@joey: this isn’t schizophrenia this is an entire family of hardcore believers and that is exactly what hardcore believers actually believe, they can’t be doing that as baptized Witlesses, must be demons. It is pure cognitive dissonance, everyone is perfect if they just pray hard enough.
Anony Mous
JoinedPosts by Anony Mous
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12
Questions about demons, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Charlotte murder trial. The Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer.
by Balaamsass2 in8/20/24 "the charlotte (nc) observer".
questions about demons, jehovah’s witnesses in charlotte murder trial.
what do you think about demonic possessions?
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Lost aoul
by LostSoulUK inhi everyone, i just joined and i have been lost a long time, growing up i was a witness with my mum.
i walked away when i was older, did drugs, sex, travelling all my life never stopping anywhere more than 3 months my entire life, relationship after relationship, pain and hurt after pain and hurt.
i always felt like there was something missing, and tried to find what it was.
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The Watchtower Society Hedge Fund
by TJ Curioso inthe watchtower society hedge fundseveral weeks ago it came to my attention via the e-jehovahs-witnesses discussion board that the watchtower society had devised a new money raising scheme.
the scheme is to beg and borrow money from each individual congregation account, which they deem to be in excess of the congregation's actual expenses.
i half jokingly responded to the topic then that the watchtower has become a hedge fund.
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Anony Mous
May not be ‘really’ sold but rather sold to different shell corporations for reporting purposes, Any lawsuits around that time that may have caused them to ‘sell off’ below market value?
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Voting, why make it easier to vote??
by moomanchu indemocrats are always harping on and on about voting rights and how the ability to vote should be easier and access unrestricted.
the most progressive ones want to allow prisoners, and illegals with no voter id the ability to vote along with the criminals, drug addicts, and uneducated low lives who already can vote.. .
after they push for everyone and anyone to be able to vote they then tell us it is a sacred privilege, a duty and honor, and a big responsibility blah, blah ect..... if it is all those grandiose things are true i think it should be harder to vote not easier.
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Anony Mous
Only land owners should be allowed to vote, that is the way it was intended for the exact reason that you can promise everyone else handouts on the backs of people you can extract the handouts from. If you own no land/house/property you have no incentives to think about your vote.
As far as the registration to vote vs gun ownership, you have the right to defend yourself especially if an elected government is oppressive. So you need the guns in order to defend your right to vote even if it were the the government institutes inane requirements such as having a valid ID for guns but not for voting.
Self-defense is a natural right, governments are not even necessary for the functioning of society.
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Covering up bathroom mirrors at the assemblies!!!
by nojudgement inthis was one of the craziest things i remember about the summer conventions.
i would go into the sister's bathrooms and the mirrors would all be taped up with brown paper so that we couldn't look at our reflections.
were were amish or something?
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Anony Mous
The queue time reason is indeed correct. Where I was we used a facility which did have parity on the number of bathrooms but women do take longer and make a much bigger mess too so half the male bathrooms were used for females and it still had hour-long queues whereas males had lot smaller queues.
The problem with queues is basic math, for when you double the load you have exponential growth in the queue length over time (more people join for every time unit than can go through in that time unit). People artificially adapt their behavior too, so opening more bathrooms actually grows the queue sizes, because if they appear shorter, you are more likely to join them.
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The Question of the "Great Apostasy" and the Historical Continuity of Christianity
by aqwsed12345 in1. the continuity and visibility of the church.
the true church must be continuous from the apostolic age.
there is no room in christianity for a "gap" or interruption of thousands of years during which true christianity ceased to exist and then was revived in the form of another movement.
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Anony Mous
@aqswed: I was talking about documented papal succession and transfer of power/appointments from bishop to bishop, the documents go back far but cannot be definitively established although yes, the Roman Catholic Church can trace documented existence, there are other churches (eg Ethiopian) claim the same that have slightly stronger extant evidence although also not unbroken.
As far as the Russelite movement vs Jehovah’s Witness claim to apostolic succession, the question was what signature would allow us to trace it in history. JWs cannot establish any teaching that would make it unique enough to be traced, would there be a sect that held the end to come in 1914, rejected the cross and divinity of Christ, that would be a signature. I’m looking for a small group like the Freemasons, Knights Templar or others that have sporadically popped up in history and align with modern JW teachings. Russell himself held to the Christian faith and the first and second schism has existing groups that still hold to the cross and the divinity of Christ, the third schism has a number of JW-like groups that also reject the divinity of Christ and the cross. So JWs need, if they want to claim apostolic succession to trace their lineage, first of all reject Russell as they did his teachings. Then we can find others (Mormons etc) that would likewise be JW-adjacent over time, but you can’t go much further than early 1800s.
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The Question of the "Great Apostasy" and the Historical Continuity of Christianity
by aqwsed12345 in1. the continuity and visibility of the church.
the true church must be continuous from the apostolic age.
there is no room in christianity for a "gap" or interruption of thousands of years during which true christianity ceased to exist and then was revived in the form of another movement.
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Anony Mous
I don’t think you can prove papal successions historically speaking beyond the early 9th or 10th century, the historical record for that is simply lost although you can prove the Catholic Church existed very early on (St. Ignacius - 110AD) which was writing to the congregation in Smyrna, the same referenced around the same time by Paul and John of Patmos.
I agree with most of your claims although you must clarify what would make for a JW signature teaching in its own historic record. We all know the cross, trinity and other staple Christian teachings were commonly discussed by writers in the first Zion’s Watch Tower and its predecessor publications which JWs claim were their start, yes they eventually rejected those, but they didn’t come out of the gate with them. Russell clearly states that Jesus should be worshipped, not doing so would have made him a heretic in both the Millerite and Presbyterian movements, Presbyterians believe in the Catholic Church although they believe the Roman Catholic Church was corrupted. Although we know the Russelite movement went through its own schisms, only one branch resolving into WTBTS/JW, JW themselves would not admit to the true establishment being by Rutherford after another schism.
So in short, what is the signature teaching of JWs that would be taught by Russell and accepted by modern JW - because there are not many if any teachings that currently overlap and have remained constant.
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Vice President Kamala Harris…your thoughts??
by minimus ingood pick?
bad pick?
helpful to president biden?
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Anony Mous
Interesting how ‘fact checkers’ always think you need context when the far-left says something dumb, but at the same time, there are no such articles when Trump or others speak in obvious hyperbole.
It took Politifact 3 years to set the record straight on Trump’s both sides comment and only then as a fact check on an ad they brought out that called Biden a liar on the topic, then suddenly the ad needed context because Trump said it, when if you read the entire transcript what Biden said Trump said is not at all what he said. So they lie by omission, then when exposed they outright lie, that is politifact for you.
Meanwhile Walz comment, which is accurate although hyperbole, which most people understand is fact checked in hours. Walz comment goes to what he actually believes, he wants to help people get across, if you build a wall, he will buy a factory, obviously not literal, but he will do whatever he can to get people into this country illegally.
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God won't lift a finger to help you.
by nicolaou insea breeze: @nicolau,i stated my case rather succiently, which you failed to address.
if you have a better solution to the problem of evil than what jesus offers, then why don't you present that in a new topic?.
pathetic diversion.
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Anony Mous
The story of Job is interesting, because if you read it from the JW perspective, it is indeed horrendous.
However, that translation (many English translations) deal rather poorly with the subject matter and the exegesis of the JW is completely different than what most scholars will say.
First of all, Job is shown to be a pious man, who by sheer luck hasn’t had to deal with the hardships of life, when bad things happen to him, he calls God to a tribunal of sorts. Off course JW portray this as Job being the bad person, but in Jewish tradition, it is the opposite, it is normal for this sort of reaction and the reaction of his friends are also what basically someone (the friends) with no experience of hardship would say.
The rest of the book is basically God explaining that there are 2 aspects to nature, the monsters he created and the beautiful things go to the duality of nature. The leviathan, behemoth, unicorns etc are true monsters in the historical context, not what JW’s declare it to be some kind of dinosaur or wild beast, no the original text in the context of the culture they are true mythological monsters that represent chaos and evil and God created both. In the end, Job learns that these things aren’t his nor God’s fault, they happen but if you hang on and get through, good things may/will happen again to you. God doesn’t get “angry” in the JW translation but rather seems to not understand that Job can be so naive, so he returns and provides wisdom that nothing in the end can be blamed for the random things that happen in your life.
This goes to the mythology of Satan and God in Christianity vs Judaism and earlier religions, historically speaking, they are both aspects of nature up to about the Renaissance. Christianity (at least modern forms) try to make a separation between good and evil whereas Judaism and earlier religions make them more part of one needs the other.
I think bringing the JW view of morality to modern arguments is wrong, because the exegesis of scripture by JWs is what fits them (and not unusual for 1800s pop religions), rather than the Jewish or Catholic view of what fits historical scripture and culture.
In those context, the question of good and evil goes away, God has instituted nature as it is and we are the ones with the ultimate responsibility for our destiny, are we going to lean into our base desires or trying to strive to something better, either way is going to be problematic, the holy things are only there as a distillation of the best we can be.
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Is Serena's Williams a JW baptized that is
by blondie in(can't insert edit in title husband a jw?).
i just read that serena said both of them were jws.
but this wouldn't be the first time means 1) supports her beliefs and does them 2) supports her beliefs and doesn't interfered with but no where does it say he is a baptized witness.
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Anony Mous
Truly, who cares, this is how JWs have been treating celebrities from Prince to MJ, Eisenhower, Naomi Campbell, Wayans bros, Michelle Rodriguez and quite a few others, hell, Biggie was a ‘brother’. I’ve even heard rumors of people studying with Bill Clinton, famous soccer players, they are held to a different standard as always and the “no true Scotsman” fallacy. Prince, MJ and the Williams sisters are pretty open about being ‘active’, which if anyone dare say anything about it in the KH, was always dismissed with “no true Scotsman”, “I’m sure their elders are taking care of it, but that (disfellowshipping procedures) shouldn’t be publicized” or “why are you following them that closely, don’t you know that following celebrities is like idolatry”.