Posts by RR

My immediate family consist of my wife, and daughter. We do celebrate thanksgiving off and on, just a little dinner, sometimes friends invite us over and we have some nice fellowship.

Christmas is the same, although we don't have lights, trees or any of the decorations, we do focus on Christ on that day, since most of the Christian world does.

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I Still Believe ....

11

Legal takeover and Dismantling of the WT Possible?

by Pathofthorns in

jw
friends

the events of the last couple weeks with regard to the un scandal got me thinking that the time climate is increasingly right for the legal takeover and dismantling of the wt.. i know that is a crazy thought, but could it somehow be possible?

now that the gb resigned from their posts, could a rutherford-style takeover happen?.

the un scandal signifies utter betrayal of the membership.

RR

Interestingly, there is a lot to consider. Yes the congregations are owned by a local board of directors made up of the local elders. However, the Society too often acts as the bank, so until those Kingdom Halls are paid off, like a bank, the Society owns the property.

In the early days, there was no property, depending on the size of the class, the ecclesia [congregation] met in individual homes or rented halls [as Bible Students still do] at their business meeting, usually the 4th quarter one, they voted in their officers, ]elders, deacons, secretary, etc.] and would often vote Pastor Russell as an elder, that did not mean Russell could come in and do things, simply that he/the Society were conferred upon when needed on spiritual and congregational matters, but the congregation made the final decision.

Later on, Rutherford took over the congregations and those that gave up their Christian freedom surrendered to him, those that did not, separated.

The Governing Body as far as we can tell are leaders of the 5 million JWs by faith, based on Matthew 24:45-48. They have no vested interest in the various organizations. So it would be easy[???] for any one of the corporations to separate, but not without controversy.

If the congregations are independent, then they can separate on their own, but they would be cut off. and not without problems. I'd hate to see the last congregation I was apart of under control of those elders. Unless congregational polity was reinforced. As it is, the various congregations do not answer to the Watchtower, they now answer to the new corporation, "Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses," the WT of NY is simply a publishing house, while the WT of PA is copyright holder.

Of course, it is quite possible that a split will occur in the near future. It has happened in Europe, it can and will happen in the USA, just as it did with the Mormons [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and Reorganize Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] What will happen to the property? Who knows, and I don't think it will matter. Look at the World Wide Church of God, they kept the property, they even held the copyrights to ALL of Armstrongs books, despite their not publishing them, but that did not stop the various offshoots, of pooling their resources together and organizing, purchasing property and printing facilities and carrying on the work. Where there is a will, there is a way.

The issue is, what direction will these various groups go off to? The Independent JW's in Europe are even more extreme than the Society is, due to their love of Rutherford. The Society does not have a monopoly on the name "Jehovah's WItnesses." Anyone can use it!

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18

C. T. Russell Must Be Rolling In His Grave

by KD in

jw
friends

years ago i remember reading an old book about the life of charles t. russell.

as a young man, russell was indignant with the major churches and at night used to write scornful letters and placed them on the buildings for the public to see.

he used harsh phrases such as "off spring of vipers" and "harlots".

RR

Logical, Russell never claimed to be a prophet, unlike the Socxiety of today who have made such claims. But I won't debate this issue with you!

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I Still Believe ....

11

Legal takeover and Dismantling of the WT Possible?

by Pathofthorns in

jw
friends

the events of the last couple weeks with regard to the un scandal got me thinking that the time climate is increasingly right for the legal takeover and dismantling of the wt.. i know that is a crazy thought, but could it somehow be possible?

now that the gb resigned from their posts, could a rutherford-style takeover happen?.

the un scandal signifies utter betrayal of the membership.

RR

I studied this out when the reorganization first occured. It would seem impossible. First of all, When Rutherford took over, there were only three corporations and the officers were all the same, so he was "elected" as president of all three corporations, but not without illegally creating by-laws that gave the "president" COMPLETE power, thus doing away with the directors.

Today, there are over a dozen organizations connected to the Society. Each one has it's own board of directors, NONE of the directors overlap in their directorship, in other words, each board of directors is distinct, no one hold two offices.

Thus, the only thing that could happen is a takeover of one of the corporations. In the old days the PA corp. was the parent company. Not so today, their all unique cooporating with each other.

But even if someone was to take over, say the New York Society, the reorganization has made it difficult to function. The reorganization made it so that all these corporations NEED each other.

The Watch Tower of Pa HOLD all the copyrights, while the Watchtower of New York only publishes. So if the New York branch divorced itself, it would only be a name, it would have to publish NEW material. One must alway consider who hold the property. That is the key question. Is there another corporation that hold title to ALL the assets? The printing equipment?

What good is the Watch Tower of PA and the Watchtower of NY if there is no property or printing equipment? These guys aren't idiots, they knew exactly what they were doing. Making it difficult for any one complete takeover.

But it seems the Society is gearing up for things. Notice when one calls the Society's offices, they answer "Jehovah's Witnesses" and not "Watchtower." In their journals when they ask if you want a Bible study or contact, you now write to "Jehovah's Witneses" and then check among the list of branches in the back of the books. you'll also notice when they quote from one of their books or mention it, the footnotes now read "Published by Jehovah's Witnesses" and not "Published by Watchtower bible and Tracts Society of New York."

They are also downplaying the whole "Jehovah's Organization" substituting it with "Christian congregation." So the organization itself is being minimized, downplayed and in its stead maximizing the "Jehovah's Witnesses."

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40

What Do You Do?

by hillary_step in

jw
friends

i link to this board a couple of times a day, sometimes in the early hours and there is always a flurry of activity, often from an enclave of veterans.

i wonder, are you all in prison?

i understand the pc's are allowed in some facilities.. do you all work?

RR

I'm a Letter Carrier for the United States Postal Service. I come home for lunch and post till my hearts content ... lol

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Say What?

by RR in

jw
friends

someone sent this to me apparently on greatcrowd.net.

contrasting bro.

russell with the leaders of these movements (such as ellen g. white of the adventists), the article says : .

RR

Someone sent this to me apparently on GreatCrowd.net

Contrasting Bro. Russell with the leaders of these movements (such as Ellen G. White of the Adventists), the article says :
Russell was unlike many of his reformation-minded contemporaries in that he did not preach a special approach to God, did not boast of divine visions or revelations, did not discover esoteric messages in the form of hidden books or otherwise, and never claimed to be able to heal the physically sick.
White DID in fact claim to experience divine revelations, which fact alone would make the Adventists 'spiritual cousins' of the Mormons, perhaps. Jehovah's people, on the other hand, essentially have no spiritual ties to ANY false religions. (2 Cor. 6:15)

Isn't it ironic, that Russell didn't teach this things, but yet claiming him as their "modern day father" they have done exactly what he didn't. And that is special approach to God through the FDS go in turn go to Jesus who in turn go to Jehovah. Who boast of their works [powers] although there is proof that Rutherford did dabble in the occult and spiritism. And they claim truth can only be found in their books. They may never lciam to 'heal' physically, but they often boast of all the lives they have changed.

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62

SEMINAR ON BIBLICAL GREEK Taught by Dr. Firpo Carr

by VM44 in

jw
friends

while surfing the net, i came upon this annoucement.. a seminar on biblical greek to be taught by dr. firpo carr!!!.

who wants to sign up?.

< http://www.stirinc.org/seminar.htm.

RR

Tina

And where did he get his credentials again?

Probably the same place Walter Martin got his from the back of a cereal box

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24

WOL tightened security

by Moxy in

jw
friends

all new registrants must be referals now.

and the contemplations forum where the only really interesting stuff ever is (e.g.

the 'free to remarry' thread) is being made private.

RR

Me thinks, Kent may have a 'thing' for big black women! eh?

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45

Persuasion: Did we forget what we learned as JWs?

by larc in

jw
friends

as jws we learned a lot about persuasion and how to get people to accept our ideas.

we had role plays on over coming objections.

we were taught how to anticipate typical questions and respond to them.

RR

I think too often, those who leave, 'throw the baby out with the bath water.'

I tend to agre with SImon, quite often when I come a cross a site that is full of bitterness and hate, I just keep moving, despite the fact that it may have truth to it. I find the best way to deal with peole is to be kind and considerate. Too often, we become argumentative in getting our points across and we lose the potential listener.

And too often, we still have that JW in us that is not willing to listen to reason, we sit and listen without listening just to get out point across. A truly open mind, sits, listens and digest the information.

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