Posts by eyeslice

20

How do JWs know that millions who were martyred as Christians before the 20th century did not have the heavenly hope?

by Vanderhoven7 in

as i understand it, jehovah’s witnesses believe less than 145,000 faithful christians existed prior to the twentieth century.

the other sheep christians did not start forming until after 1914. that means jehovah’s witnesses view millions martyred for their faith in christ prior to the 20th century as merely professed christians.. the question is…how do witnesses know that those millions who perished for their faith in christ were not christians at all?.

eyeslice

Seems strange that two white American men who have spent most of their adult lives in the cosy confines of Bethel can get the heavenly call followed by being made GB members when a frail female slave girl, tortured and brutally put to death, isn't counted worthy of heaven.

From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blandina)

She was bound to a stake and wild beasts were set on her. According to legend, they did not, however, touch her. After enduring this for a number of days, in an effort to persuade her to recant, she was led into the arena to see the sufferings of her companions. Finally, as the last of the martyrs, she was scourged, placed on a red-hot grate, enclosed in a net and thrown before a wild steer who tossed her into the air with his horns. In the end, she was killed with a dagger

34

Elders are no longer teachers

by eyeslice in

jw
friends

back in the day when i was a young witness lad, you very much got the impression that at least the training as theocratic teachers was good.. even the bible reading back then had a short introduction and conclusion.

you had to research and prepare your own ministry school talks and then perhaps you would graduate to a half of a 55 minute public talk.

then later if you were a book study conductor, you got to decide which scriptures to read and highlight.

eyeslice

So true - not much fun or initiative nowadays.

34

Elders are no longer teachers

by eyeslice in

jw
friends

back in the day when i was a young witness lad, you very much got the impression that at least the training as theocratic teachers was good.. even the bible reading back then had a short introduction and conclusion.

you had to research and prepare your own ministry school talks and then perhaps you would graduate to a half of a 55 minute public talk.

then later if you were a book study conductor, you got to decide which scriptures to read and highlight.

eyeslice

Back in the day when I was a young witness lad, you very much got the impression that at least the training as theocratic teachers was good.

Even the bible reading back then had a short introduction and conclusion. You had to research and prepare your own ministry school talks and then perhaps you would graduate to a half of a 55 minute public talk. Then later if you were a book study conductor, you got to decide which scriptures to read and highlight. Even assembly parts only had an outline.

Fast forward to today. Why bother training elders as teachers as in reality they don't do any teaching. All the parts are more or less fully scripted with 'read' scriptures and pre-set questions. The bible reading is just that - get up and read no comments or conclusion about the passage. The school presentations are simply a case of watch a video and parrot off something similar.

Then the living as Christians is simply watch GB video followed by a few pre-set questions.

I reckon I could do any Congregation Watchtower study with zero preparation. Just stand up, get the paragraph read, ask the questions, read the 'read' scriptures. Then after everyone would say 'what a great job you did today bro'.

So what's the role of elders today? Well a lot are sincere people person's but in the end they are simple organizational enforcers.

17

JWs and the constitution of the United States

by Vanderhoven7 in

jws will not salute the flag.

however they will support the us constitution which gives congress the right to establish the military and to declare and to make war.

isn’t that tant amount to supporting the country going to war?.

eyeslice

Anyone know what year the swearing oath of allegiance to get a passport stopped?

Some of the current GB are getting on maybe they had passports back in the day.

Did any of this happen at the time of the Malawi/Mexico debacle?

7

What would Jesus be doing?

by eyeslice in

jw
friends

would he be working on the massive audio/visual complex being built at ramapo?.

i overheard my wife listening to some update broadcast this morning and immediately thought would a true humanitarian such as jesus, mahatma gandhi or albert schweitzer be at all interested in such things?

these were 'people' persons not interesting in the stupid trappings of life.. if the gb were to sanction the building of hospitals, orphanages, refugee centers and the like, maybe we would have a little more respect for them but this ramapo project seems like a sense waste of time, energy and money.

eyeslice

Would he be working on the massive audio/visual complex being built at Ramapo?

I overheard my wife listening to some update broadcast this morning and immediately thought would a true humanitarian such as Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi or Albert Schweitzer be at all interested in such things? These were 'people' persons not interesting in the stupid trappings of life.

If the GB were to sanction the building of hospitals, orphanages, refugee centers and the like, maybe we would have a little more respect for them but this Ramapo project seems like a sense waste of time, energy and money.

41

Pioneer Hours Update

by Bartolomeo in

regular pioneers: 600 per year, 50 on average per month.auxiliary pioneers: 30 hours per monthauxiliary pioneers in march and april: fee reduced to 15 hours.

eyeslice

When my was pioneering in the 70s, the requirement was still 1,200 per year. It was pretty tough back then.

However, no one has picked up on one huge change since then, and that is the change in magazine distribution. Back then, there were two issues of both the Watchtower and Awake each month and the way many pioneers got their time in was with so-called magazine routes. Have 50 people who would take the magazines twice each month and you had massive magazine placements and a return visit for each call. We used to leave the hall with huge piles of magazines under our arms.

Pioneers would start their time with a 'route call' at one end of the territory, then walk 45 minutes to the next and then back to the other end. If the householder was out, the magazines weren't pushed through the door but another call would be made a few days later. Lots of inefficiencies but that's the way it was.

6

I do not understand why you should be considered bad parents if you do not have your children submitted to you

by psyco in

after creating the first human couple, god had 100% of not submitted human creatures (0 out of 2).at the time of the flood, he had 99,9% of not submitted human creatures (8 out of thousands if not even more).. nowadays, he has 99,9% of not submitted human creatures (8 millions jws out of 8 billions humans).. but he is considered a "good" god or father of his human creatures: why then is having submitted children a requirement for christians or for being considered "good" parents as jws?.

i mean: if he does not have more than 0,1% of submitted humans, how could i do better?

.

eyeslice

pysco - good point and one I have used.

I was pressured to step down as an elder over my kids who in reality had never done anything wrong. Nothing like murder or immorality and the like. I gave them a bit of a free reign to go off travelling in Asia and the like. My son was dating an unbaptised publisher at the time and that was seen as unacceptable. So in the end I was viewed as not having children at home in subjection.

Of course I could have kicked them out on the street and let them degenerate into druggies and alcoholics with mental problems and that would have been fine with our elders. As it happens all my kids left the Watchtower and are doing great.

38

Seems to be a census on vaccine status

by Indoubtbigtime in

the upcoming km school for all elders and servants is going to be in person only with no provision for video conferencing.. only fully vaccinated may attend.

meaning if you missed your last booster you are no longer fully vaccinated.. every coordinator of body of elders has to ask every single ms and elder if they have kept up with all their boosters and are fully vaccinated or they can’t attend.. this seems to be a census the gb want to know how many are keeping up with booster shots.

eyeslice

Obviously a touchy subject but the fact is that vaccination has prevented (I won't use the word saved) countless deaths. Older people and vulnerable individuals particularly have benefited from being vaccinated. Have some people died because of the vaccine? Yes, but the same goes for almost all medical interventions.

However, I don't believe that vaccination should be mandatory for anyone. That's an individual's choice.

What I don't see is the actual scientific reason to exclude non vaccinated persons from any situation. Why is attending some sort of Watchtower School any different from going on public transport to get there, or popping out to Starbucks in the interval to get a coffee.

The reality we face is that Covid is with us to stay and we have to learn to live with it. Many choose to get vaccinated, others not, and how ill you become when you get it - not if you get it - depends on many, many factors.

42

Have you ever been on a congregation picnic?

by LostintheFog1999 in

were you ever on a congregation picnic?

i was on several occasions.. the arrangements were often announced from the platform after the closing song and prayer by the last elder up on the platform.. sometimes it was included in the service meeting announcements as "on saturday we're meeting at 10.00am at the kingdom hall for field service, and after field service for anyone who wishes, especially for the younger ones, we will be having a congregation picnic meeting at the beach carpark on seaview road.".

well, according to the new elders manual you won't be hearing those words again.

eyeslice

I've been 'out' for 20 years now but I remember plenty of 'get togethers' with other familes.

The problem with the edict not to announce these from the platform is that it just leads to cliques. You get half a dozen families and there always be one that doesn't get invited and then gets upset.

26

JW Broadcasting - simply a platform for narcissists?

by eyeslice in

jw
friends

one thing i notice from sitting through a number of broadcasts is just how much these guys love their titles.

it's always brother such-and-such, member of the gb, helper to the teaching committee, etc.

it's never simply brother such-and-such, a local elder with such-and-such congregation.. it seems to me the witnesses are pretty quick to pick up on catholics who call their priests father, which at the end of the day is in much the same vein simply a title.. i suspect these titles point to a huge amount of narcissism of the part of those who revel in such titles, certainly it doesn't seem to fall in line with christ's advocation that the greatest amongst you should be be the least.

eyeslice

One thing I notice from sitting through a number of broadcasts is just how much these guys love their titles. It's always Brother Such-and-Such, member of the GB, helper to the teaching committee, etc. It's never simply Brother Such-and-Such, a local elder with Such-and-Such congregation.

It seems to me the witnesses are pretty quick to pick up on Catholics who call their priests father, which at the end of the day is in much the same vein simply a title.

I suspect these titles point to a huge amount of narcissism of the part of those who revel in such titles, certainly it doesn't seem to fall in line with Christ's advocation that the greatest amongst you should be be the least.