HereIam60

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Posts by HereIam60

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  37

  News of fires out of control in California

  by ballistic in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hope everyone near to the region affected in california is ok. it's shocking to hear of the destruction.

  these affected areas are some of the places i visited when i came on a tour of the us.

  malibu, santa barbera, la, santa monica, hollywood and so on..

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  HereIam60

  The present headline article on JW.org is "Extreme Weather - Can the Bible Help You to Cope". At the bottom of the article is a link to a video 'California Wildfires Update", but it dates back to 2018. It's likely they will eventually make some reference to the current situation.
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  25

  The Dangers of Independent Thinking

  by daystar in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  "the dangers of independent thinking".

  reading mary's thread regarding the july 15th wt, i began to really consider what the wbts' problem is with "independent thinking".. what exactly is "independent thinking" and what about its opposite, "dependent thinking"?

  i think the following excerpt from an article here does a good job of defining them.

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  HereIam60

  Back in the early 1980s I was having a home Bible study conducted by a young zealous pioneer brother. Once I was identified as a progressive student , prepared for lessons, attending some meetings, he gradually became pushy and intrusive into my personal life. I was uncomfortable and annoyed by this, but I took it as him showing personal interest in me, and since I was supposed to be learning to be humble I put up with it. I was in my early 20s and still living in my parents’ home, working, and helping with expenses. This arrangement was working for us, but since they were not interested in studying, the brother began suggesting I consider moving out, also changing employment so as to be free for all meetings and field service. Looking back, he was probably hoping to ultimately engineer me into “joining the pioneer ranks” which was a big thing then. During one study he asked me if I had been giving any more thought to this. I said I had, and added “I guess it would help me be more independent.” All I meant was that living on my own I would have to take on more responsibilities, paying rent, bills, cooking , laundry etc. After I said this his whole manner changed. He became quiet, looked at me disapprovingly, then slowly said “So… you’re thinking about it because you want to be…Independent…?”. He said it in such a weird and ominous way that I was startled and wondered what happened. After a moment he relaxed and resumed the study. This should have been a Red Flag to me, but I couldn’t see it. I didn’t know that during that time period there were a lot of meeting and assembly talks about ‘the dangers of independent thinking’ and my use of the word must have triggered him.
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  40

  How Do JWs Understand Salvation & What Is Needed to Obtain It?

  by LauraLynn in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  from my experience within the jw organization, i understood that salvation meant a person accepted the teachings of the wbts without question as the "faithful and discrete slave," thereby placing their trust in them, not jesus christ.

  salvation consisted of being found "righteous" by jehovah and resurrected to everlasting life in an earthly paradise.

  to obtain this salvation, one needed to obey the organization's teachings, remain a faithful jw, and lead a moral life.

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  HereIam60

  I guess it varies by individual viewpoint. There are things I felt were correct teachings and many that I never could accept. Salvation is clearly through Jehovah’s mercy, the ransom sacrifice of Jesus, and faith in it, Faith itself being a gift from God ,a fruit of his spirit. I’ve been thinking a lot recently of 1st John 1:7 “If we are walking in the light as he himself is in the light, we do have a fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
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  88

  Annual Report

  by St George of England in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the latest report is now available for download on our favourite website!.

  george.

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  HereIam60

  I don't know about worldwide, but in the US, I think there are a considerable number of people who, when asked, identify their religiion as Jehovah's Witnesses, without ever having been closely associated with a congregation.. This includes people who used to read the Watchtower printed publications when those were widespread, liked what they read, and accepted it as their "faith" Also those who had a home bible study for a time but never began attending meetings, and after discontinuing the study still "held on to" basic doctrines they learned,
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  27

  1925--2025... 100 years since Rutherford promised paradise earth.

  by Witness 007 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  rutherford wrote in 1925 "millions now living will never die"...they died.

  he also promised that moses and david and all the old bible heroes would live with him in his mansion.

  only he lived there till he died in 1942...100 years and not much changed..

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  HereIam60

  NotFormer....I've never seen This calculation either: The "last days" is plural, so there are at least 2 of them , and if 'a day with Jehovah is as a thousand years' (2 Peter 3:8) and they began in 1914...then even the first of them wouldn' end until 2914, we're barely into it. The present Governing Body has shown again and again in recent years that they never had any real understanding of the doctrines they claim to be "'Guardians' of..
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  88

  Annual Report

  by St George of England in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the latest report is now available for download on our favourite website!.

  george.

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  HereIam60

  Another rise in professed annointed "partakers". At the annual meeting wasn't something said or implied like " You thought the numbers would go down and down...didn't you?...but no we should not be surprised that there are many annointed ones near 'the end'..." I'm not being serious here, but wonder if they would go back to that old teaching about there being a secondary heavenly class...that the 144,000 were gathered in the first century, the 'great crowd before the throne"will also be in heaven, and a third group that will live on earth. Wasn't that a teaching of Russell?
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  11

  Kingdom Ministry School 2022-2023

  by Lowrence in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does anyone of you have the outlines of the latest kingdom ministry school 2022-2023 in pdf, if it possible with videos?

  thanks in advance.

  lowrence .

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  HereIam60

  It wasn't just the Covid shut down, cart work, and checking a box to indicate participation, that has caused the ministry to diminish. I think it was also to a large degree the dropping of "suggested presentations". Formerly there was always something to go by, a question, a scripture, for several years those " shadow people" videos with Witnesses in silhouette doing door to door presentations. That has all been dropped, likely because the Organization doesn't want to be held responsible for what anyone might say. They started a while ago using the term ' your Personal ministry'. Now it's a generic "love people...make disciples...start conversations...start bible studies..." with no specific direction. People have been uncertain what to do, although a local elder recently said you can still use the tracts, as these have a question printed on them to start the conversation.
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  13

  "Yahweh" pronunciation is more correct (w60 8/1 pp. 453-455)

  by psyco in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

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  https://wol.jw.borg/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1960561 (substitute .borg with .org)furthermore, today in every jw publication the tetragrammaton is rendered as yhwh which is more preserved by yahweh than by jehovah..

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  HereIam60

  It seems an old and needless argument. The pronunciation is going to differ from language to language anyway with further variations in dialects and accents. I believe in the old Divine Name brochure there was a chart showing the different pronunciations even among Witnesses in different countries. All we know is there was a name used in the oldest manuscripts and it wasn't in English...
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  24

  Why you need Christmas to understand Easter/Memorial

  by Anony Mous in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so i went to a christmas evening candlelight service tonight and it hit me.

  i was primarily doing christmas since leaving the jw for the children.

  lots of people do it for family without really thinking of the relevance.

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  HereIam60

  jhine....they have not normally spoken much of it, but at the last Conventions, the first episide of the video series"The Goid News According to Jesus" was shown depicting his birth. I always imagined the angels heralding it as singing, but in the video they do it in a sort of weird chant. There was also a new song introduced. "Good News, this Good News, preach with all your might...Good News, Christ is born... The Way, The , Truth, The Light..." which led some to say it was a 'Christmas' song, but whether they will continue in that vein remains to be seen. It can all be found on the JW.Org website. In fact during Cristmas Week it was the "headline" item there...
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  113

  Luke 23:43 the NWT

  by Ade in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  luke 23:43 - and jesus said to him, "positively i say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

  nwt places comma here , giving a totally different meaning to the verse.

  now the average jw uses this to back their doctrine and it seems in itself virtually impossible to reason with them on it.

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  HereIam60

  According to Luke he requested "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom"... like if and when....as they were both near death, I don't think he was expecting it that day...