Half banana

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Posts by Half banana

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  69

  284000 baptized in 2017

  by jw-verite in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  seen in the 03/2018 watchtower study :.

  "during the 2017 service year, more than 284,000 “rightly disposed” individuals symbolized their dedication to jehovah by water baptism.".

  https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-march-2018/baptism-requirement-for-christians/.

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  Half banana

  @Stillin the world average annual population growth is just above 1% I think I read 1.14 %, it is declining and will be 1% by 2021.

  The JW increase in publishers has been about 2.5% but remember the “world average” is not the same demographic as JW membership which includes a lot of nations with higher numbers of children than average, especially in South America and central Africa. So it would be expected to produce new JWs at above the world average of population increase by insider births alone. It seems that the % increase is in line with JW births of born-ins based on this demographic.

  But half the number of all new Witnesses go missing each year through deaths, DF and faders so there is probably another group of new converts coming in to make up some of the losses especially in Brazil where they don't take the JW religion too seriously and also in the politically unstable parts of tropical Africa where historically JWs have always flourished.
• 
  69

  284000 baptized in 2017

  by jw-verite in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  seen in the 03/2018 watchtower study :.

  "during the 2017 service year, more than 284,000 “rightly disposed” individuals symbolized their dedication to jehovah by water baptism.".

  https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-march-2018/baptism-requirement-for-christians/.

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  Half banana

  Yes the increase is a large number of people but remember that the religion makes it a moral duty to entrap your offspring by early baptism compounded by avoidance of university education which would reveal Watchtower fallacies.

  The world average birth rate in four years will be a 1% annual population increase but Africa will grow to become 54% of the world’s population by 2050. I guess that the birth rate for JWs, weighted for a large African contingent, would be around 2.25% but perhaps more. Eight and one third million JWs would therefore make for a natural “born-in” increase then of between 175,000 to 200,000 just from insider population growth which broadly leaves 100,000 new converts many of whom will be relatives of insiders.

  Of this second group (the converts) most will come from Africa where deism is universal and belonging to a religion, whatever stripe it is, is what you feel obliged to do. Further, endemic poverty and corruption in the political system in central Africa make any religious membership an attractive opportunity to join a community which teaches a hope of deliverance from worldly woes.

  In the Western World Japan is leading the way showing membership stagnation from three sources: the deaths from the high average age of the JW population there, families leaving en bloc and general loss of appetite for the merits of doomsday cults.
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  12

  JW.org Featured Artical: When Your Adolescent Questions Your Faith

  by pale.emperor in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  this is one of the featured articals on jw.borg at the moment.

  could it be because the young ones are googling their parents religion?, seeing the bullshit?, and calling their parents out on it?

  i hope so.. https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/wp20120201/adolescent-questions-faith/.

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  Half banana

  I can only imagine the idea of a JW mentor going down like a lead balloon.This suggestion demonstrates how idealistic and out of touch the GB are. They are promoting a "Biblical" idea but when used in practice I reckon it will find a 95% resistance by the offspring of JWs. JW parents are just about tolerable but getting people from outside the family to goad the kids into action will surely not work?

  The real answer as you say PE is for JW youth to check on Google about the JW cult! Ah! satisfaction.
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  14

  Kingdom Halls Are Hall Full

  by SplaneThisToMe in

  1. social
  2. humour

  there’s all this talk about combining congregations to enhance kingdom hall utilization.

  the branch offices keep calling the halls half full.

  are they half full or half empty?

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  Half banana

  They need the space-- they are half empty most of the time except for the Christmas carol service, no, I've got the wrong group, I mean for the memorial saints who come out of the woodwork once a year.

  As I remember I never saw a kh only half full in the last century they always seemed to be brimming over. The reason for the decline is because of all those nasty apostate people who are spoiling the GB's fun and coming on sites like this one. . . and coming in droves too! Yay!
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  14

  Keys to understanding the Book of Revelation

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  · the whole book of revelation is one letter.. · that letter was to be taken by a courier and read out aloud in churches along a road that ran from ephesus to laodicea.

  the author was very familiar with each of the churches.. · those christians were experiencing intense persecution.. · the letter was designed to encourage these first-century christians to “overcome”.

  it told them that the end was imminent (“soon”) and they had to remain faithful, to the point of being prepared to losing their lives.. · john had gone to patmos in order to compose (“receive”) the message.

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  Half banana

  Thanks for info Doug, I love what that son of The Enlightenment, President Jefferson said;

  "It is between fifty and sixty years since I read it [the Apocalypse], and I then considered it merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams."

  -Thomas Jefferson, letter to General Alexander Smyth, Jan. 17, 1825

  Of course Revelation was before Freud and Jung when an explanation for types of dreaming could be given but it was written however at a time when opium was known to be used.
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  12

  He killed them because they expelled him from the Jehovah's Witnesses - Canal de Noticia (Venezuela), Nov 28, 2017 - Two JWs found murdered

  by darkspilver in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this tragic story has been developing over the last couple of days in venezuela.

  there is a mixture of reports and accounts coming in..... two jehovah's witnesses (and fleshly sisters) aged 71 and 65, where found murdered.

  a 26 year male suspect has been arrested.. in the apartment where the two where found dead, the words "death to witnesses" (“muerte a los testigos”) had been scrawled onto one of the walls.. he killed them because they expelled him from the jehovah's witnesses - canal de noticia, nov 28, 2017. .

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  Half banana

  Apart from the appalling deaths there is an absurdity in this news in that the revenge for expulsion makes membership of JWs look like a desirable thing, worth killing for.
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  12

  He killed them because they expelled him from the Jehovah's Witnesses - Canal de Noticia (Venezuela), Nov 28, 2017 - Two JWs found murdered

  by darkspilver in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this tragic story has been developing over the last couple of days in venezuela.

  there is a mixture of reports and accounts coming in..... two jehovah's witnesses (and fleshly sisters) aged 71 and 65, where found murdered.

  a 26 year male suspect has been arrested.. in the apartment where the two where found dead, the words "death to witnesses" (“muerte a los testigos”) had been scrawled onto one of the walls.. he killed them because they expelled him from the jehovah's witnesses - canal de noticia, nov 28, 2017. .

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  Half banana

  However you look at this it is a tragic event. One thing which the JW teachings offer people is an identity. To be connected with others is a human urge. If you have very little going for you in life then simple things like belonging to a religion can mean a lot. If you are then expelled from that community your lifeline has gone and if your reasoning and emotional control is poor then this situation could arise although fortunately this must be rare.

  I did read of a JW missionary in the Pacific islands who killed his two missionary companions.
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  21

  Watchtower Philosophy Debates

  by Wild_Thing in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was wondering how many of you still enjoy (or maybe you just feel the need) to discuss and debate jw doctrine and scripture.

  i find myself scrolling right past those topics i see online.

  i could care less.

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  Half banana

  I would question the use of the word philosophy in connection with JWs. Philosophy in the strict sense is a permanent enquiry into the truthful nature of things whereas JWs smugly think they have already arrived at the only conclusion possible.

  With 43,000 other religions also claiming that their way is the shortcut to paradise, the only path God intended, philosophically speaking it makes you consider that solid foundations for religious "truth" must be missing.

  Doctrines are a defining collection of the chosen beliefs of a sect, you pays your money and you takes your choice! If on the other hand you want to find clarity and get to the bottom of a matter, you must research and question everything, especially the authority and validity of source material.

  So in answer to your question Wild Thing another question; what is the point in arguing about unprovable things?
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  27

  Why the move to Warwick?

  by optimisticskeptic in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've seen a lot of posts around and about warwick and the goings on there but was curious as to people's theories on why the move to warwick?

  granted there's the obvious point about all of the money from the sale of properties in brooklyn but for as massive as warwick is, the purchase of an apartment complex there, multiple sites and buildings i would be surprised if they had much left from all of the profits.

  so beyond a financial incentive why move?

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  Half banana

  @Nowwhat and Cha ching, I think at a subliminal level this really is the motivation.

  The present indulgent lords of the Watchtower are the only beneficiaries of their delusional cult. They hold the reins and they hold the purse strings. The paradise carrot has withered, JC is no longer the world's hero and JW membership numbers are stagnating. . . light bulb moment! Why not use the billions to fund a better environment for the governing body?

  Note how perfectly sited the Warwick building is for a midsummer sunset! Knowing that Big A is merely the bait to keep the faithful dangling and with no chance of the world actually ending, then a comfy retirement across golden pond is just the ticket.
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  19

  Satan in Heaven

  by pleaseresearch in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this has always baffled me.

  that is why was satan and his demons allowed to be in heaven for so long after they split from god?.

  if we did that then we are out of the congregation, members are shunned and also kicked out of families homes.

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  Half banana

  I'm with you Scratch, like the rest of the Bible, the Satan story is just a fable, borrowed from a foreign culture then elaborated to tell a yarn. It has no literal meaning.

  Just to add, the Jews did not have a devil to do the devil's work since that was Jehovah's function as well. Isa 45;7

  Primitive Gods were good at multi tasking!