John Aquila

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Posts by John Aquila

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  35

  behind the curtain: literature offer for the month

  by Magnum in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was an extremely sincere, zealous pioneer.

  i really cared about the people in the field.

  i thought their lives were in danger.

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  John Aquila

  Oubliette

  John Acquila, wow, a book burning! That's ironically chilling.

  That picture is cracking me up, LOL.
  
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  35

  behind the curtain: literature offer for the month

  by Magnum in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was an extremely sincere, zealous pioneer.

  i really cared about the people in the field.

  i thought their lives were in danger.

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  John Aquila

  Driving Force

  If I can remember rightly from my time as literature servant, all publications produced before 1986 should be removed from stock in the congregation and be destroyed.

  You are right, I was the literature servant and the CO whose name was Larry Punko made us go at night to the Kingdom Hall and we gathered at least 1000 books and took them to an isolated place, poured gasoline on them and burned them. He made sure we all stayed there until they were completely destroyed. Then he made us go to each publisher and demand any of the old books on the list he gave us. Then we burned those to. I never thought anything about it. Till now.
  
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  23

  Are the writers in the writing department purposely misquoting people?

  by paulmolark in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  after reading that great post about the june 1 article on science i got to thinking.

  although it is great to believe there is this huge group of guys in the jw writing department that are constantly looking to mislead us by twisting the words of scientist etc... i really think it is more likely they are google researchers that do not have the ability to grasp the thoughts that are being expressed in the scientific article they quote mine from.. i honestly believe the reason that this happens is because of the individuals they use to write these magazines.

  these are not college educated men.

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  John Aquila

  Famous Scientist Author's original text;

  The world in general is getting better. People are living longer because healthcare has improved. Immunization has eliminated many of the diseases that racked havoc in times past. The percentage of teenage girls getting pregnant is dropping. More young people are wanting to pursue an education first and get stabilized before getting married and having a family. More countries are winning the war on famine as they implement new farming techniques. The gloom outlook that the world is close to the end because of war, crime and pestilence, is a thing of the past.

  Watchtower quoting Famous Scientist Author in one of their publications;

  Mr. Famous Scientist Author had this to say about conditions in the world today, “The gloom outlook that the world is close to the end because of war, crime and pestilence
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  35

  behind the curtain: literature offer for the month

  by Magnum in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was an extremely sincere, zealous pioneer.

  i really cared about the people in the field.

  i thought their lives were in danger.

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  John Aquila

  Hey Magnum

  You brought up some memories that make me shiver and cringe. I’m picturing in my mind walking the neighborhood streets on a Saturday morning peddling orange colored books with crazy names like “Everlasting something” which even I didn’t read most of the time.

  It was so freaking embarrassing doing that while at the same time watching normal people going to breakfast with their families and just enjoying the weekend.

  I believe I’m in some type of denial that I was a book peddler for years.

  Hell I could have been a freaking surgeon like my uncles wanted me to be. But noooo____ I wanted to be a book peddler.
  
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  16

  WT cash flow speculation

  by campaign of hate in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so it was reported that the wt made $60,000,000 in canada last year (?).

  working on the assumption that this figure is from not only donations, but from property revenues and other ventures from the branch, we get a figure of $528 per publisher, per year.

  the calculation: 60,000,000 / 113,617 (2014 av pubs) = $528 a year per publisher.

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  John Aquila

  One poster made this comment;

  Terry A tax-exempt religion is just a playground for malfeasance.

  We need to think along those lines. Remember, the Watchtower does not have to answer to the SEC or the IRS or anyone that will investigate if they paid their share of taxes. “They are exempt” They have a Free get out of jail card.

  They are publicly asking for money from the rank and file and “They are getting it.”

  
  As long as people continue to donate to their cause they have free reign to scrape every last cent from willing participants. If they ever get caught doing illegal things with that money, then they will get a couple of JDubs to be scapegoats, disfellowship them, and print in the magazines that Satan infiltrated the ranks to mislead many. It will be Big News for a few months and then people will forget about it and get on with their lives. Some will leave the WT but many will stay faithful and be willing to go down with the ship.

  Example: Enron Scandal, lost $74 billion. Thousands of employees and investors lost their retirement accounts, and many lost their jobs. Before they got caught, Fortune Magazine named Enron, “Most Innovative Company to invest in six years in a row” Penalties; two people were sentence to prison, one died before serving any time.

  Example: Lehman Brothers, hid $50 Billion in loans disguised as sales.

  Went bankrupt. Penalties; SEC did not prosecute due to lack of evidence.

  And life goes on!
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  25

  So Why Do They Need The Money?

  by konceptual99 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  so, as well reported, the latest jw broadcasting show is all about giving money.

  as far as the wt society goes they have been pretty candid about there not being enough funds to meet the expenditure.

  there are plenty of views on if this is really the case or not but underlying this is why are they spending so much money?.

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  John Aquila

  Finkelstein 21 hours ago

  At a time when the WTS has never been richer in its entire history, this can we have more money is a bit disconcerting

  I've seen it said they are short on cash flow. But cash flow for what? They are not liable for any federal taxes, or sales taxes, They don't have salaries to pay because all workers are volunteer. They don't provide insurance for their workers, They don't provide a retirement plan for anyone. All their properties are paid for by the dubs. They are not worried about pedo-related court losses. They had a big financial victory with the Candace Conti lawsuit. From 28 mil to a few million. The rest of the lawsuits are peanuts. A million here, two million there, just normal business operations that all corporations anticipate. The lawsuits which are some millions can be paid in a month easily out of collections from the congregations world wide. Their publication cost are nil since they are using jworg more and reducing print material.

  The call for more money is something else not related to running the corporation. It has nothing to do with lawsuits. It's something outside the box of what we are assuming. If they need cash flow then it has to be for something else not mentioned above. Something unusual that no one is thinking about or considering. Something outside the box of normal business operations.

  Terry

  A tax-exempt religion is just a playground for malfeasance.
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  16

  WT cash flow speculation

  by campaign of hate in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so it was reported that the wt made $60,000,000 in canada last year (?).

  working on the assumption that this figure is from not only donations, but from property revenues and other ventures from the branch, we get a figure of $528 per publisher, per year.

  the calculation: 60,000,000 / 113,617 (2014 av pubs) = $528 a year per publisher.

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  John Aquila

  They are not worried about tusnami pedo-related court losses. They had a big financial victory with the Candace Conti lawsuit. From 28 mil to a few million. The rest of the lawsuits are peanuts. A million here, two million there, just normal business operations that all corporations anticipate.
  

  The call for more money is something else not related to running the corporation. It has nothing to do with lawsuits. It's something outside the box of what we are assuming.
  
• 
  16

  WT cash flow speculation

  by campaign of hate in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so it was reported that the wt made $60,000,000 in canada last year (?).

  working on the assumption that this figure is from not only donations, but from property revenues and other ventures from the branch, we get a figure of $528 per publisher, per year.

  the calculation: 60,000,000 / 113,617 (2014 av pubs) = $528 a year per publisher.

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  3. 
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  John Aquila

  I've seen it said they are short on cash flow. But cash flow for what? They are not liable for any federal taxes, or sales taxes, They don't have salaries to pay because all workers are volunteer. They don't provide insurance for their workers, They don't provide a retirement plan for anyone. All their properties are paid for by the dubs. The lawsuits which are some millions can be paid in a month easily out of collections from the congregations world wide. Their publication cost are nil since they are using jworg more and reducing print material.
  

  If they need cash flow then it has to be for something else not mentioned above. Something unusual that no one is thinking about or considering. Something outside the box of normal business operations.
  
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  16

  Giant fruit in Canaan/TNS

  by rebel8 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ok bible scholars, do i have this right?.

  jehoopla promised the israelites lots of great stuff in the promised land, but they didn't believe him so they sent spies to check it out.

  they came back with fruit so large it had to be carried on a branch by 2 men.. from this, dubs believe they are going to have strawberries the size of king king's skull when they get to their own promised land (the new system).

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  John Aquila

  In comparison to Israelites, the people of the land were giants. But the grapes were normal size.
  

  Numbers chapter 13:32,33all the people whom we saw in the midst of it are men of extraordinary size. 33 And there we saw the Neph′i·lim, the sons of A′nak, who are from the Neph′i·lim; so that we became in our own eyes like grasshoppers, and the same way we became in their eyes.”
  

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQHm7oItkdA
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  5

  Jeroboam Vs Man of God

  by John Aquila in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  jeroboam built high places for calve worship, created his own priests, created his own sacred day of worship, and was just all around a bad man.

  1 kings chapter 12.

  man of god did not engage in false worship, did not have tons of money, did not have a harem of beautiful women, and did not have the power of a kingdom.

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  John Aquila

  Jeroboam built high places for calve worship, created his own priests, created his own sacred day of worship, and was just all around a Bad Man. 1 Kings chapter 12

  Man of God did not engage in false worship, did not have tons of money, did not have a harem of beautiful women, and did not have the power of a Kingdom. He probably never married because he was a pioneer in his time seeking the Kingdom first. (Doesn’t mean he couldn’t dream about Ab′i·shag the Shu′nam·mite) Especially on lonely nights!

  1 Kings 13 This Man of God was ordered to go condemn Jeroboam for introducing false worship to 10 tribes of Israel. This he did and it made Jeroboam furious. Jeroboam give the command;

  (1 Kings 13:4) “YOU men, grab hold of him!” Immediately his hand that he had thrust out against him became dried up, and he was not able to draw it back to himself.

  Jeroboam cries to the man of the [true] God and this is what happens:

  1 kings 13:6 At this the man of the [true] God softened the face of Jehovah, so that the king’s hand was restored to him.

  Jeroboam is so grateful that he invites the Man of God to have a meal with him, but the Man of God declines because Jehovah told him not to EAT BREAD OR DRINK WATER and take a different route.

  The Man of God was tricked by another prophet;

  (1 Kings 13:18) “I too am a prophet like you, and an angel himself spoke to me by the word of Jehovah, saying, ‘Have him come back with you to your house that he may eat BREAD and drink WATER.’” (He deceived him.)

  Final outcome for Man of God who served God all his life and sacrificed everything:

  (1 Kings 13:21, 22) “This is what Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that you rebelled against the order of Jehovah, but you went back that you might eat BREAD and drink WATER in the place.. (DEATH TO YOU BABY) And he got on his way. Later a lion found him on the road and put him to death.

  The Man of God was DESTROYED for EATING BREAD and DRINKING WATER.

  Final outcome for Jeroboam

  (1 Kings 13:33) Jer·o·bo′am did not turn back from his bad way,

  The Watchtower always used examples like this to emphasize how important it is to be obedient to every single detail coming from the Governing Body.

  And I fell for it.

  But now I see it differently

  Man of the God sacrifices a normal life and serves God all his life but gets slaughter for being tricked into eating Bread and drinking Water?

  Jeroboam does not serve God and lives possibly 50-70 years and is King of Israel with lots of women, power, money and your own altars of calves? Plus you can always ask a Man of God to restore you shriveled hand and it will be restored. But you will never be destroyed for eating BREAD and DRINKING WATER.