john.prestor

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Posts by john.prestor

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  26

  Was disfellowshipping really sanctioned by God? Please share your honest views according to your Bible views

  by Strugglingrsa in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what were the writers of the bible telling christians when they wrote : “stop keeping company with anyone called a brother who is sexually immoral or a greedy person or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating with such a man.” (1 corinthians 5:11) regarding everyone who “does not remain in the teaching of the christ,” we read: “do not receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him.

  for the one who says a greeting to him is a sharer in his wicked works.” (2 john 9-11.

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  john.prestor

  Strugglingrsa, I think your interpretation of the verses is valid, Paul and "[John] the Elder" are certainly warning Christians about those who may present a threat to them, take extortioners for instance, you probably don't want to be around people like that like snugglebunny said. This was a common problem in the early church (early Christians were pretty gullible, no surprise there), the Didache, a late 1st to early 2nd century kinda instruction manual for (maybe) Syrian churches, warns about "prophets" who would show up, prophecy "in the spirit" that people should feed them or clothe them or give them money, and then leave; they were charlatans in other words who preyed on people's good intentions and took advantage of them.

  Paul and "[John] the Elder" had specific circumstances in mind, contemporary to the time they were writing. Neither one had any idea a religious group called Jehovah's Witnesses nearly two millennia later would be using their writings as justification for carte blanche shunning ex-members or those who question the Governing Body.
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  58

  Library now cleared out

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  well, it looks like the axe has finally fallen on our kh library.

  during a deep clean of the local kh, a brother suddenly informed everyone 'whikst cleaning' that all the old books including bound volumes of the watchtower etc was to be chucked in the skip.. from what i heard, some were taken aback by this and quite annoyed that no announcement was made; that no one was given the choice of taking some of these books home to keep.

  i mean the entire collection of studies in the scriptures and others that go back an entire century.

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  john.prestor

  Dozy, I think you're right about that: a Kingdom Hall library is an icon or a symbol, like the stained-glass windows you might find in a Catholic church. I never saw anyone in one either, they don't seem to play a practical function.
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  58

  Library now cleared out

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  well, it looks like the axe has finally fallen on our kh library.

  during a deep clean of the local kh, a brother suddenly informed everyone 'whikst cleaning' that all the old books including bound volumes of the watchtower etc was to be chucked in the skip.. from what i heard, some were taken aback by this and quite annoyed that no announcement was made; that no one was given the choice of taking some of these books home to keep.

  i mean the entire collection of studies in the scriptures and others that go back an entire century.

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  john.prestor

  smiddy3, that's what the brochure Who Are Doing Jehovah's Will Today? (2014), which Jehovah's Witnesses currently use in Bible studies, says on the page titled "How Can the Kingdom Hall Library Benefit Us?":

  "You may be able to make good use of the Kingdom Hall library when preparing your assignments. The Life and Ministry Meeting overseer is in charge of the library. He is responsible for making sure that the latest publications are there and that they are well-arranged. He or your Bible teacher can show you how to find the information that you need. However, no books should be taken out of the Kingdom Hall. And, of course, we want to handle the books carefully and not make any marks in them."

  https://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/jehovahs-will/kingdom-hall-library/

  This was the policy at at least one of the halls I studied, I know that because one of the Brothers I met who called himself a "maverick" just snuck one out the door when he wanted to read it, haha, I respected that.
  
  
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  58

  Library now cleared out

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  well, it looks like the axe has finally fallen on our kh library.

  during a deep clean of the local kh, a brother suddenly informed everyone 'whikst cleaning' that all the old books including bound volumes of the watchtower etc was to be chucked in the skip.. from what i heard, some were taken aback by this and quite annoyed that no announcement was made; that no one was given the choice of taking some of these books home to keep.

  i mean the entire collection of studies in the scriptures and others that go back an entire century.

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  john.prestor

  It's strange really, Witnesses already can't check books out of the "Kingdom Hall library" (which in and of itself just comes across weird, like you can look at the books on the shelf but can't read them, what other "library" is like that?) so I can't imagine what damage there could be in letting them sit on the shelf. Is the Brother who ordered it afraid people at the hall will take them home anyway? See the title of the works and Google them on their phones? What's his motivation, in other words?
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  12

  Wtia! There's More! I have another why you can't reason with a JW ...

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so i see an old friend who's an elder in his hall at the ca.

  his cong just recently got evicted from their kingdom hall.

  and he is just giddy about it.

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  john.prestor

  I guess whatever the Elder has to tell himself to cope with the loss of his hall, but, yeah, as the OP pointed out to him and us, his explanation doesn't explain anything.
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  26

  Was disfellowshipping really sanctioned by God? Please share your honest views according to your Bible views

  by Strugglingrsa in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what were the writers of the bible telling christians when they wrote : “stop keeping company with anyone called a brother who is sexually immoral or a greedy person or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating with such a man.” (1 corinthians 5:11) regarding everyone who “does not remain in the teaching of the christ,” we read: “do not receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him.

  for the one who says a greeting to him is a sharer in his wicked works.” (2 john 9-11.

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  john.prestor

  The OP weighed the dice in their own favor by the very phrasing of their question: "What were the writers of the Bible telling Christians when they wrote..."

  Slow down a minute. You're referring to two writers, the apostle Paul and "the Elder," that's who claims to be writing 2 John, which apparently means "[John] the Elder," a disciple (not apostle) that the church fathers Papias and Polycarp learned from directly or indirectly. Who are these authors writing to? Paul writes to the Corinthian church, whereas "[John] the Elder" writes to "the lady chosen by God and her children" (NIV).

  So the OP is already taking a bit of a leap when they say these writers were writing "to Christians." They're only writing to Christians in general if you interpret the Bible as God-inspired or God-breathed or whatever term you want to use. If you don't, then you have to take the writings at face value, which means Paul wrote to the Corinthian church of the 1st century, and "[John?] the Elder" wrote to whoever "the lady chosen by God and her children" refer to, maybe, and that's a big maybe, the Ephesian church/church in Ephesus (I've read up on this and even in the 2nd century Christians didn't know who the author was or who the author was writing to or about and they've been debating it ever since; heck, the ex-Catholic theologian Alfred Loisy thinks the letter is a forgery and was never actually written to anyone and I'm inclined to believe him).
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  10

  Armageddon has started in Astoria, Queens

  by ShirleyW in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  now we know that the con ed plant in astoria, queens had an explosion, but before anyone knew what the heck was going on, so many people were posting on social media their pictures of the "strange blue circle light" that was in the sky this evening,usually st. johns which is near me has a fireworks display after a game, i thought this doesn't look like fireworks, much brighter and no sound, it actually looked like it was 4pm in the afternoon right before the sun leaves the sky.. i live in the jamaica section of queens (just up from trump's foot dr. if you saw that article in nytimes.

  com the other day) and haven't lost power but laguardia is dark now, no flights in are out.

  just wondering how the old school dubs that saw the lights outside window, thought "finally, the big a is here" !.

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  john.prestor

  Just wishful thinking and probably the longing to know they're not making so many sacrifices for nothing. Fundamentalist Baptists are the same way, a preacher I heard said one Sunday he heard a train whistle in the middle of the night and thought it was an angel blowing a trumpet to signal Jesus return or something like that.
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  11

  Update on Scary Experience

  by ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  update on this:.

  just been to the police station with my friends where we were asked individually to identify aknife.

  it looks identical to the one we saw.

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  john.prestor

  I want to give you the benefit of the doubt here but yeah I'd like to know where the park is too.
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  39

  These days it not really that hard being a witness.

  by I believe in overlapping in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  if you are a true believer, then you are toast.

  because you will be a slave to everything the watchtower, circuit overseers, elders, pioneers, imply.

  believe me, there are not many true believers anymore, and the majority of them are old.

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  john.prestor

  The OP: 'Older JW single girls have always been col with me and have never spilled the beans'

  Yep, totally believable you're legit Brother Fonzie.
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  22

  What Does Secular History Tell Us About the Twelve Apostles? - From National Geographic.

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the national geographic web-site publishes this story:.

  these 12 men shaped christianity—but were they real?.

  link: : https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/160306-bible-apostle-jesus-christian-religion-ngbooktalk/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=social::src=facebook::cmp=editorial::add=fb20181222culture-resurfapostlesbooktalk::rid=&sf204668865=1.

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  john.prestor

  Perry, your claims are bunk and so are Habermas's. I'm not surprised by anything you said, I've heard it all before in one form or another during the 16 years my family raised me as a fundamentalist. It didn't convince me then, it doesn't convince me now. Please stop proselytizing on this forum.