have you seen this article?.
the watchtower is trying to be experts on all things having to do with human sexuality.. repressing sexual desires, gay or straight only creates more problems.. http://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/family/teenagers/ask/pressure-to-be-gay/.
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you should know that such reasoning is based on the flawed notion that humans must act on their sexual impulses
There's also a flawed notion that WT must act on publishing every stoopid opinion (aka, "WTFness") it has on every subject, but that doesn't slow them down either.
Next months article: "Naturally Occuring Hormones- Are They For Christians?"
who is to blame jehovahs witnesses and the bible students believing the end was coming in 1914?
ive been reading lots of older magazines and they are so different from todays watchtower!
the current writers from the organization blame everyone except themselves for failed expectations, failed prophecy, "financial ruin and dependance on the goverment "old age social security and medicaid" on their rank-and-file members.
Holy f**k is right.
I'm glad that WT will never have the honor to man-up the way the WWCG did... because I'd immediately keel over dead from a heart attack.
onthewayout wrote: of course, for quite awhile (and probably still), congregations have been viewing any relatively young (maybe under 50 or even 60) partakers as mentally unstable and watchtower ignores such people anyway and says they must listen to the elders.
is this correct?
ever since the emblem-takers were given emeritus status as members of the faithful and discreet slave, have they been relegated to standard membership?
@ Cold Steel:
here's what OTWO was referring to:
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w11 8/15 p. 22 Questions From Readers
"Memorial partakers. This is the number of baptized individuals who partake of the emblems at the Memorial worldwide. Does this total represent the number of anointed ones on earth? Not necessarily. A number of factors—including past religious beliefs or even mental or emotional imbalance—might cause some to assume mistakenly that they have the heavenly calling. We thus have no way of knowing the exact number of anointed ones on earth; nor do we need to know. The Governing Body does not keep a list of all partakers, for it does not maintain a global network of anointed ones."
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This statement is astounding for many reasons, not just for the judgmental nature of WT marginalizing people in their own religion.
The WT has always said (up until 2013) that all of the anointed were the 'faithful slave', therefore all were a part of Jesus' special group of truth dispensers. The Governing Body also claims to represent ALL of the faithful slave class.
Which begs the question: how can the GB represent the faithful slave (old light view) when it neither knows nor cares who they are or how many there are in the group?
Their claim exposes their hypocritical lies... again.
so, imagine that you're just a regular joe who's not familiar with the witnesses and is looking for the answers to life, the universe, and everything.
you hear a knock at your door.
before long, you are studying with a jehovah's witness.
I asked the question from an elder/cicuit overseer substitute: Where in the Bible can you find support to accept fractions? He said, "I will get back to you". Two and a half years later and I am still waiting.
Well, 2.5 years is only a fraction of a decade or a century, so the CO is still within a workable timeframe.
(P.S. Don't hold your breath on an answer)
He looked at me with a blank stare and replied, "We have the faithful slave to help us understand that issue".
So if the FS has made it allegedly crystal-clear, why doesn't the CO understand it enough to just answer the question???
Dumbass.
when a person is disfellowshiped by a religion just because he or she doesn't believe it all is very serious.
some disfellowshiped ones have even taken their own lives because they have been made to feel so bad.
it's down in black and white that parents and friends are supposed to shun them, shunning is acting like someone is dead.
Unfortunately, religion is treated by many/most governments with kid gloves... and actions that are considered immoral and unacceptable by non-religious organizations and legal culpability via class-action lawsuits are seen as a reasonable outcome, suddenly aren't so bad, or at least are not prosecutable, in a religious context.
I hope the day comes when religions are forced to play on a level field just like everyone else.
during one of those meetings that took place before my jc, one of the elders, who was a good friend of mine back then and used to come up with a few outlandish personal views about some teachings, attempted to counter one of my arguments like this:.
eden - "well, if the truth doesn't change, why is it that what we teach as 'truth' has changed over the years (several examples given)?
how can we dogmatically claim at any given moment that we have 'the truth' if our teachings keep changing?".
Old view: the earth is flat
New view: The earth is a sphere
Both are true.
Amazingly, it wasn't that many years ago the WT blasted the Catholic Church for changing it's 'don't eat meat on Fridays' rule. How can anyone have confidence in their religion when it changes major teachings about what is/or isn't truth, WT asked?
Somehow that reasoning only works when casting stones at someone else's glass house.
during one of those meetings that took place before my jc, one of the elders, who was a good friend of mine back then and used to come up with a few outlandish personal views about some teachings, attempted to counter one of my arguments like this:.
eden - "well, if the truth doesn't change, why is it that what we teach as 'truth' has changed over the years (several examples given)?
how can we dogmatically claim at any given moment that we have 'the truth' if our teachings keep changing?".
Laughably, JWs blow a gasket when they talk about non-JW parents who convince their children Santa Claus is real. How can they lie to their children like that? How can they keep a straight face year after year knowing their children believe an obvious lie (JW speak: error)?
Using this elder's "logic", can't it be argued the parents didn't really lie to their children? After all, only in "retrospect" did they lie, because at the time the parents perpetuted the lie, the children truly believed Santa Claus was real.
Tell me, what's the difference between the above scenario and, "If Jehovah allows for a teaching or procedure to persist, it's because He wants it that way, therefore it can Never be wrong at any time in present time"?
during one of those meetings that took place before my jc, one of the elders, who was a good friend of mine back then and used to come up with a few outlandish personal views about some teachings, attempted to counter one of my arguments like this:.
eden - "well, if the truth doesn't change, why is it that what we teach as 'truth' has changed over the years (several examples given)?
how can we dogmatically claim at any given moment that we have 'the truth' if our teachings keep changing?".
So Jehovah™, the 'god of truth' who "cannot lie", is very comfortable with allowing lies/misinformation to persist, knowing his people are believing error? Then he's not a god of truth.
And, by WT dogma, if a JW does not buy into the obvious lie/error, Jehovah has no use for him.
Essentially, this elder is okay with following error. How do you even begin to reason with a person who likes being deceived?
march 2015 study article learn from the illustration of the talents.
brothers and sisters worldwide will be overjoyed to know that the governing body finally has the.
courage to admit their mistakes .
Here's a real apology. Compare this to WT's version of apologizing and admitting mistakes:
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The successor to Herbert Armstrong (The Worldwide Church of God), Joseph Tkach, Jr., made sweeping changes, perhaps more so than any other leader of a large-scale church movement in history. In part he said:
"Our flawed doctrinal understanding clouded the plain gospel of Jesus Christ and led to a variety of wrong conclusions and unscriptural practices. We have much to repent of and apologize for. We were judgmental and self-righteous—condemning other Christians, calling them "so-called Christians" and labeling them "deceived" and "instruments of Satan."
We imposed on our members a works-oriented approach to Christian living. We required adherence to burdensome regulations of the Old Testament code. We exercised a strongly legalistic approach to church government. Our former old covenant approach fostered attitudes of exclusivism and superiority rather than the new covenant teaching of brotherhood and unity. We overemphasized predictive prophecy and prophetic speculation, minimizing the true gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. We’ve been wrong."
who is to blame jehovahs witnesses and the bible students believing the end was coming in 1914?
ive been reading lots of older magazines and they are so different from todays watchtower!
the current writers from the organization blame everyone except themselves for failed expectations, failed prophecy, "financial ruin and dependance on the goverment "old age social security and medicaid" on their rank-and-file members.
DD: Didn't the WWCG leader write a massive and heartfelt apology?
Here you go:
The successor to Herbert Armstrong (The Worldwide Church of God) Joseph Tkach, Jr., made sweeping changes, perhaps more so than any other leader of a large-scale church movement in history. In part he said [6]:
"Our flawed doctrinal understanding clouded the plain gospel of Jesus Christ and led to a variety of wrong conclusions and unscriptural practices. We have much to repent of and apologize for. We were judgmental and self-righteous—condemning other Christians, calling them "so-called Christians" and labeling them "deceived" and "instruments of Satan."
We imposed on our members a works-oriented approach to Christian living. We required adherence to burdensome regulations of the Old Testament code. We exercised a strongly legalistic approach to church government. Our former old covenant approach fostered attitudes of exclusivism and superiority rather than the new covenant teaching of brotherhood and unity. We overemphasized predictive prophecy and prophetic speculation, minimizing the true gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. We’ve been wrong."
