joey jojo

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Posts by joey jojo

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  34

  Aus Bethel reducing numbers dramatically.

  by joey jojo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  sorry if this is old news but just heard that there will only be about 75 people left at sydney bethel after layoffs.

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  joey jojo

  From memory, pretty sure it was 400+.
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  34

  Aus Bethel reducing numbers dramatically.

  by joey jojo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  sorry if this is old news but just heard that there will only be about 75 people left at sydney bethel after layoffs.

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  joey jojo

  Sorry if this is old news but just heard that there will only be about 75 people left at Sydney bethel after layoffs.
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  70

  Any funny stories of when a"brother" giving a talk, said something "funny" or "questionable", and didn't even realize it?

  by Dunedain in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  there were always all types of speakers in the org.

  myself, growing up a "witness", must have heard all types of talks, and given by all manner of speakers, especially on sundays, when almost every week we would get a "visiting" brother giving the public talk.. sometimes, you would have a "great" speaker, all fluent and animated.

  other times we would get a comical speaker, one who would maybe purposelly get a few laughs outta the audience.

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  joey jojo

  Not sure James but the point of his argument was; 'you can't turn your back on young ones for a second'.
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  70

  Any funny stories of when a"brother" giving a talk, said something "funny" or "questionable", and didn't even realize it?

  by Dunedain in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  there were always all types of speakers in the org.

  myself, growing up a "witness", must have heard all types of talks, and given by all manner of speakers, especially on sundays, when almost every week we would get a "visiting" brother giving the public talk.. sometimes, you would have a "great" speaker, all fluent and animated.

  other times we would get a comical speaker, one who would maybe purposelly get a few laughs outta the audience.

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  joey jojo

  In the mid-eighties, one of the MS's in our congregation gave his very first public talk.

  He was a real 'hick' and his theory must have been to make the biggest impact possible during his first talk.

  It was full of completely shocking, outrageous stories designed perhaps to stun us all into being better JW's.

  Among the highlights was a story warning against pre-marital sex that concerned 2 infants (both were 3yrs old apparently- yes THREE years old) that were caught committing fornication in the car while the adult quickly left them to go into a store to buy something.

  This was greeted by audible gasps from the gob-smacked audience.
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  26

  How was it when you were a JW as a kid?

  by nevaagain in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  whats worse than being an adult jw?

  when i was a kid i always had a bad concience all the time.

  i believed i would not survive armageddon for the fact that i didn't like going to service and i didnt like going to the meetings.

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  joey jojo

  In the 80's we had religious instruction at high school and for one hour per week, an old-school, fire and brimstone elder and me would sit outside somewhere (because there wasn't enough students in his class to justify giving us a classroom) and go through the yearbook or some other article that he chose.

  In my final year of high school, religious instruction classes were not mandatory because of extra exams etc.

  After missing just one of his classes, the elder caught me at the next meeting and informed me, 'I'm probably going to die at Armageddon if I continue missing his class'. I was 14 yrs old.

  True story.

  This is above and beyond the daily grind of being a teenage witness and my experience is very similar to that expressed by many other posters on this topic.

  I could go on and on.
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  43

  Deconstructing Splanes 'Generation' explanation

  by Splash in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  at around 4 minutes into the september 2015 video splane said "for the man and the baby to be part of josephs generation they would have had to have lived at least some time during joseph's lifespan.".

  this is the lynchpin of the wt argument, that two lives must overlap to be considered the same generation.. let's take an example of twins who are born just a few minutes apart.

  obviously, these twins are the same generation as each other.

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  joey jojo

  My grandfather witnessed the second world war. Although I was born decades later and knew my grandfather well, I did not witness the second world war and therefore cannot be a part of the so called second world war generation.

  Only if you were alive when an event occurred can you belong to that generation.
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  26

  The work is speeding up

  by bradford in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i don't have a great reference point on my observation other than my local area but i was wondering if this was a widespread thing.

  ... in the last two years in my former congregation there have been 6 people to disassociate for "apostasy," 6 disfellowshipped for various reasons, and numerous ones reproved.

  these are just the ones i have heard about.

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  joey jojo

  I wonder if the centenary year of 2014 coming and going turned the switch to 'off' in the subconscious of some?
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  30

  Just for the record Vincent Toole and Terrence Obrien you are both lying SOBs

  by joe134cd in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i just thought i would mention this on the off chance they might be lurking here.

  the two quotes are.

  (1)vincent toole ="i've never heard of the term 'theocratic warfare'".

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  joey jojo

  Bumping this thread, it has some important quotes.
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  39

  Rodney Spinks' Performance

  by maksutov in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  it seems like there has not been as much discussion here about the rc testimony on day 6 (4th august) as there has been about previous days.

  i was quite surprised by rodney spinks' testimony, which was a marked contrast to the bungling and inarticulate testimony of the elders that appeared before him.

  spinks seemed reasonably co-operative, and a lot more willing to concede points than anyone else has been.

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  joey jojo

  When I knew Rod Spinks he was a truly 'black and white ' type of witness. He left you in no doubt as to your status in the congregation based on the amount of witnessing you did.

  He always came across like he believed he was the smartest guy in the room.

  Most of you will probably understand what I mean when I say that this guy is one of the reasons you left the organisation.
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  69

  The 1995 Generation Change

  by sloppyjoe2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was just a teenager and have a vivid memory of sitting in a chair doing a microphone for the sunday meeting.

  everyone was commenting that it didn't mean the end was far off, and it didn't change the condition of the dead, or the 144,000, or the trinity so we should still remain faithful.

  this is my first memory as a kid being just a teen that i ever had a single doubt.

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  joey jojo

  Found the article (not Time magazine).

  Apocalypse Later: Jehovah's Witnesses decide the end is fluid

  Jehovah's Witnesses decide the end is fluid
  
  From Newsweek magazine, December 18, 1995, page 59. Article by Kenneth L. Woodard, with Joel P. Engardio.
  
  THE THIRD MILLENNIUM is just four years away, and you'd think that Jehovah's Witnesses would be ecstatic. Ever since the movement's inception in the 1870s, the Witnesses have insisted that the world as we know it is about to end. According to their unique Biblical calculations, the countdown to Armageddon commenced in 1914 -- the first world war was a major sign -- and Christ would establish his millennial kingdom on earth "before the generation who saw the events of 1914 passes away." For countless Witnesses, this prediction was good reason not to save money, start a career or make burial plans. As one of their leaders famously preached in 1918: "Millions now living will never die."
  
  Now, it seems, all millennial bets are off. In last month's issue of The Watchtower, the sect's leaders quietly acknowledged that Jesus was right in the first place, when he said that "no one knows the day or the hour." All previous references to timetables for Armageddon, the magazine now suggests, were speculation rather than settled doctrine. The year 1914 still marks the beginning of the last days. But those who hoped to witness the battle of Armageddon and the establishment of God's kingdom on earth will have to wait. Henceforth, any generation that experiences such calamities as war and plagues like AIDS could be the one to witness the end times. In short, the increasingly middle-class Witnesses would do well to buy life insurance.
  
  If this serious revision of expectations takes the edge off the Witnesses' apocalyptic profile, it also buys them time. The generation that was alive in 1914 is rapidly disappearing, and the the sect's current leadership shows every sign of digging in for the long haul. In recent years the Witnesses have been on a building spree: they just completed a 670-acre educational center in rural New York state that includes 624 apartments, garages for up to 800 cars and a dining facility that accommodates 1,600 people at one sitting. Officials of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (the Witnesses' official title) deny that the leadership felt a generational pressure to change. "The end is still close," says Witness spokesman Bob Pevy. "We just can't put numbers on Jesus' words."
  
  So far, the new interpretation has caused no noticeable decline in membership among the 5.1 million Witnesses worldwide. But then, they rarely air their differences with outsiders. "Believing the end was imminent gave a special urgency to being a Jehovah's Witness," says Ray Franz, a former member of the society's governing board in Brooklyn, N.Y., who left the church in 1981. Older members, especially, heroically risked their lives and reputations by refusing blood transfusions, military service, allegiance to the flag and other acts prohibited by their faith -- all with the expectation that they would soon live forever in the paradise of God's new kingdom on earth. Charles Kris, 73, a retired autoworker from Saginaw, Mich., served three years in prison with 400 other Witnesses for refusing to fight in World War II. "It was prison life, but I took advantage of the time to study the Bible and witness to other prisoners," he recalls.
  
  But for Kris, and especially for those younger Witnesses who have no memory of the rough early days (the Nazis interred many Witnesses in concentration camps), preaching God's message is more important than witnessing the end of the world. "I'd like to see it happen," says Kris, who still hands out tracts door to door.
  
  "But if it doesn't happen in my lifetime, I won't be disappointed."