Posts by Anna Marina

27

It was all GREEK to me

by Terry in

jw
friends

around 1976 i got the wild idea i'd like to learn greek (for my study of the christian greek scriptures and to 'get to the bottom' of whether i was wasting my time being even a token jehovah's witness.

) i would read the actual text and avoid my denomination's opinion commentaries, you see.. .

i learned the characters in the greek alphabet rather quickly and started reading an interlinear (english/greek) bible aloud - practicing my enunciation.

Anna Marina

Hi Terry - I studied 1991 and baptised 1992 - I did really careful research using both the Bible and the Live Forever Book. I challenged the teachings where I had to. Elders sometimes sat in on my study.

The sister who took my study was surprised how much I knew about the Bible and would sometimes change her mind on WBTS teachings and say: "When you first said that, I didn't think you were right, now I've thought about it, I agree with you."

When elders showed up, I loved it and we went into great depth on many things. Little did I realise even then, that I was constantly catching them out. But I wasn't doing that, I was just talking and asking questions. However, it was when the elders turned up that I'd get told, "if the Society has anything wrong, they will change it. Unlike the churches we are not dogmatic." And I believed what they said. Why wouldn't I? They were kind and appeared genuine.

Fast forward to 2005/6 and I found out they had been lying. As you say:

What JW's had all along was double-talk, false reasoning, and a manufactured piety and skill.

26

2019-New Files Just Arrived!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

2019 application for prison minister.

https://docdro.id/dxusjmu.

2019 brd visitor center newsletter.

Anna Marina

Petra, my hair used to be down to my waist, so not as long as yours.

Like your mum, I got told to cut it off. Eventually I did and its now down to my shoulders. But before I got disfellowshipped (for sticking to what the Bible really said) and when it was still long, I would sit towards the front of the hall. Sometimes, when I looked up, I would shake my head and flick my hair back. I didn't realise I'd sometimes catch the face of the person sitting in the row behind with my hair when I flicked it.

I guess if it had been you, you'd have managed to get them two rows behind. That would have been spectacular.

26

2019-New Files Just Arrived!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

2019 application for prison minister.

https://docdro.id/dxusjmu.

2019 brd visitor center newsletter.

Anna Marina

Hi Petra - your hair is very beautiful and thanks for sharing the conditioning tips.

Afterburn - I am still laughing at your comment:

Afterburn 2 days ago

... publishers should refrain from posting messages to guest books or online obituaries unless they personally know the deceased or the family of the deceased.
Translation: We are fully aware that this cult has trained you to be calloused, insensitive, socially maladjusted, and opportunistic, and you are all doing very well, however, this one even squicked us a little bit, so ... just ... just, no.

19

2019 International Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

i watched this convention video and do not recognize this religion any longer.

there are attendants singing and dancing in grass fields.

later, you see sisters holding up this silly sign that makes me laugh.

Anna Marina

Well you can relax and enjoy your freedom. Be glad you got out before you saw them in paradise. Or should that read, before you meet your maker?

I suppose that wouldn't be such an encouraging sign: "the time to meet your maker is just around the corner."

27

It was all GREEK to me

by Terry in

jw
friends

around 1976 i got the wild idea i'd like to learn greek (for my study of the christian greek scriptures and to 'get to the bottom' of whether i was wasting my time being even a token jehovah's witness.

) i would read the actual text and avoid my denomination's opinion commentaries, you see.. .

i learned the characters in the greek alphabet rather quickly and started reading an interlinear (english/greek) bible aloud - practicing my enunciation.

Anna Marina

Hi Terry - you have taught me a new word, MacGuffin.

I am familiar with the WT history and this word in particular, I have not met many witnesses that can explain it and few can explain it as clearly as you have. So thank you. This concept that they've messed with is what caused me to realise something was BADLY wrong.

When I had to do a stand-in talk on the subject, the Theocratic Min School instructor couldn't understand the word and he couldn't understand why my conscience wouldn't allow me to give the talk. Over the years I have tried to explain to various ones why their use of parousia is a MacGuffin :) but I get called a scholar. And that is meant as great insult, not a compliment.

On the otherhand if I am explaining the MacGuffin to an elder who actually does know a bit of Greek, they go nuts at me or try desperately to change the subject. So my point is, I never found them keen to mention Greek words, especially in my presence/parousia.

So I carried on learning Greek and carried on learning Hebrew and I found the Greek Interlinear very useful.

3

Miscellaneous highlights from 10/2019 WT

by neat blue dog in

okay sorry, just a few more things that grabbed me in this issue:.

the magazine starts with an article dedicated to the 100th anniversary of that all important year on which the gb's authority hangs, 1919. the article ends with several rapid fire assertions:.

by the end of 1919, jehovah’s people.

Anna Marina

Or H G Wells who wrote God the Invisible King, which appears to be a very WBTS take on the Kingdom of God. Maybe H G Wells helped Rutherford write books.

Belief in God as the Invisible King brings with it almost necessarily a conception of this coming kingdom of God on earth. Each believer as he grasps this natural and immediate consequence of the faith that has come into his life will form at the same time a Utopian conception of this world changed in the direction of God’s purpose. The vision will follow the realisation of God’s true nature and purpose as a necessary second step. And he will begin to develop the latent citizen of this world-state in himself. He will fall in with the idea of the world-wide sanities of this new order being drawn over the warring outlines of the present, and of men falling out of relationship with the old order and into relationship with the new. Many men and women are already working to-day at tasks that belong essentially to God’s kingdom, tasks that would be of the same essential nature if the world were now a theocracy; for example, they are doing or sustaining scientific research oreducation or creative art; they are making roads to bring men together, they are doctors working for the world’s health, they are building homes, they are constructing machinery to save and increase the powers of men. . . .

Such men and women need only to change their orientation as men will change about at a work-table when the light that was coming in a little while ago from the southern windows, begins presently to comein chiefly from the west, to become open and confessed servants of God. This work that they were doing for ambition, or the love of men or the love of knowledge or what seemed the inherent impulse to the work itself, or for money or honour or country or king, they will realise they are doing for God and by the power of God. Self transformation into a citizen of God’s kingdom and a new realisation of all earthly politics as no more than the struggle to define and achieve the kingdom of God in the earth, follow on, without any need for a fresh spiritual impulse, from the moment when God and the believer meet and clasp one another. This transfiguration of the world into a theocracy may seem a merely fantastic idea to anyone who comes to it freshly without such general theological preparation as the preceding pages have made. But to anyone who has been at the pains to clear his mind even a little from the obsession of existing but transitory things, it ceases to be a mere suggestion and becomes more and more manifestly the real future of mankind.

H G Wells was not a Christian he was a Fabian. The coat of arms of the Fabians used to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. It was surprising to me to see how often H G Wells is quoted in WBTS literature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Society

27

It was all GREEK to me

by Terry in

jw
friends

around 1976 i got the wild idea i'd like to learn greek (for my study of the christian greek scriptures and to 'get to the bottom' of whether i was wasting my time being even a token jehovah's witness.

) i would read the actual text and avoid my denomination's opinion commentaries, you see.. .

i learned the characters in the greek alphabet rather quickly and started reading an interlinear (english/greek) bible aloud - practicing my enunciation.

Anna Marina

Hi Tiki

Oh my...I remember all the hoopla over the word parousia...coming as in the process vs coming here you are....if I remember correctly...so Jesus coming was more than his arrival...but his presence.

Do you remember when that was? I was never taught the word parousia. But when I did a stand-in talk dealing with it (2005) I immediately recognised it as a serious piece of false doctrine and I blew the whistle as hard as I could. If the false doctrine had been clearly explained to me when I was studying I would never have joined. I studied in 1992.

I am putting together a YouTube about my experience.

66

INSANE last days speculation in 10/2019 WT

by neat blue dog in

the october 2019 study edition, speaking of the last days after the governments destroy all religion except jws:.

at some point, the people whose re-ligions were destroyed may resent thefact that jehovah’s witnesses keep prac-ticing their religion.

we can only imag-ine the uproar that this might create, in-cluding on social media.

Anna Marina

Data-Dog

You were wondering about the GB - I can tell you I have it on good authority that it is old news to them that 1914 is wrong.

Now ask youself - what kind of person deliberately misleads so many people? You are either a coward or worse. The Bible states that cowards will not inherit God's Kingdom - so its not the best feature to have developed in your character if you are seeking approval from Jesus Christ.

Maybe they are Nihilists - but whatever they are they sure ain't Jehovah's Witnesses, they are play acting.

12

1914 Prophecy

by Acer21 in

i am having trouble locating what is the 1914 prophecy?

jw.org states that the jw's accurately predicted the events of 1914, but do not indicate what the predictions were, or the specific fulfillments.

what do jw's think they are (predictions/fulfillments)?

Anna Marina

Anders Andersen - sent you a PM.

9

Miscellaneous highlights from 10/2019 WT

by neat blue dog in

okay sorry, just a few more things that grabbed me in this issue:.

the magazine starts with an article dedicated to the 100th anniversary of that all important year on which the gb's authority hangs, 1919. the article ends with several rapid fire assertions:.

by the end of 1919, jehovah’s peoplewere reorganized and energized.

Anna Marina

The use of the word 'energized' makes them sound like they are into sci fi.