anybody into art out there?
i was just so blown away by this piece i had to share.. .
at first i was just like "oh, that's a clever idea".
I am at this very moment reading a book with an illustration on the front cover very similar to this painting. Click on "search inside" to view it enlarged.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0230360696/ref=rdr_ext_tmb
It must be the same artist.
But the concept is slightly different. In the case of the illustration on the cover of the book I am reading, it seems to be posing the question: how can you be sure the reality behind the representation is accurately depicted?
i realize this is odd, but a "how you woke up" thread and the personal stories that are told which i know we all enjoy, made me think of this.
in helping my wife and a couple others get the ball rolling, i realized the thing that resonated with me, didn't even move the needle with them.
i wanted to rail on and on about blood, because that was my conduit to waking up, but for my wife it was about shunning.
I think the videos make it more interesting and the words on the screen are handy and make singing easier.
I don't like looking up the scriptures on tablets instead of reading along in the Bible itself.
there is no holy spirit.
i lead a double life.
i post on apostate web sites, swear like a sailor, covertly subvert the watchtower religion and do many other things i'd rather not mention.
The Holy Spirit is not a person... to be mocked. It is a force... to be reckoned with! How do you know it isn't God's plan to use you in some way? There is time for all of us to repent and serve Jehovah with a complete heart.
remember, remember - darkspilver or darkspliver couldn't even remember his username!
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/282501/calebs-aeroplane-returns-w14-11-15-p-16.
let's consider spilver or spliver's posts - since he likes to do it to others!.
I don't know all the details, but I do know he was correct about you misquoting a WT in another thread.
You quoted the WT in such a way that made it look as if they opposed confessing to the elders in 2010 when in fact the same article advocates confessing to the elders. It was a bit odd and you never responded when the error was pointed out to you.
The WT has long held the rather baffling position that confession should not be to men (contra Catholic priests) and that JWs need to confess their sins to the elders. How they square that circle is a bit of a mystery, but their stance has not changed as you implied.
i've received the following news from a reliable and trusted source: .
the demise of printing literature in the u.k. is being brought forward by one year - to march 2018. graphic design and printing support will go too.
large numbers of "disposable" bethelites will now have to make their own way in the world, when their "mother" abandons them.
As I understand it, a lot of what passes for "real estate business" is simply riding the inflation of boom periods anyway. Making money long term from property is not easy. But if you get lucky during a boom it breeds overconfidence, as WT may be. When the WT sells its major property assets there's no guarantee they'll ever manage to recover anything like it. Free labour doesn't cover a slump or an asset sale during a particular phase of the cycle. Financially it appears WT is in serious trouble with no readily apparent solution.
i've received the following news from a reliable and trusted source: .
the demise of printing literature in the u.k. is being brought forward by one year - to march 2018. graphic design and printing support will go too.
large numbers of "disposable" bethelites will now have to make their own way in the world, when their "mother" abandons them.
It reminds me. Please someone else who knows the story in detail either contradict or confirm the following:
I visited the Austrian branch in the early 2000s. From what I remember it was small but there was a whole section of the branch that was not in use. In the 1990s or 1980s they had expanded the branch in anticipation of printing lots of literature in many languages of Eastern Europe when communism collapsed. But in the event, although JWs grew strongly in Eastern Europe, it also coincided with the replacement of hardcover books with paperbacks, and printing in Europe was consolidated in Selters in Germany. I'm not sure if the Austrian branch was ever even used to print on the basis that it was intended. It lay half dormant for around two decades before the branch was closed altogether. Hardly a sterling example of efficient planning or use of funds.
i've received the following news from a reliable and trusted source: .
the demise of printing literature in the u.k. is being brought forward by one year - to march 2018. graphic design and printing support will go too.
large numbers of "disposable" bethelites will now have to make their own way in the world, when their "mother" abandons them.
My guess is they started planning and building the new headquarters before the decision to cease printing in Britain was made or perhaps even contemplated. They are making cutbacks at break-neck speed, and the impression they give is a rather hasty and chaotic retreat.
incidentally it's simply not true that ebooks are replacing physical books in society at large. Recent figures have shown decline in ebook sales and increase in physical book sales.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/13/books-ebook-publishers-paper
I think that the JW leadership is moving into ebooks and downloads simply because they can't make money from physical books any more. This is a consideration that is peculiar to JWs in particular, and not general to the publishing industry. It's not because books in general are in decline (they are not) but because the Watchtower organisation has been unable to charge a set price for the literature since the 1990s.
So new technology is not forcing the JW leadership out of publishing. Rather new technology is enabling JWs to get out of publishing altogether which was already no longer lucrative for the organisation for at least a couple of decades now. The signs that publishing was simply no longer generating money have been there since the 1990s: when they stopped printing attractive hardbacks and producing cheap paperbacks instead.
If they were still charging for the literature they'd still be making money out of them and they wouldn't be cutting back.
I would not be surprised if the organisation stops printing altogether. It may still want to print Bibles, tracts and a few select items. But they could probably pay outside companies to do that, as they did in the early years of the Watch Tower.
All of which does rather raise the question what bethel and headquarters are for. Other than to provide a nice environment for the GB to live and exercise authority.
Plus if they stop printing operations then what are they asking ordinary JWs to donate money for? To maintain JW broadcasting and the website? It's a bit thin grounds for asking monthly contributions from working people and old people to hand over life savings.
it's so stupid i think it infected me with its virus: pagan practices.
check the subheading "calendar.
".
The same 1935 Golden Age magazinethat laid the groundwork for 1975.
another article analyzing how bad poor jw's have it when it comes to opposition from family.
few interesting quotes:.
parr 2:.
There was a convention talk with the same theme about "bringing a sword" in the family a few years ago which was even more hardline.
There are many good things about JWs, but it is hard to support this. I really wonder what average JWs think. I think it's the worst JW talk I ever heard.
another article analyzing how bad poor jw's have it when it comes to opposition from family.
few interesting quotes:.
parr 2:.
I guess JW elders would come down on the side that DFed people should not be on your friend list. Essentially it could be a judicial matter. The question is would they seek out the information, or be brazen enough to make an issue out of it.
The obvious solution, if JW elder policing of Facebook became widespread, would be for ordinary JWs to make their friend lists private.
In which case maybe especially officious elders might complain "I can't access the page to see who is on your friend list".
Surely that would never actually happen. But who knows.
