Posts by Disillusioned JW

14

Which WT book (or booklet) has illustrations of prehistoric animals?

by Disillusioned JW in

i remember that i once saw a wt book (or maybe a booklet) which in depicting one or two of the creative days of genesis had illustrations depicting now extinct prehistoric animals.

which publication was that?

i think the illustrations were of a 1950s or 1960s style.. update: i found it.

Disillusioned JW

Yesterday when at my mom's house I looked in her copy of ' "The Truth Shall Make You Free" ' from 1943 and noticed in its chapter about the Earthly creation (in chapter 3 I think) that it also has illustrations of prehistoric animals (and of prehistoric plants).

The WT illustrations (in the old WT books) which depict extinct prehistoric animals and plants during prehuman times, are more scientifically accurate then the more recent WT books which depict modern species of animals as existing during the 5th and 6th creative days of Genesis.

Sadly I notice that the domain of www.strictlygenteel.co.uk (which had copies of old WT literature in it) has been suspended (as of at least two weeks ago). I hope the WT didn't shut it down. If the WT did shut it down it probably means they were noticing me directing attention on the https://www.jehovahs-witness.com site to the old books at www.strictlygenteel.co.uk and to me making quotes from those old books. However, I thought the person who operated www.strictlygenteel.co.uk had permission from the WT. I also thought most, if not all, of the literature which was on that site is in the public domain.

156

Remembering Rutherford

by Sea Breeze in

he seems to me to be the angriest and most ill-tempered of all the wt presidents, especially after his stint in prison and failed prophecies.. “regarding his misguided statements as to what we could expect in 1925, he [rutherford] once confessed to us at bethel, “i made an ass of myself.”” watchtower 1984 oct 1 p.24.

rutherford died at beth sarim on january 8, 1942, at the age of 72.

[220] cause of death was...carcinoma of the rectum..."[21] .

Disillusioned JW

Proverbs 10:22 (NKJV): "The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it." See also Deuteronomy 14:26, Ecclesiastes 6:2, Proverbs 3:16, Ecclesiastes 5:19, Genesis 13:2, and Proverbs 10:22. See also Job 1:1-3, 9-10 Job 42:10-12.

156

Remembering Rutherford

by Sea Breeze in

he seems to me to be the angriest and most ill-tempered of all the wt presidents, especially after his stint in prison and failed prophecies.. “regarding his misguided statements as to what we could expect in 1925, he [rutherford] once confessed to us at bethel, “i made an ass of myself.”” watchtower 1984 oct 1 p.24.

rutherford died at beth sarim on january 8, 1942, at the age of 72.

[220] cause of death was...carcinoma of the rectum..."[21] .

Disillusioned JW

How high a percentage of Christians devote themselves to preaching/evangelizing instead of trying to become rich? The reality is that the vast majority of Christians put virtually no effort in spreading Christianity, and instead try to increase their personal wealth and to enjoy their life on Earth.I know because I work with Christians and am surrounded by Christians in my country. A small percentage of Christians, succeed in amassing massive wealth.

The message of the biblical Christ about pursuing kingdom interests first is in the context of a message of an imminent apocalypse and is suitable for such an apocalyptic message, but it has proven futile for people to be in anxious expectation of the return of a Christ who supposedly first came in the first century CE/AD.The largest churches/denominations of Christianity (such as the Roman Catholic and the bulk of the Presbyterian and Methodist churches [other than perhaps the most theological conservative churches], as well as the Anglican church, the Episcopalian church, and the Unitarian church) long ago gave up in preaching the apocalypse from their pulpits, and they don't go door to door to preach.

There is no kingdom of Christ (and no supernatural Christ) and there never will be. The Bible is wrong in its teachings of a kingdom of God by Christ. It is better to focus on being happy in one's life on Earth for there is no afterlife. Rutherford, an admitted former atheist for a period of time before learning the message of the Watchtower, acted rationally (even if immorally in certain ways) in trying to get the most enjoyment of his human life on Earth instead of pursuing in a fully biblical NT way a future life in heaven, since there is no personal god (and thus no Jehovah). Perhaps he was a 'closet atheist' while President of the Watch Tower.

156

Remembering Rutherford

by Sea Breeze in

he seems to me to be the angriest and most ill-tempered of all the wt presidents, especially after his stint in prison and failed prophecies.. “regarding his misguided statements as to what we could expect in 1925, he [rutherford] once confessed to us at bethel, “i made an ass of myself.”” watchtower 1984 oct 1 p.24.

rutherford died at beth sarim on january 8, 1942, at the age of 72.

[220] cause of death was...carcinoma of the rectum..."[21] .

Disillusioned JW

According to the Bible, many of the Jewish patriarchs and the Jewish/Israelite kings lived in luxury and the OT Bible often portrays such as being an indication of being immensely blessed by Jehovah God (Yahweh Elohim/the LORD). If living in luxury as a Christian with one's religion paying the money for such is wrong (and it might be wrong) then many of the teachings (ascribed to God) of the OT Bible are also wrong.

51

PIMO elder

by Reservations in

jw
friends

i’m reservations, pimo elder.

i’m in no position to leave the organisation, maybe some people will see that as weak or whatever, but we have to all go down our own path in life.. i would like to be able to wake people up in my congregation, how do you think best to do this?

any ideas?.

Disillusioned JW

Reservations, not all of the active believing JWs (at least some of those with some doubts) are happy about being active in the religion (and not all of them are close minded to dissenting views), even if they don't appear to be unhappy. I know because I was one of them. I thus believe it is important to somehow find a way to help such ones. I wish someone had helped me (prior to age 25) to see the truth about the JW religion and about the Bible not being the word of a god, for such would have freed me 10+ years earlier (from mental bondage and from servitude to the WT). I intend to make a much more detailed post about this later (I am in the process of writing a draft of it).

41

Is the door to door preaching work not the primary focus anymore?

by pistolpete in

a few months back, one of my uncles who was an elder, asked the co, why jehovah would allow the door to door preaching work, to come to an abrupt end.

this was when my uncle was starting to have serious doubts about the organization.. the co told him to be patient, and hang in there, because the governing body was on top of things and in time would explain what is happening regarding the preaching work.. my uncle asked; “what do you mean?”.

co said; “focus on the wt study articles in the coming months” .

Disillusioned JW

I've checked multiple translations and none of those say they are "large women"! The NWT (at Psalms 68:11) says "The women proclaiming the good news are a large army." It is there army that is said to be large, not the individual women.

16

2021-Powerful By Faith-Talk Transcripts!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

2021--powerful by faith, talk transcripts.. https://www.filemail.com/d/bpludvmsuqmaqdz.

https://we.tl/t-qbpywfpzyd.

atlantis!.

Disillusioned JW

One can watch the official videos of apparently the entire convention at https://www.jw.org/en/library/videos/#en/categories/JWB2021Convention . I admit that I find the videos to be very impressive - far more interesting than my experiences in the 1990s attending WT/JW conventions. If such had been produced back in the 1990s and if the current minimalist requirements for field service time existed back then and if one could have listened to Kingdom Hall meetings at home back then, then I might would have continued in the WT religion for years more than I did. The JWs today have it so easy (and with far fewer pages of the WT and AW to read per year) and in a format that is more captivating. In watching one video (which might not have been a convention video) with one governing body member speaking, I became halfway persuaded by what he was saying. It actually seemed logical, if one accepts certain presuppositions - wow! [It is located at https://www.jw.org/en/library/videos/#en/mediaitems/VODPgmEvtMorningWorship/pub-jwb-080_7_VIDEO .] If it wasn't what I have already learned I might would been fully convinced by what he said - scary.

Interestingly in one of the convention videos a theological/scholarly book (with photos of pages of the Greek Septuagint containing the name YHWH) is shown being pulled out of a bookcase in which the books to the right and left of it are Rutherford's books. I wonder why did they did that? Are they implying that Rutherford's books are of equal caliber to the other book? Do they think that JWs won't recognize the other books as being by Rutherford? Perhaps some of the people seeing the video will be interested in reading Rutherford's books. Also in the video (in a different scene), there is what appears to be a re-enactment of the work of creating the 1950-1960 NWT in the late 1940s and in that scene there is a opened thick green covered book which seems to be the 1963 compilation (Students Edition) of the 6 volumes of the NWT. If so, that is anachronistic to have a book edition from 1963 in a scene set in the late 1940s.

51

PIMO elder

by Reservations in

jw
friends

i’m reservations, pimo elder.

i’m in no position to leave the organisation, maybe some people will see that as weak or whatever, but we have to all go down our own path in life.. i would like to be able to wake people up in my congregation, how do you think best to do this?

any ideas?.

Disillusioned JW

The first post (currently the only one) at https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6236429431603200/what-jws-dont-know-they-believe might be helpful in helping people to 'wake up' from the WT/JW religion.

I remember that the WT or Awake once had an article which said that human babies who were born still born never were breathers and thus, according the biblical definition of "soul" never were a soul (and/or never a "living soul") and thus won't be resurrected. When I read that I was stunned. [Telling JWs about that WT teaching might help 'wake' some people.] Furthermore I was stunned because I then immediately drew the conclusion that if such is so, then from a biblical standpoint aborting a human baby (even a late term human fetus) from inside the womb could not be considered as murder or even the killing of a human. Yet, the WT religion says that the intentional aborting of human babies in the womb is murder.

Interestingly many people who say that abortions are not immoral or wrong say that is because the babies were never alive (so they say) because they never had been born as air breathers.

17

Another one that Jdubs miss

by HawayMan in

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Disillusioned JW

waton, who do you think Jesus Christ (whether he was a real being or only a literary character) meant by the term "faithful and discreet slave"? The biblical passage about the "faithful and discreet slave" has long appeared very vague to me, even during my last several years as a ministerial servant. I came to conclude (after consulting various commentaries of the churches, after ceasing to attend JW meetings) that it most likely meant those faithfully serving as ministers/preachers teaching within individual congregations of Christianity, but I was even uncertain of that possibility.

17

Another one that Jdubs miss

by HawayMan in

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Disillusioned JW

Isn't the claim of saying "I am he" about claiming to be the Messiah/Christ, not "the faithful and discreet slave"? Note that a parallel verse is Matthew 24:5 where it says "I am the Christ". It is an interesting thought though that the "I am here" reference could be referring to claiming to be someone else, instead of claiming to be Christ. Also the reference of "The time is at hand" is an interesting one, especially in the context of falsely claiming to come in the name of Christ (if one thinks of it coming with the claim of being a representative of Christ) and of leading ones astray.

But Bart Ehrman (and some atheist scholars/authors) said that when the gospel of Luke was written Christians were wondering why Christ hadn't returned yet, and thus the Gospel was written to give the impression that Christ had said a lot of time would go by before Christ returns. The gospel of Luke is also the one about the man of noble birth going to a far away land to obtain a kingdom and then, after considerable time has gone by, returning as king. (See Luke 19:11-15.)