bats in the belfry

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Posts by bats in the belfry

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  86

  A little example of how severely the contributions for the Society are drying up

  by sir82 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just a little tidbit from the congregation i attend..... the congregation has approximately 120 publishers.. well over 1000 magazines per month are picked up, not to mention all the books, brochures, and tracts that are picked up.. there was a "local needs" part on the service meeting recently, asking for more contributions.. it seems our congregation has averaged just about $300 per month contributions to the "worldwide work" over the past year.. .

  assuming 1500 magazines / month, that's just 20 cents per magazine - and that completely ignores all other literature that is picked up.. the last price the magazines had, 20+ years ago, was 25 cents per issue.

  with inflation that would have been about 50 cents each now.. just another sign of how severely the contriutions to the society are drying up..... .

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  bats in the belfry

  Did they not recently set up a simplified funding arrangement?

  Each congregation to donate 3.00 per publisher per year?
• 
  6

  Its over ........... what are we going to do?

  by Slidin Fast in

  1. social
  2. current

  i think these olympics have been outstanding.

  i know i speak from a gb perspective but it seems that the spirit, organisation and wholehearted support of these games has been outstanding.

  i have not been near london during the last two weeks but it feels like everyone in the country is in a state of euphoria.. is this just because we were the hosts?

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  bats in the belfry

  These olympics proved to be such a harmonious event. The youth of the world from various national backgrounds all peacefully united in one convention site . . .

  . . . . just like an international convention of the JWs - only more joyous in nature.
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  22

  This system is not all bad.

  by Inisc in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi, everyone.. for many jws all they ever hear about is how wicked the world is and how it has gotten even worse lately.

  the media does not help either.. and even for many ex jws who still have family who are still in, we have to listen to all that doom and gloom about the end of this system.. but, i would just like to recommend a website i found, (not sure if that violates jwn rules) .

  its not religious at all, but is a news source of many heartwarming stories and news articles from all over the world that show just how wonderful life and and people can be.. i find it's a great antidote to remind us that the whole world is not wicked and in fact wickedness is still in the minority!.

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  bats in the belfry

  Actually, there is good news all over: Good News Network
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  22

  This system is not all bad.

  by Inisc in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi, everyone.. for many jws all they ever hear about is how wicked the world is and how it has gotten even worse lately.

  the media does not help either.. and even for many ex jws who still have family who are still in, we have to listen to all that doom and gloom about the end of this system.. but, i would just like to recommend a website i found, (not sure if that violates jwn rules) .

  its not religious at all, but is a news source of many heartwarming stories and news articles from all over the world that show just how wonderful life and and people can be.. i find it's a great antidote to remind us that the whole world is not wicked and in fact wickedness is still in the minority!.

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  bats in the belfry

  moshe >> JWs truly believe that "temporary alien residents" teaching whereby everybody takes care of them.
• 
  42

  2012 Our Kingdom Ministry, October!

  by Atlantis in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  2012 our kingdom ministry, october-(8 pages).pdf..click the link in the blue box by the blue arrow.http://www.sendspace.com/file/80ua4i.scans: (wait a second or two for full size).1. http://uploadnow.org/share/340608-10001.jpeg.2.

  http://uploadnow.org/share/340609-20001.jpeg.3.

  http://uploadnow.org/share/340611-30001.jpeg.4.

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  bats in the belfry

  Can You Open Your Home? If you think that your home is suitable, by all means make this known to the elders. They may be looking for additional locations. If it is not possible to have a book study in your home, could meetings for field service be held there? Even if there is not a need at the present time, the elders will appreciate knowing that your home is available. You may enjoy the privilege in the future. Our Kingdom Ministry, 2/03 p. 1 par. 3

  No one wants their home messed up anymore. Especially elders and their wives.

  Now they want your humble abode to be messed up and call it a privilege.
• 
  55

  Do you believe in Love?

  by freeflyingfaerie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  maybe you are an atheist.. maybe you are agnostic.. you have left a cult, left behind an entire belief system, complete with detailed instructions on how to live..rules to follow for every aspect of your very life.

  you know it was a big lie.. you are now naked, staring at your soul.

  just you, just your own thoughts, just your own voice, your own feelings.

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  bats in the belfry

  No. I believe in a reasonable rate of return.
• 
  5

  How many JW's died as Nazi's victims,

  by MacHislopp in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  rather puzzled...*.

  *** w51 2/15 105-6 an open answer to "the vindicator" ***.

  that is why during the nazi regime in germany from 1933 to 1945 jehovahs witnesses in that land refused to heil hitler!

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  bats in the belfry

  *** June 28, 2012 / For Immediate Release: A 15-minute exposé of Nazi tyranny remembered 75 years later ***

  SELTERS, Germany—On this day 75 years ago, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany distributed an “Open Letter” (Offener Brief) that was unsparing in its detail about the atrocities committed by Hitler’s regime throughout the German Reich. In just 15 minutes, from 12:00 p.m. to 12:15 p.m., the Witnesses blanketed Germany with tens of thousands of copies of a printed leaflet, which cited specific dates and places where arrests, torture, and murder of the Witnesses were becoming routine. The Gestapo were appalled by this exposure and the ability of the Witnesses to carry it off.

  The Witnesses’ adherence to Bible principles and refusal to heil Hitler intensified the Nazi government’s persecution. British historian Dr. Christine King noted that the Nazis viewed the Witnesses’ position as a “rival ideology” and “rival center of loyalty” to the Nazi movement. This led to a Nazi campaign of misinformation and further persecution.

  In her book The Nazi State and the New Religions: Five Case Studies in Non-Conformity, Professor King stated: “Only against the Witnesses was the government unsuccessful, for although they had killed thousands, the [Witnesses’] work went on and in May 1945 the Jehovah’s Witness movement was still alive, whilst National Socialism was not.” Of the almost 8,800 German Jehovah’s Witnesses that were incarcerated, 2,800 of them were put into concentration camps. Among the 1,500 Witnesses that died under Nazi tyranny (including 950 Germans), a total of 370 were executed. In 1933, as the storm clouds of National Socialism gathered, there were about 20,000 Witnesses in Germany. Today, they number more than 165,000.

  http://www.jw-media.org/deu/20120620.htm
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  25

  I wrote a D.A. letter

  by snakeface in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i used to be very active int he organization, "high profile" so to speak.

  always taking the gorup out in service, always having parts on the platform etc etc.

  almost 5 years ago, i simply did not show up anymore.

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  bats in the belfry

  Don't the elders use form letters provided by WTBTS for any D/F & D/A occasion?
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  14

  Those 50+ years of age ... don't overexert in service

  by bats in the belfry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  take this to heart:.

  but after the age of fifty years he will retire from the service company and serve no longer.

  and he must minister to his brothers in the tent of meeting in taking care of the obligation, but he must render no service.

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  bats in the belfry

  Man, just take a look at the ample supply of scriptural references backing up their claim !

  • In Numbers 8:25, 26, concerning the Levites who served at the house of worship of Jehovah, we read: “But after the age of fifty years he will retire from the service company and serve no longer. And he must minister to his brothers in the tent of meeting in taking care of the obligation, but he must render no service. In accord with this you will do to the Levites in their obligations.” Since the appointed ministers among Jehovah’s witnesses on earth today do not retire from their service at any age, how applicable at the present time is the principle of this considerate law of Jehovah here quoted?

  In the ancient nation of Israel there were three main families of Levites. All the male members of these who qualified served as assistants to the priests of Jehovah at his holy tabernacle or temple. In the course of time, as Jehovah himself foresaw, these Levite families became very populous in male members who were eligible for service at his temple sanctuary. The number of service openings for them at the temple sanctuary was limited. In order to provide for all the Levites to have a hand at enjoying these service privileges it finally became necessary for King David to divide up all the Levites in twenty-four courses, each course or division being assigned to one week of service at the temple each half year, or a total of two weeks in a full year, besides all Levites together serving at the special festivals, three times annually, in Jerusalem. It was doubtless not merely out of consideration for their age but to prevent overcrowding of such offices that Jehovah God instructed in the law stated above that those reaching the end of their fiftieth year of age should be retired from obligatory service. They could assist voluntarily those who were still eligible to serve at the temple, but they themselves were given no direct assignment nor were they held accountable to fill such. Although retired from assigned service they still received the benefit of the sacrificial offerings made by the Israelites and also of the tithes that the twelve tribes of Israel paid in support of the temple service and worship.

  This does not establish any rule for Jehovah’s appointed ministers at his spiritual temple today to be retired from preaching or from any other ministerial service. The spiritual Israelites or Christians, who are anointed with God’s holy spirit for his service, are not under the Mosaic law that anciently applied to the nation of natural Israel. Since the day of Christ the Mediator, spiritual Israelites are under a new covenant with Jehovah God.

  Now as regards the priests of Israel, these were not retired at the end of their fiftieth year, and the high priest himself served in his holy office until death if he continued capable. The fact is, the first high priest of Israel, Aaron the brother of Moses, was chosen for service at eighty-three years of age, and he served for almost forty years afterward. At the beginning of the Christian era the spiritual Israelite, the apostle John, was nearing a hundred years of age when he wrote five inspired books of the Holy Bible and completed the canon of the Holy Scriptures.

  For the Christian there is no retiring of him from Jehovah’s service at fifty years of age, no more than there is a withdrawal of his anointing with the holy spirit of God to preach God’s Word when he reaches fifty years of age. Today the field is the world, the entire globe; and this good news of God’s established kingdom must be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations before the end of this old world comes. By virtue of their dedication to Jehovah God to do his will forever, Jehovah’s witnesses today are under obligation to continue in the fulfillment of their commission to preach the good news of God’s kingdom until the witness work is finished. There is no Scriptural precedent for retiring them from service, even after they have served for fifty years, and then putting them on a pension. If old age or advancing years incapacitate a dedicated Christian for a particular kind of responsibility, then he may be shifted to another form of service that he can perform. The obligations that his dedication to God imposes upon him do not allow for him to be relieved of all service responsibilities and privileges and to be retired thereafter to live at ease on a pension, to become a sheer financial burden upon a congregation or upon the organization that supervises the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses.

  The Watchtower 1958, May 15, page 319
• 
  14

  Those 50+ years of age ... don't overexert in service

  by bats in the belfry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  take this to heart:.

  but after the age of fifty years he will retire from the service company and serve no longer.

  and he must minister to his brothers in the tent of meeting in taking care of the obligation, but he must render no service.

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  bats in the belfry

  Take this to heart:

  “But after the age of fifty years he will retire from the service company and serve no longer. And he must minister to his brothers in the tent of meeting in taking care of the obligation, but he must render no service. In accord with this you will do to the Levites in their obligations.”

  Numbers 8:25, 26

  Of course, the WTBTS wants you to carry on until you expire. What is your resolve?