Consciousness ending at death is one of the few Witness teachings I have kept. I now attend a church where most believe otherwise but we don't argue about it. Rather we expect the right of others to hold their own opinions on this point.
Quendi
Posts by Quendi
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129Does consciousness end with the death of the body
by givemejustalittlemoretime inapparently, the carvakas in anceint hinduism were materialists and skeptics, arguing that consciousness ends with the death of the body and that therefore we should take pleasure in this life while we possess it and practice compassion toward others.
they also argued that direct observation is the only certain way to know anything, and thus the existence of supernatural forces and realities cannot be established and must be rejected.
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JW.ORG ANNOUNCEMENTS!!!
by ADJUSTMENTS injw.org for the past year or so seems to have exploded onto the scene and going foward, to be the new name and face of the old tired and exposed jehovahs wittnesses, bible students, etc... and to the wbats for good reason!!!.
the .org in jw.org is just as important as the jw in this age of internet and information.
if you were to type jw.org or even jw alone into a search engine or directly into your internet browser (most people will type in jw.org into the internet browser, and be taken directly to the website) the first site to come up is of course the intended site, jw.org, and the websites following the initial jw.org site are uneventful, a law firm, media player, etc.
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Quendi
Thanks for the compliment, ADJUSTMENTS. It merely proved my point.
Quendi
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43
When You See A Witness What's Your Reaction?
by minimus inis it a feeling of---oh no!!?.
are you happy to see them?.
do you have a feeling of consternation?.
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Quendi
My reaction is the same that Mum has: pity and anger. I do not go out of my way to seek their company or greet them. After I was disfellowshipped, I moved away from the city I had lived in, so I don't see the Witnesses I used to know. That's good for both parties. I have not encountered any Witnesses in my new city and that has given me great peace of mind.
Quendi
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16
JW.ORG ANNOUNCEMENTS!!!
by ADJUSTMENTS injw.org for the past year or so seems to have exploded onto the scene and going foward, to be the new name and face of the old tired and exposed jehovahs wittnesses, bible students, etc... and to the wbats for good reason!!!.
the .org in jw.org is just as important as the jw in this age of internet and information.
if you were to type jw.org or even jw alone into a search engine or directly into your internet browser (most people will type in jw.org into the internet browser, and be taken directly to the website) the first site to come up is of course the intended site, jw.org, and the websites following the initial jw.org site are uneventful, a law firm, media player, etc.
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Quendi
Long run-on sentences and poor punctuation make your post difficult and tiresome to read. Furthermore, I don't see the relation between the title of this thread and your post.
Quendi
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47
BOE 2014-07-13 Appointment and deletion of elders and ministerial servants
by WatchTower87 in2014-07-13 appointment and deletion of elders and ministerial servantsto all bodies of elders.
the link removed by request is also available at the forms link.
the congregation secretary should arrange for this letter to be retained in the congregation permanent file of policy letters.
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Quendi
The elder arrangement was flawed from the very start and I'm not simply going back to 1971 when it was introduced. You need to hark back to the 1920s when J.F. Rutherford decided to appoint a "Service Director" in each congregation who would oversee the canvassing work. Then, in 1938 when a London congregation asked the WTS to appoint all its officers, power was taken away from the local congregations and transferred to Brooklyn. This is not to say that things were better beforehand. When congregations selected their own elders, many men shamelessly campaigned for the office, bribery of all kinds was all too common, and powerful cliques emerged which turned congregations into their own private fiefdoms. Those abuses are what led the London congregation to ask the WTS to step in.
When congregations were relatively small only three men were needed to manage their affairs. They and the circuit servant, as that traveling overseer was then known, kept a tight lid on things. The elder arrangement made it possible for more men to serve as different offices were created. At first, this infusion of "new blood" breathed life into many congregations and revitalized them. Individual publishers had several options for counseling and guidance and some men truly benefited from doing real shepherding work as elders. Others learned how to teach and speak when they served as Watchtower Study conductor and Theocratic Ministry School overseer. All the presiding overseer did was schedule public talks and chair the meetings of the servant body. Additionally, in those first years, no office was held permanently by one man. All the elders rotated through the various offices that were created to serve the congregation. This was to prevent the kind of dominance that had come about under the old elective elder and subsequent congregation servant arrangement.
But as with many things that are of purely human origin, corruption has set in. Most elders today have no idea how things worked back in the early 1970s and the Governing Body has taken great pains to keep them in the dark. That has been part and parcel of the strategy to completely transform the cult so that only oldtimers know how things once were and most of them have endorsed the changes as manifestations of "new light." However, not everyone has been deceived and more people are coming to the realization that holy spirit never has been, is not now, and never will be involved in the appointment of any of these men--from ministerial servant to Governing Body member--to the positions they hold.
Quendi
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Paul - GB Member (W 9/15/14)
by pixel inok, is this a "new understanding" or what?
up until this point i thought that the borg refered paul as a co or do, but never gb member:.
p. 12 now, why would paul a spiritual giant who likely was a member of the first-century governing bodycall himself a miserable man?.
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Quendi
Clearly, as The Watchtower would put it, the WTS Writing Department's left hand doesn't even know what its left hand is writing. A first century governing body is a myth created by this same Writing Department. The WTS hierarchy is a twentieth century invention and has no connection with the way Christiaity operated in the first century.
Quendi
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34
Eight questions about Nathan Knorr
by Skimmer ini have some questions about nathan knorr, the third president (1942-1977) of the wtbts.
accurate answers are welcome.. 1) how did it come about that knorr was made president of the wtbts in 1942 after the death of joseph rutherford?
rutherford as we know was an usurper inheritor of russell's wtbts in late 1916 after russell went to his reward.
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Quendi
bttt
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Commenting At The Meetings---Did You Enjoy It?
by minimus inwas that important for you?
most people, i believe, forced themselves to give an answer.
i knew many elders and servants over the years being counseled because they rarely answered.. funny thing....my mom who is 88 cries if she doesn't give a comment.
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Quendi
I enjoyed commenting and judging from the compliments I received many in the congregation liked my comments as well. I went much deeper than the study material and brought in additional points from history, science, geography and mathematics (when applicable). It wasn't long in one congregation when I ran into trouble with the PO who accused me of attempting to "take over the congregation." I shut his mouth by reminding him of the WTS teaching that Christ was the one who appointed men to their offices. If Christ is in charge here, I asked him, how would he allow a lowly publisher like me to take over? The look on his face was priceless.
Quendi
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45
Testimony card returns
by sir82 inold timers, or careful readers of the proclaimers book, are familiar with the "testimony card" used in the early days of rutherford-era door to door witnessing.
the jw would traipse up to a house, knock, hand the card over to the householder, and wait while he read it.. well, it seems that "everything old is new again".
here is an excerpt from a recent boe letter:.
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Quendi
I suppose the majority of elders and publishers will hail this newest development, but some might see it as another sign of deterioration of the cult. More than seventy years ago, N.H. Knorr founded the Theocratic Ministry School to make Witnesses competent enough to do the canvssing work and to get rid of testimony cards. I think this reintroduced feature of the work is an open, albeit tacit, admission that the TMS has failed. After three genrations of training, the average Witness still cannot make a good presentation of their message at a door. For those who interpret this feature that way, contemplation of their own personal exit from the cult may follow.
Quendi
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How do people get out of High control or Religious cult with their mind intact????
by jam inwww.exitsupportnet.com.
walk out, kicked out ,burn out or find out.. interesting read..... it's great we have the support system here.......
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Quendi
I believe you hit the nail right on the head, LisaRose. We were taught that our sinful tendencies left us open to influence by Satan and his demons and that only the WTS, being God's appointed instrument for dispensing spiritual food, could be trusted to point us to the right path. My judicial committee told me that I was "spiritually sick" and so I could not rely on my own understanding about being a gay man. I had to re-learn to trust my own natural, God-given thinking abilities again. Shaking off more than thirty years of WTS indoctrination takes time and that was what my rebuilding project was all about.
Quendi