Posts by Apognophos

21

Did you know about the organ transplant ban when you were a believer?

by Apognophos in

back when i was learning ttatt, i was shocked to read on jwfacts about the organ transplant ban from 1967 to 1980. this was a large piece of evidence for me that the society could not be god's organization.

growing up as an earnest witness, and living near the headquarters, i knew a lot of the organization's embarrassing history, and it didn't faze me, but i'd never heard of this ban before, and it shocked me.

it's gotten me wondering why no one i know ever talks about it, when it must have affected many witnesses during that time (or were they getting transplants on the sly?

Apognophos

I don't think that's too condemning of you, NVR2L8, or at least none of us can throw the first stone. Those of us who came after the organ transplant ban still agreed with the blood transfusion ban because we trusted the Society's interpretation of scripture. It's the same as that.

Where it gets interesting is that the Society removed the ban on organ transplants and knocked down their previous reasoning on why it was wrong. I think it's more interesting to ask, not what JWs thought of the ban, but of the lifting of the ban. But I've learned that not everyone was even aware that the Society's stance had changed.

13

New Forum Layout

by Awake at last in

i suffer from depression and have also been diagnosed with asperger's syndrome, so it is not surprising that about 20 minutes ago i was feeling very depressed about the new look of my favourite ex jw forum, that is, this one.

i have been living under a rock obviously because i had no idea any change was about to happen.. now i am beginning to understand how it works, everything is ok or soon will be.

i like the like button and have already used it once.. now you understand why i left the borg.

Apognophos

Yes, having a dedicated quote-style button in the toolbar would be nice.

180

Please post new forum feedback or questions here

by Simon in

well, the switchover happened - there were a couple of things i had to fix which meant the posting was disabled for longer than i planned but it's now enabled and some people have already posted.. if you have any questions about the new format or suggestions on how to improve it, please post them here.. if you are having trouble signing in or posting then you'll need to email me instead.. many thanks to everyone for their patience during the changeover !.

Apognophos

A couple issues here:

I had written "see towards the end of this thread", and then double-clicked "this" and clicked the Insert Link button. When the link was inserted, it moved the word "this" to a new line :-\

Second problem: The posting process hung at the step shown in this screenshot, but when I checked the thread in another tab, the post had actually been made. Edit: This post also fell victim to the "Hung on 'Queued for processing'" bug.

Third issue:

When I went to use "text-dragging", where you hold down the mouse button on selected text and then drag it to move it, the post window converts to a "Drop image" mode and I cannot re-position the text. You can see the word "this" in the middle of being dragged through space here.

This is on Firefox on a Mac.

15

What Are changes reflected in New Bible teach book?

by Joshua.r in

except picture changes, what are the content changed in new bible teach book?

which pages?.

Apognophos

Yes, see towards the end of this thread, but unfortunately the comparison is much harder to read.

15

What Are changes reflected in New Bible teach book?

by Joshua.r in

except picture changes, what are the content changed in new bible teach book?

which pages?.

Apognophos

The statement on p. 205 that "it would not be proper for Christians to decorate their homes with images of Christ impaled" now says "images of Christ on a cross", which actually changes the meaning.

On p. 206, "The first observable new moon nearest to the spring equinox marked the beginning of Nisan" now says "the first day of Nisan". "Passover came 14 days later, after sunset" now says "Passover began 13 days later".

The statement on p. 208 that the NWT "consistently" renders nephesh and psykhe as "soul" now says that they are rendered "soul" "either in the main text or in footnotes" since the rNWT often uses the word "life" now instead. Subsequent to this, various references to the footnotes were added for the same reason. This makes this section of the Appendix much more awkwardly-phrased.

The same problem occurs with the following section on Sheol and Hades since the words are not used in the main text of the rNWT, only the footnote.

On p. 208-209, "the life that a person or animal enjoys" is now "the life that a person or animal has".

The 1914 chart on page 216 is now in color but otherwise unchanged except for an update to a NWT quote.

On page 220, a statement about Babylon the Great was reworded from:

"Her fornication refers to the alliances she has made with the rulers of this earth and explains why she is called 'the great harlot.'" to

"She has practiced such immorality by forming alliances with the rulers of this earth and has done whatever is necessary in order to gain power and influence over them. That is why she is called 'the great prostitute.'"

I think it's interesting to note that there's a number of references to page numbers of the Reasoning book. If the Reasoning book is to be updated, it may alter these numbers.

The ending page of the book used to read:

"Would you welcome more information? You may contact Jehovah's Witnesses at www.jw.org."

And now reads:

"For more information, visit www.jw.org or contact Jehovah's Witnesses."

...which is amusing to me because the phrase "contact Jehovah's Witnesses" now offers no advice on how to do so.

-------------

Well, that's it. No doctrinal tweaks, just lots of updates concerning the simplified language of the new NWT. The changes on pages 71, 74 and 205 were most interesting to me personally, as well as the Photoshop work and mistakes that I noted.

15

What Are changes reflected in New Bible teach book?

by Joshua.r in

except picture changes, what are the content changed in new bible teach book?

which pages?.

Apognophos

Two new scriptural citations have been added to a statement about the end times on page 151: Revelation 16:14 and 19:19-21.

The word "on" is now preferred to "upon".

The meaning of the Greek word rendered "baptize" is now given on page 175 as "dip under water" instead of just "dip".

"It if appears that you qualify for the public ministry" is now "If it appears that you qualify to participate in the witnessing work" on page 177 and "public ministry" on p. 177-178 is now "field ministry".

The phrase "being baptized" on p. 178-179, 182 is now more correctly "getting baptized".

Holy Photoshop, Batman! Four or five NWTs on page 180 were changed to rNWTs, but they forgot to update the appearance of the Bible Teach book itself, which is still gold.

The pictures on p. 184-185 are now color.

Lots more "come to know"s in place of "take in knowledge"s.

The sentence on p. 197 "So Jehovah can become whatever is needed in order to fulfill his purposes" now has the additional statement tacked on, "and he can cause to happen whatever is required with regard to his creation and the accomplishment of his purpose".

The material on the 2,520 years is completely unchanged.

15

What Are changes reflected in New Bible teach book?

by Joshua.r in

except picture changes, what are the content changed in new bible teach book?

which pages?.

Apognophos

The pictures of human suffering on pages 88-91 were colorized. The angry yelling man looks oddly like Stephen Lett, but this is not a change.

The image of a woman holding a Bible on p. 113 was colorized and updated with the rNWT via Photoshop, but now her forefinger is not resting on the spine of the Bible, but on empty space, because the rNWT spine folds inward when the Bible is open and the old NWT did not.

A couple "language" statistics were updated. Page 92's "more than 400 languages" is now "hundreds of languages".

Another change from 'take in knowledge' to 'come to know' on p. 94 and the sentence was clarified to mention that this knowledge comes from studying the Bible.

Another dubious Bible-swapping Photoshop job on page 132.

15

What Are changes reflected in New Bible teach book?

by Joshua.r in

except picture changes, what are the content changed in new bible teach book?

which pages?.

Apognophos

It's clear to me now that the rNWT capitalizes several words that were previously not capitalized in the NWT, and this is why they are capitalized in the Teach book too (another example is that "heavenly kingdom" is now "heavenly Kingdom").

An amusing error on page 71 was fixed. "Countless trillions of stars fill the universe, yet God gives the name of each one! (Isaiah 40:26)". That must be a long Bible verse! In the new edition of the book, "gives" was changed to "knows".

On the same page, "Jehovah actually yearns to bring the dead back to life" now reads, "Jehovah longs for the time when he will bring the dead back to life". Not sure what the intent was in this change.

A remark explaining what Hades is, on page 72, was removed since the quoted scripture now says "the Grave".

On the same page, "we may be freed from any dread of dying" was changed to "we do not have to be afraid of dying", an editorial improvement.

On page 74, a sentence about Jesus' resurrection was split into two sentences so that the scriptural backup could be placed after the statement it actually serves, not the unsupported statement that follows.

An amusing change on page 78: "Would you want to have a ruler like that?" is now "Would you not want to have a ruler like that?" to make the intent of the question clearer.

On page 82, "the battle of Har-Magedon, or Armageddon" now reads "the war of Armageddon".

The next sentence, "What will God's Kingdom achieve by means of Armageddon?" now reads "What will God's Kingdom achieve by means of the war of Armageddon?" This is probably because Armageddon is a place, not an event.

Doctrinal statements not changed include the heavenly calling still being open, and remarks about 1914.

It seems that the minimum justification (word spacing) in the book was raised, so that some lines are less cramped than they used to be.

15

What Are changes reflected in New Bible teach book?

by Joshua.r in

except picture changes, what are the content changed in new bible teach book?

which pages?.

Apognophos

They changed single 'p's to double 'p's, e.g. "worshipers" to "worshippers". I wholeheartedly approve of this change but I'm surprised because the Society always used to use double 'p's, so I don't know why it was ever different here.

They changed "evildoer" to "criminal" on page 36, probably as a reflection of the change in the NWT's wording; this is not a word in a scriptural quotation but in the book's own text.

Page citations were changed from the style "197-9" to "197-199", also a sensible change.

The statement on page 51, "He experienced harsh whipping, cruel impalement, and an agonizing death on a torture stake" now reads, "He was whipped and nailed to the torture stake, suffering an agonizing death" since the rNWT no longer uses the word "impale".

Images of the NWT have of course been updated from the old black-cover appearance to the gray-cover appearance, including on page 54 where they Photoshopped a woman to be holding the new Bible instead of the old one. In so doing, they did a cheap job of painting a shadow from her hand on the new gray cover.

"As you grow in knowledge of Jehovah" on page 55 is now "As you come to know Jehovah", reflecting the change in John 17:3 in the rNWT. In line with this, the sentence immediately preceding the John citation says "get to know the Great Giver, Jehovah" instead of "get to know more about the Great Giver, Jehovah".

32

What's with this "no windows in kingdom halls" thing?

by Trapped in JW land in

jw
friends

i hear many people on this forum say that kh's don't have windows.

but i have never been to one that didn't have windows.

is this only in a certain area or something?.

Apognophos

You never extrapolated? Sorry, this sounded like extrapolation:

As I said above, no KHs have so much as a single window in my area, and that is by design. I believe that older KHs had windows and then, for practical reasons, windows were eliminated from designs.

What was the basis for your stated belief in the second sentence, if not the reason that you gave in the preceding sentence?

Correcting my use of "yourself" while writing "then it seems that some's mentioning kingdom halls without windows" is really funny, thanks for the laugh. Also, "Kingdom Hall" is capitalized and that's not how you spell "accommodate".