yb71 p. 97 country reports (part one) - "in malta there is a monk reputed to have the powers of a seer, in the confessional being able to know a person’s sins before they are even confessed.
a woman in one of the villages was having family trouble, and made a journey to this confessor in the hope of getting some hidden information by the monk’s psychic powers.
after being told of the problem, the monk said: “don’t worry about it, my dear, the end of all things is very near!” another woman in the same village, somewhat opposed to the truth, told this to her husband, who is having a bible study.
Another woman in the same village, somewhat opposed to the truth, told this to her husband, who is having a Bible study. He said: “Well, you believe it now; but I have been telling you this for months and you wouldn’t believe it.”
She has spent the last 20 years annoying the crap out of him by constantly asking "so, is it the end yet? Huh? How about now? Is it the end now?" And then laughing when he gets up and stomps out of the room.
i have been lurking around here for years.
i'm not a witness, but my in-laws are.
my wife grew up in it but was never baptized.
Errr... there's a JW TikTok?
what could be "an instruction not sound by a human standpoint"?.
i'm going by dissolving their legal entities...any guesses?.
Of course, Jesus did not tell us that his faithful slave would produce perfect spiritual food.
Wow, talk about saying the quiet part out loud.
"Hey, guys, Jesus said he would use the faithful and discreet slave to provide necessary spiritual guidance at the right time. But he never said that they would get it right. So, if we have let you down, remember... IT'S JESUS'S FAULT."
what could be "an instruction not sound by a human standpoint"?.
i'm going by dissolving their legal entities...any guesses?.
"Instructions that aren't sound from a human standpoint" sounds suspiciously like "god works in mysterious ways."
https://pdfupload.io/docs/d302ea8c .
( i hope i am doing this ok for everybody.
if i am messing up anywhere just let me know how to correct any of my errors!).
I wonder if the changes in preaching work are slowing the rate of growth. Targeting faders seems like a normal course of action, though. They want to see how many they can bring back, and it should not require more than a visit or two to figure out if they will/won't.
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.
I suppose the election results will give him something to talk about, at least for a while. It doesn't sound like a way to grow the channel, though.
2025-01-15-ages for ministerial servants and elders.. see page 2. .
https://pdfupload.io/docs/1b0b5c00 .
https://imgbox.com/p3a9yjmr.
I'm trying to imagine a judicial committee made up of 20-somethings...
i know as a jw i concluded several times that i was not brainwashed as i was not some unautonimous zombie and had not experienced anything akin to.... .
but in reality, brainwashing is a control of thought and ideas over a person and changing the way they think.
in normal life such sentences are not used, in fact they are highly discouraged... .
According to Merriam-Webster, brainwashing is:
1. a forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up basic political, social, or religious beliefs and attitudes and to accept contrasting regimented ideas.
I don't consider that the WTS uses force, though there are some blurry lines there. But the second definition is:
2. persuasion by propaganda or salesmanship.
In which case, yes-- the WTS brainwashes people. At the same time, that definition is a bit broad. It's not unusual for us to be persuaded through the use of propaganda or salesmanship, so we're all brainwashed in some way or other.
from my experience within the jw organization, i understood that salvation meant a person accepted the teachings of the wbts without question as the "faithful and discrete slave," thereby placing their trust in them, not jesus christ.
salvation consisted of being found "righteous" by jehovah and resurrected to everlasting life in an earthly paradise.
to obtain this salvation, one needed to obey the organization's teachings, remain a faithful jw, and lead a moral life.
"We just don't know" does not mesh well with "Jehovah guides his people through us."
"We just don't know" does not mesh well with "you must obey us without question."
"We just don't know" does not mesh well with "disagree with us and you are an apostate."
hope everyone near to the region affected in california is ok. it's shocking to hear of the destruction.
these affected areas are some of the places i visited when i came on a tour of the us.
malibu, santa barbera, la, santa monica, hollywood and so on..
If you get a lot of rain for one or two years, then a drought, you know that the conditions are there for a highly destructive fire. Under those circumstances, isn't it even more imperative to make sure to take action to reduce or eliminate the risk? "Oh well... nature" is not an attitude that someone responsible for the safety of thousands (or millions) has the luxury of adopting.
I think it's too early to know for sure what the causes are, but if it turns out that there was too much growth that created conditions for a catastrophe like this one, then steps should have been taken. No excuses. It would have cost a lot less than the (potentially) hundreds of billions that will be required to fix it now, as well as the loss of life and the loss of property and the long-term effects that victims and their families will be dealing with.
