Posts by StarTrekAngel

Thanks everyone for the input. It is truly appreciated. I am not going to say we are the best of friends but we do know each other well enough to swing by each others home with little to no announcement. I was more shocked by the fact that the woman had the initiative (Although I am not so naive to think this is her idea) to come and approach us. I thought it was strange that during the last 3 years no one has bothered (to the point that my wife thinks I am paranoid and reinforces her idea that elders never harass anyone) and that now a couple would insist on coming by to what is clearly a "shepherding"...ahem! more like a concerned friend coming to see how you are doing. For I care they may come and say "we haven't seen you in the meetings, are you ok... yeah we are ok... all right then, goodnight". But I want to be prepared. I find it hard to believe that someone who just wants to know how you are would insist on getting a date and time for the visit.

32

Finally, after almost 3 years, they want to visit with me

by StarTrekAngel in

so i ended up going to the meeting yesterday.

i have been absent for almost 2 months.

my wife was also absent as long but mostly out of chance.

StarTrekAngel

So I ended up going to the meeting yesterday. I have been absent for almost 2 months. My wife was also absent as long but mostly out of chance. She would have gladly gone but in between relatives visiting, out of town trips, etc. Some Sundays she made the attempt to go but ended up waking up late. She has come to hate showing up to the meeting late because she feels they make her parade all the way to the front row. (No surprise to me there). Now with the new year there is a new schedule for the Sunday meeting. It now starts at noon, so many less chances of missing it. I decided to go with her because I had the bad feeling that having missed so many, someone was going to approach her. Despite the better advice from the organization, our elders have a really bad habit of approaching women when they are on their own to question them.

Nothing less than what I expected, as soon as the meeting was over, we tried to make a dash for the exit. We were already in the parking lot, half way to our car. I was thinking we had made it out but no. Surprisingly, a sister cries out for my wife.

Sister D....! Hi!

Oh!, I thought, I guess she just wants to say hi. After the regular chit chat, I was surprised to hear she was delivering the invitation to my wife. Not me. She told my wife in a very social tone that her and her (elder) husband would like to come by our house later for a visit. She did make eye contact with me but she never addressed me directly. She clarified we did not have to prepare a meal or anything. It was just going to be social.

When we got home, we got ready to go out grocery shopping and I told her we needed to discuss about that visit. She was open to the discussion (which also surprised me) but that she did not think they were going to come that same day. I said I wasn't so sure but that either way we had to discuss it in case they did. We both agreed to avoid the visit until we had a chance to talk. Not much later that day I get a call from them. I showed my phone to her while it was still ringing and she was like "Don't answer it!". So I did not. Later a get a text message from him asking me if we would be home later that day. I replied that I could not receive him that day and he replied right back..."What about Friday?"

It is obvious at this point that the visit has a dual purpose. I got to say this couple if one of the nicest JW couples you will ever meet. I would hate to have to avoid them. I also feel that since is a couple and not a company of elders, the weight of the visit may not be the same as a shepherding call. I do have it clear that anything I say will be used against me and that regardless of her presence, she would be a witness against me in a JC if she has to.

My wife and I still have to take the time to discuss this but I was wondering if anyone has any previous experience with this kind of approach. I have read many here, but I don't know that I've read one where a couple (husband and wife) would push themselves onto visiting someone. Any experiences out there?

19

My Thoughts on the Subject of Faith

by Saethydd in

i've had several discussion about the basis for faith in an all powerful creator for the universe, and it seems as if the conversation often comes back to, "well, either way, you have to have faith either in a creator or in the process of evolution because you can't observe that either.

" setting aside the issue of creation and evolution (where i currently sit at undecided), i was also troubled by the tendency to treat faith as a static or absolute concept when in reality it is far more complex.. to begin with, faith isn't just about belief, it combines the concepts of belief and trust.

for the purposes of this discussion, i will be focusing primarily on the second attribute.

StarTrekAngel

Faith requires works as a foundation to stand ground. Don't get me wrong. I am not necessarily talking about work of the like of preaching or feeding the poor. We are usually told the Jews for example, were of little faith because despite all the things they had seen, the could not quit complaining when they felt trapped in between the Egyptian army and the red sea. If you ask most modern christians what they would have done in such situation they would tell you that unlike the jews, they would have trusted in God absolutely.

This is based in a misunderstanding of what faith is. The faith the Jews had was being solidified as their relationship with God went on. They accepted their God could bring about the plagues but may be, just may be, saving them from the Egyptian army in a situation where they did not have weapons themselves was too much for this new God they had just discovered. Every other work that this God did for them increased their understanding of how powerful and capable this God was. Some, like Moises, were a little more impressionable than the others and were able to "trust" sooner. There are plenty of examples in the bible of people who were commanded to carry out a task that seemed impossible. Where the odds were against them. Unlike the religions of today, God did not demand that the blindly trusted. They asked for proof that God would bless their mission and only then they had "faith".

Just as when you go to a bank to ask for a loan, the bank bases their decision on your credit history, faith is a credit report for God, not humans. Some humans would need more or less information in order to submit to the said deity, but none the less, the faith that religion promotes today is blind faith. It demands everything from you but shows nothing from their claimed authority.

201

I am glad to have found the true religion

by A Believer in

jw
friends

it really is great.

i remember browsing this forum the day after i had joined it, and their was a knock on the door.

i thought it was one of my package from ups but instead it was two sisters.

StarTrekAngel

Many in this forum have read the whole bible many times over. What a shame that as a JW you are setting such petty goals.

201

I am glad to have found the true religion

by A Believer in

jw
friends

it really is great.

i remember browsing this forum the day after i had joined it, and their was a knock on the door.

i thought it was one of my package from ups but instead it was two sisters.

StarTrekAngel

They sure do... now explain this to me and please stay on subject. Don't do the WT thing of deviating the answer until it fits a totally different question... ok? Jesus never did that. Imitate your master please.

Lets say you are out preaching and you knock on the door of a catholic or some other mainstream religion. You bring up the subject about death. The householder has happened to loose a loved one recently and tells you how he or she is trying to cope by remembering that we do not know God's higher plan for us. That he or she does not know why God has chosen to take this relative that he or she loved very much but that he or she is willing to accept God's will.

Now remind me if I am wrong but I remember from the many years of being a witness that the standar answer prepared for us is to tell the householder that such is not the case. May be most witnesses are not as direct but they would basically reply that we should not think that God has taken them at will. In fact, some tracts and definitely books used in bible studies actually explain that such explanation (as provided by other faiths) paints a cruel God who seem eager to take people, including kids, at random. Now while many here would agree such picture is accurate, lets not get hanged on that.

Now lets pretend for a minute this householder has heard your standard answer but now he or she proceeds to tell you that she has another relative who was a witness. This other person fell ill and had to be hospitalized. While there, doctors told this relative that unless she got a liver transplant she/he would die. This person, being the loyal witness that he or she was, strongly denied getting the transplant because at the time it was seen as canibalism (this would have happened decades ago). The family, in distress, attempts to change her mind but she/he told her relatives that God had directed the slave and the slave has pointed out that such procedure would not be acceptable in God's eyes. This relative later died as expected. Now this householder is getting to the point. He or she tells you that just about a month after her or his relative was buried, he or she found out from the rest of her JW family that new light now out, informed them of a new understanding. Now God has clarified that transplants are a matter of personal choice. Under the understanding that apparently God allowed this mistaken view drag for so long and cost so many lives, how do you explain to the house holder that her view of God is cruel while yours is not?

This is where new light looses compatibility with a God of love. If we put aside the other actions by Jehovah that make many categorize it as a cruel murderous God, even if you believe in a God of nothing but love, you can not reconcíliate this fact with such idea. Either God is not all loving and derives pleaseure from seeing people suffer under spiritual confusion or he has nothing to do with any of this and this are doctrines of men which we should not follow.

You can not summarize the vast implications of dominating large masses of people under mistaken ideas by using five simple words like "imperfect human being make mistakes"

11

2016 Watchtower Library CD ROM

by The Searcher in

available for download.

just remember to reject the "automatic updates" from the org.. http://avoidjw.org/watchtower-library/.

StarTrekAngel

New light! now automatically downloaded and updated for you. You won't even notice it wasn't there.

47

AND STILL NO RELEASE OF THE 2017 JW YEARBOOK

by steve2 in

here we are on the cusp of the new year, and the 2017 yearbook of jws has still not been released.

jw.org continues to feature the 2016 yearbook in its list of main publications.

in previous years, the upcoming yearbook's annual report on jws was released in november for the january 1st then the feb 1st watchtower, then earlier in december when it was only featured in the yearbook, then more recently with a couple of days of december 25th.

StarTrekAngel

I just went over the whole theocracy of the matter. Given the new light, they are now waiting on the overlapping of spiritual years to be complete. Basically, before they would report on the number of publishers and publications given in a typical theocratic year which, although it did not coincide with a worldly calendar year, it did consist of 365 days, give or take. Now, with the new understanding, they must adjust their thinking and realize that there is an overlap of two theocratic years. Therefore, any publication distributed or hours preached during this overlap must be counted both, towards the current yearly report as well as counted again on the next year. Conclusion: Jehovah's organization keeps growing at unprecedented rates.

I tell you folks. If you don't understand this, pray to Jehovah and wait for a broadcast that would explain it all. This is the sort of stuff that, so far, only quantum physicist were able to understand. Yes, only quantum physics can attempt to explain how an hour of time can be part of two years at the same time. But now, thanks to the F&DS, we can understand things that are beyond the average worldly individual.

[/a] end of sarcasm [/a]

13

Jehovah's Witnesses Watchtower Society Houses Hidden Sexual Abuse Records, Says Journalist

by no password in

jehovah's witnesses watchtower society houses hidden sexual abuse records, says journalist.

.

StarTrekAngel

How long before we realize as a society that "freedom of religion" is being abused?