Posts by NeonMadman

19

My friend, "Warrior," has a question on Matthew 28:20

by compound complex in

jw
friends

good morning!.

"warrior" and i had an 8-hour visit yesterday centering around many of the issues discussed by jwn members.

one point we talked about was jesus' instruction to make disciples, baptize them and observe all that he has commanded us.. does a christian, therefore, need conduct his life solely on what jesus literally said, i.e., teachings contained in the four gospels?.

NeonMadman

Why don't JW's wash each others feet. Their excuse is that we don't walk with sandals on dusty roads anymore. But that misses the point of instituting a ritual. A ritual is intended to be repeated so that the lesson becomes more than just a nice thought blazing through the brain.

The thing is, many people (not just JWs) do not read this text as Jesus instituting a ritual, but as his providing an example of humble service that might be expressed differently in different circumstances. In a desert environment where people wear sandals, it might be expressed as washing of feet. In modern society, it might appear as offering a cold drink or coffee or tea to someone who comes to your home. Or, perhaps, helping out a poor or homeless person with a meal. What Jesus was saying his disciples should do for each other is not the specific act of foot-washing, but the attitude of service to others at the cost of one's own convenience.

That said, like villagegirl, I have attended a Seventh-day Adventist church and participated in their foot-washing ceremony, and found it to be very meaningful. What surprised me was that it was not so difficult or humbling to wash the feet of another person. What was really tough was sitting there and allowing someone else to wash my feet. That was where I really needed to bring up some personal humility, and it made Peter's response to Jesus (John 13:6-9) much more real to me. So I have no issue with churches that choose to practice foot-washing in a literal way, but I don't believe that Jesus' words require such a literal application.

28

Bible Teach Book has been getting a facelift WT Style

by RayPublisher in

well the book they use to conduct bible studies is already showing its age, and just like the changes they made to the live forever book they are doing it to the bible teach book as well.

here is something i found on the kool aid site jw talk .

net:.

NeonMadman

Interesting the JW comment that the picture has been replaced with "a much better one." What makes the new one better? That it shows an actual city in flames? Or is it just better because the F&DS chose to replace the old picture with it, therefore it must ipso facto be better?

8

Old literature

by darklight in

jw
friends

how easy would it be for a "student" to get hold of expired literature thru jws trying to get you into the truth, under normal circumstances?.

today i got hold of "the kingdom interlinear translation of the greek scriptures" just by asking,.

i emailed a scanned copy via email requesting a real copy...they refused to open the scanned copy, but within days i got the real deal heh.. .

NeonMadman

The KIT isn't "old literature" in the sense of being discontinued and out of print. It's still in print and can be obtained from the WTS. Theoretically, you should be able to request it from local JWs and receive a copy. The 1969 version is a bit of a score, though, since it was revised in 1985.

Generally, local JWs won't be much help in getting out-of-print literature, unless, of course, the local congregation is overstocked.

19

My friend, "Warrior," has a question on Matthew 28:20

by compound complex in

jw
friends

good morning!.

"warrior" and i had an 8-hour visit yesterday centering around many of the issues discussed by jwn members.

one point we talked about was jesus' instruction to make disciples, baptize them and observe all that he has commanded us.. does a christian, therefore, need conduct his life solely on what jesus literally said, i.e., teachings contained in the four gospels?.

NeonMadman

Jesus endorsed the Law and the Prophets, and he commissioned the apostles to spread his message. That being the case, I would understand his words as encompassing the teaching of the entire Bible.

4

What is the President of the U.S. Did Nothing for the First 146 Days of His Term?

by truth_b_known in

jw
friends

10% of a presidential term is about 146 days.

imagine if you will a newly elected president of the united states taking office.

then, for the first 146 days he did absolutely nothing.

NeonMadman

According to JW teaching, Jesus has not yet begun his 1000-year reign. That begins after Armageddon, not in 1914.

5

Can you suggest any free Plagiarism software

by His Excellency in

jw
friends

do you have suggestions for any free plagiarism checker.

NeonMadman

Regarding the search engines listed by Watchtower-Free:

I just took a few minutes to run a section of text from my web site through each of them. The text is out there, on the web and is indexed by search engines, so should easily have been detected by any of the software - or, for that matter, by a simple Google search. However, dustball.com and plagiarisma.net failed the test, reporting the text as accurate. Searchenginereports.net failed to complete the test, reporting an error repeatedly. Grammarly.com wanted me to sign up for a free trial of their service before providing results.

The other two services correctly identified the text as originating on my web site (www.dispelthedarkness.org). However, neither identified the text as having also appeared on JWN, which they should have, since the text was part of an article that I cross-posted here some time ago.

Even Google only brought up the instance of the text from my web site, not from JWN (it's from the post found here). So, is there really an effective online plagiarism checker that will catch all instances of a text's occurrence? If I had only posted the article on JWN and not on my web site as well, someone could have copied it and never been detected.

13

new evil slave teaching, and its significance

by Fistandantilus in

for a while, i thought why would they change this teaching?.

how would it help there agenda?.

then i read the thread, new ray franz?.

NeonMadman

What I found interesting about the new teaching is that the possibility of an "evil slave" is said to be a "hypothetical condition." In other words, IF the F&DS ever started to behave as the evil slave is described as behaving, then this is what the Master would do when he arrives. But JWs acknowledge absolutely no possibility that the F&DS could ever mislead them or become apostate. How can that be so? Did Jesus give a warning of something that could never actually happen?

7

AAWA- i was signed up w/out my consent??

by Monsieur in

i'm obvioulsy out of the loop here, i'm reading comments around that posters at jwn are being 'forced' signed up at this other site?.

is this correct?

?.

NeonMadman

NeonMadman - actually, sorry, but when setting up a Facebook group , the administrator(s) can decide to click a selection that ensures NO ONE can be added to the group without their approval.
Members may tell friends about the group, and in turn that person can request to be a member. They will NOT become a member until an administrator approves it.
That is for 'closed' and 'secret' groups.
If one chooses to make the group 'public', then members can freely add whoever they want.

Clearly, though, that isn't what AAWA did, although they certainly should have, given the situation of many ex- or borderline Witnesses. I was added to the group without being consulted about it. That doesn't bother me, because I'm not trying to avoid any JW friends or family knowing about my concerns with the organization, but it could and did wreak havoc for some who were in that situation. It appears that AAWA was shooting for high numbers and failed to consider the impact for those who were added to the group.

AAWA should have been more on top of things, but I still think that Facebook's setup in this regard is problematic. Nobody should be able to be added to any group, public or otherwise, without his or her approval. If I think you might like to be in a group, there should be a mechanism for me to invite you, not add you, and you should not become a member of the group until you accept the invitation. If I have a FB friend that I think you might like to be friends with too, I can send a friend suggestion. However, you and the other person don't become FB friends until both of you approve the transaction. That's essentially how I think it should work with groups, and if it did, this would be a non-issue, since nobody who didn't actually want to become part of AAWA's group would have been in it, and as a result, nobody would have been outed to their JW friends as a potential apostate.

7

AAWA- i was signed up w/out my consent??

by Monsieur in

i'm obvioulsy out of the loop here, i'm reading comments around that posters at jwn are being 'forced' signed up at this other site?.

is this correct?

?.

NeonMadman

In Facebook groups, if you are a member, you have the ability to add your FB friends to the group. Add them, not invite them. Of course, they can always leave the group if they want. But apparently AAWA added hundreds of people to their group and somehow neglected to maintain adequate secrecy, such that it could be seen by FB friends of those people (some of whom were themselves active JWs) that they were in the group. As a result, some current JWs who were trying to fly under the radar were outed to their JW friends. Even if they chose to leave the group, their cover had already been blown. There has been much controversy on this board about AAWA's handling (or non-handling, as the case may be) of the issue.

226

The Advocates for Awareness of Watchtower Abuses (AAWA) [WARNING]

by Simon in

uncensored discussions and information for anyone interested in the advocates for awareness of watchtower abuses or 'aawa' http://aawa.co/ (previously known as "the association of anti-watchtower activists http://jwactivists.org/) and how it's handled and responded to privacy issues and put people at risk:.

aawa is here!!

(the association of anti-watchtower activists)an invitation to a new effort- aawawhy when i logged onto aawa did it go to facebook ?in regards to aawaaawa - every generation needs a new revolution - thomas jeffersonnotice how the introduction of the aawa has brought out the loonies lately?will aawa become another cult?

NeonMadman

Do you blame Facebook also and not the AAWA for deciding not to take positive action by immediately removing the users that were added without consent after it was brought to their attention the effect this was having?

No, and I am not defending AAWA. In fact, I removed myself from their FB group after seeing on this site the drama they have created. When ex-JW activities start to make you feel as if you've never left the Watchtower, it's time to take a step back. So I'm not concerned with what they are doing (except to the extent that I think it stinks that people have been outed as doubters and apostates through AAWA's efforts), and I'm not interested in working with them. It's much the same reason why I don't post at this site nearly as often as I used to. I fight the WTS in my own way, without much of the aggravation.