Nathan Natas

Joined

• started 723 topics
• posted 11,679 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by Nathan Natas

• 
  22

  Witnessing to athiests

  by zound in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  can't seem to find anything about this in the reasoning book.

  what do jehovah's witnesses usually say / instructed to say to try and get athiests interesteds in joining?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Nathan Natas

  Atheism is a religion in the same way that not smoking is a habit.

  ...and for Crisht's sake, learn to spell atheism correctly!
• 
  18

  Do JW still hold to their 1984 Doomsday deadline?

  by bytheirworks in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  did jw's predict the world would end in 1984?.

  the september 21, 1984 issue of chrisitanity today on pages 66-67, ran an article entitled: "do jehovah's witnesses still hold to their 1984 doomsday deadline?".

  that's as far as my search has gotten me and it isn't on chrisitanity today's web-site.. can anyone find this article for me?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Nathan Natas

  Here's a plain-text (non-page-image) version of the article. You can request a pdf version of the article from your Public Library.

  Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Still Hold To Their 1984 Doomsday Deadline?

  Twenty years ago most Jehovah’s Witnesses believed the world would end by 1984. To be exact, they expected the end to come by October 2.

  With that day just around the corner, members of the cult should be preparing for doomsday. But they aren’t, according to Gary Botting, coauthor with his wife, Heather, of The Orwellian World Of Jehovah’s Witnesses (Univ. of Toronto Press). The Botting’s new book challenges the cult’s views of the end of time.

  The Witnesses’ Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society teaches that Jesus assumed his throne in heaven in 1914. It is a key point in Witness doctrine that at least some of those alive at that time will live to see the destruction of all the nations and most of their inhabitants. Formerly it was taught that a generation was limited to 70 years. It is debatable whether most Witnesses still hold to the 1984 deadline.

  “The [Watch Tower] society may not talk about it much. Not everyone may believe it. But it’s still in the back of people’s minds,” says Gary Botting, a Jehovah’s Witness since childhood. “People who might have dropped out are hedging their bets. They say to themselves, ‘What if Jehovah’s Witnesses were right all along?’”

  Walter Glass, registrar of the Witnesses’ Tower Bible School of the Gilead, says they do not preach that the world will end un 1984 since there is no requirement that a generation be limited to 70 years. However, he says the society holds to the view that the world will end before the generation alive in 1914 perishes.

  Botting says an earlier end-time deadline set by the Witnesses passed without incident in 1975. In the 1960s the society hinted that the world would end in 1975 – ostensibly because they believed it to be the 6,000th year after Creation. But while the cult’s public pronouncements are more cautious today, Botting says the 1984 deadline remains a powerful device in holding members in line. In recent years, large numbers of formerly inactive Witnesses have become active. Membership rolls swelled in the past year by 6.8 percent, the biggest increase since 1975.

  In their book, the Bottings liken the organization and its 18-member governing board to the despotic superstate portrayed by George Orwell in his novel Nineteen Eighty Four. They argue that Jehovah’s Witnesses are citizens of a world where independent thought is not allowed and where unity must be expressed at all costs.

  Botting says the Witnesses’ leadership keeps members in check by instilling fear in them. Dissidents can be excommunicated, cutting them off socially from friends in the group.

  Watch Tower officials discount the author’s criticisms. Glass cites Paul’s instructions to believers that they should “admonish” those who don’t follow his teachings. “If that is being authoritarian, then we are authoritarian,” Glass says. “There’s room for free thought, but not in the organization. Dissent would be contrary to God’s way.”

  The Bottings say the Witnesses’ top leaders still hold to the 1984 end-time theory, and that it is only a matter of time before their credibility will be destroyed.

  – Religious News Service

  from Christianity Today, September 21, 1984, page 66
• 
  22

  Witnessing to athiests

  by zound in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  can't seem to find anything about this in the reasoning book.

  what do jehovah's witnesses usually say / instructed to say to try and get athiests interesteds in joining?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Nathan Natas

  Use the suggested presentation for Scientologists and simply omit all references to Xenu.
• 
  19

  if you had a miraculous, unexplained escape from death..

  by nonjwspouse in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  plus you were not baptised but grew up in a jw family, stopped attending or studying for 30 years then attempted to go back for a couple years.

  the attempt had serious negative effects on your marriage, and personality, so you decided to stop all studies etc, for the time being ( over a year).

  but with the full intention to return later and be baptised.. this miraculous, unexplained escape from death was discovered to have occured during this time of complete detachment from studies etc.. what would you feel explained this escape?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Nathan Natas

  Nonjwspouse, I can understand your desire for anonymity, but do you really feel that giving us the barest possible description of your husband's situation would reveal your identity to all the world?

  Did he have flames coming out of his ears? Was a family of bears found to be living in his thorax? Was he farting assteroids?

  Maybe what your husband experienced wasn't such a big deal and you prefer to give it a little hint of mystery. Hmmm?

  Something really super-terrific happened to me once too, but I'm not going to tell you what it was.
• 
  29

  New Book Published

  by satinka in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i have been threatening to publish a book about growing up in the jw religion, then leaving as a mature adult.

  well, it's 368 pages and it's done!.

  introduction to the book.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Nathan Natas

  We will be interested in hearing about how your experience in the world of XJW publishing goes. Good luck!
• 
  21

  It's yime for an introduction

  by HowTheBibleWasInvented in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been lurking a month or two and letting out a comment here and there.a few weeks ago someone asked if i had formally introduced myself.

  i was born and raised a witness.

  i always found meetings borning and family studies so bad.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Nathan Natas

  HTBWI confessed:

  I had to struggle for over a month with a terrifying concept. I WOULD DIE and that WOULD BE IT! Evento this day it streaks terror into me. However since then I realized that this century has the potential for inventing computers capable of storing the memories of us so its a small relief.

  If you think about sometime in the distant past before you were born - let's use 666 A.D. - do you feel fear and dread?

  I'll guess you don't.

  When you die - and sooner or later you WILL die - you will not exist, just as you didn't exist in 666 A.D. There's nothing to fear and thhere will be no "you" to experience anything.

  So chillax! Don't waste your todays worrying about a tomorrow of which you will be unaware.
• 
  32

  Need Advice On Shunning My Dying Dad, Please Advise!

  by AuntConnie in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  dear jwn,.

  when i was out in field service yesterday i was approached by some sisters asking me how my dying dad was doing.

  i said "i try not to visit him, you will have to ask him yourself.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Nathan Natas

  I've added AuntConnie to my ignore list.
• 
  59

  Is Richard Dawkins giving atheists a bad name?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. social
  2. current

  he just can't seem to stop himself taunting "these muslims" or "some muslim or other".

  among his favourite taunts are:.

  "all the world's muslims have fewer nobel prizes than trinity college, cambridge.".

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Nathan Natas

  The mulla's evaluation of books of learning: ""If those books are in agreement with the Quran, we have no need of them; and if these are opposed to the Quran, destroy them."

  ...sounds so Watchtower-y to me.
• 
  11

  Now that Gays can legally get married, if one of the gay couple want to become a JW would he or she have to get a divorce?

  by booker-t in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i remember years ago maybe 20 years ago an elder or co was giving a talk on armaggeddon and he said that we know we are close to the end when homosexuals get the same rights as straight people.

  he said jehovah would never allow gay people to marry because it would be an abomination and he would do the same as sodom and gommorrah.

  what if a member of a gay couple decides to become a jws would he or she have to get a divorce?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Nathan Natas

  Hortensia is correct, the WTB&TS is no supporter of gay rights.

  If I recall correctly, the official WT position is that a gay person can serve Jehovah as long as they remain celibate.

  So unless the marriage is just so you have a partner for tennis, it is off-limits.
• 
  21

  Atheist Support

  by snare&racket in

  1. jw
  2. friends
  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Nathan Natas

  Or, you can check behind you and see if you've evolved a SPINE.