Posts by NeonMadman

1

Do "Born Agains" Believe in the Rapture?

by cameo-d in

if you have changed over to a protestant church do you now accept the rapture doctine they preach?.

are there any protestant churches that do not teach rapture doctrine?.

is it more of an evangelical concept?.

NeonMadman

Some born-again Christians accept the Rapture doctrine, others don't. It's not like there's a "born-again organization" that dictates doctrine that everyone has to adhere to.

113

BOE letter: "presiding overseer" becomes "coordinator of the body of elders

by Billy the Ex-Bethelite in

here's the text of the letter:.

christian congregation of jehovah's witnesses.

to all bodies of elders.

If I remember correctly, the PO position descended from the "Service Coordinator" who was assigned to each congregation (or, back then, "company") during the Rutherford era. The SC was a Society man who functioned among elders who had been elected by the congregation. This gave the central organization more control than they had had previously and they had an active agent in each congregation.

When the "theocratic arrangement" came in during the late 1930's and the electing of elders was done away with in favor of central, "theocratic" appointment by the Society, the Service Coordinator became the "Company Servant." In later years, the term for "company" was changed to "congregation" (undoubtedly to avoid sounding quite so much like a commercial enterprise), and the "Company Servant" became the "Congregation Servant," or, more informally, simply the "Overseer" of the congregation.

With the 1970's came the elder arrangement, and a new distinction was drawn between elders/overseers and "ministerial servants" (previously, in almost Baptist fashion, the Congregation Servant was viewed as the only elder/overseer, and all others appointed to leadership positions were considered "servants"). Formerly, there had been positions like "Assistant Congregation Servant," "Bible Study Servant," "Watchtower Study Servant," etc. Also, positions such as "Literature Servant," "Accounts Servant" and "Magazine/Territory Servant" had been specifically appointed by the Society. Under the new arrangement, the teaching positions became elder positions (originally Presiding Overseer, Field Overseer and Bible Study Overseer along with Watchtower Study Overseer, Theocratic Ministry School Overseer and most Book Study conductors) and the non-teaching positions (literature, accounts, magazines, territory etc.) were assigned locally to "ministerial servants." Additionally, the elder positions rotated among the elders from year to year.

Later, the rotation was stopped and the positions were appointed permanently. The Field Overseer became the Service Overseer and the Bible Study Overseer position was eliminated in favor of the Congregation Secretary. Now, it seems, they have come full circle and the PO has again become a "coordinator" much as he was back in the Rutherford Era.

And, really, I'm not sure what the point of all of the above was except to illustrate how silly and insignificant changes are seen as Earth-shaking within the JW organization, and how much turmoil the WTS has to create on an ongoing basis over non-issues in order to keep the rank and file preoccupied with such things so that they won't have the time or energy to think about whether what they are doing is actually God's work.

17

When are the New Pioneer rules being announced.

by Connaughty in

i heard that the changes to reg pioneers are going down to 50 hrs,.

the aux pioneers are changing to 35 as well, but when is this all to start.

has anyone got a clue, or hint?.

NeonMadman

I must be old. I remember when regular pioneers put in 100 hours and "Vacation Pioneers" put in 75 (IF they only VP'd for two weeks - if they did the whole month, they had to do 100 just like a regular pioneer; and you weren't allowed to do 2 weeks for two consecutive months).

132

What Is Your Present Status In The Organization?

by minimus in

jw
friends

are you disfellowshipped?

disassociated?

a fader?

NeonMadman

Absent.

4

Mockery in the last days.

by edmond dantes in

jw
friends

who are the mockers and scoffers?

jehovah's witlesses claim that as we are in the last days and that mockers will be plentiful.i would suggest that the ones doing the most scoffing are the ones disseminating so called 'divine truth.'.

they mock every other religion but their own.

NeonMadman

I don't know, but it has something to do with cake:

Psalm 35:16 "Among the apostate mockers for a cake There was a grinding of their teeth even against me."

12

Quote from 1943 Truth book...

by civicsi00 in

i was perusing the 1943 "truth shall make you free" book and i found this on page 302:.

"christ's coming to the temple in 1918 was entirely unexpected, even to his devoted faithful followers.

the truth of his coming then was first discerned by the scriptures and by the fulfillments of prophecy after the event, namely, first in 1922.".

NeonMadman

They become aware of ALL their prophecies after the fulfillment, because everything they try to predict in advance always fails to come true. Therefore they have to force the prophecies into the mold of what actually happened rather than allowing the prophecies to speak for themselves.

26

Paul Newman takes a few last laps -

by james_woods in

jw
friends

i just thought some might like to know the latest about actor and racing driver paul newman -.

lime rock park racetrack was closed down for about an hour and a half today so that he could take a few last laps in his gt1 corvette.. newman has incurable cancer and is not expected to live much past september.. there were not many like him..

NeonMadman

Reminds me of a story:

A JW friend of mine (when I was still in) was an HVAC man and one day he was called to a house in northeastern Connecticut to do a repair. He knocked on the door and Paul Newman answered it. My friend said, "Hey - you're Paul Newman!" Newman looked around at his wife (Joanne Woodward) and said, "Hey, honey - I'm Paul Newman!"

Newman then talked my friend into doing some charity work at the Hole in the Wall Gang camp for handicapped kids, which was located nearby.

31

Theodore Jaracz aware of molestation issue in 2001 before Dateline

by Dogpatch in

here is a conversation with theodore jaracz, key member of the watchtower's governing body of jehovah's witnesses, initiated by alan feuerbacher in 2001.. jaracz knew about the dateline expose' of their child abuse problem at least 8 months before dateline aired.. this confirms that the governing body knew about the dateline program expose' of watchtower child abuse problem.

of course, to be fair to jaracz, he was entirely unaware of the problems to the watchtower that would follow, including the resulting court cases, which watchtower settled out-of-court.

six years later, the time of the court settlements, jaracz was proved to be wrong on his observations as discussed in the conversation.. watchtower had knowingly appointed molestors to positions of authority, which was established in the lawsuits, so jaracz's arguments do not hold water here.

NeonMadman

I'm not sure what is significant about this. We all knew for quite some time about the Dateline program before it aired. In fact, as I recall, the program was to have aired very near to 9/11/01 and was delayed several months because of the events of 9/11. It doesn't seem too much of a stretch for the GB also to have been aware of the upcoming program, since the Society was undoubtedly contacted for comment (and since we have long suspected they are monitoring this board anyway).

6