Pathetic tired delusional drivel from JW HQ. Flogging dead donkeys comes to mind.
Half banana
JoinedPosts by Half banana
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58
THIS IS IT Tony Morris Identifies King of Norht
by scotoma inthis is the announcement we have heard “about” but now it has been released to the whole world.
its in the 2nd of a three part serries about the jw annual meeting (oct 2018).
to minute 52. .
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When Israel was living under a Theocracy ,was it a Paradise ?
by smiddy3 inthe bible books that speak of a time when the israelite`s were enjoying jehovah`s blessings , isnt it true they were still dying from old age ,sickness , and death ?
didn`t they have a leper colony in their midst ?....yes.
didn`t they still have the poor among them ?
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Half banana
Absolutely FTS. I have just been to the British Museum exhibition called I am Ashurbanipal. He ruled Assyria from 699 to 631 BC. The artifacts on display show highly developed artistic representations of court life, the richness of furnishings, fittings and dress and a great example of the thousands of clay tablets which would have have made up part of his library (the texts were miniscule). The exhibition is dominated by sharply defined relief engravings on large stone panels, which would have been brightly coloured in their day and adorned the palace walls. They told the world what a god-like king Ashurbanipal was.
Indeed the Assyrian tree of life was guarded by two angels or cherubs, call them what you will. How can anyone understand the Bible without knowing the cultural context from which it was drawn? Certainly not the WTBTS!
Ancient Assyrian territory covered Iraq, Iran, Syria, Western Turkey, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Cyprus and a lot of Arabian desert. Northern Iraq today is the home of Isis who have created their dystopian theocracy there. It's just as well that many of the Assyrian treasures are cared for in responsible museums outside of that fundamentalist hell. I was much reminded of how Islamic extremism represents a continuum of gory practices made public to create fear, which reach back into antiquity as shown graphically in the royal artwork. Some people never learn.
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Sign at gilead graduation
by Gorbatchov inyou know, i'm not such a conspiracy thinker.
but why do they display this sign / symbol at the background?
with some litle imagination it is a freemason sign.
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Half banana
In this picture all three are overdressed and earnest. This highlights the degree of devotion the members show to their organisation or at least sends out this idealised message that the producers of the clip want to show.
The angle of shot does give emphasis to the background title by excluding anything in the view of it such as the interviewer who could easily have covered a part the right hand side of the word frame making it a more natural shot. Propaganda in all of its manifestations is always slightly off-key.
I don't think there was any intention to reference Freemasonry, but how do I know!
If you are a graphic designer decorating the middle ground of a rectangle, then simple lines at 45 degree angles will do nicely.
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My intro essay revisited
by vienne inhi everyone [even the person who always marks my posts thumbs down - snicker] i've added to and revised my introductory essay for separate identity volume two.
please read it and give me your thoughts.. thanks,.
rachael.
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Half banana
Vienne, from the three dislikes, it seems you have three JWs who view honest, objective historical facts about the JW organisation as if those facts (or you) are in opposition to truth.
Can clearly supported facts ever oppose truth?
Does the JW org to want to hold the exclusive 'rights' to shape or sanitise its past?
Would knowing its past history reveal to the public historical events they would want to now deny?
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What are the JW flock up to-- despite the GB?
by Half banana inposter westiewilly quoted on another thread the biblical proverb “expectation lost is sickness to the heart”.
the kjv puts it well, “hope deferred makes the heart sick but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life”.. does this not encapsulate the emotional tone of the jw organization today; “heartsick”?.
those who saw the total failure of the watchtower promises of the twentieth century must be heartsick from the disappointment.
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Half banana
Poster Westiewilly quoted on another thread the Biblical proverb “expectation lost is sickness to the heart”. The KJV puts it well, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life”.
Does this not encapsulate the emotional tone of the JW organization today; “heartsick”?
Those who saw the total failure of the Watchtower promises of the twentieth century must be heartsick from the disappointment. What I am exploring is how would we expect the faithful to respond to this fundamental problem? Their lives were geared to this hope, the rigid certainty of the Kingdom by the end of the last century was guaranteed by none other than the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society-- "the generation of 1914" was often quoted, it was undisputed, JWs thought it was a Bible certainty, it was their ticket to paradise. . .
Psychologically even wearing the mask of a kingdom smile, today the heart has gone out of the whole enterprise, the abysmal attempts at squaring the generation of 1914 to accommodate successive generations by “overlapping” has only meant a further loss of confidence, and the GB must know it.
How then have the flock reacted?
As we know, what the JW org offers the public is a quick fix to all life's problems: never dying, a life of bliss in paradise; the hope of a permanent world of “no worries” with cuddly pandas thrown in for good measure. As we also know this is moonshine but the world is full of sad punters who in the past have lapped it up.
So with the expectation now lost, for those who didn't leave the organisation, the first thing was a re-evaluation and this meant finding justification for what has happened. It was akin to having foolish parents who made a very foolish mistake, you don’t blame them do you? You put up with them ‘cos they are the only ones you have.
For those unthinking and infantilised JWs, the governing body had become the surrogate parent.
So the remaining JWs at the turn of the twenty first century then started to look for new dates, not a promising line of enquiry since WT dates have always been wrong in the past.
Outwardly the remaining JWs continued performing the meeting and preaching rituals but egged on by HQ, shifted the emphasis away from a date limit to stressing the imminence of Armageddon. Having lost a marker point JWs were now focused just on the nearness—always round the corner, always round this enormous one hundred and forty year long corner. Are Jehovah’s Witnesses round the bend yet? Of course, The Watchtower has always been round the bend!
What other alternatives are available to the JW?
Stay put and enjoy your friends and family? As the WT told the flock in 1980 after their previous major prophetic disaster of 1975, “we still have our brothers and sisters don’t we?” Yes it's a good social club if you are partially brain dead.
Or one could just leave-- however leaving the JW club carries a big penalty. The cult goes to great lengths to avoid defectors and the flock knows it well. Being ”sent to Coventry” as we say in England or shunning, is the technique used to harm the feelings of the would-be leaver to induce them to stay. It often works, and the consequence of this is that the kingdom halls are filling with physically present but mentally alienated members. . . lots of them. . . it’s part and parcel of the heartsick membership.
There is however one significant response not often discussed and that is the hidden token protest JWs are practising now by not contributing money.
Have you practised this or heard of others doing it?
( And by the way, has anyone found the tree of life Proverbs mentions?)
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Mark 13: 1-8 ...Not a composite sign/ two-fold prophecy scripture
by RULES & REGULATIONS inthis brother starts off with reading the following scriptures from the book of mark 13:1-8.
3 while he was sitting on the mount of olives across from the temple, peter, james, john, and andrew asked him privately, 4 “tell us, when will these things happen?
and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?”.
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Half banana
Yes John P, the archaeology of Nazareth of the period of Jesus' putative birth showed one humble farmhouse and an old cemetery nearby. Nazareth was not shown on Roman maps of the period and Josephus lived within a short walk of it and never mentioned it in his writings. Like he never mentions Jesus either (except by the later and spurious insertions to be found in his texts) and yet would have been truly expansive on the subject of Jesus had he existed, especially being on his own doorstep so to speak.
There does seem to be a conflation of the two names Nazarene and nazirite in certain people's minds, the latter being the mould for an ascetic holy man, an idea which could have been used to foster a similar image for Jesus.
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"This system will probably be over in about 5 years"
by john.prestor ini don't think i shared this story yet, it's strange and although i did a little detective work trying to figure out who said what and when i never found out much, big surprise, jehovah's witnesses love their secrets as we all know... but i thought other posters might find this interesting both in and of itself, because of what an elder told me one sunday back in 2011, and because of what it could imply as to high-ranking jehovah's witnesses prophesying the date of armageddon.
specific dates went out the window in 1975, although governing body helper ken flodin hinted at 2040 in a talk uploaded to jw.org a couple years back, and the governing body hinted at 2034 in a watchtower back in the 90s.
but it might be, just might, that more specific date-setting still goes on behind closed doors in certain circuits.... so after i went to "meetings" and talked to witnesses for a couple years at a rural congregation in the eastern united states an elder pulled me aside one service into the vestibule at the hall, in other words, into a private area where no one would overhear us.
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Half banana
I expect they were saying the same thing in the 1880s. It's wishful thinking.
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"This system will probably be over in about 5 years"
by john.prestor ini don't think i shared this story yet, it's strange and although i did a little detective work trying to figure out who said what and when i never found out much, big surprise, jehovah's witnesses love their secrets as we all know... but i thought other posters might find this interesting both in and of itself, because of what an elder told me one sunday back in 2011, and because of what it could imply as to high-ranking jehovah's witnesses prophesying the date of armageddon.
specific dates went out the window in 1975, although governing body helper ken flodin hinted at 2040 in a talk uploaded to jw.org a couple years back, and the governing body hinted at 2034 in a watchtower back in the 90s.
but it might be, just might, that more specific date-setting still goes on behind closed doors in certain circuits.... so after i went to "meetings" and talked to witnesses for a couple years at a rural congregation in the eastern united states an elder pulled me aside one service into the vestibule at the hall, in other words, into a private area where no one would overhear us.
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Half banana
The way JW governance works is by holding to the doctrine of "the perpetual imminence of Armageddon". This scam is a key to the longevity of the cult. It will break down nevertheless as people become more informed and see how untruthful the JW organisation is.
The success of the GB is measured by the commitment of the flock to a very early fulfilment of Bible kingdom prophecy. Those who think otherwise are malingering low life, almost apostate. Oh no! how terrible!
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Rape by Elder led to a life of sexual abuse
by Asian sister ini was raped by two brothers when i was 12 in vancouver.
one was an elder who i trusted beyond belief and the other was his 18 year old son, who i had a huge crush on.
it changed my life forever, i became a slut, sleeping with every brother i could of which there was an endless supply.
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Half banana
Asian sister, so sorry to hear how you were raped as a child and with such consequences. Life must be difficult for you.
The first thought which comes to my mind is how do you square your life style with still being a JW? Not that I would recommend you to remain one but do you take it seriously? If you do then this only compounds the difficulty of being yourself but publicly being a believer.
Without wishing to stress you further, I would appreciate your thoughts on this matter but only if you feel comfortable in explaining.
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Mark 13: 1-8 ...Not a composite sign/ two-fold prophecy scripture
by RULES & REGULATIONS inthis brother starts off with reading the following scriptures from the book of mark 13:1-8.
3 while he was sitting on the mount of olives across from the temple, peter, james, john, and andrew asked him privately, 4 “tell us, when will these things happen?
and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?”.
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Half banana
There are two primary false assumptions made by the Watchtower:
One is that the Bible contains the thoughts and demands of a supreme god.
The second is that only the Watchtower/JW org leadership have the exclusive spin rights on how to interpret it.
Therefore the GB think that all they need for any situation is to find a scripture relevant in content to the problem at hand and that will suffice-- so forget the original context or meaning. Trotting out scriptures regardless of meaning keeps up their reputation as a Bible quoting religion. The JW governing body are world leaders in "post truth" thinking!
This matter is so clear when reading the gospels about the prevailing anxieties by Jews and the end of their system. As crazyguy mentions these were written close to the time of the sack of Jerusalem in 70 AD under Vespasian. The so called Third temple only recently built was destroyed and broke the power of the Jewish leaders and closed the Sanhedrin.
The Greek scriptures were written for a new Christ cult which was growing at the time but were relatively few in number and mainly Jews. As yet they were not centrally organised apart from holding meetings in the manner of prevailing Greek and Roman cults, from which they derived their heirarchical orders; bishops, prebyters and deacons --still in use by JWs in modern translation.
The words of the gospels are categorically not those of Jesus of Nazareth.
Nazareth did not exist when Jesus was supposed to have been born! No one ever took down verbatim what Jesus said, mainly because nobody known to history actually knew him or reported his words or activities first hand.The gospels are the fabrications of the leaders of a new christ in a historical background of many christ cults which preached destruction of the world and salvation by belief in a resurrected christ figure--which was an evolving twist on an ancient story.
My favourite which says it all is Mark 9;1.