Island Man

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Posts by Island Man

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  13

  Exposing the Core Premise of JW False Teaching

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  poison is at work in any argument with jehovah's witnesses.

  this poison has little to do with the beauty of watchtower logic or the tasty morsels of jw reasoning.. the poison is odorless and tasteless and it has absorbed into their core premise: scripture interpretation directed by jehovah.. if you buy into the core premise (somebody possesses a divinely granted access to an infallible source of truth) you are already dead in the water.. that is the deal breaker.

  false premises lead always to false conclusions.. stop right here.. the core misrepresentation of christianity solely rests in accepting the bible as the inerrant word of almighty god.

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  Island Man

  To make matters even worse, the JWs teach that God allowed his name to be thoroughly expunged from the New Testament without leaving any manuscript evidence testifying to its original inclusion. So JWs foolishly contradict themselves by saying God accurately preserved his Word, while simultaneously saying he allowed apostate christians to expunge his name from the NT. They claim to encourage faith in the Bible while simultaneously undermining faith in its preservation.
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  77

  North Korea threatening to bomb Guam...

  by mikeflood in

  1. social
  2. current

  crazy kim again....could happen?

  thoughts?.

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  Island Man

  hothabanero: At any rate the missile sites should just be bombed before they can be launched/completed. A first strike now will save us from Nuclear war down the road.

  It's not as simple as that. North Korea is virtually holding South Korea hostage with a gun to its head. They have lots of guns pointed at Seoul and probably enough ammunition to bury the city with bullets and bombs. Any military aggression by the US is likely to be met with a response in the form of North Korea killing hundreds of thousands of citizens of US allies in the region.

  There's virtually no way to take out all of NK's military might before they can retaliate. They have lots of secret underground military installations that can't be easily found, let alone reached by bombs.
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  13

  New Instructions?

  by FedUpJW in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i may have missed it, but i just heard from a local elder that there are "new" instructions for how the two one day assembly's are to be conducted and handled......fifty-nine pages worth.

  he said they will now all be put on the same as the regional conventions.

  did i miss that letter/orders from "mother"?

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  Island Man

  If they're switching to smaller gatherings in kingdom halls, then this move could be an attempt to extract more "donations" from JWs. If each cong. had their convention alone in their own hall, then Watchtower can track the convention donations on a per congregation basis instead of a circuit basis. That would put more pressure on the elders of congregations to goad the publishers into donating. Spreading the accountability to each congregation would indirectly increase the pressure on JWs to donate.

  Additionally, more money can go to Watchtower as there wouldn't be the expense associated with renting outside facilities.
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  29

  What religions/organizations aren't a cult?

  by Jules Saturn in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so we've already established that most religions can be classified as high control groups, we can name the wbts, church of scientology, lds, etc.

  the list goes on and on.

  but are there any religions or organizations that aren't classified as a high control group or aren't as bad as the ones i've just mentioned?

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  Island Man

  Cult is not one word. It's multiple words with the same spelling and different meanings. Here are some examples:

  1. Cult - A religion.

  2. Cult - A devoted group of followers or fans of a particular entertainer or product of entertainment.

  3. Cult - A highly controlling organization centered around authoritarian leadership that psychologically manipulates and exploits its members who exhibit high levels of devotion to the group and its cause to the detriment of their own welfare.

  Nothing infuriates me than seeing persons enter a discussion which is very clearly about 3 and injecting the meaning of 1 to cause obfuscation.

  The Anglican Church is not a cult (3). The Unitarian Universalist Church is not a cult (3). Every religion that does not find it necessary to write a special article on their website refuting the charge that they're a cult (3), is probably not a cult (3).
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  63

  "Even if this wasn't the truth, I would still stay. This is the best life to live..."

  by HereIgo in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i was recently told this by a jw family member when trying to get through to them.

  does this quote indicate that maybe such ones have considered that the jw's may not have the truth after all?

  or is that just my wishful thinking?

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  Island Man

  I have heard words to that effect from an elder during casual conversation. I believe such words reveal that deep down they do have doubts about the organization being the Truth and such reasoning is actually a rationalization for why one should remain.

  But the statement is false. JWs don't live the best life. Shunning your own flesh and blood just because they leave your religion and join another, is not the best way of life. Refusing higher education and therefore hampering your ability to fulfill your full potential economically and societally, is not the best way of life. Refusing life-saving blood transfusion for your dying minor child or yourself, during a medical emergency, thereby consigning yourself or your child to almost certain death, is not the best way of life. Holding a prejudiced view of everyone around you, labelling them as "worldly", "bad association" and "unbelievers" just because they don't belong to your particular sect of a religion, is not the best way of life.

  I can live a good life with the same moral standards as JWs, without drug abuse and the other social ills JWs prejudicially paint everyone as suffering from, all without having to practice the ills mentioned above that are specific to the JW way of life. Many non-JWs of other religions live that better way of life.

  More importantly, we can use their own Bible to call them out on their best life BS! If they are true Christians as they claim then their way of life is definitely not enviable, according to the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 15 "Paul" says that Christians are to pitied more than all other men if Christ was not raised up! Why would he say a thing like that if the Christian way of life true was the best? His words reveal that the Christian way of life is one filled with trials and hardships. It is a difficult life that is to be endured only because of the hope of the resurrection and the promise of future eternal life. Not the best life - but a drudgery worth enduring to gain the prize of eternal life.

  The JWs are lying against reality and against the Bible itself! Best life lie ever!
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  15

  Where else can I go???

  by UNCONDITIONAL LOVE in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  those are the words of my 2nd generation born in jw mother.

  my grandfather died refusing blood.

  i've since come to the realization that many jws have no other opportunities or options when it comes to leaving the cult.

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  Island Man

  Where did a sincere Christian living before the advent of Watchtower, had to go after exiting the corrupt Catholic Church? Who was God's organization back then?

  That's all you have to ask them. They teach that God had no organization on earth during the centuries after the apostasy started and before C.T. Russell started things going. So they teach that the scenario of God not having a true organization on earth, existed in the past! All you have to do is take that teaching - their own teaching - and extend that scenario to the present. God still doesn't have an organization.

  They will counter by pointing to scriptures in Daniel and elsewhere that talk about many roving about and the true knowledge becoming abundant in the time of the end. They will say that the bible prophecies a restoration of true worship in "the time of the end". But guess what: that still doesn't refute your argument because "the time of the end" has not ended yet and they can't tell you when "the time of the end" will end!

  So you can simply respond by agreeing with them that there will indeed be a restoration of true worship that the scriptures talk about but is not with the JWs and has not happened yet but is still yet future. They cannot tell you exactly how long the time of the end is and they have no way of demonstrating exactly when during "the time of the end" that true worship is supposed to be established. But you have the JW organization's long, well-documented history of false teachings, lies and false prophecies to prove that they're not the restoration of true worship!
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  51

  What kind of toppings do you like on a Pizza?

  by Iamallcool in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i want something different on my next pizza!.

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  Island Man

  I'm an everything kind of guy. Give me my pizza with all the toppings on it because I consider variety to be a quintessential property of pizza.
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  27

  opportunity for fornication

  by road to nowhere in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ever see brother ugly who is 86 being taken to the doctor by sister frigid who is 65 and also not good looking?

  they have to have a chaperone or at least sit in back and front seats.

  or a man who can't bring the freezing daughter in the house when he stopped briefly by because hubby is not home.

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  Island Man

  Well to be fair, JW culture is so sexually repressed that the fears they seek to address by such ridiculous rules may indeed be well founded. They have created a problem that should not exist and have to resort to pharisaic rules to counter it.
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  32

  Jehovahs Witnesses and Babylon The Great.Why the Emphasis on the R.C.Church and not on Islam.

  by smiddy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was thinking back to when the book babylon the great has fallen gods kingdom rules.was published many years ago when it was believed religion was declining in the world.. the book took exception to the r.c.church as the worst of christendom substituting themselves for the kingdom of god on earth , the counterfeit kingdom i think they called them.vicar of christ on earth.. and while its true to some degree in western lands today that religion is declining as regards christendom it is not happening in non christian religions around the world.. which brings me to the unprcedented rise and spread of islam in the world today .. with the war in iraq ,syria ,etc,and the people fleeing these war torn countries to europe and elsewhere around the globe with refugees and asylum seekers the spread of islam in the short space of time now beats any missionary projects conducted by christendom.. judaism ,christendom and islam all have their roots in the bible.the jews first then christians then muslims.. the bible only relates to the first two jews and christians and is completely silent about muslims.even in prophecy.. the book mentioned earlier btggkr nowhere mentions islam or muslims.as if they didnt even exist ,yet today they equal in numbers to all of christendoms religions.. islam today is by far a greater threat to christianity and especially to jehovahs witnesses than anything the roman catholic church ever posed before.. obviously the holy bible and the holy spirit or jehovahs chosen people the jehovahs witnesses never did forsee the rise and influence of the religion of islam in todays world.. the bible is completely silent about islam or the rise of muslims on the world stage.. could it be that they could no more predict the future than i could ?.

  the wtb&ts the publishing house of jehovahs witnesses have for the past 100 years have continually attacked the roman catholic religion and portrayed them in an unfavourable light.time after time in mags and books,.

  how many times have the wtb&ts attacked and challenged the religion of islam and muslims and condemned them as a principle member of babylon the great the empire of false religion.. to this day jehovahs witnesses cannot freely go door to door preaching their message in muslim dominated countries where proselytism is forbidden.

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  Island Man

  Why the emphasis on the RC church and not on Islam? The emphasis on the RC church is basically the tactic known as negative advertising. The RC church is Watchtower's greatest competitor and former/disaffected Catholics is Watchtower's greatest market. So it makes a lot of sense to them to bash the RC church.

  Muslims, on the other hand, are not very amenable to Watchtower conversion. Unlike the Catholics, they use a different holy book altogether and their religion teaches them that the Bible has been changed by men and cannot be fully trusted so all the JW religious propaganda that is based on exploiting people's respect for, and deference to, the Bible - it's useless on Muslims. Watchtower has to work twice as hard to convert a Muslim than to convert a Catholic. They first have to convert the Muslim to trust the Bible before they can convert them to join the JW religion. It's just too much work. As a result, Watchtower is not too eager to bash Islam because they don't stand to benefit from doing so. Additionally, Islam-bashing could potentially stir up radical Muslims clerics to issue Fatwas against Watchtower resulting in JWs in Muslim lands being attacked and the religion being banned in even more Muslim lands than it is already.

  Bottom line: RC bashing has never been rooted in genuine indignation for the wrongs of the RC church. It has always been a form of negative advertising geared toward stealing easy sheep from the RC market. Because it's so difficult to get sheep from the Muslim market they have zero interest in bashing Islam.
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  2

  The BORG is like NORTH KOREA!

  by HiddlesWife in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  please watch this youtube video and see what i mean:.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ossdewxvfu0 .

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  Island Man

  No, no, no! You have it all wrong! The Borg is not like North Korea. North Korea is like the Borg!