Posts by MeanMrMustard

Breaking news! Finally we know!

As it turns out, the issue with Tony goes back for quite some time. AMIII had been growing disillusioned with organization more and more as time went on. He finally reached his breaking point in November of 2021. Desperate to find a way out, he began reaching out to the exJW community. His plan was to go public, and perhaps write a tell-all book (like Franz), retire, and hopefully spend his final years in peace.

He finally found someone he could trust, someone with a way of distributing his confessions to the world. It's never been disclosed who he sought out, but all we do know is that in order to stay under the radar, he arranged to meet this person in Thailand sometime in December of that year.

Morris packed up his evidence and took a secret flight over. But people that know Anthony, and who saw him after he got back, have said he returned from that meeting disappointed, sad, and empty. Later, witnesses would see him in the cafeteria rocking ever so slightly front-to-back and mutter under his breath: "just control it".

Worried about his mental health, AM was referred to a psychiatrist. The witnesses that escorted him to his appointments remember screams coming from inside, and loud confessions: "It went on for days! He had no control over his penis at all!!! I was forced to wear tight corduroy chaps and a brown wig."

Later he met with a judicial committee, and after telling the entire truth - which we will never fully know - they felt sorry, extended mercy.

It sounds like he's been through a lot.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

MeanMrMustard

Wrong thread...

208

How to debunk the 1914 calculus ONLY using JW publications?

by psyco in

i remember having read somewhere, but i cannot find it anymore, that it is possible to debunk the 1914 calculus using only jw publications, like "insight on the scriptures" (chronologies) for example.. do you have any sources about that to suggest to me?.

thanks..

MeanMrMustard

Grammar is not the issue in Jer 25:11. It is the context and interpretation. The wording of the base text allows 70 year desolation of Judah.

No. Grammar **shouldn't** be an issue. But if you disregard it, then it **becomes** an issue.

208

How to debunk the 1914 calculus ONLY using JW publications?

by psyco in

i remember having read somewhere, but i cannot find it anymore, that it is possible to debunk the 1914 calculus using only jw publications, like "insight on the scriptures" (chronologies) for example.. do you have any sources about that to suggest to me?.

thanks..

MeanMrMustard

@DisillutionedJW:

To me it is clear that the verse is saying Judah and the listed gentile nations will serve the king of Babylon for 70 years (even if the desolation of Jerusalem was not proclaimed to last for 70 years).

Right. From this verse you can't say the 70 years applied to the desolation. You can say Jerusalem will become a desolation, but the 70 years attaches to servitude. It applies to servitude of many nations. What does it mean when you have a bunch of nations serving a single nation? Some sort of empire. It's Babylonian rule. Seventy years FOR Babylon.

About the commentaries you cite. A commentary is just that - someone commenting. And that's fine, but in the end, if the commentary winds its way around tortured logic just to switch seventy years of servitude of many nations into 'a period of time when one nation lost its sovereignty' - thereby extending the date beyond v12 to when the Jews got back and started to rebuild, then that commentary wouldn't hold anymore weight to me than the WT commentaries.

I don't go for the "someone - somewhere agreed with me, therefore true" argument. (Not that you are using that logic)

That being said, that commentary begins the 70 years at 606, the date they choose for the first Exile, long before Jerusalem's destruction. Fine - its defining the "desolation" referred to in v18 as more of a soft desolation, like a vassal or servitude. Ummkay. But that still doesn't mean Judah will be "desolate in the sense of servitude/vassal" for 70 years because the 70 years applies to the nations. Why start it at the first Exile of Judah when Neb had been marching around making vassals of other nations round about for years prior? Why reduce 'nations' to 'nation'?

Why not stick to 539 as the end of the 70 years, as verse 12 says, back up to around 609 when he was conquering Assyria, and call it a day?

208

How to debunk the 1914 calculus ONLY using JW publications?

by psyco in

i remember having read somewhere, but i cannot find it anymore, that it is possible to debunk the 1914 calculus using only jw publications, like "insight on the scriptures" (chronologies) for example.. do you have any sources about that to suggest to me?.

thanks..

MeanMrMustard

There is no grammatical argument necessary as a plain reading of the text and its context suffices.

Oy. You still aren't understanding. A "plain reading" *IS* a grammatical reading. A "plain reading" of the verse that violates grammar is a contradiction. It's a square circle. It's a married bachelor.

Context can clarify the unclear. It can't completely reverse the "plain text" grammatical reading of a clear verse. This isn't like John 1:1 where the true meaning of the Greek is highly debated, and probably will be forever. These verse are universally rendered.

1) Jeremiah 25:11 - It's seventy years of servitude for a plural number of nations. You appeal to context to change many nations into a singular nation. You appeal to context to change servitude into desolation (without an inhabitant) and captivity during the same time span.

2) Jeremiah 25:12 - There is an order of events, and the language used is clear 'When the 70 years ends, Babylon is punished'. You appeal to context to change the meaning to the exact opposite, mainly 'Three years after Babylon is punished, the 70 years ended.

In short - if you think you are conducting a "plain reading" without considering grammar, you are reading it incorrectly. You are reading INTO the verse.

208

How to debunk the 1914 calculus ONLY using JW publications?

by psyco in

i remember having read somewhere, but i cannot find it anymore, that it is possible to debunk the 1914 calculus using only jw publications, like "insight on the scriptures" (chronologies) for example.. do you have any sources about that to suggest to me?.

thanks..

MeanMrMustard

There is no grammatical argument necessary as a plain reading of the text and its context suffices.

Because grammar defintely isn't used for a plain reading of the text.

36

DISSOCIATION - Based on Covid 19

by gavindlt in

jw
friends

dear friends,.

i think you all know me as a person who has always strived, despite my imperfections to only ever wanting to be and remain in the “truth”.

it is in fact what i so desperately want for my son ashton and my baby girl honey bee, to be lovers of truth and grow up to be a loyal servants of jehovah god and his son, jesus christ.

MeanMrMustard

Yeah. I would appreciate a link to an image that isn't reduced in resolution. I can view it later on a computer.

36

DISSOCIATION - Based on Covid 19

by gavindlt in

jw
friends

dear friends,.

i think you all know me as a person who has always strived, despite my imperfections to only ever wanting to be and remain in the “truth”.

it is in fact what i so desperately want for my son ashton and my baby girl honey bee, to be lovers of truth and grow up to be a loyal servants of jehovah god and his son, jesus christ.

MeanMrMustard

I don't see where, in that screen shot, they were recommending active JWs be prevented from attending via zoom if they were not vaccinated.

It could say that. Honestly, the image is very hard to view on my phone.

EDIT: you added another photo. But honestly, I can read it on my phone. :(

36

DISSOCIATION - Based on Covid 19

by gavindlt in

jw
friends

dear friends,.

i think you all know me as a person who has always strived, despite my imperfections to only ever wanting to be and remain in the “truth”.

it is in fact what i so desperately want for my son ashton and my baby girl honey bee, to be lovers of truth and grow up to be a loyal servants of jehovah god and his son, jesus christ.

MeanMrMustard

No one could even attend via a video conference link as punishment for vaccination noncompliance.

Woe, woe - is this true / widespread?