Posts by scotoma

10

My views.

by ivanatahan in

jw
friends

this is more of an introductory post discussing my views and background than anything else, really.. i was, unfortunately, born into this religion.

my mom was, and still is, a pioneer (or as some call it: "piousneer"), and my father is an elder.

admittedly, up until a few months up to a year back, i was indeed a zealous "servant of jehovah".

scotoma

Most people stay in volunteer based organizations for fraternity and a social life.

Lately more options are being presented for social networking on the internet. Even this website has its meet-ups (mini-conventions).

The motives of the rank and file of volunteer organizations cluster around sharing common experiences.

Kids that were raised as JW's and left still seek each other to hang out and swap stories about the crappy assembly food (in some cases excellent assembly food), parties, getting chewed out for underage drinking etc.

However, there are the hard-core fanatics who are in the organization for power, glory, privilege, platform time. These are the ass holes. They are basically authoritarian personalities that are closed minded and have never had an orginal thought - never taken a risk in their entire lives.

The vast majority of members and leaders alike subscribe to the basic teachings but they diverge on what they find rewarding.

Those who are in for social reasons will leave when they develop more interesting social options.

Those who are in for power will leave when they lose out in a power struggle. You will see some of these on this site trying to bully and push others around as if they were still King Elders.

38

major split among JWs

by sidex in

jw
friends

i am a jehovah's witness from siberia.

please tell us who knows what and where thesplits occurred after the death of rutherford.

now in russia there are many schisms.. .

scotoma

This is getting more interesting - at least to me.

38

US Zone visit: disappointing, depressing, discouraging

by sir82 in

jw
friends

i will have plenty of "snark" to post later on, but please indulge me while i get this out of my system..... suppose you are the leaders...yes, the leaders...there are only 7 of you...for the one true religion in all the universe.. jehovah the god of the whole universe speaks to you, you alone, out of 7 billion+ people on teh planet.. you have an opportunity, thanks to the advancements in technology, to speak to 750,000 of your followers "live", and another 750,000 or so within 24 hours.. 1.5 million people!

hanging on your every word!.

this is the first time in history you can simultaneously, or nearly simultaneously, address so many of your adherents.. what message are you going to present for this special occasion?.

scotoma

Remember the 7 GB members all had some uncanny experience where words popped out of the Bible identifying them as "sons, by which spirit they cry out Abba, Father"

In other words something inside them told them they were special. "Yeah that's the ticket. I'm special"

Tony Morris is an angry old man with a scrooge McDuck hair style.

They are just another batch of baby-boomers that need to sit back and dream about "Yesterday".

20

Does having priveleges in the congregation mean you will have a successful marriage?

by hoser in

jw
friends

after reading about tight pant tony's rant about sisters only marrying ministerial servants lest their marriage will be a failure what anecdotal evidence do you have to support this.

the divorces that i am familiar with in the congregation show me that having priveledges in the congregation do not improve the odds of a better marriage.

i would say about 60% of the divorces had at least one spouse who was a pioneer, elder or ministerial servant.

scotoma

What he was really saying is that ANY MALE who isn't at least a ministerial servant is a piece of crap.

So if you are 35 and you don't have any "position" even if you are married and have children of your own you are worthless because you haven't reached out.

Sounds like the head saying to the feet I have no use for you.

21

Geoffrey Jackson hints at the identity of the King of the North

by scotoma in

jw
friends

the big news at the annual corporate meeting was probably the sudden realization that gog of .

magog was some group of nations.

the news was given by geoffrey jackson.

scotoma

The big news at the annual corporate meeting was probably the sudden realization that Gog of
Magog was some group of nations. The news was given by Geoffrey Jackson. As is usually the
case with NEW LIGHT they start out discussing the OLD LIGHT. In this case the Watchtower
has left a consistent trail interpreting Gog of Magog as representing the Devil. The question with
all these adjusted explanations is why Jehovah would allow his people to be misled in the first
place. Since the Bible never says Gog of Magog is the Devil what’s the advantage of making or
allowing these “servers of spiritual food”to believe that?

We can be pretty sure that no angels are delivering these new insights to the Watchtower’s
writers. Something significant had to happen that made them change their view. We saw the
same thing with the discovery of the Great Crowd when it became obvious that the number of
JW’s got too large. The same thing happened with the 1914 generation explanation. In 1994 it
was obvious that those old enough to understand world events were part of an almost extinct
group. So what happened to bring up this new understanding of Gog of Magog?

What is obvious on the world’s stage? It is the return of the hostilities between Russia and the
United States. The old King of the North vs. King of the South scenario. Jackson kept referring
to the similarities between Gog of Magog and the King of the North. Finally he dramatically
raised the question “So who is the King of the North?” The audience reacted to this question
with an anticipatory audible buzz. Just the reaction Jackson was hoping for. He followed this up
by saying “We can’t be sure - yet.” And then he raised expectations that when they get it figured
out they will make it known. Or maybe they are waiting for brother Freddy Franz to speak to
them across the curtain in the most holy and reveal who the King of the North and Gog of Magog
really is.

They will probably defend their confusion over the King of the North because it cleared the way
for hundreds of thousands of new JW’s in Russia and its former republics. If they maintained the
stance that the King of the North was Russia they would have risked the work coming under a
ban. How could they be allowed to freely carry on their work and talk about Russia being the
evil King of the North? To be sure they don’t want to be too quick to send out the message that
Putin’s Russia is the King of the North that goes forth in a great rage to “annihilate and devote
many to destruction.”

36

David Splane Destroys the Very Foundation of 1914- Corp. Meeting New Light

by scotoma in

jw
friends

at the corporate meeting david splane discusses the use and misuse of types/antitypes.. the main qualifier of a type is that an account must be represented in the scriptures as a. type of some future event.. he quoted schroeder who said if an account isnt explained in the scriptures as a type than you.

shouldnt use the event as a type.. splane summed up his talk by saying if the bible is silent - we must be silent.. but they go right on celebrating the 100 years from 1914 which was determined by improperly.

going beyond anything written in the bible about nebuchadnezzars tree dream.. the bible specifically refers to the immense tree as representing nebuchadnezzar.. daniel explained it and that should be the end of the matter.. .

scotoma

Ding,

Splane discussed pyramidology in his talk. He treated it like a cute and quaint sidetrack.

Ho ho ho. Yes that was a crazy obsession of a few and it was long ago. Ha Ha Ha.

36

David Splane Destroys the Very Foundation of 1914- Corp. Meeting New Light

by scotoma in

jw
friends

at the corporate meeting david splane discusses the use and misuse of types/antitypes.. the main qualifier of a type is that an account must be represented in the scriptures as a. type of some future event.. he quoted schroeder who said if an account isnt explained in the scriptures as a type than you.

shouldnt use the event as a type.. splane summed up his talk by saying if the bible is silent - we must be silent.. but they go right on celebrating the 100 years from 1914 which was determined by improperly.

going beyond anything written in the bible about nebuchadnezzars tree dream.. the bible specifically refers to the immense tree as representing nebuchadnezzar.. daniel explained it and that should be the end of the matter.. .

scotoma

I need to clarify something here. I posted the title as referring to Splane. But we don't know if he was the sole originator of this concept.

He is an easy target because he gave the talk. Most likely this was voted on by the GB. We will never know who thought it was a good time to bring up typology.

They have been going through a lot of crazy ideas ever since the Oracle (Fred Franz) died. Not that his stuff wasn't crazy. But it had a certain consistency to the madness.

36

David Splane Destroys the Very Foundation of 1914- Corp. Meeting New Light

by scotoma in

jw
friends

at the corporate meeting david splane discusses the use and misuse of types/antitypes.. the main qualifier of a type is that an account must be represented in the scriptures as a. type of some future event.. he quoted schroeder who said if an account isnt explained in the scriptures as a type than you.

shouldnt use the event as a type.. splane summed up his talk by saying if the bible is silent - we must be silent.. but they go right on celebrating the 100 years from 1914 which was determined by improperly.

going beyond anything written in the bible about nebuchadnezzars tree dream.. the bible specifically refers to the immense tree as representing nebuchadnezzar.. daniel explained it and that should be the end of the matter.. .

scotoma

Phizzy,

Thanks for pointing out the wording in 4:33. I overlooked that. It is very explicit in regards to the meaning of the dream.

All the rest is obiously a Watchtower dream.

Splane said the GB is having trouble keeping up with the Celestial Chariot.

He should have said they are having trouble keeping up with JWD.

36

David Splane Destroys the Very Foundation of 1914- Corp. Meeting New Light

by scotoma in

jw
friends

at the corporate meeting david splane discusses the use and misuse of types/antitypes.. the main qualifier of a type is that an account must be represented in the scriptures as a. type of some future event.. he quoted schroeder who said if an account isnt explained in the scriptures as a type than you.

shouldnt use the event as a type.. splane summed up his talk by saying if the bible is silent - we must be silent.. but they go right on celebrating the 100 years from 1914 which was determined by improperly.

going beyond anything written in the bible about nebuchadnezzars tree dream.. the bible specifically refers to the immense tree as representing nebuchadnezzar.. daniel explained it and that should be the end of the matter.. .

scotoma

At the Corporate meeting David Splane discusses the use and misuse of Types/Antitypes.

The main qualifier of a type is that an account must be represented IN THE SCRIPTURES as a
type of some future event.

He quoted Schroeder who said if an account isn’t explained in the scriptures as a “type” than you
shouldn’t use the event as a type.

Splane summed up his talk by saying “If the Bible is silent - we must be silent”.

But they go right on celebrating the 100 years from 1914 which was determined by improperly
going beyond anything written in the Bible about Nebuchadnezzar’s Tree Dream.

The Bible specifically refers to the immense tree as representing Nebuchadnezzar. Nothing more.

Daniel explained it and that should be the end of the matter.

29

I AGREE WITH THE JWs: THE 'SOUL' DOESN'T EXIST

by NAVYTOWN in

jw
friends

i agree with the witnesses about almost nothing, but i do think they have the right idea when it concerns the 'soul'.

it is my belief that there is no such entity as a 'soul' that resides in a human being.

the idea originated in ancient, pre-scientific eras.

scotoma

It's not a matter of agreeing with JW's. The Bible view of the soul as the living organism is good science and philosophy.

Aristotle also had a scientific view of the soul compared to Plato.

Resurrection/cloning if there ever were such a thing would not be for your benefit but for the benefit of the community you share.

We really don't have accurate memories of our own histories.

If any of us were cloned we would be up to speed in a jiffy developing enough induced fabricated memory to make people around us happy and after a couple hundred years your current history would dominate and you would hardly care.

Do you care about the 365 days you spent as a five year old?