Posts by scotoma

2

Why Watchtower Baptism Is An Ineffective Rite Of Passage

by metatron in

jw
friends

a bunch of half naked young people wait in line, holding towels.

their demeanor is commonly that of kids in high school waiting in a cafeteria line.

one by one, they get dunked under water and are thereafter responsible for total sexual fidelity - and a long list of other rules - even though none of them is of the legal age of consent for sexual intercourse - and some of them may not have even hit puberty yet.. are you f**king kidding me?

scotoma

Are there examples of anyone in the bible getting baptized before they were a mature human?

There was Samuel but that was a rare example of a young boy becoming an apprentice priest.

Baptism was always in conjuction with a person's being annointed.

What role does an annointed 10 year old have.

Suppose a 10 year old is baptized and is martyred. That presents a strange case. Does he suddenly miss out

on the normal human maturation process.

All things are possible when you are talking mythology and you make up the story.

Children should NOT be baptized.

I know. I was 10. I'm now pushing 70. I don't even remember the date of my baptism. I just know it was in May sometime.

This is a perfect case for the Watchtower to apply one of their favorite heuristics.-- "Since there is NO incident where something occurred in the Bible therefore it must be wrong."

There is NO example where a Christian or faithful Hebrew celebrated their birthday...therefore its wrong.

There is NO specific case in the Bible where people were killed on a cross... therefore it never happened.

There is NO case where a young child was baptized there fore it must be wrong.

8

Jehovah made the deal fail so I could go where they needed me more

by NVR2L8 in

jw
friends

a few weeks back i ran into an elder at a business meeting out of town.

i had seen him there before when i was a ms. this time i had a chance to tell him that my standing in the congregation had changed and that i was inactive.

he said that sometimes we need to take some time to reevaluate where we stand in the "truth".

scotoma

Nvr2l8

Don't think for a moment that your conversation changed him one bit.

He will keep saying that Jehovah managed his business.

It's part of the big narrative that he has to have.

You need to give them electro shock to break up some of the nonsense circuits. Then a couple waterboardings might help.

But casual conversation? Forget about it.

4

2014 Year Text "Let Your Kingdom Come"

by scotoma in

jw
friends

guy pierece mentioned the years text as let your kingdom come and then dropped the line "it's been 100 years since the kingdom was established in the heavens".. that was it.

wouldn't the 2013 corp meeting be the appropriate time to be discussing that milestone - instead of waiting til 2014 is 3/4 over next october.. obviously they don't want to dwell on the 100 years because it really puts the old light about the generation in a "bad light".

doesn't a centennial deserve a proper celebration?.

scotoma

Guy Pierece mentioned the years text as Let Your Kingdom Come and then dropped the line "it's been 100 years since the Kingdom was established in the heavens".

That was it.

Wouldn't the 2013 Corp Meeting be the appropriate time to be discussing that milestone - instead of waiting til 2014 is 3/4 over next October.

Obviously they don't want to dwell on the 100 years because it really puts the old light about the generation in a "BAD LIGHT"

Doesn't a centennial deserve a proper celebration?

I think the proper year text should be "Where is this promised presence"

Oh well, that makes me a ridiculer.

25

I suspect the WTS mut be feeling pretty good about their own internal security...

by sir82 in

jw
friends

...since it evidently was not confirmed in advance that the agm was going to be exclusively about releasing the rnwt.. i mean, we all kinda sorta expected it, but no one had a "smoking gun", as it were, officially confirming it.. in contrast, there was the leak, posted on this forum, of the july 15 2013 watchtower, a week or 2 before its official posting on jw.org.. .

i'm sure the rnwt was a well-guarded secret - on the other hand, there has been a rnwt translation committee in existence for 5+ years.

absolutely no one in the "apostate community" even hinted at this committee's existence.

scotoma

The gray bibles that were seen in a few places was a test of the new binding and cover. It probably was just the regular NWT. It was mentioned at the meeting that they had been testing the covers and that they were proven to be "sister proof".

11

Bible Hoarders.

by scotoma in

jw
friends

i was really turned off by the segment of the meeting dealing with the watchtower's bible collection.

i thought i was at the antique road show on pbs.. what was that all about?

it was so bizzarre for these "annointed" ones to get off on collecting these old printed bibles.. you can get excellent scans of just about any historical document.. looked like a personal hobby of sanderson the nararator.. there is something idolatrous and at the very least a sick display of the hoarding instinct in the glee coming from getting their "paws" on these treasures.. what a disappointment to see a religion started by people who wanted to abandon all earthly things and join christ in the air, fawn over these relics carefully preserved as a memorial they can fondle.. are they really in the museum business now?

scotoma

Bildad,

I love museums. I wish it could all be under one big roof. I am a serious visitor to museums. I actually read what the curators write. I actually listen to the audio tours.

I believe in museums as an instructional tool and important function of society.

But what the hell. The Watchtower denies us the luxury of such "frivolous" non Kingdom pursuits. They would frown on expending our personal resources and time with a hobby.

Ray Franz said that Karl Klein advised those who have an inclination toward critical thinking to take up a hobby so they don't become apostates.

Apparently that's what Sanderson has done.

11

Bible Hoarders.

by scotoma in

jw
friends

i was really turned off by the segment of the meeting dealing with the watchtower's bible collection.

i thought i was at the antique road show on pbs.. what was that all about?

it was so bizzarre for these "annointed" ones to get off on collecting these old printed bibles.. you can get excellent scans of just about any historical document.. looked like a personal hobby of sanderson the nararator.. there is something idolatrous and at the very least a sick display of the hoarding instinct in the glee coming from getting their "paws" on these treasures.. what a disappointment to see a religion started by people who wanted to abandon all earthly things and join christ in the air, fawn over these relics carefully preserved as a memorial they can fondle.. are they really in the museum business now?

scotoma

I was really turned off by the segment of the meeting dealing with the Watchtower's Bible Collection. I thought I was at the Antique Road Show on PBS.

What was that all about? It was so bizzarre for these "annointed" ones to get off on collecting these old printed bibles.

You can get excellent scans of just about any historical document.

Looked like a personal hobby of Sanderson the nararator.

There is something idolatrous and at the very least a sick display of the hoarding instinct in the glee coming from getting their "paws" on these treasures.

What a disappointment to see a religion started by people who wanted to abandon all earthly things and join Christ in the air, fawn over these relics carefully preserved as a memorial they can fondle.

Are they really in the museum business now? Maybe they ought to build a shrine.

Also the table with all the notebooks used buy the NWT translation committee. If those notebooks are so valuable why don't they scan them and put them on line so we can see what their thought

processes were. Since they are hiding their identity that ought to be the least these "scholars" should provide.

Instead they hoard these relics and try to generate excitement over the scrawlings of these faceless "experts". Didn't you feel priveleged to get a 5 second view of one of the pages of this historical project?

We now have Watchtower treasures just like the Vatican. The only difference is that the Watchtower isn't 2000 years old.

14

New WT...Revised...The Name Jehovah

by Legacy in

jw
friends

is jehovah a hebrew name?

why i ask, because last night after the agm meeting i was thinking...would god name himself a jewish name, since he in not partial...would he name himself a name that folks could get all puffed up about & say see...god is a jew.

also, jesus, well, he came from the line of jews, not really.

scotoma

Good point. The reverence for the tetragramaton was obviously a form of idolatry and is part of the leven of the Pharisees.

It fits into the milieu of middle eastern culture.

The name Jehovah's Witnesses was part of a MadMan campaign on the part of Judge "Don Draper"-Rutheford.

2

Anyone actually been to the BIG meeting yet?

by scotoma in

jw
friends

we should be getting some reports soon.

aren't some going today?.

i would like to know whether it will be entertaining enough to go tomorrow.. a good report would save me losing half a sunday..

scotoma

We should be getting some reports soon. Aren't some going today?

I would like to know whether it will be entertaining enough to go tomorrow.

A good report would save me losing half a Sunday.

6

Never "shrink back" - ironic quote from the yearbook

by zakharijah in

jw
friends

this morning i wanted to force myself to throw up so i read a few pages from the 2013 yearbook.. and here's what you can read p.7.

"in this time of the end, gods people.

have to cope with many problems, challenges,.

scotoma

I am totally inoculated against Watchtower influenza. It was a series of shots similar to the desensitization treatment for allergies. And it works for Non-Watchtower organizations too.

80

Missionaries to vacate all missionary homes

by seenitall in

jw
friends

latest news from a source (missionary in foreign land):.

no more missionary homes anywhere in the world.. all missionaries presently in missionary homes must vacate.

must get housing on your own / from the locals.. circuit and district overseers have moved into many of these former missionary homes.. reasons: liability, cost savings, real estate to be sold or used for other purposes.. needless to say, many of these longtime servants are very unsettled.

scotoma

Groups of missionaries living together in a single location make a juicy target for groups that want to lash out at "Western Imperialsts".

This may be a wise move for the missionaries. Maybe it's time for them to get the hell out of some countries.

I wonder if this can be correlated with the move in Mexico to end the English speaking congregations.