NotFormer

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Posts by NotFormer

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  31

  Wythenshawe Kingdom Hall - Sold

  by AdamCzarnobay in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was slightly surprised to see that wythenshawe hall has been sold.

  it's now a mosque.

  this one had an attached flat where the co and his wife lived, i wonder what accommodation they put them in these days..

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  NotFormer

  "Perception, perception, perception, the trick the WTS uses often to guilt jws into not doing something that has no real scriptural basis. So it is not a blanket belief officially but it can up being that way unofficially."

  1 Thessalonians 5:22 King James Version

  "Abstain from all appearance of evil."

  Because of its wording, the KJV version of the above verse was used as a blanket prohibition against pretty much anything in a former church of mine. The mere "appearance", whether ACTUALLY evil or not was enough to condemn a lot of actions by youth in our church. It was usually couched in references to how people outside the church (in the world) might wrongly perceive said actions. That's the "appearance" part. Most modern translations render it as every kind or all forms of evil, not the mere appearance of such.
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  31

  Wythenshawe Kingdom Hall - Sold

  by AdamCzarnobay in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was slightly surprised to see that wythenshawe hall has been sold.

  it's now a mosque.

  this one had an attached flat where the co and his wife lived, i wonder what accommodation they put them in these days..

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  NotFormer

  "What would you prefer? Adolf?"

  Harpo Marx's first name: why not? 👍👌🖖 (Leg pulling in return!)

  (Yes, I know, he changed his name to Arthur long before the moustache man became a thing)
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  8

  Angelic Singing

  by peacefulpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  jo 38:7. when the morning stars sang togetherand all the sons of god shouted for joy?.

  this passage and others apparently reveal a belief among some jewish communities that angels sang.

  the natural corollary is that angels had a language, and that language would naturally be supposed to be a superior one.

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  NotFormer

  It was all some time ago. I seem to remember asking if THE Holy Spirit was giving you utterance in a heavenly language, why wasn't it in THE heavenly language? It was obvious that everyone had a "tongue" of his or her own. Apparently everyone was given their own heavenly tongue with which to commune with God. You didn't know what you were praying with your intellect, but your spirit did and was communicating 🙏your needs to God. Because you didn't know what you were praying, neither did Satan 👿, and he therefore couldn't interfere.

  I think that's pretty well how it was all explained to me.

  There was a lot of urban mythology on both sides. The deniers'* urban myth would have an expert in languages go into the church and overhear someone ordering fish and chips in old Latvian. The pro side would have a pastor praying in tongues over someone; they'd say "Do you know what you just said?" "No". "You just said 'Such and such' in Language X!"

  * Mainstreamers who didn't believe in the Pentecostal version of tongues.
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  5

  In the last week of Christmas . . . JW News releases a special video with an AI ‘guest appearance’ by M. Stephen Lett

  by jwleaks in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  merry xmas everyone.. https://youtu.be/39lpikmd-is.

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  NotFormer

  "That’s great NF, you get right into the Christian Cult!"

  Not getting into anything. I was born and bred in this briar patch. 🐰🎄

  You do you, Bribie! 👌👍🙏🖖
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  42

  Why do most Ex jW W‘s seem to be liberal?

  by JaredScott-1977 in

  1. social
  2. current

  i’m just curious about this dynamic i don’t care personally one way or the other but i do have friends who have chosen to be conservatives and they get totally destroyed on social media pages for their choice.

  it’s almost like a lot of ex jw w become as toxic and his judgmental as jehovah’s witnesses themselves what’s up with that?

  i also know conservative ex jw’s that can do the same so again i’m not leaning one way or the other i’m just noticing factual observations.

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  NotFormer

  Carla: "Yeah, I know I am a bit of a witch to use their own doctrines against them..."

  Doesn't "Rules for Radicals" say to hold the other side to their own standards?
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  7

  The Internet continues to expose the Watchtower

  by liam in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  another exposure!

  it's not a destructive cult.........it's a destructive organization!.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bilfhs6-pgw.

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  NotFormer

  Interesting. They've metamorphosed from a personality cult to a "destructive authoritarian organisation*". Does the latter qualify to be categorised as a cult? I'm interested because there's another thread about that going on ATM 🏧.

  * Is this too hyperbolic a definition?
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  8

  Angelic Singing

  by peacefulpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  jo 38:7. when the morning stars sang togetherand all the sons of god shouted for joy?.

  this passage and others apparently reveal a belief among some jewish communities that angels sang.

  the natural corollary is that angels had a language, and that language would naturally be supposed to be a superior one.

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  NotFormer

  "Many commentators have discussed this passage with a general denial that Paul was to be taken literally."

  Many Pentecostals would disagree with those many commentators. I have had that verse quoted at me many times as justification for the Pentecostal belief that babbling in tongues is the Holy Spirit speaking through you in a heavenly language.

  The above is a total non sequitur, but you reminded me of my own dark past. Interestingly, you use the term "ecstatic glossolalia". I, for my troubles, have seen plenty of that in my travels.
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  5

  In the last week of Christmas . . . JW News releases a special video with an AI ‘guest appearance’ by M. Stephen Lett

  by jwleaks in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  merry xmas everyone.. https://youtu.be/39lpikmd-is.

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  NotFormer

  It's actually kind of amusing. I smiled (a bit) 😌 The only bit that made me cringe was the GB bloke at the start. 🙄

  Bribie, go undercover and get yourself to a Carols service tonight*. Report back to your Hall tomorrow morning with your observations 🌄.

  Merry Christmas, one and all! 🧑‍🎄🍗🕯️☃️🎄🙏

  * I'll be going to one tonight, but I won't be undercover.
• 
  3

  Merry Christmas, Then And Now

  by NotFormer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when you were in, how did you react when someone wished you a merry christmas?

  was there ever a wt article about it?

  what there ever car group around-the-water-cooler talk about that sort of experience and how to deal with it*?.

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  NotFormer

  When you were in, how did you react when someone wished you a Merry Christmas? Was there ever a WT article about it? What there ever car group around-the-water-cooler talk about that sort of experience and how to deal with it*?

  Now that you're out, what is your current reaction? Do you wish a Merry Christmas to others yourself? How have things changed, if at all?

  * I know it sounds a bit trivial, but I also know that it often said** that JWs like to gossip about what "worldly" people say to them and to regale other JWs with their pithy retorts to such.

  ** On boards such as this in many posts going back through the decades
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  13

  Elders, Jews and Dead Bunnies

  by KalebOutWest in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i thought i would give my personal experience on who i am, how i came into the world of watchtower, why i left, etc.

  this would explain a lot about the answers i give and why they don't directly reflect my personal convictions (like a normal person--and i do mean that literally, kinda).

  i cannot put everything here, but i can start bit by bit.. when i was 17 years old, my mother was on her third marriage and kinda starting her fourth (as she was dating this surfer dude-like guy who wasn't even 5 years older than me).

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  NotFormer

  "2 Elders, Jews and Dead Bunnies, four weddings and a funeral" ;)

  A partridge in a pear tree?

  ...Lucy screams

  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/snoopy-christmas--137430226109575221/