Posts by Pete Zahut

Unlike most magazines, the Watchtower has 8 million built in subscribers but JW's will claim that this means they are being backed by the "True God" . What about the publication that came in second place the Awake? Does coming in second place mean that they have a little less of God's backing than the Watchtower does or does it simply mean that they're second best at getting that magazine distributed and need to do a better job?

What it means is that more Watchtowers are distributed because 8 million JW's use the Watchtower at the Sunday meetings.

24

Will God resurrect our beloved pets? What do you think?

by Pallbearer in

the watchtower doesn't hold out any hope for us ever seeing our beloved animals again.

i find it very difficult to believe that god -- a god of love -- would refuse to resurrect an animal that we had become so attached to.

over the years i have bonded with no less than four (4) dogs, all of which were/are like family to me.

Pete Zahut

In terms of the Bible, even what it says regarding humans living forever isn't exactly clear and is the subject of much heated debate so imagine how unclear it would be to use the Bible to find out about the eternal fate of animals. I'm sure if there was anything in there about that, people would be all over it.

As kids, the JW's used to entice us to be good so we'd live in the new system and have our very own pet Lion or Panda or Dolphin. I remember I was pretty upset when I found out that the animals in the new system wouldn't live forever. I couldn't imagine losing beloved pets for all eternity.

I wondered how God could allow the animals to grow old, get sick and and die. What did they ever do? Then I learned that the kids at school would be destroyed at armageddon if their parents didn't become JW's and even us JW children would be destroyed if our parents weren't good enough JW's. I figured that if god would kill kids just because their Mother or Father did something wrong then he surely wouldn't mind letting their pets and other animals die as well.

It was a messed up way to grow up and it left it's mark on me and it's no wonder I was plagued with anxiety until I left the JW's when I reached middle age. It was a blessing to leave all those silly man made notions about God behind.

Having had many pets over the years, I've learned (the hard way) not to project my worries and sentimental feelings onto them. Animals aren't comfortable when they are doted on too much and it makes them weird and spoiled. Unlike us, animals live in the present moment. They are hard wired to preserve themselves alive but they aren't aware that they will die one day. They are blissfully unaware of their own mortality. They do not think about the past or worry about the future. They are not sentimental about things the way we are. As long as they are warm and fed and have a place that feels safe, they are satisfied. How lucky is that??

I think you should enjoy and care for the animals that come into your life and rest assured that they are at peace and were lucky to have known you and they weren't troubled one bit about their own eternal fate and neither should you be about theirs or your own. If there is a God and he does have good things in store for mankind, there's no reason you shouldn't be part of it as well (especially if you love animals). You should do the best you can for his creation within your own scope and leave the rest in his hands. That's all you can do and that's good enough.

10

Things we should not have said,

by Phizzy in

do any of you remember things you should never have said to a fellow j.w ?.

two of mine come to mind, one was when we were out in field circus one day and my companion was complaining of knee pain, he explained, " it has a crack in it ", i replied " that explains why my bum hurts, that's got a crack in it", the other one was when a guy showed me a chef's knife he had bought for chopping, and i said " i always wanted a big chopper ".. you ?.

Pete Zahut

Things I probably shouldn't have said to a JW:

A JW friend (mid 60's) that grew up with my older JW brother, died a couple of weeks ago. My brother commented on how many people he knows have died lately and how weird it is to be at the age where you start losing people. I said:

"Why is it weird....it's not as if anyone led us to believe that we'd never grow old in this system....oh wait...I guess they did".

My brother rolled his eyes, he's used to my negative JW comments, but I noticed he did pause and think about it.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

We were at a nice waterfront restaurant with my wife's JW brother, his JW wife and her JW parents. An appetizer of various cheeses was on our table and the heavy set and annoying JW mother-in-law was sampling each kind and commenting on them. She picked up a piece of cheese, nibbled on it, sniffed it and held it up to her face and exclaimed " In the New System...I'm going to learn everything there is to know about cheese".

I replied jokingly

" And two weeks later, what are you going to do for the rest of eternity?"

Everyone chuckled uncomfortably and my wife said I shouldn't have said that.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

We were staying over at my wife's older sisters house. Her Elder husband (the last person you'd think of as being a minister let alone religious) came in all fired up from an Elders meeting with the visiting Circuit Overseer. He said excitedly that the Circuit Overseer said that Satan is really working extra hard on the young people in the circuit and the Elders really need to keep an extra eye on the teenagers.

I replied:

" Extra hard...how do you suppose the Circuit Overseer could possibly know Satan is doing and to what degree he is doing it ?"

My Bro-in-law who is a cussing, red-necked, beer drinking, narrow-minded construction worker, shouted much to the astonishment of everyone in the room:

"CAUSE' HE'S FILLED WITH JEHOVAH'S HOLY SPIRIT AND IS BEING LED BY JESUS CHRIST...THAT'S HOW !!"

The room went silent for a second then everyone, including him, burst out laughing at how ridiculous he sounded.

42

Providing salvation is not that important

by pixel in

the washtowel has a crazy obsession with diminishing the important of jesus' sacrifice for humankind.

i find this so antichristian.

i mean, how can you ignore scriptures like john 3:16?.

Pete Zahut

Pete Zahut - No JW thinks of Jesus' agony as physical punishment suffered vicariously for what they deserve for the things they do wrong every day.
Ask a JW why Jesus died and they will pontificate about Adam.

I disagree....

I don't know about "pontificating" but if you ask a JW why Jesus died, they will tell you that he died as a ransom sacrifice to buy back the life that Adam lost for all mankind. They believe that each of us has inherited sin from Adam and Jesus sacrifice covers that however they also believe that if they continually choose to willingly sin and think that they can just expect to be forgiven, they are greatly mistaken. They do not take the agony that Jesus went through, lightly. They don't condone a sin during the week and ask for forgiveness on Sunday type of attitude.

P.S. I'm not a fan of the Watchtower organization either but I think we should be accurate about the claims we make and we need to avoid condemn everything they say and do just because we're angry at them.

42

Providing salvation is not that important

by pixel in

the washtowel has a crazy obsession with diminishing the important of jesus' sacrifice for humankind.

i find this so antichristian.

i mean, how can you ignore scriptures like john 3:16?.

Pete Zahut

According to any Christian Jesus died for their sins. According to any JW Jesus died for Adam's sin.

Who knows if anything in the Bible is true or actually happened? However for arguments sake, JW's believe Jesus death or ransom sacrifice was intended to buy back the life Adam and Eve lost for us, (their descendants) who inherited their sin.

It's a case of which came first....the chicken or the egg?

Adam and Eve's disobedience was the reason that the sacrifice had to take place and they are the reason we inherited sin and why we need Jesus sacrifice. He could have said "no way" but instead because of his "undeserved kindness" he allowed for this provision.

JW's believe Jesus died for both Adam's sin and their own inherited sin. But...they believe Jehovah is the one who allowed the life that Adam and Eve lost, to be bought back via Jesus sacrifice.

They fully honor Jesus and the sacrifice he made BUT they realize that had it not been for Jehovah, none of it could have happened.

Whether or not humans think it was unfair of God to punish everyone for what Adam and Eve did, is unimportant to JW"S. As the Creator of the universe, they feel he has every right to handle things any way he wants.

I might think it was dumb that a god who can do anything, created us so that we need food and air to survive. Why didn't he just create our bodies so we wouldn't need those things or so we didn't feel pain? A JW believes that we have no right to question the way god does things and whether or not we think his ways are fair is unimportant.

They believe that Jesus is important but without Jehovah...there would be no Jesus...no nothing....so they view him as #1 but that doesn't diminish Jesus sacrifice in their eyes.

25

Ask yourself why you don't DESERVE "kindness" (A look a the Watchtower's struggle against "Grace."

by Terry in

graceyou won’t find any in the new world translation!no no no.you only find “undeserved kindness.”(ask yourself why you don't deserve kindness.

?isn’t kindness basic decency?

?if you are one of jehovah’s witnesses you have a reason.jehovah’s witnesses are never on firm standing with their god.

Pete Zahut

Time passes.
Truth becomes a banana turning mushy, with gooey spots.
(Old Light).

Changing what is considered the truth is one matter but your original post asserted that Jehovah’s Witnesses use the phrase “ undeserved kindness” to show that we are generally not unworthy of Jehovahs kindness.

I asserted that JWs use the term “undeserved kindness “when they are referring to God providing a way out for mankind via Jesus sacrifice, even though he wasn’t obligated to,

It seems like you’ve gone off topic by bringing up the way they change their teachings from time to time which we all know to be so.

I think your opening post was based on a false assumption about JWs and their use of the phrase undeserved kindness and their views of our worthiness of kindness and love from him.

JWs have a lot of things wrong but let’s be fair. They don’t teach that we aren’t worthy of his love.

There is a mixed message from JWs however that indicates that even though Jehovah loves us , out of fairness to the »obedient »ones, he won’t spare us at Armageddon unless we participate in what they consider to be « worship and service ».

10

Kobe Bryant is dead!

by Iamallcool in

jw
friends

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/news/kobe-bryant-dead-five-time-nba-champion-was-41-report-1272963 .

Pete Zahut

Incredibly tragic occurrence indeed... an amazing athlete for sure but as far as being a role model, wasn’t he charged with sexually assaulting a 19 year old hotel employee. If memory serves, he settled out of court and apologized publicly but it seems like if Joe Shmoe did that, he’d serve time and probably have a hard time ever getting a decent job again. Not the case apparently when you’re a millionaire celebrity. Case in point... M.J.

25

Ask yourself why you don't DESERVE "kindness" (A look a the Watchtower's struggle against "Grace."

by Terry in

graceyou won’t find any in the new world translation!no no no.you only find “undeserved kindness.”(ask yourself why you don't deserve kindness.

?isn’t kindness basic decency?

?if you are one of jehovah’s witnesses you have a reason.jehovah’s witnesses are never on firm standing with their god.

Pete Zahut

What you said in your post makes sense but as a JW I always understood that "Jehovah's underserved kindness" had to do with how he made a way out for mankind by sending his Son Jesus to die for our sins, even though he wasn't obligated to.

I never once got the idea that they said that we weren't worthy of Gods kindness only that considering how Adam and Eve went against the arrangement he set up for them, he didn't owe mankind on the whole, a way out of the sin and death we inherited from them. On the contrary, they indicated that we were entirely eligible for his love and encouraged us to pray to him for guidance, help. "Throw your burden on Jehovah...he himself will you sustain" was a major theme in Kingdom songs etc.

To be fair, as far as the endless treadmill of service, what I remember is that spreading his message to others was a way for us to show our appreciation to him for the hope he provided to mankind rather than as a way to earn his love. They indicated that yes it was impossible for us do enough to deserve everlasting life. Instead, we needed to show obedience to him to show our appreciation for the undeserved "way out" he provided to mankind through Jesus. But therein lies the problem...obeying Jehovah meant obeying them and quantifying to them on a time sheet each month, how much we personally appreciated Gods underserved kindness to us.

Many of us ran into problems when the lines became blurred and we lost sight of what we were doing and why we were doin it and who we were doing it for. That is the problem when you are following an organization that has a factory and has a product to put out and is concerned with numbers.

30

Do You Believe In Polls?

by minimus in

jw
friends

when you hear that the polls say.... do you really believe it??.

i think polls can be and often are skewered.

i don’t trust them..

Pete Zahut

I attended a District Convention in Poland once and you couldn't see a thing during the Drama because no matter how good your seats were, you were sitting behind a pole.

Seriously though, I agree. Polls can't be relied upon for any more than a general idea of how a certain cross section of people interprets a particularly worded question.