Posts by Phizzy

48

The Date for the Memorial is WRONG this year!

by Kelley959 in

an interesting video was on youtube with a person claiming that the memorial date for 2024 was wrong.

so i consulted three different jewish calendars online and sure enough, he appears to be right.

i went back to 2014 and forward to 2027. they have the future dates listed.

Phizzy

There is also a Thread by the incredible Leolaia, from years ago, which in addition to Jeffro's perhaps ? shows that EVERY year they get it wrong ! Their method of calculating is wrong of course, but Leolaia showed from the historical roots of Passover why it is wrong every year IIRC.

But as above, they really do not care, it gives them a feeling of superiority that they know better than the Jewish Scholars !

Many years ago when I first left, I had read Leo's Thread, and spoke about what I knew to an elderly JW lady, a former F.T. Pioneer and full on J.W, who surprised me by saying, as she walked away " I don't CARE if it is on the wrong day !", I think that attitude would be general now among J.W's.

65

Just had a thought…

by Vidiot in

i been reading quite a few experiences on reddit lately, and their seems to be a common theme coming up….

…dialed-up-to-eleven shunning of xjws by their witness relatives.. it reminds me of back in the day, listening to some of the over-the-top vitriol displayed by hard-core loyalists when the topic of evolution or apostates came up….

…i was gobsmacked when i finally realized these guys weren’t offended and indignant because they thought it was lies….

Phizzy

I had an e-mail chat with a Christadelphian , when I first left, who helped me find the information I was looking for to show that if Jesus was going to appoint anyone as an FDS in1918/9, it would have been the Christadelphians, looking at it from a JW perspective, as what the Christadelphians taught back then in 1919, was exactly the same as JW's called "Present truth" in the year of my asking him, all bar the actual year of 1914 etc.

So why would Jesus choose Rutherford & Co in1919? when you look at all the discarded dross the Rutherfordites were teaching then ! As Ray Franz said that claim is an "Insult to Jesus".

When I left, two Elders did a "Shepherding" visit, trying to get me to admit to Apostasy in some way. That didn't work.

But JW's see Apostasy as the Greatest Sin of All, how silly !

I wonder how widespread the "ramping up" of shunning is geographically ? Has something prompted this just in the USA, or is it worldwide ?

I must say I was surprised about this, as an Elder relative recently dropped in to see how we were, he knows not to talk religion, but was very friendly and normal. (for a JW Elder).

77

How would you define RELIGION, and why?

by Fernando in

"judge" rutherford defined or classified all religion as "a snare and a racket" in his books "religion" and "enemies".. after rutherford's death in 1942, his protege, watchtower vice president, and aclu darling, hayden c. covington, in the early 1950's, for reasons of legal expedience and supremacist aspirations, suddenly converted the watchtower into a religion.. this was done alongside one of the most audacious, spurious and longstanding swindles of the us legal system.

this involved twisting philippians 1:7 and misrepresenting the watchtower's true nature, objectives and activities.. .

this meant that it became necessary for the watchtower to suddenly reclassify and redefine religion (w51 1/15 p. 43 new legal booklet well named; w51 8/15 p. 511 questions from readers; yb75 p. 161 part 2 "for gladys bolton...").. two new watchtower classifications were suddenly created: "true religion" and "false religion".. now "true religion" meant "true beliefs" whilst "belief" in ever changing watchtower doctrine was equated with the one "faith" of scripture.. all this while the watchtower increasingly and maliciously truncated, obfuscated and hid the liberating full "good news" (or unabridged gospel) of scripture, which it lyingly claimed (in court) that it was actually "defending and legally establishing".. how would you have defined religion before learning ttatt?.

Phizzy

"Religion was invented when the first priest met the first Gullible Fool" , Mark Twain.

60

The Evolution of Judas Iscariot

by Leolaia in

the story of judas iscariot in the gospels provides the reader with a fascinating picture of how the plot and details of the narratives were gleaned from the ot and embellished in different ways.

the evangelists and the tradents that preceded them looked to the ot (and other affiliated literature) for information on what happened to jesus, employing a haggadaic method of biblical interpretation similar to how rabbis and authors of pseudepigraphs in the second temple era expanded the brief stories of the patriarchs in genesis with reams of new detail and legendary episodes -- through the means of exegesis aimed to penetrate beyond a plain reading of the text to "fill in the blanks" of what must have happened.

the authors of the gospels also scoured through the ot to discover what was supposed to happen to jesus and wrote their stories accordingly.

Phizzy

Oh dear, an Ad hominem attack ! P.S. you just lost all credibility as far as I am concerned,and trumpeting your qualifications is not impressive.

A good number of Scholars have come to wrong conclusions in the past, and often because without realising it, they were looking at the Texts with believer's eyes. Or they were just plain wrong.

Just address what you disagree with, and back it up with more than mere opinion, and you may regain some credibility.

7

Comedian Katt Williams Wrongly Disfellowshipped By Jehovah's Witnesses!!!

by Golden4Altar in

comedian katt williams wrongly disfellowshipped by jehovah's witnesses!!!.

here is the link: https://jehovahstruth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=59.

golden 4altar.

Phizzy

"wrongly" is redundant ", well yes, as the whole Disfellowshipping thing the Org. does is unscriptural in every feature, as we here know.

22

Oh boy: 1,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses reach out to Super Bowl fans in Las Vegas

by Tahoe in

https://www.fox5vegas.com/2024/02/09/1000-jehovahs-witnesses-reach-out-super-bowl-fans-las-vegas/ .

1000 lit-up carts at 50 strategic locations near the stadium and on the strip.

.

Phizzy

" What will be the result? None. "

I agree Gorby, not a single convert from that Public Relations exercise I bet, but the Org. does not care, they know JW's will not go D to D hardly at all in any meaningful way.

So this is to keep the J.W's busy busy, and to persuade the gullible J.W's that they are "Preaching the Good News", when zero actual preaching is involved !

2

Lost Gospel Series

by peacefulpete in

i thought it would be fun to take a brief look at various gospels in use by christians of the first few centuries ce.

one each week.

a few weeks back i posted regarding the egerton gospel which i cleverly misspelled edgerton gospel.. for now consider the oxyrhynchus gospel 840:.

Phizzy

Thanks PPete ! fascinating !

The Oxyrhynchus Papyri is a huge collection, much of it yet to be transcribed, and translated, a job that will not be completed in our lifetimes. It is hugely important because of all the secular stuff in the collection, of huge interest and use to Historians, and the Biblical stuff, of interest to Scholars, and us of course !

What a great idea ! bringing to us a chunk each week ! Thank you for your work, I wonder what new treasures will surface as the work of studying the Papyri continues !

8

Do or Do not Do

by peacefulpete in

" (greece; 4th century bce)

" (greece; 5th century bce)

2nd century bce.

Phizzy

Just to repeat what PP said at the end of his O.P, as this surely is the best version of the Golden Rule :

" "Do Unto Others as They Would Have You Do Unto Them."

... take time to learn about your neighbor's tastes, their mood, their needs, their principles before you start "doing" things "unto them." Treat others the way they want to be treated."

Well put, P. Pete !

48

2024 when will Witnesses admit they are wrong???

by Witness 007 in

1914 generation is long gone.

1975 was a joke 40 years ago.

i know of many witnesses still hanging on for armagedon but when will they give up?

Phizzy

The G.B and its predecessors never admit they were wrong, they may only have a "clarified understanding", according to them.

Individual older J.W's now suffer from the "Sunk Cost Fallacy" and allied false reasoning, and also many have an ingrained sense of Pride.

It takes humility to admit you have been wrong all your life.

1914 will become "The Elephant In the Room" for the G.B, gullible J.W's will follow that lead. I do not expect a mass waking up, even less a mass exodus. But soon, only those older ones, over 50's etc. will be in the majority by a long way. The young will continue to leave as they have done, the young that remain will not be there because of belief, but only for family and social reasons.

18

Were JW Celebrities Ever An Asset To The Organisation?

by NotFormer in

jw
friends

just wondering if the rich celebrities that occasionally were aligned with the wt gave enough to the 'tower to be a worthwhile presence within the organisation?.

my gut instinct is: "no".

i imagine that the jackson family gave a fair bit, but it was obviously never enough to buy michael the right to be held as being in good standing.

Phizzy

I have never joined in with the idea that Celebs, are something special, but even the Org. as has been pointed out in this thread I guess, thought they were, special enough to mention them, as some kind of validation at least.

My old man set me on that road to reasoning they were not special,or superhuman or something, when I was very young.

He spoke out against the practice of when a G.B member took to the Platform at a big Convention, the audience would clap them vigorously , before they had spoken a word, dad said that was idolizing them.

Later in life I saw first hand how J.W's sucked up to, and fawned over, prominent Bethel guys, and how those guys, and the G.B are the same, absolutely LOVED the adoration !