all irregular and inactive publishers will be pleased with the heartwarming news that april will see a special campaign by the elders to encourage you.
yes, don't faint, it must be true because the april kingdom ministry says so.
in fact, so strong is the forecasted encouragement, that it states on paragraph 25 of the insert article:.
The attention to the inactive is part of a campaign to increase numbers of publishers in April. There are 3 groups that will be targetted; children, Bible students, and the inactive ...
You mean their going to visit the Evil Slave Class too ... wow! lol
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People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
when viv mouritz , former branch coordinator in australia, addressed the special meeting of sydney and surrounding area congregations at the superdome last weekend, he blamed the young witnesses who were leaving "the truth" for the drop in numbers in australia.. at the service meeting this week in one sydney congregation it was announced by a bethel elder that the elders have been told (as if they didn't know already!
) that 2,000 have left "the truth" in the past two years in australia.
this typical congregation of 120 publishers has lost 19 inactive since 1999.. the march 2001 issue of kingdom ministry (australian edition) gives the number of publishers for december as 58,426, pioneers 3,315 and 19 baptized.. in dec '98 there were 58,706 pubs,and in dec '99 there were 58,000.. with 1,600-1,800 being baptized each year, there is indeeed a 2,000 shortfall.. so, who's to blame?
Interestingly, I have been inactive for some nine years, and in all that time, I have NEVER been contacted by my old congregation. Granted I no longer reside in that area, but I am still in the stste, and my mother-in-law is still in the congregation, thus if they really wanted to contact us they could easily do so.
I've never ben DF'd nor have we formally DA'd ourselves, even though I did write up a ficve page "exist" letter, that I never mailed.
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People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
one of the things that has bothered me for years, in this organization is how appointments are made.
its alleged to be done by holy spirit.
or by men whose decisions are effected or influenced by holy spirit.
Actually with the new re-organization of the Watchtower into various components ... not sure of which organization it is, I think its the "Religious order of Jehovah's Witnesses" which is now responsible for appointing ALL officers of the Society and congregations. And since NONE of these newly formed corporation are run by spirit-begotten ones, I would say Jehovah has totally been left out of the picture
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People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
judgemental and closeminded were exact descriptions of my former jw self.. recently on another forum, someone posted a cartoon depicting the character urinating on the bible.
i had an immediate revulsion and concluded this was not appropriate, letting the poster know my thoughts.
other's on the forum did not see it as i did.
Personally, I've often considered myself open-minded. In fact I entered the JW World with an open-mind, I now believe that's what saved me for the destructive course that so many former JWs take when they leave.
I accepted what I thought was truth and rejected what I thought was error and if I hadn't made up my mind on something I just put it on the shelf.
I nev4er cared what people thought of me, but I was well respected for my open-mindedness.
I am still a God-fearing man, and am very active in my church, thus if I saw someone urinating on a Bible, yes, I would be offended, but not to the point as some do, I understand that this is the world we live in, and people don't have anything better to do, they are victims of their environment, and although I don't fully understand what some behave the way they do, I do know that we live in a sick world, and people do sick things, and you really don't need an excuse to do something that sickening!
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People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
wow, thank you all so much for the welcome.. .
i will tell you a little about myself and my past.. as much as i can for now anyway.. one of the most scarey parts of joining a group is i am afraid to put my name on here.. will that mean i will get a visit from the elders if i do?
i think they put the fear in me :).. .
Welcome "NLAJW" pull up a chair and make yourself comfy!
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People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
just a thought.... at my recent meeting with the elders they accused me of being of the 'evil slave class'.
i responded that there were not two classes as the scripture said "but if that slave..." ie.
it was still talking about the same person or class.. now, if they claim that i have become the evil slave then i must, at some point, have been the faithful and discreet slave.. but, i have never claimed to by such and i'm sure that if it was somehow bestowed upon me that i would realise it (although apparently, the governing body didn't realise it for many years, but that's a separate topic).. are they twisting scriptures to suit themselves?
This is an issue I always bring up, that there is no faithful AND evil slave. What the Lord here is saying is contrasting the two. The slave is faithful, however becomes evil when he claims the "lord delays."
Interestingly, there is a parallel that fits. Consider that Russell believed the Lord returned in 1874, Rutherford then claimed "The Lord delayeth his comeing" and moved it up to 1914 then starting to "smite his brethren" because of it and began "eating and drinking with the drunkards."
The Diaglott renders it correctly but read "And if that servant evilly siath my Lord delayeth...." "That" servant being the faithful servant who grew weary of waiting.
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People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
did anyone happen to watch dateline last night?
i was watching it and noticed a lot of simalarities to the jw...
"relgion?
Missed it, what was the religion?
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People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
i'm getting a kick on the wol board, there is a post there that's too funny.. apparently one of the witnesses went on a return visit with an elder and the guy they came to visit was "un-witnessable.
well, apparently he had the same beliefs as they did, so how do you witness to someone who agrees with you?
so the frame of thought from the replies is pretty much, if he has some truths, he must be an apostate, or perhaps he studied one of our publication.
Thanks 'Mommy', I admit I use to go on a lot of JW's forums with the pretense of being a JW, technically, I am, since I was never DF'd or formally DA'd.
It got to a point that I said, 'what am I doing?' this is silly, so when I did sign on I did so under 'RR', with no pretense, I must admit I lasted about two or three post before I was kicked off, or someone noticed my name and turned me in. I know for a fact that the moderators on WOL monmitor other boards specially "apostate" boards too see what's going on and see if anyone is posting on their boards who is clearly not one of them.
I figured if a JW's is sincere and is happy and content with being a JW, then leave them in their ignorance, however those who are searching will eventually find their way out, prayer is a powerful thing.
I have been in touch with a lot of JW's who searching, I don't try to convert them to my view, just try aned give them a little hope and the rest is up to the Lord.
I am still a firm believer!
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People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
this is an email i just received.
i feel like posting the senders name and email, but i'll refrain for now.. you are a coward like all of you on that 'jw' board you cant say these things .
when we talk to you cause you dont want to hear the truth................you .
Woe is me, what have I done to be left out of the loop :(
Brethren, please pray for me that I can be found worthy of an e-mail!
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People who want to share their religious views with you almost
never want you to share yours with them.
ever look at the lyrics to the jw songs?
what a riot, i can't believe i sang them, although i can remember laughing at the meetings while singing some of them.. iknow that in this crucial hour.
my faith will yet be tested.. around me swarms the devils crowd.
I have all of the Society's hymnbooks, some of the hymns in the old "Hymns of Millennial Dawn" were actually old Church Hymns that were altered a bit to reflect the truth.
There's one that ends with "Blessed Trinity." it was chnaged to "blessed unity."
I would have to say that two fo my favorite non-JW hymns are "He Knows" and "It is well with my soul."
Although it is interesting that many of the songs song by the Witnesses are song to the tunes of old Church songs.
Every so often when at Church my wife and I are singing a hymn we look at each other and laugh because it's the same tune to a JW song and we tryu to figure out which one it was.
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People who want to share their religious views with you almost
never want you to share yours with them.
