john.prestor

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Posts by john.prestor

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  13

  Will the Russian brothers start to wake up?

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if i was a russian brother i would be wondering what exactly is the gb doing to help us out.

  they are sitting in their lakeside corporate country club doing nothing while outside worldly agencies are making known our plight.

  i found it puzzling that they flew out of russia like a bat out of hell as soon as the court rendered its decision leaving us high and dry.

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  john.prestor

  You mind saying more about that StillMD? I never heard of an ex-Witness Russian forum.
• 
  15

  Two For One!

  by snugglebunny in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  back in the day - yeah, i know, most things i write start like that!

  however - back in the day there was an implicit rule ratio of 2 to 1 when it came to counting time.

  two witnesses witnessing to one person for one hour would count one hour each.

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  john.prestor

  Yeah, it's more about status than results and quantity over quality. Everyone would come away with a sense of failure if they only counted converts, since from everything I read and hear they barely convert anyone door to door or through the carts. They're also social events, it keeps Witnesses talking, keeps them close.
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  35

  Do You Think The Bible Teaches A Trinity As Religions Teach?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i’m not asking whether you believe in the bible.

  i just want your opinion as to whether you think the bible teaches it.

  i don’t, for what it’s worth..

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  john.prestor

  The Bible doesn't teach anything first of all, but does any Biblical author teach the trinity as we know it today in orthodox Christianity? No, they don't. The closest we come is 1 or 2 Timothy where 'Paul' (probably the liar Polycarp) charges his readers in the name of 'God, Jesus, and the holy angels' to keep his word or something, the Catholic renegade Alfred Loisy sees that as the first appearance of any trinity whatsoever. According to Clement of Alexandria who wrote in the late 2nd century the Gnostic Valentinus, who wrote in the early 2nd century, first referred to a trinity in his writings.
• 
  7

  The Baptist version of "Listen Obey and Be Blessed"

  by john.prestor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so i share stories from time to time on here from my childhood in a fundamentalist baptist church, which sounds pretty damn similar to some of the stories i read on here from ex-witnesses, the fear and guilt-tripping, the sexual repression, the world being a dark and wicked place, i even went door-to-door once in a while to hand out chick tracts (wish i was kidding) and try to get people to come to our church... so they could pay the pastor's salary, but i digress.

  anyway, i don't remember a lot of it because my parents started bringing me to sunday school as soon as i could walk, so on sunday mornings my family dressed up and headed out the door bright and early to services.

  my parents stayed upstairs for adult classes and me and my brother went downstairs where all the kids met to sing songs together before we separated for "age-appropriate" activities.

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  john.prestor

  I really don't care if the man was accredited or not, and I don't know why you're banging on that drum. Let's leave it at that, you're straining out the gnat and leaving in the camel.
• 
  9

  JW's With Explosives?--A Little Hard to Believe!

  by Atlantis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is a little hard to believe.

  (2018 article).

  this article must have slipped by me because i never heard of this before.. .

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  john.prestor

  It sounds planted alright, Jehovah's Witnesses are pacifists, I can't see them owning guns much less hand grenades, come on. I don't know anything else about this except what I read in the articles you posted, but just on the face of it, I find it convenient and unbelievable. If the government didn't plant them they grabbed those World War II relics and knowingly played up their significance.
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  9

  JW's With Explosives?--A Little Hard to Believe!

  by Atlantis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is a little hard to believe.

  (2018 article).

  this article must have slipped by me because i never heard of this before.. .

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  john.prestor

  I call bullshit. The Russian government played this up to make Jehovah's Witnesses look crazier and more dangerous than they actually are.
• 
  41

  JUNE 2019 Watchtower: Higher Education - HQ & Bethels are populated with evil, educated folks!

  by The Fall Guy in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  how alienated from jehovah and un-christian so many bethelites must be, who finished their higher education and gained their degrees!

  i don't know how they can live with their consciences!.

  pages 6 & 7, pars.

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  john.prestor

  Just imagine them printing anything other than unending praises to Jehovah, i.e., the Governing Body :

  A sister who has been in full time service for over 15 years says: 'Although men who live comfortably in a lakeside resort warned me against pursuing higher education, when I went to college I found their warnings failed to come true, just like their predictions of Armageddon's imminence. My professors encouraged critical thinking , and I developed as a person as I encountered new ways of being and living. My classmates showed me respect and kindness, and invited me to eat with them at the dining halls; we even partied from time to time, and I enjoyed letting loose. I experimented sexually with men, and found sex very pleasurable. I also joined various clubs and tried my hand at different sports. Although I found classwork stressful, when I graduated I found better employment than I could without a college degree.'

  They would never print that. Their testimonials might as well be sock puppets or recordings of them disguising their voices.
• 
  41

  JUNE 2019 Watchtower: Higher Education - HQ & Bethels are populated with evil, educated folks!

  by The Fall Guy in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  how alienated from jehovah and un-christian so many bethelites must be, who finished their higher education and gained their degrees!

  i don't know how they can live with their consciences!.

  pages 6 & 7, pars.

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  john.prestor

  I always take my career advice from anonymous people who sound like parrots squawking out the company line. That's a sure sign of reliability right there: nameless, ageless, location unknown. Might as well call her Andrea.
• 
  13

  Will the Russian brothers start to wake up?

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if i was a russian brother i would be wondering what exactly is the gb doing to help us out.

  they are sitting in their lakeside corporate country club doing nothing while outside worldly agencies are making known our plight.

  i found it puzzling that they flew out of russia like a bat out of hell as soon as the court rendered its decision leaving us high and dry.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  john.prestor

  Yeah, it's not gonna do much to anyone's faith. The Governing Body will send their love and prayers and the faithful will eat it up. The more Russia cracks down, the more Jehovah's Witnesses will feel persecuted, i.e., special, important, meaningful. That's gonna draw them deeper in, not push them further out.
• 
  7

  The Baptist version of "Listen Obey and Be Blessed"

  by john.prestor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so i share stories from time to time on here from my childhood in a fundamentalist baptist church, which sounds pretty damn similar to some of the stories i read on here from ex-witnesses, the fear and guilt-tripping, the sexual repression, the world being a dark and wicked place, i even went door-to-door once in a while to hand out chick tracts (wish i was kidding) and try to get people to come to our church... so they could pay the pastor's salary, but i digress.

  anyway, i don't remember a lot of it because my parents started bringing me to sunday school as soon as i could walk, so on sunday mornings my family dressed up and headed out the door bright and early to services.

  my parents stayed upstairs for adult classes and me and my brother went downstairs where all the kids met to sing songs together before we separated for "age-appropriate" activities.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  john.prestor

  I think the difference is just terminology, I mean yeah the song says "the Lord" but the Baptists wanted to tell me what "the Lord" wanted, and if I said "The Lord wants me to rob people" they would never accept that, and we understood male leaders as spokesmen for the Lord more or less, we trusted them to tell us what the Bible meant and how we should live. The church was independent, it wasn't connected to any overarching authority, so if the board of elected deacons thought a pastor looked good, they hired him; that's all it came down to.