question from researcher: the other day you posted the australian peak publishers and i was wondering if it would be possible to post the numbers of the "memorial partakers" from 1935 to 2006. that would be about 72 years of totals.. my answer: yes, we can do that for you but it will take a few hours to get everything together and scanned.
i will have to use different forms of wt literature to accomplish this.. unless indicated otherwise, numbers listed show partakers for previous year and some could show: "still incomplete" but they are still listed as a total nevertheless.
cheers!
I wonder what happened in 1938/39 and in 1948/1949; in these years there has been unexpected, huge bumps in the numbers of the partakers (+85,9% and +140,6% respectively). Do these bumps correspond to some doctrinal change, "new light" or rumor back in the day?
Eden
i've deployed a fix for people affected by sign-in issues caused by having multiple accounts associated with the same email address.
here's how to activate the fix:.
you must attempt to sign in using the email address associated with your account (not a username) and must have access to that mailbox.. if there are multiple accounts associated with the email address then you will be shown a warning message with the option to have an email sent to repair your account.. the email will contain a link to a page showing all the accounts associated with the same email address and allow you to select the one you want to be active (it will disassociate all the other accounts from the email address).. once you have completed the process then you should be able to sign in as normal.
I think it would be very useful that the post count of every user (Ex: post 1234 of 1243) would be available at every post. It's great for reference.
Eden
his chosen subject is the history and teachings of jehovah's witnesses.. should be easy for him, right?.
test yourself, and see how many questions you think you would get right.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk96h31hrv4&list=uu3dufbynezv_mquvd1-hrfa.
tf1.
10 " any israelite or any alien living among them who eats any bloodi will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people.
12 therefore i say to the israelites, "none of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood.
15 'anyone, whether native-born or alien, who eats anything found dead or torn by wild animals must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be ceremonially unclean till evening; then he will be clean.
I've read an interesting take on this matter, months ago, but I cannot pinpoint it right now off my memory. It goes more or less like this: the jewish DIETARY command regarding blood is covered by the command 'abstain from strangled meat'. However, the command 'abstain from blood' would encompass everything that, under Moses' law, would make someone carry blood guilt, such as intentional murder, or homicide by negligence. There was some pretty convincing scriptural support given, which I don't recall at the moment, but my recolection was that this is the argument that makes more logical sense.
I would also add another possibility, that happens to possibly merge with the above. The Israelite married males were sternly warned to avoid sex with their wives during their menstrual period. In Jesus' day, one of the reasons the Jews avoided defilement by association with gentiles was because the gentiles kept sexual intercourse with women during their menstrual period. This was a serious issue under Moses' law. I propose it would also be a cause of tension between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. So, the quite generic command to 'abstain from blood' could be a diplomatic way to address a very delicate and intimate issue of sexual conduct.
Eden
10 " any israelite or any alien living among them who eats any bloodi will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people.
12 therefore i say to the israelites, "none of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood.
15 'anyone, whether native-born or alien, who eats anything found dead or torn by wild animals must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be ceremonially unclean till evening; then he will be clean.
Cofty, there's something that your excellent essay left out and I'd like to hear your take on it.
How do you explain the seemingly redundant command in Acts to 'abstain from blood' and then 'abstain from strangled meat'? Why the author of Acts [or the apostles and elders in Jerusalem] felt it was necessary to make BOTH items as separate commands, when, in principle, 'abstain from blood' would already rule out unbled meat?
Your thoughts?
Eden
well, i have been lurking on this site for several months and i recently decided to join as a member.
i have made several observations and would like to make a few comments.. first, i am perplexed by the attitude of many on this site that are either former or active (but apostate) jws.
they seem to have a strong hatred for the wts and also for rank and file jws.
Heisenberg, you wrote this reply:
Why is the issue of shunning a problem? If the bible was very clear about who should be shunned and how this should be done, would that be more acceptable to you? Human society has always shunned people that do not conform to the rules. If you commit a crime, you may be punished by being sent to jail and excluded from society until you 'repent' by changing your attitude. Who determines these rules? In many lands, adultery and homosexuality are still punishable by death or jail. It is up to each group of people to decide the rules and the consequences for breaking them. Wasn't the great schism of the Catholic church an act of shunning?
You [as most JWs also] seem to think that disfellowshipping and shunning are one and the same thing. Very few ex-JWs argue that is wrongful that the congregation is entitled to terminate fellowship with those who refuse to comply with the rules, moral or doctrinal. However, shunning is another matter. Even the Bible doesn't support shunning as it's prescribed and imposed by the Governing Body upon the Witnesses. The historical context of the Christian communities in the first and second centuries is very important to give a proper understanding of what the apostles Paul and John meant when they discussed how should Christians deal with transgressors and dissenters. Of course, that historical research doesn't interest the Governing Body at all, because it would uncover serious theological implications that colide with the teachings from the Society since the 1930's; it would besides reveal just how removed the contemporary meetings are from the Christian gatherings originally. Because when you understand how these gatherings worked, then it becomes clear what Paul and John were talking about, and it wasn't surely the shunning as taught by the WTS.
Eden
mr. flipper here again gang!
so who do ya like all time?mr.
flippers list is as follows, almost in this way.
1) Pink Floyd
2) The Beatles / Paul McCartney
3) Vangelis
4) Jean-Michel Jarre
5) Queen
6) Dire Straits / Mark Knopfler
7) Genesis
8) The Waterboys / Mike Scott
9) Mike Oldfield
10) U2
Muse, Billy Joel, Simple Minds, Yes, Triumvirat, Pet Shop Boys ... The list would go on...
Eden
here's the current status:.
performance improvements have been made to make things slicker.. the "remember me" issue should now be fixed.. sign-in captcha can be affected by ad-blockers so consider disabling those.. sign-in email is case-sensitive - until i update this consider using your forum username instead.. ie stalls on "queued for processing" when posting a topic or reply but the post has been made (just navigate to active or refresh the topic if replying).. i will be working through issues today and contacting anyone who had sign-in issues to check if they still have problems.. many thanks again for your patience while we work through these teething problems..
i looked up the estimated revenue of jw.org using http://www.siteworthtraffic.com/ and was shocked at the results.
not only are they saving money on printing psychical books/magazines, but they're also making a tidy sum romtheir "free" website created and maintained by volunteers.
i spoke with a jw recently who was very proud to tell me just how good their website was and that they provided it free of charge.
I take it that "worth" refers to POTENTIAL gains IF there were ads in it. I could be wrong though...
Eden
some thoughts on meaning, human nature, and the initial difficulties of learning ttatt.. .
it's not just the fear of the wild, the untamed, or the untraversed regions of the mind that drives jws to seek shelter in the dim and dark citadels of their ignorance - seemingly protected from the insoluble mysteries of their universe.
but it's also the fact that the winds of reality can, at times, be cold and harsh and can rain storm and thunder upon everything they thought they knew.
I feel that two forces are at play here:
FEAR is the ultimate driving force behind every person's adherence to an organized religious belief system. Deep down inside we fear death, chaos, insignificance, solitude, suffering, and our personal weaknesses. Various organized belief systems in supernatural beings offer comfort answers to these fears; sometimes, paradoxically, by exacerbating those fears.
GUILT is the other force. It operates similar to marketing: First, create a need where there wasn't one; then, offer the product/service to satisfy that need. Take, for example, Christianity. By telling people they are hopeless sinners, Christian religions create a need for redemption in the eyes of the divinity. Once that need has been created inside people's minds, religions offer 'products' [Christ's ransom, for example] and 'services' [mass] performed by specialized agents [clerigy], in order to address the guilt of being a sinner. Guilt is exploited further by tying it with fear, as a system of reward / punishment is established to ensure that the believer is kept inside the flock [heaven vs. hell ; eternal life in paradise vs. eternal anihilation].
Eden
