i'm just curious to get people's views on this.. the bible students seem to start of as quite a liberal group under charles taze russell, albeit he had some whacky teachings going on.
obviously things began to change under rutherford.
but what decade did it become abundantly clear that the society was indeed high control religion or even labeled a cult?.
I think it became a high control religion the first time they changed their interpretation of a so called prophetic scripture without any explanation and then gave it another interpretation without any apology for misleading people in the first place.
1914
i am asking that question because recent watchtowers tell adherents to not talk email or text a df person how does that jibe with being free moral agent able to make a personal choice?.
i realize that jehovah’s witnesses have been dumbed down for long time now.
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still, i think there must be something that would make them really question their beliefs, even their life.. i think that if witnesses were told they could take blood or that disfellowshipping was unloving, they might stop and take a hard look at everything they have sacrificed their lives for.. i know the organization has muddled these subjects before but the i think even die hard witnesses might start to second guess the governing body..
The G.B.used to say that the annointed numbers would fall as the end got nearer pre the year`s 1890`s- 2000`s.
For about 30-40 years the numbers of the annointed never went below 8000 ,it was pretty stagnant for all that time
Then after the year 2000 the numbers of the annointed have started going up to where they are today at about 18-20000 , the official version to explain this has been to say they are either new or they are not mentally stable .?
If they are" new" then the WT is obviously not doing a good job in training new ones about the "truth" and their role in the congregation.
If they are mentally unstable ? what does that tell you about the organization apart from the fact they are still lax in educating properly the role of a JW in the congregation .
My belief for the reason of such an increase by long time JW`s is because they are sick and tired of the continued delay of Armageddon and they are cutting their losses and not relying on a time frame but know that when they die whenever that is they will get a heavenly resurrection.
Simply put the vast majority have lost faith in Armageddon being just around the corner they have come to the realization they will most likely die before Armageddon comes ,so being one of the anointed gives them security they will be resurrected to heaven.
ive been gone a long arse time and yous have really blown up the number oph posts.
holy mother oph our lord and savior osiris!.
I perused a couple of your posts Hyghlandyr ,you had a story and and a half to tell way back then .I take my hat off to you for being a survivor.
You haven`t been around here for donkeys years what have you been doing ? All positives I hope ? LOL
And of course Welcome back .Their is hardly a day goes by when their is not somebody new on the board .
We are a little flock becoming a mighty Nation. YAAAAYYYY
in this picture from the latest watchtower, what in the world is the guy watching on the left side of the picture??
it looks like a female vampire holding a lightsaber.
am i missing something?.
The guys got a split personality he watches both, one at home and the other at the Kingdom hall.
It is the same guy right ?
He must be on viagra in both pics.
please help .
more research for my book .
In a nutshell the Society frowned upon psychiatry ,psychology, and anything related to those sciences and told their members to put their faith in the Bible message ,that was the answer to all mankinds problems.
Not these new fangled ideas of Satans origin.
That`s the gist of their reasoning.
can anyone remember this?.
in a mid-80s i seem to remember a publication with a box on a page.. inside the box it was saying something like 'some have wondered if 1934 could be the correct starting date, if 587bce was the fall of jerusalem.
but history has shown it was 1914'.. does this ring any bells?.
Maybe we should focus our attention of the Last Days Of The WTB&TS ,by all accounts that`s on the cards .
one of my jw sons seems to be putting pressure on his non-jw brother apparently to scare him into accepting the troof and start coming to meetings.
wild statements like our topic title, which i know are not supported at jw dot org, have been made to my non-jw son several times over the past year or so.
while i haven't been privy to the actual phone conversations i tend to believe that the jw son is being pressured by the local elders to cut ties with the non-jw since their conversations seem to degrade into arguments -- therefore tending to weaken the jws faith in wt teachings.. either my jw son is lying about what i would call rogue teachings (and this would disappoint me greatly) or he is in some close knit clique in his congregation which has secretly chosen to go rogue on certain wt issues.. based on many of the recent posts here about drastic money and wt organization problems this could be a sign of pending splits of certain congregation members.. what do you think?
I remember that steve2 ,the talk that was going around when the first of these kingdom News Tracts was that their would only be seven given out with each successive one hitting harder and harder bringing on the GT and the big Awhere I was.
And the story about the Jews marching around Jericho seven times bringing the walls down pre-figured it .
That was the rumour going around then
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"It won`t end with a bang but a whimper" Neville Shute
1) god gives more wisdom to solomon to become the wisest ever lived on earth.. 2) using this “higher”wisdom, he solved a problem involving two women who claimed ownership of a child looking at the facial expression of the dishonest woman.
* his ruling revealed that ‘a loving mother would not permit her child to be killed’ (1 king 3:27).
this ruling reportedly rooted at the “higher wisdom” given to solomon by god actually backfires on god whose core quality is love and yet he sent his son to be murdered for the betterment of mankind—a thing which no parents can teach their children because it would shock them.. 3) if jesus really came to be murdered and thus “to take away the sin of the world” (john 1:29), he would have used his superhuman skills to explain this incomprehensible teaching (killing the innocent removes the sins of the sinners).
4) Even after the so called ransom was paid, sin continues to rule the world, and mankind continues to be under the slavery of sin for over 2000 years.
With the result of horrible diseases ,untold sufferings on all of humanity including children who don`t even know what sin is ,millions of children who die before the age of five years old through disease starvation etc. and a God who if he is to be believed has watched this for the past 2000 years and done nothing about it.
What is that saying about a being who witnesses evil and does nothing about it ?
Their is nothing in the Bible that would indicate that the Almighty GOD Jehovah /Yahweh is anyway more enlightened intellectually than a reasonably intelligent human being.
Thanks for posting this venus
