Half banana

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Posts by Half banana

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  13

  Increase in Second Sealings for the Anointed?

  by Nevuela in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the other day i heard my anointed roommate on the phone, discussing something called the "second sealing".

  i heard her say that most anointed people only receive it shortly before death, if they receive it at all.

  she went on to say that she has been hearing about several other anointed people receiving theirs recently and not dying afterward.

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  Half banana

  Isn't one ceiling enough--who needs a second ceiling?

  Anyone who believes in a first sealing for the anointed has already lost the plot. Revelation was written by loonies targeting the gullible.
• 
  12

  Now I am out, some reflections

  by menrov in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  ok, i have been out (officially inactive) for over 5 years now.

  and from being frustrated during my awakening, to becoming a true bible student by analysing all doctrines and viewpoints, to being really happy to be out and at the same time, have developed a sense of disgust for the wt.

  my wife is still very much a pimi.

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  Half banana

  I agree with Crazyguy, well observed Menrov/Michel.

  In the main Jehovah's Witnesses are indeed a social club-- who really cares about doctrines? Doctrines are like an exclusive wallpaper decorating the clubhouse walls. It takes courage to resign from a social club which you know will ostracise you when you leave.

  Human nature dictates you do the things your friends do for the sake of solidarity with them, for some people even if it means defending unreasonable ideas. Friendship and identity are important factors for a stable mind. It just happens that the JW doctrines and culture are not only defective but actually deprive people of their natural right to choose their own satisfying path in life.

  By devoting their time and energy to the cult, JWs remain dependent on it, just like children are to their parents but permanently so-- and they lose out on personal development, ending up poor, disappointed and unfulfilled.

  The promise of paradise looks too good to miss! If only those, when they were contemplating joining the religion, could know how it really ends: it does not end in paradise.
  
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  54

  What Do You Think Will Be The Next Big Change In The Watchtower?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i think there will be a change in the 144000 belief.

  too many witnesses think they have a heavenly hope.

  maybe 1914 will be discarded too.. what is your watchtower prediction?

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  Half banana

  I like Vidiot's loss of charitable status, this would lead to the need for the org to start paying paying taxes. This will precipitate the sale of a ALL kh's and a fundamental shift to a new JW TV evangelism movement. Its unpopularity will eventually lead to closing down the whole organisation.

  In the meantime, loyalty to the org leading to being spared at Big A would then involve compulsory screen viewing. The present leadership would have to be dismissed in favour of actors who have been re-imaged in the celebrity mould. The contrived mechanical gestures and speaking style of the present presenters scream insincerity and total control (but perhaps JW zombification leads the flock to accepting it as natural?)

  They can't drop 1914 and 1919 since they have carefully fostered the myth that these dates represent divine prophecy being fulfilled by them--which is of course utter rubbish.
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  15

  Thank you F&DS @ the Watchtower Corporation! Thank you! Thank you!

  by Solzhenitsyn in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this sundays 11/18 wt p.18 pp.3.

  / happy are those who serve "the happy god".

  "stressful events-such as when a loved one dies or is disfellowshipped...".

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  Half banana

  Gorby, I think you are right. There must be awake JWs in Bethel just as there are in the KHs.
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  23

  Noah 'warning the people'

  by KW13 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  am i imagining this?at the kingdom hall we were told many times that noah warned the others about the coming flood and was ridiculed but actually there is no evidence of this in the bible!there is however evidence to the contrary.

  matthew 24:37-39.

  37 as it was in the days of noah, so it will be at the coming of the son of man.

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  Half banana

  Trouble is that Noah and the flood is just a folk tale. The fact that Jesus believed it just shows that he could not distinguish between stories and facts or more to the point that Jesus was a folk tale as well.

  You disagree?-- well where is your evidence for these guys? And don't say the Bible, the Bible is evidence for for folk tales not reality.
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  41

  Getting Remarried after a spouses death & then they are resurrected after Armageddon ?

  by LOLS in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hi guys .

  i was wondering about the above , if a jw is allowed to remarry if a spouse has died, then what happens when they are resurrected at armageddon, do u land up with two wives/husbands ,,,,,,, makes no sense to me & can the jw's be so dumb not to think about this or have i got it wrong ?

  and i will not be asking my uber jw husband , don't have the energy.. thanks.

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  Half banana

  I can't see free love on any future JW agenda which would be one way round such problems. But it does good to think about the contradictions when thinking forward to what might happen in fairyland because some may see how foolish it all is.
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  2

  More Research on Cult Behaviour.

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  came across this research today, on why cult leaders can induce so much conformity among the cult's membership.

  it may be of interest to some here.. abstract: .

  "several pieces of literature suggest that most individuals who are successfully integrated into cults do not typically manifest symptoms of mental illness.

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  Half banana

  Good quote JWL, and FTS thanks, you got me to learn about "object relations" and how new cult members regress to their earlier states of determining what is good and bad.

  Here is a not so very challenging introduction to cult psychology https://www.onlinepsychologydegree.info/what-to-know-about-the-psychology-of-cults/
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  42

  February 2018 Watchtower - Addressing abuse Victims

  by Listener in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  there's a preview note on one of the articles in this newly released watchtower.

  the note can be found on an article titled "part 1 of 4 love and justice in ancient israel".the note states -.

  this article is the first in a series of four that will discuss why we can be sure that jehovah cares about us.

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  Half banana

  What can you expect from a cult? Cult imperatives ignore common sense, they ignore reason and they ignore the need for personal development, they ignore human nature except knowing how to prey on the weak and gullible and how to keep them there.

  The Watchtower religion from start to finish (and we hope it will finish soon) has had its head in the clouds and its feet off the ground.

  JW org is implacably committed to an Iron Age notion of abject obedience to a totemic god as the magic key to success in life. This is a profoundly wrong dictum for the twenty first century because it ignores the individual.

  As the Watchtower response to sexual abuse in its ranks has shown, it is never driven by compassion or consideration for its individual members. For those who have suffered abuse there is a crying need for serious psychological help--but could they care?
  

  Only now where its failed behaviour is exposed by the force of modern rational methods of social welfare does the Watchtower claim that all along their creepy god cares for those who are abused. As others have pointed out the Watchtower's saccharine words of comfort are not only too late in coming but they are also insincere.

  Bible literature, like cult doctrines everywhere, are about power and maintaining power; children and women were mere possessions according to the Bible, to be treated as such by patriarchal whim. The Bible condoned rape under certain circumstances and abuse by power-- the more compassionate world today no longer tolerates such outrages.

  It seems to me that everything about the JW religion is wrong headed, it is out of date, it presents a false front and is run by uncaring, self-interested, ideologically driven charlatans in the name of God. The time has come for the world to get the low down on JW leadership to the end that it should permanently cease its grubby business.
  
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  101

  Who is the mediator for jehovahs witnesses?

  by atomant in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  lm getting conflicting advice.ls it the 144000 or jesus.l was always under the impression it was jesus.lf its the 144000 then when they pray the jw;s should be praying through the remnant not in jesus christs name but in the 144000;s name..

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  Half banana

  I would think that the average 21st century JW doesn't know what a mediator is and what use it would be to have one.
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  73

  1975—Were You Affected By What 1975 Was Supposed to Bring?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for years , we were told to wait until 1975!.

  the end was coming and we better be ready—or else!.

  were you around during this “momentous “ time??

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  Half banana

  It was an evening in August 1974, I was making a pine table (which I still use) and listening to the BBC while I worked. Who should be interviewed to defend the world's end in 1975? None other than our local bethelite David Sibrey. Anyone remember him? He talked of the flood as a divine pattern which he justified by childish garbage when his interlocutor questioned the historicity of such an event. I remember shaking my head even though I was a JW. Anyway, Sibrey a representative of official Watchtower thinking, was publicly a 'seventy fiver'.

  At our circuit assembly later on in the same year, circuit overseer Albert Broad declared from the podium that if Armageddon does not happen by 1975 "Then Jehovah's Witnesses will be the laughing stock of the world".

  They are--but they are non-entities, who cares about Jehovah's Witnesses?

  It was the feeble 'apology' -- "Well we've still got our friends haven't we?"-- for the 1975 debacle in the 1979 Watchtower which accelerated my scepticism. Like a fool I still remained in the org for another ten years until defending the JW world view became intolerable.