i read in another thread, where it said that the wts, has investments from stocks, with the companys of lockheed martin and grumman northrop.
these are some of the biggest weapons suppliers to the us,uk, and israel.
i would think it would be very hypocritical for a christian organisation, that claims to be nuetral, and to "learn war no more", to invest money in companys that produce weapons, that are used in wars.. is this true, though?
My question regarding the Henrietta Riley fund is:
What if she is merely a figurehead that allowed her name to be used, and the money invested in that fund is in fact Watch Tower Society's money? Is that a far-fetched idea?
You see, the fund was setup in the 1970's, and the said Henrietta M. Riley died in 1945. Who decided that her supposed estate should be invested in a trust fund, and when?
EdenOne
now this is weird, ever heard of the "mandela effect" ???
i know how crazy it sounds but i got to tell you, this article about the governing body finally admitting the "faithful slave" was not divinely appointed by jesus in 1919 was epic to me.
like a mandela effect feeling.
We have a word play in Portuguese with the name of a fish: Pescada. [Cyniscion leiarchus] In english, it literally means "Fished". So, we ask the riddle: "What is the thing that was, before being?" Answer: the "Pescada". Because it was Fished before it was fished.
The Governing Body wants us to believe they were before they became ... the "faithful slave".
The phrasing in Matthew 24:45 indicates that the reason why the Lord picks that particular slave to provide food in the proper time to the domestics is precisely because he is already considered "faithful and prudent" BEFORE he is assigned that task. The implication of this is simple: He must be in existence before this assignment. The mistake of the GB is to teach that BEFORE 1919 there was no slave, that it came to exist on that year with the supposed appointment by Jesus. This is an obvious misstep; why would the GB make such mistake? It seems obvious to me: They want to discard the teachings and work of Charles Taze Russell. That's why he has been now paralleled with John The Baptist, by saying he did the work of a precursor. But, because he wasn't yet the slave, it can be argued that he wasn't directed by the Lord, and that is why he made a lot of false predictions about 1914, amongst other teachings that were later discarded.
In fact, the true founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses is now JF Rutherford. Russell belongs to the Bible Students movement.
Of course, the whole point is moot when you consider that the "faithful slave" narrative is a PARABLE, not a PROPHECY. It is meant to be a moral story about readiness and faithfulness, that's all there is to it.
EdenOne
it has been over 100 years since jesus christ was enthroned as king in the heavens in 1914 according to jehovah`s witnesses with the task of preaching "this good news of the kingdom" in all the inhabited earth .for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.. it`s been over 2000 years since this task was given to jesus disciples , who evolved into christendom over the centuries with many sects that abound today.. neither have succeeded in carrying out this task to completion and christendom has had far longer an opportunity to do so.
however jehovah`s witnesses claim they are the true religion with gods approval .. so you would expect a better achievement .
jesus christ has used up more than 100 years of his rule with no major accomplishments , it does not look like he is going to achieve any better than what christendom did in 2000 years.in fact by all accounts he is going to be far worse.. jehovah`s witnesses as a minority sect are becoming more irrelevant as each year passes.. even their "witnessing" has been dumb`d down so much that it is an embarrassment to observe in the field.. in the 60`s and 70`s their was an urgency to get this message across to people , today ?
Then don't forget that we will be approaching the 2000 years over the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Do you see the type / antitype? hint hint ....
Eden
great news!.
we are free!.
as of the 9th of june, me and my dear wife mrs. eden handed over our letters of disassociation at bethel in portugal, thus making official our departure from the jehovah's witnesses.
Someone gave Cofty a "dislike" vote for congratulating me? Why?
Eden
two days ago a new book was released for download, called "ever-changing teachings of jehovah's witnesses".
it was originally written by a polish jw scholar (who never was a jw himself) włodzimierz bednarski, with a help from szymon matusiak, who was a jw and an elder, and is a result of years of labourious work to compile quotes regarding every single doctrine the book describes.
it covers the most important changes in years 1879—2015.
Great work.
I've posted a link to it on the Portuguese forum of ex-JW's.
EdenOne
great news!.
we are free!.
as of the 9th of june, me and my dear wife mrs. eden handed over our letters of disassociation at bethel in portugal, thus making official our departure from the jehovah's witnesses.
NAJW, I live in the suburbs of Lisbon, in a sought-after tourist area (Cascais, Estoril, Sintra). Actually, I live quite near the Portuguese branch office (can see it from my house, a couple of miles away). If one of you happens to come this way send me a message.
Ghiagirl, I'm very fortunate. If you go through my old posts you will see that this was a story with ups and downs and setbacks, but finally we got out all together. I am especially happy that my son escaped the cult before it would cause permanent damage to his life. We still have family in, some of it super zealots, quite high in the hierarchy and frankly, we don't see them giving up their comfortable career in the Organization. Some other family, however, could open their eyes through our example and consider leaving as well. I'm hopeful they might do that at some point in the future.
DJS Nice to meet you, David :)
Eden
great news!.
we are free!.
as of the 9th of june, me and my dear wife mrs. eden handed over our letters of disassociation at bethel in portugal, thus making official our departure from the jehovah's witnesses.
It's official : It was announced from the platform at tonight's meeting. I'm officially out of this cult.
Mrs. Eden will follow suit on tomorrow's meeting (on the brief time she went back in she moved to the neighbor congregation, so it will be announced there).
My name is Ricardo and I am proudly an ex-JW and an anti-Watch Tower Society promoter.
Cheers to all of you.
Eden
just finished a walk today i came onto a happy family group of all the generations celebrating a tiny ones birthday.
they all sang ..happy birthday and i sang with my bass baritone the chorus, .."why was she born so beautiful why was she born at all.." silly words but they are happy words.
the family cheered their pleasure at this outsider joining in.
- These celebrations are done in such a way that are nothing more than an excuse to excessive drinking/eating and carrying on with un-Christian-like behaviors.
Bullocks! In 9 out of 10 cases, they are merely a happy family meal with a cake and a happy birthday song thrown into it. My son turned 19 two weeks ago and we had cake and a happy birthday song and we didn't resort to alcohol and substance abuse, sexual misconduct or Satan worship.
- Birthday ceremonies easily facilitate development of a narcissistic attitude on the person celebrated.
More bullocks! There's more creature worship in front of a TV screen every time a sanctimonious GB member speaks, than in most anonymous birthday celebrations.
Eden
great news!.
we are free!.
as of the 9th of june, me and my dear wife mrs. eden handed over our letters of disassociation at bethel in portugal, thus making official our departure from the jehovah's witnesses.
I was a friend of the person who is in charge of the Service Department here at the Branch Office in Portugal, since he had been for many years the PO of my congregation and we had a good relationship. I handed over the letter regarding the National Defense Day personally to him at Bethel. So I know it wasn't lost in the mail ... plus, I received a letter from the CO acknowledging the reception of a copy of that letter and saying that, since I presented my case to Bethel, it should be Bethel to deal with it. The Body of Elders also got a copy of that letter.
In any case, the reply was ... *crickets*
Eden
great news!.
we are free!.
as of the 9th of june, me and my dear wife mrs. eden handed over our letters of disassociation at bethel in portugal, thus making official our departure from the jehovah's witnesses.
Here's the translation of the body of my letter of disassociation:
"On the 22nd of March 2016 I have sent to the XXX congregation and to the Branch Office of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Portugal a letter in which I presented solid arguments that evidenced that there’s no sufficient scriptural and ethical support to the notion that attending the National Defense Day represents a violation of fundamental bible principles; as well as an antecipated declaration that the fulfilling of that civic duty required by the law by my son XXX wasn’t an act of disassociation from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. That letter went unanswered. The only “reply” was your silence and your unilateral decision to consider XXX disassociated.
I must say this behavior wasn’t a surprise for me. It’s very consistent with the history of this religious organization; under the guise of “theocracy” hides an exercise of power that’s hypocrite, disingenuous, dictatorial and impervious to reason. What’s worse, hides an organization that deems itself justified in disobeying the law of the land and violating Human Rights. As I warned you in my letter, the case of XXX will now be reported to the competent authorities.
This is the culmination of a long period of study and reflexion that started in 2011 when I became aware of the scandal of systematic cover-up of sexual child abuse amongst the Jehovah’s Witnesses. From that turning point on, nothing stopped me anymore from finding other highly compromizing facts to the credibility of this organization. And what I have found out not only convinced me that this business endeavour posing as a religion doesn’t have, never had, and will never have the backing of God and Christ, but further study led me to conclude that the Bible itself is just a book of human authorship, Christianity is a myth, and the existence of a personal God is but a fantasy.
At the end of my judicial hearing of 2014 I made the request that you should leave my family alone thenceforth. You didn’t. Therefore, I’m happy to have helped my family to open their eyes to the reality of the facts, and each one of them has made an individual decision that they should not be captives of this harmful religion anymore. Now, you can be certain that I shall do anything within my ability to publicly expose this religion for what it truly is: a dangerous cult, that under the guise of Christianity sells empty promises, appropriates the minds of the believers, comsumes the lives of its members, enslaving them for its own ends. A cult that breaks families apart, deprives its members from reaching their full potential in life, and puts their lives in danger. This organization, whom you gentlemen worship as a golden calf and compel others to do the same, is nothing but a religious fraud. And the community, whom the Jehovah’s Witnesses reach out to in their efforts to recruit them for their cult, deserves to be informed about the true nature of this religion. I consider a duty of citizenship and a public service to contribute to such awareness.
Thus, I have taken the decision to disfellowship this apostate organization from my life. I do not wish to be known as one of the Jehovah’s Witnesses anymore. I’m outraged that I was raised into this religion since I was a little child while I didn’t have enough discernment to realize the sinister implications of what I was being involved with. I feel ashamed of having dedicated my life through baptism to an organization that falsely claims to represent God and Jesus Christ and be directed by Holy Spirit. I feel embarassed that it took me so long to wake up from the mind numbness that I was subjected to. I regret that I have wasted so many years and so many opportunities in my life because of this dastard, crooked cult.
It’s a pitty that so many excellent people that I’ve met in this religion are mentally manipulated by a group of men self-styled as “Governing Body”. It’s my only regret: that sincere, good-natured people, whom I was privileged to befriend, have been conditioned to shun me while I was still a Jehovah’s Witness; and that they don’t realize the monstruosity of what they’re doing on behalf of this unworthy organization. I feel sorry for them, but ultimately, each one must own up the way they lead their life. I don’t hold a grudge against this people, for whom I will always feel affection, and I can only hope that someday they too will wake up and escape the claws of this wretched cult.
I request that any records about me that are kept by the congregation or the branch office to be destroyed. I do not wish to be contacted by your religious ministers in shepherding calls, because I simply don’t acknowledge them any authority over my life any longer. However, the doors of my house will always be opened for someone who wants to come to me as a friend.
Thank you,”
Eden
