Posts by Phizzy

37

Avoiding Temptation As a Young Elder

by TMS in

it was the summer of '72.

i was 24 but had been the presiding overseer or congregation servant of a small congregation in the county seat of an arkansas county for about 3 years.. my regular pioneer wife of nearly four years was big and pregnant, with our attempts at birth control unsuccessful.. one of my wife's several bible studies was with a young woman named brenda whom my wife had encountered in door to door work.. brenda had two young children she could barely handle and was married to a very countryfied arkie named henry who worked as a chicken catcher, one of the most difficult jobs at the local chicken plant.. brenda eventually revealed that she'd been raised as a jw, but was never baptized, having left home to marry henry at age 14. she spoke of her family in texas, mentioning her mother and two older sisters, all jws she said.. one morning, just before the meeting for field service, we noticed a small car in kingdom hall parking lot.

my wife and i were parked to one side of the hall in our aluminum nashua house trailer.. two young women got out of the car and soon joined us for the meeting for service, identifying themselves as brenda's sisters from texas.. the two girls, ages 17 and 20, were distractingly beautiful, with the eldest decked out like a magnificent southern belle including hat and heels, her high-end clothing accentuating her very obvious curves.. with no one else showing up for field service, it ended up just the four of us in the car group with the two texas girls in the back seat.. starting our time at a not-at-home, the 20 year old asked if she could accompany me to "hear my presentation.

Phizzy

I don't know if it is an age thing that kicks in men who are over 70, but I have been musing on a good number of instances when I was offered sex with attractive young JW women, I refused in every instance, because similar to the O.P I was married to a loyal woman , and I believed in loyalty to her in return.

It was hard sometimes, in both meanings of the word !

The bullet I really missed was the girl who looking back wanted not just sex, but to wreck my marriage and have me as her husband, she had obviously calculated the Divorces (she was married too) and the possible DFing as being worth it, but she was a Witch, and may have worked out how to do it and come up smelling vaguely of roses. Because not much later she did that, got "scripturally" divorced some how, and then married a guy, a much younger JW, who had been single until then.

11

Romans 10:9, 13 Identifying Jesus as Jehovah?

by Daniel Michaels in

the use of the divine name in the nwtcgs

romans 10:9, 13

identifying jesus as jehovah

Phizzy

Really, if you understand the origin of the god Yahweh, all this discussion is pointless, or worse in fact, rather silly.

9

No part of the world

by Lost in the fog in

the wt calls itself christian while at the same time insisting that its witnesses don't mix with other christian groups but remain separate.. to be no part of the world.. i was mulling this over recently in my personal bible reading.

in the first century that demarcation would have made sense because apart from your fellow worshippers the rest of mankind were going to be jewish, roman, polytheistic, pagan, or (i guess much like today) didn't really care.. christians had no worries about meeting up with other people who believed in jesus the same as they did even if there were minor differences depending on who had first taught the gospel message to them.

but nowadays there's not just one christian group against the world, there's lots of "christians" out there.

Phizzy

" 38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”

39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us."

34

Our J.W friends still have issues with beards 2022??Why?

by Witness 007 in

our witness friend who during covid grew his beard has been hassled by elders who asked him "why" he chose to have facial growth.

he for real, had to give an answer why.

this is pharasees total rubbish.

Phizzy

It was always total nonsense bullshit. President N. H. Knorr wanted the j.w's to mimic the "standards" of Corporate America, which he thought was the thing that was the highest of standards. Hence the suits, corporate hairstyles etc etc.

This was indicative of his, and even the present G.B's, parochial view of things.

The world has moved on, about 20 years ago, and gone from long Hipster beards, back to stubble. It is noteworthy that Jesus melted into a crowd, and escaped being apprehended, by looking like every other Hip bloke of his day. J.W's I can pick out as "weirdos" even when driving through a Town far from home. Because of imposed, nonsense, bullshit, non-Biblical "standards".

15

Honest Hearted Ones

by Sea Breeze in

there are certain wt terms that sound biblical but really just puff up the pride.

hundreds of times the wt has used the term honest-hearted in their literature.

it sounds biblical, if for no other reason because we hear it so often in jw circles.

Phizzy

An old technique, but proven to work, we see it in advertising, and political rhetoric and propaganda. The Org. love it.

21

question for those who either aux pioneered pioneered

by enoughisenough in

how many of you would have spent the hours "pioneering" if it weren't for the pats on the back and being looked up to as someone special in the congregation?

i will admit that back in late 1970's i attempted to aux pioneer during a campaign because it was promoted and seemed the right thing to do,but i didn't get the hours and it was stressful trying to...and i didn't feel like a cheerful giver.

i never attempted it again.

Phizzy

Looking back, I guess I did it because it was the "right thing to do", back in the late 1960's. My older siblings had both Regular Pioneered, so I did for a while, then dropped down to Aux, one month on, next month off, to earn money while "off".

Before long I started courting my wife to be ( she is still here ! nearly 52 Bloody years, and she won't take the numerous hints) and had to earn money to pay for our Wedding and gawd knows what, she was no good with money, at the time.

I only did one more stint of Aux. in the late 80's I guess, I really don't know why for sure, it wasn't to impress, or "the right thing to do" or anything, I had got beyond that by then. I must give my motive some thought, but suspect it may have stemmed from the Elders exhorting us to Pioneer, and not doing it themselves, so I picked on an Elder I knew hated D to D, and got him to sign up, to "help" me !

75

Is the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses REALLY the "faithful and discreet slave" of Matt. 24:45-47?

by Roger Kirkpatrick in

thesis: when someone who is given a responsibility mistakes that responsibility for authority, bullying is very likely to occur.. jesus spoke an illustration recorded at matthew 24: 45-51 which well illustrates this thesis.. jesus asked, “who really is the faithful and discreet slave whom his master appointed over all his domestics, to give them their food at the proper time?

happy is that slave if his master on arriving finds him doing so.

truly i say to you, he will appoint him over all his belongings.

Phizzy

The Parable of the Discreet and Evil Slaves is.......... guess what ?........ A PARABLE, not a prophecy. To make it a prophecy is a nonsense, and logically would mean that all of the recorded parables of Jesus were prophecies.

In a vain effort to bolster their claim that Jesus' parable is a prophecy, and refers to the G.B of J.W's, the Org. did attempt to prove just that, the prophetic nature of most of Jesus' parables. Their attempt was obvious arrant nonsense, and has been abandoned in recent times, except for this one parable.

9

No part of the world

by Lost in the fog in

the wt calls itself christian while at the same time insisting that its witnesses don't mix with other christian groups but remain separate.. to be no part of the world.. i was mulling this over recently in my personal bible reading.

in the first century that demarcation would have made sense because apart from your fellow worshippers the rest of mankind were going to be jewish, roman, polytheistic, pagan, or (i guess much like today) didn't really care.. christians had no worries about meeting up with other people who believed in jesus the same as they did even if there were minor differences depending on who had first taught the gospel message to them.

but nowadays there's not just one christian group against the world, there's lots of "christians" out there.

Phizzy

There is the account (story) in one of the Gospels where someone is preaching about Jesus, but is not of the Apostles or disciples directly associating with Jesus, Jesus says to let him carry on, for "whoever is not against us, stands with us" ( I paraphrase), but that is the attitude that must have pertained in the early Church as it grew, and various Sects became evident, called "false Apostles" by Paul, teaching a different Gospel, or set of Doctrines, to Paul.

But nowhere are these Christians called part of the "Kosmos", or World, the world is the people who do not have among them anyone believing in , and teaching the gospel in some form or another, or pagandom we could say.

The J.W org ignores that Gospel story, and lumps together all who are not J.W's, as "the world", which goes against Scripture, and Christian practice.

8

Anglo-American duel world power

by nowwhat? in

king charles and joe biden.

need i say more?😂😂😂 .

Phizzy

The concept of the Special Relationship was given a boost by Churchill, when he used the expression. But the reality has been that the relationship has often been shaky, both Governments opposing the other on occasion over military action etc.

It is doubtful now that Intelligence sharing will be at the level it used to be, we are a leaky ship in that regard in the U.K, as was the U.S under Trump of course.

Trade links have been all but severed by Johnson and Gang's attitude to N.Ireland. and other things.

All in all, there is still a kind of concept of a Special Relationship, witness Biden's tweet saying so, but the reality is it is a very shaky and weak alliance, the two Nations , particularly now, are nothing like a "Dual World Power" as the org. labels them, and never really were.

25

Jehovah's Witnesses and Apostates

by tfjw in

jehovah's witnesses basically define the term "apostate" as someone who was once a member of the "organization" (a jehovah's witness) but no longer follows the teachings, rules, regulations and practices.

the society gives their official definition in the following manner: "apostasy is abandoning or deserting the worship and service of god, actually a rebellion against jehovah god.

some apostates profess to know and serve god but reject teachings or requirements set out in his word.

Phizzy

Apostasy as used in N.T Greek refers not to a person merely "standing apart" from her or his former Christian Faith, just ceasing activity with the congregation, it is the idea of withdrawing from communion with the church deliberately, and is more often associated with going to a new or former pagan belief in preference to the Christian one, including Idolatry of course.

I think the Org does in words, in its literature, draw a distinction between an inactive person, and someone embracing opposing beliefs to the Org. The problem is that in practice, even the merely inactive are treated by the Rank and File J.W's as though they are out and out Apostates. And the org. wants this to be so, even if the reasons for inactivity have nothing to do with Doctrine, but, as is more than likely, to do with the way the Org and its members work, "mistreating the flock" in many ways, that individual is as dangerous from the Org's point of view as someone like me who can demolish their house of cards that is their teaching, in a heartbeat.

So the Org. uses "apostate" as a demonising word, aimed at all who no longer actively support the org, to trigger certain behaviour in the faithful, that will ensure they remain entrapped in the Cult.