dropoffyourkeylee

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Posts by dropoffyourkeylee

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  16

  How many JW in the 1920's

  by xaminewt in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i'm trying to find out how many jw there were globally in 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927 and 1928. the watchtower of 1926 says that there were 25,000 in attendance at the magdeburg convention for the public address, but the same watchtower say that one the last day of the convention there were 15,000 present, so i assume at least 10,000 were interested persons - non jw.

  the watchtower 1955 says: "for this year of 1927 the number in attendance at the spring memorial internationally was 88,544, yet of these only some 18,602 were active as house-to-house kingdom announcers".

  these statistics would seem to imply that the majority of jw in 1926 were at the magdeburg convention.

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  The published numbers of Bible Student/JW members over the decades since the '20s are not likely to be of much use, as the definition of 'member' has continued to change. JWs have always struggled with defining 'member'. This was one of the things that Rutherford and his seven accomplices got into trouble for during WW1 and found themselves in prison. The Bible Students previously had always said they weren't a religion, didn't have a clergy, etc. and never bothered with defining membership. Then they issued affidavits for men called up under the selective service asserting they were members of a pacifist religion. After WW1 they changed their stance and required people to provide a record of preaching work, which I believe was motivated at the time to create a written record to substantiate 'membership'. It was all about the draft.

  In recent decades (post WW2), membership has been defined as 'regular publisher', not attendance at meetings, not baptism, but publisher with a written (now electronic) service record.
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  23

  How would you rate the Watchtower approved songs?

  by Vanderhoven7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i was asking why jws won't sing any church hymns even if they were doctrinally correct.

  jws asked me in response if i would sing any of their songs.. dan watkins wrote .

  its a hilarious misunderstanding, if it does not come from the watchtower bible and tract society, then it is effectively considered as coming from satan.

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  I can't say I care for any of the 135 latest songs. Some are technically well done, but I don't find any of them inspiring.

  In the old days, some of the songs were very hymn-like, seemingly familiar to the ex-Protestant (non-Catholic) population of the US, which is the background from which the JW religion came from. The wording from the songbook I grew up using contained hymns with a lot of King James-isms, 'wise and meet', 'Calvary', etc. Plus the authorship of the tunes was either unknown or were very similar to existing hymns.

  In the US in recent years the copyright companies have become very aggressive, and in some cases demand royalties. I know of several churches in my area that have to pay annual royalties to use their own hymnbook. I suspect the WT's rewrite of their songs is partly due to this.
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  26

  Worldwide Benefits ( USELESSNESS ) of Cart Witnessing

  by RULES & REGULATIONS in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  library.

  meeting workbooks.

  life and ministry meeting workbook | november 2018. .

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  Lol, i lived on Highland Ave in Downer’s in the 60’s. The Tivoly theatre was our home away from home on Saturday afternoon. That’s where we saw the ‘60’s movies. Good Bad and the Ugly, Sound of music, Born Free, that’s when movies were an art form.

  .Plus the bowling alley down stairs around the corner from the Tivoly.

  The video shown is just about a block away. Wow, it takes me back.
  
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  26

  Worldwide Benefits ( USELESSNESS ) of Cart Witnessing

  by RULES & REGULATIONS in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  library.

  meeting workbooks.

  life and ministry meeting workbook | november 2018. .

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  LOL the video showing the cart near the Downer's Grove IL station.... I've drive by that exact spot before
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  28

  Have you seen a UFO/UAP?

  by BoogerMan in

  1. social
  2. current

  the acronym uap once stood for "unidentified aerial phenomena," until december 2022. .

  then the pentagon updated its terminology to encompass "submerged and trans-medium objects.".

  https://www.defense.gov/news/transcripts/transcript/article/3249303/usdis-ronald-moultrie-and-dr-sean-kirkpatrick-media-roundtable-on-the-all-domai/.

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  Deleted comment
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  65

  WT needs your kids uneducated: CO training video is Master Class in F.O.G. This is jaw-droppingly stupid. Beyond moronic, it's sub-moronic.

  by WingCommander in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  co training video: link to ex-jw reddit thread discussion.

  today is the first time i was made aware of this actual elder body video.

  it's training for how a co should handle elder's whose children decide to pursue further education.

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  Are we sure this video is legit? I don't see or hear anything in it that surprises me; I'm sure such meetings go on and the conversation/counsel goes in that direction. But I still find it surprising they would make such a training video. It's so damning.
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  28

  Have you seen a UFO/UAP?

  by BoogerMan in

  1. social
  2. current

  the acronym uap once stood for "unidentified aerial phenomena," until december 2022. .

  then the pentagon updated its terminology to encompass "submerged and trans-medium objects.".

  https://www.defense.gov/news/transcripts/transcript/article/3249303/usdis-ronald-moultrie-and-dr-sean-kirkpatrick-media-roundtable-on-the-all-domai/.

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  from the OP:

  2) They are being seen by more & more people across the world.*
  * Because they now want to be seen?

  My mom used to quip; "How do we know there is intelligent life in outer space?"

  "Because they haven't contacted us"

  Since they are allowing themselves to be seen, I conclude that the aliens are getting dumber.
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  35

  Visited the Russell gravesite yesterday

  by dropoffyourkeylee in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  wife and i visited the russell gravesite in allegheny (pittsburgh) pennsylvania yesterday.

  i’ll post photos if i can get them to upload on the hotel wifi..

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  Why does anyone care about Russell grave? He didn't put it there. Why does anyone care about Russell? He's dead.

  My answer to that is:

  "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it",

  George Santayana
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  17

  Has The "Evil Slave" Died Out?

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  those of us who have deep roots into watchtower remember the shadowy whispers about "the evil slave" when we were kids.. for those that need to get up to speed: .

  the internal crisis came to its full with the occurrence of an outstanding bible-predicted event, namely, the coming of jehovah’s “messenger,” christ jesus, to jehovah’s temple for judgment in the spring of 1918, to separate the “faithful and discreet slave” class from the “evil slave” group.

  (mal.

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  Several of the breakaway groups still print their literature and reprint the Russell-era literature. Dawn and the LHMM are still in business, though quite small. They have conventions also. I believe also there are some individual congregation/ecclesias still in existence in the Chicago area. I corresponded with someone on this site a few years ago who attends one such ecclesia.
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  51

  Interesting that the other cult-cousins are going thru nearly identical hemmoraging of members.....

  by WingCommander in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i still read on reddit.

  (though no longer post) occasionally, i'll venture over to the ex-seventh day adventist (sda) sub and catch up a bit.

  it's been a long time.

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  Anecdotally, I see a decline of JW membership and activity (I am in the US). The WT membership/publisher figures for the US are relatively flat in recent years, generally holding steady. But that doesn't jive with my own personal observations. Several congregations within my sphere of observations have closed, the KH sold, and the JWs merged with other congregations, with no apparent increase in attendance at those congregations. And the conventions are emptier-looking than I have ever seen. They try to spin it as having fewer congregations assigned to that particular convention, but I don't buy it. The WT is driven primarily by the dollar; they wouldn't pay to rent a large facility like that unless they expected to have it filled-to-the-brim with donating JWs.

  That being said, other countries are reporting increases, some quite large. I spoke with a JW bethel member in an African country, and yes, they do have conventions with 700 baptised and have people on a waiting list to get bible studies. But the whole country's per capita income is something like $100 a year.

  My take is that in the developed countries, the JW religion is in a death spiral. In third world countries they will have continued growth for a while, probably some decades.