FFGhost

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Posts by FFGhost

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  23

  Anyone have an obvious gay or lesbian in the congregation?

  by mickbobcat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  when i was a kid we had a kh with a basement and this guy joe winestien lived in it.

  he has passed away i believe.

  he was about 24 and used to hang around the young boys.

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  FFGhost

  It would be quite possible to make a mistake, but my "gaydar" has returned many pings over the years.

  Including children of prominent elders. Actually, those were generally the most (apparently) obvious.
• 
  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

  Last Days shouldn’t reasonably last hundreds of years.

  Exactly!

  While I agree with TD's stance on 1935 (it's a "plot hole" than has not, and probably cannot, be squared), I think this is a far bigger issue for the WTS.

  When it comes to anything remotely complex, most JWs just shrug their shoulders & say, in effect, "well, I don't get it, but surely these guys 'anointed with holy spirit' must have figured it out, so if they say it is so, it is so."

  But "the last days" is not hard to fathom. Even the most mentally challenged JWs understand that "last days" must mean a relatively short period of time.

  Per current JW doctrine, we've been living in "the last days" for 107 years now. There's maybe a few hundred people on earth who were alive then, but no one would be able to recount clearly their own personal memories from 1914. 1914 is completely, entirely, absolutely a "history book" date - no one alive can recount their own "1914 experiences".

  As time moves on - and JWs claim that the "last days" have lasted 120, 130, 150 years - what little credibility the "last days began in 1914" doctrine has left with wither and die. The sense of urgency for preaching will completely evaporate

  TL;DR - Jesus & Paul talked about the "last days", not "the last centuries". If the "last days" can last more than one century, why not 2, 3, or 15 centuries?
  
  
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  29

  If you think Watchtower is disappearing any time soon…

  by Reservations in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  you are sadly mistaken.. i hear people say it on here all the time, and dare i say his name *cough* lloyd evans *cough* has said it a number of times, that watchtower is running scared and watchtower is in decline….. we need to put in perspective the decrease from the 2020 report.

  if we calculate a yearly -0.6 decrease over a 10 year period from 2020 figures it leaves us the grand total number of witnesses of:.

  by 2030: - 7,933,479. by 2040: - 7,471,357. by 2050: - 7,036,154. i agree that this is a significant decrease, but let’s not kid ourselves, the wt organisation will still be alive and well even with an annual 0.6% loss.

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  FFGhost

  armageddon might come within 5 years

  Here's a deep, dark, secret....Armageddon is always "5 years away" (or less), and it's been like that for well over a century.
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  29

  If you think Watchtower is disappearing any time soon…

  by Reservations in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  you are sadly mistaken.. i hear people say it on here all the time, and dare i say his name *cough* lloyd evans *cough* has said it a number of times, that watchtower is running scared and watchtower is in decline….. we need to put in perspective the decrease from the 2020 report.

  if we calculate a yearly -0.6 decrease over a 10 year period from 2020 figures it leaves us the grand total number of witnesses of:.

  by 2030: - 7,933,479. by 2040: - 7,471,357. by 2050: - 7,036,154. i agree that this is a significant decrease, but let’s not kid ourselves, the wt organisation will still be alive and well even with an annual 0.6% loss.

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  FFGhost

  the largest Memorial attendance ever recorded by a significant margin

  Why would that be surprising? It has never been easier, literally, to attend the Memorial.

  Log onto the Zoom meeting from your living room while wearing your robe and fuzzy slippers. Go ahead and eat & drink the emblems if you like, with your camera off no one will ever know the difference.

  I expect their numbers will bounce back in 2021

  Why? The restrictions on door to door are still in effect in 2021, and most likely will be in place for at least the first part of 2022.

  No door to door = no return visits = no new Bible studies = fewer new publishers. Not to mention COVID itself killing off JWs at a higher rate than the normal death rate.

  Numbers will continue to be down. Not the "collapse" that many on this site eagerly anticipate, but a slow, leaky-balloon deflation.
  
  

  
  
• 
  10

  Bank Bail-Out / Bail-In

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  remember the last financial crisis, where there as a bail-out of the banks?.

  have you ever stopped to think what the "out" part of bail-out means?

  normally you think of bailing water out of a boat, or maybe jumping out of a plane, but in financial terms the "out" means "outside money".

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  FFGhost

  Seems like in the US, they would only be allowed to touch deposits in excess of $250,000.

  Seems quite likely that anyone with over $250,000 in a bank account would be savvy enough to have their other investments elsewhere. At the very least several bank accounts under the $250,000 threshold.

  How many people have, for example, $1 million in a single bank account and $0 in real estate, stocks, bonds, precious metals, etc.?

  If you're smart enough to accumulate $1 million, you're probably not dumb enough to put it all in one basket.
• 
  8

  Four Corners: Bearing Witness airs Monday 13 September at 8.30pm on ABC.

  by smiddy3 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  abc 4 corners tv here in australia to be seen on monday 13th september.. i`m looking forward to seeing it.. ex witnesses have their say ..

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  FFGhost

  Well, now we know why Splane was all hepped up on his "negative news reports are directly from the Devil" rant on the "Saturday afternoon" portion of the regional convention video.
• 
  10

  2021-08-S-196--Using Enjoy Life Forever! in the Ministry!

  by Atlantis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  2021-08-s-196--using enjoy life forever!

  in the ministry.

  english and spanish.

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  FFGhost

  Exhibit 6,847 in "how to micromanage every aspect of your adherents' lives".
• 
  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

  1995 was pretty much the last gasp for a coherent set of doctrines. Not coincidentally, that was about 2 years after Fred Franz died and by then Henschel was well along the path of senility.

  There was no "oracle" thereafter. The next de facto boss after Henchel was Jaracz, whose primary concern seemed to be keeping the "sheep" in line rather than tying up the frayed, loosening knots of JW theology. And it's only gotten worse.

  For the past ~20 years, the WTS has been about virtually nothing beyond behavior control. Their latest books on Jeremiah & Ezekiel are not about prophecies and their meanings - it's all disconnected scriptural snippets culled from here and there that the WTS presents for the way they model preferred JW behavior: "look at how obedient Jeremiah was..,look at how zealous Ezekiel was....look at how meek and submissive they were...."

  At this point, doctrine is absolutely and literally of utterly no consequence. TD brings up many good points about the incoherence of their doctrine, and the loose ends they've never tied up. Doesn't matter anymore. What matters is obedience and submission. The appearance of being a "good" JW. Accepting the hierarchy and not questioning anything. Behavior control.

  Yes, the current generation teaching is laughably absurd. Yes, the "great crowd was identified in 1935" has massive "plot holes". They know it and don't care. What they do care about is, do you say you agree with it? If yes, great, you can stay in the "club". No? OK, fine, say goodbye to your family, friends, and the only life you've ever known.
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  15

  Was anyone at Bethel on 9-11-01?

  by snarf in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  was anyone at bethel on 9-11 or know of anyone who was?

  i was just wondering the reactions to the bethelites there on that day.

  also, was bethel close enough to ground zero to have any effect on the publishing that day?

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  FFGhost

  Do JWs think that they are the only nice people in the world ?

  I know that was a rhetorical question, but yes, they really do think so.

  Every - EVERY - experience about JW honesty (returning lost money, etc.) features the JW saying "I returned your wallet because I am a JW".

  The implication being, that every non-JW in the world is greedy, every non-JW would have kept the money, etc.
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  29

  If you think Watchtower is disappearing any time soon…

  by Reservations in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  you are sadly mistaken.. i hear people say it on here all the time, and dare i say his name *cough* lloyd evans *cough* has said it a number of times, that watchtower is running scared and watchtower is in decline….. we need to put in perspective the decrease from the 2020 report.

  if we calculate a yearly -0.6 decrease over a 10 year period from 2020 figures it leaves us the grand total number of witnesses of:.

  by 2030: - 7,933,479. by 2040: - 7,471,357. by 2050: - 7,036,154. i agree that this is a significant decrease, but let’s not kid ourselves, the wt organisation will still be alive and well even with an annual 0.6% loss.

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  FFGhost

  There is a market for:

  -- organizations that tell people who would rather not decide for themselves, what to do

  -- organizations that peddle too-good-to-be-true solutions for problems to non-critical thinkers

  -- organizations that allow small-minded people who would be (or are) failures in other aspects of life, to assert a measure of authority of others or meet some internally-contrived measure of "success"

  The WTS is far from unique in catering to this market. If the WTS were to "disappear" tomorrow, the market would still be there. The vacuum would be filled nearly instantly by some other organization(s). All the "displaced" JWs who have one or more of the needs outlined above would be "gobbled up" by those other organizations within months.

  The WTS is slowly, grudgingly, adapting to changing times. So long as they remain at least partially committed to rolling with societal changes, they will exist in some form or another. Almost certainly smaller, even less significant than they are now, but still there.