i auxilary pioneered for a year, then i regular pioneered for 2 years while serving as a ministerial servant.
then i served at bethel for 3 years.
while at bethel i worked harder then i have my hole life.
I thought he was doing pretty good - at first he explained that he couldn't spell U.S.A., but soon he nearly got "BMW" and "cadilac" right.
My advice is to go ahead and marry that new wife, start the family, and then you can get the BMW on her credit.
Then, you can take her to work every morning, and at night you can "go and get her". (since you are such a real go-getter)...
On the other hand, you may have some problems with the I-Drive system to set the radio and the air-conditioning.
i remember being told that the end would not come until everyone has had a chance to hear god's message.
yet as we know, the witnesses have not been able to get into china with any real organized movement.
for a long time, we expected some amazing change to happen there, much like we saw when the soviet union fell.
Thanks FairMind, but I cannot help thinking: Only if what he was preaching was true...and only if it really helped the ones preached to.
i've gotten lot's of pm's asking me about the proccess that i use to create my glass.... it's kinda weird to walk into my studio and check out where i left off 5 months ago.... instead of asking me what each word means, just google it!...
heres some words to google: lampworking.
lampworking torch.
A little of your glasswork thread theme, OpenFireGlass, but -
Do you know anybody that can do a reasonably faithful replica of one of those Japenese stone garden laterns?
The glasswork was magnificent.
i remember being told that the end would not come until everyone has had a chance to hear god's message.
yet as we know, the witnesses have not been able to get into china with any real organized movement.
for a long time, we expected some amazing change to happen there, much like we saw when the soviet union fell.
Ok, FairMind - you do answer why you think the JWs still preach the end of the world -
What you did not answer is "what is the urgency"?
"Urgency" takes on some ridiculous overtones when you consider how long they have taught this, and how many dates have come and gone...
a post about caffeine and coffee in the "what if the wts banned alcohol" thread jogged my memory.... back in the 70s sometime (i can't remember if it was pre-75 or post-75) a rumor started circulating around our area that at the next convention the wts was going to add caffeine and caffeine products (coffee, coke, etc) to the list of banned substances (tobacco, blood).
of course, it never happened, but for a couple of months the rumors were hot and heavy.
the rumors were easily believed by a lot of the dubs because of the "up" effects caffeine can give you and besides, the mormons banned it, there had to be a reason.
Well, it is "proven fact" that when one monkey learns to crack a nut, tells five more, then all monkeys in the world simultaneously can do it. They spread the knowledge from their tribe-to-tribe traveling monkey overseers.
A lot of witnesses I knew actually kept chicken-pens in their yards for a while on the chicken blood thing. After they got sick of the mess, the smell, the disgusting process of butchering them, etc...guess what?
It got decided that "store-bought chickens" were suddenly being processed a "lot better now".
in my attempt to make this issue as simplified as possible, i have set out to determine exactly wherein the wts' missing 20 years must be found (607 bc versus 587/86 bc).
i think i have done it, and i would like some confirmation/correction from alleymom, leolaia, narkissos and any others who consider themselves scholarly types.. first, using the kiss method alleymom posted some time back i regressed the accession years of the kings.
since the hillah stele astronomically confirms the first regnal year of nabonidus in 555 bc, and since the wts unqualifiedly agrees with this date (although they neglect to inform why they agree), nabonidus' accession year was 556 bc.
Just had to start it again (the scholarship), eh, AuldSoul?
I think it is kind of funny that the celebrated JW scholarship is so centric to Babylonian kings (and of course missing the years you point out).
There is also the problem of interleaving their dates with the antics and exploits of Egyptian Pharoah Necho - 609 to 593bc.
Every record I can find on him says he defeated and killed Josiah of Judah in 609 bce, then himself gets defeated by Carchemish in 605.
How can you get the celebrated 607 in between these two events which are validated by a whole separate chronology? Look up "Babylonian Chronicles, discovery 1956" sometime on the internet. This apparantly also has some astronomical fixes in addition to the historical dates.
James
a post about caffeine and coffee in the "what if the wts banned alcohol" thread jogged my memory.... back in the 70s sometime (i can't remember if it was pre-75 or post-75) a rumor started circulating around our area that at the next convention the wts was going to add caffeine and caffeine products (coffee, coke, etc) to the list of banned substances (tobacco, blood).
of course, it never happened, but for a couple of months the rumors were hot and heavy.
the rumors were easily believed by a lot of the dubs because of the "up" effects caffeine can give you and besides, the mormons banned it, there had to be a reason.
I think I remember something about the so-called "chocolate ban". This was (at least as good as I can remember as a 14-year old kid) in about 1963.
The issue was that a lot of chocolate bars had some ingredient called <lecithen><?>. Somebody got the idea that this was blood-related. This was more like the smurf-rumor or the unbled-processed-chicken rumor than a real Society ban.
Our CO, a nice guy at the time, BTW, actually called Nestle and some of the other makers and checked it out. It wasn't blood at all, just some kind of processed fat product like the phony whipped cream in a hostess twinkie. As he told it, the chocolate companies were pretty horrified that someone was promoting this rumor, JWs or not. They didn't want even ordinary people to be thinking they were making blood-bars. Later I think even the Awake printed something on it being OK and not blood.
The witnesses probably could come out and make coffee or alchohol a "conscience item" like the blood fractions - funny how their "conscience items" always turn out to be something that only a weak or inactive person would do...
i've just been reading an email that an ex jw sent to dedpoet recently, and he raised an interesting point, so i though i'd post it (dp emailed him back, and he gave permission).
hi trevor.
i came across your website recently, and as an ex witness living in north derbyshire, i thought i'd share a few thoughts i had recently with you.. like yourself, i joined the jehovahs witnesses in the early 90's, being baptised in 1992 at the district convention (the same one as dp).
In my day, (1970s) we would not have given a single serious thought to starting a "bible study" without using that little blue mini-book "the truth that leads to eternal life." There was no compulsion to look of too many of the scriptures, but you had to ask and answer every question and then read every paragraph.
I think I heard on JWD that this book is no longer used or even printed due to several doctrinal changes within the folllowing two to three decades.
So, not only is it manifestly not a "bible study", but it is only a "witness book study" using the "flavor of the day".
i was doing some reading and came across the fact that matt 24 was fulfilled in 70 ad.
my thinking on these passages in the bible is that the destruction of the temple and the murder of 600,000+ jews by the romans was a fulfillment of those prophecies.
jesus was the messiah to the jews and that was his purpose.
I don't get this one either, Eyeslice - is kwr trying to say that will have to convert to Judaism?
OK for the sisters I guess, but I heard they have a pretty tough initiation rite for us Aryan type men...
There is a germ of truth to the idea that those prophetic mysteries might be better applied to Jerusalem of that day and time, IMHO.
it is most likely still very far away but i wanted to share with you guys one of the things i am thinking about doing when/if i do meet.
i plan on getting my chl (concealed carry permit)
then i am going to get a shoulder holster.
I doubt that you will get that concealed handgun permit should you relate this plan during the required classes. You might also be interested to know that a friend of mine who has this license firmly believes that he was given the third degree by the police when stopped for a minor traffic ticket. It apparantly pops up on their computer when they run your DL or plates.
I am a gun owner, also Texan, and sometime hunter, but not a staunch self-defense by handgun advocate. I sometimes wonder if the concealed-carry thing is a sort of subtle "gun registration" method or could be used as such in the future...
Anyway, doesn't Dallas already make enough Anti-Gun publicity as it is? Think about it, Grassy Knoll, coach Switzer arrested at DFW with a 357 is his carry-on, and now our rookie free safety shot twice in two years within the metroplex...once in a drive-by, and before outside a "club".
Seriously, my concern with this (and I hope you are just letting off some harmless steam) is that it could give the JW elders "ammunition" to claim you assaulted or threatened them, or tell everybody who will listen that "apostates are crazy"...
