i have known a jehovah’s witness for approximately 15 years and i have considered her a friend although i know that jehovah’s witnesses cannot have friends who are not jehovah’s witnesses.
approximately two years ago, i was going through a very difficult time and i asked my friend if we could have bible study.
she said yes and we have been studying the bible since.
"During her closing prayer, she said that she would like to be my friend forever."
Running that through the JW filter, it probably means she wants you to be baptised and join, so you will survive Armageddon and live forever with her and the other JWs.
https://youtu.be/ocufvpm3t04?si=75zmussxknhlsrs7.
the first watchtower for 2025 is out, and immediately, articles 4 and 5 drew my attention.
these will be studied near the memorial season, a time the witnesses prepare for their yearly commemoration of jesus’ death, i will be returning on this articles near at the time.
It seems to be a uniquely WT thing, AFAIK. I've been around mainstream Christianity for nearly 50 years and have never heard of this ransom thing*, apart from when I see it being referred to here. Is there an actual verse (or more) they point to that uses that term? Perhaps they've translated a term differently than the way other translations do. Like they do with "grace", for example.
* In those terms, anyway.
the watch tower society of pennsylvania filed a lawsuit on september 3, 2024, naming as defendants the russian federation, the russian ministry of health, and the almazov national medical research center.
unfortunately, i can't access the case documents, including the complaint.
i would appreciate if someone with an active pacer account could make them available.. anyway, it is enough to know the almazov center is one of the entities sued by the wts to say what this case is about.
I'm in two minds about this. Unusually, I'm on the WT's side. Russia is indulging in religious persecution, and that is not right, no matter how much I despise the WT. Here comes the big "however", however. By valuing their monetary assets over their adherents, they are arguably endangering said adherents further. It'd be nice if, just once, the WT would genuinely care about the welfare of their congregants over their material wealth.
when i'm extremely board i look up jws on linkedin.. steven is clearly counting his time.
lol.
Good onya, Steve! Keep everyone not in your religious clique safely at arm's length, so you don't get to learn that "worldly" people can be kind and acceptable friends and companions. 🙄
https://youtu.be/rsbfa_7lqv4?si=muuxmgtll1n1ifad.
the watchtower’s babylon the great: a shrinking reality?.
so this latest annual meeting introduced a new idea about babylon the great, and here is the part from geoffrey jackson's talk we real need to dig in and consider it's ramifications..... so you’ve got to hand it to them; they know how to keep things interesting with their ever-evolving interpretations and, of course, those classic "adjustments" in understanding.
"Countries like the UK and Australia, where Jehovah’s Witnesses are registered as charities, aren’t too thrilled when they hear that one of their beneficiaries is rooting for the downfall of other religions."
Australia actually banned the JWs in WW2, basically because they were constantly running down the government and attacking the churches, particularly a certain Catholic cardinal by name. Officially it was because they were using their radio stations to possibly supply news that could be helpful to the enemy. It was eventually overturned, interestingly not on the grounds of religious freedom, but because of the overzealous application of whatever act they used to implement the ban in the first place.
ttps://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/350446426/leaving-cult-jehovahs-witnesses-behind.
the press.
october 12, 2024 .
It's a very thorough article and pretty well up to date. Let's hope it gets read by a lot of people.
The number of members of the GB is growing at a similar rate to the number of partakers. 🙄
"Here we are nearly 50 YEARS past the invisible Armageddon of 1975 and the clown show continues unabated."
It's coming up to the 50th anniversary. I hope that those who lived through that will celebrate appropriately and broadcast it anywhere it can get in the WT's face. Some sort of slogan would be a good idea. Something like: "50 years alive since '75!"
seriously, how have i never caught on as to how kinky this weird cult language sounds?
"be obedient and submissive to the faithful slave.
"may i have another flogging, mr.
"Now that recent talks and literature is bringing Christ back, (lol), it looks better to the "world" for reasons they need it to be."
Wing commander is right. The new emphasis on Jesus is not about Him, who is not present in the flesh*, but on "his brothers", the GB, who are, unfortunately, alive and well and present among the other sheep, making them do their bidding.
* But supposedly returned in 1914 🙄
hi all , i just had another call by a an elderly jw ,let's call him ian.. only about 3 months ago i had a young jw call and trying to talk to him i had to tone it down a bit because he did'nt seem so theocratically bright as he only offered a tract and not much else , and i've had others call since covid.. so it seems around here they are making regular calls but not like back in the day when i used to auxillary pioneer where we would go over this turf every 1 to 3 weeks in the 80's.. but back to my caller ian ,on his own , but out with a group of jw's he was quick to get around the pleasantries and and so i interrupted him tactfully to slow him down.
started with a bit of my history easing into the fact that i had my first contact with jw's with my soon to be mother-in -law who was an invalided jw ,we had many good talks about her beliefs in the early 70's.. at this point he jumps in and wants to know if i would want a study again because i told him that i once did a study with jw's back.
i carefully steered him into telling me about those days ,what was he was doing back then.
Two old(ish) ladies manning (staffing?) the literature trolley in town* this morning. They seemed to be engaged in a cheerful conversation with a somewhat scruffy** looking gentleman. "Free Bible Course" sign on trolley. Is there a reason they've changed from "study" to "course"?
Anecdotally, the local JWs seem to be quite busy and more motivated than the usual reports about the decline in enthusiasm would suggest. I wouldn't say the same about the JWs in the area I used to live in, however.
* Somewhere in Australia
** By that I mean that he was dressed too casually to be another JW.
