Posts by slimboyfat

21

Is a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses marries a disfellowshipped person, what is the outcome?

by EdenOne in

hello all.. i need a quick answer, and also a solid reference in the literature, please.. if a jw marries an unbeliever, there is reproof, it's frowned upon, it's disloyal, there will be loss of privileges, etc, but there's no other more serious consequences.

but, in a scenario where two people are free to marry, but one is a baptized jw and the other is disfellowshipped / disassociated, what are the consequences?.

thanks for your help.. r..

slimboyfat

I think we can safely say marrying a DFed person is a no, no. We can file it under things so obvious they didn’t think it needed saying. Like how there was no actual counsel point in the Theocratic School about not delivering your talk while dressed as Satan, or that prayers shouldn’t be spoken backwards and offered in the name of the Grand Smurf.

40

The Reasoning Book

by Magnum in

the book reasoning from the scriptures was released in the 1980's, and it was used at virtually every meeting for service, every service meeting, and every theocratic ministry school meeting thereafter.

many jws had copies bound together with their bibles.

it was huge in jw land back then.. at that time, with the reasoning book, jws were trained to keep conversations going in spite of objections, to almost stick their feet in people's doors to keep conversations going, to defend "the truth," to argue doctrine, etc.. compare the situation today with that of the 80's.

slimboyfat

I’m pretty sure there is a difference in the Blood section between editions because I remember an elder being embarrassed about it when we read the section in a field service group and different people had different wording in their copies. That was an odd thing to be reading at a service group but we seemed to do that sort of thing back then.

48

Is Jesus God?

by Sea Breeze in

i know that a lot of historical names have claimed to be a god.

but, jesus arguably claimed to be god.

scripture says he's the creator.

slimboyfat

You can read anything into the NT if you like but some readings are more credible than others. For example the idea the messiah is an angelic being who came to earth and who rules as God’s vice regent was a Jewish idea that clearly resonates with the presentation of a Jesus in the NT. The idea that Jesus is one person of a tri-personal God, eternally begotten, not made, and that he has two natures was an idea that was developed centuries later than the NT and therefore much more difficult to try to squeeze into the Bible.

48

Is Jesus God?

by Sea Breeze in

i know that a lot of historical names have claimed to be a god.

but, jesus arguably claimed to be god.

scripture says he's the creator.

slimboyfat

Jesus addressed the issue head on in John 10 where he pointed out to the Pharisees that if even those referred to in the Psalms (be they judges or angels) can be called “gods”, so much more can Jesus the messiah rightly be called “God’s Son”.

Jesus is also called the “firstborn of all creation” and the “beginning of the creation of God”, and he is described as the one through whom God created all things. Revelation 4 underlines this distinction when it says God is worthy to receive power and honour and glory because he is the source of creation, whereas Jesus as the lamb in Revelation 5 receives power and honour and glory because of his sacrifice for humans.

Jesus received his life from God (John 5.67) whereas God received his life from no one.

32

Conversation with old friend

by LongHairGal in

i recently had a conversation with an old acquaintance from the congregation i used to attend.

we talked about the recent changes in the 2023 annual meeting.

i especially pointed out the one about getting rid of hourly reporting on monthly time slips.

slimboyfat

I think we’re jumping the gun a bit. They’ve stopped reporting hours, but they’ve not stopped door to door ministry. They still meet and go out as they always did. Whether this changes time will tell, but as of yet the only thing that stopped is reporting the hours spent on the ministry. I wonder if pioneers will stop reporting time too. But if they stop reporting time then that’s the end of pioneers as a concept, because what does it mean to be an pioneer other than reporting a certain amount of hours? If pioneers go, then that will be a bigger change in some ways.

28

Waiting On Jehovah First Mentioned?

by Ron.W. in

yes, waiting on jehovah for him to handle a problem/ doctrine etc.. when did the jw's first start saying that?

they've been saying it as long as i can remember.. what scriptures do they trot out to back that teaching up?

?.

slimboyfat

One of the Kingdom Songs used to go “On Jehovah we must wait …” Did that one make it into the new song book? I don’t know.

I don’t know the rest of the proper lyrics because I used to joke that all the lyrics went:

On Jehovah we must wait,

and wait and wait and wait,

aaaand wait and wait and wait,

and wait and wait and wait.

We keep on waiting, anticipating,

For on Jehovah we must wait,

yes we all must wait!

1

AAWA back on track with Blood Activism?

by raymond frantz in

https://www.jwupdates.com/post/aawa-raising-the-blood-issue-again.

the following appeared on the good man project website and it is an interview with lee elder, the current leader of aawa and his latest activism on the blood issue ,worth reading.... lee elder is the founder and acting director of ajwrb (advocates for jehovah’s witness reforms on blood).

ajwrb is a non-profit educational association operating under the umbrella of aawa (advocates for awareness of watchtower abuses).. born and raised as a jehovah’s witness, lee is part of the fourth generation in his family to follow this faith.

slimboyfat

Whenever I see the name Lee Elder it’s a nostalgic memory for me, because he’s the first “apostate” I ever heard of by name. I think it was during a midweek meeting for field service in the summer of 1999. I was visiting a new congregation and there was a big turnout for field service - about 20 or so of us crammed into a living room at 10am. In the chit chat before leaving, one of the brothers said that “apostates” were now causing trouble on the newfangled “Internet”. One of the apostates was calling himself a “Liberal Elder” and calling into question the blood doctrine. But he’s not a real elder at all, only pretending to believe one. Well that certainly sparked my interest! Next chance I got I used the newfangled Internet search (I think this was before google dominated) to find out what was going on. I found the AJWRB website, H2O, Reachout, this forum, and others within a short time.

2

Article: Jehovah’s Witnesses sue Norway after registration revoked

by Tahoe in

we’ve all been following the norway trial.

here is an article to share: https://www.baptiststandard.com/news/world/jehovahs-witnesses-sue-norway-after-registration-revoked/.

after norway deregistered the jehovah’s witnesses last year, some human rights experts say the nation’s reputation as a bastion of religious freedom could be in question.. now, the jehovah’s witnesses of norway are suing the state for revoking their national registration and withholding state funds.

slimboyfat

Wonder if all these legal troubles will impact JW growth in Norway.

129

Is there “new light” on 1914?

by wallsofjericho in

i’m hearing paraphrasing like “we just don’t know” .

is this regarding 1914?

or micheal the arch angel?.

slimboyfat

They grew by 1.4% last year? That’s not decline that’s growth.

Number of congregations has gone down slightly in recent years, which is the best evidence for decline, but that is a very modest drop compared to other churches, and even at that, the number of congregations actually went up slightly in 2023.

42

The Jehovah's Witness religion has ''Jumped the Shark''

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

what does jump the shark mean?.

the phrase “jump the shark” is a term in pop culture that originated from the tv show “happy days” and is used to describe a decline in quality.

it refers to the moment when a tv show or other product has reached its peak and starts to decline in quality.

slimboyfat

Yes, for me too, all these recent changes pale in comparison to the “overlapping generation” teaching. What on earth was that? I genuinely tried to understand what they were saying but it hurt my brain.