breaking news | highlights of 2023 worldwide service year report.
on november 15, 2023, the service committee of the governing body shared highlights of the 2023 worldwide service year report with the bethel family.
the following exciting increases were announced: baptisms: during the 2023 service year, 269,517 persons were baptized.
The surge in numbers after high Covid-19 days isn't so surprising. Some may have held on in baptizing their kids until the pandemic fizzled. Also pioneers had their time requirements suspended for a while, and it was easy to pioneer counting time writing letters.
What will be surprising is the decreased they didn't.annouce yet, and the down trend due to follow in the coming years, I believe.
2023-october-spanish-elder manual.
elder manuals in different languages are coming in slowly because elders are a little afraid to go into the watchtower inbox, and grab 10 or 12 elder manuals in different languages all at the same time.
so the elders are taking elder manuals out of the inbox a little at a time so they do not bring too much attention to themselves.. spanish elder manual--2023-octoberhttps://www.filemail.com/d/lpfrjurfljtxkmi grandpa!
Muchas gracias, Atlantis.
didn't know the best subject area to put this question under....i was listening to a discussion on youtube the other day while working, so not getting every point ....part of what was talked about was the word jehovah, ( not being the most accurate translation of yhwh ) was however pushed by illuminati /secret societies for its use in magic.
(as i informed, i wasn't getting the whole conversion as i also had attention elsewhere and some of the conversation was hard to follow.
) so i am wondering if anyone on here has more information on the subject they care to share.
Jehovah is English tradition for the Deity in the Old Testament. Likewise, Jesus is the English traditional name for the Messiah in the New Testament. Neither of their pronunciations is exactly as it would have been pronounced in Hebrew. To insist on Yahweh and Yeshua is sort of scholarly pedantic, or ignorantly presumptuous. If you want to speak Hebrew, fine go ahead. But why only pronounce names in Hebrew, did the early Gentile Christians pronounce names Greek fashion?
i am looking for vocal renditions of some the kingdom songs in this old songbook: sing praises to jehovah.
most of my favorite kingdom songs are from that songbook and i would love to download them on my phone.
i enjoy listening to vocal renditions of kingdom melodies.
The Watchtower released a cassette with some of the songs as sung, with the lyrics, by a brother with a nice deep and powerful voice back in the days of the songbook you mention above with that illustration.
does a look at dna show intent in existence and is infinity a mere observation of reality?
this article is a quite a bit of a mindstom.
what are your thoughts?.
Does a look at DNA show intent in existence and is infinity a mere observation of reality? This article is a quite a bit of a mindstom. What are your thoughts?
https://theethicalskeptic.com/2021/02/24/the-peculiar-schema-of-dna-codons-second-letter/
in light of the recent attack on indian jws i did some research about christianity in india and found out that india has a long history of christian influence, and not, like many of us probably believed, brought by the british, rather india has had christians for 2000 years.. matter of fact, they may be similar length and claim to the ‘original’ christians only equal by the roman (european), syrian (middle eastern) and ethiopian (african) christians.
the story goes that judas thomas (aka doubting thomas or dydimus) (literally translated: dydimus = twin (greek) and tomas = twin (aramaic)), the twin brother of jesus travelled to india and did some miracles along the way, started the church there, hence deification of thomas is common there.. i found some articles written by eg.
bart ehrman supporting this theory, personally not that much of a fan, but i know many interested in jw exegesis as he supports various fringe theories including wtbts claim to the name jehovah.. the claims of jesus’ twin brother seem to be supported by the original writings, including the gospel as we know it in the west (almost every canonical gospel writer alludes to the twin), but also various other non-canonical writings and at least 3 complete gospels claimed to be by thomas himself (although the oldest writings stem from the first, second and third century respectively).
Just because Thomas was somebody's twin doesn't mean he had to be a twin to Jesus. There is a heavy dose of make believe in the assumption, whether ancient or modern it is just an assumption. So, no, I believe Thomas was not Jesus' twin, from what I have learned, although from his name he may have been somebody else's twin.
i view this site on my mobile browser and would prefer to use it in dark mode (white text on black background).
dark mode helps conserve battery on an oled display used on most phones.
how do i enable it for this site?
@Terry, dark mode is white text on black. It saves battery.
Not to be confused with the dark web, that has to do with encryption and anonymity.
i heard of a jw wedding that:.
(a)wasn’t done in a kh, and was performed by an elder.
(b)the ceremony was done on a sunday.. i find this surprising for 2 reasons.
As an elder I officiated for weddings at a different venue at times, or at the home of family once, but most weddings were at the KH then reception elsewhere. And yes there are a lot of rules for using the KH, especially if you plan on moving chairs or putting up any decorations, usually only flowers. And also you have to write a letter to the BOE's service committee and they meet and decide to grant the privilege or not. When they don't grant the use of the hall then the couple is stuck with having to hold the ceremony elsewhere, usually at the same place as the reception.
i view this site on my mobile browser and would prefer to use it in dark mode (white text on black background).
dark mode helps conserve battery on an oled display used on most phones.
how do i enable it for this site?
While we eagerly await such functionality, thanks Simon, one can install a browser extension to browse sites in dark mode. Search the Chrome webstore if you would like to experience this forum in dark mode through installing a browser extension on Chrome. Other browsers also have their own extension stores with similar plugins.
what the jw sect has become and is slowly becoming is far more near what i thought could be a good religion based on the bible.. no more counting hours and no more blindly following direction now they admit they are not inspired.. i would like to design a new sect inside the jws.
it has to be kept secret because the elders would not like it.. this new sect involves giving a tick every month or so saying you are still kindof active talking about the bible.. going to meetings occasionally and attending on zoom sometimes.
very rarely go to ministry groups but don’t ever do first call, just say you are doing street work and have a nice walk somewhere maybe the shops or the park.
And the purpose of staying in would be what? To continue association with hardcore JWs?
Why would just leaving and seeking fellowship with other Christian groups not be better? Because you agree with some of the doctrines and not others?
Are you just interested in a JW-lite option with all the warm-feelies and none of the shunning?
If you are caught non-shunning you'll be made to account and maybe kicked out if you persist. So why bother staying in? What is the motivation?
