One of the themes that they weave into the teaching is that of patience. When your recruiting and retaining efforts are based on the idea that time is short and the end is near, the one thing that works against you is time. This is also the problem with making date-specific claims. The farther you get from those dates, the harder it gets to exercise patience.
TonusOH
JoinedPosts by TonusOH
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22
New Convention Song “ It Will Not Be Late”
by BluesBrother inthis made me chuckle.
a new song that they are encouraged to practice for the convention.. “ we know your day will come, sure as the rising sun.
no matter how long it takes , it will not be late” …………... it is based on habakkuk 2 , we discussed this in depth around 1973/1974.
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11530
It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars
by Newly Enlightened inoriginal reddit post (removed).
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TonusOH
Also, I was not surprised to see his patrons drop from 593 to 584 yesterday. After the diligent effort to build his following back up, I didn't expect a big drop-off at the end of the month.
And yet, that is what happened, as he is now down to 564. Almost 30 fewer, which is what was happening back when he was bleeding support a year ago. He will need to beg every couple of months to counteract the losses and keep growing. I wonder what the ratio will be, of begging videos versus actual content, if this trend continues.
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11530
It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars
by Newly Enlightened inoriginal reddit post (removed).
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TonusOH
Welcome, Sarah.
As for Lloyd...
Evans: "another one who thinks I owe the universe my full time activism for free."
Non-sequitur. No one is saying he owes anyone his 'activism.' He's a money-grubbing opportunist who believes that he is owed a living for doing 'important work.' Work that isn't so important that he would do it for anything less than a comfortable living for him, his family, and his video editor. Work that he dangles over a cliff, threatening to drop it and move on, if he doesn't get paid well.
I don't think he owes anyone his activism, full-time or otherwise. I think he should stand on principle and stop any and all 'activism' right away. That will teach everyone to antagonize him!
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11
A Little About Me & What Is a Resurrection?
by Sea Breeze ina little about me first: i was a 4th generation jw who had major reservations about the wt growing up, but finally got on board at age 23 when i got baptized.
spent 8 very active years in, then 8 years out as an agnostic.
got saved in 2004 and been living the born-again christian bible-believing life ever since.
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TonusOH
I think that the simplest description of resurrection is bringing back a person to life. A physical resurrection would be bringing a dead person back to life, whether in their existing body or a new one. A spiritual resurrection would be one where the dead is brought back as a spirit/ghost or into a different realm than the physical (heaven/hell/etc).
Further than that, it depends on how you view the person, whether as a self-contained physical being or as a soul inhabiting a physical body. In the latter case, it may be more akin to transplanting a soul into a body (physical resurrection) or not doing anything at all (assuming an immortal soul, which would not die and not need to be revived).
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10
Do Your Own Research.
by LostintheFog1999 inthere were several times when i was inside the congregation that i met up with a problem in my life and on mentioning it at a group i would be told to do my own research about it.. of course, they didn't mean for me to research worldly material for the answer but to use the wt indexes and look into the wt society magazines.. it was only when i started to do my own research outside of the wt that i began to see the limited scope of the society's magazines as all problems usually fell into the category of 1. read the bible, attend meetings, go out on the work, and pray; or 2. this isn't going to be fixed now but in the new world god will sort it out and the former things (what you are suffering from now) will not be called to mind.. i wonder how many people still in are struggling and are not being encouraged to research away from the organisation where they would receive practical and valuable advice?.
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TonusOH
I think this was their attitude from very early on: the world is in Satan's thrall, and you can only get reliable information from Jehovah through his organization. If you are going to seek answers, do so from the organization. Since they are the only ones who have Jehovah's guidance, they are the only ones who have all of the answers. So, there is no reason to seek answers outside of the org. And if you don't like the answers -if they don't make sense, for example- trust the org. They never get anything wrong (but when they do, they'll get it right the next time).
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WEASEL WORDS--WHAT ARE THEY--HOW THE WTS USES
by blondie in"a number of techniques employed to mislead others fall under the category of weasel words, and this article quotes examples that are regularly found in watchtower publications.. weasel words are defined as:.
“words or statements that are intentionally ambiguous or misleading,”[1].
intended “to avoid answering a question clearly or to make someone believe something that is not true."[2].
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TonusOH
The experiences of the 1910s and 1920s taught them not to sound too certain when they made statements. Or at least, they learned that they could make some statements that sounded certain, while also making others that they could refer to later if they were wrong.
This is what happened with 1975. There was a WT or Awake magazine in 1969 that told young people that they would not grow old in the present system of things. Statements like that were forgotten when they had to explain why nothing happened in 1975. Instead, they referred to the statements they had also made, which were much less certain.
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Watchtower Says Their Writings Are Part of the Bible and Are Essential For Salvation
by Sea Breeze inhard to believe, but it's true:watchtower december 15, 2008, pg.
28 – “our coming to know "the truth‟ - the entire body of christian teachings that has become part of the bible - and adhering to it are essential for our salvation”.this is the same position of the roman catholic church.
one of the pope’s titles is the vicar of christ.
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TonusOH
They treated Russell's Studies in the Scriptures books as a replacement for the Bible, claiming that if one only read the Bible, they would 'fall into darkness' and be confused. But if they read SitS, they would understand the Bible and have a clarity that was not possible with just Bible reading alone.
To interpret the Bible is to find meaning in its words and to build ideas and concepts that are not clear upon a normal reading. This is why there are so many different denominations of Christianity (an issue that is not limited to that faith; pretty much every other religion has offshoots that disagree on the tenets as they understand them). JW leadership makes it clear that they interpret the Bible for the rank and file, and that it is dangerous for anyone but the GB to offer an interpretation, since they are getting their guidance from god, and you are not.
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11530
It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars
by Newly Enlightened inoriginal reddit post (removed).
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TonusOH
"The sex workers are fine! Every marriage can use some and no one wants to admit!"
I'm going to assume that this person is just trolling and not actually an Evans supporter. Another example of Poe's Law.
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11530
It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars
by Newly Enlightened inoriginal reddit post (removed).
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TonusOH
That whole statement is cringe-worthy enough. Now, consider that he is sending it to HIS WIFE.
The man is trash. To his supporters: that is what you are supporting.
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7
Why didn't they just tell people Rutherford needed to move to San Diego?
by SydBarrett infrom wikipedia: "rutherford had reportedly lost the use of one lung from pneumonia suffered during his imprisonment in 1918 and 1919. finding new york's winter weather "impossible", rutherford was encouraged by a doctor to "spend as much time as possible" in a more favorable climate.
" why not just tell the people exactly what it says above?
why all the mumbo jumbo about purchasing it for ancient worthies to be resurrected?
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TonusOH
It may be that Rutherford was the type not to let an opportunity go to waste. Instead of pitching the idea that he needed a place to rest and recuperate, he could have an opulent home built for those great men of the past (who, serendipitously, were soon to be resurrected and would need lodging). And if he happened to use it in the meantime, he could use the cover story to deflect any possible criticism.
Also, King David wasn't going to be driven around in any old car, was he?