Skimmer
JoinedTopics Started by Skimmer
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21
Toppled Tower
by Skimmer in(headline) toppled tower.
(dateline) october 2029, brooklyn, new york; associated internet media news service.
after a century and a half of preaching and publishing, the wtbts (watchtower bible and tract society) has closed its doors.. the group was started in the 1870s with most of its doomsday doctrines borrowed from the second adventists, another american-born religion of the 19th century.
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19
WTBTS membership count prediction
by Skimmer insome thoughts on statistical projections of the wtbts membership count:.
1) extrapolation (projection beyond known statistics) is hazardous for any measurement that does not derive from a simple model.
an accurate model of the wtbts membership count would have to include demographics for each of the countries, and this would have to combine population age distribution data, educational attainment data, economic data, current wtbts coverage, and (of course!
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"The spirits are about to speak!"
by Skimmer inthe wtbts claims to be "spirit-directed".
how this is different from being "inspired", only a lawyer could tell.
there is no doubt that the wtbts has many, many times claimed to be "god's only true channel", "appointed by god", "not a false prophet", and so forth.. my question here is: how does the wtbts describe the actual mechanism of "spirit-direction"?.
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28
Why does the WTBTS survive?
by Skimmer inback in late 1973 when i got my fatal doubts about the wtbts, i was sure that the society would crumble soon after 1975 when yet another prediction failed.
i was not alone with this thought; a british author by the name of stevenson (an exjw that had written an expose) allocated an entire chapter in his book about the likelihood that there would be a very major falling away in 1976 or soon thereafter.. but it didn't happen.
yes, there were several years of consecutive worldwide declines.
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14
Asembly security questions
by Skimmer ini've been reading the comments on the recent district assemblies and i've got some questions about the wtbts convention security teams.. 1) is it a given that anyone who tries to get in without a convention badge is going to be carefully scrutinized?
questioned?
tailed?.
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34
Eight questions about Nathan Knorr
by Skimmer ini have some questions about nathan knorr, the third president (1942-1977) of the wtbts.
accurate answers are welcome.. 1) how did it come about that knorr was made president of the wtbts in 1942 after the death of joseph rutherford?
rutherford as we know was an usurper inheritor of russell's wtbts in late 1916 after russell went to his reward.
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8
The handwriting on the wall
by Skimmer inthe best leading indicator of the jw membership count is the baptism count as it directly measures the efficiency of the field service.
the baptism numbers represent the combined result of total hours, total literature, and total bible studies; it is the most reliable predictor of future membership counts.. and this is what has the wtbts worried.
they see the handwriting on the wall in nearly all of the developed countires and also some lesser developed countries.
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8
Rutherford's Records Return
by Skimmer inin the days of the wtbts under the presidency of rutherford a lifetime ago, jws hauled phonographs from door to door and played records of rutherford's advertising speeches.
a sort of early experiment with multimedia.. the idea has returned in a way.
you don't have to go to brooklyn or even a kingdom hall anymore to get a first taste of official wtbts media.
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4
A poll for long time observers
by Skimmer inhere is a little poll for you.
the following is a lit of my predictions for changes for the wtbts and is presented in no particular order.
the idea here is to see if there is some kind of concensus concerning in what order the changes will occur.
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Old/new ways of supporting pioneers
by Skimmer inin the old days prior to the 1990 "donation" arrangement in the united states, regular publishers sold wtbts literature at a 25% mark-up (20% discount over retail) over the price they paid at the kingdom hall literature desk.
while the extra money was supposed to cover expenses, i don't recall anyone actually achieving this goal.
most people seemed to always have magazines left over that were eventually given away for free.. pioneers of various ranks got a different pricing schedule.