Watchtower has always operated by using plenty of words yet keeping things only vaguely defined. They've said they "are neither inspired nor infallible" but how do they define inspired? They say they are "spirit directed'...yet I don't recall hearing it put as " holy spirit directed'. The ongoing (for centuries), doctrinal debates among all sorts of religious people, admittedly deep thinkers, show that no one has complete or absolute understanding. And yes, within any sort of framework, including JW, people can and do disagree and protest, but of course also take the consequences.
HereIam60
JoinedPosts by HereIam60
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83
What the new JW light position really is 👍
by ElderBerry ini’m still an elder and i consider myself jw light.
as my fellow elders are.
we don’t throw our weight around like elders used to in the past, it’s all very easy going these days.
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What are some of the more exceptional self-authenticating claims made by Jehovah’s Witnesses?
by Vanderhoven7 inlet's start the ball rolling with two connected claims.. the religion of jehovah’s witnesses is the one true religion.
all other religions are satanic, including all the churches of christendom..
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HereIam60
It's been pointed out before, but Geoffrey Jackson's comment can be taken more than one way. He did not say it would "be" quite presumptuous to think they were the only spokesman God is using, but that it would "seem to be", in other words 'To an outside observer it might be viewed as presumptuous, but to us it is not..'...also whatever happened to " the annointed remnant"...the term seems to have gone totally out of use..?
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New World, New World Order, New System of Things
by blondie inthe wts has used to above terms, over the years, some more preferred in certain time periods.
more though, but these occurred to me first.
also the terms "new world" and "new world order" have been used by some us presidents and other leaders..
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HereIam60
When I was first coming in , in the 1980s there was a lot of 'conspiracy' talk among some evangelical and political groups to beware and fight against a forthcoming "New World Order - One World Government'. Which is why I think Watchtower has stepped away fom using those specific phrases. It's more common now to hear " The New System" or "" New Earth". Though the Bible version still used is, of course, 'The New World Translation'...
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What is the current Watchtower "rent charge per publisher" for Kingdom Halls in the USA???
by Balaamsass2 ini was following a few threads in reddit from current pimo jws complaining about local announcements regarding halls being short on their per publisher "rent payments".
third gen and i have been out pomo for a while...so how much is this charge now?
could this be part of the recent push to get people to "come back" or get re-instated...if it even is online and 15 minutes of service per month?
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HereIam60
It used to be that periodic, but not frequent, talks were given about the uses to which donations were put, the good they were doing etc. and it was simply left at that. Now it's much more blatant. At our Hall we were recently informed, after a letter from "The Branch", that our Kingdom Hall Operating Fund, the amount to be kept on hand, was below the amount suggested by he Organization, and the brothers were " just putting it out there". Of course the congregation made up the shortfall and this was acknowledged. They used to say "We will never beg for, or solicit funds..." they may as well add "...until we do." A big thing is still made of 'no collection plate is passed', but collections are certainly taken, literally. When on the broadcast of March 2015 Steven Lett said 'More money was going out than coming in..." I was screaming (in the back of my mind) "If that's true, it's because they (GB) have mismanaged it, and proven themselves neither faithful nor discreet with the Master's belongings...
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What is this?
by Achille inthis image is from "the watchtower" july 2024 (study edition):i can't figure out what that object is that is between the sleeping apostles.wath is it?
a stick, a scroll of the scriptures?
....
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HereIam60
It's from last year's (July 2024) Study Edition Watchtower article "Keep On Guard Against Temptation" One of a series of 3 illustrations depicting Jesus telling the apostles to 'Keep on the watch', their falling asleep, then abandoning him. I would agree that the object in question is the sword Peter used to strike off the ear of the high priest's slave (Matthew 26), but as drawn it does resemble something else...
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Will They Change the Memorial Talk This Year?
by raymond frantz inhttps://youtu.be/o5almnehew4?si=kdgrjgbiutjkvcxe.
i’m hoping the memorial talk will be different.
change the talk!
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HereIam60
I don''t recall 'born again' being referred to in previous Memorial talks, but I could be wrong. Watchtower usually avoids using the term. I remember never being able to understand the explanation of it given in the old Reasoning book. Some people use being 'Born Again" in reference to repentance over past sins, and beginning a new way of life. JW teaching seems to refer to it as Jehovah granting a person a "spiritual" nature so as to be able to enter heaven as the scripture says "flesh and blood cannot inherit it" (1st Corinthians 15:50). They say Jesus was 'born again' at his baptism, in that he was born on earth fully human, but his spiritual 'nature' was restored when holy spirit came down upon him. (or so I understand...!)
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Will They Change the Memorial Talk This Year?
by raymond frantz inhttps://youtu.be/o5almnehew4?si=kdgrjgbiutjkvcxe.
i’m hoping the memorial talk will be different.
change the talk!
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HereIam60
https://www.jw-stream.org/w/siHGcpzHKF7xfqkJ7DskFT This seems to be a recorded version of the talk for this year.
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Did Watchtower Really Teach That Armageddon Was Coming in 1954?
by Jerome56 inin the march 2025 jw broadcast david splane in his morning worship talk mentioned that "some thought" that armageddon would come 40 years after 1914. such statements are usually meant to shift the blame of their own false predictions on to their members for speculating.
however, i was unable to find anything in print showing that such a thing was indeed taught by the society.
was this really a thing?.
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HereIam60
Thank you 'Listener' for the additional research and quotes. I think D. Splane is nuts. He seems to be the current go-to man for prophetic comment but he's made so many absurd statements. I was surprised that more wasn't made of the talk he gave where he questioned the intelligence of jury members and said something along the lines of 'In a court trial probably neither side wants the whole truth to come out". When the 'generation overlap' theory was presented in The Watchtower I thought I understood it but when Splanes video lecture on it with chart and pointer was played at the meeting it all fell apart, and now that whole teaching seems to have "evaporated" Reading the scriptures I always get the sense that Jesus' use of the word Generation just referred to whichever group of people he was talking to in his day. When it was the Pharisees and other opposers they were 'a wicked and faithless generation'. When it was faithful listeners they were a generation that would not pass away until they saw all his words fufillled. I don' t get the sense that he was designating any specific length of time. Also on another point. I know the "Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained" book of the 1950s presented the view that the present day Was the Great Tribulation, as "the great crowd" comes 'out of' the GT and they were being gathered for survival. This view cannot have been held for very long. When I came across it in the 1980s and asked elders about it, they were unaware of it.
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Did Watchtower Really Teach That Armageddon Was Coming in 1954?
by Jerome56 inin the march 2025 jw broadcast david splane in his morning worship talk mentioned that "some thought" that armageddon would come 40 years after 1914. such statements are usually meant to shift the blame of their own false predictions on to their members for speculating.
however, i was unable to find anything in print showing that such a thing was indeed taught by the society.
was this really a thing?.
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HereIam60
Possiblty the "some" he was referring to were not the Witnesses themselves. No specific group was mentioned but a 4/1/1956 Watch Tower article 'Modern History of Jehovah's Witnesses Part 31. - Ending the Fourth, Beginning the Fifth Decade of Kingdom Operations' contained these statements:..."Jehovah's Witnesses knowing well the times and seasons of God's purposes approached and entered the Kingdom's fortieth year without joining in the dire predictions that some religionists were making about 1954 on the basis of their ideas of parallel time periods in historical events..." Also: "The exploding of two new models of hydrogen bombs in the Pacific Ocean by America in 1954 did not fill Jehovah's Witnesses with dread forebodings of the future. Undisturbed they went on to give a still greater witness to God's established kingdom by putting more preaching ministers in the field..." I did see Splane's talk but have already forgotten exactly what he said. Looking around I see that in 1954 a Chicago area housewife Dorothy Martin claimed to recieve messages from 'The Planet Clarion ' that the world would end that year which got some newspaper coverage , stirred up some commotion and was the subject of a 1956 book called 'When Prophecy Fails"
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Will They Change the Memorial Talk This Year?
by raymond frantz inhttps://youtu.be/o5almnehew4?si=kdgrjgbiutjkvcxe.
i’m hoping the memorial talk will be different.
change the talk!
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HereIam60
I hope it doesn't begin again with that horrid "The Sons of God Will Be Revealed" song, in praise of 'the annointed".. On the basis of the recent Watchtower study in preparation for the Memorial I don't expect any changes...but we'll see...!