North Korea tests nuclear weapons - "Armageddon's close brothers!!"
North and South Korea enter peace talks - "Armageddon's close brothers!!"
Literally any world event is taken as proof of the big A.
just spoke with my mother about the summit for north and south korea, her face turned a ghastly pale and she refused to talk to me about it afterwards.
i know exactly what is on her mind, and i'm not sure if i can say or do anything to assuage her fears about this being a fulfillment of prophecy.
any suggestions on what i could perhaps tell her to try and steer her from her line of thinking?
North Korea tests nuclear weapons - "Armageddon's close brothers!!"
North and South Korea enter peace talks - "Armageddon's close brothers!!"
Literally any world event is taken as proof of the big A.
i am interested in the approach this forum takes to money.
apart from sex, (which i am quite relaxed about) it seems to me that wealth is the surest divider between those who are moral, and those who are not.. it seems jesus thought so, also.
luke 16:19-31 kjv describes well enough his dusty attitude to the rich who do not succour the poor.. and this world has many poor: so many, it might seem that we can do nothing about it, and twist his words; 'the poor ye shall have always with you, but me, ye shall not have always.
BUT in a healthy economic society there MUST BE inequality.Uh huh. Why, exactly? Why is it better that 1 person owns a million $ of shares, than a thousand people each own a thousand $ of shares?
Because that's how the world works. If someone invents the iPod and hires 1,000 Chinese laborers to put the pieces together to create 1 million iPods, then sells those iPods and uses the money to pay the workers and invest the money back into making MORE iPods ad infinitum it's only fair that the inventor should have the bigger share. After all, the inventor thought it up and put the plans in place to get it out there and he also created all those jobs.
If you were to say he only gets $33,000 and all the laborers also get $33,000 then he'd just not bother even designing and inventing the thing. Why would a Doctor or a nuclear physicist bother putting in all those hours of study, exams, hard work, late nights and no life when he could just become a litter picker or a mail man for the same wage?
IT TAKES AWAY INCENTIVE and incentive is the key. And that's, partly, why communist/socialist states fail 100% of the time.
Also, lets imagine we all have $33,000 and I own a grocery store. Why would i continue selling apples and bananas for £0.20 each? I'd immediately raise my prices to £5.00 each. Then guess what? Im richer than you because everyone is buying fruit for inflated prices because now the value of money is reduced.
Capitalism works. It's not always nice or fair for the individual but it works. The solution to poverty is government intervening and providing a system where no one will starve or have no home but at the same time gives people the incentive to find work and work hard. I myself started off in a dingy one bedroom flat in a rough neighborhood working in a crap job. THIS gave me the incentive to look for a better job, work hard and find better living conditions.
i am interested in the approach this forum takes to money.
apart from sex, (which i am quite relaxed about) it seems to me that wealth is the surest divider between those who are moral, and those who are not.. it seems jesus thought so, also.
luke 16:19-31 kjv describes well enough his dusty attitude to the rich who do not succour the poor.. and this world has many poor: so many, it might seem that we can do nothing about it, and twist his words; 'the poor ye shall have always with you, but me, ye shall not have always.
Funnily enough I wrote an essay about this very thing only yesterday for my university.
IT DOES NOT WORK. The economist Joseph Stiglitz (former director of world bank) confirmed that the divide of rich and poor is certainly at an all time high. The top 0.05% control over 85% of the worlds wealtg. BUT in a healthy economic society there MUST BE inequality. The extremes we're witnessing to today is systematic because government policies are set up to benefit the interests of the top 1% (banks, investors, stockbrokers etc). They pay higher taxes, sure, but the poor tend to spend all of their income whereas the rich have a surplus plus massive savings anyway.
You know what would happen if you took all of Richard Branson or Bill Gates money and gave them $33,000? In a few years they'd be billionaires again. Because people like this KNOW how to make money and they're innovative enough to actually get out there a make it happen. Society needs people like big earners to keep doing what they do - make money. So they can be taxed and the money funded into the public like roads, healthcare, farming etc. If you kept taking their billions off them and handing them back $33,000 that the road sweeper next door gets they'd just leave the country or stop bothering to make money for other people.
The answer is proving incentives to work hard and providing opportunities to actually work.
http://www.newsweek.com/jehovahs-witnesses-russia-ban-police-903021?utm_source=quora.
i guess the gb's idea of writing to the russian government last year didn't help?
now they have their names and addresses in which to raid their homes.. i sometimes wonder if the gb knew this would happen and wanted it to happen to ensure they'd be persecuted thus creating their own fulfillment of prophecy..
I really feel for the JWs in Russia. They have no idea that they're involved in a cult that does not care about them nor does anything for them.
But hey, at least Mark Sanderson could get his fat ass flown out of there the minute the courts banned them... and lets not forget Jehovah intervening to get them plane tickets, remember that one? Why, all they had to do was pick up the phone and call a travel agent! Praise Jah! It's a miracle!
I agree the religion should lose it's status as a "religion" but this kind of treatment is just awful. Taxing the hell out of the Russian WT branches would have put enough pressure on the borg without affecting the rank and file members much.
http://www.newsweek.com/jehovahs-witnesses-russia-ban-police-903021?utm_source=quora.
i guess the gb's idea of writing to the russian government last year didn't help?
now they have their names and addresses in which to raid their homes.. i sometimes wonder if the gb knew this would happen and wanted it to happen to ensure they'd be persecuted thus creating their own fulfillment of prophecy..
http://www.newsweek.com/jehovahs-witnesses-russia-ban-police-903021?utm_source=quora
I guess the GB's idea of writing to the Russian government last year didn't help? Now they have their names and addresses in which to raid their homes.
I sometimes wonder if the GB knew this would happen and wanted it to happen to ensure they'd be persecuted thus creating their own fulfillment of prophecy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maenrmttb-u&list=plj1cxa6hnc11blsv8iz9lzlux_zz6onyd&index=109.
go to minute nine for the third clip.
what is up with that hair???
Ah that's nothing, there were a few black sisters in my circuit with hair like that. It's not like its dyed completely pink like some "young ones" do nowadays.
This guy knows his stuff, but unfortunately he ruins it by going over the top on the offensive.
many have said that jesus never shunned anyone.
yet it seems that the apostle paul said to shun an unrepentant sinner, "stop keeping company" and "not even eating with such a man" 1co 5:9-12. it seems like shunning is what paul wanted us to do.
but honestly, it doesn't seem right to me.
Vanderhoven7 has nailed it here.
And also dpq407 is spot on. Paul claimed to have been chosen by Jesus as an apostle. But many things he teaches are so unlike the character Jesus. Also, the letters he written to the congregations, were they shared among all the congregations or just for that one? Was he giving council to specific congregations or what?
At the end of the day, a Christian is to be a follower of Jesus, not Paul.
we’ve all heard them all our life.
my two biggest stupidest ones i think are, “ we can really tell the end is almost here with the way people drive on the highway.” and a girl who said she wants to hurry up and marry her boyfriend because she’s scared if the end comes before their married, she’ll have to wait 1000 years to marry him.
oh and also a poor old lady saying that she hopes jehovah wipes away the memory of her disfellowshipped sons that he will have to destroy.
That we can live forever on earth in perfection That elders will be princes on Earth. Old people will become young again. Dead people will be resurrected. There will be no more death, pain, suffering, etc. 144,000 wackos will rule over the paradise earth. We will have time to learn anything we want so we won't be bored. I will be able to have a lion or tiger as a pet. I guess we will only eat fruit, veggies and bread. Everyone will be smiling all of the time and dressed in their culture's clothing.
More specifically, we'll all be wearing 70s slacks walking about with lions.
we’ve all heard them all our life.
my two biggest stupidest ones i think are, “ we can really tell the end is almost here with the way people drive on the highway.” and a girl who said she wants to hurry up and marry her boyfriend because she’s scared if the end comes before their married, she’ll have to wait 1000 years to marry him.
oh and also a poor old lady saying that she hopes jehovah wipes away the memory of her disfellowshipped sons that he will have to destroy.
Here's some:
My favorite one is from one of my ex-gf's dad. He was "anointed"... well, sometimes he was and other times he wasn't so every couple of years he'd stop partaking and other years he would. Anyway, one time when he thought he wasn't anointed and my then-gf asked him why he said "because I've just thought, i'd quite like to ride on an ostrich in the new system".
Last i heard he's anointed again. Apparently, god chose him... of all people... to be up there with him ruling over us.
hey forum goers.
i'd like your opinions on constructing an email reply to this shocker below.
bit of background about the sender: she is a middle-aged, cheery uberdub whose siblings left when a schism occured in her congregation in canada way back when.
This world has nothing to offer you but to use you and then spit you out...
Yh, coz the WT society has never done that to people has it?
He doesn't favour the intellectual ones who are proud and showy with their academic knowledge.
No, he's much happier looking for stupid people who dont question things.
BUT... if you really want to reply i'd stick to the thing she holds dear. The bible. (Ok, we all know it's really the WT society, but she thinks it's the bible so lets go with that).
Truth_b_known has beaten me to it, the first scripture that comes to mind is:
1 Thess 5:21 comes to mind. However, the NWT has really watered it down with an expected poor translation.
Make sure of all things;+ hold fast to what is fine. (NWT)
But bring out that almost every other bible says:
but test them all; hold on to what is good, (NIV)
The American Standard Version is on JW.borg, so mention that and quote it:
prove all things; hold fast that which is good (ASV)
Id say something like:
Truth has nothing to fear from a lie or falsehood. Jehovah is the God of truth. And as you yourself said, "you owe Jehovah your humility and honesty". Never would I think myself too proud like the religions of Christendom who claim they have the truth and that everyone else is wrong. Rather, I show humility and keep testing like Jehovah tells us to. The bible is Gods word, and God is honest. Human understanding can be in error, and that's what I'm guarding against. Man-made doctrines over Gods word. I choose to live by Gods word.