Topics Started by Chalam
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37
How will anyone know when the "Great Tribulation" begins?
by foolsparadise inwill there be an announcment on the world news saying " a great tribulation has begun in the world" or will the gb send a letter to all the kh's to scare the piss out of everybody saying "we the gb being gods chosen channel of communication have decided that the world's situation seems dire and are pleased to tell you that the great tribulation has started!".
obviously the world has been in a great tribulation since the time of jesus.
great tribulation does not mean some event that has to happen all at once all of a sudden.
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64
"Dubs For Dummies"
by Farkel indear brothers and sisters in the worldwide brotherhood of jehovahs witnessestm,.
there has been much public interest in our beliefs lately, so we have prepared a very brief summary of our core beliefs in a new pamphlet which you may offer to interested persons.
hopefully, this pamphlet will generate enough interest with honest-hearted people and enable you to start many new bible studies.
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88
British Sociologist Predicts Possible Collapse in Jehovah's Witness Numbers
by slimboyfat ina newly published article by british sociologist david voas argues jehovah's witnesses may be about to experience a collapse in numbers.
contrary to claims by american sociologist rodney stark who predicts strong future growth for jehovah's witnesses, voas shows that jehovah's witnesses' efforts at recruiting new members have become increasingly unsuccessful over the past few decades: the rate of increase has steadily declined, and the number of hours each publisher must preach to produce an extra convert has gone up substantially.
voas suggests a reason for the stagnation may be that there is a natural limit to the number of people in a given population that are susceptible to conversion to sectarian groups like jehovah's witnesses - the 'carrying capacity' of the population, and that the limit has largely been reached.
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52
Commentary on the Letter of James
by lepermessiah inzoiks inspired this thread when he mentioned this book elsewhere.. i have read other threads on this forum about it, but i always enjoy the fresh insight on here.. commentary on the letter of james was always my favorite book from wtbs, partly because i love the book of james, but also because it was one of the books that dealt with more practical christian living than constant wt doctrine.. i mentioned to a number of people that i loved that book, and got a few comments of "well, you know that book was written by an apostate.".
it didnt take me long to do a little math - that book came out i believe in 1979/1980, right around the time of the great purge.
how could someone write such an excellent book and then be branded an apostate just a few months later???.
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754
Theists, why does God allow suffering..
by The Quiet One in..specifically, the suffering of animals.
you can talk about free will/sin/people choosing to not listen to god etc to explain human suffering being allowed.. but how can you love a god that allows animals, that haven't sinned or chosen to not have anything to do with god, to have their short lives ended in often long, drawn out, painful ways.
i could list stories i've read that would probably make you feel ill, but i'm not looking to shock anyone or start an emotional debate.
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6
Where is Bonafide ? He has 357 days left !
by wobble inremember bonafide's claim that he would bring down the wbt$ in a twelve month ?.
he has 358/or 357 days left.. i wonder how his "project" is going,i wonder if it is genuine ?.
love.
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69
A Smurf walked out of the Kingdom Hall
by Joshnaz inwhen i was a kid, i'm guessing 5 or 6 years old.
the "smurfs are demonized" rumors started spreading around.
after a few weeks of hearing that and having to throw away all my smurf toys, i was at the kingdom hall and a sister came in with a bookbag with a big picture of a smurf on it!
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13
W.T. legal dept. exposed!
by koolaid-man inif you have never listened in to the six screens conference call you don't want to miss saturday night nov.7 ,2009 7p.m.est.
just when you thought you heard it all, along comes more evil that the watchtower org.
is hiding behind.
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261
"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character...
by digderidoo in...in all fiction:jealous and proud of it; petty, unjust, unforgiving, control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevent bully.
", says richard dawkins in the god delusion p51.
he goes on to say, "those of us schooled from infancy in his ways can become desensitized to their horror".. would you agree?.
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69
Jehovah's Witnesses and Calvinistic Predestination
by AllTimeJeff inthis is a complex question, and i just want to get a discussion started on the message of jehovah's witnesses and how it relates to their adventist roots, and esp calvinism.. bear with me, i will try to be concise.. we all know that while jehovah's witnesses like to deny adventist roots, that it is clear that according to them, the man jesus selected to get the whole thing started, c t russell, was heavily influenced by adventist ideas, esp the (adventist) idea that has really never left them; the idea that somehow, a time date or period can be inferred from the bible if you read certain scriptures through an adventist lens.
(thus, the 2520 years, 7 gentile times, etc.).
so while this is relatively well known, there is a concept that jehovah's witnesses teach against, yet practice.