Posts by AuldSoul

65

Sect or cult?

by Cady in

jw
friends

so i finally decided to get my a** to the library and read some real research on cults.

the book i'm starting with is "psychodynamic perspectives on religion, sect and cult.

in the introduction they mention margaret thaler singer's definition of a destructive cult as an organization in which:a leader claims divinity or special relationship with god.

AuldSoul

Cady,

Hi! And I'm glad you do research. One thought on this:

A leader who is the sole judge of a member's actions or faith.

According to JW teachings, Jesus is only the judge of such things at Armageddon, not before. The elders are judges, but they are given criteria (law) by which to judge that is often not based on the Bible. The law they are given comes from the Governing Body who retain absolute teaching authority and absolute authority in matters of judgment.

It is a cult, in the darkest sense of the term. People, especially apostates, seem to shy away from applying this term to JWs. I hear people say that JWs are not like the Branch Davidians. I call bullsh**! They don't do the identical things, but they are very much alike. Cults prey on people who are easy to persuade and use emotional appeal, as opposed to logical appeal, to win adherents. Cults are determined by their authority structure and by the impacts on those under authority. By this criteria, JWs are the worst kind of cult. The fact that their authority is so absolute that they could order mass suicide and many would comply should be enough to prove it.

If the Catholic Church ordered mass suicide you would see mass exodus or just failure to comply. If the Governing Body ordered it I would not be surprised if 3,000,000 and more people ceased to exist.

AuldSoul

104

did this ever happen to you?

by joanne_ in

just wondering if this happened to any of you.

did you ever go to the service group and be assigned to the different car groups.....and then....the sister that is assigned to go with you...decline and say...'i am just going by myself today and do my return vistits by myself'..... damn, i should have complained about that one!

it was very rude!

AuldSoul

How about "ravenous dogs that have returned to their vomit" and "sow that has returned to rolling in the mire?" Are those gentle enough, defd? That's what I was called by Tyrone. Tyrone seems to think that drawing public attention to or expressing indignance regarding the shortcomings of Jehovah's Witnesses is apostasy.

According to the Gospels, Jesus was an apostate. He encouraged others to apostatize themselves and he sought out apostates to ask them to follow him. I feel as though I am in excellent company.

When someone comes in here to a Web site that is owned and operated by what the WTS calls an "apostate," and starts to accuse those posting here of being apostates and then misapplies Scripture to them that is full of denigrations and refuses to enter into reasoned discourse on any subject, should we not consider that the frothing of a deranged person?

"Derange" is defined: To upset the normal condition or functioning of.

Hopefully, the intermittent nature of "lunacy" credited the poster periods of lucidity. I have seen little to indicate that so far, but I haven't ruled it out.

AuldSoul

13

"Jehovahs Witnesses" on Wikipedia the online encyclopedia

by JustTickledPink in

jw
friends

for those of you familiar with wikipedia, you can get the answer to almost any question.

it's the greatest online encyclopedia and reference.. for curiosity sake, i looked up "jehovah's witnesses" and came up with this link.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jehovas_witnesses.

not only does it do a pretty good job of outlining what jws are about, it also mentions they are suffering from a decline in numbers in developed lands.

AuldSoul

I added some more. I hope it goes through.

30

Have You Seen My Mother... by Bryan Foreword by Dr. Jerry Bergman

by Bryan in

jw
friends

.

AuldSoul

That interview was AWESOME, Bryan. I look forward to the book.

AuldSoul

13

"Jehovahs Witnesses" on Wikipedia the online encyclopedia

by JustTickledPink in

jw
friends

for those of you familiar with wikipedia, you can get the answer to almost any question.

it's the greatest online encyclopedia and reference.. for curiosity sake, i looked up "jehovah's witnesses" and came up with this link.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jehovas_witnesses.

not only does it do a pretty good job of outlining what jws are about, it also mentions they are suffering from a decline in numbers in developed lands.

AuldSoul

I just added these to Wikipedia:

Belief that Jesus is mediator for only the portion of the 144,000 still living (Revelation 7:4; 1 Timothy 2:5)
Belief that teaching authority is only possessed by the portion of the 144,000 still living (remnant), as a group.
Belief that the "remnant" is represented in teaching authority by a Governing Body of very few men who have the equivalent of magisterium regarding interpretation of Bible prophecies.

LOL, that should clue some folks in.

AuldSoul

5

not sure what think...

by apple78 in

jw
friends

i hope someone can help me decide what i should think.. i have a friend who has always been a jw, i am not nor ever will be one.

when we became friends she was rejecting it all in a way and didn't care about it.

she has gone full circle and is trying very very hard to be a good jw, this has involved her changing many aspects of her life.. what i want to know is this: is she ok being a friend of mine?

AuldSoul

apple78, WELCOME!!!

I would start right now reinforcing how glad you are that your friendship goes above and beyond little things like choice of religion.

She is likely trying to be good because something has recently scared her into thinking the "end of this old wicked system" is coming soon. This religion is fear based. There is fear of being disfellowshipped (excommunicated and shunned). There is fear of getting killed by God at Armageddon. There is fear of losing friends when God destroys them.

If she really is going to be a good little JW, she will eventually have to either indoctrinate you or stop being close friends with you. To you, she will say she is your friend. To other JWs, she will say, "(S)he's not really a friend. More like, an acquaintance." She will justify this to herself however she has to. But the fact of the matter is, she believes if you don't become one of Jehovah's Witnesses you will be destroyed by God at Armageddon. As I have heard from the platform at Conventions of JWs, "Who would want to be close friend with manure, with fertilizer for the plants of the New System?"

If she exposes herself to enough of that indoctrination and there is nothing to counterbalance it, she will start to think that way in time.

Now, if you would like, we can get you ready with questions and arguments so that you can tell her, "I don't guess I'd mind studying, but there are some questions I would need to have answered first." We could give you questions she has probably never thought to ask. Be happy to do it. I hope you can keep your friend.

AuldSoul

25

The EVERLASTING Lie

by thinker in

<http://www.tentmaker.org/books/aion_lim.html> .

<http://www.tentmaker.org/books/time/time_12.html> .

<http://www.tentmaker.org/books/time/time_13.html> .

AuldSoul

There is only one reference of the word "paradise" in the OT of the NWT:

Song of Solomon 4:13 Your skin is a paradise of pomegranates, with the choicest fruits, henna plants along with spikenard plants;

There are many references in the footnotes. It is odd that a word that is used 18 times in the entire NWT, including introduction, footnotes, and indices, should be the basis for so much text in books produced by the WTS. If this was a primary teaching it would have gotten much more copy in the texts.

For instance, "kingdom" has 366 hits in the NWT. "Holy Spirit" has 106. "spirit" has 823, which would include all references to "holy spirit" as well.

Just counting what is in a translated verse, the NWT uses the word "paradise" four times. On one of those occasions, paradise is connect directly to the "third heaven." Paul was referring to what in Jewish tradition is "Highest Heaven."

Highest Heaven (she-may ha-shah-MA-yeem) n. Highest Heaven. The third heaven.
(source: http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Glossary/Hebrew_Glossary_-_H/hebrew_glossary_-_h.html)

I'm sure either Narkissos or Leolaia can smack me upside the head if my understanding of this is wrong. Feel free, you two. It is better for it to be right than for my ego to remain unbruised.

AuldSoul

29

Where Are All The "Happy" Witnesses????????? :(

by minimus in

jw
friends

all the jws that i know of look miserable.

they look burdened, tired and hopeless.

do you see any happy witnesses?

AuldSoul

On anti-depression pills.

9

Book Study Wk 17 10/17: pg 122-128: A Dramatic Turn Of Events

by ithinkisee in

a dramatic turn of events

17 a dejected darius returned to his palace.

no musicians were brought in before him, for he was in no mood for entertainment.

AuldSoul

And let's not forget Achan (and family)!

Joshua 7:22-26 At once Joshua sent messengers, and they went running to the tent, and, look! it was hidden in his tent with the money underneath it. So they took them from the midst of the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the sons of Israel and poured them out before Jehovah. Joshua, and all Israel with him, now took A´chan the son of Ze´rah and the silver and the official garment and the bar of gold and his sons and his daughters and his bull and his ass and his flock and his tent and everything that was his and they brought them up to the low plain of A´chor. Then Joshua said: “Why have you brought ostracism upon us? Jehovah will bring ostracism upon you on this day.” With that all Israel went pelting him with stones, after which they burned them with fire. Thus they stoned them with stones. And they proceeded to raise up over him a big pile of stones, down to this day. At this Jehovah turned away from his hot anger. That is why the name of that place has been called Low Plain of A´chor, down to this day.

Wow! Ancient cultures really did do that! His wives were part of "everything that was his," too. What did the paragraph say, again?

...the Law that God gave through the prophet Moses stated: “Fathers should not be put to death on account of children, and children should not be put to death on account of fathers. Each one should be put to death for his own sin.”

So much for observing the Law of Moses, eh?

Putting to death not only the conspirators but also their wives and children may seem unreasonably harsh.

Yeah. It does seem that way to me. Unreasonably harsh. Just like the current practices of the bOrg and its agents.

AuldSoul

25

They have found me! (At last)

by PaulJ in

i've just had a telephone conversation with my wife about 1/2 an hour ago.

we have had a visit from the local jw's this morning.

from the upstairs window my wife conducted a brief conversation where she basically told them thst she wasnt the best person to speak to, as her husband used to be a jw.

AuldSoul

PaulJ, unless your wife already revealed your full name you may even wish to retain that tidbit of information. They can get it from other sources, however the less they know about you the harder it is for them to do anything "according to procedure."

AuldSoul