John Aquila

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Posts by John Aquila

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  6

  IDENTITY and Fairies; The Salem Witch Trials and JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  two ball bearings manufactured at the same time, in the same factory, by rigorous engineering standards, and produced to serve the same function inside a particular machine.. question: are they identical?.

  answer: no.

  there is one on your left and there is one on your right.. these do not occupy the same space.. you can remove one and the other will not follow.. _________________.

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  John Aquila

  QUESTION: Are all JW's identical or "identical"?

  
  
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  9

  Jehovah's Witnesses are "not even wrong" and here is why.

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a magician can demonstrate an empty hat from which, seconds later, he pulls a rabbit.

  a rabbit in that empty hat?

  in pre-enlightenment times, the easy answer was: magic was real--but--it was accomplished.

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  John Aquila

  Hey Terry,

  I’m new here and as I’ve been looking at some of the past postings on different subjects. I noticed some of your posts and got hooked. I really enjoy your writing. When I start reading some of your stories or ideas, it’s like you take me to places I’ve never been before and leave me there and I have to find my way back all by myself.

  Now when I pick up a Watchtower magazine and skim through it, it’s like picking up a kindergarten book that reads, “Run Spot Run"

  And to think we were told that four years of reading the Watchtower was the same as getting a four year University degree, and eight years of reading was the same as getting a PhD.
  

  Keep up the good work, look forward to you next post.
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  10

  The JW's were right!!! The government is starting its turn against RELIGION!!!

  by ADJUSTMENTS in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is what obama recently had to say about religion and how it is causing problems in the world... the prophecy is coming true!!!

  we apostates are doomed!!!.

  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=afndil42e20.

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  John Aquila

  
   

   

   

   The WTS teaches that the Woman is the 144,000 which includes the Governing Body.

    (Revelation 12:1-6) . . .And a great sign was seen in heaven, a woman arrayed with the sun, and the moon was beneath her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars,  and she was pregnant. And she cries out in her pains and in her agony to give birth.

   After giving birth to the Messianic Kingdom in 1914 according to the “Revelation grand climax publication”,

   The Bible says

   THE WOMAN FLED INTO THE WILDERNESS.

   To be fed spiritually by God which the Revelation book explains as the conventions in the early 1900s

   
  What I find Interesting, is that John saw a pure woman go into the “WILDERNESS" but notice what John saw coming "out" of the wilderness:
  
  And he carried me away in [the power of the] spirit into a wilderness.

  And I caught sight of a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored wild beast that was full of blasphemous names and that had seven heads and ten horns.  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and was adorned with gold and precious stone and pearls and had in her hand a golden cup that was full of disgusting things and the unclean things of her fornication.  And upon her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and of the disgusting things of the earth.”  And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.

  Well, on catching sight of her I wondered with great wonderment.  (Revelation 17:3-6)
  
  Why did John "wonder with a great wonder"?  He had been seeing all kinds of crazy visions. (fire and blood, creatures, and all kinds of weird stuff.)  Why did this one in particular make him "wonder"? 

   Could it be that he wondered why the woman coming "out" of the "wilderness" was a Whore when what went "into" the wilderness was "pure"?
  
  So if the Governing Body admits they are part of the Woman that went into the wilderness to get fed by God but came out a whore, then they will be among the first to be wiped out and we apostates will be at the ringside with popcorn seeing it all play out.
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  16

  Those who have not defiled themselves with women

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i am seeking a copy of this article:.

  those who have not defiled themselves with women: revelation 14:4 and the book of enoch, daniel carl olson, catholic biblical quarterly, 59.3, 1997, pages 492-510, issn: 0008-7912.

  if someone is able to locate a copy, you will find my email address at:.

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  John Aquila

  "Those disgusting women, they are revolting, if you touch one you are filthy forever."

   

  What if I touch two, or three?

  Ok, how about three or more?

  
  
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  96

  21 Years as an Elder, 5 as an MS, I will never be that guy again.

  by James Jack in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i was deleted as the cobe after i let my adult child move back home and he admitted that he fornicated under my roof while my wife and i where away on a rbc project.

  of course the elder mode in me kicked him out of the house.. the elders moved quickly to remove me because i was too involved in "theocractic activities", i had neglected my adult son.. i accepted this primarily because i didn't want to serve with a boe that did not want me.

  i was devastated however because it was the only life i knew.

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  John Aquila

  Welcome to the Board J.J.
  

  I was in the Organization since 1975, I was an elder for 20 years, Pioneered, talks at conventions, and all the other stuff that labels one a spiritual giant. I’ve only be out a little over a year and I’m not sure why I feel this way but I am so freaking happy I can’t believe what is happening in my life right now. I compare my life now to all the politicking I had to do in the organization with other elders and COs and I can’t help but feel sorry for all those still in having to set up shields around themselves and their families from idiotic individuals who demand you live by certain rules.

  Once you start realizing what you missed all those years you were in,  trying to walk a fine line and keep everyone happy, you will start enjoying what you missed and forget what you left behind.  You will be like a 20 year old kid that just found out he has a 10 million dollar trust fund.
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  39

  received revealing "witness" in parking lot

  by Magnum in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a few weeks ago i was working out of my home state and was in a grocery store parking lot when i received my first jw witness since leaving jwdom.

  a youngish-looking lady was sitting in an suv parked next to my car and i was about to get in my car to leave.

  she opened the door and asked whether she could give me something to read (had a tract in her hand)..

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  John Aquila

  Great work Magnum,

   

  Actually you planted a virus on that girl and that virus is lodging in one of her thinking cells. One of these days she well be in a weak state, perhaps get reproved unjustly, or be the center of gossip, or lose a boyfriend, or husband, and then when she if feeling upset and down she will remember your words. Bam!

  The virus is not dormant anymore, it starts multiplying and she starts researching, and the next thing you know she is on this site relating her experience:

  “You know, one day at a parking lot,  I talked to this man………..”
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  26

  Watchtower has a Philosophy of Totalism

  by OnTheWayOut in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  cults tend to have a total explanation for everything- everything that ever happened, everything that is happening now, and everything that ever will happen.

  that certainly fits watchtower.

  they have a black-and-white perception of everything, they are never wrong, there are no gray areas.

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  John Aquila

  Only in the information age and with former JW's managing to get together have those answers been easily shown to be flawed.  But many members don't see that yet.  To keep them from examining things, the totalism is enforced on the members.

  That is so true.

   

  I’ve only been out of the organization a little over a year. I remember in the late 60’s there seemed to be a huge invisible wall that separated us from the rest of the world. Regularly it was drilled in our minds that outside this symbolic wall of protection, destruction was imminent, especially since 1975 was around the corner.

  A JW might hear of one or two persons climbing the wall and going into the unknown. But all of us that stayed in the organization, dismissed it as “Crazy people who lost all common sense”

  I remember several families, who sold their homes, pulled their kids out of school, bought small mobile trailers, and moved to serve where the need was great.

  After 1975, we faithful JWs started hearing more stories of JW’s scurrying over to the symbolic wall and making a run for it. Looking back in time I now realized that it was tiny cracks that were starting to appear in the organization.

   

  In the 1980s I remember a friend from Bethel that told me a huge mutiny was happening in the very headquarters of Jehovah’s organization. There was talk of books that were being published by EX-JWs that promised freedom, and a better way of life from a totalitarian existence.

   

  The tiny cracks in the organization were now getting bigger and more noticeable and “Mother” raised the ante. (No more personal Bible Studies as groups, any talk against the teachings of the WTS were met with an iron fist, etc.)

   By the 90s the tiny cracks had become fragments pieces that were falling with a great thump. The internet was up and running. The stories of one or two JWs climbing the protective wall and leaving were now increasing to tens and hundreds leaving and surviving.

  
  

  The Mother Organization already had a barb wire fence to keep the rank and file in but now they started to construct a symbolic concrete wall to keep the members in. The disfellowshipping and shunning policies started evolving into firm, unyielding, rigid laws that kept family members that had left the organization from being any type of influence to their still trapped loved ones.

  
  

  The world today is a different animal than the world of the 50s and 60s. Instead of waiting in line to get on the merry-go-round, 8 year old kids are clicking their I-Phones to read or listen to the latest “THING” going on in the world. No matter how much software protections parents “Buy” to shield their children from wrong information, the kids today are one step ahead.

  
  

  The totalitarian construct of the WTS is coming apart. No matter how much concrete they use on their walls to keep their population in, the little one that made a dash to freedom has now become thousands.

  Many JWs are fed up with the totalitarian way of life. They are not scurrying to the wall anymore. They are taking their time, packing, and walking calmly to the other side of freedom. I used to hear just the husband leaving or the wife or maybe one child. But now I am seeing entire families leaving at once.They don’t give explanations and they don’t even say Good-Bye.

  
  

  The JWTV, the JW.ORG, the silliness of the Governing Members and their antics is waking up entire families. And the youth today growing up in a totalitarian environment will just not put up with that kind of life. Door to door work will just not cut it with today’s youth.

   

  This totalitarian organization is coming apart at the seams.  
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  12

  Is 40 days without food the best choice?

  by John Aquila in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  in chapter 4 of luke it says jesus went into the wilderness and he ate nothing but fasted forty days and forty nights..

  now i dont know about any of you but i once got on a 5 day liquid diet and only lasted 2 days.

  i was so hungry that even when i fell asleep i started dreaming a hot brunette was handing me a couple of slices of pizza.

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  John Aquila

  In chapter 4 of Luke it says Jesus went into the wilderness and he ate nothing but fasted forty days and forty nights.

  Now I don’t know about any of you but I once got on a 5 day liquid diet and only lasted 2 days. I was so hungry that even when I fell asleep I started dreaming a hot brunette was handing me a couple of slices of pizza. And the pizza was my first choice.

  I also did some research and some estimates say that a person can last between 28 to 40 days without food depending if you look like Family Guy or Barney Fife of the Andy Griffith show.Either way, you are going to come of sick and deluded after being without food for that long. 

  Also, by the third week or so, you will start hallucinating and your mind will start playing tricks.

  Now I noticed that at the beginning of the Book of Luke it says this:

  (Luke 1:3) I resolved also, because I have traced all things from the start with accuracy

  So my question is: If Jesus was alone in the wilderness fasting and talking only to the Devil, how do they know this happened? Did Jesus tell his apostles: "Hey, I talked to the Devil"

  If I disappeared for 40 days and was close to starvation and I finally came home and starting telling everyone that I talked to the Devil and he told me to turn some stones into pizza but I refused because man must not live on pizza alone, would anyone believe me? Could I write a book about my experience? Would people buy my book? Or would they just haul me away in an ambulance straight to the hospital?

  And how would fasting prepare you for any type of test? Even kids are told to have a good breakfast before a hard morning in school. Isn’t the best thing a person can do before a test, a marathon, or a fight, is to load up on carbs? How does starving for 40 days help one become ready for a fight with a bunch of crazy people that will want to kill you?

  I can’t believe I never thought of this.
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  48

  Hi everyone, this is my first post.

  by John Aquila in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hey everyone, this is my first post.

  i was contacted by the witnesses in1965, baptized in that same year at age 15. i was appointed an elder in 1975 and served as an elder for 20 years..

  it hasnt been long since i learn ttatt and when i totally woke up.

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  John Aquila

  Wow!

  I had no idea there were other people who have also lost everything except their skivvies. Thanks for all the encouraging words. It really helps to know that others are making it after losing an entire life of hard work.  It kind of gives me a boost to start rebuilding my life.

  You all seem so confident. I guess I’m still freaked out with everything that has happened. Since all this has happen in my 60s I feel like someone has locked me in a room with a bunch of explosives and all I see is a timer that’s telling me I only have 3 seconds to diffuse it.   

  This is hitting the bottom without the safety net to catch you. Of course there was never a safety net to begin with, but it helped “To Think” there was such a thing as a safety net. I was always told Jehovah was there to catch you so I had no problem executing fancy- deadly somersaults in mid-air and hearing the jw audience hip-hooray -what great faith this brother has.

  I understand the encouragement to turn this elder in. The problem, and I’m embarrassed to admit this, is that when I was an elder and totally believed I had the truth, there were many times inactive brothers and sisters would come to us elders and accuse an individual elder for being involved in some indiscretion. In fact immoral is a better word. But anytime some accusation against an elder happened, we would always side with the elder. The inactive or regular-weak publisher was always dismissed as “Not thinking straight”.

   

  That experience is actually not a big deal. I served close to the Juarez-Mexico Border and many elders in the U. S. side were assigned to give talks and help the congregations in Juarez from time to time. Some of the stuff going on in the Juarez congregations during the drug wars is just unbelievable.  We had instructions from the Society to tell no one in the U. S. what the brothers and sisters were going through in Juarez. There was a lot of kidnapping of young sisters and elders involved in the drug trade. We were always told to trust in Jehovah and we fell for it. Now I look back and realize how freaking lucky I am to still be alive.

  Anyway thanks for the encouragement.
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  48

  Hi everyone, this is my first post.

  by John Aquila in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hey everyone, this is my first post.

  i was contacted by the witnesses in1965, baptized in that same year at age 15. i was appointed an elder in 1975 and served as an elder for 20 years..

  it hasnt been long since i learn ttatt and when i totally woke up.

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  John Aquila

  Hey Everyone, this is my first post.

  I was contacted by the Witnesses in1965, baptized in that same year at age 15. I was appointed an elder in 1975 and served as an elder for 20 years.

  It hasn’t been long since I learn ttatt and when I totally woke up. In fact, I’m not sure if I “have totally woken up” Maybe there’s more. Heck anything can happen at this point. Someone might open the door to the locker box and surprise everyone.

  Locker C18

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJLeBM6-AaM

   

  I was one of those souls that was picked to give Assembly talks after a year of being appointed an elder. It caused a lot of anger among the older elders. Here they had been serving for years as elders and they had worked hard to make a name for themselves and here comes this young wiper- snapper with no experience who goes to the front of the line. Many were furious and complained to the Circuit overseer. But nothing happened and I became a regular in all the assemblies.

  Now this led to special privileges.  I could sit in the box with the District overseers, Circuit Overseers, Bethel speakers. So I was in the ‘in crowd’ (so to speak) and my wife was ecstatic. A young 20 year old plus girl whose husband was recognize by everyone in the city. Even the in-laws raised the white flag and waved it at me.

  So all the prominent elders in the city starting to recognize me and wanted to be in my circle. So I got to know all the heavies in the circuit, the top speakers, city overseer, the assembly overseer, the elder-pioneers, former Gilead missionaries.

  All these men were recognized by all the publishers

   [That is, non-elder men, women and children]

   

  As APPOINTED BY HOLY SPIRIT, and there was no other way.

  OR WAS THERE?

  I stepped down in 1995 after I caught an entire body of elders covering up adultery. After I told the Circuit Overseer about the cover-up, he told me to just leave it alone. That was it for me. I stepped down, went and got my GED, then attended a University to get a degree in engineering but switch majors when I realized I was too old to start a career in engineering and I realized I could make more money in the stock market if I got good at it and work at it till the day I croaked.

  Well you know the story when you first learn about something. (TOTAL SHOCK) First it was the blood fractions, then 607/587. I started telling some of my close friends and my wife of almost 30 years.  I couldn’t explain it that well and I kind of sounded like a fool.  You know how it is, you read the stuff but you can’t explain it coherently. I was causing a stir. There was talk I was becoming an apostate, I started losing friends, and then I started losing family.

   

  My wife was born in and once I started talking about blood fractions she just left. She was totally scared of me. She accused me of apostasy and wanted a divorce but the elders told her she had no grounds. So then she accused me of adultery and of course I said no-way and the elders stepped in and told her she had no grounds. So then she started blowing money like crazy. She started sending thousands to the Watchtower as a donation for the world- wide work. I saw a lawyer and he told me the only thing I could do legally is take it to court and try to prove her incompetent but no doubt she would hire her own lawyer and you are talking a long lengthy battle with a high sticker price.

  I had built up a nice nest egg of about one million dollars. I won’t go into the elder’s part, you all know how worthless they are. But they basically said if I got an UN-scriptural divorce I would be dealt with judicially and possibly be disfellowshipped for loose conduct.

  My wife threaten me that she was going to keep sending money to the WTS and I saw my accounts go down from close to a million to about 500 thousand. At this point my lawyer told me straight out, give her a divorce and take half of what’s left or wait it out and be broke in your 60s. It took me about 30 years of hard work in my business to save a million buck after taxes. It is not easy.

   

  So I decided to tell her I touched a girl for about 3 seconds in her privates. She ran to the elders and I met with them and they said it was fornication. I was just reproved because the elders knew I had a clean record all this years.   So my wife got her divorce and after lawyers’ fees I was left with about 70k and she was left with about 150k.

  I couldn’t believe how in just a couple of months I went from someone who was admired by every jw in the circuit to someone who was now considered a foolish stupid man.  One of my best friends who is in his 80s and has been a faithful jw since 13 years old with whom I served as an elder read this scripture to me.

  (Ecclesiastes 10:1) Dead flies are what cause the oil of the ointment maker to stink, to bubble forth. [So] a little foolishness does to one who is precious for wisdom and glory.

   

  You can imagine how I felt after reading this.

   

  I was at a loss; my friends stayed away from me but out of respect did not turn me in. No one wanted to associate with me anymore. I called but no one answered their phone. I left messages, but no one returned the calls. Friends that I had helped financially when they were in dire straits would avoid me. And my best friend of almost 30 years left me for fear it would cost her the prize of everlasting life in a paradise earth just around the corner.

   

   

  So after some time I stopped speaking and moved my publisher cards to the other side of the City and in another language congregation. The fade had begun.

  In my mind I was having what seemed like hundreds of different thoughts racing through my head at the same time. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve check and double checked and triple check. Maybe that’s what it means to get old and start losing it. So I looked in the mirror and asked myself, “Am I losing it”

   

  One evening I ran into a couple of old non-jw college buddies and got invited to their house. I went into uncharted territory. Yes, I went where no faithful JW had gone before. Associating with worldly people. And guess what, we had a nice time. Past midnight we ran out of beer and I volunteered to go to a store and restock. I picked a store where I knew no JWS would dare go. The so call “Mini Red District”

  Well who do you think I run into? Do you remember that brother that was raised in the “truth?” You know the one that went to Bethel? The one that came back from Bethel after about 10 years and became the ‘faithful pioneer, Elder, single brother.’ The one that always kept to himself. The one that never got married. The one that always gave talks in conventions. The one that jw-girls fantasized about. That one brother in the entire circuit that could propel any young sister to the thrones in the sky.

  
  

  That’s the one.

   

  Of all the JWS in the whole city, I had to run into this leader-example-faithful-  elder-pioneer-spiritual brother who had definitely been APPOINTED BY HOLY SPIRIT, Except for one minor anomaly .

   

   He was wearing black Fishnet stockings with high heel stilettos, and a tight mini-skirt.

  PLEASE, don’t picture a hot young sex symbol with a face of an angelic goddess and killer legs that could get you a stint in a 007 James Bond movie.

  Instead picture a late 40s early 50 year old man, with a 6 hour shadow on his face, and the prickly hairs peeping through the stockings with a body that would force you into celibacy.

  We bumped into each other head on. There was no escaping, no avoiding, no other way to retreat and get on with our lives. Before the next five minutes would pass, I would know if my life was going to turn into a living hell as I accused this man-god to a body of elders without a second witness. Or if some miracle would save me like the Red Sea parted for Moses.

  We stood there looking at each other. We both knew what this meant for each of us. Finally he spoke. He said, “If you don’t make trouble for me, I won’t make trouble for you” I shook my head in agreement and we both went our way.

  Now I know what you all are going to ask? So I am going to answer your question right now.

  No I did not report him. Why? First of all, I was already a target. My close friends of over 40 years would not believe 607/587 even when I proved it from the Bible and from their own publications. They thought I was going crazy. They thought I had lost all common sense. I was told flat out that I had become an apostate with no common sense and no believability.

  Second, this man is still in good standing. He is still pioneering. He is still giving talks in all the conventions and assemblies. He still officiates in judicial committees, and appeal committees to determine if individuals deserve to be forgiven or not. In other words,

  he still RATES “JWS” to determine if they are spiritually qualified to be in

   “God’s organization, the only channel for salvation to mankind, The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society”

  This man is still an Elder.

   

  And last of all, I still have loved ones in the organization including elderly parents whom I love and I don’t want to cause a stir and cause them hard-ache in their last few years.

   

  That’s my story,

   

  Look forward to posting from time to time and learning from you all.