I'll be on my way to a beach in Mexico tomorrow morning. Boy, I sure do miss those 50 years of knocking on doors. Knock on one for me.
mrquik
JoinedPosts by mrquik
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So I asked my female coworker what she was doing this weekend............
by miseryloveselders inbut her reply made me so very envious.
you know my mother always would tell me, "wordly people aren't really happy.
" as a kid that always bugged me because i figured if people are laughing, smiling, and generally having a good time, they must be happy.
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Witnesses Firearms and Murder
by Marvin Shilmer inwitnesses firearms and murder .
a bit of overlooked history is how under rutherford witnesses felt free to arm themselves with lethal force.
i have prepared a new short article detailing a bit of this history that, for many, is a bit surprising.
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mrquik
Not for nothing, but wasn't Peter already armed with a personal weapon when defending Jesus? Jesus told him to put it away not throw it away. I'm already applying for my pistol permit. In NY, its shoot first & ask questions later.
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A Lurker taking a step out of the shadows
by AlmightyDog ini have been lurking on this site and others for a couple of years now, and i feel it is time to step out and say "hello!
" when i first began investigating my beliefs, it was innocent enough.
i had been reading an article on scientology, thinking; "wow, these people are just plain nuts!!!
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mrquik
Again, great advice from Terry. You are not alone. Many here were servants, pioneers & Bethelites. Many, like myself have family still in & know how frustrating it is to reason with them. Be patient. The field service tactics we learned cut both ways. You already have the skills. Wish you the best.
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Does faith even exist?
by poor places inin my late teens and very early twenties, i was active in jw activities (heaps of service time, ms, etc.
) to most people who knew me, i'm sure i appeared to be a full believer, but with hindsight, my faith was spotty.
i had all of the usual and fairly obvious questions about the organization buried in my mind.
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mrquik
Faith is " the assured expectations of things though not beheld". Such as the brakes of your car. You have confidence it will stop as you hurtle towards the stop sign at 60MPH because it has always stopped before. Faith is similar in religious belief. You have to weigh what you're being told by that standard. Are all things taught by the Society true? No. Some are though & therein lies the rub. The old adage comes to mind, " a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing." So examine these things for yourself. Decide from Bible standards & principles what is right & deserving of having faith in.
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JWs Celebrating Brithdays
by Franklin Massey ini keep hearing of more and more jws that are celebrating their birthdays or, doing "special days" for their children on the day of their birth.
i'm sure this has always been done but what interests me is that many people aren't ashamed to admit it since they have used their own fully functioning minds to figure out that the society's birthday ban doesn't hold up.
one young couple with two kids (he's an ms, she's an ex-pioneer who dropped off the list to tend to the kids) explained it to me this way.... "the happiest days of our lives include the births of our children.
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mrquik
The society used to celebrate birthdays. My father-in-law gave his wife a copy of the Studies in the Scriptures as a birthday present. The Society currently uses the "principle" that because there were two unrelated events that had a bad outcome this event must be condemned by Jehovah. As a "principle", it now has to be used unilaterally to be valid. So taking this to its logical conclusion, any two events which had a bad outcome must be condemned by Jehovah. Let's see... Lot's children had a large dinner party & they all died. Jesus Christ had a large dinner party & was cruficied. So consequently, all large dinner parties are condemned by Jehovah. Also, the Society points to the bad practice of bringing undo attention to oneself. Then, as mentioned by others, anniversaries are twice as bad since you have two humans celebrating their accomplishments together. So for everyone out there today....... HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!..... HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!
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Please help!! My friend is now a return visit / doorstep study!
by AiAi ini have a friend that is a youth minister for a local church.
he has a very good understanding of scripture and we frequently have interesting discussions.
we have talked about jw beliefs before and he is always surprised to find that they can really believe what they do.
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mrquik
Always start with a validation of one's religion. After all, if you can't prove you are the only true religion, led by Jesus and anointed with Holy Spirit of what value is there in listening at all? If it is just the beliefs of men, I'm happy with my beliefs. Typically you'll get as a reply "love among the brothers" (found in most religions), unity ( also found in most religions & as the Mormons, is you kick out the dissidents, you can claim even more unity) and as is stated over & over in the Bible, true prophesy. With a 100% failure rate on over 30 predictive dates, this is fairly easy. Any still in, please run this by yourselves over & over. Those of you looking at this religion, get an answer to this first. Have fun.
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Something to say next time the Witnesses call.
by fadinfast ini have just read in these following paragraphs something that would disturb my conscience, notice:.
12 they also saw that there are but two organizations in the universe and that everyone belongs either to god's organization or to satan's, the latter on earth being composed of big business, big politics and big religion.
34 the world's political wild beast rules supreme under the name-number 666, while big politics, big religion, and big business keep that wild beast functioning as an oppressor of mankind and a persecutor of god's people.
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mrquik
You could also ask " What evidence do you have that you are the one & only true religion, led by Jesus Christ & endowed with Jehovah's Holy Spirit?" The usual answers are "love" (found to some degree in every religion) "unity" (also found in many religions. Also if you expel dissenters, you can claim unity) and "prophesy". (Which, of course, is a joke given their 100% failure rate.) They just might begin them to think on their own.
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Paralells?
by tenyearsafter ini just saw this on the news wire, and though not a new story, i thought the place the fbi is coming from could be ominous for the wts:.
tom cruise and the church of scientology are reportedly under federal investigation for human trafficking and using unpaid labor, according to the new yorker (via huffington post).
the charges surfaced in a profile of oscar-winning writer-director paul haggis ('crash'), who left scientology in 2009 after 34 years following a disagreement with church officials..
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mrquik
I guess that's one way to end the "organization" ...er "society". Those terms alone are fairly creepy. I'm in favor of a 1000' East Coast sunami taking out the "headquarters" (sorry, I couldn't resist) in NYC. All of you currently living in those areas have no need to fear. I'm sure the organization ...er society ..er the way .... er the truth will be given fair warning. You'll get a century of warnings.
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Who are the Pharisees today?
by dothemath ini find many similiarities between the pharisees and witnesses today......... both used disfellowshipping as a weapon (john 12: 42........"because of the pharisees they would not confess.
him, in order not to be expelled from the synagogue").
both add endless rules, yet forget about the important ones, such as love, etc.
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mrquik
I too, believe that the GC is as Jesus described " skinned & thrown about". The Apostles were indeed imperfect & were candid about it. But when it comes to being the " channel of communication" between Jehovah & man, you are taking on the awesome responsibility of speaking for him. Is it logical for that communication to be wrong over & over again? That " new light" excuse doesn't fly when they become responsible for harming Jesus' sheep. Would that be showing the love that Jesus said would showcase his faithful & discreet slave? Obviously not.
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Who are the Pharisees today?
by dothemath ini find many similiarities between the pharisees and witnesses today......... both used disfellowshipping as a weapon (john 12: 42........"because of the pharisees they would not confess.
him, in order not to be expelled from the synagogue").
both add endless rules, yet forget about the important ones, such as love, etc.
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mrquik
You can add to the similarity " a lack of humility". Although always stating that they are indeed fallible, you would be hard pressed to find an apology for mistakes. But, of course, being directed by holy spirit, how could they make a mistake? This is indeed a problem, because the next question is "Who is responsible"? Could the holy spirit be responsible for the 1975 debacle. Why of course not. In fact, the society never really said it would end in 1975. They just intimated that it might. Thousands of lives were damaged and the GB initially blamed the GC for "running ahead". They're like the person that pushes the unmanned car downhill into a crowd & after it kills people claim they are not culpable. As the Pharisees were condemned by Jesus, so is the GB. Another proof that this organization does not now nor ever had Jehovah's holy spirit. There are plenty more.