Posts by TheOldHippie

63

Why does the Watchtower leadership slap its own defenders in the face?

by slimboyfat in

take the case of rolf furuli.

i don't think there has been a specific thread on the hebrew verbs u-turn in the nwt, and how the society has responded to the work of perhaps their brightest and ablest defender in their history.

so here goes.. rolf furuli has defended jws on multiple fronts in many different settings, on issues ranging from chronology, mental health, doctrines, bible translation and the blood issue.

TheOldHippie

I wonder what Jason BeDuhn would have to say on the Greek text, considering his praise for the NWT in "Truth in Translation".

63

What were Satan and his demons "doing" up in heaven, before being "cast down" in 1914?

by Dunedain in

i was just thinking about how the wts has been spouting off for years that satan and his demons were cast down to the vicinity of the earth in 1914, but really, when you think about it, what was the difference before 1914 or after 1914?.

its not like satan and his demons did not have access to the earth.

satan and his demons always were messing with earth.

TheOldHippie

"They must have been so boooooored all those millions of years "

Remember, though, that time only exists when matter does. So when there is no matter, no "stuff", there is no time, just an eternal "now". Before creation of matter started, there was no time, and so therefore one is wrong in stating that Jesus was with his Father for countless billions of years before they started creating the Universe - before the Universe there was no time. For someone outside of the Universe, outside of matter, it all happened at one moment, one "now", but the results would take action in time ahead of that "now".

So how can you be bored if all you have is "now"?

44

Decrease of numbers in Jehovah's Witnesses via Deaths, DFings, or Turning Inactive

by flipper in

jw
friends

so i'm sure a good number of us saw the chart that i believe the poster splash put on another thread of figures since 1990 regarding how many baptized and % of increase each year .

i started analyzing it ( and i know some referred to it briefly on the other thread ) and guessing of reasons the % of increase didn't match the number of newly baptized.

and of course common sense tells us that either jw's leave the cult each year through death, fading into inactivity, or getting dfed.

TheOldHippie

You cannot do the math this way. The only certain thing is that 1 % of a population die each year. But otherwise, the math is totally incorrect, Why? Because you do not have to be baptised to be counted as a publisher. Therefore, you have persons coming into the numbers as a publisher, then quitting after a year, then coming into the figures again etc. Furthermore, the df'ed ones to a certain degree also come back, and they then also quit - reenter etc. In the math shown above, the same persons therefore appear many times and thus are counted twice, thrice etc. The only way such a tabulation could be correct, were if baptism was a must for preaching.

78

Revelation - it's grand climax is at hand

by Listener in

some people point out the subliminal pictures in the wtbts publications but sometimes things are just so obvious, such as the title of the book above.. the person who came up with the title for this book must have had a good old laugh.. interestingly, this book first came out in 1988 and has not been included in the online library but nothing has replaced it.

the org is really going backwards when they ditch old light and cannot come up with anything new.

they are real wankers ;)..

TheOldHippie

"Interestingly, this book first came out in 1988 and has not been included in the online library but nothing has replaced it."

It is on the CD-rom

74

Jehovah's Witnesses May Have Peaked in Membership at 8 Million (+/-)

by OnTheWayOut in

jw
friends

i don't have all the details of their new "service year" numbers, but i have read enough on jwn to state my opinion pretty strongly.. memorial attendance for 2015 was down.while they kept saying they were going to build a bunch of new kingdom halls, and everybody is still in recovery from watchtower taking all the local money away, they say pretty much that there isn't enough money to build new kingdom halls.putting gb members on the videos at jw .

org has allowed people to really put a face and personality to these guys and remove the mystery of how they should be such deeply spiritual serious men.

instead they see silly thoughts about tight pants and, really everything that comes out of lett's mouth is delivered ultra-goofy, along with the money reports.. the gb lost credibility a little more with every new light that shone down, with the strangest one being "overlapping generation.

TheOldHippie

Let us get down to business:

Let us see it from within:

It is God's organization. How can God show His displeasure, show that He is angry with what is happening? He can let the organization experience stagnation or decline.

How? He cannot do it thru letting "members" flee from His organization, because whereto would they then flee? (I am careful in choosing the wording "where" and not "whom" here). Should they flee to Christendom? No way. It is His organization, it sticks to the core beliefs He wants it to uphold, such as trinity, soul, hell, hereafter etc. He does not want His followers to join organizations supporting unchristian belief. He can do it, therefore, in slowing down the pace of new members entering, thus showing that this no longer is His clean organization to which He wants His followers to enter.

What has changed? A decade ago, the number of new converts was at an all time high. Have the members changed? No, they are the same, they are as firm in their belief as before, He would not condemn them. The elders are the same. There are problems with paedophilia etc. sure, but the elders are the same as a decade ago. On the membership and congregational leaders' level nothing has changed.

Beliefs and methods have changed. The servant, sheep/goats, mark in the forehead, fewer magazines, more on the internet, television, fewer meetings, lots of stuff. But that is only a result, not a reason.

What is different now and 15 years ago? What has changed?

Think hard.

Done it?

A frightening thought:

What has changed, what is different - is the GBv2 towards the GBv1. The members.

Gone is the gentle Barr. Gone is the beloved Sydlik. Gone is the humble Booth. Gone is the Swingle who KNEW. Loesch is the same, but all the rest are new ones.

So what is it God can disapprove of?

............... Right. You've got it.

74

Jehovah's Witnesses May Have Peaked in Membership at 8 Million (+/-)

by OnTheWayOut in

jw
friends

i don't have all the details of their new "service year" numbers, but i have read enough on jwn to state my opinion pretty strongly.. memorial attendance for 2015 was down.while they kept saying they were going to build a bunch of new kingdom halls, and everybody is still in recovery from watchtower taking all the local money away, they say pretty much that there isn't enough money to build new kingdom halls.putting gb members on the videos at jw .

org has allowed people to really put a face and personality to these guys and remove the mystery of how they should be such deeply spiritual serious men.

instead they see silly thoughts about tight pants and, really everything that comes out of lett's mouth is delivered ultra-goofy, along with the money reports.. the gb lost credibility a little more with every new light that shone down, with the strangest one being "overlapping generation.

TheOldHippie

"I don't have all the details of their new "service year" numbers, but I have read enough on JWN to state my opinion pretty strongly."

Yeah, nothing is a good as strongly stating one's opinion without having bothered with the details ....

48

Massive Plunge in Number of New JW Congregations from 1990 to 2014

by steve2 in

in a separate thread on the very latest figures for the current world wide annual report of jws, discussion turned to how "we'll know decline has really set in.

one of the posters said: .

the figure that interests me most is the number of congregations.

TheOldHippie

And fair enough to you, Steve2, that perhaps my observation is exceptional. I can only refer to what I see here, and one should be very cautious in believing that what one sees in one's own little pond magically is what can be observed worldwide. Outskirts congregations here - I know at least five of them - that consisted of say 20 people 30 years ago now consist of 70 to 120 people. Closer to city center outskirts congregations - "half way outskirt" - I know around ten of them - that consisted of 50-60 people now consist of 100 to 120 people. Then there are city center congregations - five perhaps - that have been dissolved, and finally center congregations - also perhaps five - that have as many people as before, some 100 each. Additionally, some eight to ten foreign speaking groups have emerged, each with 30 to 50 people. I see now that if I add it all up, then 30 years ago it added up to 1,500 people - which is fairly correct - and now it adds up to 2,500 - which is also fairly correct. Not a huge growth, but a growth nevertheless, and a change from a city center based organization to a suburbian and increasingly foreign speaking organization.

48

Massive Plunge in Number of New JW Congregations from 1990 to 2014

by steve2 in

in a separate thread on the very latest figures for the current world wide annual report of jws, discussion turned to how "we'll know decline has really set in.

one of the posters said: .

the figure that interests me most is the number of congregations.

TheOldHippie

I don't think the number of congregations is that important. In my part of the world, 30 years ago there were many congregations in the center of the big cities and a few smaller ones in the outskirts. Now, the city centers are populated by Moslems, and the congregations mostly have been shut down. But the outskirts congregations exist, and are many times as big as 30 years ago, partly because that is where population growth has taken place and also partly because the city center members drive to the outskirts congregations.

37

Why does Antoine Leiris' powerful tribute to his wife, killed by ISIS in the Paris attacks, bother me so much?

by nicolaou in

here is the translation of monsieur leiris' words;.

friday night, you took an exceptional life - the love of my life, the mother of my son - but you will not have my hatred.

i don't know who you are and i don't want to know, you are dead souls.

TheOldHippie

I do not "on a daily basis" go around hating the man who killed my child. If I did so, I would allow him to play a part in my life, to be someone around whom my thoughts and feelings would center, and I refuse to allow him that luxury. He is no part of my life, he is a nobody, a being void of importance, someone I do not care to hear about or know anything about. He does not exist for me.

At times, the knowledge that he is out there comes to me in hours of sadness and despair of what did happen, but I manage to sidetrack the thoughts about him, in order to concentrate on the important thougths, the ones about the lost one.

But this I know, about this I am sure - if I suddenly stumble upon him, I am not at all sure about what would/will happen. The hate is not there - but the knowledge is.

22

"the Kingdom work is expanding at an accelerated pace"

by Londo111 in

if recent intel is true, there is only a .23% increase worldwide in 2015. .

notice what is increasing is not the average publisher count, according to the above watchtower quote to spin the bethel downsizing, but the work.

"the little one will become a thousand and the small one a mighty nation.

TheOldHippie

The work is expanding, the results are not.