Posts by slimboyfat

31

Zechariah 12:10 Corruption in the NWT

by Sea Breeze in

here's a question for those who still support watchtower on this forum.

why did watchtower leave out the word "me" in zech.

zechariah 12:10 reads like this: .

slimboyfat

You claimed Alter translated the phrase as “the one”. He simply doesn’t. It’s wrong. And when I pointed out your mistake, you changed the subject.

You claimed that the NWT didn’t translate the phrase as “to me” because of bias. But there are tons of versions that do the same as the NWT, many of them listed in careful’s post above.

You’re a Catholic are you not? Practically every modern Catholic version I can find agrees with the NWT on this point: The New American Bible, The Jerusalem Bible, The New Jerusalem Bible, The Revised New Jerusalem Bible, The Christian Community Bible, The New Christian Community Bible, The Revised Standard Version, The New Revised Standard Version. All versions that are approved by the Catholic Church and they all agree with the NWT on this verse. In fact are there any recent Catholic versions that don’t agree with the NWT?

So what on earth are you talking about?

31

Zechariah 12:10 Corruption in the NWT

by Sea Breeze in

here's a question for those who still support watchtower on this forum.

why did watchtower leave out the word "me" in zech.

zechariah 12:10 reads like this: .

slimboyfat

so Alter levels it to “the one.”

No he doesn’t. That’s not how he translates it. Once again you’re relying on AI to provide a sophisticated looking answer, with all the flowery language, but as usual the actual details are simply wrong.

281

Where is Tony?

by Athanasius in

jw
friends

on february 22, 2023, anthony morris iii was officially removed from the governing body of jehovah's witnesses.

a few months later it was revealed that the watchtower bought him a house in lumberton, north carolina.. however, and correct me if i am wrong, since leaving the gb nobody has reported seeing tony attending jw meetings or participating in field service.

in fact nobody has reported seeing him anywhere, not even at a local liquor store.

slimboyfat

Can’t somebody out there go and befriend him and find out his story? I don’t know what happened but I feel sorry for him, especially if he’s estranged from his wife and family too. He always wore his heart on his sleeve and his flaws seemed relatable. His hardliner attitude appeared to be an expression of inner demons rather than malice as it seems with some others.

35

1/2 of the Jehovah’s witnesses have gone

by hoser in

jw
friends

there are 1/2 of the jehovah’s witnesses that there were 30 years ago in my area.

some have left but i think that many have died and none of their kids stayed being jehovah’s witnesses.

7 congregations have been dissolved over the years.

slimboyfat

And a personal rediscovery of biblical truth.

No biased perspective there, then. 🤨

I can’t stand these AI generated videos. Maybe someday they’ll get better, but as it is I find them unwatchable.

31

Zechariah 12:10 Corruption in the NWT

by Sea Breeze in

here's a question for those who still support watchtower on this forum.

why did watchtower leave out the word "me" in zech.

zechariah 12:10 reads like this: .

slimboyfat

So why did Robert Alter translate the verse similarly to the NWT, a non religious Jew who is also an expert scholar of Hebrew and Hebrew literature?

Even if you translate it as “me”, it’s perfectly obvious that such a statement can make good sense if it’s talking about a parent being pained by the suffering of their child. This reading is eminently compatible with a non-Trinitarian reading of the text too.

What is nowhere in the text is this magical idea that if it says “me” instead of “him” then wham bam, you automatically have a 4th century Trinity on your hands! This is so farfetched and detached from what the text actually says it’s laughable.

42

Predictions for the next decade?

by jehovaxx in

as it’s nearly the new year my prediction over the next decade or so will see the sense of urgency dwindle.

then some huge huge changes.

for example by 2034 in a decades time, they will have address the 1914 issue and will come out and say we can’t be dogmatic.

slimboyfat

Yes, that’s correct. Some of the reduction in number of congregations is a reduction in foreign language congregations that were deemed not viable. Some of it was also a consolidation in KHs in response to the financial troubles Watchtower experienced around 2015.

All numbers are subject to redefinition over time. This is a feature of statistics in general not just Watchtower statistics. A publisher today isn’t the same as 20 years ago and the same goes for other measures. Even an attender at the memorial isn’t the same today because Zoom attenders are now counted.

Nevertheless it remains the case that JW numbers, taken as a whole, compare very favourably with most other churches in western countries. There are 9 million JWs today compared with 6 million 25 years ago. There are 240,000 members of the Church of Scotland compared with 600,000 25 years ago. Whatever way you look at it that indicates significant growth of JWs and significant decline of the Church of Scotland. In the west most churches are declining like the Church of Scotland and few match the growth of JWs.

Scenic View you ask what I think of the generation teaching? I think it’s nonsense, obviously. That doesn’t change the fact that JWs are still growing contrary to your comments. Just because you or I might wish JWs to decline doesn’t make it so. There’s no point pretending that JWs are “losing badly” when the facts are the opposite. What’s the point of denying reality? Or impugning the motives of others who don’t go along with denying reality?

42

Predictions for the next decade?

by jehovaxx in

as it’s nearly the new year my prediction over the next decade or so will see the sense of urgency dwindle.

then some huge huge changes.

for example by 2034 in a decades time, they will have address the 1914 issue and will come out and say we can’t be dogmatic.

slimboyfat

Do you think the religion census is also lying when it reports finding 3 million JWs in the United States? And the censuses in Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere that find far higher numbers of JWs than the official Watchtower count?

25 years is the time comparison you chose on the previous page when claiming JWs are losing badly

There are 700 more congregations worldwide compared with 10 years ago, that’s not much growth but it is growth

42

Predictions for the next decade?

by jehovaxx in

as it’s nearly the new year my prediction over the next decade or so will see the sense of urgency dwindle.

then some huge huge changes.

for example by 2034 in a decades time, they will have address the 1914 issue and will come out and say we can’t be dogmatic.

slimboyfat

9 million is a very conservative estimate of the number of JWs because most other methods of counting find far higher numbers of JWs. For example Watchtower claims only 1.2 million JW publishers in the United States whereas the US religion census cited above found 3 million JW adherents in the United States. The same pattern holds in other countries where censuses regularly produce far higher numbers of JWs than the official publisher count.

The congregation that I attended for over 30 years is gone now, dissolved, and no, a new congregation was not started as some Witnesses would have you believe. Attendance got so low at that congregation, and at a second English congregation using the same hall, that they had to be combined. This is happening all over the world.

The number of congregations has also increased significantly since 25 years ago. There were 90,000 congregations in 2000 and 118,000 in 2024. So while some congregations may not have increased and multiplied this is the overall trend worldwide.

42

Predictions for the next decade?

by jehovaxx in

as it’s nearly the new year my prediction over the next decade or so will see the sense of urgency dwindle.

then some huge huge changes.

for example by 2034 in a decades time, they will have address the 1914 issue and will come out and say we can’t be dogmatic.

slimboyfat

Thanks dropoffyourkeylee

I think I spotted a mistake on that report. It gives the number of JW congregations in the US in 2010 as 5000. That’s not correct. It also results in an inaccurate figure for the increase in JW congregations between 2010 and 2020. The reason for the mistake seems to be that the 2010 relies on a different source for the number of congregations than the 2020 report. The 2020 report gives the official JW number of congregations. I do not know where the 2010 figure was derived. Perhaps it’s the number of Kingdom Halls?

42

Predictions for the next decade?

by jehovaxx in

as it’s nearly the new year my prediction over the next decade or so will see the sense of urgency dwindle.

then some huge huge changes.

for example by 2034 in a decades time, they will have address the 1914 issue and will come out and say we can’t be dogmatic.

slimboyfat

For the last 25 years or so the Watchtower Organization has been fighting an enemy it never saw coming ... the internet ... and it is losing badly.

Number of JWs 25 years ago - 6 million

Number of JWs now - 9 million

If that’s losing then it’s a kind of losing most churches would give their right arm for.

Number of members of the Church of Scotland 25 years ago - 600,000

Number of members of the Church of Scotland now - 240,000