The enclosed WT published invitation to the Memorial includes a request for people to go to jw.org to watch a video to "See a preview of the wonderful future that the death of Jesus makes possible." I wonder how much time is allotted in the video's depiction of a wonderful future and I wonder how emotionally stirring that depiction is. Maybe I will watch that video the next time I go to the public library. Though the depiction will be of fiction (to me), it still might be entertaining to me.
Disillusioned JW
JoinedPosts by Disillusioned JW
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30
Jw's sending me invites and letters, I don't get it.
by Foolednomore infirst off, i have made it real clear with jw's my thoughts on being a jw.
i'm out, there is no coming back.. second, i'm on their " do not call list" .. so why now all of a sudden my mailbox is getting bombed 💣 by their memorial invites and letters?.
don't they follow their do not call list?
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Disillusioned JW
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Memorial Weirdness
by Ding inthose of us with a watchtower background probably see the memorial as normal.. at least, we're used to it.. we can forget how weird it seems to an outsider.. it's like inviting a group out to dinner, having meals placed on the table, and then explaining to them why no one present should be partaking of any of it because it's really intended for someone else..
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Disillusioned JW
In contrast many years ago when I visited a nearby Reform Judaism synagogue on a Sabbath day (merely to see what it was like), during the service the Rabbi urged me (a non-Jewish stranger to him), to partake of the bread of wine. Since I was already an atheistic Secular Humanist by then, I refused to do so (because I didn't want to give the impression of participating in worship).
At another time when I was already an atheistic Secular Humanist, I was attending a service of a nearby congregation of Humanistic Judaism. During part of the service the bread and small paper (or plastic) cups of wine (which had secular humanistic meanings in the service) were passed around to everyone present (including to young children), including to me, and I partook of them. Each person received their own bread and their own small cup of wine (unless they didn't want the wine; I think there was an option for water instead of wine).
During the service emblems were passed around at multiple times, each serving received had a somewhat different meaning (I think each pertained to a different blessing and a season of the year or each month of the year, but I don't recall for certain). But I didn't like drinking the wine because I could feel the alcohol effecting me adversely (I could feel it starting to intoxicate me) from the multiple small (possibly one ounce) servings of wine, thus at some point I stopped accepting more servings of wine (which was permissible to do).
By the way, years ago I stopped fully identifying as a Humanist (since I don't agree with all of the precepts of Humanism), though I still identify as an atheist. I now prefer to identify as a scientific/philosophical (or even metaphysical) naturalist instead of as a Humanist.
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Memorial Invite Letter
by RULES & REGULATIONS inhave you received your 2022 memorial invite?
here is one sent to my friend from his witness neighbor!
what are the odds that after receiving this invite, someone will attend the memorial?.
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Disillusioned JW
I also get the impression they are frantically trying to bring people back into the religion and to bring new people into it.
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Memorial Invite Letter
by RULES & REGULATIONS inhave you received your 2022 memorial invite?
here is one sent to my friend from his witness neighbor!
what are the odds that after receiving this invite, someone will attend the memorial?.
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Disillusioned JW
I received it earlier today, but the one I received looks different than yours.
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Jw's sending me invites and letters, I don't get it.
by Foolednomore infirst off, i have made it real clear with jw's my thoughts on being a jw.
i'm out, there is no coming back.. second, i'm on their " do not call list" .. so why now all of a sudden my mailbox is getting bombed 💣 by their memorial invites and letters?.
don't they follow their do not call list?
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Disillusioned JW
Today I received in the postal mail an envelope addressed to "Neighbor" with the return address of the local kingdom hall. I suspect it includes an invitation to the Memorial (which takes place tomorrow). I am surprised I received it since I thought the congregations now know not to send such to me. Apparently there is no way to keep all JWs from sending evangelizing mail to my address. I am thinking of writing facts on the back of envelope (as suggested by truth_b_known in post that was made 14 days ago) and returning it to the sender. If I do so maybe an elder will read what I write on the back.
Update: I later opened the envelope and read the enclosed memorial invitation (which is nicely worded, printed from a computer in a cursive style, and signed by hand) which the sender included with a JW.org published invitation to the memorial. I thus won't write "Retun to Sender" on the envelope.
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Is Bible prophecy now starting to come true regarding the prelude to the great tribulation?
by Disillusioned JW inis bible prophecy now starting to come true regarding a prelude to the great tribulation?.
full disclosure: i still don't believe in the bible's claims about the existence of the supernatural, even of jehovah god (i'm an atheist and a scientific/philosophical naturalist), but i am asking this question because recent events are starting to seem (to me) to fit well the description of some prophecies in the bible.
consider the following.. several hours ago (on 11-26-2021) as i was about to enter a local fred meyer store of my city (in suburb or small city in the metro area of a large city) a person i know told me that a moment earlier a person left the store in a hurry with a cart load up with unpaid merchandise (i think i was told it was groceries but i don't remember that for sure).
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Disillusioned JW
Yes the Bible is fiction (mostly), especially regarding claims of the existence of the supernature), but to me it is still interesting to analyze.
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Is Bible prophecy now starting to come true regarding the prelude to the great tribulation?
by Disillusioned JW inis bible prophecy now starting to come true regarding a prelude to the great tribulation?.
full disclosure: i still don't believe in the bible's claims about the existence of the supernatural, even of jehovah god (i'm an atheist and a scientific/philosophical naturalist), but i am asking this question because recent events are starting to seem (to me) to fit well the description of some prophecies in the bible.
consider the following.. several hours ago (on 11-26-2021) as i was about to enter a local fred meyer store of my city (in suburb or small city in the metro area of a large city) a person i know told me that a moment earlier a person left the store in a hurry with a cart load up with unpaid merchandise (i think i was told it was groceries but i don't remember that for sure).
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Disillusioned JW
The video depicts Jesus and the 144,000 as being visible while coming in (or upon) the clouds, with the JW's and some of Gog's forces looking up at them. Does that mean that the WT now teaches that Jesus and his forces will be visible when coming in judgment, as the Gospel of Matthew describes regarding the sign of the Son of Man? Or, does the image simply represent seeing them in the sense of with figurative "eyes of understanding.", as the WT has taught for decades?
Perhaps the image only shows the JWs and some of Gog's forces seeing a brilliant light through the clouds (at nighttime) and also having an idea of what that means, while also indicating that visually obscured (to human eyes) by the clouds are Christ and the 144,000.
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Owe Raymond Franz my life anyone else??
by Witness 007 inso imagine a governining body member faithful slave who's uncle wrote the new world translalation bible and predicted 1975 would be armagedon writes a book in 1980 that changed my whole life...thank you raymond franz for setting me and my wife free love this man forever.
true pioneer!
👍 love ❤️ .
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Disillusioned JW
During the past several days I have been reading the Crisis of Conscience book. For me one of the most interesting types of contents in the book is the evidence of WT literature being dishonest (including making dishonest claims of what its older literature said). Another one of the most interesting types of contents in the book is in chapter 7 -10. Those chapters pertain to false predictions and/or false presumptions in reference to specific dates, such 607 B.C.E., 1799, 1874, 1878, 1881, 1914, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1925, 1935, and 1975.
The book also describes what goes on in meetings of the governing body, but I currently have much less interest in such. However, if other people read that content they might greatly appreciate that content.
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Saving "mark" on forehead: A CROSS?
by Terry inezekiel 9:4.
“go throughout the city of jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.”
in the script used during old testament times it was either in x shape or a + shape.
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Disillusioned JW
Update: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Tomb_of_Jesus makes claims which refute many of the claims of the documentary.
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Saving "mark" on forehead: A CROSS?
by Terry inezekiel 9:4.
“go throughout the city of jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.”
in the script used during old testament times it was either in x shape or a + shape.
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Disillusioned JW
"The Lost Tomb of Jesus, A Simcha Jacobovici Film" can be watched for free at this location . Besides what I wrote previously it makes other amazing statements. For example in it an expert/authority says something which agrees with a statement of the WT that most people don't likely believe. Consider the following.
At about the 1:01:00 mark Father Jerome Murphy-O'Conner says regarding crucifixion type of crosses that early Christians (ones in the first century) were not using them . He said that for any of them to wear one around their neck "would be like someone today wearing a little electric chair. It was disgusting. It was a symbol of torture and it was only when crucifixion was stopped that the human imagination was able to move from the reality to the symbol." That first part of what he said agrees with the WT says about wearing crosses.
A scientific test was done of the patina of the ossuary which is inscribed "James son of Joseph brother of Jesus". That ossuary was sold by an antiquities dealer and thus archaeologists don't know where it came from. Experts say the " brother of Jesus" part of the inscription is possibly a forgery but not the "James son of Joseph" portion. The scientific analysis was done on the patina of the "James son of Joseph ..." ossuary and compared with a scientific analysis of the patina of the "Jesus son of Joseph" ossuary and the Mary Magdalene ossuary, those two being from the same tomb. The patina of the "James son of Joseph ..." matches the others, but random samples of patina from other ossuaries (not ones from the same tomb as the Joseph and Mary ossuaries) does not match the ones from the same tomb as the Joseph and Mary ossuaries. That means the James ossuary came from the same tomb as the ossuaries of Joseph, Jesus, Jose, and Mariamne (Mary Magdalene), and Matthew (the one from the family line of the Mary who was the mother of Jesus) came from. That is strong evidence that those 4 ossuaries are of the family of the biblical Jesus (later called the Christ) and that their tomb is tomb of the family of Jesus! Wow!
In the family tomb was also found an ossuary of the child that ossuary bore the inscription of "son of Jesus". the video mentions that in the Gospel of John refers to a beloved disciple (without mentioning his name) and that John 19:26 says Jesus asks the beloved disciple at the base of the cross to behold his mother. The verse than quotes Jesus as saying "woman behold your son". The show is saying that instead of that Mary in the verse being the mother of Jesus, it could be Mariamne (Mary Magdalene) and that Mariamne (Mary Magdalene) could be the wife Jesus ,and that the son could be son of both Mary Magdalene and Jesus! WOW!!!
As a result the scientific evidence of this video I now have much weaker belief in the Christ myth theory. I now strongly believe that the Jesus the Nazarene of the gospels was a real historical person (but I don't believe in everything that is ascribed to him) and that his family tomb and his remains have been found!
Just as Herod the Great, Pontius Pilate, and High Priest Caiaphas have been shown by archaeological discoveries to be have historical persons, I now strongly believe that John the Baptist/Baptizer, Mary Magdalene (Mariamne), Jesus the Nazarene (the son of Joseph), and James (the son of Joseph) the brother of Jesus were also historical persons! I now strongly believe they were all real! Wow! I am stunned!