.
you don't need a weather man.
to know which way the wind blows .
You can't give away to others what you yourself don't have.
Dennis Waitley-from The Psychology of Winning
I always apply that one to the WTS.They don't have the truth therefore it's very hard to give it to other people.They also don't have true christian love so they can't give it to anyone else.
Goldminer
hi everyone and happy new year!
i have an online petition to protest the wt's lawsuit against quotes: http://www.jwinfo.50megs.com/custom4.html .
there are currently 26 signatures from 6 different countries.
I'd love to see the Quotes story end up on 20/20 or 60 minutes but we all know the WTS would be a no-show and then they'd just tell the rank & file "see,it's just apostates making it up,we don't even waste our time with things like that" and 98% of jw's would believe it.
As for the petition,maybe if people put down the names of PO's and elders it might have a small impact,otherwise the WTS will be glad it's not public and just quietly destroy it.
Goldminer
when i left a couple of years ago, the average meeting attendance on a sunday was about 70. a couple of years before that it was about 90. now only 45 people attend the meetings.
he said the bookstudies average 9 per week at the kingdom hall (which used to be the biggest one)!!!
it's got to be extremely discouraging to see no one is left.
Minimus,
The numbers you give there pretty much reflect the local congrgation here as well.If it wasn't for the many retirees that have moved to this area those numbers would be much lower.As well the average age of the congregation is slowly climbing every year.I'm sure within 20 years there will be many congregations consolidating or just shutting down and instead of building more kingdom halls they'll be selling them to the next up-and-coming religion.
Goldminer
i have been lurking in this site for more than three years now.
i want to thank the people who work to maintain this forum, for as in the the case of hundreds of others in need of help, this site has been key in my exit from the wt slavery and emotional recovery.
it was in this site that i learned about ray franz.
Welcome to the board Rowan!
I'm looking forward to reading some of your interesting stories.I too learned a great deal from Ray Franz's books and the freeminds website.I just wish more jw's would "see the light" or learn the "truth" about the religion.I dream of the day the WT shuts down their last kingdom hall.
Goldminer
auld soul posted about a mirror site at www.reexamine.org/quotes/index.htm and so i checked it out.
i went onto the homepage www.reexamine.org and surfed around a bit and clicked onto the "community portal" and found a download section: .
http://www.reexamine.org/index.php/reexamine:community_portal:publication_downloads:secret_publications .
I wonder who the society will try to sue over this one.
Maybe they'll have to re-edit that part about the locusts in the revelation book...
Goldminer
holidays .
the two ways to look at them for a witness.
one, is celebration: that could mean ceremonies, rejoicing, having a christmas tree, and decorate the home.. .
I remember about 10 years ago when I (stupidly) came back in the "truth",they always had a congregation party at christmastime,often right on christmas day.i used to think to myself that the worldly people who rented these halls and those who saw us skating and going inside to eat and dance must have tought we were celebrating christmas as a church group.
New Year's also meant many small gatherings in private homes for drinks and watching the ball fall (NY times square I believe) at midnight.
Goldminer
it's worth thinking about - what will they do if their cash flow virtually dries up?
would they "turn on" the friends and try to "punish" them by threatening to close assembly halls and drop the awake completely?.
could witnesses in western nations fade away from the "ministry" if there is almost nothing left to offer at the doors?.
Like I said before...
...slowly imploding...
Goldminer
i'm sure this has been posted about but can someone link me the old thread or something, i'm interested if this is still being pushed..... .
http://www.jwfiles.com/2034.htm.
that's a link to an online article about 2034 being the new end date, is this still going on?
They abandoned that scripture Buttlight,but you never know,they might bring it back and tack it on to 2034 when the end doesn't come.
Goldminer
when the generation teaching was ditched, along with several other interpretations of matthew and luke, i started to doubt big time.. when the new teaching on the sheep and goats came out i was no longer convinced.
any fool could see that if the son of man had not yet arrived, it negated the gb interpretation of themselves as the faithful steward.. but no!!!.
new light showed that christ arrives at different times for different purposes.
In my research on 'The Lord's Arrival",I found that William Miller predicted Jesus would return in the fall of 1843.When that didn't happen he said it would be in the spring of 1844.When that didn't happen he moved it to the fall of 1844.By then he had so few followers it wasn't worth setting a new date.
Some 30 years later Nelson Barbour decided that William Miller was right about Jesus's return,he just got the date wrong.Barbour figured it would be in 1874.He was so sure of it he even convinced his buddy Charles Russell.When jesus failed to show up they went back to the drawing board and decided that he did come back,just invisibly and the end of the world was scheduled for 1914.When the end of the world didn't materialize in 1914,they went back to the drawing board and figured it out one more time.Jesus did come back,not in 1874,but in 1914, again invisibly.Apparently he would go away for a few years and return again in 1919 to choose the WTS as the only true religion on earth.
Goldminer
a fanatical jw...
-thinks the tsunami and hurrican katrina are signs the satan is becoming more resilient in his quest to take over the world!.
-keeps tracts in their back pocket to place in the grocery line.. -thinks dr. phil is "satan's little helper".
-would never come to a website like this one
-often says:"I know it's the truth"
Goldminer
