Sorry to hear the situation you find yourself in. I think one of the biggest problems with the organization is that they use putting faith in the kingdom to solve all of mankind's problems as an excuse for not putting themselves out to offer practical charitable assistance to others. Many JWs even think it is wrong to support charitable organizations like soup kitchens, etc. They see getting involved in such activities as showing lack of faith in God's kingdom to solve all the problems. It's very sad how Watchtower's teachings produces the psychopathic tendency in many JWs where they feel justified in failing to provide practical assistance to others.
Island Man
JoinedPosts by Island Man
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I Thought we had Friends!
by Kelley959 ini am a life long jw, but this issue i'm going through has taken the cake.. i am in a job situation that is not good.
and we were promised to us in our old hall that we would have a roof over our head for us an our animals.
so i gave notice on thursday then went to call by so-called jw friends and they backed out and claimed he now couldn't let us move in and broke the deal.
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Does anyone remember a district overseer Joe Slaiman?
by stuckinarut2 injoe slaiman and his wife jean were in the travelling work in australia throughout the 90's... ( i may have spelt the name incorrectly).
anyone remember them?
they were very well liked by many of the brothers and sisters.. i wonder what happened to him?
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Island Man
jysjw you said:"That is why no judicial committee was called for and no action was taken by the Society."
Then you later said:"When I left I gave the Society, out of respect, a 20-page document explaining my reason for leaving. I left because, after a thorough re-examination of the Bible, I could no longer accept it as inspired by a super natural being or diety. Consequently, I could no longer accept the god of the Bible or any other so-called god for that matter."
So let me get this straight: rejecting the society as God's spirit directed organization while still believing in the bible and in God, gets you into a judicial committee where he you are disfellowshipped for apostasy. But a JW who becomes an atheist - who rejects faith in God and the inspiration of the bible - is not disfellowshipped as an apostate?. ???
What does this very inconsistent way of dealing with apostates reveal about the organization? Do they really see apostasy as christians rejecting christianity? Or do they see it as rejecting Watchtower? Which is more important to the society - faith in God or faith in Watchtower? How can a JW be acted against judicially for rejecting Watchtower but let off scot free for rejecting belief in God? I think your experience plainly illustrates that the JW organization is cult more concerned with faith in its leaders than faith in God. -
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Watchtower Magazine - Statement of Purpose
by Nicholaus Kopernicus in"the purpose of this magazine, the watchtower, is to honor jehovah god, the supreme ruler of the universe.
just as watchtowers in ancient times enabled a person to observe developments from afar, so this magazine shows us the significance of world events in the light of bible prophecies.
it comforts people with the good news that gods kingdom, which is a real government in heaven, will soon bring an end to all wickedness and transform the earth into a paradise.
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Island Man
What are you people talking about? I just opened the February 1, 2015 Watchtower (the public edition) and the mission statement is on the inside of the front cover, top left corner!
The study edition does not have it, but that is to be expected because the mission statement always was aimed at informing the non-JW public of the purpose of the magazine. Indoctrinated JWs don't need the mission statement because it was always just for public show.
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Rationality could be found in Scriptures!
by abiather inthough religions have done enough harm to mankind, it often has to do with the exclusive attitude most of them developed misinterpreting the scriptures.
thus scriptures were blamed for all the misdeeds of religions.
this was precipitated by certain verses in scriptures which are obviously interpolated by those with vexed interest..
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Island Man
Hence it is an interpolation of those who have no sense of RATIONALITY!
(Now it follows: If this is interpolation, then its greater story of ransom sacrifice too falls into this category. It could be even this way--to give credential to ransom teaching, interpolators wanted some precedent, hence created story of Abraham)
Story of Abraham’s obedience lacks rationality throughout. God delays the birth of a child, and then permits birth. If God then asks for sacrifice of that child, Abraham will not hesitate as he had experienced the gift of God. That too, when God himself asks, who will hesitate. In this sense also, there is no logic or rationality!Abiathar, what I see in you is a man so desperate to hold on to his irrational faith in an ancient book being the word of God, that rather than accept the clear evidence of its very human authorship he resorts to very creative and irrational gymnastic reasoning by separating the inconvenient evidence away from the book by calling it "interpolations". You are clearly in denial. You see the obvious folly in many bible accounts but you're not honest enough with yourself to accept and follow this evidence to its logical conclusion - that the bible is not the word of God.
Instead, you conveniently make up your own rules to fix the game in your favor. You are like a woman whose husband commits murder and out of sheer desperation in her unwillingness to accept that her husband did it she labels all the mountains of evidence against him as being planted or all lies. By your disingenuous reasoning, you essentially make your holy book unfalsifiable because any evidence in the text that demonstrates its fallible nature and very human origin is quickly labeled by your as an interpolation. Unfalsifiable claims are bogus claims! Your reasoning reveals that you are living in denial.
What happens 2000 years from now when human enlightenment progresses further and the biblical claims that you now accept as moral is exposed as immoral? What are the likes of you gonna do then - label those bible accounts as interpolations also? You're just resorting to desperate tactics in bid to make your ancient book written by less enlightened men living in a harsh ancient culture look good in our more modern and more enlightened world.
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Fun with the book of Job
by sowhatnow infun with the book of jobjob ch 1 vs4 they celebrated birthdays.
] and it was several days long...new international version4 his sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.orother version...4 his sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
[how would a jw twist the following scripture that says job offered a sin offering in case the sinned...]5.after a series of banquet days was complete, job would send for them in order to sanctify them.
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Island Man
"It was an ego trip for God."
Exactly! And poor Job is used and abused as God's pawn to make his point.
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Preaching... a requirement for baptism?
by StarTrekAngel inso i have been doing some reading lately.
i have yet to bump into the text that show that preaching is a requirement to qualify for baptism.
in fact, i have read more paragraphs that say otherwise.
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Island Man
StarTrekAngel: "Is baptism a requirement for salvation."
It depends. If you can get baptized then you really should, in obedience to what the scriptures teach. But if circumstances make your baptism impossible then God will not hold it against you. It's kinda like committing fornication versus being raped. The former is deliberate disobedience and the latter is beyond your control. The circumstances of the criminal who died next to Jesus, made baptism impossible for him.
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Fun with the book of Job
by sowhatnow infun with the book of jobjob ch 1 vs4 they celebrated birthdays.
] and it was several days long...new international version4 his sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.orother version...4 his sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
[how would a jw twist the following scripture that says job offered a sin offering in case the sinned...]5.after a series of banquet days was complete, job would send for them in order to sanctify them.
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Island Man
And speaking of fun with Job. Has anyone commented on the fact that the account plainly shows that it was only Jobs sons that held these banquets and his daughters didn't or couldn't? They attended their brothers' banquets but evidently couldn't have their own. Further evidence of how women are shoved in the background and denied the rights and privileges afforded to men. -
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Fun with the book of Job
by sowhatnow infun with the book of jobjob ch 1 vs4 they celebrated birthdays.
] and it was several days long...new international version4 his sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.orother version...4 his sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
[how would a jw twist the following scripture that says job offered a sin offering in case the sinned...]5.after a series of banquet days was complete, job would send for them in order to sanctify them.
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Island Man
"So, it is possible that Job would send and sanctify his sons after each multi-day banquet was completed."
Ahh! Thank you for that clarification. It makes more sense now.
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Fun with the book of Job
by sowhatnow infun with the book of jobjob ch 1 vs4 they celebrated birthdays.
] and it was several days long...new international version4 his sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.orother version...4 his sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
[how would a jw twist the following scripture that says job offered a sin offering in case the sinned...]5.after a series of banquet days was complete, job would send for them in order to sanctify them.
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Island Man
Cappytan, I'm not convinced the banquets held by Job's sons were birthday banquets for one reason: Job 1:5 indicates that Job would offer sacrifices when the banqueting had "gone round the circuit". That expression indicates that the banquets were held one after the other and the whole affair was concentrated within a small period of time in the year - about a month or two at most. Is it very reasonable to think that Jobs sons were all born so close together on the calendar? If it were birthdays it would be spread out throughout the year and there would be no talk about festivities going around in a circuit and job offering sacrifices at the end. They would be spread out throughout the year and job would be offering sacrifices at the end of each one. -
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Preaching... a requirement for baptism?
by StarTrekAngel inso i have been doing some reading lately.
i have yet to bump into the text that show that preaching is a requirement to qualify for baptism.
in fact, i have read more paragraphs that say otherwise.
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Island Man
Not only is preaching not a requirement to qualify for baptism, but, contrary to what Watchtower teaches, the work of active formal evangelizing is not even required of all christians!
And he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelizers, some as shepherds and teachers - Ephesians 4:11
JWs treat qualifying for baptism as if it were passing your college exams to graduate from college. But in reality, qualifying for baptism is more like meeting the basic requirements to enter into college.
When you look at the NT it is clear that one only needs to know the good news about Jesus, repent, and exercise faith in him to qualify for baptism. They grow in knowledge and understanding and mature further, after they're already baptized.
Something else about JW baptism that is clearly unscriptural is the long delay that candidates have to wait between qualifying and actually being baptized. The scriptures show that those who qualified were baptized teh same day that they were convinced. (Acts 2:41; Acts 8:36-38; Acts 10:44-48; Acts 16:33; Acts 22:16) The NT indicates that those who qualified were baptized immediately, without delay. Peter didn't even wait for Cornelius to resign from the army before baptizing him! JWs let baptismal candidates wait up to 6 months or however long until the next assembly or convention, before being baptized. The urgency of the person's salvation has to take a back seat to gloating and grandstanding over new recruits at the convention.
Imagine a scenario where a person is qualified to be baptized but he obeys the elders and the organization by delaying his baptism until the convention. But the end comes before the convention! Jesus says to him:
"Why are you not baptized?"
Person: "I already qualify and would be - would have been - baptized at the upcoming convention but the ... you ... have intervened. But I'm already dedicated and that's the most important thing, right?"
Jesus: "Why did you not get baptized without delay as soon as you qualifed?"
Person: "That's not how its done in the organization. The person has to wait until the next assembly or convention"
Jesus: "Did my faithful Witness, Cornelius, wait until the next convention? Did you never read of what Candace's attendant said to Philip when he qualified: "What prevents me from getting baptized?" You let men prevent you from getting baptized. You have shown greater affection for elders and for organization than for me. You are not worthy of me. Depart from me, you cowardly follower of men! To the lake of fire with you! There is where your weeping and gnashing of teeth will be."