Posts by Island Man

27

''This good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth FULL STOP''- Matthew 24:14. JW ORG

by ThomasCovenant in

hi.

only just noticed on the jw borg home page that matt 24:14 is quoted with a full stop instead of a comma after the word earth then the closing quotation marks.. isn't that incorrect?.

Island Man

No, it's not incorrect. It's just a partial quote. Ideally, they should end it with ellipses (...) to indicate that it is just a partial quote. But it's not very unusual or unprecedented for famous sayings to be quoted partially with a full stop.

Partial quotes are made to highlight a particular phrase in support of a particular point, without the distraction of the rest of the text which is irrelevant to the point being made. The source of the quote is given so a reader can easily look it up and see the whole text.

My guess is that they quoted Matthew 24:14 partially just to make the point that [they believe] they're fulfilling the prophecy about the good news being preached. The rest of the text is irrelevant to that point. If the full quote were given then it would be less clear exactly which point they're making - that the end is coming; or that they're fulfilling the preaching of the good news of the kingdom; or both? Since they only wanted to make the clear point that they're preaching the good news they quoted only that part. IMHO it's a fair use of partial quotes.

Watchtower does engage in misleading partial quotes where inconvenient information directly related to the point they're making is omitted, but I don't think this is one of them.

43

How Many Witnesses Would Really Take Blood?

by minimus in

jw
friends

up until the very end, my mother refused blood.

it didn't matter if it was a blurred line or not, the bible says "no blood"!

i wonder if she was in the minority, in her thinking.

Island Man

The vast majority of JWs will take blood . . . the very day Watchtower comes out with new light saying that blood transfusions are ok.

10

Excellent YouTube channel

by Are you serious in

a few days ago, thanks to someone's post on here (sorry i forgot who it was), i found an awesome youtube channel called theramintrees.

the videos this guy has made are amazing!

i'm sure others here have seen some of his videos.

Island Man

Yes, his videos are among the best videos on the harmful psychology underpinning cults and religion in general.

I find the voice and graphics downright creepy.

Which I think is very fitting because religion is downright creepy.

22

Will they drink the Kool Aid?

by Hecce in

as you know the question regarding the “kool aid” is related to the tragic events at guyana and jim jones.

blind obedience and faith in this man resulted in a massive loss of lives.. sometimes we see the same pattern of blind obedience to the watchtower from the witnesses.

this could be on major items or small details.

Island Man

JWs have been drinking the kool aid for decades - ever since they started suicidally rejecting lifesaving organ transplants and blood transfusions in fanatical, unquestioning obedience to Watchtower.

18

Being Disfellowshipped + On-Going Cycle of Depression

by Cimarrona in

i've been disfellowshipped for six years, since i was 18. i struggle with depression and self-destructive habits (minor in comparison to the suicides, substance abuse, risky sexual behavior of others i've grown up with who have left or were too afraid to leave).

i'm fairly successful for my age - respected in my field, i have an extensive curriculum vitae of published writing, presentations, and other projects.

yet, i often feel worthless and unloveable.

Island Man

Hang in there, mountain woman, things will get better with time. Your parents telling you "this is what happens when one rejects Jehovah's organization" is an example of one of the symptoms of a cult. Cult leaders often implant in the minds of their followers the idea that they will face adverse circumstances and trials if they leave.

10

Random and unsafe conditions

by ironsnake656 in

one of the things that helped me in my awakening and fading process from jwland was something that i call "random failures".

let me explain it.

it happened like 4 years ago.

Island Man

You forgot something critical: human imperfection. JWs teach that perfection is only fully restored at the end of the thousand years. So people will be brought back from the dead in their imperfect state with their disabilities and weaknesses and they will be restored to perfection gradually as they continue to obey the new laws revealed in the new scrolls. But the physical building and restoring work will begin immediately after armageddon even while people are still imperfect so until the end of the thousand years there would still be the risk of accidents due to human imperfection that has not yet been eradicated completely. Thus safety equipment would still be needed.

I think the bigger problem is the teaching that human imperfection will be restored gradually after armageddon. This teaching paints Jehovah as an unfair god. The anointed, who proved faithful while enduring the same temptations and trials as those of the "other sheep", get their perfection restored immediately upon their resurrection to heaven, without having to endure a further probationary period to prove their faithfulness while in heaven. But the "other sheep" have to endure a long period of proving their faithfulness all over again in order to be restored gradually. This system is clearly not just. Why wouldn't the other sheep also be restored instantly upon resurrection? It makes no sense. Jehovah of the Jehovah's Witnesses is an unjust, irrational, pharisaic god.

76

The Trinity Easily Explained in 29 Words

by maccauk in

a man can be a father .

a man can be a son.

a man can be a husband.

Island Man

No it doesn't actually explain the Trinity. The trinity says that the son the father and the holy spirit are all God; but the son is not the father, the son is not the holy spirit and the father is not the holy spirit. By contrast, the elements in your illustration are all mutually equivalent, meaning in addition to the father son and husband all being a man; the father is also a son and a husband. See the difference? Your illustration is a good analog for modalism - not the trinity.

A better illustration would consist of 3 different persons that are all members of the same family: a set of triplets name Farter, Sean and Holigose, all surnamed Goad.

Farter is Goad,

Sean is Goad,

Holigose is Goad.

Farter is not Sean

Farter is not Holigose

Holigose is not Sean.

The Bible does not explicitly teach a trinity, but neither is there anything in the Bible that explicitly disproves the orthodox trinity teaching. However, the Bible does indeed show Jesus being given worshipful honor - something JWs loathe. I think it's pointless arguing the Trinity with JWs. A better approach is to use the Bible to show JWs that early Christians honored Jesus in a worshipful way that JWs today aren't allowed to honor him. I think that alone is enough to show them that their version of Jesus does not line up accurately with scripture and that their organization, by discouraging - forbidding - the worshipful honor of Jesus, is revealing itself as bordering on antichrist if not outright antichrist.

JWs distort the trinity doctrine into a modalism strawman and argue against modalism while foolishly thinking they're disproving the trinity. The trinity doctrine is as unfalsifiable as the uncreated, eternal, invisible god doctrine. Anyone who criticizes the trinity doctrine as illogical must also criticize the uncreated, eternal, invisible god doctrine as illogical, or resign to the fact that he's making himself a hypocrite by cherry-picking which illogical belief he'll accept and which he'll refuse.

34

THIS Is How JWs Feel About The Cut In Magazines And Content

by pale.emperor in

i asked the question on quora "how do jehovah's witnesses feel about the announcement that the public edition of the watchtower and awake!

magazine is being reduced to just 3 issues a year and the number of books, tracts, and online content are being discontinued?".

https://www.quora.com/how-do-jehovahs-witnesses-feel-about-the-announcement-that-the-public-edition-of-the-watchtower-and-awake-magazine-is-being-reduced-to-just-3-issues-a-year-and-the-number-of-books-tracts-and-online-content-are-being-discontinued.

Island Man

Someone needs to create a funny JW meme depicting three different scenarios that are clear and unambiguous indicators of Watchtower decline, each more dire than the previous, and in each scenario show the JW spinning the scenario as a positive.

130

2017 Annual Meeting

by Jules Saturn in

this just in from the 2017 annual meeting:.

1. watchtowers and awakes won't be released regularly, at least three watchtower and awakes per year.

6 magazines a year.. 2. a new book is being released: remain in god's love, more of an update like how they did for the what does the bible really teach book.

Island Man

"Oh how the mighty publishing house has fallen!"

5

Disaster Relief - Used to Beg For Money/Charity

by thedepressedsoul in

for a organization that "doesn't ask for money" they sure do ask a lot.. i've been noticing that over the last few months "disaster relief" has been brought up in almost everything jw.

wt, congregation study, broadcast, special updated video, etc.... & i've noticed two things every time it gets brought up, which is a lot lately.. they talk about giving physically and how much money will be needed for the disaster relief work.

that we should be generous.

Island Man

It's just absolutely disgusting the way they tell JWs to donate money to the World Wide Work box, to help JW disaster victims. There's no way for any JW to know exactly how much, if any, of his money donated for disaster relief purposes, is actually used for that purpose. A very hypocritical tactic for the organization to be engaging in considering that they have in the past, cast doubt on the effectiveness of donating money to charities by saying that only a small portion of donated money actually gets to those that need it. How is the Watchtower method any better? It seems to me that the organization can now use "show Christ-like love to your JW brothers in disaster affected areas by donating to the World Wide Work" as a ruse to guilt JWs into giving them more and more money with not a shred of accountability as to how much of that money actually gets used to help victims.