Topics Started by Ding
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The Prophets v. "Jehovah's Organization"
by Ding inaccording to the wt, who lead "jehovah's organization" on earth in ot times?.
the kings of israel?
the priests?.
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Modern Day Prophets
by Ding inend times speculation can be a harmless hobby for some, but it seems to me that all too often the problem with modern day prophets (those who announce end times dates) is the disturbing spiral it leads to:.
1. the prophet announces his dates and reasoning.. 2. he develops a following.. 3. most people scoff at or ignore the prophecy, which leads the prophet and his followers to feel persecuted.. 4. they become convinced that non-believers are agents or dupes of satan.. 5. they then convince themselves that they are the only ones god is pleased with because they are the only true believers.. 6. the followers come to see the prophet as god's sole spokesman and authority figure and give their lives to his control.. 7. the prophet makes demands on his followers' time and money as a test of loyalty.. 8. the followers recruit more and more people with their zeal and promise of "hidden knowledge" and special favor with god.. 9. the prophet alienates his followers from non-believing family and friends so they look down on anyone with different opinions, often considering them to be doomed because of their unbelief.. 10. the prophecy fails.. 11. outsiders laugh the prophet and his followers to scorn.. 12. in the best case scenario (rare), the prophet and his followers admit they were wrong and give up with a relatively small amount of harm being caused.. 13. in the worst case scenario (all too common), instead of coming back to reality, the prophet sets a new date, revises expectations, or claims invisible fulfillments, which his followers swallow wholesale.. 14. the prophet comes up with more and more bizarre teachings that the followers must accept as proof of loyalty and devotion.. 15. some people fall away, but those who remain become even more devoted, redouble their efforts, and suck even more people in, many of whom have no idea of the history of failure.. 16. any recruiting success is seen as a sign of god's blessing and favor, while any down periods and bad publicity are seen as evidence of persecution of the truth.. 17. more and more people and families get hurt.. 18. the whole vicious cycle keeps repeating..
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Quote from Rutherford About Organization
by Ding intoday, the watchtower society claims that acts 4:12 shows that only people associated with god's organization have god's favor so that in order to live forever in paradise on earth, people must associate with them as jehovah's organization and serve him as a part of it.
watchtower, 2/15/1983, p. 12.. yet in millions now living will never die (1920, p. 102), rutherford wrote:.
"it is not my thought to hold up the clergy to ridicule, but rather i would appeal to them that they fulfill their duty and obligation to the people in this hour of distress.
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Watchtower Organizational Sheep's Clothing
by Ding inwe all have seen plenty of wts statements like this: "how grateful we should be that jehovah has provided us with a faithful and discreet slave class to provide us food at the proper time!".
suppose instead they had written it this way: "how grateful you should be that jehovah has put us in charge of you to tell you what to think and how to behave!".
someone once said, "the sheep's clothing of the false prophets is their vocabulary.".
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How Does the WT Explain These Verses About Jehovah's Judgment?
by Ding inhow does the wt explain these verses in the nwt?.
zephaniah 1:2: "i shall without fail finish everything off the surface of the ground," is the utterance of jehovah.. zephaniah 1:3: "i shall finish off earthling man and beast.
i shall finish off the flying creatures of the heavens and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked ones; and i will cut off mankind from the surface of the ground," is the utterance of jehovah.. zephaniah 1:18: "neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of jehovah's fury; but by the fire of his zeal the whole earth will be devoured, because he will make an extermination, indeed a terrible one, of all the inhabitants of the earth.
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Not Witnessing
by Ding ina friend of mine recently encountered two jws at a cart.. he asked them if they were out witnessing.. they said, "no, we're not witnessing, but you can take any of the literature.".
he asked, "would you like to talk with me about jesus?".
they said, "no, just take the literature and move on.".
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Trouble opening PMs
by Ding ini cannot open my pms.. i click on the envelope but all i get is an error message..
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PMs won't open
by Ding inmy pms won't open.. it shows that i have a pm, but all i get when i try to open it is a "try again" error message.. nothing seems to work..
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Peace With God
by Ding inhere are two nt quotes -- one from jesus and one from paul:.
john 14:27: "peace i leave with you; my peace i give you.
i do not give to you as the world gives.
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For Lux
by Ding inlux,.
for some reason there was no window where i could respond to your cognitive dissonance thread, so i'm starting this new thread instead.. the "what if the watchtower is right after all" fears you're experiencing are quite normal.. the wts has spent years programming fear of armageddon into us along with the fear that outside the organization there's no truth and no hope.. those fears don't just disappear overnight.. reprogram yourself.. one thing that helps is reading and rereading crisis of conscience, especially the chapters about the false prophecies and doctrinal flip-flops.. reading photocopies of the wt publications he cites also helps.. the point of that is to keep reminding yourself over and over that the wts is completely untrustworthy.. at the same time, do your own bible study in context.. start with the nt and take your time.. decide for yourself what it really teaches.. if you want to pm me about anything, feel free.. .