said to myself & others by a jw elder.. i always recall this as a sort of .
when this elder was pressed on the matter, he replied that it was because of all the years of laughing & sneering & mocking that he had put up with, quoting the scripture that goes along the lines of 'where is this promised presence of his'.. i realise now that this person is not loving.
and yet, i would hear similar sentiments from others such as 'just wait until the end' or 'i wonder if they'll be saying that when jesus comes with his big sword'.. even as a jw pioneer, the thought of such a thing happening to people repulsed me.
I've discussed what happened on Sept 11 2001 with some jws. I asked them: 'how did you feel when you saw 3,000 of your fellow US citizens die like that? Now imagine billions of people dying in a similar manner - buildings crumbling and so forth. Is that really what you want to see? Do you really understand what you are hoping and praying for?'
As pointed out above by the poster who nicely quoted Amos 5:18, do they really realize what they're asking for?
did you view them as men who truly cared about you?.
did your heart sink in fear when an elder came to talk to you?.
were the elders nothing special to you?.
I feared them to some degree and bent over backwards to please them - until I became one. Then I saw their foibles first-hand. I also knew that I was nothing to fear. Hence, that fear disappeared.
this is in response to the ezine article the argument that jehovah's witnesses are not cult members:.
this article is dangerously misinformed about (a) what constitutes a cult and (b) that the jws do in fact fit this category.
there is ample evidence of mind control, manipulation and cult tactics in this group, but you will not see it by casually chatting with a witness.
Excellent analysis, bluecanary.
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to the elders of the maitland congregation and governing body of the watchtower tract.
and bible society,.
Besides a couple of spelling and usage errors, a pretty good letter.
That said, I seriously doubt it will be read, except perhaps to determine who you are and whether a visit to your home can be arranged.
the "prophetic" books of the bible contain lots of wild imagery and vague predictions.
for example, daniel describes various periods of 1260, 1290, 1335, and 2300 days.
revelation contains discussions of a variety of wild beasts, trumpet blasts, etc.
First of all Olin Moyles Ghost, let me say that I love your avatar and always laugh when I see your username.
In terms of what you posted, I often wondered the exact same thing - why even bother putting 'interpretations' of these prophecies into print? I can see the need to try to understand these writings, but if they can't, they can't, and there's no shame in admitting that.
When I conducted book study discussions of Revelation and Daniel, I was often uncomfortable "teaching" the WTS's explanations of these passages as found in the publications. When you're an elder, you're trying to "sell" the Society's teachings while deep down inside you can't buy them.
in continuance of the which poster ?
thread topics being started today,.
i thought it would be appropriate to start this thread to make light of who is and who's not.. i look forward to your incisive input on this important and timely topic .
Maybe this is the Thread To End All Which Posters Threads. One can only hope...
Yet another thread comparing members with one another.
omg!
go back and watch gilligan's island again and you will suddenly realize that it's just like watching lost!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x13riysl9ng.
The concept of Lost and that of Gilligan's Island is identical, isn't it? A group of people stranded on an island. I had been under the impression that the only difference was that strange things happened on Lost, while Gilligan's Island was more straightforward.
In any case, I used to refer to Star Trek Voyager as Gilligan's Island in Space. Again, same concept. A group of people stranded - in Voyager's case, on a spacecraft in a quadrant of space. Worst Star Trek series by far.
we were supposed to "love" jehovah god.
we were taught how wonderful a god he is and how fortunate we were to be his people.
of course, you can't see jehovah god.
Good question Oh Minimal One, and one of my biggest personal difficulties while in the jw religion - Jehovah didn't feel "real" to me. I couldn't come to grips with whether a "relationship" with him was a creation of my own mind or whether it could indeed be real. Prayer has always been a problem - communicating with someone who is invisible and with whom I had trouble relating was extremely problematic for me.
i believe there are now over 7 million jws worldwide(correct me if i am wrong).
what makes this growth possible despite all the exposure on the internet and other media?.
not forgetting court cases and lawsuits.. is this not a sign that perhaps this is the true religion?.
Mary mentioned reproduction (and of course, we saw those Internet rabbits) - that's the ticket. JWs are simply having kids (despite the fact that back in 1985 they were discouraged from doing so). At Assemblies, check out the baptism - almost everyone getting dunked is a jw by birth.
