out of curiosity, i went to the jw website to see if they had posted anything about helene, it's damage, and what their relief plans may be, i any.
i looked in the news and in video sections to see if there were any postings.
i couldn't find anything.
They can pocket insurance money while using unpaid JW labor to perform repair work. But that is for locations that suffer damage, of course. I am not aware that they ever set up aid stations or send supplies as part of relief efforts.
Thankfully, there are probably plenty of other charitable organizations (including religious ones) that will provide JWs with food and medicine, without asking questions. They won't even know they are JWs, unless they set up a cart nearby...
is there any independently verified evidence that a miracle worker called jesus existed and did the things that the bible said he did?.
the four gospels were written by unknown authors many decades after the so called events, so can't be considered as eyewitness accounts.
i think that there may have been a apocalyptic preacher who was executed by the romans and the story evolved from their.
If Jesus was indeed the messiah and was known to perform miracles, why would the rabbis see him in a negative light?
thinking back when i was a true believer these are probably the top ten reasons why i believed jws are the true religion.
1. they show love among themselves by not going to war.
not killing your fellow believers in any circumstances, including war, would seem to be a very basic requirement for true christianity.
Some of the recent changes made me think that they are slowly moving towards the mainstream. After so many years of such strict orthodoxy, they cannot embrace mainstream Christianity all at once. But they can begin to move in that direction a few bits at a time. Moving Jesus into a more prominent position would make sense in that context, especially if it is combined with the idea that the GB is fallible and can make mistakes.
The idea of putting the GB in a truly subordinate position to Jesus would be fairly radical, but also a concept that the rank-and-file could accept. Especially if it means a gradual lessening of the 'obedience to the GB' policy. I'm not sure they can go all the way in that direction without leading the rank-and-file to wonder why they don't just go to another church. So I might be on the wrong track. Still, it will be interesting to see if any more changes are made in the near future.
c t russell and jellyfish case.
then he said, "i am like a jellyfish.
i float around here and there.
This topic was linked from a Reddit thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/1fp54om/what_is_the_most_disturbing_thing_you_have_found/
I had read of Russell's... affair(?) with Rose Ball, and recall reading some of the testimony that can be found on the site linked in the first post here. It is a reminder of the kind of man Russell really was.
say it ain’t so!
.
in one sense it’s a no brainer because the figures just don’t add up any more.. in another (negative) sense it’s a no brainer because it’s been fundamental to jws since year dot and might undermine the whole thing?
Jackson is such a weasel in those transcripts. So much for being brave in the face of persecution. JWs in Malawi held fast through literal beatings and torture. This guy shrinks in his chair when asked a question.
They "hope to [...] be [Jesus's] disciples"? It's "presumptuous" to think they're god's only mouthpiece? Pathetic.
uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.
worse than being stupid is thinking you are smart while you are stupid.. i should know.. for many years i was a special category of "stupid"; i was jehovah's witness stupid.. .
what does that entail?
listen and i'll tell you.. ___________________________________________________________.
Based on the OP, I was definitely JW-stupid for a long time.
Now I'm just plain stupid. It's a considerable relief.
say it ain’t so!
.
in one sense it’s a no brainer because the figures just don’t add up any more.. in another (negative) sense it’s a no brainer because it’s been fundamental to jws since year dot and might undermine the whole thing?
FreeTheMasons: The fallen angels didn't materialize as women.
I know that. To covet is to desire. They coveted those women's bodies because they wanted to have sex with them. Which means that these spirit beings were capable of being aroused by human bodies. Which makes no sense whatsoever. It also makes no sense for a god who is hung up on sexual misconduct to make angels capable of (1)wanting to have sex with humans and (2)shifting into a physical form to do just that.
say it ain’t so!
.
in one sense it’s a no brainer because the figures just don’t add up any more.. in another (negative) sense it’s a no brainer because it’s been fundamental to jws since year dot and might undermine the whole thing?
FreeTheMasons: Being a human is a gift. It's such a cool gift that some of the angels coveted it.
As I recall, what they coveted was the nubile bodies of young human women.
The idea that angels would give up such a hallowed position for a fleeting experience is almost comically silly. The only thing sillier is the idea that such beings would have become aroused at the sight of a young lady, or that a god who is so famously uptight about sex would have made them capable of such sensations.
say it ain’t so!
.
in one sense it’s a no brainer because the figures just don’t add up any more.. in another (negative) sense it’s a no brainer because it’s been fundamental to jws since year dot and might undermine the whole thing?
Journeyman: Admittedly, it might seem a bad idea to imply a lot of your members are deluded or even mentally unwell(!) as they hinted
This might be a good reason to drop the literal number. I think they said this (about partakers possibly being mentally unwell) in the hopes of getting people to stop partaking, so that the number of the remnant would drop again. Then they could go back to saying "look at the dwindling number of partakers! The end must be close!"
But the number has just continued to climb. We went from a low of around 8,800 to more than 22,000. The number is an albatross now; it is difficult to reference it without being reminded that it has increased significantly after the change in 'understanding.' The ship has sailed.
A change that makes the number inconsequential might be the first step to dealing with the problem. The eventual last step would be that they could ignore it, since the number would no longer matter. The concept of two groups (one heavenly, one earthly) could still be used, without the issues that a hard number creates.
