We had a Zone Overseer talk today. We didn't go. It finished 12 minutes ago and we just got a text from Sister T. "Where are you guys sitting, I'll come and see you!"
WinstonSmith
JoinedPosts by WinstonSmith
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336
The New Diary of Winston Smith
by WinstonSmith inwe had to go off grid for a time, time and half a time as we thought we had been outed.
fortunately it was a false alarm, but it was a stressful time.
i asked for my original diary thread to be deleted in case there could be anything on there to identlfy mrs smith and i. i am always very careful when posting, and am sure there was nothing on there, but felt it best to have it removed in order to be as cautious as a dove.
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WinstonSmith
Something that I have always wondered: On what basis does the WTS claim that prophecies have a minor and major fulfilment?
I have never come across any scriptural basis for it (not that this has ever stopped the WTS!).
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WT 15 July 2013 - "Look at the Artwork!"
by The Song Remains The Same inwas just browsing this new issue and trying to make head and tail of what they are talking about, and noticed the final article tucked away on-line;.
http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/w20130715/watchtower-artwork/.
not sure if anyone commented, but it takes me back to the discussions on god's earthly org chart here.. this is what they have to say.... "how many times have you said that to yourself or to others when you opened a new issue of this magazine?
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WinstonSmith
Don't you love WT articles that are nothing more than themselves giving themselves a big self high five?
Praise us! Praise us! Look, here is something to praise us about! Look! LOOK! Praise, praise, praaaaaaaaise!
Reminds me of a four year old....
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336
The New Diary of Winston Smith
by WinstonSmith inwe had to go off grid for a time, time and half a time as we thought we had been outed.
fortunately it was a false alarm, but it was a stressful time.
i asked for my original diary thread to be deleted in case there could be anything on there to identlfy mrs smith and i. i am always very careful when posting, and am sure there was nothing on there, but felt it best to have it removed in order to be as cautious as a dove.
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WinstonSmith
Hello Pickler!
I really appreciate you taking the time to keep in touch. Let me say, you have done more than any of the elders in our congregation. As mentioned above the only meeting I have been to in the last couple of months was the Memorial. In the whole time I have been absent from the meetings, not one single elder has been in touch to see whats up, or more importantly, to see if I am alive. I feel sorry for those in the congregation who look to these men as being their shepherds.
Our fade is going right to plan. This coming Saturday, April the 13th will be our 1st Apostaversary. One year since the lights went on with Mrs Smith and she joined me on this journey. We haven't been out in field service for 6 months now. We still put a report in just to keep the wolves away, and no-one has said anything. I haven't been to a meeting since the start of February, and Mrs Smith since the Memorial.
We have been doing a good job of staying under the radar so far, and in the near future, when we move house, we hope to make a clean break. We have family in NZ who are still in, but being in a different country has its benefits...
Our friend that I have mentioned before, Sister T, is the only one in the whole congregation who keeps in touch. Every couple of weeks or so we will catch up and have a coffee, or have her over to watch a movie. We continue to work on her as she has some doubts - even going as far as saying that she is convinced that the Organisation has been infiltrated by Satan and that soon Jehovah will step in to clean it up - but she still believes that there has to be an organised group of people as God's people, and that JWs are that group. We have had some brilliant open and honest discussions with her, she can see it, but fails to realise the import of it I think. Quite frustrating. She is our only genuine friend around here (in the congregation that is), and we can only hope that we have given her enough reasoning that one day, she might hear something in a talk or magazine and it will go CLICK and she'll see the light - the real light, not New Light.
Once we move it will be harder to keep in touch with her, you know what it is like, you can be best mates with someone from a different congregation that shares your hall, but only see them twice a year. So we hope that once we will go she'll keep in touch. We will certainly be keeping touch. Something tells us though that once we are gone, she will just melt back into the WT rut. Some people need to be a part of something.
Mrs Smith and I are happier that ever. We look forward the weekends, and having a bit of a lie in in the mornings. Sometimes we'll wander around the markets, sometimes head into the city, sometimes go to the beach and watch the world go by. We are appreciating life on a whole new level now. We see things different, and not just with a 'the end is just around the corner' view. We see the good in people and realise that we are all just animals hanging on to a rock flying through space. We are all equal in just wanting to survive from day to day and year to year.
Having said that, we are not so naive as to think that we are in the clear just yet. For now though, things are going well and we hope that things will continue in this way and we can slowly fade away to nothingness, and no-one will have any clue.
Stay strong friends, and hang in there no matter what battle you are going through. Patience and determination are what will win this game.
WS
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336
The New Diary of Winston Smith
by WinstonSmith inwe had to go off grid for a time, time and half a time as we thought we had been outed.
fortunately it was a false alarm, but it was a stressful time.
i asked for my original diary thread to be deleted in case there could be anything on there to identlfy mrs smith and i. i am always very careful when posting, and am sure there was nothing on there, but felt it best to have it removed in order to be as cautious as a dove.
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WinstonSmith
I agree Phizzy this recent push out of new info by the GB contains just enough crazy that it might be final straw for any that may be wavering. Let's hope!
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The New Diary of Winston Smith
by WinstonSmith inwe had to go off grid for a time, time and half a time as we thought we had been outed.
fortunately it was a false alarm, but it was a stressful time.
i asked for my original diary thread to be deleted in case there could be anything on there to identlfy mrs smith and i. i am always very careful when posting, and am sure there was nothing on there, but felt it best to have it removed in order to be as cautious as a dove.
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WinstonSmith
The July 15th Study edition of the WT has been released and my JW mates are positively frothing about it. This is the one with the so called 'new light' that we all knew about in advance due to our moles.
Some samples for your viewing pleasure:
"No date, but some good pics and tables"
"The clarifications are so exciting!"
"Read most it, and so far veeeeery interesting"
"They have corrected the great tribulation time and when the goats will be judged. The preaching work is more important than ever. There's clarification on what comes first, the governments turning on religion or war among nation. The faithful slave has been clarified. Going to read it again and this time look up the scriptures."
"Its all been explained so clearly! We are so well looked after!"
"1914 has been clarified, and the parables are more closely linked than we thought before."
"There is a new Governing Body member."
"Can't wait until we study this!"
I notice that no-one has said "I don't get it" I'm sure the majority in fact don't get it. They wouldn't want to say they don't get it so as not to appear stupid. "Of course I understand it, its so simple." I expect to hear a lot of "wow so awesome" and "this is amazing" and not a lot of actual discussion on it. People will be holding out for the WT study to come so they can hear the smart people answer up. If they still don't get it, I imagine most will shrug their shoulders and go "doesn't affect me day to day, so I'll figure it out when I need to" and of course never do it.
What strikes me is the word 'clarifications' was used a lot by the commenters. They don't see these as complete changes of direction, and that now a huge amount of what they used to believe and would have died for is totally different. They just see them as minor adjustments.
The Governing Body can pat themselves on the back for sliding another big elephant passed the unsuspecting plebs. -
336
The New Diary of Winston Smith
by WinstonSmith inwe had to go off grid for a time, time and half a time as we thought we had been outed.
fortunately it was a false alarm, but it was a stressful time.
i asked for my original diary thread to be deleted in case there could be anything on there to identlfy mrs smith and i. i am always very careful when posting, and am sure there was nothing on there, but felt it best to have it removed in order to be as cautious as a dove.
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WinstonSmith
Hi Phizzy, yup, exactly my point! There ain't no evidence in their "primary textbook" to back up the statement they made.
All anointed are partakers, not all partakers are anointed.
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336
The New Diary of Winston Smith
by WinstonSmith inwe had to go off grid for a time, time and half a time as we thought we had been outed.
fortunately it was a false alarm, but it was a stressful time.
i asked for my original diary thread to be deleted in case there could be anything on there to identlfy mrs smith and i. i am always very careful when posting, and am sure there was nothing on there, but felt it best to have it removed in order to be as cautious as a dove.
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WinstonSmith
So during the Memorial talk, the speaker made a comment. This comment rung a bell with me, but for most there, I'm sure it just resulted in them nodding their head in agreement. The comment was:
"Both groups benefit from the ransom sacrifice, but only those with a heavenly hope partake. This is because Jesus set this covenant with his close followers, those who would be in the kingdom with him. For this reason, we would expect that someone who partakes has a long history of service to Jehovah."
Sound logical? Make sense? It kinda does when spoken from the platform in amongst all the other warbling.
But read it again and parse it.
Here we see the WTS deciding who should, and who should not partake. Nothing in that quote can be backed up with a scripture. What the scriptures say is that the spirit manifests itself with someone that they are God's son (or daughter). What does that mean? No-one knows. The scripture does not elaborate as to exactly how the spirit manifests itself. It places no such arbitrary criteria as needing to have many years of faithful service to God. The spirit will choose whover the heck it wants. If that is someone who has had years of service, awesome. If it is some guy who has recently started comijng to meetings, cool.
There is a difference between partaking and being anointed. Even if everyone in the Hall that night had a sip and a nibble, it does not matter. Being anointed is not determined by drinking some wine and chewing some crackers, it is determined by the spirit in a way that is not known to any of us.
The Memorial talk was more about explaining why there should be little to nil persons partaking, than it was about explaining the meaning of the event.
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Notes from 2013 Memorial talk: Appreciate What Christ Has Done for You
by WinstonSmith intook one for the team tonight, and went along to the memorial.
my first time in a kingdom hall for just over a month.
it was as expected, dry, boring and extremely uninteresting.
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WinstonSmith
Good morning everyone, I'm guessing that by now you would have had your Memorial, or at least it won't be far away. Would love to hear the details of the talks you had to sit through.
Kristina1972 picked up up on a point that really struck me as a cunning use of words. When speaking of those in heaven the speaker said that because they bore God's name they were Jehovah's witnesses. This is where they get tricky. Note that I typed 'witnesses' with a small 'w' this is because this is what the speaker meant, as in they are witnesses of Jehovah (ones who can testify about him and his character). However, anyone new or along for the first time would have most likely heard the brother say "as they have God's name on their forehead, they are Jehovah's Witnesses" note the capital W. So while what they said was correct (from their point of view), the uninitiated would most likely hear a not so subtle reminder that when the drinks and nibbles come around, it would be expected that only a Jehovah's Witness would partake, not some lackey off the street. This was further emphasised later when they clearly said that they would expect that only someone with a long history of service to Jehovah would partake.
@Theocratic Sedition: I think they were going for the ol' "Jesus was in the room with and only speaking to his faithful apostles, so the words only apply to them, and by the way, we are the modern day version of the faithful apostles, so this applies to the anointed and not the general populace" schtick. As usual they add meaning and put words in the mouths of bible writers and characters where the text indicates no such thing.
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Notes from 2013 Memorial talk: Appreciate What Christ Has Done for You
by WinstonSmith intook one for the team tonight, and went along to the memorial.
my first time in a kingdom hall for just over a month.
it was as expected, dry, boring and extremely uninteresting.
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WinstonSmith
This is the second Memorial™ that I have been to since waking up. I paid extra attention to how they explained the two hopes. I tried to hear it like a person visiting for the first time would hear it. As you can see above, they used Revelation to show a number in heaven (they didn't read the scripture about the great crowd also being in heaven). Then to show the earthly hope, instead of reading a scripture that clearly states that everyone else lives on earth (because let's be honest there ain't one) they read the usual scriptures in Isaiah of a nice sounding earth and said the fact that you desire these things is proof that you have an earthly hope.
Their reasoning is not dissimilar to balsa wood.