Russia is likely to go ahead with ban because move is deeply premeditated and has a history of two decades: “For almost two decades, however, Russian prosecutors in various localities have periodically sought to outlaw or curb the group, charging it is a cult that destroys families, fosters hatred and threatens lives. …In February, investigators inspected the headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses in St. Petersburg, the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported. More than 70,000 pages of documents were confiscated for the General Prosecutor's Office, according to Russia's Sova Center of Information and Analysis, which monitors hate crimes and the enforcement of anti-extremist laws………..In 2009, the Supreme Court of Russia upheld a lower court ruling that declared 34 pieces of Jehovah's Witness literature as "extremist," including their magazine The Watchtower in Russian ……..Jehovah’s Witnesses have been officially banned from the port city of Taganrog since 2009, after a local court ruled the organization guilty of inciting religious hatred by “propagating the exclusivity and supremacy” of their religion, according to the British newspaper The Independent.
Posts by venus
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9Heb 10:34 & the Russian Situation
by doubtfull1799 inas would be expected we've seen a lot of the "persecution" scriptures bandied about recently in connection with the likely imminent ban on the org in russia.
they like to claim that being targets of persecution they are seeing the fulfilment of those verses.
but they conveniently ignore what the bible teaches about how christians should respond to said prophesied persecution.... for example, no one is referencing the above verse which talks of the apostles "joyfully accepting the plundering of their belongings.
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Aren't you a bit amazed that the WTS/JWS is still around ?
by Finkelstein ini know i am, to me its a bit of a peculiar anomaly that the wts is still around and functioning in reflection of its decades and now complete century that the wts has been bullshitting to people .
organizations like the church of god have shrunk dramatically from its heyday of the 1980's, this too was another organization that spread and grew by publishing its own magazine proclaiming a armageddon soon doctrine and its main publication was called " the truth " .
i'm guessing some of this has to do with the fact that people who get lured into this cult aren't aware of its past, its doctrines, the people who started it and so forth.
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venus
They were waiting for the greater Cyrus to dry the waters (members of Christendom) before great tribulation making it easy for JWs to preach with utmost urgency.
But the opposite is happening now. They are already dried in vast areas such as China, India, Gulf countries ... and going to be dried in Russia
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9
Heb 10:34 & the Russian Situation
by doubtfull1799 inas would be expected we've seen a lot of the "persecution" scriptures bandied about recently in connection with the likely imminent ban on the org in russia.
they like to claim that being targets of persecution they are seeing the fulfilment of those verses.
but they conveniently ignore what the bible teaches about how christians should respond to said prophesied persecution.... for example, no one is referencing the above verse which talks of the apostles "joyfully accepting the plundering of their belongings.
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venus
Those who were abused by the leadership would remember the scriptures such as this:
“The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will. (Proverb 21:1)
“I will bring the worst of the nations to take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the pride of the strong, and their holy places shall be profaned”. (Ezekiel 7:24)
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Trump pledges to 'totally destroy' law that bars political speech by churches, other orgs
by OrphanCrow inno wonder the gb aren't too concerned about getting involved in foreign politics.
they have rutherford's clone on their side.. https://www.rt.com/usa/376119-trump-political-speech-churches/.
at the national prayer breakfast, president donald trump repeated a campaign promise, vowing to end the federal law that restricts political speech and activity by churches and other tax-exempt organizations.
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venus
Trying to influence legislation of any country--whoever may be the beneficiary--is a political activity and becoming "part of this world", hence Trump has a point
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Heb 10:34 & the Russian Situation
by doubtfull1799 inas would be expected we've seen a lot of the "persecution" scriptures bandied about recently in connection with the likely imminent ban on the org in russia.
they like to claim that being targets of persecution they are seeing the fulfilment of those verses.
but they conveniently ignore what the bible teaches about how christians should respond to said prophesied persecution.... for example, no one is referencing the above verse which talks of the apostles "joyfully accepting the plundering of their belongings.
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venus
doubtful1799,
Excellent thoughts!
"If the brothers were to follow that apostolic example they wouldn't be writing protest letters, right?"
Good question, and answer is a big NO.
It seems GB should take lesson from apostate as God can share His thoughts through any channel (He has used even animals in the past)
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43
Atheism would not appeared if …
by venus in· if religions were immune to division.
· if scriptures were immune to scientific errors.
· if religious leaders were immune to hypocrisy.
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venus
David_Jay,
I agree with what you said: "Some people do become atheists by rejecting religion, but not everyone does."
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Chairman of the St Petersburg-based Administrative Centre of JWs issues press release - Forum 18
by OrphanCrow inaccording to the latest forum 18 article, this is what happened in russia on march 15:.
http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2265.
with immediate effect, a 15 march suspension order forbids the administrative centre and all its local religious organisations from "using state and municipal news media, organising and conducting assemblies, rallies, demonstrations, processions, picketing, and other mass actions or public events, and using bank deposits, with the exception of use for making payments connected with their economic activity, compensating for losses (damages) caused by their actions, and paying taxes, fees, or fines, and making payments based on labour contracts" .
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venus
Than means letter-writing campaign would only backfire!
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Atheism would not appeared if …
by venus in· if religions were immune to division.
· if scriptures were immune to scientific errors.
· if religious leaders were immune to hypocrisy.
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venus
Onager,
If belief in God were creating good citizens, everyone would have accepted God even if he were not real. Everyone accepted electricity without even labeling it American electricity, UK electricity, Russian electricity …etc. because electricity is good.
If belief in God were not creating good citizens, some would doubt the existence of God which means atheism would only appear after decay of theism.
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43
Atheism would not appeared if …
by venus in· if religions were immune to division.
· if scriptures were immune to scientific errors.
· if religious leaders were immune to hypocrisy.
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venus
David_Jay,
I was clearly disagreeing with “The Cambridge study (and others like it) providence evidence that atheism grew just as naturally and even independently of religion.”
Atheists' declared stand has always been this: ‘If God exists, why is His influence not seen on the lives of believers [most of them are hypocritical], and why do we find suffering in the world?’
These two questions arise from a view that people would be influenced by truth. But the fact is that people may or may not be influenced by truth. For example, those who smoke cigarette know that it is injurious to their health, and yet this knowledge has no influence on them. Existence of prison is a testimony to the fact that the society does not like violation of its rules, yet existence of prison in all the countries does not exert any influence on people who are bent on breaking the laws. That means God exerting no influence on the believers is not a case against His existence. People would behave the way they like whether God exists or not—some believers may act righteously and some believers wickedly, and some atheists may act altruistically and some atheists wickedly.
That God does not do anything to correct the misconception too does not prove his non-existence. Let me tell you: I were God, I would not provide any proof that I exist because I want people to reach their own conclusion self-motivated.
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The Russian letters
by purrpurr inso all the jw's i know are practically wetting their pants in excitement over the russian letters they are sending out.
they seem to have this insane idea that putin's office will be pulled sky high with all these letters and they have this image in their imaginations of him having to open and read every letter (!).
also all the jw's i know have all put their name and address on the letter... which couldn't have any repercussions of course (!
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venus
Former KGB Chief Putin is beyond all predictions. When a school was taken over by the Chechen terrorists who tried to bargain over the lives of innocent school children (over a few hundreds), Putin did not think about the possible loss of lives—he simply ordered commando operation and killed all the terrorists. His policy is to treat terrorists as terrorists. For him extremism means extremism—whether it is through weapon or worship
That means letter-campaign by JWs is unlikely to have any influence on Putin’s Justice Department. Such human tactics might work with small countries like Malawi. It’s merely human pressure tactics. JWs should learn from Bible character Gideon and his few people. The 300 stood still in their assigned positions as God caused the enemies to use their own swords to slaughter one another. The camp was routed, escape was cut off, and mop-up operations involving an arduous pursuit permanently removed the Midianite threat. The long and murderous occupation has finally come to an end.—Judges 7:19-25; 8:10-12, 28.