religions wealth has always made me squirm.
from the catholic church, with its golden city and priceless relics, to the mormons and their absurd temple and huge big fat bank account.
the jw's are the same.
How about this for starters?
27 The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world.just saying!
James 1:27 nwt
i've been thinking about this for a while.. did jesus diee on a cross?
does it really matter?
it doesn't change anything that i can see.. is god a trinity?
Does it matter if early Christians met in private homes or fancy buildings? Does it matter if Jesus and the apostles had beards? Does it matter about how to properly pronounce god's name? Does it matter that supposedly god preserved the bible (in tact) through the dark times in history, but could not also preserve his name in the bible?
These, and all the other mentioned issues, are very important matters if you are starting your own religion and need to be different from the competition. Rutherford was a master at knowing that controversy is the best way of attracting attention!
just saying!
how long until wt has flip flopped its way back to anything of the faith many of us knew?
who are the now dead ones giving evidence of their non captivity to babylon etc?
i would not recognise what goes on in a kh now and i was in since 60s when we had firm beliefs, now being eroded little by little.
Their constant effort to distort history should be soooo obvious, but it's not. It was exasperating to sit through yesterday's wt! What a load of shite!
But yesterday's wt was again a fabulous lead in for me to start talking to my still-in wife about how the wtbts distorts history to there liking. We discussed it on the way home. I told her that the "new" 1919 bs now taught is the complete opposite of what we were taught for decades. "The preaching work was dead" during that time. No, "the preaching work was flourishing during that time". 10 million tracts were distributed!
So history was seriously distorted for decades?
Then I brought up another distorted historical fact.For decades our publications showed a beardless Jesus and apostles. Wasn't that also a distortion of historical facts? Nothing like some homemade facts to feast on!
just saying!
so i went to the kh for the first time in a month, and the first brother in our congregation has grown a full beard.
i am in a western u.s. semi-rural area in a cong with an extremely conservative and controlling elder body.
oddly enough, it seemed like people were going out of their way to converse with him and act like they didn't notice the beard or they complimented the beard.
Ever since the wt study in November that mentioned beards, I've been growing my 'circle beard'. I'm no longer "serving" as an elder so no problems there. So far, I'm the only one in the congo growing facial hair beyond a mustache. I've received many compliments from rank and file brothers and sisters. My former fellow elders haven't really shown too much reaction and I haven't heard any rumblings. Several brothers who are "reaching out" have told me that they would really like to grow their beards out. I tell them to read the wt that we studied in November and let their conscience be their guide. The CO visits this week. I know him so I'll see what he has to say. I'd love to see a facial hair trend start!
just saying!
Also known as the “standard” beard, the circle beard is a combination of mustache and rounded goatee beard styles. It looks tidy, thus, making it a good option for men who would like to look presentable without letting go of their beard.
several years ago i started a thread on this forum in which i asserted i had not seen witnesses door-knocking in my village for at least two or so years.
years before that - in pre-trolley times - in going about my business (or pleasure), i'd catch sight of them on the streets as they shuffled in their groups from door-to-door: sometimes there'd be contingents of witnesses, including young couples, parents and their kids and middle-aged and older ones.
in other words, a good cross-section of ages and stages in life.. in fact, i can remember times when witnesses were so visible in numbers when going out in their car groups, you literally couldn't escape them.. then, in more recent years, i've seen very, very little...if not anything (and i count myself sensitive to noting whether jws are out and about).
I agree that the 'still-in' jw's are aging. I really think that it's a universal dilemma with all religions! The information age is killing superstition and tradition. Reality sometimes really sucks, but at least it's real!
just saying!
i love math, i love calendars, and somehow, this always gets me.. 2520 - 607 = 1913. not 1914.. 2520 - 606 = 1914. from what i understand, russell realized this.
he had previously used 606 bc, of course, but then he switched it to 607 bc.
i know there was something about no zero year, so it actually should be less one, correct?.
Yep and all the marvelous reasoning used by the wtbts about 7 (years) x 360 (days in a Jewish month) = 2,520 years except that in the supposed fulfillment of that mathematical bible prophecy, it's pretty f**king amazing that they use the Jewish calendar for the calculation and the Julian calendar for the fulfillment. Big difference of 37.5 years! But, by applying the wtbts 'math-magic' formula of "it don't matter in this case"= we must be right because god chose us, then you have the magical number that you want 1914 plus or minus 37.5 years. See how easy it is to understand the bible!
just saying!
just seen reference to a recent letter read to congregations about this, anyone got more info please?.
When ever I get a chance, I bring up this subject;
"Less KH's now needed"'
the jw's I still hang with repeat the canned response is, "Isn't it wonderful how jehober has helped the org to see the need to fully utilize the existing kh's!" So I respond, "If only we could fill the 220 seats in our kh with the 120 jw's in our area" lol
just saying!
but pretty much all of them are now dead.
and so are billions of others.
so, god doesn't desire any to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance?
"Millions now living will never die!"=Old lite
"Billions now living will will soon die!" = 'New lite'
just saying!
i've always wondered about this.
when a person believes they made a spiritual connection with god and proclaims themselves as anointed, how do they determine whether this person is anointed or not.
does a group of elders look at the person's spiritual resume and check off the person's pioneer stats, bible knowledge, attendance, work ethic, personality, etc and then believe in the person if they have a good track record?
Every jw was of the 'anointed' till the magic number got to be too big! lol As I grew up in the borg, all those claiming to be 'anointed' were very weird people. I figured that it was because they were on a different plane that us earthlings. Now I know that it's all just a figment of their imagination and anyone who wants to be of the 'anointed' just needs to show up and consume some wine and crackers.
I love the fact that number has been increasing steadily for many years now. Got to be a huge worry for the gb!
just saying!
an atheist (never jw) friend of mine is an rv for a jw who he is trying to deprogram.
he started this totally on his own and just telling me about it.
it's quite amusing what he comes up with.. point 1: why the s & m stuff with foreskins?
So jehober created Adam physically perfect---right? Why would he later require the mutilation of the perfect penis? It just doesn't make sense now does it? It's one of those bible mysteries I guess.
I always thought it was pretty strange that Saul demanded David to bring him 100 foreskins as a sort of bride price for his daughter. Good old David brought 200 instead. Maybe those Philistines had 2 penis each!
Anyway, I think the 'new light' appropriate jw term is now "overlapping skin" not foreskin!
just saying!
