if anyone were to come up to you claiming that they are the faithful and discreet slave, how would you go about proving them to be false, based upon scripture?.
estephan.
It's too bad that they didn't agree to accept the 586BC date. Imagine- they first use the 607BC date and come up with 1914 and BAM! World War 1! Then they recognize the error and go with 586BC and BAM! the early 1930s and the rise of Hitler! They could then say that God was cleverly showing them when the events leading to the crowning of Jesus in 1935 began.
They would not have had to come up with that overlapping generations crap for at least another few years from now. Missed opportunity!
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He will blame Kim and the other six, and if his daughters see through his bullshit he will gaslight them and use that as the pretext to avoid helping them. Then again, at this rate he may not be able to support them on his salary as a dishwasher/boytoy.
it's becoming unbearable for me to attend another meeting.
i dread coming to the weekly sunday public talk and watchtower study.
the talks are ''repeats'' of a ''repeat.
I went through a very long period where it was difficult to motivate myself to go. I wanted to be a good JW and keep serving, but it was a drag. I did notice that, once I got to the meeting or to field service, it wasn't so bad. But especially on work nights it just got to where I missed more meetings than I attended, and it went down from there. Eventually I only went to the memorial, where I was warmly greeted and got all kinds of encouragement. But after three or four years of that I stopped altogether.
It was so hard to keep doing it even when I thought I wanted to do it. If I'd been convinced that it wasn't the truth at that time, I can't imagine I would have been able to do it, not even a single time. Somewhere deep in the recesses of my brain, I had decided that I did not want to have anything to do with it, I guess. By the time I finally accepted it, it came as a huge relief, even though it must have been 7 or 8 years since I had gone to any meeting at all.
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"At 379, I will only travel to the local karaoke bar, as I will lack the resources to travel around the world. I will limit my meet-up events to those involving inexpensive 'conversations' with sex workers who are verifiably older than 20. I will also have a short conversation with TED, the bartender at the karaoke bar. I will refer to this as my TED talk."
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And I thought it was significant to see it drop to 424, figuring that from now on the changes would be small and gradual. He was at 440 or 443 just a few days ago. That is a very big drop. I think the constant pressure is having an effect, especially on those who are supporting him but were refusing to check behind the curtain. It doesn't really take much more than a glimpse to learn (A)the things he admitted to doing and (B)that he has been misleading his remaining supporters about it.
It's tough to support someone with his issues and his way of dealing with them (lie, misdirect, bully people, use his family as props, etc). There are 401 people who either have not yet looked into what is going on, or who will stick with him to the bitter end. My guess is that there are a lot more of the former.
https://eu.recordonline.com/story/news/local/2022/11/29/jehovahs-witnesses-ramapo-campus-will-expand-growing-hudson-valley-empire/69674158007/.
Being tax exempt certainly saves them huge amounts of money, as does all of the dirt-cheap or free labor they can command. But they are spending a lot on all of this real estate and the buildings and other improvements, and those will still require steady income in order to remain viable.
They might need to start a YouTube channel in order to generate some income. Imagine the views they would get from "Stephen Lett Reaction" videos. Maybe Tony Morris can do booze reviews? And David Splane can 'splain how overlapping generations works. They could even do "Rebuttal Rebuttal Sushi" videos breaking down Lloyd Evans's breakdowns.
any news about how going back to kingdom halls and door to door ministry going right now?
are there many people at meetings and meetings before going out in service as congregation?.
It'd be funny to put on a shirt, tie, and jacket, then sit for the meeting. But if you get up, everyone sees that you did not put on pants.
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Times up?
i spent most of my life in the org.
we were taught that our purpose in life was to serve jehovah.
that never really made sense to me, but it was still a purpose to keep going.
Nathan: Many JWs I knew in my long-ago youth would have said the purpose in life was to "be happy." I still think that is right
Me too. I think that people want to be happy above all else. The things we do and pursue are based on happiness at some level. I think it's very helpful for any individual to take stock of his/her life and figure out what would make them happy, then plan accordingly.
If I'm only here for a short time and then I am gone, I'd like to have lived a life where I was happy as often as I was able to be. That is the essence of the concept of enjoying what you have, while you have it. One of the more insidious outcomes of religious belief is that people will live a life of suffering and deprivation because they believe that life will really begin after they die. If they're wrong, the collective wasted talent over the course of human existence is staggering.
february 2023 study watchtower: .
p. 16, par.
5 - ”when we base our discussions on material published by jehovah’s organization, (not the bible!
Rattigan350: There was a GB update that said not to look for that cry and it appears that many didn't even notice that.
I think it's because they are so conditioned to look for signs that the end is near. I remember when the UN designated 1986 as the Year of Peace and Security. If ever there was a moment to recognize a sign, that was it. It may be that, after nothing came of it, the WTS decided to be a bit more circumspect. That was only a few years after they finally made a grudging concession about 1975, and they would not have wanted to stall growth after it had picked up again.
