i don't understand why so many ex jws and faders think that the jws will continue to grow and thrive as a religion.
i still attend a meeting once a week and you can smell the death of the religion creeping up when you hear the talks, read the study wts and hear the letters from the gb.
the way the organization has changed is a sign that it reached its peak (in "healthy" membership) long ago.
I too feel it in my bones so to speak.
It is definitely a different era and a different generation.
Think internet, Google, Arab Spring...
Didn't PEW find that two thirds of those brought up as JWs no longer are?
Sure some want to be blind, but now the true nature of the Watchtower and its apostate ruling religious clergy class is only a few mouse clicks away for those sufficiently motivated.
repeatedly, people who have been in a jc are shocked by both the invasiveness and irrelevant questions asked by elders.. yet, the shepherd book doesn't seem to indicate requiring this?.
if it is something passed on from one generation of elders to the next, then why does it appear globally?.
where and how does the questioning arise?.
What Syme said.
Plus, it is also the nature of the beast (namely the spirit that operates in the sons of disobedience, Eph 2:2).
As likely observed by Ray Franz, legalism is apostasy (g79 6/8 p. 28).
Legalism also blinds, radicalises and spawns hypocrisy.
People like this actually believe that other people can be improved by bureaucracy - especially dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's (w80 5/1 pp. 5-8, again possibly by Ray Franz).
As Major General John Cantwell observed, bureaucracy is the "kiss of death".
how educated are you?
and how great is your vocabularly ect ....?.
do you think ir right to judge people by how intelligent/ educated they are and how much vocabulary they use???.
"i think a humble disposition and humor is a greater attraction than education and vocabulry"
True.
At the same time education has the potential to make us less vulnerable to deception, manipulation and propaganda.
Yet, some rather intelligent and educated people still get snared by cults like the Watchtower.
these days, virtually every public talk speaker thinks it's interesting and intellectual to include a dictionary definition of some word.
often the word is in common use and needs no explanation, such as 'exercise', or 'knowledge', or whatever.. now contrast that to all of the words that the wt has it's own meaning for, and referencing a dictionary for the common understanding of it would be viewed unfavourably.. words like 'generation' or 'men' (as in jesus is mediator between god and 'men' - 1tim 2:5-6).. what words have the wt redefined that you know about?
- i'd like to compile a list if possible.. splash.
Prophesy
The gospel
Faith
Spirituality
Apostasy
Religion
Legalism
Moralism
Ethnocentrism (doctrinal)
Gnosticism (religious)
Obligatory Tithing masquerading as "voluntary" Pledging...
attention!.
i'm in my final re-write of the monorails of mars novel.. as you may know, the book is a sci-fi allegory concerning mind control by the watch tower.. .
i have a scene in nikola tesla's laboratory in which he is about to attempt an exchange between mars and earth.. the volunteers--instead of actually traveling physically from one planet to the other will instead swap minds.. need i say--it will go wrong?!.
I flew for decades, in my dreams, until my conscious mind got wind of it.
on the basis that most of us realise the w.t wasnt really the best " job" or way to spend our days, it would be fun to find out what people would really have liked to have done with there lifes and if this is still possible.
or maybe its not even a very realistic ambition just a dream.
in my dreams i stay at home all day and make a living from being a professional artist.maybe i need a phycholgist?.
I'd like to have known much more about Psychology much earlier in my life.
i am not much of a reader as i have two many distractions, but i fancy a challenging read, so please list any book that has changed your entire world view on everything.
i remember as a teenager buying at a yard sale, norman vincent peales " the power of positive thinking" and at the time that had a big impact on me.
but i am a little bit more in to " realistic positive thinking" now..
The Bible.
Radically.
But only when I stopped letting Watchtower propaganda and lies dictate what its central message was.
i just compared the latest data provided by the german wt and data i found searching for the same page in archive.org.
congregations 2011: 2232. congregations 2014: 2210. kh 2011: 1075. kh 2014: 1034. source: http://www.jehovaszeugen.de/statistik.18.0.html - this is a oficial site for germany.
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(Proverbs 25:25) . . .As cold water upon a tired soul, so is a good report from a distant land.
(Revelation 18:10) . . .‘Too bad, too bad, you great city, Babylon you strong city, because in one hour your judgment has arrived!’
(Revelation 18:21) . . .And a strong angel lifted up a stone like a great millstone and hurled it into the sea, saying: “Thus with a swift pitch will Babylon the great city be hurled down, and she will never be found again.
it was a long time coming for me.....when i read about the extened generations, after being raised on1914 being the be all end all, and millions would never die....that was the end.
i was part of the 1975 fiasco, the 6 month only truth book studies, suffered through a disifellowshipping and their version of a rewind.
i finally am free and hope others can eventually look in instead of inside looking out!
When 3 hostile and contemptuous elders confirmed that their "righteousness" was not imputed (as a free gift per the liberating gospel message).
i am on three or four sites and lots of guys are showing an interest and trying to be genuine.
it reminds me of being love bombed by the jws.
i am having so much fun and loving all the attention, i almost got carried away with it all, until i got a pm on jwn.. i have just been absorbing it all and it dawned on me i am still vulnerable, and possibly not ready to date.
I wonder if some well considered and unobtrusive questions could uncover a controlling nature?
https://www.google.com.au/?gws_rd=ssl#q=how+to+spot+a+control+freak
