Posts by Half banana

22

For those that read the bible, does the true message of scripture still come through in NWT?

by NikL in

jw
friends

my active and in jw wife is up for reading bible together.

thing is she wants to use nwt.. i have problems with that translation as you my imagine.. just wondering if you thought the true message of the bible will shine through the deliberate tampering of the nwt?.

i know many people here don't like or want to read the bible and think it's rubbish anyway, so if that's you, you can save your comments :-).

Half banana

NikL, I am not nit picking when I say that perhaps you ought to re-think your question.

It contains an assumption that there is a message in the Bible and that there is a correct interpretation of this message.

Think laterally; ask why are the writings there in the first place, why were the texts retained. The wrong primary question to ask is; what do they mean.

As we know the Bible first began with the Roman Church in the fourth century from an anthology of texts suited to the unifying goals of the Roman Empire. By choosing texts which brought together all of the important pagan cults, it satisfied both the secular and religious aims as represented in the Roman functionary who was called Pontifex Maximus (literally, the great bridge maker i.e. between heaven and earth). He was also known as the Pontiff or Pope or Papa, these very names were borrowed from the leader of the Mithraic cult. From this same pre-Christian source we get the notion of a heavenly reward after life, the memorial supper and most of the NT eschatology ("last things").

Nearly all of the Bible texts are borrowed and blended from yet earlier literary borrowings, the originals never claimed to be inspired of God because they were mainly folk stories told and retold for entertainment and transmission of their respective tribal culture lore.

So why should the Bible have a message other than the Roman demand for an empire wide Catholic faith?

65

Short stay

by midnight in

after much research and prayer i am returning to being a jehovah's witness i can find nothing that eliminates them from being god's directed people , in the end they will reach the end of there journey despite mistakes and errors just like the israelites entered the promised land , thanks for your input and all the best on your personal journey ☺.

midnight..

Half banana

Midnight, good of you to visit here but how on earth could the Watchtower organisation be used by God if they never in one hundred and thirty seven years have got any prediction or original information right?

If I was god and had "my own people" I would make sure they got my message correctly and without constant revisions needed. The governing body are forced to make it up as they go along.

Let me tell you about the wonderful freedom outside of the old religion.

We have freedom to learn deeply and with EVIDENCE about life's reality without perpetual indoctrination from a biased religious authority.

This includes waking up to the total unreliability of the Bible; Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses, Isaac and Jacob: all myth. Enslavement in Egypt and escape to the promised land: pure myth. The central teachings of the Greek scriptures including the saviour of mankind, the son of God: a universal myth of great antiquity from before Jesus' time.

Then there are the hypocritical actions of the JW leadership who for example, publicly and roundly condemned the UN for years and then joined it as a NGO (Non Governmental Organisation) . . . as the world and the Guardian newspaper knows but not rank and file JWs!

Rejoining JWs can only offer you the ILLUSION of defying death. This after all is why religion is so successful! Sorry friend, death and taxes are inevitable.

Life is very precious, do make best use of what is left of your your life and enjoy it!

26

Data for Partakers from 1935-2016. Latest number wasn´t this high since 1954!

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

i gathered the data for the memorial partakers every year since 1935 (the first year they had data) until now.. the latest figures haven't been that high since 1954!.

this stat looks very bad in watchtower land because the decreasing # of partakers was given, for decades, as proof that the end was near!.

.

Half banana

Tepidpoultry, I do think flippancy is the right response to all this stupid talk of heaven and sacred emblems.

Holiness resides only in people's minds. Going to heaven, hell or paradise are irrelevant and naive myths. Nobody goes anywhere except to extinction and if someone disagrees, I would love to hear of your evidence for an alternative.

26

Data for Partakers from 1935-2016. Latest number wasn´t this high since 1954!

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

i gathered the data for the memorial partakers every year since 1935 (the first year they had data) until now.. the latest figures haven't been that high since 1954!.

this stat looks very bad in watchtower land because the decreasing # of partakers was given, for decades, as proof that the end was near!.

.

Half banana

Interesting thought Pete Zahut, there is also the possibility that when people are confronted with options, at the first time of hearing them, they will choose or see themselves taking one ‘destination’ or the other without thinking it through. JW teaching levels are low so perhaps now these preachers are unwittingly giving their new hearers a choice?

So as you say, it would be useful to know in which parts of the world the new partakers are living to analyze the reasons.

Aside from this it is worth remembering that the taking of the emblems of body and blood started way before Jesus. Notably it was borrowed directly from a Mithraic ritual celebrating the death of the Saviour and Great Shepherd Mithras with cakes and wine after 400 BCE.

13

Do You Believe in Fairies?

by pale.emperor in

before you start, i don't!!.

http://www.healyourlife.com/do-you-believe-in-fairies.

but i stumbled upon this article.

Half banana

Simon, I have just calculated there actually is a JW born every two minutes, which in itself is a horrifying thought (260,000+ and 525,000 minutes in a year) which would mean that half of the suckers in the world are JWs

Sorry folks useless information

26

Data for Partakers from 1935-2016. Latest number wasn´t this high since 1954!

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

i gathered the data for the memorial partakers every year since 1935 (the first year they had data) until now.. the latest figures haven't been that high since 1954!.

this stat looks very bad in watchtower land because the decreasing # of partakers was given, for decades, as proof that the end was near!.

.

Half banana

Mmm, tasty!

26

JW requesting food assistance to Babylon the Great.

by sp74bb in

jw
friends

barcelona (spain), jan 8, 2017 at 1.30 pm.

two publishers of the tagalog group in barcelona (public meeting at 4.30 pm) do visit an evangelical church barcelona downtown to receive free food bags.... i can confirm that the queue was long.

the pastor in charge of this church has not allowed me to take picture of some older jw living barcelona downtown, but i was able to catch these young publishers.

Half banana

In topsy-turvy Watchtower land, giving charity to unbelievers is a punishable sin but it is compulsory (if not “thrilling”) to give all your money to the JW organisation. . .

However because the cult demands you remain a low paid ignorant good-for-nothing person you have to go to Babylon's own Christian charities to make ends meet.

Gawd 'elp us!

26

Data for Partakers from 1935-2016. Latest number wasn´t this high since 1954!

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

i gathered the data for the memorial partakers every year since 1935 (the first year they had data) until now.. the latest figures haven't been that high since 1954!.

this stat looks very bad in watchtower land because the decreasing # of partakers was given, for decades, as proof that the end was near!.

.

Half banana

Thanks for your graph ILTTATT2.

I am looking forward to an inverted bell jar curve, it’s going that way already with such a steep rise in partakers last year. Another half a dozen years and it will demolish the credibility of the idea that some individuals are super special. What a holy mess this is playing with fragile minds demanding divine attention for the sake of personal affirmation and holy status in an uncaring world.

Stuff the governing body is what they are saying!

The more cracker crunchers and wine bibbers the nuttier the religion looks even to insiders. The more removed it is from the WT Society’s predictions the more stupid the leaders appear and the less authority they have to bully the flock.

Long may partakers confound the JW organisation’s cherished beliefs.

7

Th e Elders collect money from the dead.

by punkofnice in

can't say too much but i here is something i'd like to share.. a relative of mine was an elder and pledged a lot of money to help buy a new kingdom hell in the area.

he died 10 years ago.

only 3 years ago the elders went to his old aged, pensioner widow and asked for the money.

Half banana

There is something, grasping, unconscionable, corrupt, hypocritical, contemptuous, immoral and sick in the heartless Watchtower cult.

Excuse me JW organisation, did you not read somewhere that the idea for the Christian congregation is to support widows and orphans. . . not to suck the lifeblood out of them.

26

Feb. 2017 "Who is Leading God's People Today?"

by Saethydd in

i know that i am not by any means the first person to take note of this article, but today i finally got around to reading it.

i quickly found the now infamous line "the governing body is neither inspired nor infallible.

" in the interest of fairness, however, i decided to finish the paragraph, which led me to finish the lesson.

Half banana

Saethydd, thank you for your measured analysis. The matter in hand is the role and inspiration of Watchtower governance. Here it is typically presented to the faithful in terms which ambivalently provide one argument for the faithful and another one for outsiders.

For the critics a new apologia or defence was needed to explain away the laughable inability of the WT to get dates right as well as their need for doctrinal flip-flops. The new stratagem is that “they are not inspired” yet at the same time their modesty is cast to the wind when they claim that they are exclusively appointed by God, enabling only them among all religions to have correct insights from 1919 onwards.

To an outsider this is unprovable and irrelevant but for JWs it attempts to get them off the hook for their succession of errors and reassure believers that they are stuck with the right bunch of Bible bashers.

This weasel talk in the Watchtower is the bread and butter for JWs, it has absolutely nothing to do with truth, it is purely of the nature of propaganda. For example the WT article you quote from uses the favourite GB expression “God’s people” so frequently, that it acts like a riveter’s hammer. If repeated enough: it must be a reality?

Watchtower material has two functions, primarily to condition the membership to continue uncritically believing that the GB are from God even if they publicly say they are not inspired, and secondly it remains by virtue of its repetition; the mechanism they use for reinforcement and loyalty to the organisation.

The purpose of propaganda is to enslave minds and hearts.

Who is leading? It is not any creator God or even a Canaanite idol called Yahweh. It’s not a “who”, it’s a “what” is leading? I suggest that it is nothing more mysterious than a commercial business drive which leads the JW organisation.