I met Freddie in the late seventies at the Norval assembly hall. Bethel invited all pioneers to hear his talk. It was long and I only remember one thing he said at the end. "Brothers enjoy your roast beef today because there isn't going to be any in the new world."
I sat across him after eating the roast beef dinner. He was wearing an old suit and a very loud tie and old shoes.
first of all,sorry for being so late with my update.my wife got up at 8 am this morning so i didn't have the opportunity to be alone for a while.. as for the meeting last night,the elder was very civil,actually commended me for writing my questions down.he never made threaths,asked me if i read apostate material or if i still considered myself a jw.. we started with the 607 question.he will not believe any research beyond the wt's but said he'd do more research on it(all wt) so i guess that will go no where.he believes that ctr got it right by using the bible so i told him if it was figured out 130 years ago,it should be very simple to explain today.the only time he looked stunned was when i showed him from the wt that they once believed that jesus' presence began in 1874.he said he had never read that and tried to walk around it even when i asked him if jehovah wanted his people to believe something that wasn't true.. we beat around a few other questions with nothing concrete coming out of it.he did take my list home with him and said he'd look at them more carefully to get some scriptural answers.i also got the feeling that my wife got a spiritual boost from his visit which was very disheartening to me.anyways,i'm going to work on this 607 thing and see how things go.my wife asked me if i felt like we got somewhere and i said no.beibg told that something is the truth just because the wt says so just doesn't convince me anymore.. i'm attaching my questions,hopefully they show up here.thanks everybody,i feel really down,like i'm wasting my time.i've been wanting to run from this religion for years and here i am still fighting to prove my points.. goldminer.
Talk to the elder who said that he wont accept any research outside WT and ask him to prove the 607 date using only the watchtower publications.
He will end up smack dab at the insight publication that discusses the moabite stone, which is unfortunately outside information.
The process of astronomical dating is used to establish any and every historical date. The watchtower uses it too. ( or rather misuses).
The whole point is is that watchtower relies on outside sources. Point out to the elder that if he refuses outside sources he is really going against watchtower.
you're the head of a major religion.. your religion is deeply embroiled in scandals invoving officers of the church and sex with children.. what will you do?.
an article written by joy castro appeared in the magazine section of the sunday ny times.. joy is an x dub and the article is autobiographical about her youth as a dub.. if you can check it out.