From what I understand the current doctrine is that if someone intentionally rejected the FDS (aka anyone disfellowshipped and PIMO/POMO/inactive) or had sufficient chances to get to know the FDS (repeatedly preached to door-to-door or by family) then they wouldn’t qualify for resurrection. It’s the FDS (the people in New York) that do the judgment both now and they believe in heaven as well (this isn’t exactly new, this was introduced during the Live Forever book).
Anony Mous
JoinedPosts by Anony Mous
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16
Current light on will die at Armageddon?
by Teddnzo inmy wife zoe and i often talk about her grandmother who has never been a jw but is an excellent christian by other opinions.
she has led such a good life always kind and tried to follow jesus example.
before the agm new light my wife often thought according to current light is that as long as she dies before armageddon she will be resurrected.
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Pornography in the Marriage
by LostintheFog1999 inthe magazine that they are studying in the congregation this month has an article at the back about how pornography in a marriage could damage the relationship.. there's one piece of advice that sounds rather scary, the wt suggests that the couple should "consider asking an elder with whom you are both comfortable to sit in and guide your discussions for a time.".
how many of you would want an elder present in your home while you and your partner discussed your personal sexual cravings and the type of porn videos being watched?.
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Anony Mous
@Bandicoot: WTBTS has equity holdings in Disney which, amongst other things, owns Viewers Choice through its holdings in ESPN which is a company that provides quite a few adult PPV channels you may find on cable, satellite and hotel rooms.
Per their own tax returns, they also own direct stock in various weapons manufacturers like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, tech companies like Apple and Amazon, Monsanto, left-wing investment groups like Blackrock, ever wonder why they promoted the COVID shots - yeah, guess who they own shares in.
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What's next?
by lastmanstanding inwhat's next for the world?
a year ago i edited a map of the world to include some big arrows to tell the story of what is to come.
and i shared that map with various friends.
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Anony Mous
Your predictions were pretty vague and self-fulfilling. If you draw a big arrow over 1/3 of the world, you can make pretty much any claim when ‘something’ happens.
As far as Iranian and Chinese aggression in the Middle East and the South China Sea, journalists from the Daily Wire, Heritage Foundation, Ted Cruz and various other politicians, economists and historians have predicted this much more precisely… before Biden was elected what would happen when Biden got elected over Trump, as soon as Biden came out of the Democrat primaries many predicted accurately that all these world events would happen. Hell, Obama predicted it during his own presidency - he is the one that said: never underestimate Joe Biden’s ability to f-ck things up. They also predicted what would happen to the economy.
Anyone with half a brain could’ve predicted these things were going to happen, exactly when that something would happen is anyone’s guess. China invading Taiwan would be noticeable to the West, you can see at least a 2-6 month lead time on that as China will need to mobilize a massive invasion force, bigger than the Allies invading Normandy. The Germans knew that Normandy was getting invaded, they knew when and where, they had underestimated the cost of war with the Soviets however and thus had no supplies to continue defending.
The question is whether Joe Biden will be able to mobilize a big enough force to defend Taiwan, again, don’t underestimate his ability to f*ck things up. It’s very likely that if Biden gets re-elected that Taiwan will be invaded. Biden won’t allow it to happen during his first term, China knows that, but as Obama told Putin about invading Crimea “just wait until after the election, then I’ll have more flexibility”, Biden has begged China for this same flexibility, pretty openly with Biden’s admin having some detailed conversations recently. But if Biden gets re-elected, I’ll give it 6 months before China starts mobilizing, simply because Biden doesn’t need to get re-elected, he will turn on everyone in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Russia may even get bold enough to nuke Ukraine and invade Finland, all Putin needs is time, once the election is over, Biden will go to sleep like he was for the first 2 years of his Presidency, and would still be if Trump hadn’t kickstarted the Republican primary about a year early than usual.
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Jehovah's Witness' bid to be excluded from abuse inquiry dismissed
by Tahoe inlink to article.
a legal bid by the jehovah's witness church to get out of being part of the royal commission of inquiry into abuse in care has been dismissed by the high court in wellington.. after nearly three years of behind-the-scenes legal wrangling to avoid scrutiny from the inquiry, the church applied for a judicial review in june.. at a hearing, held earlier this month it argued it was beyond the inquiry's scope because it did not operate institutions that cared for children or vulnerable people and the inquiry had uncovered no evidence of abuse in that context.. lawyers representing the inquiry argued that jehovah's witness elders - equivalent to ministers or pastors - exercised a level of control over the congregation that allowed them access to children.. the inquiry informed abuse survivors who gave evidence to the inquiry in relation to the jehovah's witnesses of the news this afternoon.. "we have received advice from the high court that none of the causes of action brought by the jehovah's witnesses has succeeded and the application for judicial review has been dismissed.
the judge's reasons are not yet available, but are expected in the near future," the email to survivors, seen by rnz, said.. the church was the only faith-based institution in the country to legally challenge its involvement in the inquiry, although it had attempted to challenge its status in other countries where similar inquiries have also been carried out.. the inquiry said, in a statement, that the dismissal "means the royal commission can continue to investigate the jehovah's witnesses, and all other faiths, in accordance with the pastoral care approach we have been applying since 2019".. "reasons for the high court's judgment are not yet available but are expected in the near future.
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Anony Mous
In the end what really happened with the Australian investigation? Besides some bad news that JWs won’t believe anyway, not much, they moved the money out of the the international branches, did they even pay a fine or have anyone arrested? No, they got a few angry letters from some bureaucrat and that was that. -
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Interesting story in todays New York Times that gives some insight into the religious soup of the 1800s that Watchtower arose from.
by Balaamsass2 intodays nyt.
fascinating read and background of new york state in the 1800s.
this community welcomes mediums, but first you have to prove yourself.
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Anony Mous
@ray as far as I can see the only connection is that the same geographic region also kickstarted Mormonism and Millerism, Miller’s Great Disappointment being the influence for Russell and his swindle operation and the calculations of 1914. To that effect, many of the calculations both Miller and Russell and others used to calculate the end of the world have their roots or at least carry great resemblance to certain beliefs within the Spiritism movements. The idea within Mormonism of many levels of hell and heaven likely comes from Mesmer (a Spiritist). So they all kind of influenced each other.
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Steve Lett doesn’t look well
by Teddnzo inas soon as you see steve letts talk at the agm you think to yourself “oh my, what’s happened to him?.
his hand has plasters and his skin doesn’t look healthy, like he has inflammation or something serious going on.. he had put on weight and is all bloated and puffy .
his skin really doesn’t look good, the kind of inflammation many people notice after the experimental covid vaccines.. there have been very high numbers of people reported inflammation after the experimental covid vaccines.
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Anony Mous
Warning, pictures of medical issues: https://dermnetnz.org/topics/cutaneous-adverse-effects-of-alcohol
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How Much of Russell and Rutherford is Left?
by NotFormer inrussell is kind of acknowledged as the founder, but rutherford is the one who really made the wt what it is, or at least laid the foundations for what it came to be, today.
how much would someone from that era recognise in the wt today?
what are the big changes that they would see?.
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Anony Mous
A lot of the 'basic' doctrine is actually pre-Russell. Jehovah's Witnesses originated out of Adventists of the Millerite branch. The emphasis on the imminent (or invisible) second coming, annihiliationism (Armageddon stuff), claims of spiritistic influence on leadership, prophecy that keeps moving around to fit modern events is not at all unique to JWs.
The core doctrines of Russellism specifically are still around:
- Non-existence of Hell and the 144,000
- (Lack of) the Divinity of Christ - although that seems to be even more emphasized today with the GB replacing Jesus.
- The (lack of) personhood in the Holy Spirit - again, something the GB seems to be laying more emphasis that THEY are solely influenced by Holy Spirit
- The non-belief in the trinityWhat has been completely rejected since are the pyramid teachings and the pro-zionist teachings. Russell went as far as telling Jews they should not convert to Christianity since they were a special people already.
As far as Rutherford, Rutherford didn't teach anything specifically other than the complete opposition to other religions and the state. Those ideals seem to have weakened in more modern times, having the WTBTS join UN etc. The other thing I think Rutherford introduced was the idea that Jesus didn't die on a cross but on a stake. Although Rutherford rejected the Russell interpretation that Russell was the "Faithful and Discreet Slave" which is an idea the WTBTS has taken up again since.
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JWs and Conscription/ Military Service
by NotFormer inmatthew 5:41 (nwt) "...and if someone in authority compels you into service for a mile,* go with him two miles.".
a member of the roman occupying forces could command a local to carry their pack for a mile.
the local was thus pressed into a form of military service.
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Anony Mous
@Earnest: That’s anal? No, that’s fact, read the Elder handbook. The WTBTS wanted to get a more corporate friendly image, they implemented lots of rules that copied other large corporations in the 90s and quickly wanted to forget the image they had built for themselves in the 1940s-1980s. Having former criminals which were already seen in the community as traitors as their leaders, they feared would ‘bring reproach’ on the organization.
Note that people in Mexico were actually allowed to bribe the officials, which was another debacle that came to light later.
You claim the principles have not changed, I challenge you to explain that, the principle before was that you could not do any demanded service for government either in service of the military or in civilian duties except if you voluntarily went into civilian service. Now it is a matter of personal decision. How is ‘NO’ to ‘do as you please’ not a change in principle? It was clearly claimed to be a matter of scriptural mandate, you can read the articles that told people not to do it, then later, as you correctly say, the WTBTS blamed these men that made the sacrifice for ‘misunderstanding’ them. I lived in that time in a country that still had mandatory service, I was trained from a young boy to refuse and go to jail, with articles from the WT publications and scripture, this would be a matter that was brought up during ‘local matters’ and people were disfellowshipped for not going to jail.
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How to stirr up the poor into digital online business
by Gorb inhttps://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/watchtower-study-november-2023/hulda-reached-her-goal/.
what about this watchtower article?
in my jw time i felt not comfortable about this kind of "devine education".. poor sister works above her self to get a device.. jw.org hypocrisy for going full digital.. g..
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Anony Mous
@NotFormer: yea, you can go back about a decade and find various threads about this. At that point they said print would remain available for the elderly and poor, it seems more and more they want to go digital only and save money.
As I said before, you can run this org with a skeleton crew of 100-200 people in New York and a dozen or so in every country, altogether maybe 1000 people. Their entire website is already ran by a third party, lots of the video production as well. Now they have 1000s still dedicated to print and distribution, get rid of that and it doesn’t matter they’re losing half the people, they just need a core of 1M or so people donating just $10/month to stay solvent.
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Jehovah's Witnesses and Tattoos
by NotFormer ini was wondering about the jw attitude towards getting tattoos.. redditors suggest that the only jws who have them would have got them before they were baptised.. jw.org gives a meally-mouthed "true christians wouldn't" response.. but no-one (that i've seen so far) answers the question i'm actually asking: is getting a tattoo after being baptised a disfellowshipping offence?.
if not disfellowshipable, how would a typical jw congregation treat someone who got a tattoo after baptism?
would they really treat it like it is a conscience issue?.
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Anony Mous
@Destin, the article you quote clearly indicates it is not acceptable. Would you get disfellowshipped for it, maybe not, but someone who intentionally establish independence, drawing attention, identity or control over their body, it is clearly implied they do not see that as acceptable. You would be reproved and considered an immature Christian according to other articles in the WTLIB.
As a CO once told me, if the GB says they give you a suggestion, you should take it as an order.