Posts by alcyone

58

Mexico branch......Now closing!!!

by krismalone in

a circuit overseer friend of mine serving in latin america called me today to say hi.

i asked him what's new and he dropped the news that they have received notification that the branch in mexico will be closing!!

this branch also called the central american branch (although located in mexico) oversees all of mexico's 800,000+ publishers plus all 7 countries of central america of over 100,000 publishers.

alcyone

I feel COs are kind of middle management they need to run the organization. Completely dependent on the organization, benefits better than in Bethel, motivated, loyal... If they drop this 'arrangement' and force them to find a job to support themselves... I am wondering what effect it will have on the COs loyalty.

Now being a CO is quite a good position - company car, green handshakes, celebrity status, 17 hours per week ministry, 'free time' from Sunday noon till Tuesday. The COs do anything to keep this position, but what they will do in case they need to find a job? Maybe they will extract more as 'voluntary gifts' from the congos and avoid secular employment anyway.

27

OK who threw the stink bomb in here?

by Thisismein1972 in

come on a believer, everyone knows it was you so own up to it and teacher will not be cross!.

this is exactly what seems to be happening, a believer runs in drops the stink bomb and runs out again...only to pear around the door when he/she deems it safe to do so.

😅😅😅.

alcyone

A Believer, you are saying you have studied other religions in the past weeks and you reassured yourself you are in the truth.

May I ask you to be more specific on how you conducted your research?

You say for example you studied history of Christian church in the first centuries.

How did you do it?

Can you list books you read, perhaps webpages you examined, primary sources you went through etc.?

Or you just used defendingjehovahswitness, the third witness and other JW apologetic sources to reaffirm your beliefs?

Have you tried to read the Studies in Scriptures or some Rutherford books? Or EGW's 'The Great Controversy' to understand religious climate in 19th century?

Have you picked some 'old truth' and tried to understand why it is wrong? Where the FDS did the mistake?

20

New KH being built near where I live

by A Believer in

there are two kingdom halls in two parts of the county i live in.

one is smaller and their are already about to begin work to replace with a new one.. just posting because i noticed posts saying their wasn't new khs being built.

and i learned this today from someone..

alcyone

A Believer... be careful when you show the pictures. If the elders in your congo identify you they will bring you to ~~Sanhedrin~~ judicial committee.

35

1975 statements

by A Believer in

from jw org.

“six thousand years of human existence”.

in 1969 the watchtower magazine in czech began publishing a series of articles based on the book life everlasting—in freedom of the sons of god.

alcyone

That blog defendingjehovahswitnesses is really a gem!

Strong arguments used there

As for the 1975 debate:

1, It "forgets" to mention some facts - "selling houses" OKM, Sinutko's talks, ... Kind of symptomatic for WTS supporters - the org is doing the same in the publication.

2, Arguing the "slave" is not a false prophet as they do not claim inspiration. Yes, they are not inspired, they are only "God's communication channel" - this contradiction have been discussed so many times and still somebody uses it as an argument.

3, Red herring in form of attack on Christian churches that in absolutely not relevant to the 1975 fiasco.

4, Talking about two sets of rules used by "opposers" when in reality WTS uses two sets of rules for everything...

39

Shunning

by A Believer in

you guys do know that if you just leave and never go back you wont be disfellowshiped right?

i know people who have done exactly this.

you have to commit a sin and you or someone else has to tell a elder.

alcyone

What A Believer wrote is a good demonstration of WTS tactics to handle criticism. Similar arguments were used by comrade Jackasson during the ARC. They completely ignore what is the criticism about and start to "prove" something that nobody questions.

When discussing shunning, they argue you can successfully fade and say they know a lot of people who did it. You just need to avoid 'sin'. They ignore the fact nobody says you cannot fade. Nobody says when you fade you will be 100% immediately disfellowshipped. The critics say that when you fade, you are still under the rules and discipline of the organization including their specific definition of 'sin'. For example no one except JWs considers a blood transfusion to be a sin, nevertheless if you had faded and elders learned you took it, you would be DA'd. JW advocates never address this problem and always try to show when you stopped attending meeting you would not be DFd automatically. But nobody says you cannot stop attending meeting.

What will happen if you vote? This is 'sin' only for JWs...

If you attend non-JW worship? If elders learn you say to your colleagues you are not a JW? If you celebrate Xmas?

What if there is 'a new light' prohibiting something done normally in the past? Does the org expect faders to comply?

There are many questions ignored by JW defenders, they always repeat "But you can stop reporting hours and attending meetings..."

36

Three graphs in connection with the Watch Tower's current financial situation

by slimboyfat in

a number of public statements by the governing body indicate that they are experiencing financial difficulty and they have appealed to jws to donate more money.

public information on the financial situation of the watchtower society is limited.

but what does the information they do publish indicate about their situation?

alcyone

Here in CEE region they started to equip COs with company cars. Perhaps this was standard in the US (and other countries) long ago but here COs were using their own cars. If they launched such program for more countries, it can increase Capex / depreciation that goes to the costs of overseers, special pioneers and missionaries.

The cars were introduced only in less than 10 years (I cannot recall when).

Anyway, it is strange how the costs increased over the years, especially when this is only a fragment of the total costs (I assume Bethels are not included in the number).

13

CoC Promotion BUS at the gate of District Convention in Seoul, Korea

by intropist in

jw
friends

.

our korean brothers are very shy.

they reacted as the above ^^;;.

alcyone

Let us recall article from the February 2016 WT (pg. 32):

Kingdom recordings in Portuguese finally arrived in late 1938. On All Souls’ Day, the sound car went from cemetery to cemetery playing the records “Where Are the Dead?,” “Jehovah,” and “Riches,” reaching over 40,000 mourners! Indignant clergymen resented the bold public proclamation of Bible truth and often pressured local authorities to silence the sound car.

I am wondering if the term "indignant clergymen" applies also to those indignant witnesses that blocked CoC promotion bus...

19

Watchtower Nov 2016 - Instructions for Apostates

by Listener in

the november 2016 watchtower is now available and it has more new light but i can't quite figure out what they are saying.

it relates to when the jws were released from the captivity of babylon the great (false religion).

i am not attempting to discuss that in this post.

alcyone

Do it this way in the kingdom hall!

21

Is it me or were the experiences at the assemblies really contrived?

by keyser soze in

jw
friends

my favorite were the ones where they were reading a wt publication in the break room at work, and an inquisitive co-worker, thirsty for spiritual knowledge approaches them.

this leads to an informal witness, which eventually leads to bible study and baptism.. in all my years of working, i've never had anyone show the slightest bit of interest in what i was reading while i was on my break at work.

but as i said, maybe it's just me..

alcyone

I recall our 1st circuit assembly after the fall of communism (there were no assemblies before the fall). As a young boy I was asked to relate my experience and it came written completely from the branch office! It was completely written, we were not allowed to change a word. So I told "my" experience about how schoolmates were pressing me to do something nasty, etc. totally fabricated!

23

1914.... current significance?

by NeverKnew in

it seems that when i ask witnesses questions about 1914, they really don't understand the relevance to their message today.

i am told that they preach about the coming kingdom and that they don't preach a message of 1914. if a person doesn't understand 1914 then i can clearly see how showing them the inaccuracies of the doctrine wouldn't matter.

can we compile a list of ties 1914 has to their current beliefs?.

alcyone

There are many questions that lead to the 1914 question:

Why did nobody come to the JW interpretation of the Bible in 1830? ... "Because it was not the time of the end, only after 1914..."

Why it was right for CTR to leave SDAs instead of 'waiting for Jehovah'? .... "It was different then, it was not time of the end which started in 1914"

JW's teach there is some special period after the 1914. During this period there are different "rules of engagement":

- before 1914: study Bible individually, question auhorities, create separate Bible study group, individual relationship to God matters

- after 1914: join the right organization, otherwise you are lost!

Maybe you can start from this angle and later they will discover how much they rely on 1914