our family just lost someone dear and very close, a faithful jw.
as we went through the entire funeral services and meeting long time brothers and sisters, who in general have been very kind and warm towards us, we realize that the hope of resurrection is a meaningless utopia for us, like a fairytale for little children.
we don't have faith in it anymore, and serves us of no comfort.
Was the resurrection ever comforting?
When we were born it was a natural process. We control our lives. But with a resurrection, it is a case of a superior spirit now controls us to where he brought us back o life. That brings the question of why we needed to die.
i have been observing a pattern in recent wtbs publications and events.
is the importance of the preaching activity no longer the number 1 priority?
are not billions of lives still at stake?.
There is a saying in the business world that you can't manage what you don't measure.
That would be a logical reason for the counting and reporting of field service time and placements. That way they can better manage the territory, the placements, the literature, the publishers. But it is never done like that. They don't care about efficiency and getting more for less, but the controlling of the people and pushing them.
one time, i heard a father in a meeting with married couples say `i sometimes have to smack my children a bit, but never in the face so as to not humiliate them.how beautiful!
he knows the sense of dignity!
he has to punish them but does it justly and moves on.
"There is NEVER an excuse for hitting children. One day our descendants will look back and wonder why anybody ever thought it was acceptable."
It is acceptable because the alternative is not acceptable, i.e. their being brats.
There are always acceptable reasons for hitting another person or animal. It reinforces the message and gets the person to listen and respect. I spank my dogs when they are bad. It is like using an electric fence to teach boundaries. And if someone does not like being hit, the don't allow it, use defense measures. Use offense measures to return the fire. Don't act like the hitter is always bad and the hitted is always a victim. The person is only a victim if they allow it. If it is bad then it should be stopped at that moment by the person declaring it bad. it is like saying that JWs were victims of Nazi persecution. No. The JWs allowed it. They could have fought back.
call me crazy, but i love to watch seminary classes when sharp teachers are in charge of the instruction.. in the following video, the teacher really nails jehovah's witnesses on john 1:1 with utter simplicity.. begin at 1 hour and 20 minutes in.. i've never seen or heard of this before.. .
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_5qkj7tmbg.
I don't see your point. JWs are right about this. There is no trinity and Jesus is not Jehovah. That is simplicity.
The 'theos' in John 1:1 is functioning as an adjective describing how the Logos was a spirit being, not declaring it as the supreme being.
There has been so much added and we don't know what is real. Matt 28:19,20 with Father, son and Holy spirit was added because Jesus never taught such a thing. If it is that important of an issue, than God, Jesus and everyone should have made it more clear.
pop quiz on jw (current) teaching.
1. was jesus 2nd coming in 1914?.
2. is jesus 2nd (parousia) presence the same thing as his coming?.
1. I don't see where Jesus was supposed to ever have a second coming. So no. But he did become king of the messianic kingdom in 1914.
2. Since there is no "coming", it is not.
3. It is the same as the Catholic's "on this rock" doctrine. Something used to gain and hold power.
4. No one knows.
5. yes, the gentile times ended in 1914. 2520 years after they started in 607bce.
6. We will see.
7. yes
8.why should the anointed read it?
9. No one knows.
improving our skills in the ministrydeveloping a magazine route.
what does delivering magazines have to do with skills in a ministry?.
"many people who enjoy reading our magazines do not wish to study the bible with us.".
Improving Our Skills in the Ministry—Developing a Magazine Route
What does delivering magazines have to do with skills in a ministry?
"Many people who enjoy reading our magazines do not wish to study the Bible with us."
Really? How many?
"Try This During theMonth: Make a list of those who could be on a magazine route. Offer them the current issues of the magazines, and tell them that you will bring them the next issue."
Brainless ministry
oh, the possibilities!
there is a lot of wasted talent.
when i was a young teenager, i went to london for a big convention.. while sightseeing in the centre of london, my friend and i stopped to watch a guy offering people the chance to win easy money - simply by picking the correct playing card out of three which he put on a little table.
he called it, "find the lady".
(aka 3 card monte) never having seen it before, i thought this was so easy to win money, but as an unbaptized witness, gambling was wrong, so i didn't participate.. on returning home after the convention ended, i related this experience to my non-witness dad.
i've always suspected this was the wt society's view when i was in the jehovah's witness organization - but never knew the head of the writing committee karl adams had written a letter to nathan knorr ( then wt president ) recommending a change regarding reporting field service time as it wrongly emphasized jw members being seen as mainly being approved due to field service statistics - instead of emphasizing christian qualities of love, kindness, peace, etc.. karl adams had been personally handpicked by nathan knorr to be the head of the writing department.
in 1971 he wrote a letter to knorr which he wanted shared with the entire governing body as well .
i'll share the main parts of that letter.. on pg.
" I'll just put 10 hours, 6 mags, and 2 rv on my slip at the end of the month and leave it at that."
I would do that at the beginning of the month, just to see if they would notice.
The fact that they only care about the CO and stats shows from when I stopped going out in FS and turning in FSR. Several months later the Secretary said to me that he didn't have my reports for several months, and he said that he knew that I had been out as he saw me. I just made up numbers for him since he was nice about it.
He saw me when I wasn't out but they don't see me when I am. just numbers for the CO.
elders in wealthy lands may find it difficult to encourage baptized brothers in their 20s or 30s to do more in the congregation.
ex- perienced elders in about 20 lands told us why they believe that some young brothers do not do more in the congregation.
most of them said that when some brothers were young, their parents did not encour- age them to set goals in jehovahs ser- vice.
