Posts by shepherdless

38

How far will they go?

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

imagine: you have inside information that could destroy the watchtower corporations.. how far would they go to protect the assets?.

would they kill?

no strange question in blackwater etc days.. g..

shepherdless

I thought I would check in, given I get a mention above.

I have done a few threads on the Aust census statistics. The following is the last one I did. (Look at the graphs on page 2, as some of those in the opening post contain an error.)

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5260866569109504/jw-decline-additional-data-from-aust-2016-census?page=2

Essentially, decline in Australia is "locked-in" and inevitable, now. Because their median age has risen over the last 10 years, they are entering a stage where deaths will outnumber births, particularly as the baby boomers die off. It will be a slow process, however.

Also, someone on a separate thread about 5 months ago showed that adding up all publishers across Europe, showed a small decline. I noticed that adding in the major wealthy countries (USA, Japan etc) showed a slightly greater decline.

So decline is real, at least in the West. And this decline is unrelated to whatever financial issues Watchtower is currently suffering.

Btw, I also agree that the number of congregations is a reliable measure of growth/decline, as it is a hard one to fudge.

Back to the O.P. I don't think the Borg could stoop to murder. They are quite likely to stoop to Scientology style tactics, though.

31

A non-Witnes who accepts 607 BC?

by careful in

an eyebrow raiser to be sure.

i can understand the clergyman being so baptist that he'd still use the name jehovah since it was popular in english and german churches for a long time during and after the reformation, but 607?.

see ¶ 6 under the heading "the historicity of the book of daniel".

shepherdless

Yes, John Aquila Brown had the correct date for when Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne. I don't think he says where he gets that date, but it was probably either from Ptolomy's Canon, or indirectly from Bishop Ussher. I think I read somewhere that 19th century protestant bibles often had Bishop Ussher's timelines of biblical events listed in them.

John Aquila Brown stated that the end of the 2520 years was 1 January 1917. So he was another clown who didn't know there was no zero AD.

27

Weird, weird. Newest internet debate, Laurel or yanny?

by James Mixon in

jw
friends

i heard laurel and the wife heard yanny.

maybe someone can post the spoken word..

shepherdless

To me it sounds clearly like "Yanny". I gather it all depends on how well you hear high frequencies.

17

How does mankind know what happen before we were created??

by James Mixon in

for example, "and god said, let there be light: and there was light.

"a personal and vocal god said, "let there be light.

"so god saw the light, and thought it good, but how did the priestly scribe know that he did?

shepherdless

For example, "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."

Well, what language did He use to say that, if language had not been invented. And why was God talking to himself like a weirdo, anyway?

19

12 june 2018 what to say

by LostAdam in

hi eveyone, my sis told me something like where will i be after that day.

i couldnt realize at first what she meant, but i found this on net donald-trump-kim-jong-un-meeting-singapore-june-12/.

i found her reaction so pathetic, but i think she is really sorry for me leaving.. so how to do you reply to jw family or generally when news about world peace comes out?.

shepherdless

You could have a lot of fun with someone with gentle jibes to anyone who sent you a message about 12 June. Just to throw around a few ideas for responses:

“oh I see, it is the Kim of the North.”

”That explains why there are so many references to the Korean Peninsula in the bible.[Sarcasm alert]”

“Perhaps North Korea is the “little horn” of Daniel 8:9 and its missile program is the little horn growing big and knocking stars out of the sky in Daniel 8:10” but then follow up shortly after saying, “no I got that all wrong. I checked Watchtower Online, and Daniel 8:10 is all about Watchtower filing a corporate amendment in the 1940s”

”Haven’t each of the last 6 US presidents all said “peace and security” at some stage?”

Send a few days before 12 June: “Organised a nice meal and glass of wine for the big day (12 June). What are you going to be doing?”

Send a couple of days after 12 June: “Still nothing. What do you reckon happened.” And diarise to send a further message every couple of months for the rest of the year, asking again about 12 June 2018.

80

Rumor: New light comes from outside marketing consultants

by Londo111 in

this is a rumor i heard back in november, it comes to me third or fourth-hand.

feel free to poke holes.

i have many doubts about this myself.

shepherdless

SDA in particular seems to be a far better managed religion, at least in my region. I personally would prefer sbf not to list things the Mormons and SDA’s do better, as I don’t want to see Watchtower get any good ideas.

8

Highlights from Leaked Bethel Videos - part 7, statistics charts

by neat blue dog in

here's some stat charts featured in the bethel talks:.

.

shepherdless

The first chart has to be global figures (not just USA). It would indicate that there are around 62,000 Kingdom Halls globally. It does refer to 995 built in 2017. I presume that very few of those were in the wealthier countries.

The second chart and the fourth (last) chart seems to be USA specific. 6221 Kingdom Halls seems to be consistent with the number of congregations in USA (about 14,000). So that would indicate that in USA, they built 20 KH's and renovated 72 in 2017. Given such buildings probably have a lifespan of about 50 years, that is nothing special. In fact, the chart indicates they hope to significantly increase building maintenance in the future.

I wonder which category Warwick fits into, on the green part of the fourth chart.

The third chart is a continuation of the first chart. If you add up all the numbers on top of the bars on both charts, you get the number 4340, which is exactly the number at the bottom of the fourth chart.

The word "closed" on the third chart probably means "completed". So "perfomed" in the first chart should also read "completed", to make sense.

The last line of the fourth chart just indicates to me that there are a lot of hidden costs in operating and maintaining a religious real estate empire.

13

What's it like these days for teenagers?

by JeffT in

jw
friends

i converted at age 22, and left 15 years later (1988) so i don't really know what its like to be in high school as a jw.

for those of you who do know: do teenage jw's hang out with each other?

worldly kids?

shepherdless

My kids all have “worldly” friends. I am pretty sure they don’t tell anyone at school that they are JWs. My eldest kid (who is completely out) said he never told anyone in school as it would have been “social suicide”.

I think it is easier for them, because JW kids are so rare, at least in our area. I am pretty certain that so far, through the primary school years, there has never been another JW kid in the whole school (youngest is nearly through primary school). I think in high school there have been one or two.

10

Cardinal George Pell Senior Member of the Vatican on Sex Charges in Australia to stand Trial.

by smiddy3 in

cardinal george pell will return to court in a fortnight ,he has been committed to stand trial relating to multiple complainants .. magistrate belinda wallington struck out about half the charges including the most serious of them .. cardinall george pell denies all charges against him.. the world media is watching the outcome of this trial he is the most senior member of the vatican to be charged with such an offence and by, all people , australians who have conducted their own arc into institutionalized child sexual abuse of children .. we wait with baited breath ( for a just outcome ) in all of these investigations ..

shepherdless

I don't know anything about the case, apart from what I have read in the media, and there has been very little description in the media (at least in what I have read) about the details of the charges.

At this stage, unless something new comes to light, my prediction would be that Pell is found not guilty of all remaining charges.

Just another point. I might well be wrong, but isn't it the case that Pell is facing "sexual abuse" claims, but nothing concerning an underage person?

39

Kingdom Halls sold.

by zeb in

jw
friends

please list kh that you know of that have been sold..

shepherdless

Stan: Wow..that's still a high dub to population ratio..about 1 to 260. What made the watchtower so popular over there ? Instant new world ?

Ratio for NZ is 1 to 330. Higher than most of Western European but lower than, for example, some Eastern European countries.

Compare that to the ratio in Australia, of 1 to 380. I am not sure of the reason for the difference, but it may be because Aust has had a higher immigration intake in recent decades. Another NZ stat is that there are only 75 publishers per congregation (compared to 84 in Aust, 83 in "Britain", 81 in Canada, etc).