Anders Andersen

Joined

• started 54 topics
• posted 1,668 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by Anders Andersen

• 
  5

  Can you help with this?

  by vienne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i need a scan of this: the apocalyptic interpretation of history of american premillennial groups, phd dissertation by carl ludwigson, 1944. if you have it, please contact me..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Anders Andersen

  Vienne,

  See this link below for a list of libraries that have this publication on their shelves. Might be a help?

  http://www.worldcat.org/title/apocalyptic-interpretation-of-history-of-american-premillennial-groups/oclc/8918697
  
• 
  17

  Watchtower disputes $200K tax bill from Newburgh

  by Rattigan350 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  http://www.recordonline.com/news/20180904/watchtower-disputes-200k-tax-bill-from-newburgh.

  town of newburgh — the watchtower bible and tract society of new york is challenging nearly $200,000 in fire and other special district taxes assessed for three town of newburgh properties, including two hotels the organization bought to house volunteers helping build its world headquarters in warwick.. in a petition filed in orange county court last month, the umbrella organization for jehovah’s witnesses claimed that the town “either unintentionally as a mistake or intentionally and without lawful authority” miscoded the former hilton on crossroads court and the former hampton inn on route 300 for 2016, 2017 and this year.. with a combined market value of nearly $23 million, the hotel properties were not assessed town, county and school taxes for those years.

  but the town assessed $196,000 charges for the orange lake fire district and lighting and water districts during those years.. newburgh also assessed $1,600 in special district taxes over three years for a vacant commercial property watchtower owns at route 17k and route 300.. “petitioner would not be required to pay the resulting unjust charges if its exemption from taxes had been justly, correctly, and lawfully granted and administered,” watchtower’s attorneys wrote in the organization’s petition in county court.. watchtower bought the two hotel properties in 2014 as it built its 1.6 million-square-foot headquarters on kings drive in warwick.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Anders Andersen

  The county might waive the taxes, then burn those buildings down and see how Watchtower would fare without fire dept. ;-p
• 
  29

  Not viewed as a JW if not reported for 6 months?

  by kramer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hi, i seem to remember that the society have said that you are not viewed as a witness if you have not reported for 6 months.. does this ring any bells?

  someone i know has been called for a judicial, even though she has said she doesn’t believe and is not not attending meetings and hasn’t for 6 months.what she did was 12 months ago when she was a witness.. she is not sure whether she should turn up or not, as turning up shows she thinks she answers to elders still.

  but also doesn’t want to be automatically disfellowshipped which may happen if she doesn’t turn up.. if there is an article to quote saying someone inactive isn’t seen as a witness, this would be helpful.. any thoughts?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Anders Andersen

  No Biahi, they have not.

  You seem to be certain...but I thought official policy is to retain the publisher card indefinitely unless a person is confirmed dead?
  
  
• 
  23

  You will not find this sort of support in the New System: JC Elder

  by Diogenesister in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so that statement was made by an elder to a disfellowshipped brother, during a reinstatement meeting.. this statement is made here at around 4.

  10 mins in.. the full story of this man is incredibly sad.

  in fact i've rarely listened to an exjws story that has affected me quite so much.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Anders Andersen

  Fyi Watchtower does indeed expect execution for sinners in Paradise, but claims it's highly unlikely that people who survived the 'final test' will ever want to sin again.

  https://wol.jw.org/nl/wol/dsync/r18/lp-o/r1/lp-e/2006607#h=1

  Of course even highly unlikely events will eventually happen given enough time (eternity).
• 
  23

  You will not find this sort of support in the New System: JC Elder

  by Diogenesister in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so that statement was made by an elder to a disfellowshipped brother, during a reinstatement meeting.. this statement is made here at around 4.

  10 mins in.. the full story of this man is incredibly sad.

  in fact i've rarely listened to an exjws story that has affected me quite so much.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Anders Andersen

  Afaik official stance is that in paradise (after 1000 years) any sin = instant death penalty.

  No need for a JC or trial even, as perfect people cannot hide behind imperfection and thus willingly choose to sin. They wouldn't be repentant anyway. The sinner knowingly and willingly rebelled against God and this deserves to die.

  Of course nobody ever explored the details of this idea. Nobody looked at the huge grey area.

  Assume alcoholic beverages to be still in use...would everybody have a built in breathalyzer so they know when to stop drinking?

  I know that sometimes I have 3 beers without any effects, and other times 1 and feel it.

  Would I be executed in such a situation?

  Would it really be impossible for someone to miscalculate their reaction to alcohol sometimes?

  If not, people could sin unwillingly even in Paradise.

  If so, how would that even work?

  Or similarly, how about lusting for someone you're not married to? Where is the line between seeing a person and admiring their physical and inner beauty, and lusting for them? It's easy to describe the difference between the extremes on this scale, but what about the middle?

  I'm afraid the ideas JW have about how justice would work in paradise are untenable. Of course they'll just "wait for Jehovah (tm)"...
• 
  14

  Interpretation often takes you away from truth

  by Ireneus in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  yesterday, my classmate was giving an example from her homeland on how people can give various interpretations which have nothing to do with truth.

  though studying in the us, she was closely monitoring what was happening in kerala (a small southern state of india), her birth place.

  last month saw unprecedent heavy rains wreaking widespread havoc in this small state with huge population (which is much more than australia’s population).

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Anders Andersen

  This explains why we find many interpretations on Biblical subjects with the possibility that none of them could be be true.

  As you described people already come up with different interpretations for a single, unchallenged fact (heavy rains).

  It only makes sense that interpretations of someone else's convoluted fantasy or nightmares (e.g. Revelations), folk lore and origin myths (e.g. Exodus) and other such legendary stories that we don't even know to be factually correct, are going to be completely arbitrary and completely useless.

  It's also noteworthy that your example about the Kerala rains shows very clearly that people come up with interpretations that fit their pre-existing worldview.

  Very few of the women who wanted entry have interpreted the situation as their gods telling them to drop the case.

  Very few of the men who denied women entry have interpreted the situation as their gods telling them to allow women in the temple.

  None of the scientists accepted the interpretation that those floodings are the wrath of a god.

  They all interpreted according to their already existing worldview.

  And that is exactly the point I tried to make in one of your other threads. Anyone who reads the Bible will interpret it according to their own preexisting ideas and beliefs.

  Someone who believes God is loving, kind and patient might interpret that some parts of the Bible are written by 'false friends', and that their depictions of God as jealous, angry, vindictive or violent are to be ignored. That interpretation is however entirely arbitrary, according to that person's preexisting beliefs.

  If someone else were to claim the exact opposite (God is impatient, violent, vindictive, and every Bible verse that says otherwise is written by a 'false friend'), that interpretation would be just as valid/invalid and useful/useless and the favorable interpretation.

  Just like the Kerala rains, people generally interpret the world and religious ideas just the way they want. They construct their own god(s)/God and make the world and the texts conform to that.

  Worse, the texts themselves are the result of people having preexisting religious ideas and interpreting their world according to those ideas.

  Building your reality on those means interpreting the (incomplete record of) someone else's interpretation of the world.

  Can't get much unstable than that....(well unless you add another layer such as JW who interpret the JW leaders' interpretation of Bible writers' interpretation of the world.)
• 
  26

  Sisters handling mic's

  by I Faded Twice in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i saw a topic on another forum where a sister was supposedly carrying the mics.

  i was curious if this was even possible?

  is it new light or just a lie?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Anders Andersen

  Can you imagine Rosa Parks or M.L. King saying something like:

  I'm from a small town. There are not enough White people to fill all the positions in the White school. I have been assigned to clean the hallways. Assisting the White teachers to care for the White school needs is a great privilege and I am very thankful for it.

  Yeah it takes a special kind of blindness to be thankful for repression and discrimination like this sweet mic carrying sister...
• 
  25

  Who wrote the Bible?

  by Ireneus in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the wordings suggest much of the bible is written by false friends of god.

  to mention a few:.

  1) god planted a special tree to pay the way for suffering and death into the lives of his children.. 2) god protected cain who murdered his innocent brother out of sheer jealousy.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Anders Andersen

  • I have no problem in identifying what is inherently and intrinsically good.

    By what means do you identify the good and bad?

    By what standard do you measure this?

    How did you determine that this standard is the (or a) correct standard for identifying the good and the bad?
• 
  26

  Sisters handling mic's

  by I Faded Twice in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i saw a topic on another forum where a sister was supposedly carrying the mics.

  i was curious if this was even possible?

  is it new light or just a lie?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Anders Andersen

  Jup, entirely possible.

  My wife and I visited her sister and BIL who were need greating somewhere.

  My wife and SIL ran the mics, another sister was in the sound booth and literature dept.

  BIL and I were the only two brothers, and we were on stage doing all the parts.

  BIL was only an MS bit had to run that whole (tiny) congo (or group?). Together we even made an official shepherding call....a MS and and me, regular Joe Publisher.

  Only men are worthy, but in dire situations Jehovah is willing to lower his standards.
• 
  58

  Developments in the India Branch

  by MaxPayne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the following letter was read in the congregation today.

  it's for all the congregations in india.

  i have pasted it as it was.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Anders Andersen

  @drearywheather,

  Thanks for the detailed info!