the watchtower's position on logic and truth is basically that there are two logics (god's and man's) and two truths (god's and man's).
this position makes knowledge impossible (especially knowledge of god) and allows the society to contradict itself with impunity.. read my letter to the society:.
http://watchingthetower.blogspot.com/2009/05/letter-to-christian-congregation-of.html.
I love this exchange of letters with the watchtower society about the flood. After being completely defeated by a very logically presented argument, they terminated the conversation with: "We suggest that you let the matter rest, and perhaps in time something more will be published to clarify matters."
Watchtower's approach to logical arguments: When you can't support your argument and defend your position to someone who is challenging you, just tell them to shut up.
1)as sheep amidst wolves, gods servants are preaching among a crooked and twisted generation.
(matt.
10:16; phil.
Does anyone have a download link for the May 2012 KM? As an apostate, I feel it is important to keep my theocratic library up-to-date.
i recently asked my jw elder brother (who thinks i'm just "inactive") what he makes of the reduction in pages of the wt & awake rags.... his response was something like:.
well this was something that has been discussed for a long time.
the society feels that the brothers need to start using the bible more in field service so they are slowly reducing the pages of the literature to encourage the brothers to read the bible more and not depend so much on the literature.
I love the third one. He's basically bragging that he deceives the householders. He claims that he's conducting a study "using just the bible," but in reality he is still using the book... he just has it memorized so the householder doesn't see it. Then later he shows them: "See? You thought we were just using the bible, but we were really using this book!"
i recently asked my jw elder brother (who thinks i'm just "inactive") what he makes of the reduction in pages of the wt & awake rags.... his response was something like:.
well this was something that has been discussed for a long time.
the society feels that the brothers need to start using the bible more in field service so they are slowly reducing the pages of the literature to encourage the brothers to read the bible more and not depend so much on the literature.
There's a thread over on JWTalk where they're explaining why they MUST use literature, not just the bible.
B: "I only read the Bible, I don't need your literature." I meet people who say that. You probably do to. But how do you handle it? |
H: I too have experienced the no literature defence. |
T: Yeah, I have started a few studies this way. I look at chapter one and pick out the verses and reasoning and use just that. Then after a few weeks I ask if they enjoyed their study - ONLY from the Bible. If yes - I show them the book and show that - we have been just following it ALL along. That is why this is called a BIBLE study. I have had a few continue from there, but they too have fizzled ... |
A: My dad, when he was at pioneer school a few years ago, said the CO suggested that they use the bible more and the literature less. There may be a time we don't have our literature, so using the bible only is a good idea. |
H: My congr. had that advice from our Co in the mid 90's. Hubby and I both a/pioneered for months using the Bible only He carried a range of tracts in his suit pocket as a surprise and it worked. |
M: In the past, I've shown people the story in Acts of the Ethiopian Eunuch. He was reading Isaiah by himself. Philip asked him if he understood what he was reading, and the Eunuch said: "How could I, unless someone explained it to me?" So Philip sat with him and explained it. Then I've told the householder that I am like the Ethiopian Eunuch. I read the Bible by itself, and it speaks to me... but I can't fully understand it without someone to explain it. That's what our literature does. It sits with us, just like Philip, and explains what we are reading. Note that Philip's explanation never REPLACED the Eunuch's reading of Isaiah, it simply supplemented it. That's the role that Bible literature plays in my life, and that's why I'd like to share it with you, too. |
it is with great interest that i recently read ceders article on the decline of the wts.
his article along with many of the comments really drives home just how many major changes there have been in a fairly short peroid of time.. somewhere in the recent past i could swear that someone had posted a bullet list of major changes with the corresponding year.
when i saw this (or something like it) my first thought was that this simple list made it all the more shocking; and since i have searched and cannot find anything like it.. so i dug around and started one of my own, please feel free to add/corrects events.
@slimboyfat:
I don't know what anyone else has seen about Gilead changing. This was in the Kingdom Ministry just 5 months ago:
*** km 10/11 p. 6 Are You Learning All You Can From Jehovah? ***
Watchtower Bible School of Gilead
• Purpose: To train pioneers and other full-time servants for missionary service.
• Duration: Five months.
• Location: Watchtower Educational Center, Patterson, New York, U.S.A.
• Qualifications: Married couples who are baptized for three years and are between 21 and 38 years of age when submitting their first application. They must speak English, be married for at least two years, and be currently in full-time service at least two years without interruption. Applicants must be in good health. Pioneers serving in a foreign country (including those with missionary status); traveling overseers; Bethel family members; and past graduates of the Ministerial Training School, the Bible School for Single Brothers, and the Bible School for Christian Couples may also apply if they meet the qualifications.
• How to Apply: In selected branches, a meeting for those interested in this school is held at the district convention. Further information is supplied during this meeting. If there is no meeting at conventions in your land and you would like to apply, you may write your branch office for further information.
Maybe I'm missing something, but that sounds like Gilead is still going strong. Anyone else?
it is with great interest that i recently read ceders article on the decline of the wts.
his article along with many of the comments really drives home just how many major changes there have been in a fairly short peroid of time.. somewhere in the recent past i could swear that someone had posted a bullet list of major changes with the corresponding year.
when i saw this (or something like it) my first thought was that this simple list made it all the more shocking; and since i have searched and cannot find anything like it.. so i dug around and started one of my own, please feel free to add/corrects events.
Before 2007, the wt taught that the 144,000 had been "sealed" in 1935. If this had been the case, then the number of anointed left on earth would have continually declined. But that hasn't happened. So:
*** w07 5/1 p. 31 Questions From Readers ***
"it appears that we cannot set a specific date for when the calling of Christians to the heavenly hope ends."
(This change was clearly a reaction by the wtbts to the highly inconvenient increase in the number of partakers.)
A further "refinement in understanding" came in 2011.
and, a related refinement from the same article:
*** w11 8/15 p. 22 Questions From Readers ***
A number of factors—including past religious beliefs or even mental or emotional imbalance—might cause some to assume mistakenly that they have the heavenly calling. We thus have no way of knowing the exact number of anointed ones on earth; nor do we need to know.
it is with great interest that i recently read ceders article on the decline of the wts.
his article along with many of the comments really drives home just how many major changes there have been in a fairly short peroid of time.. somewhere in the recent past i could swear that someone had posted a bullet list of major changes with the corresponding year.
when i saw this (or something like it) my first thought was that this simple list made it all the more shocking; and since i have searched and cannot find anything like it.. so i dug around and started one of my own, please feel free to add/corrects events.
The list of blood products that they will accept has been changed quite a number of times.
it is with great interest that i recently read ceders article on the decline of the wts.
his article along with many of the comments really drives home just how many major changes there have been in a fairly short peroid of time.. somewhere in the recent past i could swear that someone had posted a bullet list of major changes with the corresponding year.
when i saw this (or something like it) my first thought was that this simple list made it all the more shocking; and since i have searched and cannot find anything like it.. so i dug around and started one of my own, please feel free to add/corrects events.
00DAD: The Overlapping Generation change came in 2010, not 2008: In the Watchtower 2010 April 15 issue, the generation doctrine was changed in an attempt to reintroduce urgency.
Actually the "overlapping generations" idea did first surface in 2008.
*** w08 2/15 p. 25 Christ’s Presence—What Does It Mean to You? ***
The word “generation” usually refers to people of various ages whose lives overlap during a particular time period or event. For example, Exodus 1:6 tells us: “Eventually Joseph died, and also all his brothers and all that generation.” Joseph and his brothers varied in age, but they shared a common experience during the same time period. Included in “that generation” were some of Joseph’s brothers who were born before him. Some of these outlived Joseph. (Gen. 50:24) Others of “that generation,” such as Benjamin, were born after Joseph was born and may have lived on after he died.
So when the term “generation” is used with reference to people living at a particular time, the exact length of that time cannot be stated except that it does have an end and would not be excessively long. Therefore, by using the term “this generation,” as recorded at Matthew 24:34, Jesus did not give his disciples a formula to enable them to determine when “the last days” would end. Rather, Jesus went on to emphasize that they would not know “that day and hour.”—2 Tim. 3:1; Matt. 24:36.
i read this article last night.
it was confusing.
the parade of dates long before i was born 1790, 1876, 1914, a whole profusio of them with backtracking and sorry excuses was mind boggling, even for one raised a witness.
I just started looking at the Talk section. This jumped out at me:
I added the neutrality tag to this article because I noticed several statements sourced by Crisis of Conscienceand other books by ex-member Raymond Franz. He is not a reliable source, at least not in the way he is being used here, as his books deal entirely with attacks on the religion. Source these statements with official Watchtower information or historical records or remove them. --Iron Chef (talk) 19:18, 2 June 2010 (UTC)
You can almost be assured that Iron Chef has not bothered to read a single word from either of Ray Franz's TWO books (not "other books"... he only wrote Crisis of Conscience and In Search of Christian Freedom.) Instead, Iron Chef (who I'm guessing is a diligent little jdub) has been told that Ray Franz's books are "entirely attacks on the religion." That's quite a mischaracterization.
Also, if he HAD in fact looked at Crisis of Conscience, he would know that the book is FULL of "official Watchtower information and historical records."
Silly dub.
does the watchtower have some sort of dictionary for people to consult for words they use such as publisher, ministry, pioneer.. just wondering as i don't wanna just say what my version of those words mean if they aren't exactly true..
Farkel's list has a lot of sarcasm and satire. Here's a list that is a more serious attempt to define "jw-ese":
That page is a little bit dated. Some terms, like "Presiding Overseer," have changed recently. But for the most part it's a pretty thorough glossary.
) or ... (Matt 25: 41-46 
)