leaving_quietly

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Posts by leaving_quietly

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  3

  Missing in action...

  by leaving_quietly in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  haven't seen any posts from elderelite or aguest in quite some time.

  i miss their posts.

  anyone heard from them lately?.

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  leaving_quietly

  Haven't seen any posts from elderelite or AGuest in quite some time. I miss their posts. Anyone heard from them lately?
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  39

  Flipping out at the meeting

  by BU2B in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  unfortunatley, i still go to many meetings as i am working on getting my wife to wake up.

  for the most part i maintain my composure but there have been two or three times when i actually have gotten so upset and the frustration built so high that i have come very come close to actually slamming something down or pounding the table in the literature room, or shouting out how i felt!

  has anyone else felt this way?

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  leaving_quietly

  Yes, but then I started a "research" project were I would note down the stuff said, and research it later. Prove or disprove everything to yourself. I've gotten to the point where I now listen more intently than ever before. I am still sometimes angry, but it's not as bad anymore. I'm trapped like so many here, but my own therapy is to just do the research myself.
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  14

  I don't get it... (re: Memorial)

  by ilikecheese in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  why do jws celebrate jesus dying rather than his resurrection?

  i was talking to my boyfriend about this last week, and he said, "it's way more important that he died.

  " i kind of thought the whole coming back to life thing was a bigger deal, but whatevs.. .

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  leaving_quietly

  Apognophos, to me it makes sense that it's an annual celebration, just as Passover was. One thing to remember about the Corinthians is that Paul had to give them stronger counsel than usual. Remember, in the same letter, in chapter 5, Paul chided them because they were having immoral relations so shocking that it was worse than the nations (1 Cor 5:1). Thus, it kinda makes sense that there might be some drinking problems going on, too, and thus he would have to counsel them in regards to that. The Corinthians were the only ones in the NT where any talk of removing ones from the congregation occurred, if I recall correctly. It would seem (er, or "evidently" LOL!), some of them were a bad bunch.
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  14

  I don't get it... (re: Memorial)

  by ilikecheese in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  why do jws celebrate jesus dying rather than his resurrection?

  i was talking to my boyfriend about this last week, and he said, "it's way more important that he died.

  " i kind of thought the whole coming back to life thing was a bigger deal, but whatevs.. .

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  leaving_quietly

  The scriptural reason is in 1 Cor 11:26. It shows the purpose of the eating the bread and the wine... to proclaim the death of the Lord.

  "For as often as YOU eat this loaf and drink this cup, YOU keep proclaiming the death of the Lord, until he arrives."

  http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/11-26.htm

  Frankly, the purpose of the observance is one thing JWs are correct about. Who partakes, not so much. I know of no command to observe the resurrection, and for a certainty, bunnies and colored eggs have nothing to do with any of it.
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  5

  A reason to have the Memorial at other places than the Kingdom Hall

  by zed is dead in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just thought of another reason that they try to combine congregations at larger facilities than kingdom halls.

  we all know that the organization will lie when it suits them.

  i have a suspicion that they fudge the attendance numbers, and make up the growth.

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  leaving_quietly

  No, I don't think so. Our cong. shares with two other congs. It's simply easier to have it elsewhere. The attendance for just our single cong. has been up significantly for the past two years, and we would not have had room in the KH for everyone. Some have come because of the invitation (but then you never see them again), some are family members of cong. members, and some come because their own cong. has it later and ours is more convenient.

  The numbers are a total attendance, regardless of how many meet in a single cong. Like I said, ours has had a significant boost in the last two years, but a huge margin over years previous to that. It does not, however, account for organizational growth. Most who attend only come on that one night, and you never see them again.
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  112

  JW women in critical condition after being attacked by pit bull while out in service

  by JimmyPage in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20130319_11_0_twowom831238.

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  leaving_quietly

  My son brought up this incident last night, and my uber JW wife was simply beside herself: "Jehovah is supposed to protect his people!" she exclaimed. I said simply, "Well, now you know that's a fallacy."
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  34

  False prophets or simply wrong expectations?

  by leaving_quietly in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in a talk i heard recently, the brother was talking about how jws had certain expectations about the end, acknowledging 1914, 1925, surely before 1935 and 1975, then we learned that it's not in our jurisdiction to know jehovah's timetable.

  then he said, some say that because we made those mistakes, some say jws are false prophets.

  he said that was "simplistic thinking".

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  leaving_quietly

  @Dismissing servant, I don't disagree with you. However, I'm at the point my my mentally distancing myself from JW theology where understanding where that theology came from in the first place is necessary. Thus, I have started reading The Finished Mystery, and I just downloaded The Harp of God and read the first few pages. It started out reasonable, that is, until it started discussing why it used the harp as a symbol, and then talking about harps of 10 strings and harps of 8 strings as having some symbolic reference. I suspect it's going to get goofier from there. I still don't get how this religion ever got any following at all. I suppose it was because there were so many who were Bible-illiterate that they simply chose to believe whomever made it sound good to them.

  I am a born-in and far be it from me to question my own upbringing. My parents would not unknowingly lie to me about this stuff. However, as my mother once said to me: 'All I know about the Bible I learned from the Society.' Thus proving my point about Bible-illiterateness. You can't disprove something you know nothing about. And if someone sounds like they are knowledgeable, then it's easy to be convinced of something, no matter how ridiculous.
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  34

  False prophets or simply wrong expectations?

  by leaving_quietly in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in a talk i heard recently, the brother was talking about how jws had certain expectations about the end, acknowledging 1914, 1925, surely before 1935 and 1975, then we learned that it's not in our jurisdiction to know jehovah's timetable.

  then he said, some say that because we made those mistakes, some say jws are false prophets.

  he said that was "simplistic thinking".

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  leaving_quietly

  BTW, The Harp of God, 1921 edition is available as a scanned PDF here:

  http://www.a2z.org/wtarchive/docs/1921_The_Harp_Of_God_1st_Ed.pdf

  This book had as it's tagline: "Proof Conclusive that Millions now Living will never Die"
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  34

  False prophets or simply wrong expectations?

  by leaving_quietly in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in a talk i heard recently, the brother was talking about how jws had certain expectations about the end, acknowledging 1914, 1925, surely before 1935 and 1975, then we learned that it's not in our jurisdiction to know jehovah's timetable.

  then he said, some say that because we made those mistakes, some say jws are false prophets.

  he said that was "simplistic thinking".

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  leaving_quietly

  I was running head looking at the End to much

  The same talk the brother was saying that we no longer try to guess the Bible's formula for the end. That way, we're not serving Jehovah just so we won't die at Armageddon. Instead, we serve Him because we love Him.

  In the next few minutes, he proceeded to talk about how some decide to leave because the end hadn't come when JWs said, so then that starts a chain reaction: if that's wrong, what else is wrong? Is the entire Bible wrong (since, as he said, JWs teach the Bible)? Is there even a God? Pretty soon, the person has this tremendous amount of doubt and then they believe in nothing at all, and leave and just go live their lives in "an unreality". Of course, not one single mention about wrong interpretations, changed scriptures in the NWT, etc. But then he had the audacity to say, 'wouldn't we rather be in Jehovah's favor when the end comes on His timetable, or if we were to die prior to then'? Huh? If we weren't in Jehovah's favor if we die prior to Armageddon, then, according to WTS, all our sins are forgiven anyway. It was totally a "both sides of your mouth" sort of thing.
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  34

  False prophets or simply wrong expectations?

  by leaving_quietly in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in a talk i heard recently, the brother was talking about how jws had certain expectations about the end, acknowledging 1914, 1925, surely before 1935 and 1975, then we learned that it's not in our jurisdiction to know jehovah's timetable.

  then he said, some say that because we made those mistakes, some say jws are false prophets.

  he said that was "simplistic thinking".

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  leaving_quietly

  In a talk I heard recently, the brother was talking about how JWs had certain expectations about the end, acknowledging 1914, 1925, surely before 1935 and 1975, then we learned that it's not in our jurisdiction to know Jehovah's timetable. Then he said, some say that because we made those mistakes, some say JWs are false prophets. He said that was "simplistic thinking". Then he said, even the apostles made mistakes about the end. He used the example of when they came and asked Jesus when these things would be and that Jesus said he didn't know, only the Father knows.

  Ok. Let's use some critical thinking here. Let's compare apples to apples.

  Were the apostles predicting the end at some date? No. They asked Jesus when the conclusion of the system of things was going to be. The were NOT predicting a date, nor were they publishing some date to thousands or millions of people

  Were JWs predicting the end at some date? Yes. They predicted dates, even to the month (October 1914). They published these dates in their publications. They set expectations in talks. Thousands to millions of people heard these dates and acted on them according to what they heard.

  Next example. Days after Jesus died and was resurrected, they asked Jesus if he was restoring the kingdom at this time. Jesus said it didn't belong to them to know. (Acts 1:6,7)

  Apples to apples comparison again:

  Were the apostles predicting the end at some date? No. They may have had the belief that the kingdom would be restored, but instead of predicting, they were ASKING Jesus. Getting the information 'from the horse's mouth', so to speak.

  Were JWs predicting the end at some date? Yes. Again, dates were set, published in print and verbally in talks. No one was asking Christ or God. They were incorrectly interpreting scriptures, setting dates, "prophecying" and saying it's as good as done because they were God's mouthpiece.

  The brother went on to say that the apostles had wrong expections, but that didn't make them false prophets, so JWs are no more false prophets than they were.

  Then, he went on to say that JWs no more try to come up with a formula for trying to pinpoint the end, and that they now serve Jehovah out of love for Him, not because of a date.