Anders Andersen

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Posts by Anders Andersen

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  8

  Dreaming about Trump and Kim

  by Gorbatchov in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  how indoctrination works: i was dreaming tonight about the summit between trump and kim.. heard the bible text about "peace and security" and "disqusting thing at a holy place"in my head and my brains were calculating with the number 666 (=6/12, date of today).. this is no joke.

  since 1995 mentally out and since 2008 realy out, educated and reading quality stuff and still my brains do this crazy stuff.

  amazing!.

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  Anders Andersen

  Lol. I'm guessing you were 110% in and quite studious back in the day?
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  11

  Zeal vs Fanaticism. What is the difference?

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a good friend of ours and i were chatting the other day about the difference between a zealous person and fanatical person.. what is the difference?.

  why is someone praised for being "zealous" , but another person is mocked or condemned for being a "fanatical" person?.

  how would jws be classed?.

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  Anders Andersen

  Fanaticism isn't just powered up zeal.

  Fanaticism includes intolerance against those with differing viewpoints, refusal to contemplate being wrong, blind faith, absence of a sense of reality.
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  22

  Question about JW finance

  by Gorbatchov in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  watched the jw finance video's.. they have sold all brooklyn landmarks.

  bilions.

  they are selling other property maybe up to 3000 units worldwide.. so, there is going something wrong.... there must be a giant money leak.

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  Anders Andersen

  I think the giant leak is diminished donations since literature became free, an economic crisis, plus financial mismanagement by uneducated, inexperienced, Jehovah-will-bless-us top managers (gb).

  That lead to a huge cash flow and liquidity issue. They're not poor, but most of their money is/was tied up in real estate.

  So over the last decade they have tried to fix the cash flow issue by reducing costs. They tried to solve the liquidity issue by selling off real estate, but you can only eat up your assets until they are gone. I think more important is thay less real estate means less cost, and that helps their cash flow issue.

  What they are doing now is trying to make their financial situation sustainable. Cost are to match the income, which apparently it didn't (for a long time even?)

  They're not poor, but bleeding. They're stopping the bleeding now to prevent themselves from becoming poor.
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  28

  NWT 1984 vs NWT 2013

  by Tallon in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i recently had a discussion with a jw concerning a change in wording of a scripture - in fact this was my all time favourite scripture, namely, micah 6:8.. my view is that the wtbts have deliberately changed the wording and meaning of the said scripture.

  the other person is of the opinion that that is not the case.

  micah 6:8.

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  Anders Andersen

  My view is that the WTBTS have deliberately changed the wording and meaning of the said scripture

  Of course they changed this deliberately. Unless he JW wants to argue that the new NWT translation is the product of chance and accidents?

  The real question is: did they change it because the new translation fits the meaning of the original text better, or did they change it to make their translation back up their efforts to retain members?

  The best way to find out is to check this verse in many other translations, look up the meaning of the original words in a bible dictionary or reference, and look up other verses with the same original word and see how those are translated (e.g. use Strongs numbers and a concordance).

  Happy hunting.

  
  
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  25

  How to deal with struggling with the doctrines

  by Dval in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is my first post.

  i'm still a jw but am inactive.

  im struggling with the fact that i agree with some of the doctrines (i,e, the stance on the trinity, there is no hell) but i disagree with a lot of things (i,e, men can't have beards, women have to wear skirts).

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  Anders Andersen

  Hi, and welcome!

  There's only something to reconcile for those who believe everything JW say is The Truth, isn't it?

  Once you accept that maybe some JW rules or doctrines aren't right at all, you can allow yourself to form and hold your own beliefs without fear.

  At any given time in history, were all JW rules and doctrines correct? Surely not, as many things have been revised through 'new understanding'.

  I'm quite sure JW will continue to publish 'new understanding', don't you think so too? Logically that means at least some current JW rules and policies are wrong today, which might mean your own viewpoint is the correct one.

  Why be afraid of your own mind and viewpoints if they may be more correct than current JW beliefs?

  Anyway, the way forward is research, research, research. And not just from JW literature either. The JW writing dept. uses a lot of sources like commentaries on the Bible, encyclopedias, and books by non-JW writers, and you are allowed to do the same. It's even the smart thing to do!

  Good luck!
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  11

  BOE letter 2018-06-01 Announcements

  by Fay Dehr in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

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  Anders Andersen

  I think they made a typo. Fixed it.

  "...to implement the maintenance sell-off program for Kingdom Halls"
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  22

  Only one real point per WT study...

  by JW_Rogue in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  has anyone else noticed that in the wt study articles the main point they want you to remember is always somewhere around paragraph 11-14?

  it's like a formula.

  intro and overview paragraphs 1-4. basic wt stuff 5-8 (not controversial).

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  Anders Andersen

  It's not like a formula, it is a formula.

  Writing dept. has extensive and detailed guidelines on how to write stuff for the JW litterature.

  That's why wt study articles and also the public editions have had a predictable build up for decades.

  In field service I've been offering the magazines without having read them since I was twelve. Just looking at the cover plus knowledge of the standard build up told me everything I needed to know.
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  13

  Am I imagining this cover or what?

  by carla in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i am trying to remember a cover of a wt or awake that had a picture of a priest or maybe even the pope.

  i think the issue came out in the height of the catholic sexual abuse cases and being disappointed in your religion or something like that.

  i have searched this site and google images but not be using the correct key words.. the reason i am looking for it is because should it come up that jw's are being persecuted due to all the recent publicity i would like to ask a jw if the wt and the mainstream media were 'persecuting' the catholic church when they were uncovering wrongdoing in that religion or any other.

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  Anders Andersen

  There's orange and some priest paraphernalia on page 31 of Awake 1993, April 8th, and article about the Catholic child abuse issue. Hypocrite fucks.

  
  
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  24

  Dutch government look for possibility to revoke JW charity status (=tax breaks) after JW refuse independent investigation re. abuse

  by Anders Andersen in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  well, the title says it all.

  the dutch government will look into the possibility to revoke the charity status of jw after they refused to cooperate in the child abuse scandal.. the government urged the jw to start an independent investigation into the jw child abuse issues, and after some stalling the jw flatout refused.

  unfortunately the government can't really force them.. the chance that the charity status is actually revoked is very small as there appears to be no legal basis to do so, but right now the government and house of representatives are very annoyed with jw.. and in the meantime the da will continue their investigation based on the victims officially reporting abuse to the police..

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  Anders Andersen

  Yes, I did. But not manually, I use tools for that ;-)

  How did you find this site btw?
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  24

  Dutch government look for possibility to revoke JW charity status (=tax breaks) after JW refuse independent investigation re. abuse

  by Anders Andersen in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  well, the title says it all.

  the dutch government will look into the possibility to revoke the charity status of jw after they refused to cooperate in the child abuse scandal.. the government urged the jw to start an independent investigation into the jw child abuse issues, and after some stalling the jw flatout refused.

  unfortunately the government can't really force them.. the chance that the charity status is actually revoked is very small as there appears to be no legal basis to do so, but right now the government and house of representatives are very annoyed with jw.. and in the meantime the da will continue their investigation based on the victims officially reporting abuse to the police..

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  Anders Andersen

  For whoever is interested: I have a copy of all of the 1000+ (financial) year reports (2015,2016,2017) for JW charities in the netherlands, that Watchtower provides at http://www.jw-anbi.nl

  Next step is combining these PDF reports into a spreadsheet for analysis.