Posts by neverendingjourney

8

Watching from the outside - and a question at the end if TL;DR

by unfamiliar in

i grew up in a jw family.

i was the youngest, and i never really felt like my questions were answered in a satisfying way, so i kind of gradually faded and i was thankfully never baptized (hooray for me).

i kept going to family study time until i was about 27 (!

neverendingjourney

From the WT book "Children" published in 1941, pgs. 366-367:

Armageddon is surely near, and during that time the Lord will clean off the earth all that is disagreeable. Then, by His grace we shall begin our life with a greater vision, and prolonged joy...From now on we shall have our heart devotion fixed on the THEOCRACY knowing that soon we shall journey forever together on the earth...We can well defer our marriage until lasting peace comes to the earth. Now we must add nothing to our burdens, but be free and equipped to serve the Lord...Eunice, my decision is made. I shall shun politics, religion, and commerce, and I shall avoid the cities...Our present duty is plain. We must now be witnesses to the name of Jehovah.

A 10 year old child reading that book would now be in his or her mid 80s.

38

Honestly, Did Jehovah's Witnesses Do Anything POSITIVE For You?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i was raised as a witness and am very thankful that i am out.

having said that, i think my upbringing produced positive qualities in me.

do you believe that anything positive came from your being a witness?

neverendingjourney

As others have mentioned, there's a lot more to this type of question than might meet the eye.

"Did being in prison do anything positive for you?" "Yes, it provided me three square meals a day."

Obviously, there's more to it than that.

There were some positive aspects of being raised a JW. My family fit the demographic profile of most recently-converted JWs in Texas: recent immigrants, lonely, poorly-educated, naive. We lived in a gang-infested area of town. My mom took the JW teachings to heart and became a Nazi about my not having friendships with "worldly" kids.

It's possible I would have otherwise gotten caught up in the wrong crowd and made some mistakes that would have permanently affected the trajectory of my life (criminal activity, getting a girl pregnant in my teens, etc.). It's impossible to know for certain.

Better questions to ask, though, are: On balance was the JW experience a positive one or a negative one? Might my parents have found more productive ways to insulate me from the dangers of growing up poor?

The fact that there might have been some positive aspects to JW life doesn't tell us much in and of itself.

73

Witnesses killed my friend today.

by WasOnceBlind in

today has been a horrible day.

what began as a day of joy finding out that one of my lifelong friends had her baby, turned into a nightmare when her brother called me to let me know she had passed away after birth.

i was in shock and didn't ask how.

neverendingjourney

Condolences. I wish I had more comforting words to share with you. It's a real shame this happened.

6

windows 10

by zeb in

do i ever learn!

that when they say this is an 'improved' model it never is!.

i downloaded windows 10 and it wiped out my emails and the email account... oh joy.. i have since removed the 10. arrgh!

neverendingjourney

My desktop installed a bunch of Windows 10 updates over the weekend and as far as I can tell it killed my computer.

It keeps booting up in safe mode. I spent a few hours over the weekend trying to fix the problem, but I gave up. I can't get it to boot up properly.

27

"Crises of Conscience"

by Olivia Wilde in

i just finished reading chapters 11-12 of raymond franz, crises of conscience & i must admit, i am pretty strong person, however the way ed dunlap & ray franz were treated left me crying, i had tears rolling done my eyes driving home from work on friday... & how ed was kicked out by wt, left me feel soo disgusted & outraged.... it was very obvious he needed to stay at bethel because of his age & medical conditions but i admired he didn't compromise his conscious, it's sickening to me how cold & callous these men can treat a christian after all his service.... & of course ray franz situation was no exception either, the witch hunt they did to get him out was, well, there's just isnt enough adjectives to describe their disgusting motives against him... he was 59 yrs old trying to make a honest living with his wife & for them to go after him was devious & demon like.... i'm soo grateful i came across this book & i wished i had much much sooner.... i know god will reward both ed dunlap & franz plus many many more who have been unjustly & unchristian like treated during that time & this time, sooo sickening.....i still feel very much upset & emotional over the whole thing .... i never met any of them & then yet i feel deep christian love for them......

neverendingjourney

@Nathan Natas

Are you off your meds?

15

Any William Miller Scholars out there?

by neverendingjourney in

for those who may not be aware, the 1914 date was arrived at by russell by using the same framework of the failed prophetic interpretations of the adventist preacher william miller.

see this chart:.

if you look at the top right of the chart, he uses the same 7-times reasoning to arrive at the 2,520 years (7 times=7 multiplied by 360-day years=2,520 years).

neverendingjourney

" Advertise, Advertise, Advertise, The King and His Kingdom."

Interesting take. James Penton in Apocalypse Delayed argues he brought this focus with him from his days as a judge/politician. Elected judges were politicians and had to run successful campaigns to get elected. Back then it was common for politicians to go door-to-door canvassing for support.

15

Any William Miller Scholars out there?

by neverendingjourney in

for those who may not be aware, the 1914 date was arrived at by russell by using the same framework of the failed prophetic interpretations of the adventist preacher william miller.

see this chart:.

if you look at the top right of the chart, he uses the same 7-times reasoning to arrive at the 2,520 years (7 times=7 multiplied by 360-day years=2,520 years).

neverendingjourney

This book argues that the early Bible Students were not an offshoot of Adventism by any means.

Have you read it? If so, is it worth a read?

It'd be interesting to read a different take. Obviously, CTR had many other influence. Pyramidology comes to mind, but from what I've seen Adventist thinking was the primary influence.

15

Any William Miller Scholars out there?

by neverendingjourney in

for those who may not be aware, the 1914 date was arrived at by russell by using the same framework of the failed prophetic interpretations of the adventist preacher william miller.

see this chart:.

if you look at the top right of the chart, he uses the same 7-times reasoning to arrive at the 2,520 years (7 times=7 multiplied by 360-day years=2,520 years).

neverendingjourney

Miller dated the invasion of Israel and capture of Manasseh to 677 bc.. That was when he reckoned Israel no longer was a nation. So that was why he started from there.

That's interesting.

It goes to show how subjective prophecy interpretation can be. Did the gentile times begin when the king of the northern kingdom of Israel was taken captive or when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed? How could someone possibly come up with a definitive answer to such a subjective question?

15

Any William Miller Scholars out there?

by neverendingjourney in

for those who may not be aware, the 1914 date was arrived at by russell by using the same framework of the failed prophetic interpretations of the adventist preacher william miller.

see this chart:.

if you look at the top right of the chart, he uses the same 7-times reasoning to arrive at the 2,520 years (7 times=7 multiplied by 360-day years=2,520 years).

neverendingjourney

I guess it appeals to me because it is internally coherent.

The last vestiges of internal coherence went away after the 95 generation change.

When I was a child there were a lot of smart but uneducated elders who felt like they were doing legitimate Bible scholarship researching in their WT publications.

Now it's laughable. Geriatric bureaucrats standing in front of an overlapping-generation chart daring members to say "the emperor has no clothes."

15

Any William Miller Scholars out there?

by neverendingjourney in

for those who may not be aware, the 1914 date was arrived at by russell by using the same framework of the failed prophetic interpretations of the adventist preacher william miller.

see this chart:.

if you look at the top right of the chart, he uses the same 7-times reasoning to arrive at the 2,520 years (7 times=7 multiplied by 360-day years=2,520 years).

neverendingjourney

I've come to the conclusion that early Bible Students should be classified as a Millerite offshoot.

Wikipedia seems to agree with me:

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventism

Rutherford really left a mark on the religion and steered it away in many ways from its Adventist roots, but it's still palpable.

Fascinating video on the topic if you have an hour and fifteen minutes to spare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_c-PdT0SsE