Posts by Apognophos

26

Campaign to Israel

by humanperson in

i have been wanting to introduce myself but i don't know where to begin.

my husband and i are enjoying our third guilt-free weekend of our lives (both born-in, almost 30).

he has been out mentally for the last year and a half but patiently waited for me to come around.

Apognophos

I'd say the bigger danger is naive JWs getting lynched for tossing the ineffable Name around in the wrong neighborhoods.

15

Freedom of Relgion has been taken away.

by Jeannette in

when a person is disfellowshiped by a religion just because he or she doesn't believe it all is very serious.

some disfellowshiped ones have even taken their own lives because they have been made to feel so bad.

it's down in black and white that parents and friends are supposed to shun them, shunning is acting like someone is dead.

Yes, I don't know if it falls under a violation of freedom of religion, but once a religion is telling your own flesh and blood to shun you because you left or fell out of favor with them, I feel it's crossing some kind of line in the area of human rights.

29

Could the allowance of blood fractions be curtailing the growth of the religion?

by Apognophos in

so, imagine that you're just a regular joe who's not familiar with the witnesses and is looking for the answers to life, the universe, and everything.

you hear a knock at your door.

before long, you are studying with a jehovah's witness.

Apognophos

Heh, could be. Of course, the first three points are taken for granted if the student already accepts the Bible as God's Word, which most do.

24

Emblem Takers Mentally Unstable?

by Cold Steel in

onthewayout wrote: of course, for quite awhile (and probably still), congregations have been viewing any relatively young (maybe under 50 or even 60) partakers as mentally unstable and watchtower ignores such people anyway and says they must listen to the elders.

is this correct?

ever since the emblem-takers were given emeritus status as members of the faithful and discreet slave, have they been relegated to standard membership?

Apognophos

Most "real" Christians would seem odd to Witnesses if they went to our Hall and pretended to be part of the congregation. My theory is that many anointed are a tad closer to the traditional "Jesus saves" mentality of Christianity. When you think about it, saying that you're anointed is saying that Jesus is your savior, which the average JW is unable to claim.

I may need to show this to my devout JW mom.

She is still of the opinion that the GB is conducting all "Truth" from the rest of the Anointed via that very means.

What, does she think that somehow their holy spirit and prayers flow through the GB like a kind of oil pipeline?

50

Governing Body at Bethel and their daily routine

by Tenacious in

i never had the privilege to serve at bethel .. therefore, community help is greatly appreciated friends.. do the gb members have their own living quarters separate from the average jw?.

does their "busy" schedule permit field service, if yes, how many hours a month?.

how long are their weekly wednesday meetings?.

Apognophos

It's not a cheap shot, DATA-DOG, a nice suit costs more than $300... http://www.menswearhouse.com/mens-suits

24

Emblem Takers Mentally Unstable?

by Cold Steel in

onthewayout wrote: of course, for quite awhile (and probably still), congregations have been viewing any relatively young (maybe under 50 or even 60) partakers as mentally unstable and watchtower ignores such people anyway and says they must listen to the elders.

is this correct?

ever since the emblem-takers were given emeritus status as members of the faithful and discreet slave, have they been relegated to standard membership?

Apognophos

This isn't necessarily answering Cold Steel's questions, but I think he's gotten some good answers to those already and I want to make a suggestion about something.

Personally I think that one of the main causes of someone deciding they are anointed is not mental instability, but rather a rationalization stemming from the fact that they feel that they are closer to Bible truths than the average person. Perhaps, in reading the Bible closely, they have realized that some Watchtower teachings do not hold up, and rather than let themselves be troubled by this, they decide that they are simply glimpsing new light ahead of the org. Perhaps a teaching actually changes in the direction they anticipated. So they conclude that they must have extra holy spirit and that they are one of the anointed. In following this thought process, it's very much an intellectual thought process rather than an emotional one.

In other cases, like TTSSUF's story of the old woman who was a former evangelical, they are Witnesses who are more emotionally tied to the concept of Jesus than the average Witness, and this causes them to feel that they must be chosen to rule with him in heaven. So the thought is actually a response to finding themselves being more properly "Christian" than the average Jehovah-centric, Jesus-ignoring Witness. Which is an emotional thought process, but not an unstable one, any more than the average Christian is "unstable".

That being said, I'm sure there are others who simply had a hallucination or a strange dream and concluded that they were anointed.

16

crazy analogy question regarding Jesus' divinity [or lack of]

by TTWSYF in

i heard a preist pose this question and i'll admit, it made me think.. if your neighbor had a dog and a monkey and his dog bite you.

would you accept an apology from the neighbors monkey?.

just asking.

Apognophos

I'm literally LOL at that

17

2nd and 3rd Genners -- Did the passing of the 1st/2nd Gen. cause doubts for you?

by Apognophos in

i can't discuss my family history here in detail while i'm still fading, but suffice to say that i'm a third-generation witness.

my grandparents' generation of witnesses expected the end to come in the middle of the 20th century.

they led spartan lives and largely went without having kids, as they awaited the imminent new system.

Apognophos

Interesting, wildwildlife, thanks for the reply (and welcome!). It's interesting to note that the first Witnesses in your family weren't even called "Witnesses", and believed things that would get them DFed today.

Edit: And a poignant story there, NVR2L8, thanks for sharing it. Yes, it's amazing how all the old JWs we knew as kids have died and been replaced by another generation of white-haired people sitting in the infirm section, waiting to see the end come. What a human tragedy this religion is.

29

Could the allowance of blood fractions be curtailing the growth of the religion?

by Apognophos in

so, imagine that you're just a regular joe who's not familiar with the witnesses and is looking for the answers to life, the universe, and everything.

you hear a knock at your door.

before long, you are studying with a jehovah's witness.

Apognophos

Haha, amazing, Marvin Shilmer. I congratulate you on asking such a logical question, though you were bound to only get nonsense as a response.

54

How do you overcome this JW excuse?

by EdenOne in

during one of those meetings that took place before my jc, one of the elders, who was a good friend of mine back then and used to come up with a few outlandish personal views about some teachings, attempted to counter one of my arguments like this:.

eden - "well, if the truth doesn't change, why is it that what we teach as 'truth' has changed over the years (several examples given)?

how can we dogmatically claim at any given moment that we have 'the truth' if our teachings keep changing?".

Apognophos

This is not cognitive dissonance. It's not even an illogical argument. It's simply a statement that the present beliefs are always the "truth" in the sense that God wants JWs to have those beliefs at that point in time.

The counter-argument is flip-flops. Why would Jehovah direct, or allow the Society to direct, Witnesses to believe A, then change it to B, then back to A? Especially if the flip-flop led to lives being lost. This is true of the organ transplant flip-flop.

The counter-counter-argument to this is probably to say that Jehovah knew something that we didn't know, and people had to be steered away from organ transplants during those years. But it places the JW on shaky ground because they won't be able to point to anything we know now about transplants that made them dangerous from 1967 to 1980.

Another counter-argument is to ask where in the Bible God allowed his servants to have wrong beliefs for a period of time until he corrected them.