Posts by fjtoth

Same here. Countless times the Dilbert strip has bro't back memories of my life as a JW, esp. at Bethel and when in the company of one circuit overseer or another.

fjt

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since thunder bay & nova scotia are 36 hours drive time apart, i realize that we aren't all gonna get something within a stone's throw....so i've picked listed 3 different campgrounds (area's) - please vote & whichever gets the most votes will be the one i go with - as they are all within 16 hours of me (and yes it's all about me!.

#1: http://www.lafontaine-ent.on.ca/ - this is in the georgian bay, ontario area (i saw your batchawana bay idea calamity - but the area is the same - we can pick the campground next if this is selected).

#2: http://ontarioparks.com/english/slee.html (thunder bay, ontario area) .

fjtoth

Any of the sites mentioned is good for me.
_____________

Walter,

I tend to drink my coffee strong and black, same with expresso and Turkish.

Now we know one of your secrets for handlin' all that beer!

fjt

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Are Jehovah's Witnesses an Offshoot of the SDA?

by Eugene Shubert in

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it seems that many people believe that jehovah's witnesses are an offshoot of the seventh-day adventist church.

i've read many claims of this and wonder what the actual relationship is, if any.

fjtoth

Mulan is correct. [Edit: And so is AlanF.] JWs did not originate with the Seventh-Day Adventists. Charles Russell and his father were associated with a Second Adventist group. That is a movement that embraces not only the Seventh-Day Adventists and JWs, but also others such as the Church of God of Abrahamic Faith, the Christadelphians, the Advent Christian Church, the Free Bible Students, the Dawnites, the Worldwide Church of God, etc. While Russell can be identified as the founder of the Free Bible Students, Dawnites and JWs, the other groups did not necessarily spring from each other. Most of them descended independently from what was originally known as the Church of God movement that apparently started in England and came to America in the early 1800s and that blended with the Millerites in the 1830s and 1840s. While most were non-trinitarian when they began, some later accepted the Trinity. A major teaching among them is that Matthew 24 applies specifically to the time in which we are now living. Some of them started with an outstanding leader or spokesperson, such as Ellen White of the SDA, John Thomas of the Christadelphians, Charles Russell of the JWs, and Herbert Armstrong of the WWCOG.

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Comments You Will Not Hear at the 11-9-03 WT Study

by blondie in

comments you will not hear at the 11-09-03 wt study

review comments will be in black and parentheses ().

wt quotes will be in

fjtoth

Blondie, I left Bethel and JWs in the summer of 1994. It was on the same day O.J. Simpson was being chased by police while riding in his white Ford Bronco, and a friend who left JWs since then has told me that at Canada Bethel some saw a connection! (Very few would have suspected O.J., and very few would have suspected me.) So I probably wasn't around when you visited the graphics department. I'm not great with graphics, but I got Adobe PhotoShop cheap at a computer show, and that makes it a breeze and a pleasure to work with graphics.

After I left Bethel, I lived and worked as a tour guide for a few years near those docks you saw, as well as at Niagara Falls. Sometimes I wish I was still there and at the same job, meeting people from all over the world and telling them of my background as a JW. I'm sure I undid a lot of the "witnessing" some of those people had heard over the years.

While I'm thinking of it, I have to tell you a funny experience that should get a real chuckle out of Irreverent:

One day in the summer of 1996 I was serving as a tour guide at one of the large hotels in Niagara Falls. I was just saying goodbye to a group when a busload of people stopped in front of the hotel with several persons waving out the windows and shouting my name and calling me "Brother." It was a congregation from near New York City where I had given several public talks and where they hadn't yet heard that I left the organization. Some of them ran out of the bus and greeted and hugged me and emphasized how glad they were to see me again since I left Brooklyn to serve at the Canadian Bethel. We spent about a half-hour together, and I just didn't have the heart to dampen their spirits by telling them I was no longer a JW. The leader of the group was a former Brooklyn Bethelite who had worked with me there for a few years, and he took delight in telling me about many of the others at Brooklyn that I knew pretty well. It was a touching experience. But it was also bittersweet in that I couldn't help wondering how they were going to feel when they got back home and started showing around some of the pictures they took, especially those of the entire bus group with me standing in front and at the centre (with my usual big wide-mouthed smile )!

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Comments You Will Not Hear at the 11-9-03 WT Study

by blondie in

comments you will not hear at the 11-09-03 wt study

review comments will be in black and parentheses ().

wt quotes will be in

fjtoth

Thanks, Blondie (and Irreverent). I'm just 10 minutes away from Canada Bethel, so come visit me when you go through for a tour of "the Branch." Seriously, I sure would love to meet you two. You constantly amaze me with your insights.

You think YOU were dense!!! I was in there for 30 years before I started to realize I was being fooled. It took me another 20 years to finally make the break, and I nearly had a heart attack on the day I made my decision to leave. It was such a traumatic experience. Ah, but the joy and happiness that have come since then have been beyond words to describe!

Frank

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