https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv59ttywjom&feature=youtu.be.
Hi menrov,
Your interpretation requires some refining.
According to WT interpretation, the United Nations (UN), will attack false religion (not Russia or any other country).
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/gods-kingdom/promises/kingdom-enemies-removed/
so all the jw's i know are practically wetting their pants in excitement over the russian letters they are sending out.
they seem to have this insane idea that putin's office will be pulled sky high with all these letters and they have this image in their imaginations of him having to open and read every letter (!).
also all the jw's i know have all put their name and address on the letter... which couldn't have any repercussions of course (!
Whether Putin reads these letters or not, its achieving the purpose of GB as stated in their press release: "The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses wants to heighten attention to this critical situation”
https://www.jw.org/en/news/releases/by-region/russia/jw-mobilize-global-response-to-threat-of-ban/
Literally all JW's and Ex-Jw's are speaking about this letter writing campaign.
JW's are using all of their time and effort to write and post letters. (Yesterday, my local congregation (India) of 40 publishers sent 210 letters to Moscow through courier and 50 letters to the local Russian embassy. Another mammoth letter writing session planned tomorrow)
While Ex-Jw's are using all their time to discuss about this and the possible things that Putin will do with these letters coming in. 5 topics in the first two pages of this forum itself!
In any scenario, whether JW's get banned or not, this situation is surely getting all the attention that it requires.
interesting to read the reports from around the world.
i doubt many jws have read any of them.. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russian-government-jehovahs-witnesses-extremist-group-lawsuit-supreme-court-a7634671.html.
russian authorities threatened to close jehovah’s witnesses administrative centre last march, when they issued a formal warning to the congregation that the “religious association will be subject to liquidation” if it failed to eliminate within two months the violations identified by the government as “extremist”.
I think there are two aspects to see this issue. Persecution of religious groups is different from banning them outright.
We are correct about Pentecostals and Protestants being persecuted in Russia, but I would like to know- has Russia banned them or has it decided to outrightly ban any other Christian denomination in Russia?
jehovah's witnesses mobilize global response to threat of ban in russia.
march 21, 2017. https://www.jw.org/en/news/releases/by-region/russia/jw-mobilize-global-response-to-threat-of-ban/.
new york—threatened with an imminent ban on their worship in russia, jehovah’s witnesses are responding with a direct appeal to kremlin and supreme court officials for relief through a global letter-writing campaign.
sir82, regarding your comment:
Just waiting for some JWs to start in on how Jehovah must be refining the brothers, there must be some problem going on in Russia, and just as Jehovah used the Babylonians and the Assyrians to discipline his people, today he is using the Russians....
This thinking is now old light. The WT recently dunked this thought in the Nov 2016 Watchtower article:
"In the past, we said that God’s people did not have his favor during World War I because they did not preach with zeal. For this reason, we believed that Jehovah had allowed Babylon the Great to take them captive for a short time. However, faithful brothers and sisters who served God between 1914 and 1918 later explained that as a group, they did everything they could to keep preaching. A better understanding of what happened to the Bible Students during that time helps us to understand certain events recorded in the Bible"
http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/402016844?q=1918&p=par
jehovah's witnesses mobilize global response to threat of ban in russia.
march 21, 2017. https://www.jw.org/en/news/releases/by-region/russia/jw-mobilize-global-response-to-threat-of-ban/.
new york—threatened with an imminent ban on their worship in russia, jehovah’s witnesses are responding with a direct appeal to kremlin and supreme court officials for relief through a global letter-writing campaign.
jwleaks,
you mentioned: Joseph Rutherford, president of Watchtower and leader of the JWs, organized a letter writing campaign against Hitler which, more or less, personally threatened him. Interestingly Rutherford died first, in 1942, and Hitler died in 1945.
Not supporting JW's, but since you made a comparison with Hitler- More interestingly, Rutherford died in 1942, but left behind his idea and product-JW's which are numbering into millions (both in membership and $$). On the other side, in 1945, Hitler killed himself, his ideology and his Nazi party - into oblivion.
jehovah's witnesses mobilize global response to threat of ban in russia.
march 21, 2017. https://www.jw.org/en/news/releases/by-region/russia/jw-mobilize-global-response-to-threat-of-ban/.
new york—threatened with an imminent ban on their worship in russia, jehovah’s witnesses are responding with a direct appeal to kremlin and supreme court officials for relief through a global letter-writing campaign.
Hi tor,
Got the best idea ever, you know when you go to the card store and they have those big cards that has enough room for many people to sign....The org. can have every congregation do that...I think that's better don't you...
Buying a card and getting everyone sign on it is not the best way to show support for a cause. Anyone can buy a big card and sign with all sorts of different styles to show support. Writing and sending individual letters shows effort- even if they are copy-paste- at least you had to pay the postage for each letter.In the end it's never about a cause it's always about the money....maybe JW's don't support the gov't in Russia but take advantage of all the benefits...just like they do here in the USA....maybe they are a burden on their society...
What exactly do you mean by supporting the govt? There are heck load of people in Russia (hundred times the number of JW's) who don't pay taxes, don't vote and thus are a burden to the society.
I think it's more about $$$, than anything else...
No need for anyone to speculate about this. Its obvious in their press release on jw.org where they say that they are going to lose their kingdom halls and their administrative office. Banning adherents from meeting together and confiscating properties have never worked and will not work. At least for JW's.
i'll be starting a series "answer this:" with thought-provoking questions for debate.
your arguments for and against are most welcome.. i'll start with this: .
why would an omnibenevolent and omniscient god put us through tests of faith?.
EdenOne,
There are many ways of answering and analyzing this question.
People will argue on the premise: "God does not put us through tests" but "allows tests to come on us".
You said: Not stopping evil when you have the power to do so is evil in itself. Not necessarily in all cases. It depends on how much we know about the 'tests' people are facing. My cousin is currently suffering from a terminal disease with unimaginable pain. Some people around him feel that if God has unlimited power, why does he let him go through such pain? Why doesn't he heal him?
However, known to us and other family members, my cousin (never a JW) had made extreme bad choices in life (drugs, violent gangs, etc) and is now suffering from STD and a miserable life. Should God come and stop his suffering since he has the power to do so? Who is evil? God or my cousin? Is God putting him through tests of faith? or Is God allowing him to suffer the consequences of his own decisions? His JW wife is doing extremely well in taking care of him, their children, her parents, doing two jobs a day and living as a JW. All with a constant smile on her face. If you ask me, do miracles happen? Yes, what she achieves is nothing short of a miracle.It is because of her sheer willpower that he has managed to survive so long. So i feel, If God exists, then he has done a good job by not miraculously healing my brother and at the same he is doing a great job by empowering my sis-in-law to endure all this.
You can argue on this point on and on. According to me, it all depends on how much I know about the situation or the 'evil' and trying to understand why certain things we call 'evil' are happening, rather than squarely putting the entire blame on God.
We are all human beings created with a sense of proper decision making. We either suffer evil because of our own decisions or due to bad decisions taken by others. And it is up to us whether we chose to sit and cry over our misery and blame God for our suffering or stand up and try to use the 'God-given' abilities to come out of our suffering.
i have some tricks to play.
i know it may sound childish but i feel that creating havoc and forcing the memorial to be postponed will be the highlight of the night!
wish me luck!.
Farmgirl,
Some points to remember (most of these have been repeated earlier):
1. No matter what your disagreement is with the ORGANIZATION, it's wrong to take it out on the ADHERENTS, who really have minimal control over how they think and act.
2. Right to 'peaceful' assembly is still a legal/civil right. This disruption would not have worked against me when I was among them. Right or wrong.
3. People creating havoc during peaceful religious services will be classified as Unemployed, lazy and bigoted, not Public Activists.
4. There would be children in there. You don't do things like this to people just because you disagree with them.
5. By disrupting the local congregation's memorial to protest against the GB, a person is just going the wrong way and focusing on the wrong people.
6. JW's believe that they are "Objects of Hatred". Public displays/disruptions don't do anything but reinforce the idea that God's people will be persecuted.
hi guys, non jw here but i was wondering why jw's believe going out in service is worship?
are they just told that or do they try to use scripture to support that?.
Hi Charity,
There are a number of Scriptures that they use to support their preaching (some which i remember):
Matt 24:14, 28:19,20; Romans 10:9, 1 Cor 9:16, Heb 13:15, Luke 24:47, etc.
Regarding who would do the preaching work, they believe that the NT was primarily written for the anointed, so the anointed would be forefront in the work. However, since John the baptizer, Noah and other prophets of old did evangelizing work (to some extent) and since these are believed to have the earthly hope, those of the great crowd are encouraged to support the anointed ones in their preaching activity.
They also use Rev 22:17 to support why anointed and great crowd, both have to do the preaching work:
And the spirit and the bride+ keep on saying, “Come!” and let anyone hearing say, “Come!” and let anyone thirsting come;+ let anyone who wishes take life’s water free.+
i want to send a disassociation letter to the elders at my old congregation.
how do i address it and what wording do i use?
i know it's not something i have to do, it's symbolic for me.
Zeb, regarding your comment,
However I am ever confused on this need to resign in writing. I was baptized and never received a card or letter of welcome nor did any of my family. So why do the wts require a written notice of departure?
When you were baptized, you did not receive any letter, however, the date of your baptism was recorded on your Publisher Card. This publisher card served as a proof of your baptism and being a member of the JW organization. The card moved along with you wherever you transferred.
A letter of disassociation is an official document for the elders of the congregation which is recorded and filed in their confidential reports. In the future, if a court case or a child abuse case comes up and the disassociated individual is a party to it, the elders at that particular time will have the necessary details about the individual and whether he was a JW during the reported incident.
Simply put, you may hate the company/organization where you are working, but you need to submit a letter of resignation if you want to leave. Keeping things official is always the best and minimizes future problems.
LifesNotOver
Most of the elders won’t be interested in reading and analyzing your letter or your points, no matter how appealing it is. Their confidential file is full of such letters and at the most, the secretary of your congregation will skim through it to explain to the CO or other elders and for preparing the S-77 form. One sentence would be more than enough.
