TD

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Posts by TD

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  48

  JWs are bigger and more successful than the Mormon church

  by joe134cd in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just saw the following you tube video.

  it’s 3 hours long, but thoroughly interesting.

  if you want to save yourself 3 hours, basically the active mormon church is about 3 million.

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  TD

  Joe,

  Im searching for an explanation as to why watchtower has been so successful, as apposed to their Mormon counterparts

  Are you?
  

  You've been posting this stuff for several years now. That's plenty of time to become familiar enough with the two groups to avoid apple and orange comparisons, like equating the LDS General Conference to the JW Memorial, or for that matter, equating numerical growth with "success" which has been your basic premise from day one.
  

  Like I've tried to point out, the free exercise of their faith, including their polygamous marriage customs was more important to the LDS Church than numerical growth. They separated themselves from society completely and their reintegration was slow, painful and even violent at times. (The Mountain Meadows Massacre happened shortly after C.T. Russell, was born, I believe.) The Mormons, as group, continued to be clannish and reclusive, especially in small towns, well into the 20th century.

  You can't claim to be looking for an explanation for how the two groups got to where they are today while simultaneously glossing over all that history. --Not unless you're just here to stump for the JW's...
  

  
  
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  48

  JWs are bigger and more successful than the Mormon church

  by joe134cd in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just saw the following you tube video.

  it’s 3 hours long, but thoroughly interesting.

  if you want to save yourself 3 hours, basically the active mormon church is about 3 million.

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  TD

  Joseph Smiths first vision was in 1820.
  

  Smith was only 14 in early 1820 and with the exception of a few close friends mostly kept that event to himself

  Maybe a better comparison, would be the publishing of the BOM in 1830, because this was the first true glimpse that outsiders got into Smith's world

  But even that quickly devolves into apples and oranges. Russell's pseudo Adventist message of restitution was more mainstream by an order of magnitude than Smith's claim to having been personally visited by angelic beings including Peter, James and John; having actually spoken to them; having the Aaronic Priesthood conferred upon himself and Cowdery, having translated a set of golden plates that only about ten other people ever allegedly saw, etc., etc. etc.
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  177

  Charles T Russell -a freemason and the connection to the illuminati...

  by dolphman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ok, i'm not one for conspiracy theories but lately i've uncovered some interesting facts that i think warrant some attention.. first of all, russell was a freemason.

  all the early watchtower and books he authored have freemason symbology and art throughout them.

  not a big deal i thought, until i read more about freemasons and the so-called "illuminati", a group of 13 families that supposedly control the world.. supposedly these 13 families, such as the duponts, mcdonalds, kennedys, .

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  TD

  ...
  
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  48

  JWs are bigger and more successful than the Mormon church

  by joe134cd in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just saw the following you tube video.

  it’s 3 hours long, but thoroughly interesting.

  if you want to save yourself 3 hours, basically the active mormon church is about 3 million.

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  TD

  Well yes, I don't disagree with that at all, but to wax about the fifty-year head start of the LDS church, implies that the two groups were on the same racetrack, so to speak. But that's not the case. The two groups might as well not have been on the same planet for how different they were.

  The Utah area prior to the Civil War was not a place you went to if you wanted contact with the outside world. Quite the opposite, this was a place you went to sever all contact with the outside world. Utah was not even a territory back then. If anyone reading this thread is not familiar with the Utah War, then Google it. If that doesn't make the point then I'm not sure what will.
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  48

  JWs are bigger and more successful than the Mormon church

  by joe134cd in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just saw the following you tube video.

  it’s 3 hours long, but thoroughly interesting.

  if you want to save yourself 3 hours, basically the active mormon church is about 3 million.

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  TD

  The point that really comes home to me with the JW / LDS comparison, is that having more money doesn’t necessarily mean more members....

  ..... their performance would probably make Microsoft or apple computer green with envy.

  I was going to take another stab at untangling the assumption of ceteris paribus by explaining a few of the philosophical and historical differences between the two faiths, but then got to the part about Apple and Microsoft and threw up my hands.

  Carry on...
  
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  48

  JWs are bigger and more successful than the Mormon church

  by joe134cd in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just saw the following you tube video.

  it’s 3 hours long, but thoroughly interesting.

  if you want to save yourself 3 hours, basically the active mormon church is about 3 million.

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  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TD

  If raw membership is your only yardstick, I guess...

  In almost every other meaningful metric that I can think of, (Median income, average level of education, community/volunteer service, charitable activities, etc., etc.) there isn't much of a comparison. At least not here in the the American SW.
  
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  6

  Greetings and Request for Help

  by AGuest-Again in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it's been awhile since i've been on this board and i am not here to stay (so stay calm, please, simon).

  a good, dear friend of mine... and possible yours... outlaw needs some help and i've come back solely for the purpose of asking for that.

  a couple of days ago, outlaw lost everything... and i do mean everything... to one of the wildfires burning in british columbia:.

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  TD

  Thanks for the heads up, Shelby. I always liked Outlaw. He was a hoot.
  
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  17

  How would you respond?

  by Iamallcool in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if you tell a jw that he or she is in a cult and they asked you why do you say that?

  how would you respond?.

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  TD

  "Cult" has become a pejorative that people apply to religions that they simply don't like, but if you can get past that connotation, Jehovah's Witnesses share a lot of traits with other high control groups.

  1. It is very easy to join a cult, but surprisingly difficult to get out of one with your dignity intact. Cults do not recognize a legitimate reason for leaving. People who leave for reasons of conscience are labeled as "evil" and "mentally diseased."
  

  2. Cults attempt to isolate you. A person joining a cult will be encouraged to break off all past associations. Friendships a person may have had their entire life are expected to wither away and die. After a few months, friends become very concerned about the individual who has joined a cult, because they don't even seem to be the same person anymore.
  

  3. Cults attempt to control every aspect of your life, from medical care to leisure time, to education, to acceptable sexual practices. Sometimes there are sanctions, both written and unwritten for noncompliance
  

  4. Cults attempt to control your access to information. They minimize or discourage access to outside sources in favor of their own internally generated literature.

  5. Cults invent their own jargon. Their speech is littered with esoteric expressions and buzzwords that have special meaning to other members of the cult.
  

  6. Cults rely heavily on fear. Fear of the outside world. Fear of invisible spirits. Fear of leaving. Fear of being branded and shunned by the group.

  Jehovah's Witnesses exhibit all these traits. In spades.
  
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  32

  Why is there a large cat in this picture?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i wonder if anyone can explain this.

  ezekiel 34:25 says .

  and i will make a covenant of peace with them, and i will rid the land of vicious wild beasts, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forests.. the land is said to be rid of vicious wild beasts, so why does the watchtower picture in the new pure worship book show a large predatory cat on the tree in this picture?

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  TD

  I did not realize that JW artists were allowed this degree of expression.

  In years past, whenever you saw an illustration in JW literature that made you stop and think, like this was does, it was plagiarized from another source.
  
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  10

  Question for parents with a believing co-parent

  by Anony Mous in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  my daughter is being raised in a pimi household and spends a significant time with me in a pomo household.

  i don’t pressure her to believe, so she is thinking/pressured about becoming a jw from the other end, so she is reluctant about celebrating holidays and birthdays, but as any kid, she loves the gifts and attention, so she will “not celebrate but still do things”.. she is becoming a teenager however, and showing interest in not-so-jw-things.

  her mother forbids star wars for violence and magic, but she wants to watch it, she wants a few horror video games, she wants to shoot things and go hunting but guns aren’t allowed, so i’ve compromised for archery.. what do parents of teenagers do?

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  TD

  With a daughter, I would make sure she understands the position of women in the JW faith.

  (Which is why strong, smart, opinionated and informed is the Xenon in the reaction, so to speak...)