careful

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Posts by careful

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  43

  Can God Change his Mind?

  by peacefulpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  is 31:yet he also is wise and will bring disaster and does not retract his words.. 1 sam 15: furthermore, the eternal one of israel does not lie or change his mind, for he is not man who changes his mind.. numbers 23: god is not a man who lies, or a son of man who changes his mind.

  does he speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill?.

  when the god you worship pronounces judgement, is he, really just issuing a warning or has the matter been determined through all the godly powers of insight, foresight and perfect judgement?

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  careful

  This sounds very much like Open Theism:

  https://iep.utm.edu/o-theism/#:~:text=Open%20Theism%20is%20the%20thesis,freely%20do%20in%20the%20future.
  
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  5

  Westmoreland County man charged in latest Jehovah's Witness sex abuse case

  by Tahoe in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  link to article .

  a westmoreland man was recently charged with sexually assaulting and molesting a young girl by a statewide grand jury that has been investigating sex abuse among elders in jehovah’s witness congregations across pennsylvania for years.. ronald w. mangone, 69, who was a member of the jehovah’s witness congregation in new kensington, allegedly abused the girl beginning at the age of 6 from 1991 to 1994, according to a police complaint filed april 2.. a second girl also was allegedly sexually abused by the suspect in the late 1980s, but law enforcement agents say they were unable to charge him because the statute of limitations had expired.. mr. mangone now faces three felony charges and five misdemeanor charges for sexually assaulting and endangering a minor.

  he is the latest suspect in a wide-ranging investigation that has so far led to the arrests of at least 14 others from jehovah’s witness congregations on similar charges since 2022.. “what's going on in pennsylvania has much much broader implications,” said mark o’donnell, a longtime advocate for sexual assault victims in the congregations and a witness who has appeared before the grand jury.. the sweeping investigation in pennsylvania, launched by the attorney general’s office in 2019, is the first to target jehovah’s witness groups in what has been described by some law enforcement agents as a longstanding problem within the religious organization... “it’s groundbreaking,” mr. o’donnell said.

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  careful

  Thx Tahoe for the post. What's going n in PA makes me wonder whether other states will follow their lead:

  “It’s groundbreaking,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “This really hasn't been done in other states.”
  
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  19

  Super Duper Awkward

  by Slidin Fast in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  did anyone else find the teen section on the meeting tonight massively cringeworthy?

  i saw two kids who will be laughing stocks for life after their world wide exposure.

  complete exploitation in my opinion, unforgivable..

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  careful

  Wow, are Witness children running out of school classrooms in reality?
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  27

  Quality of jw.org translation?

  by Wonderment in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  someone asked the following question to an artificial intelligence (ai) website:.

  how does the most translated website ensure accuracy of translations?.

  answer: .

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  careful

  Wonderment, in answer to your OP:

  Doesn't AI just cull through all the info that's out there electronically? Who else would put something out there re: translation of WTS in-house pubs except the organization itself?

  Doubtless too, that's the case with the criticisms of the NWT since there are so many that have either appeared on the web to begin with or been entered into cyberspace from print media.

  Thx PetrW for the info on those two passages. I know nothing about Czech so cannot comment on what role that may play in the two instances you point out, but surely your statement "Translation from translation tends to degrade the quality of the text" is spot on. In practical terms the organization has little other choice if they want to maintain the control they have over all the R&F. Even the GB member(s) who did the 2013 English revision had no real knowledge of Hebrew and Greek, so the publishers who translated that English revision into other modern languages likely would not either. Once Fred Franz died, such knowledge up top died, and anyone lower down who might have such knowledge must still defer to the authority structure, even if such a person might see faults in translation, whether in in-house pubs or the NWT itself.
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  24

  Murderous Jehovah's Witness bludgeoned female customer before leading meeting. Spiritual paradise?

  by Balaamsass2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  1/31/2024 in the strange but true category.

  confused holy spirit appoints killer servant.

  "" a twisted jehovah's witness bludgeoned a woman he rowed with over incomplete building works to death with a hammer, then merrily whistled as he packed up his tools and went to lead a service at the church where they met.

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  careful

  Was Ms Gordon a sister in the cong.?

  I wonder whether he was DFed or jumped at the chance to use the "new light" and just claim, "I'm repentant."
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  20

  Spiritual Paradise? Jehovah's Witness cons JW seniors out of life savings.

  by Balaamsass2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  3/28/2024 central california coast.

  found guilty of $1.2 million scam targeting seniors.

  ex-insurance agent brett e. lovett convicted of fraud, elder abuse, grand theft, and money laundering".

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  careful

  Thx BA2, for the OP, and you others for the good comments!
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  28

  Waiting On Jehovah First Mentioned?

  by Ron.W. in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  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?

  ?.

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  careful

  SBF:

  And often quoted to “show a waiting attitude”.

  Micah 7:7

  But as for me, it is for Jehovah that I shall keep on the lookout. I will show a waiting attitude for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.

  Also sometimes used in the same context is Psalm 4:4:
  

  Be agitated, but do sin. Have your say in your heart, upon your bed, and keep silent.

  Ps. 37:7:

  Keep silent before Jehovah and wait longingly for him.

  and elsewhere in the Psalms (42:5, 11; 43:11; 62:5; 71:14; 119:49; 131:3, in addition to blondie's ref. above). It's a regular theme there.

  I can't help but think of the parallel that whatever ancient Israelites are really responsible for writing the Psalms (no Fred Franz fantasies here), they were bummed out about the corruption that they had to endure "up top" like so many Witnesses (and ex-JWs) are today.
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  43

  What Does The Organization Really Teach?

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

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  careful

  In answer to the original post: come join us! We'll tell you what to believe, what to think, what to do, what to wear, how to groom yourself, how to spend your time, how not to entertain yourself, and most importantly — never to talk to anyone who criticizes us!
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  130

  When JW.org drops 607BCE...

  by Nathan Natas in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  probably everyone else thought of this long ago, but i, being an "independent thunker" thunk of it just a coupla weeks ago.. we all know that since the year zero (on the fredfranzian calendar) the wtb&ts has defied archaeology and insisted that jerusalem was destroyed in 607 bce, even though the physical evidence shows that 587 bce is a more likely date.

  in fact, the book "the gentile times reconsidered: have jehovah's witnesses been wrong all along about 607 bce?

  " by carl olof jonsson and rud persson made this conversation public.. it is a difference of 20 years.

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  careful

  It will be interesting to see whether the now in-process agenda will indeed move beyond FS time reporting and dress & grooming into doctrine. When the 2013 rev. NWT came out, there was plenty of hidden rejection of FF's ideas scattered throughout the revision, so in some sense, doctrinal change had already begun a decade plus ago.

  Most R&F Witnesses could care less about doctrine and any kind of "in-depth Bible study" especially about prophecy. That's what the 607/1914 Gentiles Times madness is all about. So if the current GB changes that, I suspect there would be little negative reaction from the R&F. In fact, there might very well be relief: "Thank God I don't have to attempt to teach that anymore!"

  There would probably be serious opposition to the idea from spacy Splane who still seems enamored by prophecy (evidently the only one on the GB still caught up in that), but with the rest for a change on 607 etc, and doofus Splane witnessing what happened to his erstwhile buddy Tony Morris who stood up against the majority will, he's likely had the fear of Jehovah put into him against fighting what the bulk of the GB want as their agenda.

  I repeat, it will be interesting to watch what develops here.
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  6

  Will Watchtower and Jehovah's Witnesses suffer the same fate as the Catholic Church?

  by Balaamsass2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  northern california, 4/2/2024.

  "sacramento catholic diocese files for bankruptcy reorganization in wake of abuse lawsuits".

  https://www.yahoo.com/news/sacramento-catholic-diocese-files-bankruptcy-160421282.html.

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  careful

  Fascinating. Thanks.