first you must have faith in something you can't prove is real.
assured expectation of something you can't see.
must talk to some god you can't see or hear.
According to the bible if that is what you base your beliefs on its knowing the only true god and the one he sent forth Jesus Christ.
According to the JWs its going to 5 boring mtgs a week, commenting, reaching out, going out knocking on mostly empty homes, cutting off almost every single non-witness in your life, giving up holidays that they clearly have no reason to...etc, etc, blah blah BLAH!
an elder once told me that to make a trinitarian stop believing in the trinity doctrine is almost like walking against an escalator.
he said it is next to impossible to change their way of thinking no matter what scriptures you show them.
it seems that they are "jesus" franatics and what ever scripture they show you trying to prove jesus is god they totally do a backpedal when a scripture applying to another that can prove godship is always disregarded.
the Trinity seeks to solve the pesky problem of having apparently two Gods, God the son as well as God the Father. Christians were in danger of getting accused of believing in two Gods.
I think the bible actually teaches that they are the same. He was YHVH for the Israelites then he became Jesus (YHVH is salvation) for the 1st Century Jews and gentiles. This is the reason that YHVH isnt found nearly as much as it is in the old testament because the name is in Jesus. The NWT actually replaces Kurios with Jehovah when the verses are actually referring to Jesus.
it f*cks me off that this happened only a few years ago but no one in my office has yet to even mention it.
it was such a pivotal event:.
i was driving from fontana to chino in california dressed in service clothes.
I was in the #5 train on my way to work. When we stopped at Wall St. you could smell the jetfuel and the smoke already.
ok, slowly awakening and fading at the same time for two years now, and did not plan it.
i tell my wife last night i have been having some interesting e-mails with my dad about the qb from the sept km we are to study this week.
she says she has read it, but does not remember it.
"Why do you only see the negative? You have been like this for two years, and I don't think I can take anymore. What about the good things in the orginazation?"
This is almost the same exact thing my wife told me the other day when I was complaining about something in the congregation. I forsee a long road ahead for people in our situation unless our mates wake up on their own.
from channel c (today).
you may have read something similar to this before but the specific details are interesting.. this was put on a uk forum by an xjw called gordon...he gave me permission to use his post.. .
quote:.
If they have an IP address they can trace which private or public entity its leased or assigned to. They can then come up with a domain name (*@user.com, org, etc.) thats about all they can find out since its against the law for AOL, Yahoo, or local cable and phone internet providers to give out your personal info to unauthorized persons including your name.
I think the only people that need to worry are people who have actually emailed any of the branches or Patterson, Brooklyn with that domain name since then they could simply match it up. This is still circumstantial evidence though since for example there are millions who use Yahoo email.
hello folks.
valid question i believe.
in the early 80's 1979 to 1985 i was a m/s and stepped down after having 3 kids bang, bang, bang in late 20's.
I have many stories which I cant tell due to the fact that the detail that I need to share in them would definitely expose me should any elder and or most of the publishers be lurking on here. I will say this though, the part that politics plays in appointments, getting assembly and convention parts, city overseer, etc, etc depends largely on how "simonized" the CO is at the time. Our last CO needed surgery to remove certain brothers from his colon. Since he left these brothers have yet to be on any assembly program. This is the CO that I argued with at least on 2-3 occasions and even wrote the service dept. about. He was truly an a**hole!
ok guys and gals, i (being the assistant to the magazine counter) have acquired the newest okm.. i have uploaded it to imagevenue.com: here.
hopefully that works!.
by the way drew, your translation was very close.
Wow....but like Blondie said this isn't a new thing. They probably feel the need to remind the flock since JWs are different now compared to the Ray Franz days in the 80's. More modern means of communication i.e. wireless phones, internet, IMing, txt messaging, etc. are a major part of life now and they know its having an effect on the publishers. Easier to find info now anonomously, and easier to convey to others discreetly what you've found.
I find it interesting that they never once mention if its ok to just study the bible or not, they skirted around that one. Perhaps they should change their name to Watchtower, Awake and Tract Society instead.
The group I rolled with while at Bethel didn't drink much but we had our moments for sure. I remember some Friday night's drinking a ton and being hung over the next Sat for work but it wasnt often. Bethelites in my area certainly have a reputation for being able to "hold their liquor" though.
apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere (i can't find any thread that mentions it).. letter read out at meeting on thursday confirming public talks to be reduced to 1/2 an hour - watchtower same length (one hour).
no new outlines to be given out (yet) , but brothers to reduce the length of their talks by cutting out non-essential material.
no start date given for the change.
You have not been around long
I haven't, but my point was its at least been like this for almost 40 yrs. I do vaugely recall DC's going on until 7-8PM and dinner being served. Lets face it, they are loosing people left and right so they need to continue to ease up. Since I am trapped still going to meetings with my family for the time being I welcome any shortening of any meetings.
apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere (i can't find any thread that mentions it).. letter read out at meeting on thursday confirming public talks to be reduced to 1/2 an hour - watchtower same length (one hour).
no new outlines to be given out (yet) , but brothers to reduce the length of their talks by cutting out non-essential material.
no start date given for the change.
It is a significant change. The public meetings have been 2 hrs for my entire life. Think about it, they are reducing the amount of magazines we have to read every month , and now essentially taking 30 min away from a meeting day since even though the WT was always supposed to be 45 min with 15 min for song and prayer conductors always went 1hr 10 - 1 hr 15 min.
They are inching, and I mean INCHING their way to mainstream almost with all these changes. A whole DC about Jesus??? Come on now!!?!?! Whats next?
