you might be a jehovah's witness if .
you know when nisan 14 is but you forget you own birthday.
you wash windows for a living but you own five suits.
... You're afraid to ask certian questions about your faith.
You can't attend your sister's wedding
You acheive high grades in school, but leave at 15 years of age to become a window cleaner
You think a "Bible Study" means studying books other than the Bible
You show love to your children by avoiding them, hanging up the phone, never replying to their letters, and not attending their wedding or funeral
You find yourself keeping mental account of time when speakign to others
my picture is in the january 1, 2006 watchtower.. why am i telling you this?
consider this my small weekend contribution to the cause of real truth.
any jw who has been one for a while, or a born in, knows the regard that pioneers, elders, bethelites and missionaries have.
One thing that got my attention recently was another flip-flop doctrine regarding the "Mark of the Beast".
On page 203 of the "Revelation Its Grand Climax At Hand " book states:-
some even being tortured
and killed, because of their refusal to compromise
their Christian neutrality. In other
lands Christians are literally unable to buy or
sell; some are unable to own property; others
are raped, murdered, or chased from
their native land. Why? Because in good
conscience they refuse to buy a political party
card. —John 17:16.
On the official Jehovah's Witnesses site, it now mentions:
Some believe that 666 is the mark of the Biblical antichrist. Others say that it signifies some form of compulsory identification, such as a tattoo or an implanted microchip with a digital code that identifies the person as a servant of the beast.
...
These fanciful and contrived interpretations, however, are very different from what the Bible itself says about the mark of the beast
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20040401/article_01.htm
The Revelation book says the mark can be a compulsory (political) identification. Yet their online article says the same interpretation is "fanciful and contrived".
I'd also like to note, my job involves website optimization. A few tips.
1. Link directly to official Jehovah's Witnesses sites. (They record visitors, and referrers).
2. Don't use abbreviations such as JW, CO, PO, WTBS. Search engines are better at indexing words than acronyms.
question: how does the leadership of jehovah's witnesses instruct its members to prepare for the eventual elder care of its members?.
answer: it pretends it will never happen!.
is this responsible leadership or some kind of cognitive dissonant malfeasance?.
In Australia they'd get the pension (funded by all tax payers).
someone else suggested this so i just figured, ok let's do it.. 1. all present jws died and i became the sole leader of the entire religion.
2. then i would dissolve the religion and burn every last memory of it ever existing.
3. all books would be burned, all buildings destroyed.
... That's a good start
or to acheieve any goals in their life.
and how dare you try to enjoy your life in this sick and demonic world.
dont you know that this world wont be here for long?
I remember when I was young two older brothers (in their 30s) talking about someone who left the truth. The converstation went something like this:
Brother 1: Have you heard about XXX he left the "Truth".
Brother 2: Yes, I heard he's making a lot of money.
Brother 1: Satan has used material gain as a trap for him. Did you see the sports car he drives now.
Brother 2: Sister X said he was only renting that car.
Brother 1: Really. He came to the KH in it last week. I bet he's just trying to show it off in front of all the brothers.
Brother 2: Yeah that's probably it. I doubt he is doing that well, he's only been in business for 2 years now.
Brother 1: It's a shame he has to resort to that. Who does he think he's fooling anyway.
Brother 2: Isn't it great that the organisation protects us from showy displays of wealth. We'll have our reward in the New System of Things.
Brother 1: Yes, who'd want to give up paradise forever for a sports car and a flashy house.
i was reading a book and read the following quote:.
"one of the most tragic things i know about human nature is.
that all of us tend to put off living.
I still remember thinking I'd never get married or have kids because I woudln't/didn't want to get baptized, yet the only group I knew/networked with was the Witnesses (born in). Of course any girl I talked to the elders would quickly point out I wasn't "strong" in the truth, and discourage the girl and her parents from having anything to do with me.
After reading stories here, I'm so glad I didn't marry a JW girl. I found my wife outside "The truth".
i was reading a book and read the following quote:.
"one of the most tragic things i know about human nature is.
that all of us tend to put off living.
When people constantly beleive "The end is coming" of course they put things off, or behave irrationally. While the end may be coming, focusing on that event every day of your life isn't good.
I know I've put off many things. I know of many young married couples who put off having kids because of "The Truth". Tragically, I know a young couple who were in a car accident, the wife died. They never had kids because they wanted to server "Where the need is greater" or "Where we need more recurits" as I like to put it.
from the small amount of research that i've done i've found the following points:.
charles russell was the author of the prophecy that christ returned in 1914in an earlier period of his life russell promoted the idea christ had returned in 1874, which was originated by another man named nelson barbourat both times, christ was said to have returned invisibly (does anyone remember the story of the emperor's new clothes)russell used some measurements from inside of the great pyramid of giza to bolster his calculation for 1914, which was rooted in the cobbling of bible passages dealing with the fall of jersualem, the times of the gentiles and nebuchadneezar episode of madness (7 times)am i missing anything?.
i'm trying to show a friend in the organization that all of this is a bunch of baloney.. .
I wonder what would be the change if the Watchtower renounced the 1914 doctrine?
A good thread on this forum would be "You would return to the Jehovah's Witnesses if ..."
I would return if they:
Then again, maybe that's too much to ask?
field service hours have hit new records each year, but i am seeing less people working the territory.
where is all the time spent, that people are putting in the field ministry?
it's been close to ten years, since i have seen people working certain territories.
The next trick of the GB may be to END the preaching work. I imagine that would put the wind up them, and you'd see meeting attendance go up for a few years. Maybe even tripple the contributions.
Then with all the money they made, they could re-structure the organisation, have online-delivery of all content, close all printing presses, accept PayPal donations, and the GB could live in luxury on their hedge fund investments. Beyond that, they could sell all KHs and start up an internet TV service for meetings.
1954 - 1968 jesus appeared in all publication pictures as a clean shaven short haired "witness" man....remember?.
watchtower 1954 p.511 q.f.r "why do watchtower books now show jesus with short hair and no beard?
....because he is shown that way in representations that are older then the traditional effeminate looking pictures...".
At least he wasn't carrying copies of the Watchtower and Awake!
