Posts by TonusOH

34

Why Did God Create Us?

by Sea Breeze in

jesus is the creator god, but why did he create us?

what say you?.

TonusOH

The Bible never explains why god decided to create the universe, nor why he decided to create humans.

JWs believe that god does not need anything, as he is complete and perfect. Hence, there doesn't seem to be a reason for the creation of anything. Which should leave us a bit worried. A being of incomprehensible power creates a universe and populates a vanishingly small speck of it with creatures that have spent almost their entire existence suffering. He arranges for a relatively small number of them to eventually have a blissful afterlife, while condemning most of them to eternal suffering.

So, why did he create us? Because he enjoys watching the suffering of others, seems to be the most logical explanation.

39

Merry Christmas Everyone

by jhine in

it's that time of year again .

in the words of the bard ( noddy holder ) " it's christmaaas " .

merry christmas everybody .

TonusOH

Merry Christmas, Jan!

2952

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

by Simon in

jw
friends

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.

TonusOH

If I'm not mistaken, Carson is a grade-A nutjob on the level of Terrence Howard.

10

Would You Get A Cease and Desist Letter From the WT if You...

by NotFormer in

jw
friends

...put a christmas wreath that featured the jw.org logo on your door?

🤔.

TonusOH

RE: the Christmas album: that sounds like something they would definitely take action against (or at least talk to their lawyers about). If you are making money from someone else's intellectual property, that will almost always land you in court. It can get hazy when you are talking about something that 'sounds like' or is reminiscent of something else, but that would be for a judge or jury to determine.

19

Who Directs the Activitie$ and Doctrines of the Hovering Body?

by Sea Breeze in

jehovah’s witnesses boast that theirs is a “spirit-directed organization”.. see w88 3/1 pp.

10-17 (my life in jehovah’s spirit-directed organization).

they believe that their deceased founder, charles taze russell (who faced legal action by his wife for inappropriate behavior in his maids bedroom), is directing the modern-day work of jehovah’s witnesses.. after the founder, c t russell died, it was stated that he was still directing the work from heaven.. "though pastor russell has passed beyond the veil, he is still managing every feature of the harvest work.

TonusOH

Isn't that always a concern for anyone who believes in spiritual beings who guide or influence our lives? JWs will often dismiss claims of spiritual experience or guidance from non-JWs by saying it was probably a demonic force that the person was dealing with. There's no way to demonstrate that they are wrong, just as they cannot corroborate their own claims of guidance from benevolent spirits.

If the world is best by spirit beings that are thousands of years old and have many centuries of experience in leading humans astray, it could explain why religion is so fragmented around the world. But it also means that one can never be sure if he is in the 'right' religion or simply being mislead. Indeed, one might wonder if there even is a 'right' religion under those circumstances.

46

What makes a cult (in the pejorative sense)?

by Vanderhoven7 in

michael moore writes:.

a cult is an organization that enslaves minds and destroys families using cult mind control.

cult mind control involves orchestrated deception, social pressure, psychological abuse, and repetitive indoctrination (brainwashing) centering around an unchallengeable ideology enforced in a totalitarian way in a closed socially-separatist community setting.

TonusOH

I think it is the aspect of behavior and information control that makes them a cult.

Sure, they're not as bad as the worst cults. If I cut my finger, no one says "that's not a cut, the finger is still attached." It's not as bad as it can be, but it's still a cut. The WTS can be a cult without being murderous brutes. Although the line might be a bit blurry when it comes to denying blood transfusions.

22

Memory hole, international conspiracy, and the JW international network

by slimboyfat in

can anyone else who was around 15 to 20 years ago remember an odd story about jw missionaries being stopped at the swiss/italian border with american bonds worth billions of dollars in their possession?

because i can find little to no information about it anywhere online, yet at the time i am sure i recall it being reported by different mainstream news sources, including the bbc.

why do some news stories seem to disappear from the internet altogether?

TonusOH

I don't think you'd need to get them all the way to the top. And they would be so easy to infiltrate that you could get plenty of people into positions where they could accomplish whatever work it was they are tasked with.

The only concern is the psychological damage to the agents who would have to lead a JW life.

15

Watch Tower PA sues Russia in DC district over confiscation of Bethel

by Corney in

the watch tower society of pennsylvania filed a lawsuit on september 3, 2024, naming as defendants the russian federation, the russian ministry of health, and the almazov national medical research center.

unfortunately, i can't access the case documents, including the complaint.

i would appreciate if someone with an active pacer account could make them available.. anyway, it is enough to know the almazov center is one of the entities sued by the wts to say what this case is about.

TonusOH

I doubt it pisses Russia off that much; they probably don't even notice it. As a sovereign nation, they can laugh off a lawsuit by a relatively tiny religious group that they've already been persecuting for years. This comes off as grandstanding. It's the equvalent of an online petition, for all the good that it will do.

39

I've done it: Christmas Lights Outside

by StephaneLaliberte in

lets see if that causes a problem.

i've been inactive for a very long time now (like 10+ years), so, i don't expect to hear anything from it, but my parents are worried i'll get df.

lets see what happens.

TonusOH

An ambiguously-defined rule that gets interpreted in many ways, thus creating confusing for years and years? No way!

37

Prepare to get Pelted by Symbolic Hailstones

by raymond frantz in

https://youtu.be/idhmflud3p4?si=9xc4svrhxslduwvz.

so david schafer a member of the teaching commitee and a helper to the governing body has come out yesterday with a new video that goes through the king of the north, the hailstones message and other things in the wake of the possibility of a ww3 and especially now that tensions are escalating with russia so he is making quite a few end time arguments and i will be expanding on those one by one but today let's see what he has about the hailstones message of the end(video) so this is the paragraph in question, paragraph 14 from article 20 of the watchtower 2020 study edition: "sometime after the start of the great tribulation, “the kings of the entire inhabited earth” will form a coalition of nations.

(rev.

TonusOH

I remember the Paradise Lost book with the bright orange cover, and the drawings it contained related to Armageddon. Only when I got out did I realize how frequently they used this kind of morbid imagery. They seemed fascinated by large-scale death and destruction, and those scenes became part of the brand.