Posts by ScenicViewer

93

What's The Biggest Difference In Today's JWs And The Witnesses From Decades Ago?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i believe today's witnesses lack zeal, resolve, "love" of the "truth"......just to name a few things.. years ago, witnesses were excited to knock on doors and tell people they were gonna die if they didn't accept paradise.. now, when you see jws in service, they all look zombied out.. it's a slowly dying religion that will last probably forever like an ancient rotted out tree..

ScenicViewer

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick..." (Prov 13:12)

Generation after generation of JWs have had their hopes dashed, experiencing failed predictions for the years 1914, 1925, early 1940s, 1975, and by 2000.

Add to that the constant harping by the WTS on what is 'just around the corner' by repeatedly using certain 'buzz' words, and it eventually wears people out.

-- ...soon the earth will be a physical paradise.

-- Christ will soon bring grand blessings to all obedient mankind on a paradise ear.

-- ...we are at the threshold of the new world...

-- What a shame it would be to lose out on the new world when we are now at its threshold!

-- ...we face the imminent end of the present world system.

-- In view of the imminent approach of the battle of Armageddon...

-- With Armageddon rapidly approaching...

-- Jesus will serve as God's Executioner during the rapidly approaching "great tribulation.

-- execution of judgment at the battle of Armageddon must follow very shortly.

-- ...God's kingdom is now established in the heavens and will shortly usher in a new world of righteousness.

Jehovah's Witnesses the most disappointed people on earth. They have grown sick of hearing such things, even if they are not consciously aware of it.

21

Jehovah's Witnesses Spend Thanksgiving Knocking on Doors

by koolaid-man in

jw
friends

http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2011/nov/24/jehovahs-witnesses-bump-evangelism-thanksgiving/.

wnyc news blogjehovah's witnesses spend thanksgiving knocking on doorsthursday, november 24, 2011 - 12:00 amby daniel p. tucker.

one of 80 territory maps used by jehovah's witnesses from a jackson heights kingdom hall to evangelize door to door.. jehovah's witnesses don't celebrate thanksgiving.

ScenicViewer

Jagdish Patel, an elder [said]

"Usually, on the weekdays, there will be a group of 8 to 10 people going out in the service," he said. "But on holidays, it can be 30, 40."

I seriously doubt that. This is the puffy kind of exaggerated talk that Watchtower leaders often engage in to make Witnesses appear zealous.

Idrnomo said,

THAT'S ODD, In my time as an elder we hardley had any turnout for field service on holidays.

It's always been the same way here. Precisely because it's a holiday and people will be home, Witnesses tend not to go door to door. They are accustomed to finding no one home, going through the motions, puting in time. Most of them can't deal with finding people home.

Plus, there is the deep fear that they will not be very welcome since they are interrupting people who are busy on a day that's important to them. And the fear is justified.

Witnesses tend to take holidays off just like everyone else.

Elder Patel may be in an exceptional congregation, but in most places Witnesses avoid door to door work on major holidays like Thankisgiving and Christmas.

43

New Field Service Policy - jw's assigned to neighborhoods

by skeeter1 in

jw
friends

i am looking for confirmation on the following:.

jws are now being individually assigned to smaller territories, and they are told to consistently work that same territory over & over again.

the reason is that the watchtower wants the jws to build relationships with the people in that area.

ScenicViewer

I don't care if it was 1850, there was still murderers and rapists, and it wouldn't be a good idea...to work a territory alone.

Even in the First Century Jesus sent people out "two by two." (Mark 6:7)

Considering that, wouldn't it be "going beyond what it written" to go alone routinely? (1Cor 4:6)

Edit: Oops! Sorry Silver Rhino, you beat me to the 2x2 idea!

66

Was The Internet The Clincher For You To Mentally Leave The Organization?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i think it was for me.. i knew a lot of the history of the bible students, russell, rutherford and the "old light".

.

once i could see all of the overwhelming evidence right in front of my eyes, there was no ignoring the reality..

ScenicViewer

Morbidzbaby said,

I KNEW there was something rotten in Denmark, I just couldn't find the source of the smell until I started searching online.

Bingo!

66

Was The Internet The Clincher For You To Mentally Leave The Organization?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i think it was for me.. i knew a lot of the history of the bible students, russell, rutherford and the "old light".

.

once i could see all of the overwhelming evidence right in front of my eyes, there was no ignoring the reality..

ScenicViewer

Leaving mentally? No. Leaving physically? Absolutely!

Long before I had the internet or knew of Ray Franz, the Society's 1914 Generation had failed. I had wondered for years, 'If this generation goes past 80 years, what will happen. Something will have to give, what will it be?'

The definition changed to a lame explanation of the generation being one of 'contemporary worldly people', or some such silly thing. It made no sense to me at all. I was mentally gone after that.

Started looking on the internet more than 10 years later, learned of Franz' books, and it's been an amazing education ever since.

I feel genuinely sorry for people of previous generations that had no such source of information, and perhaps even died thinking theWatchtower had the truth and they weren't good enough for it.

So many lives ruined.

20

JW Pedophile sentenced in my courtroom today....

by diana netherton in

65 year old self-professed jw man sentenced to 20-40 years state for abusing a young neighbor boy.

over a course of three years.

he actually read scriptures to the boy after each abuse session, which.

ScenicViewer

@ Diana N,

Do you know if there has been news coverage of this? Perhaps a newspaper article?

29

How was the singing in your congro?

by karter in

mine as best abysmal.. we had brother ..i can't sing in tune but will sing louder than anyone else.. sister trained opera voice that sang a note or 3 above everyone else.. the rest were just down rite dreadfull..

ScenicViewer

Wobble said,

The problem they have got of course is that they will not use professional musicians and composers.

Very true. Another problem Witnesses have is that they reject good music that already exists. I always felt that Amazing Grace was a beautiful song with a great message that doesn't violate JWs' beliefs, but the elitist GB says no to it. It's a shame.

29

How was the singing in your congro?

by karter in

mine as best abysmal.. we had brother ..i can't sing in tune but will sing louder than anyone else.. sister trained opera voice that sang a note or 3 above everyone else.. the rest were just down rite dreadfull..

ScenicViewer

Very weak, at best. When the music stopped it was reduced to a little humming.

By contrast, I was raised in the Church of Christ where they don't believe in musical accompaniment to their church songs, and hold special meetings throughout the year to practice singing. They take it very seriously, at least the people I knew did, and are excellent singers based on what I remember from the 1960s. I always felt they put JWs to shame.

Unfortunately it didn't rub off. I am a terrible singer!

34

How many Facilities & Farms does the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society now own? $

by Balaamsass in

can anyone tell me how many farms and facilities the watchtower bible and tract society now owns in the usa?

how many assembly halls?.

kingdom halls?.

ScenicViewer

would it be unreasonable to assume about 1 KH per around every 150 witnesses?

I think that's a good estimate of congregations, ie one congregation per 150 people, but there are often multiple congregations in a KH. In the town where I live there is 1 KH, and 4 congregations using it.

Now we need a good estimate of congs per hall to arrive at an estimate of how many KHs there are.

But there must be someone out there that knows the actual number of Halls.

4

The WT's starting date of the Seventy Years

by Doug Mason in

the wt starts its seventy years with the moment that jews entered egypt following the murder of governor gedaliah.

the wt guesses that the destruction and the murder of gedaliah took place in the same year.

however, the events listed in the bible as taking place from the time of the city's destruction until the entry in egypt require far more than two months.

ScenicViewer

Sounds very interesting, but I'm going to wait for the English version.