dropoffyourkeylee

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Posts by dropoffyourkeylee

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  15

  2022 Service Report is Out

  by Bartolomeo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  warning: this post doesn't belong to me, i took it from reddit and posted it here.

  news.

  +0.4% growth in publishers globally.

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  When was the last time there was negative growth in the US? Last time I can remember was in the late '70s.
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  58

  Did the ransom sacrifice even work?

  by Sharpie in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  shower thought entered my mind the other day... jesus christ.

  as per doctrine.

  is still alive in heaven right now correct?

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  The ransom never did make sense to me. Later in life, after JW indoctrination, I came to believe that the ransom reasoning was concocted by Paul as a way to convince the people of the time that sacrifices were not necessary to worship. The non-Jews, gentiles, who he was preaching to were accustomed to going to a temple somewhere, presenting some sacrifice, and this was their worship. He was trying to convince them to become Christians and they didn't have to sacrifice anything anymore. Maybe that is over simplifying, but that is what I get out of it
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  16

  Church buys GEICO Woodbury property for $27M

  by Rattigan350 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  https://libn.com/2023/01/09/church-buys-geico-woodbury-property-for-27m/.

  after a previous sale fell through, geico has sold its sprawling woodbury property for $27 million.

  the buyer for the 236,365-square-foot office building on 20 acres at 750 woodbury road is the christian congregation of jehovah’s witnesses.

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  20 acres on Long Island? I wouldn't have expected that
• 
  169

  Are the statistics out yet?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  isn’t it about time they released the report for the service year?

  or have they stopped publishing it?

  did they released selected figures at the annual meeting as they usually do, such as the memorial attendance or record number of pioneers?

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  Publishers down in nearly all the developed countries, Publishers up in poorer countries (Congo up 8% !)

  Meanwhile the number of special fulltime servants is up 5% and the cost to support them is up 5.7%.

  Overall, this is the worst annual report in recent memory.

  edited to add: Total Memorial Attendance down 7.7%. wow
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  169

  Are the statistics out yet?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  isn’t it about time they released the report for the service year?

  or have they stopped publishing it?

  did they released selected figures at the annual meeting as they usually do, such as the memorial attendance or record number of pioneers?

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  BINGO

  The statistics have been posted.

  go to

  https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/

  and enter

  Service Year
• 
  15

  bringing up the 1954 Walsh Trial

  by enoughisenough in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i went back into this forum a little ways and found quite a bit of discussion on the walsh (1954) for those newly out or those who don't know of what i write, you should really check it out.

  anyone who is a jw or studying with jw should see material from this trial.

  my take away...the printed materials of the wtbts were to believed over the bible and if you didn't believe the wt teachings over the bible, ( even though they admit to false prophesy )you would be disfellowshipped and deserving of death.

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  My take on Walsh:

  In the Walsh trial, they were trying to get a draft classification as minister for Walsh, who was young (about 20), a company servant, and a pioneer. They had decades of statements in the Watchtower going back to the Russell days that they were not an established religion, they didn't have a clergy, they didn't have a creed which their ministers had to adhere to. These things had been the barrier to getting any of the JWs recognized as a minister of a religion worthy of the minister classification and thus exempt from the draft. So reading the Walsh transcript they hit those topics again and again. They asserted they did indeed have a 'creed', a set of beliefs, which their ministers (which includes all witnesses, since 'all JWs are ministers') had to adhere to or else they would be removed. I don't think it is a coincidence that the disfellowshipping practice includes non-belief and started in '52. Their legal posturing resulted in some really outrageous statements in the transcript.
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  37

  Serena Williams allegedly baptized this weekend

  by neat blue dog in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  .

  not sure if this is fake news or not..

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  Becoming a parent is life changing and could have been the consideration
• 
  41

  Pioneer Hours Update

  by Bartolomeo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  regular pioneers: 600 per year, 50 on average per month.auxiliary pioneers: 30 hours per monthauxiliary pioneers in march and april: fee reduced to 15 hours.

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  I just became aware of an online source to see the 1943 Watchtower quotation in context:

  https://jws-library.one/?list=publications

  The whole article is outrageous, A few additional quotations from the same article:

  The Lord through his “faithful and wise servant” now states to us, "Let us cover our territory four times m six months.” That becomes our organization instructions and has the same binding force on us that his statement to the Logos had when he said, “Let us make man in our image.” It is our duty to accept this additional instruction and obey it.

  ...

  The time has come when each one must bear his own burden fully before the Lord. With the provisions that the Lord has now made in supplying us with new books, question booklets which contain complete instructions for properly carrying on a study, etc., there is absolutely no excuse for anyone, man or woman, to claim to be unable to accept an individual territory assignment and assume full responsibility for it.

  ...

  The territory now being covered one to two times in six months could very easily be covered four to six times in the same period if everyone took his Kingdom responsibilities seriously. This is not theory, but actual facts based on figures gleaned from a number of companies during the past six months.

  ...

  
  
  
  
• 
  41

  Pioneer Hours Update

  by Bartolomeo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  regular pioneers: 600 per year, 50 on average per month.auxiliary pioneers: 30 hours per monthauxiliary pioneers in march and april: fee reduced to 15 hours.

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  A couple of comments on the 1943 quotation.

  1. I haven't seen it before, and am amazed at the audacity to claim it is the Lord's direction. I have to laugh at the final statement:

  This expression of the Lord’s will should be the end of all controversy. It is for your good that these requirements are made; for thereby you are enabled to prove your integrity and magnify the Lord’s name LOL

  2. Considering the historical context. Rutherford had died in '42, and very soon after that it was a priority of the WT organization to get the brothers a minister qualification for the draft. WW2 draft was issue #1. This is quite clear from reading the book Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose. They didn't have a lot of success in getting the minister classification; loads of the brothers were in jail. The made several organizational changes in the war years and into the '50s to give the brothers something to present to their draft boards.

  A couple of the objections they were facing:

  You don't have any training - The WT organization invented the Ministry School

  You don't have any WT books providing training - The WT published Qualified to be Ministers

  You are only 19, how can you be a minister - All JWs are ministers

  You have no proof you are a preacher - Here are my written records of the hours spent in ministry

  You are not fulltime - WT invents the 'pioneer', with specified fulltime hours

  
  

  It was all about the draft back then. The 1954 Walsh case is worth a read as well, where it is clear that they were trying to maneuver their position to support their legal stance towards the draft issue.
  

  
  

  
  
  
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  8

  Somehow I think nobody read the memo!

  by LostintheFog1999 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i came across an old notebook of mine when we were spring cleaning our attic space.. for some reason i had written down these two references from older wt magazines.. reading over the two of them now i can only think that elders didn't pay any attention to the message either at the time or since.

  *** w75 8/1 p. 474 par.

  14 elders presiding in a fine way ***.

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  I seem to remember also a quotation to the effect that the elders were not 'thought police'. I have been unable to find that quote, so it could be I was thinking of one of these quotations in the OP.

  In any case, many if not all of the elders I ever knew were dictatorial and policemen, and they liked it