“Because we do not know when the end will come, how might we be affected?
My answer: Some may feel let down, even manipulated that after predicting Christ's return on several occaasions, church leadership now says they havent got a clue.
https://youtu.be/7xumqjq3zfc?si=ivcg96t4dtgze4ft.
so this is from the brand new watchtower study edition of june 2025 which has just been posted on jw.org .under the title: modestly accept what you do not know, a let’s read paragraphs in question 4 &5: “read matthew 24:36. we do not know when the end of this system of things will come.
even jesus, while on earth, did not know the ‘day and hour.’ he later told the apostles that jehovah, who is the great timekeeper, keeps the timing of certain events ‘in his own jurisdiction,’ or authority.
“Because we do not know when the end will come, how might we be affected?
My answer: Some may feel let down, even manipulated that after predicting Christ's return on several occaasions, church leadership now says they havent got a clue.
michael moore writes:.
a cult is an organization that enslaves minds and destroys families using cult mind control.
cult mind control involves orchestrated deception, social pressure, psychological abuse, and repetitive indoctrination (brainwashing) centering around an unchallengeable ideology enforced in a totalitarian way in a closed socially-separatist community setting.
Cults try to make you form a maladaptive relationship with group leadership. It could be any group. Once that happens, the original rationale for the formation of the group to begin with is lost and irrelevant.
rowan williams, the former archbishop of canterbury gave an interesting answer to the somewhat stark question, what’s the point of us existing?
as a christian, my starting point is that we exist because the most fundamental form of activity, energy, call it what you like, that is there, is love.
that is, it’s a willingness that the other should be.
CAN THE UNITARIANS ON THIS BOARD WHO REJECT THE TRI-PARTITE NATURE OF MAN PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW A MAN CAN RESURRECT HIMSELF FROM THE DEAD, WHILE HE IS DEAD IF HE IS NOT GOD?
Please just answer a simple question and put this issue to rest. HOW CAN YOU ALL CONTINUE TO IGNORE THIS QUESTION AND STILL FAKE A MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE NATURE OF GOD?
(See John 10:18 & John 2:19) Either Jesus is God or a liar. Choose a position.
(apologies for the typo in the title.
"teaching" should read "teachings".
i misread vanderhoven7's most recent post as being the above.
Yes.
Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and a significant number of Protestant denominations are Amillennial, meaning that they do not believe in a literal thousand year reign of Christ on earth. It is the dominant view in Christianty.
However 2/3 of Evangelicals believe in a literal thousand year reign, just like JW's do.
Amillennialism is a holdover from the 4th century due to the symbolic interpretations of theologian and philosopher - Augustine. It left a big theological hole in the minds of many Christians that never heard of a literal earthly Kingdom Reign. Watchtower exploited this theological void and it made them sound like they had the "truth", and were experts. There are countless passages that point to a literal reign of the Messiah on the earth.
To this day JW's are mostly unaware that hundreds of millions of Evangelical believers believe in a "Paradise Earth", they just don't call it that. They call it The Millennial Reign.
Watchtower used this basic truth to sound like they were the only ones with this view, and then they used their influence to dupe people into rejecting the New Covenant "for the forgiveness of sins that Jesus offered to "whosoever" in Mt. 26: 27-28.
Without the blood covering found in the new covenant, JW's will never see the kingdom - in heaven or earth.
rowan williams, the former archbishop of canterbury gave an interesting answer to the somewhat stark question, what’s the point of us existing?
as a christian, my starting point is that we exist because the most fundamental form of activity, energy, call it what you like, that is there, is love.
that is, it’s a willingness that the other should be.
@SBF
I don't believe the Trinity is refuted at all:
God is love. Love can only be expressed in community. God is a communty of three persons in one substance. Therefore he is complete.
God's nature requires him to be such that he is.
To say there was a time God couldn't love and needed to create us in order to be complete, is to say he wasn't complete without us and therefore wasn't God at some point in the past.
It suggest an upsidedown world. One where God needs us and not the other way around.
i was following a few threads in reddit from current pimo jws complaining about local announcements regarding halls being short on their per publisher "rent payments".
third gen and i have been out pomo for a while...so how much is this charge now?
could this be part of the recent push to get people to "come back" or get re-instated...if it even is online and 15 minutes of service per month?
Last I heard the assessment per publisher in the U.S. was: 11.50 per month for the World Wide Work
Wow, that is a small price to pay for being able to believe that there is no consciousness after you die, no judgment after you die, and that even if you screw everything up in this life you get your sins forgiven by dying. A big bonus (at no additional charge) is getting a do-over living in a timber-frame mansion next to a giant waterfall and a global petting zoo.
Seems too good to be true.
i’m still an elder and i consider myself jw light.
as my fellow elders are.
we don’t throw our weight around like elders used to in the past, it’s all very easy going these days.
They do shadow birthday celebrations and ignore most of the directions from the fat old men in upstate NY.
Wow. It's psychologically worse now than it used to be. If you are a kid growing up in a family "strong in the truth", and you see elders being hypocritical; that would serve to wake up kids even faster than before when everyone believed the GB spoke with the voice of God.
When you wake up at 13 or 14 in a family that is "strong in the truth", there is literally no where to go but the street, especially if you are a kid who is not afraid of confrontation and who likes to talk alot.
Kids who talk too much don't make it far in a cult. May God protect them as they try to navigate the complete chaos they were born into.
early christianity was every bit, if not more, diverse than christianity today.
one of the very early sects was named the ebionites.
we have unfortunately nothing left of their own writings apart from a few quotes from what epiphanius believed was their recension of matthew.
Early Christianity was every bit, if not more, plagued by heretics as it is today. Fortunately, we have thosands pages of wrtings from the foremost Christian leaders (then and now) naming who they are, how they got started, and the specific teachings that made them abberant.
i was following a few threads in reddit from current pimo jws complaining about local announcements regarding halls being short on their per publisher "rent payments".
third gen and i have been out pomo for a while...so how much is this charge now?
could this be part of the recent push to get people to "come back" or get re-instated...if it even is online and 15 minutes of service per month?
"Pay us money every month and we will let your old "friends" and family talk to you again !"
Cults sell you things you already have, but never noticed.
beans ?
( human beans ).
to those of you that believe in god: do you all believe the same thing ?.
Fish