Posts by 88JM

7

The RNWT "Silver Sword" is taking its place in revised history.

by DATA-DOG in

it's no secret that i do not study for meetings, prepare for failed circus, conduct "mormon night", or read the bible much or pray anymore.

even so, i do keep a close eye on the goings on in dub-land.

i just noticed something interesting on the front page of the latest km.

88JM

rNWT is an acronym made up by exJW's - I don't think the WTBTS has ever used that officially, as a reference acronym.

On JW.org, the previous bible is referenced as "bi12".

23

'great crowd' are in the temple (naos) but not in the new covenant???

by fukitol in

in one of the biggest about-faces in watchtower history, in a 2002 question from readers it was admitted that the great crowd is indeed in the temple itself (naos) in revelation 7. .

but notice the statement bolded below from that article comparing the great crowd to the proselytes in ancient israel.

the statement is made that the proselytes "submitted to the law covenant.

Online version of "Reasoning from the Scriptures" has deleted preaching reference to Muslims

by jwleaks in

the online version of "reasoning from the scriptures" has deleted the entry under "conversation stoppers" for when someone says "i'm a muslim".. online reasoning book.

for the record, this is what has been removed:.

*** rs pp.

I'm guessing it's also to do with them wanting JW.org to not get banned in certain countries with internet censorship that also happen to be Muslim countries. Some of what is said there could be deemed "blasphemous" and/or "apostate" which are capital offences in some countries.

I'm guessing the first thing any Muslim country is going to do in deciding whether to ban a website is do a search for references to "the Koran" and "Muhammad". The text there would be a major red flag.

62

25 YEARS of compiled yearbook statistics

by 88JM in

jw
friends

hello again folks - as promised in my last thread here, i've been working on turning yearbook statistics into excel spreadsheets.. coincidentally, today is my 25th birthday (spare a thought for a fader).. i've now updated the spreadsheet with yearbook data all the way back to 1988 (the year i was born), therefore it now contains 25 years of statistics.. there were a lot of countries changing around and for some it was possible to create a continuation of data.

some are a simple change of name like south-west africa to namibia.

others, for example - in 1993 with czechoslovakia splitting into two countries (czech republic and slovakia) i have added an extra row that provides a continuation of the data, combining czech republic and slovakia back together as if they were still one country.

88JM

Thanks steve2 - I'm glad someone understands.

Here's the updated version with the latest 2014 data anyway:

Yearbook Stats 1988 - 2014:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_bzL2A4XRiobElEbmhhSW51Z0U/view?usp=sharing

Yearbook Stats by Field 1988- 2014:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_bzL2A4XRioQUh2eVRLOGlJTk0/view?usp=sharing

It looks like it's better to just download them and view/edit in Excel/OpenOffice rather than trying to view in Google Spreadsheets as it has trouble viewing them for some reason - maybe because there's quite a lot of data and formulas.

7

Shepherding textbook in digital format 2012 Printing

by hildebrando in

"the watchtower is butchering the 2010 elders manual, and has released this new one to all elders.

to many court cases involve exposing the 2010 elder manual, so now the watchtower is changing a few things with this new one".

(authorized).

88JM

Told you so.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/207300003/re-shepherding-textbook-digital-format?size=10&page=4#206720002

39

Re: Shepherding Textbook in Digital Format

by suavojr in

jw
friends

after years of leaked info, the gb has finally decided to publish their own shepherding textbook in epub format.. dear brothers:.

we are pleased to inform you that the shepherding textbook is now available in epub,.

mobi, and pdf format.

88JM

If they eventually do away with the paper versions of the textbook, they will be able change their policies just with a few clicks, just as they change the online versions of other publications.

Of course they've been sending revisions to the sheperding book via paper letters to the elders for years (insert this here, ignore this bit etc.) but soon they will be able to change things like their disfellowshipping policy worldwide overnight.

They will also be able to make different policies or wording depending on the laws of a particular country and get around regulations in one particular country without watering stuff down for other countries.

62

25 YEARS of compiled yearbook statistics

by 88JM in

jw
friends

hello again folks - as promised in my last thread here, i've been working on turning yearbook statistics into excel spreadsheets.. coincidentally, today is my 25th birthday (spare a thought for a fader).. i've now updated the spreadsheet with yearbook data all the way back to 1988 (the year i was born), therefore it now contains 25 years of statistics.. there were a lot of countries changing around and for some it was possible to create a continuation of data.

some are a simple change of name like south-west africa to namibia.

others, for example - in 1993 with czechoslovakia splitting into two countries (czech republic and slovakia) i have added an extra row that provides a continuation of the data, combining czech republic and slovakia back together as if they were still one country.

88JM

Hey folks - just noticing this got bumped - did I miss something happening? Was there a reason?

I can't remember if I uploaded a new version with the 2014 data, but I did do the spreadsheet for that too so I'll get that up when I'm back from work today.

Thanks to wifibandit (and Atlantis) for the reminder:

Now that Yearbooks 1927-2014 in PDF (Thanks Atlantis!) are available for download via bittorrent, Can we organize a way to include ALL data?

As I might have tried to explain before, the difficulty is not so much getting the data into a spreadsheet, but it's the wonderful world of international politics and countries changing names and borders that takes time to work out.

Things have been pretty stable for the past 15 years or so, but working back to 1988 things start getting really complicated in the 80's, especially with the Soviet Union in Europe. It can certainly be done, but it just takes time and patience. If someone else wants to have a go, then by all means go ahead.

Maybe I'm just going about it the wrong way and making a mess of it - but I just think if you want actual useful data for individual countries going back as far as possible then you need to work out the country changes. You could ignore them and just dump everything into a messy spreadsheet, but then for some countries (like Russia etc.) you would only have data going back as far as those countries existed in name.

8

Thought provoking articles / videos

by Simon in

jw
friends

i came across this site and love it, just full of interesting things to read.

this one is particularly good about whether we are alone in the universe (as intelligent life) and what different scenarios could play out:.

http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html.

88JM

If you enjoyed those, are you familiar with the VSauce channels and Veritasium on YouTube?

35

Memorial attendance up or down on last year?

by freddo in

jw
friends

as per the title.

and was the one you attended at an early or late time of the evening.. any partakers?.

88JM

Same here (also UK) - same number (and the same people!) as last year. I was expecting it to be more with it being an evening before the weekend (though as you say it was also Good Friday), but it seems to not have made any difference.

59

Worst Memorial Talk Ever!

by The Searcher in

i honestly have never heard such claptrap being delivered in a memorial talk.. the speaker repeatedly put down the way other religions administered the bread & wine, and claimed that witnesses do it exactly as the bible describes.

oh yeah????.

he forgot to mention - when reading aloud 1 corinthians 11:25 - that after passing the bread, a full meal was to be shared, before the wine was passed around!

88JM

I know it was the same outline, but the fat sweaty elder didn't even bother to change his notes from last year - he just pulled out the same folder and gave his version almost word for word the same.

It was also pretty much the same people as last year too, and even cheaper wine (the sister who bought it was concerned that it didn't have a screw cap!)

I noticed this year that they don't go near any verses in Revelation to talk about the great crowd, only to John 10 to talk about the "other sheep" which is blatantly just referring to non-Isrealites.