All academic, IMO.
The real reason the WTS doesn't want members from talking to ex-members is because they don't want 'em to realize why the ex-members actually left.
They even - in a roundabout way - have admitted as much.
Posts by Vidiot
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17Why do Jehovah`s Witnesses Shun fellow believers When God and Jesus never shunned even Satan ?
by smiddy3 inscholars generally agree that it was written between the 7th and 4th centuries bce, with the 6th century bce as the most likely period for various reasons.
the book of job .. so according to jw`s about 6,000 years ago satan rebelled against jehovah god ,did jehovah disown him there and then shunning him ?.
apparently not as we can read from the book of job centuries later that satan could still come and go freely before the throne of jehovah in heaven .job 1: 6. and apparently he could still do this for centuries later ,that is coming to and fro before jehovah because according to the jw religion he wasn`t cast out of heaven for another 2,000 years until the 20th century .. now in the case of jesus much of what is said about jehovah and satan also applies to jesus before he came to earth.. but even when he was on earth he didn`t shun satan either in fact he allowed satan to lead him around according to the bible account.luke 4:13 so the devil having concluded all the temptations retired from him until another convenient time .so it wasn`t jesus calling the shots here it was satan .. mark 1: 13 he ,jesus, also shared 40 days in the wilderness with satan letting him tempt him .. so their was no way either jehovah or jesus ever shunned satan the devil according to the bible writings.. and when jesus ascended to heaven after his sacrifice he along with his father jehovah still had association with satan the devil until he was cast out of heaven 2,000 years later ,according to the jw`s..
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Kids Without Rules
by minimus ini see a lot of kids that rarely get discipline.
they are allowed to do whatever they want and if someone says something to them they don’t want to hear, they blow them off, ignore them or engage in disrespectful talk.. what’s wrong with today’s parents??
they are producing a generation of entitled brats!.
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Vidiot
@ minimus...
You realize you're ranting about the exact same thing virtually every single parent from each previous generation has ranted about, probably going back as far as recorded history, right?
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Why did Jehovah choose the leaders of the WTS who were scripturaly apostate false prophet sinners ?
by Finkelstein inquite the contravening question to contemplate for any self avowed devoted jws, which no doubt takes some uncomfortable thinking to consider.. yes back in 1919 the then president of the jws j. rutherford proclaimed that the organization (ibsa, jws) had been selectively chosen by jesus for their unique preaching and evangelical work.. there had already been a proclamation by the past leader of the (wts) ibsa c. russell that he was the faithful slave doing the lords work, will and purpose, but his professing doctrines were also false bible interpretations based upon the theology of pyramidology.. might it be that these men made these proclamations out of the intent of self validating themselves and the literature that they had published and were trying to proliferate ?
making these kind of claims was easy since there was no higher governing body to evaluate these men's endeavors from a theological standing, the american government had opened the door for any individual's self expression of a religious nature.
so anyone in that country could build up their own religoius following unimpeded, even more so if that religion was christian based.. so the real critical question remains how or why would jesus pick these men when their doctrines were so obviously false and probably devised more so from a commercialization agenda ?.
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Vidiot
Ditto, pick your fights, folks.
EDIT: and when it comes to said fights, I find it's always best to phrase my salvo as an "unanswerable" question.
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84
Do you have any evidence that the GB had bad intent?
by AlainAlam indo you have any evidence that the gb had bad intent?
as opposed to blind faith/cognitive dissonance and honest mistakes.. i'm inclined to think they have the best of intentions and are just wrong (primarily because the bible is wrong), but i'm willing to consider the evidence otherwise..
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Vidiot
Before I'd started my fade, I'd realized that...
a) ...one of the first major blunders the old WT theologians (and I use that term very loosely) made was making assumptions based on previously held bias, whilst expecting forthcoming evidence to corroborate said assumptions, and...
b) ...ignoring or dismissing any subsequent conflicting evidence because they'd already allowed their theological narrative structure to become too dependent on said assumptions.
This phenomenon held true with everything from historical chronology, to predictions of current events, to evolutionary science.
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New York Times: ‘People Would Be So Receptive Right Now, and We Can’t Knock on Doors.’
by AndersonsInfo inhttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/19/us/politics/coronavirus-jehovahs-witnesses.html.
the pandemic has put a stop to the activities of one of the nation’s most visible religious groups, jehovah’s witnesses.. read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/19/us/politics/coronavirus-jehovahs-witnesses.html.
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Vidiot
RubaDub - "...I just commented that before the GT starts, the UN has to take worldwide power, all false religion will be destroyed, the nations will see that only JWs are left, then Gog (the Magog guy) will focus their attack on JWs. Then at that point, the GT will start..."
Yup, this.
According to ol' Freddy Franz's End-Times script, there's a whole ton of mundane, "real-world" ducks that have to row up first before the real shit happens.
And since the WT Oracle kicked the bucket without leaving any kind of protege, and Jaracz used 9-11 to purge out almost all the moderates and liberals, there's no one with enough creativity or narrative skill to give the Org's eschatology the page-one rewrite it so sorely needs...
...so they're stuck with the Old Cold War-influenced timeline in the Revelation Climax book, no matter how dated it gets with each year we move past the turn of the century (which is probably why it's not actually a Book Study thing anymore).
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New York Times: ‘People Would Be So Receptive Right Now, and We Can’t Knock on Doors.’
by AndersonsInfo inhttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/19/us/politics/coronavirus-jehovahs-witnesses.html.
the pandemic has put a stop to the activities of one of the nation’s most visible religious groups, jehovah’s witnesses.. read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/19/us/politics/coronavirus-jehovahs-witnesses.html.
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Vidiot
My Dad knew WT theology cold, and he did tell me once that the Org had indicated that the "preaching work" would end prior to - or as a result of - the start of the "Great Tribulation", so the contingency was always kinda there.
Whether they actually try and spin it that way now remains to be seen.
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JW patient with covid-19 received blood transfusion
by adjusted knowledge ini had a patient admitted from a skilled nursing facility/rehab that is an active jw.
the patient had covid-19 as did most of the patients at that facility.
typically the local elders are all involved in these admissions but there is a strict no visitor policy which includes clergy.
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Vidiot
"Don't ask, don't tell"... doesn't actually surprise me all that much.
According to anecdotal evidence, quite a few of Herb Armstrong's followers did the same thing with general medical care.
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27
Who is considered more bizarre?
by incognito2014 injws or mormons.
from a public point of view not from people within the religion as that would be obvious.. examples of extreme beliefs or behaviour would be useful..
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Vidiot
I've said this before, but I've long viewed the LDS as the WTS's nicer but weirder older cousin.
...
BTW... Protestantism is the WTS's slightly out-of-touch but generally well-meaning mom...
...Catholicism is the WTS's old alcoholic uncle who's finally working his way through his 12 steps...
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...and Scientology is the WTS's crazy-ass, mean-as-fuck neighbor from down the street.
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Active JW's - Do you see a CONTRADICTION here?
by The Fall Guy inthe bible says this - acts 17:11 “...for they [the beroeans] accepted the word with the greatest eagerness of mind, carefully examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”.
km 9/07 p. 3 question box - does “the faithful and discreet slave” endorse independent groups of witnesses who meet together to engage in scriptural research...?.
and yet, in various parts of the world, a few associates of our organization have formed groups to do independent research on bible-related subjects... some have pursued an independent group study...so as to analyze the accuracy* of the new world translation... for those who wish to do extra bible study and research, we recommend that they explore insight on the scriptures, “all scripture is inspired of god and beneficial,” and our other publications...” .
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Vidiot
Phizzy - "Just using the Bible, reading it without WT Org specs on, anyone can easily see that the JW interpretation is wrong."
Yup.
I remember the first time I realized that reading the Bible without WT-colored glasses actually gave the impression that quite a few of "Christendom"'s ideas were - gasp - more Biblically sound then the WT led its members to believe.
Ray Franz essentially came to a similar conclusion.
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Vidiot
Oddly enough, I really enjoy Philip Pullman's Dust fiction for the very questions asked in this thread.