Posts by slimboyfat

13

maths

by pepperheart in

on the front of the 2016 year book it says that the watchtower is spending $200 million us dollars a year on special pioners etc if they get $1 billion us dollars from selling all the buildings at bethel in new york by my mats that gives them another five years or so.what might happen after that ????

:-).

slimboyfat

The $200 million figure is only for travelling overseers, missionaries, and special pioneers.

As far as I can tell this figure doesn't include the cost of keeping bethelites, their travel, printing books and magazines, web presence, broadcasting, legal costs and out of court settlements, and whatever else.

Total expenditure must be much higher than $200 million. The revenue from selling assets may only keep them going for a couple of years, if that's what they are relying on.

It looks like they are in real financial difficulty.

52

Russia to liquidate Jehovah's Witnesses' organization

by processor in

http://starconnectmedia.com/2017/01/19/russia-gets-go-ahead-to-liquidate-jehovahs-witnesses-organisation/.

slimboyfat

https://mobile.twitter.com/SikhProf/status/822920509323116545/photo/1

10

Why did C T Russell choose 606 BC?

by shepherdless in

i recently commented on a thread in relation to the 607 bc - 1914 ad calculation, listing problems with the logic and mathematics.

afterwards, i wondered what made ct russell choose 606 bc in the first place.

here is my research so far.. i had read somewhere a suggestion that 606 bc was a number ct russell got from nathan balbour who in turn got it from william miller of the millerites.

slimboyfat

Have you seen Alan Feuerbacher's excellent discussion of how Russell chose 606 and why JWs changed it to 607?

http://corior.blogspot.co.uk/2006/02/evolution-of-606-to-607-bce-in.html

13

How does the Preaching Work get done Under a Ban?

by Quarterback in

the year book tells us that some activity in fs is being performed in countries that are banned, is this accurate?

how on earth is it accomplished?

do anyone have any experience?.

slimboyfat

Depends.

Sometimes they lay low and sneak around.

Other times they poke dictators in the face publicly with predictable consequences.

There seems little rhyme or reason to it. We need to give up the idea that JW actions are rational or consistent, let alone the "one true way". They behave differently at different times according to the whim of the leadership, often apparently based on changing legal, political, internal organisational, and even personality issues.

43

2520-607 = 1913

by schnell in

jw
friends

i love math, i love calendars, and somehow, this always gets me.. 2520 - 607 = 1913. not 1914.. 2520 - 606 = 1914. from what i understand, russell realized this.

he had previously used 606 bc, of course, but then he switched it to 607 bc.

i know there was something about no zero year, so it actually should be less one, correct?.

slimboyfat

As I understand it, they switched from 606 to 607 in order to make it still fit with 1914 and for no other reason. A bit like the two years before Cyrus told the Jews to go home. There's no actual reason why it's two years other than to make 1914 fit. How anyone can defend any of it is a complete mystery to me.

12

About 1.8 Millions disfellowshipped since 1981 and about 1.3 Million still are!

by StephaneLaliberte in

this means that for every 6 publishers, there is a disfellowshipped person.

this statistic doesn't take into account all of the kids that become/removed as publishers and receive a similar treatment from their family.

conclusion: jehovah's witnesses do break up families.

slimboyfat

The figures sound about right. But there are a few complications.

What about people who "disassociated" are they included in the 1% or the 40,000 figures? Probably not. Yet not all of these people left voluntarily, since it can include "apostates", joining military, attending another church, and more recently accepting blood.

Also until the mid 1990s unbaptised publishers could be removed and treated as if disfellowshipped.

Plus we don't know if the DFing rate has changed over the decades, either up or down, which is entirely possible.

Having said that the ball park figure of around 1 million or so DFed seems proportionate and fits with the known facts.

23

The goal in all this 1918/1919 change?

by careful in

as some have recently posted here, there does seem to be a shift going on in their self-interpretation(s) of what happened in 1918 and 1919. if we can look past all the details that emphasize the poor thinking and poor wording (or contradictions/just plain craziness/insignificance) of their message, something bigger seems to be afoot.

they appear to be attempting to redefine the meanings for some "prophetic" scriptures in light of themselves.

1. they are trying to somehow fill the void they have themselves created from their rejecting freddie franz's (ff) type–anti-type postulations.

slimboyfat

Yes maybe the reason the link works for me is that I downloaded it months ago. I have tried to email you the PDF. Will write a proper email soon.

23

The goal in all this 1918/1919 change?

by careful in

as some have recently posted here, there does seem to be a shift going on in their self-interpretation(s) of what happened in 1918 and 1919. if we can look past all the details that emphasize the poor thinking and poor wording (or contradictions/just plain craziness/insignificance) of their message, something bigger seems to be afoot.

they appear to be attempting to redefine the meanings for some "prophetic" scriptures in light of themselves.

1. they are trying to somehow fill the void they have themselves created from their rejecting freddie franz's (ff) type–anti-type postulations.

slimboyfat

It's a thesis with the title: "The Church in the thought of Charles Taze Russell" by Gene Edson Ahlstrom

23

The goal in all this 1918/1919 change?

by careful in

as some have recently posted here, there does seem to be a shift going on in their self-interpretation(s) of what happened in 1918 and 1919. if we can look past all the details that emphasize the poor thinking and poor wording (or contradictions/just plain craziness/insignificance) of their message, something bigger seems to be afoot.

they appear to be attempting to redefine the meanings for some "prophetic" scriptures in light of themselves.

1. they are trying to somehow fill the void they have themselves created from their rejecting freddie franz's (ff) type–anti-type postulations.

slimboyfat

Excellent post careful. Yes their abandonment of Franz's "types" may be causing unintended problems. And they are not as creative or intelligent as Franz was.

Yes Russell had a lot more to say about the gap between the second century apostasy and the nineteenth century revival. I think the Bible Students identified the messengers of the church in Revelation as: Paul, Arius, Waldo, Wycliffe, Luther and Russell. I can't find the source for that now, but in searching for it I came across this interesting discussion of Russell's "church thought".

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a226955.pdf

45

New light in this weeks WT?

by Indian Larry in

anybody have any ideas where they are going with the "new light" they have been pushing last week and this week?

for instance in this weeks study article one section reads:.

in years gone by, we believed that jehovah became displeased with his people because they did not have a zealous share in the preaching work during world war i. we concluded that for this reason, jehovah allowed babylon the great to take them captive for a short time.

slimboyfat

It's amazing they still take themselves seriously enough to rearrange these particular deck chairs and expect people pay attention like this is relevant, important, or even coherent information.