i wanna hear the word that made you either physically nauseous or burst out in uncontrolable laughter.
please demonstrate it in a sentence as well.
mine was 'enthused' (my fingers were shaking as i typed).
Not a word, but a short sentence, often asked at the close a meeting – "What have you learned today?"
"Nothing, it's been a repetition of the same boring old stuff" was the only answer I could ever come up with. Of course, only Jehovah knew I'd given that answer, as only he could read my mind.
i only ask because i hardly ever see them out on the ministry.
it is a very rare sighting to spot them actively engaged in the house to house ministry.
or out on the street work, in the marketplace, etc.. the other reason i ask is because they are constantly pictured as being on the preaching work.
Wow!!!! They all must be in my neihbourhood.
Mine too Quarterback. I live in a small town about equidistant between two large ones, and they cover my estate two or three times a year. Mind you I've only noticed this since I retired, as most times it's during the week when most peple are at work.
i read the watchtower article on this "new light.
" has any information on how "this generation" turned into two overlapping generations of only anointed people been printed?
the word "evidence" was thrown around a lot in the article, but none was provided unless something has been printed since then and i have missed it.
SnailsPace2, the first change to the Generation doctrine was in 1995 when the literal generation was changed to, well, this…
“Rather than providing a rule for measuring time, the term “generation” as used by Jesus refers principally to contemporary people of a certain historical period, with their identifying characteristics. … Does our more precise viewpoint on ‘this generation’ mean that Armageddon is further away than we had thought? Not at all.” (Watchtower, November 1, 1995, pages 17 and 20).
In 2008, the 1995 definition was modified, and the generation no longer referred to contemporary people in general, but to the remnant of the anointed class. And with increasing numbers of new persons partaking of the memorial emblems each year, this would still allow for the ‘generation’ of anointed persons to extend practically indefinitely, and appeared to remove any link to the actual generation of 1914. This problem did not go unnoticed in Brooklyn, so in 2010 the interpretation was modified once more, enter the overlapping generation.
“How, then, are we to understand Jesus’ words about “this generation”? He evidently meant that the lives of the anointed who were on hand when the sign began to become evident in 1914 would overlap with the lives of other anointed ones who would see the start of the great tribulation” (Watchtower, April 15, 2010).
To claim that this is what Jesus ‘evidently’ meant is absurd, but the link to 1914 was re-established. This latest definition means that as long as the life of the very oldest anointed person who was alive in 1914 (even as a baby) overlaps with the very youngest member of the anointed class today, then the ‘generation’ that Jesus ‘evidently meant’ could still exist. So, for example, if there is a member of the anointed class anywhere in the world today who was born in the summer of 1914 and reaches 100 years of age, and at the 2014 memorial somebody only 30 years old partakes of the emblems, there exists an overlapping generation fitting this new definition. This extends the ‘generation’ to 2084 if that 30 year old lives to be a hundred and continues taking the emblems.
However, so as not to give the impression that the ‘end’ could be seventy odd years away in 2014 they said,
“We understand that in mentioning “this generation,” Jesus was referring to two groups of anointed Christians. The first group was on hand in 1914, and they readily discerned the sign of Christ’s presence in that year. … The second group included in “this generation” are anointed contemporaries of the first group. … Today, those in this second group are themselves advancing in years. Yet, Jesus’ words at Matthew 24:34 give us confidence that at least some of “this generation will by no means pass away” before seeing the start of the great tribulation.” (Watchtower, January 15, 2014, page 31).
The striking similarity in the language used here regarding the ‘second group’, to that used in the Watchtowers from the 1950s until the early 1990s regarding the original ‘generation’ is glaring.
Of course there is no scriptural evidence for all of this, there is only Watchtower evidence, that is, material that is printed in Watchtowers. And the reasons are obvious, the literal 1914 generation are all dead.
As an aside, the other day, my daughter and I were talking about a 95 year old relative, who was still going strong, and she made the facetious comment (with a smile) that this relative was one of the generation that would not pass away. No I said, it was that relative’s long dead parents that were not supposed to pass away. It just put the whole nonsense in perspective.
i'm just curious speaking from a person who has stopped going to meetings.
i have heard reports from inactive ones (or from ones who the elders suspect of going to the dark side) of having so many visits from elders (cong members) that it got to the point of harassment.
surprisingly i have to say from personal experience and from numerous others that i have spoken to that the exact opposite has been the case.
I had loads of visits - several elders (including the one that studied with me and was my best man at my wedding) a CO and a DO, plus a number of the brothers I had pioneered with, and a letter from a sister who regarded me as an adopted son as I came in the 'Truth' as a young single brother with no other family, except a sister who lived miles away. And as I moved twice in five years after I left, I also had visits from an elder from each of the congregations whose area I had moved into. I found it very tedious, but I have to say I do believe the motives of all of them were genuine, but this was back in the late 1970s and early 1980s and things were very different back then, especially in the UK.
i'm intrigued by the whole "bible chronology" topic, but have never really dug into it because to put any of it together you need a historically reliable starting point.
this wasn't a problem as a practicing jw because you just assumed their dates were right.
i would like for someone to give me one event described in the bible that is universally established and accepted historically that i can use as a reliable starting point.
It could be worse Phizzy, Rutherford used to refer to it as “present-truth chronology” and said, “It is … in accordance with the soundest laws known to science - that we affirm that, Scripturally, scientifically, and historically, present-truth chronology is correct beyond a doubt.” (Watchtower, June 15, 1922, page 187). Now that really would be annoying if it wasn’t so funny.
i have heard that the watchtower society occasionally takes action under copyright law to either close down a website, or get it to remove the offending material.. some websites (like jwfacts.com, quotes-watchtower.co.uk, and even in some threads here) include a host of images taken from watchtower publications that depict (among other things) armageddon.
are these websites infringing watchtower society copyright by displaying their images?.
if yes, has the watchtower society attempted to have these sites either closed down or the images removed?.
notsurewheretogo – this was this case I had in mind – the letter I believe was to the BOE regarding how to deal with child molesters.
Londo111 – that’s an interesting item on wkipedia, but it makes me wonder why the Society took no action (as far as I know) to prevent the publishers of Ray Franz’s books from reproducing their internal letters in full, but did against JWsurvey.org.
Bangalore – thanks for that link – I clearly should have done a search on this website before starting this thread, that one just about covers it all.
i have heard that the watchtower society occasionally takes action under copyright law to either close down a website, or get it to remove the offending material.. some websites (like jwfacts.com, quotes-watchtower.co.uk, and even in some threads here) include a host of images taken from watchtower publications that depict (among other things) armageddon.
are these websites infringing watchtower society copyright by displaying their images?.
if yes, has the watchtower society attempted to have these sites either closed down or the images removed?.
I have heard that the Watchtower Society occasionally takes action under copyright law to either close down a website, or get it to remove the offending material.
Some websites (like jwfacts.com, quotes-watchtower.co.uk, and even in some threads here) include a host of images taken from Watchtower publications that depict (among other things) Armageddon. Are these websites infringing Watchtower Society copyright by displaying their images?
If yes, has the Watchtower Society attempted to have these sites either closed down or the images removed?
If no, would using these images in a book (with the appropriate source reference) be OK? Curious, that’s all.
"build it and they will come".
i said, " in a world filled with crappy fast food restaurants that should never have made it, movies and tv shows that are terrible yet make millions, celebrities who are famous for doing nothing and butt ugly crappy cars that were built and sold by the millions; if you put "it" out there and are consistant about it, people will eventually find you.
no matter how bad mcdonalds food is for you and (tastes) there will always be a line of people out the door.
There are more than seven million atheists in world - surely they can't all be wrong?
Of course they can say the believers!
What is clearly wrong is the idea that because millions of people swallow something it must be true. I find it quite depressing that millions of people swallow such fallacious logic as this.
the word dogma is defined as "a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.".
i began comparative religious studies several years ago, in fact, i am currently attending school with the desire to acquire my degree in this discipline.
while studying the buddhist belief system, i realized how similar the jw's were in their evolution to every other religion.
Quite agree SOP - and In Search of Christian Freedom, Ray Franz provides a powerful record of how this happend to the Watchtower Society.
when i believed in god i tried not to pray for anything selfish.. after a while i began to think that a lot of things i was asking my imaginary friend in the sky for were selfish for some reason.. i do not ever remember a single thing i prayed for ever being answered.
if there was the appearance of an answer it was because i did mental gymnastics to make it fit the delusion that god had actually answered me.
there was never an obvious message/answer from god.
I don’t quite understand this idea that Jesus is God’s revelation of Truth to the world when he answers just as many prayers of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and all the other religions just as much as he answers the prayers of Christians. He obviously doesn’t care what religion you are, so why send Jesus at all? And if he does care what religion you are, why does he answer the prayers of people from every religion?
