The Antichrist is one who opposes Christ and puts himself in Christ's place !
The G.B have done both in huge measure.
antichrist - nwt p. 1693 glossary of bible terms - "all people, organizations, or groups that falsely claim to represent christ....can properly be called antichrists.
well this proves that the org can't be the antichrist, because they've never claimed to represent christ - only jehovah!
's can now breathe a sigh of relief)
The Antichrist is one who opposes Christ and puts himself in Christ's place !
The G.B have done both in huge measure.
the fact that there are pomi ex-jws who have been disfellowshiped or inactive for years who still live in constant fear of armageddon indicates that watchtower will manage to exist in one way or another for years, if not decades, to come.
watchtower, like all other religious cults, operate on the premise that "you can fool some of the people all of the time...and that's enough!
".
I agree LV101, but there was a poster on here who only woke up because of the Abuse scandals. If only a few do so, and find the Road to Freedom it will mean the the Org is losing even more quality members.
The guy, and his wife who left were quite prominent in their area, if memory serves he was a District ( Regional) Convention speaker, lose people of that quality and the Borg's decline begins to speed up !
i believe the environmental movement has many of the hallmarks of an apocalyptic millenarian cult.. urgent predictions of doom and fear-mongering.
utopian ideology.
us v them, good v evil mindset.
Some Vegan movements are similar. One lot invaded a Slaughter House and tried to free the animals. Their energies would be better directed toward the major Companies that are far from Green.
On Climate Change, I do wish people would only base their statements on solid Science, or idiots get on Social media, pull apart what has been said, and leave the impression we are not in Deep Do Do with Climate change.
And of course, the major Companies with vested interests are pleased to see the issue obfuscated.
the fact that there are pomi ex-jws who have been disfellowshiped or inactive for years who still live in constant fear of armageddon indicates that watchtower will manage to exist in one way or another for years, if not decades, to come.
watchtower, like all other religious cults, operate on the premise that "you can fool some of the people all of the time...and that's enough!
".
" I see why it is so hard to get an accurate accounting of true membership. "
It would be interesting, but impossible, to get a true number of really active members, we know from our own experience, and evidence from others on here, that most Field Service Reports are mainly works of Fiction.
It obviously is also totally impossible to estimate how many - if any at all - are 100% believers, with no doubts at all. The ones I have spoken to who I thought were 100% believers in all the Bullcrap turned out to have doubts, and some said they would not do certain things even if expected of them, like Shunning.
So,despite the numbers claimed, the Org has a problem with real commitment.
the fact that there are pomi ex-jws who have been disfellowshiped or inactive for years who still live in constant fear of armageddon indicates that watchtower will manage to exist in one way or another for years, if not decades, to come.
watchtower, like all other religious cults, operate on the premise that "you can fool some of the people all of the time...and that's enough!
".
Hi SBF,
It is interesting what you say about the Dublin Branch, they used to have a really swish Building out in the Countryside, I know it was for sale for a long time, and they made pioneers and other volunteers go and maintain it, and cut the grass etc ! it must have sold in the end.
I agree that they could sell the Dublin house, maybe soon, the very small Branch could be operated out of someones front room !
it seems no matter how much money or press the victims get, the rank and file jw's are either unaware or do not believe what had happened.
the persecution complex takes over.
stockholm syndrome???.
It would be fantastic to see that !
Sadly, I doubt a Court could force them to Publicize a Case, but they may be able to make them Publish a Full Apology ??? If so, the Court would have to insist it was not couched in the usual JW Mind Control way, or, again, the JW Rank & File will dismiss it in their minds.
I am looking forward to the brown sticky stuff finally hitting the fan, we know from Posters on here that it has already woken up a number of JW's !
Even if you and I do not get exactly what we want, the resultant wide publicity from the case will have a huge effect.
does palestine actually exist?
does israel have the right to exist!.
What PeacefulPete said, " What matters is how to resolve the stalemate of tit for tat violence that exists today." answers LUHE's 3 part last question to me very well.
The rest of his Post, above, explains why we cannot say any group has an overarching right to land, of course we must accept that people live where they do, but Ancient History of the Land or its inhabitants confers no right whatsoever, or you walk along a very rocky road !
I do firmly believe in America for the Native Americans, and Australia for the Aborigines, and the Isle of Wight for the offspring of the people who obviously lived there 8 Thousand years ago........ now I must remove my tongue from within my cheek before it gets stuck there !
the fact that there are pomi ex-jws who have been disfellowshiped or inactive for years who still live in constant fear of armageddon indicates that watchtower will manage to exist in one way or another for years, if not decades, to come.
watchtower, like all other religious cults, operate on the premise that "you can fool some of the people all of the time...and that's enough!
".
The last Jehovah's Witness will look sadly out of the window of her/his care Home, and think, I wonder how long before the End ? ". Sadly, that person will meet their end before The End, and won't get a resurrection in to a new System either.
POMI JW's might still believe the rubbish, but mostly do not contribute $$$,
Lack of $$$ will kill the Org in the end, it is my fervent hope I live to see it !
i see top uk jw lawyer richard cook is finally having to move out of his jw "grace & favour" house , currently for sale for a cool £2.75 million.
https://solicitors.guru/office/3466-richard-cook-solicitors/.
https://ibsaproperty.com/houses/lowood-house/.
If the in house lawyers do jump ship, the JW Org will have to start paying some pretty steep legal Bills. Someone like Richard Cook will find it none too easy to slip in to normal Practice, these Legal Eagles that are in house do not seem the brightest of stars in the legal firmament.
i grew up as a witness, and left about 10 years ago, i'm currently researching witness numbers for a project i'm working on, and i can't seem to get an accurate number of baptised witnesses - hardly a surprise!
from their website it looks like they list the number of publishers instead of the number of baptised witnesses, so it totally works to obscure how many actual witnesses there are, apart from the fact it's morally dubious to class a publisher as a minister of god as they refer to publishers on their uk section of the site.
i also am trying to work out how many leave every year, even approximate figures would be great, from their own website it just looks like they try to massage figures to make them look as favourable as possible.
When I first left I tried to make sense of the numbers. Very difficult, as the baptized number will be necessarily already be Publishers. As to numbers leaving, one would have to allow for the normal death rate, but this may be slightly higher than the average, as JW's are an ageing lot.
It was patently obvious that even taking those things in to account, there are thousands of "missing" JW's over the decades, some may of course be still attending, but inactive and therefore not counted.
I would hazard a guess, not based upon much, that about 15% leave in any one year, but before that have become inactive.
There even could be millions of ex JW's still alive ???