FFGhost

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Posts by FFGhost

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  37

  Sep. 2021 Broadcast: more money

  by neat blue dog in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in the latest jw broadcast, anthony morris the turd gives a talk about donations.

  to camouflage this, he starts and ends the talk by saying that isn't actually what he's doing.

  first he starts with the usual disclaimer, 'wt has never begged for money like christendom and we never will', you know the drill.

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  FFGhost

  "We are not leaders, but we are taking the lead."

  "We are not asking for money, but please send us money."
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  11

  Enduring watchtower study

  by road to nowhere in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  my studying consists of skimming the article.

  this one starts with 2017 don't give up convention.

  at the time i changed it to i give up.

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  FFGhost

  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this issue (dated July 2021) is the first time the WTS has explicitly acknowledged the COVID-19 pandemic in the WT magazine.

  Paragraph 2 of yesterday's study article, as well as the QFR at the end of the magazine about how internet dating sites are a bad idea (what a surprise they reached that conclusion ) specifically mention COVID-19 and how it is affecting JWs.

  Of course they've done countless video segments on it and there are dozens if not hundreds of pages in excruciatingly fine detail regarding the micromanagement of conducting meetings by Zoom, but printed references in their "flagship" journal have been, IIRC, completely non-existent up until now.

  They are of course, in general, dreadfully reactionary and slow to act, but this seemed even slower than usual, to wait nearly 1.5 years to "officially" acknowledge, in the official magazine, how the pandemic is affecting the lives of their adherents.
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  122

  1995 generation change

  by Gorb in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  now, many years later, i remember the 1995 generation change, very well.. since early youth, hearing my father explaining in field service the 2520 years.

  it was his main theme in the field.. with the change my doubts started.

  with some jw friends we did not trust the organization anymore.

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  FFGhost

  They didn't have to change it! There are still at least 50 people worldwide born before 1914 (actually, probably several hundred):

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

  
  
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  4

  "Seven nations more populous than you are"

  by FFGhost in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i wrote this up a few months ago:.

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5087628499091456/camp-israel-problem-pooping.

  this other little nugget from deuteronomy caught my eye as well:.

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  FFGhost

  I wrote this up a few months ago:

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5087628499091456/camp-israel-problem-pooping

  This other little nugget from Deuteronomy caught my eye as well:

  Deuteronomy 7:1 (NWT):

  When Jehovah your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and take possession of, he will also clear away populous nations from before you: the Hitʹtites, the Girʹga·shites, the Amʹor·ites, the Caʹnaan·ites, the Perʹiz·zites, the Hiʹvites, and the Jebʹu·sites, seven nations more populous and mightier than you are

  I commented in the above-cited thread about how the WTS dogmatically asserts that the number of Israelite nomads, at the time of their conquest of the promised land, was 3 million.

  Here, in this verse, Jehovah promises to "clear away" these 7 nations, "more populous than you are".

  So, assuming I do better at math in this thread than in the previous one, and assuming that "more populous" is the bare minimum, we'll assign a population of 3,000,001 to each of those 7 nations.

  That means that, in the land of Canaan, roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, there were, at a bare minimum, 24 million people either living or camping there (3 million Israelites and at least 21,000,007 other guys).

  Hmm, I wonder how populations of Europe / Asia Middle East from 3500 (WTS chronology) years ago compare to today?

  Must be pretty significantly higher, right? 3500 years ago, there were about 500,000 people living in Greece, now there are 10 million plus. 3500 years ago, there were about 2-3 million people living in Egypt, today there are 100 million plus.

  So, let pull out my Google-ator here...population of Israel, Jordan, and Palestine in 2021...is ~24 million.

  So, since as the WTS asserts, every word of the Bible is "God-breathed" and is absolute, literal, verifiable, true history, the population of the "promised land" has.....remained identical to what it was 3500 years ago.

  Or....

  Now bear with me here...could it be....

  That the Bible doesn't really contain absolutely truthful, literal, absolute history?

  Nah, that can't be it. The population must be the same today as it was 3500 years ago.
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  46

  The camp of Israel and the problem of pooping

  by FFGhost in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  so, in a couple weeks, the jws move on in their bible-reading slog to the book of deuteronomy.. take a gander at deuteronomy 23:12,13:.

  a private place should be designated for use outside the camp, and there is where you should go.

  13 a peg should be part of your equipment.

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  FFGhost

  This reminds me, I want to do a companion piece on the Israelite trek, regarding the nations they defeated.

  *** Coming soon ***
• 
  37

  Sep. 2021 Broadcast: more money

  by neat blue dog in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in the latest jw broadcast, anthony morris the turd gives a talk about donations.

  to camouflage this, he starts and ends the talk by saying that isn't actually what he's doing.

  first he starts with the usual disclaimer, 'wt has never begged for money like christendom and we never will', you know the drill.

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  FFGhost

  That was such a bizarre presentation.

  He seemed to be stepping on eggshells, tip-toeing about so as to not give the whiff of a hint of a trace of possibly maybe making some wealthy JW feel bad for not donating - "it's all a personal decision".

  In the next breath, he says that the poorest of the poor JWs should be contributing to the WTS. He didn't much care about them feeling guilty for not donating their last 12 cents to the WTS.

  It was a muddled message, to say the least. "We need money. If you're wealthy, it's a personal decision, maybe think about donating, if it's not too inconvenient. If you're poor, give give give give give."

  I get the impression that someone gives him a topic to develop and present but his addled brain can't form complete or coherent thoughts to communicate. Surely other people notice it as well, but who's going to give counsel to any GB member, let alone the surliest one?
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  7

  What does the fact that WT baptism numbers are still high in the pandemic tell us?

  by Vanderhoven7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i thought jiles grey response to this question was interesting:.

  "i think that it demonstrates just how ineffective the jehovah’s witnesses’ door to door evangelising is.. in 2019 there were 303,866 people baptised.

  this was during a year when the preaching work was in full swing.. in 2020 there were 241,994 people baptised.

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  FFGhost

  As noted above, probably most of the dunkees are kids of JWs. That certainly is the case in wealthier western lands.

  The 241,994 figure is for the "2020 service year" (September 2019 - August 2020). That was 6-7 months pre-pandemic, so you'd expect the numbers to have been pretty "normally" for over half the year.

  In addition, there were still a bunch of "Bible studies" in the pipeline to get baptized, especially in poorer countries where people still respond. From initial call to final dunking will always take many months, probably not unusual for it to take a couple of years.

  The entire "2021 service year" (September 2020 - August 2021) was conducted in full-blown pandemic.

  Absolute 0 door to door, absolute 0 cart witnessing. 100% phone calls and letters.

  The numbers for the 2021 service year ought to be ready in 3-4 months. I would be willing to bet large quantities of candy corn that the number of baptisms reported will be much much lower than even the low number for the 2020 service year - maybe even under 200,000.

  And if pandemic restrictions continue for a large chunk, or even all, of the 2022 service year (already started), the number reported will drop again - even more.
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  3

  CO ZOOM VISITS?

  by Iamallcool in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have been out of the borg for years!

  do circuit overseers still visit the congregations?

  via zoom?

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  FFGhost

  Yes, since March / April 2020, all CO visits everywhere have been via Zoom.
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  13

  Is this New Light coming or just some crackpot?

  by pistolpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this experience was posted about a year ago.

  it seems like a crackpot co was giving his prediction of what "might possibly happen in the future" .

  now it seems like he wasn't such a crackpot after all.. quote.

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  FFGhost

  Here's what I think:

  If the CO really said these things, he's goofier than a froot loop.

  If I had a nickel for every nitwitted story rife with speculations about "no really, now we're in the last part of the last days" from some frooty JW I'd be able to buy, I dunno, Australia, and still be richer than Jeff Bezos & Bill Gates combined.

  I.e., this is just some combination of desperate wishing for "the end to come" and a pathetic need to be viewed as having "special insight" and thus worthy of praise & honor.

  To answer your specific question: crackpot.
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  53

  Those members who passed away

  by Gorb in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  who of those passed away jwd/jwn members, do we think of??.

  oompah and the lady from australia, are there more??.

  g..

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  FFGhost

  We never heard anything "official", but he must be gone by now: Maximus.