I'm giving you 15 more mins to respond to why the WT changed from charging for publications to donations before I give the answer. I'd like to hear your take on it first.
Christ Alone
JoinedPosts by Christ Alone
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41
FREE Home Bible Study?!?!?
by Christ Alone inso i finally took a deep breath and watched the annual meeting report.
i found a little nugget before the "new light" discussion began.
there was a report about the "public preaching" that was taking place in manhattan.
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546
non believers what if your wrong ?
by unstopableravens ini do not wish to debate anything here like i have said in the past i have much respect for most on this forum (believers and non believers) i am simply wondering if the atheist or non god believers every worry about what if your wrong?
it seems that many who were jw for so many years attach jehovah/yahweh with the watchtower and since the wt is wrong than god does not exist.
i ask this question only because i care about people and salvation thats why i want to help as many as possable come out of this cult,and since i truly believe in god i dont know what is in the cinscience of those who dont.
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Christ Alone
I would prefer they put all that motivation into something that can be achieved----cancer research----feeding the children---healthcare----protecting the enviornment---social justice---whatever. Something that can actually be achieved.
I agree. And these are the Christiansthat I appreciate. The ones that focus on an eternal reward or teaching doctrines to the exclusion of phsycially helping others are ones that I avoid and that I feel cause a bad name for Christianity.
Fortunately there are many Christians that contribute to the welfare of others. Of course it must be noted that there are many non Christian institutions that do this as well. Both can be forces for good.
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546
non believers what if your wrong ?
by unstopableravens ini do not wish to debate anything here like i have said in the past i have much respect for most on this forum (believers and non believers) i am simply wondering if the atheist or non god believers every worry about what if your wrong?
it seems that many who were jw for so many years attach jehovah/yahweh with the watchtower and since the wt is wrong than god does not exist.
i ask this question only because i care about people and salvation thats why i want to help as many as possable come out of this cult,and since i truly believe in god i dont know what is in the cinscience of those who dont.
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Christ Alone
Unstopableravens,
I'd like to give you a bit of advice, believer to believer. Don't be so concerned with an atheist being wrong. They believe that WE are wrong. We believe that THEY are wrong. And here's the deal. We are ALL wrong on a ton of issues. I've found so much more happiness in trying to understand where other people are coming from and why they view things the way that they do, instead of condemning others that believe differently from me.
Share your belief and the reasons for them. Listen to what others believe (or don't believe) and strive to understand. I've found that there is usually something that we can learn from each other. The atheists that used to drive me nuts on this board are some of the same people that i've learned more from than any others on this site. Honestly, cofty and NC used to grind on my nerves for some reason. Now I really care about them and read almost every post of theirs. Maybe we don't agree about who God is or if God is. But atheists and believers can both be intelligent and non arrogant people that can learn from each other. But we've gotta put our differences aside.
Put yourself in an atheists shoes. Someone comes up to you, tells you that everything you believe (or don't believe) is wrong and that you are going to be severely punished because of this. No one wants to hear that. And that will cause NO ONE to listen to anything you or I have to say.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that no one decided to believe in God because someone came up to them and said, "Yeah, but what if you're wrong?" We're not going to convert anyone from atheism by asking that. Someone that decides to believe in God does so for reasons beyond anything WE say to them.
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41
FREE Home Bible Study?!?!?
by Christ Alone inso i finally took a deep breath and watched the annual meeting report.
i found a little nugget before the "new light" discussion began.
there was a report about the "public preaching" that was taking place in manhattan.
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Christ Alone
You do know that the Watchtower charged for it's publications in the past just like everyone else, right? Do you know WHY the Watchtower stopped charging for it's publications? Why did they go to a donation arrangement in 1990? Do you know how Jimmy Swaggart was involved in changing the WT's policy?
I'm not going to give you the answer just yet. I'd like to know if you know about your organizations history. The history they DON'T tell you about in their "history" dvd's.
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41
FREE Home Bible Study?!?!?
by Christ Alone inso i finally took a deep breath and watched the annual meeting report.
i found a little nugget before the "new light" discussion began.
there was a report about the "public preaching" that was taking place in manhattan.
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Christ Alone
Because very few (no one I know) people can obtain a Bible for free.
Every church I've gone to gives them away for free. Those people that you don't know could walk into virtually any church and ask for a bible and get one. Would you like to know some websites that will send you a bible for free? There are hundreds. You CAN purchase study Bibles at book stores that help in your research. And they don't cost you your family to get them. NWT Bibles come at a far greater cost.
Nevermind the fact that books that help explain the Bible (lexicons, dictionaries, biblical exegesis) are very costly.
So you do not do any research outside of the organization? No lexicons or dictionaries for you? The simplified version of the Watchtower is enough? I can direct you to hundreds of websites online that will send a bible for free. Nearly every church will get you a bible for free. A REAL bible, not a translation that was translated by a man with very little experience in Hebrew and Greek and could not translate when asked by a court.
I've been to churches where you can receive a personal Bible study, but the materials alone costed about 40 bucks.
What church was that? And do you think that the organization operates for free? No one has to give money? You well know that they beg for money all the time. Conventions especially.
At least when you are purchasing materials you know what your money bought you. It wasn't being used to pay off the local child molesting victim so they wouldn't go to court.
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41
FREE Home Bible Study?!?!?
by Christ Alone inso i finally took a deep breath and watched the annual meeting report.
i found a little nugget before the "new light" discussion began.
there was a report about the "public preaching" that was taking place in manhattan.
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Christ Alone
So I finally took a deep breath and watched the annual meeting report.
I found a little nugget before the "new light" discussion began. There was a report about the "public preaching" that was taking place in Manhattan. The "sister" that was on stage (around the 2:35 point of the video) said that many of the people that stopped at their table exclaimed, "Is it true that you guys offer FOR FRREE home bible studies?!?" The impression was that no one else studies the Bible with people for free.
Did I actually believe that we were the only ones that did this while I was a JW? I guess maybe I did. But my experience has now shown me that MOST churches offer bible studies. And I have NEVER heard of one charging for it. Perhaps someone may need to purchase materials that are not owned by the church. But even this has been rare in my experience.
Why do JWs pride themselves so much in this FREE home bible study?
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111
WT Elders school: The WTS has progressed from just plain stupid to dangerously stupid
by sir82 infresh off the recent 1-day elders school.
to keep things readable i'll post "highlights" over the next several days in different topics.
point 1: they have progressed from "just plain" stupid to dangerously stupid.. .
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Christ Alone
Here is the video without the first part on Child custody. It shows the elder lying about having a publication that others do not have access to:
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111
WT Elders school: The WTS has progressed from just plain stupid to dangerously stupid
by sir82 infresh off the recent 1-day elders school.
to keep things readable i'll post "highlights" over the next several days in different topics.
point 1: they have progressed from "just plain" stupid to dangerously stupid.. .
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111
WT Elders school: The WTS has progressed from just plain stupid to dangerously stupid
by sir82 infresh off the recent 1-day elders school.
to keep things readable i'll post "highlights" over the next several days in different topics.
point 1: they have progressed from "just plain" stupid to dangerously stupid.. .
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Christ Alone
To see how the elders DO hide the book from outsiders, see this video. The part about hiding the elders info is around 4:50:
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111
WT Elders school: The WTS has progressed from just plain stupid to dangerously stupid
by sir82 infresh off the recent 1-day elders school.
to keep things readable i'll post "highlights" over the next several days in different topics.
point 1: they have progressed from "just plain" stupid to dangerously stupid.. .
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Christ Alone
Well said, problemaddict. There is nothing wrong with using the scriptures to comfort others. But there becomes a point where mere intelectual knowledge is not suitable. If it is a chemical imbalance, no amount of bible reading, meeting attendence,elders meetings, field service, etc will be enough to help the problem. Only professional help, therapy, and/or medication can help such ones.
If someone is contemplating suicide, the direction should ALWAYS be to go to a medical professional. I would go so far as to say that one should NEVER avoid a professional if one is contemplating suicide.