charles t. russell, age of 13, joined the congregational church (dumped presbyterian).. he went (like girl scouts are sent out with cookies to sell) door to door to raise money for the congregational church.. attitude as a youthrussell hated fundraising.
he had to ask poor people to part with their money.
he said he felt he was "fleecing the flock.".
If the WT wasn't so focused on hating the world the amount of coordination, money and chutzpah could help so many so easily...
Man that bugs me. I don't do a lot myself but even I can gift a stranger some money for gas or some money for a food bank here and there
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.
Thanks Tenacious, I am off and on medicated for anxiety/depression and I've been hesitant to seek therapy but I've been learning to open up to family and friends which has been helping me. It's something that runs in my family but things are getting better even if I feel like my chest is full of wool at times.
Honestly the back and forth of the doctrine made me think "if the watchtower built on a stone foundation either they built the tower too high and it's breaking at the base or they have gone back and forth they've bore down into the sand".
I honestly feel if Jehovah/Yahweh was with them then he's making naked the sins of those holding the reigns but failing to direct the horse, so to speak
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.
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
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?.
Those are very fair points of reasoning Half Banana, thank you!
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?.
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?
what new cuts might be coming for the watchtower ?.
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.
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.
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.
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.
chapter seven.
there will be a resurrection.
17 who will be resurrected?
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.
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.
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).
