Posts by Jidders

30

Watchtower Study Edition - April 2019....Thank you for not doing enough in the field ministry

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

watchtower study edition- april 2019. are you fully accomplishing your ministry?.

the study article starts off with praise and admiration for members who are out in the field ministry.

the wtbts understand that you have family responsibilities, work, get sick, and have pains due to aging.

Jidders

Yes, they can continue to artificially massage the numbers so that they don't look as bad, but at the end of the day, there is only so much you can do. At some point, even the creative ways of counting time will not be enough to keep the numbers afloat.

I noticed numbers seemed a bit odd recently, CO was saying there were 9m active pubs this last Sunday, my mom mentioned 10m when I was giving my confession of wanting to stop my study but the 2018 report had 8.5m, which either means a lot of inactives popped back up or something's off

6

Daily Text - 1/30/19

by Jidders in

the love of the greater number will grow cold.—matt.

24:12. i read the daily text today, thoughts on a scripture that does seem to be somewhat fulfilled with the increase in atheism and alternative religions?

it had definitely been going on back then but is it a general assumption?.

Jidders

Those are very fair points of reasoning Half Banana, thank you!

6

Daily Text - 1/30/19

by Jidders in

the love of the greater number will grow cold.—matt.

24:12. i read the daily text today, thoughts on a scripture that does seem to be somewhat fulfilled with the increase in atheism and alternative religions?

it had definitely been going on back then but is it a general assumption?.

Jidders

The love of the greater number will grow cold.—Matt. 24:12

I read the daily text today, thoughts on a scripture that does seem to be somewhat fulfilled with the increase in atheism and alternative religions? It had definitely been going on back then but is it a general assumption?

23

What new cuts might be coming

by pepperheart in

what new cuts might be coming for the watchtower ?.

Jidders

With the sold properties does anyone know what moves into those KHs? Or is mainly the land and the building gets demolished? I know itd vary place to place but something I can certainly credit the organization is having nice buildings. It'd be pretty jarring to walk into a bank or GameStop and find out it's a converted kingdom Hall.

34

Just peeking in for a bit...

by Jidders in

jw
friends

i rather apprehensively would like to say hello.. i've been raised somewhat in the truth,one of my parents is rather rather strong in the beliefs but could honestly be considered pomi with how active they are and their side of the family comes from a line of witnesses, the other parent was but faded a long time ago.

as such i was taught quite a bit of jw teachings between family and off and on again bible studies.

recently i had a serious emotional break down over a few months after said pomi parent had advised me that they would not attend my wedding should that day come (i also had recieved a text from my bible teacher i hadnt heard from in a year or two giving a scripture) and it sorta all sank on me that my activity over the last few years was not really jw material.

Jidders

Well I officially ended my study today, admitting I was feeling conflicted, confused and generally unhappy on a lot of things I was learning. I was advised of

John 6:48-59 and I was aware of the scripture before and figured that was going to be advised alongside being reminded that I have accurate knowledge now and I will be held to that, but ultimately it's my choice and I wouldn't be forced to follow it. I did give him words of encouragement for his continued ministry and said I hope that we can still keep the line of communication open as I still do see him as a good man and a friend. I'm definitely feeling very saddened that my choice ultimately will put us at spiritual odds but my own decisions always come back to the misquotes and the WT admitting to not being infallible alongside that as it brings into question the validity of the truth. I may change my mind again in the future if things do change within the org but ultimately I feel like there's been too many deep changes to what I originally knew or things that I misinterpreted that give me reason to reevaluate things. I do wish the congregation well and I probably will still attend with my parent that goes (if they go that is). But now I definitely feel as though everyone has an idea of god but no one really has everything down.

49

The King of the North has now entered into the 'land of decoration' (the Spiritual Estate of Jehovah's People) - Annual Meeting

by Listener in

the final part of the october, 2018 annual meeting has now been released of jw org tv.the following includes a transcript of mark sanderson's speech for those that don't want to listen to the broadcast.. we have long held that the land of decoration is the "spiritual estate of jehovah's people"... now brothers what can we say about all these events that have taken place (referring to recent events in russia) in such a short period of time?

well, truly, if you're a student of the history of god's organization, you can say these events are unprecedented in our history.

we've never seen a country or a territory with 175,000 witnesses of jehovah go under ban.

Jidders

Isnt the final attack on the witnesses suppose to be AFTER the "Harlot" is destroyed by the beast? Because it seems like Catholics, Jews and many other false religions are still active and not really being dismantled by the UN?

35

Who will be resurrected? The righteous and the unrighteous

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

chapter seven.

there will be a resurrection.

17 who will be resurrected?

Jidders

This sort of summarizes one of my hold up on recent teachings as when I was growing up I was under the impression that it would be everyone doesn't outright fight Jehovah and his armies in the end and that everyone would get a chance at a Satan free Earth. But the more I read recently the more it points to what the illustrations depict.

34

Just peeking in for a bit...

by Jidders in

jw
friends

i rather apprehensively would like to say hello.. i've been raised somewhat in the truth,one of my parents is rather rather strong in the beliefs but could honestly be considered pomi with how active they are and their side of the family comes from a line of witnesses, the other parent was but faded a long time ago.

as such i was taught quite a bit of jw teachings between family and off and on again bible studies.

recently i had a serious emotional break down over a few months after said pomi parent had advised me that they would not attend my wedding should that day come (i also had recieved a text from my bible teacher i hadnt heard from in a year or two giving a scripture) and it sorta all sank on me that my activity over the last few years was not really jw material.

Jidders

Those last few points definitely feel like recent topics the Watchtower has been trying to wrestle with, like yesterday's meeting (the CO is in town so they had a short WT talk but it was a similar one to a few months ago about the free will stuff).

Something that also threw me off is people taking the recent attacks on the witnesses as proof that the end is close or Gog/Magog are close to attacking which seems way off since other religions are still active and doing fine. In fact a lot of them are getting more love/support from people/governments than before which throws off the prophecy of them being wiped out first before the witnesses attack. It honestly feels more like Jehovah is tired of the child abuse cover-ups and doing what he's done in the past and airing out the issues his people are having (if of course they have his favor).

34

Just peeking in for a bit...

by Jidders in

jw
friends

i rather apprehensively would like to say hello.. i've been raised somewhat in the truth,one of my parents is rather rather strong in the beliefs but could honestly be considered pomi with how active they are and their side of the family comes from a line of witnesses, the other parent was but faded a long time ago.

as such i was taught quite a bit of jw teachings between family and off and on again bible studies.

recently i had a serious emotional break down over a few months after said pomi parent had advised me that they would not attend my wedding should that day come (i also had recieved a text from my bible teacher i hadnt heard from in a year or two giving a scripture) and it sorta all sank on me that my activity over the last few years was not really jw material.

Jidders

I will definitely say that my recent re-entry into study has shown me that recent talk of new light, follow without question, repeating topics in the watchtower and the like all has gone against what I learned about the witnesses being transparent, new light pointing back to old light didn't make sense to me, and the repitition of the watchtower broke the feeling of "spiritual food at the right time".

Also the change from the FDS going from the 144,000 + the rest of the WT anointed to just the GB (something my parent doesn't believe has changed, even pointing out the watchtower they say people are misunderstanding that they're saying they are just a small group chosen as the GB but ultimately are still only a part of the FDS) and the change from what I understood Armageddon to be (witnesses would give people the opportunity to survive the great tribulation but everyone inclined would get the 1000 year chance to recover, only the truely wicked being destroyed first) but now it seems the more I dig the more it points to total destruction for all non-witness.

34

Just peeking in for a bit...

by Jidders in

jw
friends

i rather apprehensively would like to say hello.. i've been raised somewhat in the truth,one of my parents is rather rather strong in the beliefs but could honestly be considered pomi with how active they are and their side of the family comes from a line of witnesses, the other parent was but faded a long time ago.

as such i was taught quite a bit of jw teachings between family and off and on again bible studies.

recently i had a serious emotional break down over a few months after said pomi parent had advised me that they would not attend my wedding should that day come (i also had recieved a text from my bible teacher i hadnt heard from in a year or two giving a scripture) and it sorta all sank on me that my activity over the last few years was not really jw material.

Jidders

Thank you everyone for your kind words and support.

I did text my Bible teacher earlier to admit I was feeling doubts and the like over things, he reminded me of how Jesus and his followers lied about in their ministry, "lies and false stories" launched against true-worship via news or "friends", and looking at such things is deliberately putting one in harms way. Following up to that he advised the he is not going to discuss all accusations as theres no point to it and advised to read the following scripture:

Prov 14:15, Matt 5:10-12, John 10:4-5, most of which I do understand and acknowlege as very possible means of harming one's faith... although again going back to the misquoted stuff that got me thinking, its just really off to me about the "staying away from secular sources" but its obvious that the Watchtower quotes secular sources all the time. I know they frame it as its because the governing body has approved it for us so its okay at that point, but again, falling into the misquote stuff, it makes it hard to swallow now that said food is being distilled in a manner that I find dubious. I'm sure I'm just singing to choir on that, but its really conflicting my feelings when the idea of corrupted facts can easily be defended on their end but also shows up on their side.

But as everyone (on both sides) has told me, baby steps.