Posts by wokeup

47

Menlo Park (CA - USA) Kingdom Hall

by Juan Viejo2 in

i received an anonymous email over at ex-jw.com that had an attached legal filing.

the first couple of pages seemed to be standard legal filings, but the rest of the pages looked like standard typed documentation (not in numbered double-spaced legal format.

) i'm not quite sure what to make of it, so wonder if anyone here has heard of it.

wokeup

Conjuring up some old memories. I Remember the congregation servant lived off Valparaiso ave. in Atherton.

His daughter was a pioneer and went off to be a missionary. It was a fairly segregated city at the time.

On one side of the Bayshore was middle & upper classes. the east side, Belle Haven and East Palo Alto were crime ridden. It was built on landfill by the Bay.

As Mrs.Jones recalled correctly, the majority of members were black. Remember one sister had about 10 stairstep kids in the late 60's.

When the elder arrangement kicked in in 72. The majority of elders were white.

The hall was originally an unpretentious 2 story on a tiny lot with the Bayshore Freeway nearly in it's back parking lot. First stepped in it in '63.

Not too well lit. The uncarpeted floor made the sound system echo at times. Names Kafka, Filardo, Hart, Allen come to mind (forgive the spellin been near 40 years last I saw them.

The property value must be pretty high despite it's proximity to the Bayshore Freeway. With small older homes averaging a million plus in that area, the hall property is probably closer to the 2 million range.

14

Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the 05-16-10 WT Study (LIVE UP DEDICATION)

by blondie in

jw
friends

comments you will not hear at the 05-16-10 wt study (march 15, 2010, pages 14-18)(live up dedication).

review comments will be in red or headed by comments.

wt material from today's wt will be in black.

wokeup

In Paragraph 1 after citing Acts 2:22,36,41 in reference to the 3,000 it says 'they would have'been baptised in water in the name of the Father, the Son and holy spirit'.

2 problems with this statement. First, they intentually omit verse 38 where Peter explicitly states they baptised in the name of JESUS.

Second, they omit caps on Holy Spirit.

There is no account in the bible where the disciples baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.

There are only 1 of four options here:

Matthew 28:19 is spurious.

The disciples understood that command to mean to baptise in Jesus name only.

They disobeyed Jesus.

The bible writers under inspiration 'forgot' to include that small detail.

Paragraph 2 infers the 3,000 baptised were not annointed like the 120, by comparing the 3,000 baptised to those baptised at their conventions and assemblies 'in the name of' strongly suggest they are insinuating there were 'other sheep' being baptised soon after Jesus death. If the watchtower writers indeed are trying to introduce this concept it most likely due to them wanting to reduce the number of annointed in Jesus' day to prop up there literal 'little flock' numbers.

Paragraph 3, the first sentence. There is no explicit NT teaching to support this view. Otherwise, the watchtower would plaster them all over their literature. This is simply injecting preconcieved ideas into the text. Also, Witnesses clearly do not baptise in the name of the Father, the Son and holy spirit'. The 2 baptism questions testify to that.

3

Inside The Jonestown Massacre

by Bangalore in

inside the jonestown massacre.. http://www.cnn.com/2008/us/11/12/jonestown.factsheet/index.html.

bangalore.

.

wokeup

Oh yes, I remember all that. I was living in the Bay Area at the time Jones moved to SF and he became buddies with Moscone. He was some nut job. Never understood what people saw in him. And for Moscone to put him over the housing authority was just wrong. Moscone was taken out about a week or so after the mass killing took place if I remember correctly.

14

Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the 03-07-10 WT Study (DEDICATE JAH)

by blondie in

jw
friends

he will even restore his loyal ones to their youth so that they can benefit from his care.

more happiness than dedication ourselves to anything or one else--even a spirit-directed organization?.

about making the choice to belong to jehovah.. comments.

wokeup

This dedication concept as a pre-requisite for baptism is not a New Testament teaching. If you look at all the baptisms in the book of Acts (both Jews & Greeks), it makes no mention of some vow (add study program, ministry school, 100+ baptism questions) prior to emersion. And Romans 12:1 is addressing 'brothers'. It sounds good and feels good to many, giving them a sense of duty or acomplishment, but I just don't see it. (there is a greek work for dedication) If it was such an important tenet of Christianity it would be explicit. To me, making this vow and 'living up to it' is NOT the plan of salvation. It takes away from the value of what Christ died for, making it a 'down payment' as it were substituting works for faith.

Seems the leadership also frequently confuses the word covenant with dedication. they are not synonymous last I checked, The Jews were under the Mosiac Law Covenant, not the Mosiac Law Dedication.

I suppose they have no fear of standing before the judgement seat of Christ since they feel THEY are the Christ too. They're in for a sad awakening.

22

COMMENTS YOU WILL NOT HEAR AT THE WT STUDY - Maintain Joy In Times of Trouble

by Mary in

i'm doing the comments for blondie this week as i believe she and her hubby are on the road.

-read isaiah 63:9, 10.. once again i ask: if he feels so distressed and hurt, then why doesn't he do something about it?

at times, hannah was so discouraged that she would weep and not eat.

wokeup

Noticed Jesus got the usual token sentence- 'yes, like Jesus' (paragraph 2). And they call themselves 'christian'. They could have at least quoted

Mat.11:28-30. I see the holy spirit really at work here. Such a moving and uplifting article.

12

Dedication of Kingdumb Hall?

by NikL in

jw
friends

so my wife who is an active sister got an "invite" to the dedication of the new hall in our town.. apparently it's a big deal 'cuz some big whig from krooklyn is coming to deliver a talk, yada yada yada.. my question, why spend the bucks to fly some old geezer out to the west coast for a building dedication?

is it not officially a kingdumb hall without his coming and having a big ceremony?.

just curious about your thoughts..

wokeup

I've found it interesting that the ancient civilizations' practice of dedicating public and religious edifices to their gods was not taught by Jesus.

A matter of fact, the precedent or command to even construct them is absent in the New Testament. To me that says alot.

32

No where in the bible does it say that people will be raised from the dead...

by ex-perfectdaughter in

wokeup

Daniel 12:2 alludes to a resurrection but not specific on locality. I find it sad the watchtower leadership wants to 'spiritualize' this passage since it goes against watchtower doctine. "in the Bible, resurrection sometimes has a spiritual significance...a spiritual revival of Gods annointed servants in the time of the end...in 1919 they returned to life in a spiritual sense".

27

Has the "Faithful and Discreet Slave" correctly foretold anything?

by donny in

one of the issues that really helped me open my eyes to the fallacy of the claims of the "faithful and discreet slave" class is that they have not been right on anything they said would happen in the future.

every instance of "new light" is simply a hindsight adjustment and their attempt to allign the beliefs with what actually is happening or already occurred.

when you examine all of their dates, and what was supposed to happen on them, as well as the generation of 1914 and the date of the sealing of the annointed, etc, etc, can you think of anything the f&ds has accurately foretold by means of "jehovahs" spirit.. don.

wokeup

Religion is a snare and a racket.

30

Name Things Witnesses Do or Believe That Is Not "Scriptural"

by minimus in

jw
friends

jehovah's witnesses pride themselves in believing that they alone are picked by god, jehovah god, specifically.

they say they are not part of the world and are unlike the false religions that are mired in their traditions.

i say they are liars!

wokeup

Insinuated that more than the 11 apostles were present on the mount of olives at Matt.28:16-19

Pay no heed to Acts 1:8, Gal.1:8, or Luke 21:8

Teach 'bible studies' that they do not belong to christ, only can be a companion of someone who thinks they do.

That Jesus has/needs a multimillion dollar publishing empire for sheeple to put their faith and allegiance.

What scripture states that 'companions' of the watchtower leadership have a 'commission'.

Secret elder tribunals

The bible and holy spirit cannot fully equip or direct a christian.

Organizational idolatry.

Giving preselected answers to preselected questions to preselected topics at preselected locations at preselected times reflects spiritual insight and godly wisdom in the sight of men.

Shaving Jesus for more years than he ever lived.

Claiming a Spiritual paradise that even the Apostles dared not claim.

Redefining the word loaded to 'pure' by placing Zeph.3:9 before verse 8 is fulfilled.

'Millions now living will never die'.

Unbaptized publishers.

Acts 2:38,39 no longer apply to christians.

Memorizing a laundry list of questions to qualify for a baptism of dedication.

They have already been judged.

66

Your Favorite 1970's Music Groups/ Singers/ Songs ?

by flipper in

jw
friends

in the 1970's i was a teenager.

i wasn't that big into disco- although i enjoyed kc and the sunshine band as well as earth, wind, and fire.

but my really big love in music was always rock n' roll, blues , stuff like that !

wokeup

Tower of Power- So Very Hard To Go ( loved the brass section)

Steely Dan- Reelin' In The Years (Elliott Randalls' guitar lead was awsome)

Grand Funk Railroad- Closer To Home (I feel they were too under-rated)