Bobcat

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Posts by Bobcat

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  45

  Official Increase in the Number of Jehovah's Witnesses You Shouldn't Trust

  by David_Jay in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  reports are coming from witnesses that, once again, the number of memorial partakers has risen considerably this past year, 2016. while confirmation is still to come on the exact numbers, the current explanations given for this increase surely causes a dilemma.. imagine the roman catholic church publishing each year the number of members who it felt were mistaken about what they believed in, that this same number of members was likely suffering from problems such as pride or even mental disorders or something along this line.

  this number, by the way, was in the thousands too and growing annually.

  what would you conclude, therefore about the catholic church and its admission?.

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  Bobcat

  The WT's reference to partakers as 'proud, mistaken or mentally unstable' is a method of 'framing the argument.' See my post here (on another site) for a link to that type of strategy.

  The idea is to establish the parameters (or sides) in the debate: There is WT's view (which is presumed to be correct), OR, you are proud, mental or have some other bad/undesirable characteristic. It is one side or the other. There is no other option (according to the WT's framing).

  What they NEVER mention is the fact that a growing number of JWs are partaking because they believe that this is what Jesus wanted them to do. And a growing number of them are doing it in private meetings apart from the WT. The WT does not want the R&F to consider this possibility, so it is never mentioned.

  I would think that they have woven the idea of 'partaking' into their power/authority structure. So they see the idea of others partaking (and its implications for the partakers) as a threat to their authority. In the gospel accounts, Jesus is presented as a similar threat to the then existing Jewish religious authority.
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  31

  Comparing WT Library - 2011 vs. 2012

  by MeanMrMustard in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  a couple of years ago, i participated in a thread on this site comparing the old nwt (1984) to the new nwt (2013).

  i was able to produce a nwt mash up pdf showing the side-by-side differences between the two versions of the nwt.

  herethis site claims it will hold the file for download for a long time.

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  Bobcat

  Do you think it would be worth the effort now to learn VB.Net? Or are people moving away from that? Or is it even relevant any more? I always viewed VB6 as quite interesting (after you learn how to hack away at its surface shortcomings). But in the end it is still 32 bit and orphaned by MS. (There is actually an effort going on to divorce VB6 from the MS runtime - here - but it will be a while.) Thanks for your thoughts.

  I don't know whatever happened to Borland's C, but their Delphi product was sold to these guys. It looks interesting but the retail for the IDE is way out of my league. I used to have Delphi Version 1. But when I saw VB's ease of use I went in that direction. (Looking at the Delphi link some more, I think this is where Borland's C went to also.)

  That is interesting about WT Library and VC++ w/ MFC. The latest version of the WT Library says it will only work on Win 7 or higher. So I take it they are doing stuff with the API that previous Windows can't handle.

  My programming experience started with VB-Dos. I learned on it to try to improve a friends TMS program written in QuickBasic 7.

  (Incidentally, the link to "VB dot Net above I did not put into place. And the JWN editor would not allow me to remove it -?!?!)
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  31

  Comparing WT Library - 2011 vs. 2012

  by MeanMrMustard in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  a couple of years ago, i participated in a thread on this site comparing the old nwt (1984) to the new nwt (2013).

  i was able to produce a nwt mash up pdf showing the side-by-side differences between the two versions of the nwt.

  herethis site claims it will hold the file for download for a long time.

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  Bobcat

  MMM:

  Thank you. Sorry for the delay in responding. I envy you a bit (a "bit" ). I stopped progressing with VB at version 6. Only recently had a (brief) opportunity to dust it off for work. When VB7 came out it just seemed too much had changed to continue with it when it was mostly a hobby for me then.
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  31

  Comparing WT Library - 2011 vs. 2012

  by MeanMrMustard in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  a couple of years ago, i participated in a thread on this site comparing the old nwt (1984) to the new nwt (2013).

  i was able to produce a nwt mash up pdf showing the side-by-side differences between the two versions of the nwt.

  herethis site claims it will hold the file for download for a long time.

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  Bobcat

  MMM:

  Nice work! Are you able to tell what language the WT Library was written in?
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  9

  WTBTS "Anointed" Resurrection Fallacy

  by The Searcher in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  based on the following statements of the wtbts, the first resurrection began in 1918, is ongoing, and ceases when the living anointed are taken to heaven - just before armageddon..

  (w88 10/15 p. 12 par.

  13) "....according to all the evidence, those of the anointed who had already died faithful began to be resurrected to their promised place in the heavenly sanctuary starting in 1918.".

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  Bobcat

  Propaganda lesson 1:

  To make your opinions true, always preface them with this phrase:

  ....according to all the evidence....
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  24

  Been witnessing today - first time in over 2 years!!

  by The Searcher in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  and it felt wonderful!!.

  i went into the city to where i knew there was a "cosmopolitan witnessing" trolley, because i wanted to ask a simple bible-based question.

  the trolley was attended by an elder and a sister who was another elder's wife.

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  Bobcat

  it-2 788-89 gives the WT's convoluted explanation of John 5:29. That is on the WT Library app.
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  24

  Been witnessing today - first time in over 2 years!!

  by The Searcher in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  and it felt wonderful!!.

  i went into the city to where i knew there was a "cosmopolitan witnessing" trolley, because i wanted to ask a simple bible-based question.

  the trolley was attended by an elder and a sister who was another elder's wife.

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  Bobcat

  Slim, Searcher was using the WT's interpretation of John 5:29. The irony that I saw in Searcher's post was the elder's natural response to the reading of John 5:29 was different from the WT's interpretation. Unfortunately (for the elder), his WT Library app only uses recent (2000 and forward) publications.

  (John 5:28, 29 NWT) . . .Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.

  In the WT's interpretation, "those who did good things. . . those who practiced vile things. . ." refers to what they did after they "come out" of the "memorial tombs." This interpretation makes nonsense of the verb tenses, According to the WT, the people come out of the tombs and then the viewpoint suddenly shifts to the end of the 1000 years and looks back at what happened during that time where people 'practice good or vile things.' The WT needs this to be explained this way because in WT theology only the 144,000 get life right away. The "great crowd," despite having served God all their lives in this system, when they get into the Millennium, they suddenly become no better off than every pagan who never gave God a second thought.

  What Jesus is saying is that those who practice good or vile things now will have different outcomes when they are resurrected. The 'good . . . vile' saying is a merism, like saying "I searched high and low" or "lock, stock and barrell." John 5:29 includes everyone by referring to the two opposite extremes.

  
  
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  6

  FOLLOWING/WALKING BEHIND

  by somebody in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  according to this publication published by none other than those who want to gain followers of themselves, christ assigned the preaching work to themselves and not jehovah's witnesses.. *** w07 4/1 pp.

  24-25 loyal to christ and his faithful slave ***.

  giving loyal support.

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  Bobcat

  See my post here (different board - I posted this here but can't find it via the search function). It helps explain why the WT wants only a few (i.e. themselves) "anointed" and the rest not. (Contrast Acts 2:38-39; John 1:12-13)
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  29

  Who is attending the 2016 Annual Meeting this Saturday?

  by Londo111 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm curious if we will have eyewitness reporters at the stanley theater like we do every year....

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  Bobcat

  There was a thread awhile back that indicated that a GB member said that there was going to be an announcement that would be disappointing to some. It might involve the ending of the pioneer service school. But that is hearsay at best. I've heard nothing official.
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  46

  Updates to Public Talk Outlines 2 & 3

  by wifibandit in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  will you be a survivor of the last days?.

  serving with jehovah’s unified organization.

  move ahead with jehovah’s unified organization.

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  Bobcat

  bttt - Public Talk Outlines