several months ago i approached a nice young couple who were standing by a jw literature stand in my local community.
they were pleasant and polite but incredibly stilted when it came to answering my "innocent" questions about their beliefs.
this was the occasion of jws featuring the article headlined "is religion dying?".
"and this magazine brings you uptodate information on several important topics".
Diversion tactics. He has let slip that knows he is promoting a magazine that is making a false claim. Hammer the point home with questions and refuse to be diverted. Target guilt. Ask how he feels spending his time on a public stand promoting something he knows is false.
most witnesses i knew were exteeemly reluctant to go out in the ministry.
but when they did, they were simply scraping by, eager to avoid conflict and just do their hour or so speaking to lonely old ladies or widowed old men.
placing magazines in a car group, doing route calls, plodding along in the utter boredom of their responsibility to get some time on a report by the last day of the month.. this was never a warning work.
It was an urgent warning work when I was a kid. Now, the same people that taught me that, deny they said that and bash my character for bringing it up.
the issue of whether beards are acceptable or not is addressed in the september 2016 watchtower - well sort of.
it is as clear as mud as to whether they are allowed in places like australia, usa and britain.. 17. what are some factors that may affect whether a brother wears a beard?17 what about the propriety of brothers wearing a beard?
the mosaic law required men to wear a beard.
LOL at Cold Steel.
I got a compliment on the state of my facial hair from my father recently. It's more Russell than Rutherford :D
i'm wondering if there are any here that are from new zealand or currently live there.
i'm going to be staying there for a month in july 2017 ... location to be determined.
i would love to have someone i can ask questions while i am in the planning stages.
You won't have to worry about sunburn in July unless you're a Snow Bunny, Wild Thing.
I'm in the North Island but get around a bit, mostly staying clear of the touristy spots. I'll try to keep an eye on my PMs.
i still go to the meetings because of my in wife and it came about that the elders knew of my pissed off attitude about the society getting involved in the un.
so the elders said they could help me get over that and wanted to meet with me.
now just to let you know, i have only told my wife and her mom so far about it, that's it.
If you want any chance of extracting your friends and family you have to do it without identifying yourself as Satan's Minion. Remember that once you do that, they have been taught to disregard everything you say. Every warning about apostates and individuals weak in the faith you ever heard from the platform and in ragazines .... your family heard that too.
update on mouthy (grace gough)this is graces granddaughter.
i wanted to send an update that today my beautiful grandmother passed away - surrounded by friends and family.
- may 22 1927 - sept 2nd 2016. mouthys_granddaughter.
Grace was a sweetie and I loved her dearly even though we never met in the flesh.
I hope her estranged family members can learn something from her strength and love.
My condolences to her family and friends.
Chris
i was an elder in the 1970's and i was not a big fan of the "stay alive until 75" dogma.
i was looked down upon by the heavy hitters on the body of elders and in time i changed my mind.
i knew of the failed prophecy of 1914 being the end of all times which was repeated for the year 1925...yet i came to believe well maybe this time they've got it right.. with every new watchtower, i combed over every word to find support for my change in my belief that the end was coming in fall of 1975. at the district assembly in 1975, everyone clung onto every word in the final talk.
I remember that talk too, but it was stated that the difference was months, not years. I'm sure that notion was published in a WT or Asleep! soon after and is easily found if you have a good library. I stopped attending a few months later.
not seen this before, or at least haven't registered it before.
maybe it's just a traditional style?.
i mean it's basically a glorified cattle trough?
Most of the baptisms i saw in the 50s and 60s in NZ were in portable troughs where the dunker didn't have to get his arse wet. They usually set them up in front of the main stage.
working an area in town with this brother who after knocking on door and finding no one home , he stands behind small tree and has piss on front lawn.fairdinkim.i hope they weren't peeping through binds,but then again better the piss than the shit mags we were going to leave..
There weren't any people working in sewerage treatment plants in any JW version of Paradise I've ever seen. Sure, there are plenty of pics of people wearing industrial era Nikes and cotton print dresses in Paradise, but I've never seen anything that suggests that you won't be pissing on a tree.
i have gone through the ones on here, i have read so much about it and everyone seems to have a different idea as to what the creed actually came up with in the sense of explaining it, religious leaders from most denominations seem to try to explain it and are all different, it does your head in just trying to read half their stuff.
when i was going door to door, i knew how to argue against it, but now trying to learn about it.. i was reading an article of the net about this and how christ emptied himself of all deity and that, but with all the statements made and arguments to and for it, one question was brought up.
when jesus was asked by his disciples about the time of the end, jesus replied neither i nor the angels know the hour, only the father.
The Watchtower deliberately makes the Trinity appear to be much more complicated than it is and never discusses the doctrine as espoused by the majority of Xtian religions, using diversion tactics to insinuate that Modalism represents the Trinity because a lot of prospective converts will fall for the subterfuge and it is an easier doctrine to confuse you with.
Have you seen the official doctrine of the Trinity from the Catholic Encyclopaedia? Do you understand it?
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15047a.htm
I'm not suggesting that you should believe the doctrine, just that in order to debate it with a JW, you do have to understand it so that you don't get diverted and confused and steam rolled into debating another subject chosen by the JW.
