Society do not agree on Babylonian chronology in the Bible Teach book. The believe in 1914 is too important to hide this. What is the Society trying to hide? is this not dishonest and canning behaviour?

  And again another easy one: JW teach blood and its 4 main components are prohibited by the bible for medical use. Fractions of these main components are a matter of conscience. Why is the use of the 4 main components not a matter of conscience? The bible is completely silent on the subject. Why forbidding something specificly where the bible is not specific? Is this not going beyond what is written in the Scriptures?

  As others have pointed out, everybody is different, and 1 question will most probably not do the trick. But everybody got his own sensitive point, and when your question is touching this one, you're in. All of the points mentioned also by others might be the seeds of doubts, but likely it will take some time before it bears fruit.
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  11

  Brothers committed suicide over 1914

  by stev in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  this excerpt gives the information that brothers committed suicide over the disappointment of 1914. i have never heard this before.

  http://towerwatch.com/articles/caputo_appeal_committee_meeting.htm

  i met a woman in florida, she was ninety-three years old...a sister.

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  Hoffnung

  There must be some evidence or indications in old WT publications about the 1914 predictions. Maybe some newspapers from 1910-1915 could shed some light on the effect it had on the Bible Students of those years. My guess is though it was over shadowed by the WWI news coverage. Maybe Barbara Anderson could be of help with this. I am quite interested in this subject. Interesting that history repeated itself in 1975, and very few would see through it. It is really disgusting how many peoples lifes were and still are ruined by this type of scam. The effects of 1975 are still very present today. I am thinking already for quite some time that the society is up for a new version of the 1975 debacle, somewhere in the next 2 decades or so. It would explain the efforts to hide and falsify their own history. Although many quit after '75, the net result of increase was really big. It is hard for these greedy GB 2.0 members not to do the same exercise again on their watch. Hopefully the internet will help us to stop it in time.