A few thoughts on the District, um, Regional... sigh....

by Apognophos 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  TTATTelder

  Apog,

  Thanks so much for the play by play! I have been waiting for a nice overall take on this convention. Very funny read as well.

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  I'm going to the convention soon. I know it is going to be a spectacle. It will be a setback I'm sure temporarily with the wifey, but I think my progress with her is farther than they can completely reverse, especially with my "balanced" take on the program that I will be sharing incrementally.

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  I get what you're saying in part 6 about Brains Not Wanted. Thinkers are a liability for them. They want 100% blind-faith'ers. They want cheerleaders. It's like in any other business. They want to attract and keep "their customer".

  Their customer is the "low information voter" (political lingo) or maybe a better term would be "low information worshiper."

  Their customer could also be someone who has been through something so traumatic in their life that they can't bear to face reality without the hand-holding of the JW belief system. False hope is still hope for some people. They don't want to know they're wrong even if they are.

  OTOH...Thinkers are sceptical. We want proof. We want to be convinced. We want a quality explanation. We want to lose the debate in order to be sold on the new idea. These guys don't even allow a debate. Actually they punish you for having one. They just plain ole - don't want us in the audience, period. The quicker they can run us off the better.

  On some level, I think it's funny that we have them scared.

  -TE
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  KateWild

  especially with my "balanced" take on the program that I will be sharing incrementally.- TE

  I like that, WT misuses the word balanced, in JW land it means fanatical bible basher. You bring it back to it's original meaning. Well done. Kate xx
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  TTATTelder

  Thanks Kate
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  leaving_quietly

  It makes for a very short and very eye-opening word study to look up the word "paradise" in the Bible. There are only four references, and three of the four refer, unfailingly, to heaven. That is, unless you read those verses through WT-colored lenses.

  The fourth one and the very first reference of the word in the Bible is in a more, erm, sensual sense in Song of Solomon 4:13.

  So, three in one, eh? I think I'll dub it: The Paradise Trinity
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  leaving_quietly

  Maybe Loesch was doing a Freudian slip when he said "gw.org". He was probably thinking "gb.org".
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  Apognophos

  It makes for a very short and very eye-opening word study to look up the word "paradise" in the Bible. There are only four references, and three of the four refer, unfailingly, to heaven. That is, unless you read those verses through WT-colored lenses.

  Interesting, thanks leaving_quietly. Of course for the earthly hope the Society relies heavily on OT verses that describe a fruitful and beautiful land, and we know those were referring to the hope of the Israelites to see their homeland restored, not a resurrection hope.

  Maybe Loesch was doing a Freudian slip when he said "gw.org". He was probably thinking "gb.org".

  Heh, could be. Now, if English is your second language, that's an easy mistake to make when pronouncing 'j' quickly, but I like your suggestion better
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  leaving_quietly

  One of the OT sections of the Bible WT uses frequently is Isa 65. For example, verses 21 and 22:

  They will build houses and live in them, And they will plant vineyards and eat their fruitage. They will not build for someone else to inhabit, Nor will they plant for others to eat. For the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, And the work of their hands my chosen ones will enjoy to the full.

  But, they conveniently skip verses in the very same chapter that shows this to NOT be refering to the "earthly paradise". Verse 20, for example:

  No more will there be an infant from that place who lives but a few days, Nor an old man who fails to live out his days. For anyone who dies at a hundred will be considered a mere boy, And the sinner will be cursed, even though he is a hundred years of age.

  Sin and death will be no more in the "earthly paradise", so how could someone sin or die? Go research that and see the WT spin on it.
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  Apognophos

  Yeah, I have looked into that, and their explanation does not hold up.
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  Cadellin

  You are TOO funny! Thanks for making my day!
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  prologos

  On the Loesch 1925 remark: there is another place /thread where he said to have delivered it with a smirk on his face, and

  referred to the "1925 talk" of people not dying, dishonestly implying that it was not a 1918 talk, a 1919 prophecy about 1925 bringing the NEW WORLD, and the resurrection in San Diego of Abraham Martin [Luther] and John [not Lennon] kidding,

  I mean Abraham Isaac, Israel. --Sarah, Rachel the Shulamite.