I would like to ask a question regarding gun ownership in the active American Witnesses community. While rifle ownership has been put in the same category as spear guns and fishing rods, how has the issue of pistol ownership been handled in US congregations?
no-zombie
JoinedPosts by no-zombie
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Gun Ownership - A question for American Witnesses (or Ex-Witnesses)
by no-zombie ini would like to ask a question regarding gun ownership in the active american witnesses community.
while rifle ownership has been put in the same category as spear guns and fishing rods, how has the issue of pistol ownership been handled in us congregations?
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no-zombie
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Can this rumor be TRUE?
by Debra Ann Romano inrumor has it there is “new light” (gag!
) regarding blood and organ transplants since a recent royal member on the wts board found reason to ok one for himself!
i mean this shit is so far removed from my life now, but hearing something so outrageous, that once cost people close to me their lives, is too unsettling to not want to know..
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no-zombie
I'm finding a little hard to think that a change in the Blood doctrine has occurred. Most elders will say that taking one is 'your decision' (because of the potential litigation issues involved) but it will mean you're automatic disassociation.
That's unless someone have a little more detail to add to this rumor.
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How Will They End 1914 Teaching?
by EmptyInside ini'm sure this has been discussed, but 1914 has to go away.
instead of, the overlapping generation teaching, they should have just ditched 1914. .
they should have done that a long time ago with 1975. it's the last of the teachings in the charles taze russell era.. i'm thinking they just will stop talking about it, and it will be out of the mind of the rank and file loyal witnesses .
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no-zombie
An other thing I think about from time to time, is this. When a child born into the faith today (by that I mean literally born now in 2023) by the time he or she has lived their who life, going to meeting, witnessing and stuff ... by the time they die ... Jesus would have been ruling invisibly in heaven (doing god knows what) for 200 years.
200 years, just think about it for a moment. How relevant will that teaching be to Witnesses then ... it will not be of course.
Thus is obvious that the GB will at some time have to choice, to move away from 1914 and blame it on our Adventist past, or stay the same and let the Organization drift downward to have the same relevance of the Salvation Army, complete with marching band and uniforms.
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How Will They End 1914 Teaching?
by EmptyInside ini'm sure this has been discussed, but 1914 has to go away.
instead of, the overlapping generation teaching, they should have just ditched 1914. .
they should have done that a long time ago with 1975. it's the last of the teachings in the charles taze russell era.. i'm thinking they just will stop talking about it, and it will be out of the mind of the rank and file loyal witnesses .
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no-zombie
The problem that some may have forgotten is that 1914 is very closely linked to 1918; the choosing of the Organization by Jesus to be known as the true faith. Thus by openly discussing or changing the date of Jesus's enthronement in heaven, questions would also flow onto (because of other Biblical prophesy ie. the three witnesses) whether or not also 1918 is correct.
What is the big deal you might ask? Well by using 1918 as the Society's official start/blessed date, the writing committee can distance itself the most of Russell's crazy pyramid ideas. But is the 1918 is effectively moved forward, them we move in the Ruderford period, which could make some ask about the things he introduced.
No, its far better for 1914 just to die quietly and the brotherhood move on, to believe in another vague religious concept, that Armageddon is just around the corner.
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For JW's, the 'ORG' is more important than Jesus Christ
by BoogerMan inin the november 2022 study watchtower, "jehovah's organization" (or variants) is repeated at least 37 times.. the word 'organization' - like 'governing body,' 'trinity,' hell-fire,' & 'immortal soul,' - doesn't exist in the holy scriptures.. interestingly, jesus christ is mentioned only twice in all of the study articles - as an aside..
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no-zombie
I believe that the real reason why Jesus doesn't have a real place in the the 'Truth' today, is because Jesus' main message was for people to develop righteous qualities. If he had banged on about salvation through a individuals preaching efforts, the GB would have been all over him ... as they are with the Apostle Paul.
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Bible MIRACLEs!! Are they a Myth or Emeth?
by Fisherman inthe bible records miracles such as resurrections, angels, prophecy and destructive acts of god to mention a few.
are these all a pack of lies?
how do you explain them?
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no-zombie
This is how I would answer your (fisherman's) question.
The Bible is an all or nothing exercise. Its either all 100% true or its 100% man made. You can't cherry pick the parts you want, because each of the its writers interrelate their work with each other ... and claim that its all inspired of God.
Its as simple as that.
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The real numbers for yearly report.
by Hellothere inwhat do you think are the real numbers for yearly report?
they can't be real the ones watchtower published.
last 20 years i have seen large groups of young people in my area abandon watchtower.
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no-zombie
I'm in full agreement with Balaamsass, as its easy to see Witnesses continuing to make use of Zoom to attend meetings despite the threat of Covid being basically over. People are just tired of getting dressed up, driving down to the Hall and having sitting through another boring meeting. This is because, there is no real community spirit in congregations these days. As all organized congregational socializing was banned in a formal letter to the BOE from the Governing Body back in the 80's. Yes some congregations are more lively than others, but it is more the exception than the rule and probably more a reflection of the congregation's ethic makeup than its religious zeal.
And it a form of intellectual dishonesty to claim a increase in the number of regular and auxiliary pioneers, when the hourly requirement be become one has been getting less and less. But I recently came to appreciate something from an old post here which is quite true and illuminating.
Assume a congregation has only one person that auxiliary pioneers a couple of times a year. Say they do it three times because the hourly requirement is now lower. How many auxiliary pioneers does the congregation have? You would think one, of course ... but In the annual report, three have been counted.
Yes, I remember back in the day we used to get told, when our religion was small, that numbers didn't mean anything. But its funny how its everything now. I think that it must be just the American way, for everything to be bigger and better.
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2022 WTS Numbers
by blondie in2022 grand totals.
branches of jehovah’s witnesses: 86. .
number of lands reporting: 239. .
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no-zombie
While I've mentioned it before in my other posts about annual reports, the population pyramid of the Organization is the clearest indicator of the its decline we have. No matter what tweaks the GB does, it will not overcome the fact that it is controlling an aged religion and one that will collapse upon itself due to the lack of numbers. We all know of course that at 0.4% increase (which is actually zero by the HQ own reporting methodology) is less than the global population growth rate of 1%, however what I think is clearer this year's report, is picture occurring from third world countries.
These previous hot spots of growth (with higher than average fertility rates) have now cooled off. This should not be surprising because, while these lands may be poor economically, the people there are very quick to work out whether or not something has real value. When they have to choose to go to another meeting or to work to literally feed their families, the choice is easy, no matter what the slickly made 'trust in Jehovah' videos say.
Population Pyramids aren't that sexy as compared to other scandalous news items we get from time to time, but they are most truly; predictive fact. And if the Faithful Slave is honest enough to release an annual report next year, I fully expect it to contain ... a negative global growth number, despite the millions of hours in the field.
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What really is UN doing with religions?
by Kosonen inoccult un forces seek to hijack religion for globalism.
https://thenewamerican.com/occult-un-forces-seek-to-hijack-religion-for-globalism/it does not look like religions dominate un but the other way around.
journalist alex newman gives a totally different picture about the real state of affairs.
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no-zombie
The UN is a spent force and today it has no real power to shape global events. This is because the center of authority lies within the security council, which has proven over the past 20 or 30 years to be ineffective to solve international problems due the rules of veto. Why even as recently as last week, the UN security council could not pass a resolution for a simple investigation into Iranian sanction busting because of the Russia/China voting block.
We are seeing, not the end days of gentile times ... but rather the end days of the UN, as it has now just degenerated into a expensive talk fest, where secondary world powers maintain their membership only for its perceived political prestige.
Why even the GB flips its narrative from time to time, when they say that it is the nations who make up the UN are the ones who will attack the world's religions, rather that the UN itself.
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Why Not Celebrate Christmas?
by Mum inso, jw's don't celebrate christmas or other holidays.
as bill cetnar once said, there are two reasons for everything: the reason they tell you, and the real reason.
they will tell you it's because christmas is "pagan" and can lead to all sorts of licentious conduct (like drinking too much macallan scotch?)..
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no-zombie
The real reason why Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate Christmas is because Rutherford wanted to distance the 'Truth' from the importance of Jesus. Along with banning the use of the Cross and Easter, Rutherford needed this theological movement, to reinforce the 'Jehovah' brand name, which I believe was purposefully done, not because of some ecclesiastical insight, but purely as way to stand out from the crowd of other Adventist faiths.
While Watchtower apologists may say that there are valid reasons for dropping these things because of the influence of paganism (some of which I admit to be true), none the less, no honest person could argue with the fact that Jesus now plays a very, very minor roll in the minds of JWs today. Which is rather sad, seeing we are supposed to Christians ... not some kind of hybrid Judean sect.