Posts by maksym

36

Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the 05-13-2012 WT Study (URGENCY)

by blondie in

jw
friends

maintain your sense of.

how can we maintain our sense.

urgent now than ever?.

Illegal immigrants scam the IRS out of 4 billion dollars

by moshe in

it's great to be an illegal at tax time--.

http://www.wthr.com/video?autostart=true&topvideocatno=default&clipid=7054149.

$1000 tax credits paid out for nephews, nieces and cousins in mexico who never set foot in the usa- get refunds over $10,000, no problemo for pedro..

Illegal immigrants scam the IRS out of 4 billion dollars

by moshe in

it's great to be an illegal at tax time--.

http://www.wthr.com/video?autostart=true&topvideocatno=default&clipid=7054149.

$1000 tax credits paid out for nephews, nieces and cousins in mexico who never set foot in the usa- get refunds over $10,000, no problemo for pedro..

The IRS robs people of their money everyday based on law and direct force or imprisonment. Nevertheless illegal aliens usually don't have the benefits of taxes because they are not citizens so why should they pay to something that does not directly effect them with benefits.

The irony of this situation is that when you are abroad, like I was, the United States still imposes taxes on its citizens regardless if they use the system that was put in place to help with said taxes.

When I worked abroad I never paid taxes back home.

22

A question for Roman Catholics ...

by talesin in

jw
friends

i attended a funeral on the weekend, and my friend asked me to go up with her for the wafer (no disrespect intended, i'm not sure of the correct term to use).

she is rc herself, but was shy to walk up alone - it was a large funeral.. .

i did not, because i have been told in the past that it would be very disrespectful.

maksym

Hi Talespin,

I'm not Catholic but I do know that the Orthodox church and Catholics both have a closed communion system.

It is wise that you did not go and take communion. I think it would have been wrong for the priest to give it to you if he had known you are not Catholic.

However, respectfully I would say a Catholic here would need to answer your question.

Peace

Maksym

26

need your opinion on "who else preaches like the JWs?"

by outsmartthesystem in

i have a friend that has recently confided in me his doubts about the society being god's one and only organization.

his doubts run pretty deep.....but he is very much held in check by "but who else is preaching about the kingdom of god world-wide like jesus said"?

how would you combat that thinking?

maksym

All I know is that preaching can take on many forms and is not necessarily constrained to a particular style. To prove my point which is also highlighted in the posts above, is that our actions are much louder than words or any kind of indoctrination.

Consider the example in my area. The JW religion has stagnated and is not seeing growth despite their efforts at "working" the door to door campain put out by the methods of the WT Corporation. I have seen one new KH built in the area and another sold off to another Christian church. Therefore they have not gained much in terms of physical exposure and membership. They are stagnant except for mostly internal growth amoung themselves.

On the other hand my church started in my area in 1996 with but a handfull of people. We now have three parishes in the area and people are still coming in. We are growing from virtually nothing from a rural area that hardly anybody knew about us.

At present the number of Orthodox Christians and parishes in the Northern Idaho area is probably equal to the number of witnesses that have been present here since the 1960's.

Preaching therefore is a reflection of love amoung neighbours and community, something the witnesses don't show outside their group. There philosophy of preaching is based on a strict view of methodology, inherent in a concentrated narrowminded view of certain exegisis of scripture.

They base their preaching methods as a means to identification, unique to others causing them to be identifed as the only ones doing "the work", but in reality Jesus preached and affected people in many ways, and not just on words or understanding, or by his travelling around to meet new people, particularly at their homes.

It is interesting to note that their preaching work is based on "knowledge" a concept often linked to Gnosticism, in order to gain approval or understanding about God.

As mentioned above most churches in my area are thriving and are seeing increases beyond what is expected. And this without a single door knock.

It is also interesting to note that as the Bible says that the disciples of Jesus used public preaching as well as house ministry as the means to further the spread of the Gospel, in no way was this particular method in the Bible meant to be the sole means or only means to accomplish this task.

If we were to follow the exact methods and means of the early church then we would also be not driving cars in the neighbourhood but walking or using animals.

The means is not important. The message is what is at stake and Christians know they should take every effort to spread the Gospel with all their effort not just be pigeonholed into a particular style or routine to do so.

Yes, all Christians spread the Gospel, it is just not in the way that is dictated by a Corporation, especially distributing literature only.

If we take the Bible literally as the Witnesses often try to do then we would only be carrying Bibles around and leave the WT Corporation trash at home because they did not have the printing pressing back then.

Think about it.

Peace

Maksym

9

There is no true church except Jesus

by maccauk11 in

may i suggest an article www.bethelministries.com and look for the article denominationism_there isbutonetruechurch.

i dont belong to this ministry it helps us see that there is no church or organisation on earth .

the true church is jesus and his followers who worship him in spirit and truth and do not belong to any man made church.

maksym

Mathew 16:18 would say otherwise to your post.

82

Anybody here vegan?

by Dagney in

jw
friends

i've been considering it for awhile strictly for just general overall health.

i don't take any meds, and would like to keep it that way for as long as i can.

i am a "all things in moderation " type of person but the more i read about excluding dairy and meat, the more i think about doing it.

maksym

I love the movie, "Forks over Knives". I would recommend this as well.

For those that just want to start out try the Engine 2 diet. I have been on this for about 40 days and have only slipped three times.

I love the vegan or whole foods plant based diet.

I lost about 6 kilos or 12 pounds on this eating plan. The recipes are really good.

Peace Maksym.

42

Is there ANY JW belief/doctrine that has remained the same from start to now?

by journey-on in

i was trying to think of one teaching or doctrine that has remained consistent from the society's inception to now, and couldn't.

.

can you give me one?.

maksym

A bigger question that is a bit off topic on this thread; Is there ANY teaching of the Jehovah's Witnesses that is in line with mainstream Christianity?

I can't seem to remember if there is not even one. If you take the Catholic or Orthodox Churches, for example, I have found them to be in a dicatomous relationship in almost everything.

You might as well call Jehovah's Witnesses Acatholics or Achristians; meaning opposed to.

Peace

Maksym

42

Is there ANY JW belief/doctrine that has remained the same from start to now?

by journey-on in

i was trying to think of one teaching or doctrine that has remained consistent from the society's inception to now, and couldn't.

.

can you give me one?.

maksym

Dear JWfacts,

Thank you for posting that information on the Trinity. I never knew this. I think this is good to know if we want to show the changes that have been made to JW's in the future.

Peace

Maksym

26

An Apostate Twist Ending

by Terry in

when charles taze russell, or judge rutherford, or fred franz published magazines, pamphlets and books about future matters.....the future they spoke about had not yet happened.

whatever they wrote could well be true.

what reasons they gave could be sound ones.

maksym

Dear Terry,

I wholeheartily agree with you. The other fact of the matter is that we can relate those early leaders to being apostate based on the standard definition; that is when one leaves their religion in favor of another. Most of those early Watchtower theologions, (term used loosely), came from some other Christian denomination. These people, namely Russel, therefore were apostates trying to start their own religion. Therefore those early adopters of IBSA and later Jehovah's Witnesses, were only followers of apostates! They follow theology from people that tried to interpret the Bible on their own without any authority. They have taken Sola Scriptura to the extreme and twisted it back on the people to say they should not read the Bible on their own, yet that is what Russel and others have done. Clearly this is circular reasoning and abuse.

Another term I like to use is that they were heretics. Modern day Jehovah's Witnesses follow heretical teachings in which most of their theology comes from a plethora of religious heretical teachings of former religious groups that pervaded the early Church through the centuries. The Watchtower has adopted a vast majority of those heretical teachings from different time periods through history and have composed a mosaic of these into their modern day teachings.

This goes nicely by that brilliant article you wrote on Freeminds.org website. Both Russell and Rutherford were charlatans and lacked any Biblical knowledge or training to not qualify themeselves in any such way to become a minister or person knowing Biblical knowledge. Secondly they were not Holy men attached to God by piety or humility.

I find that these former leaders of WT Corp no different than TV evangelist in which money and slick salemanship gather honest hearted people into a religious trap.

Today the hook for Witnesses seems to be in the Western culture of rationalization and logic to answer any questions on faith rather than on any tradition or spirit of faith. All of their Biblical interpretations seem to take to an extreme exegesis through logic alone.

In any event Watchtower members, (aka Jehovah's Witnesses), follow apostates, false prophets, and heretics.

Sadly few realize this. Information control has kept these Witnesses in the dark.

Peace

Maksym