Even before I woke up, I used to fall asleep, and snore !
What a Borefest those things have been , for decades !
final thoughts after 15 hours of the 2025 assembly.
after dedicating 15 hours to the 2025 assembly, i walked away with a heavy sense of spiritual emptiness.
the only part that managed to stir anything within me was a single video on day one titled “what does jesus see in you?”—a piece with sentimental appeal, but still surface-level at best.. .
Even before I woke up, I used to fall asleep, and snore !
What a Borefest those things have been , for decades !
final thoughts after 15 hours of the 2025 assembly.
after dedicating 15 hours to the 2025 assembly, i walked away with a heavy sense of spiritual emptiness.
the only part that managed to stir anything within me was a single video on day one titled “what does jesus see in you?”—a piece with sentimental appeal, but still surface-level at best.. .
Thanks gavindlt,
That is EXACTLY how I felt with the last couple or three Summer Conventions I ever attended, so after the last one I actually attended i vowed never to go to one again, that was over two decades ago, so it seems the poor quality, no real "Spiritual food", no real practical guidance on how to follow Jesus in our daily 21st Century lives, has continued since that time, and maybe got worse !
It was the same with Public Talks, given in K.H's, the outlines were dire, and contained none of the things people like you and I desired, practical spiritual guidance.
I also liked to increase my knowledge and understanding of Scripture, in an accurate way, and loved things that I had to intellectually wrestle with, difficult concepts that I could "chew on".
The Org. never has provided that it seems. The underlying reason being that they have no real Scholars in their Org. no people who really DO understand Scripture.
i just read this.
don’t know if anybody here has seen the video.. the intended result of this is to obviously scare ‘faders’ out of the shadows.
now, they are being threatened with loss of association with their loved ones and friends.
" we will make a personal decision not to associate with him for social occasions or recreation. "
We "will" make a personal decision.... ".
If it was truly a personal decision, then that would say "we may....", the fact that they have made it a command possibly in a Court could still involve Elders or the Org. itself, although this move to CALL it a personal decision is intended to remove all responsibility from the org. for such a hateful action, Shunning, being taken by an individual J.W..
I am wondering how this will affect me, as I meet up weekly with a couple of old J.W guys, one is an ex-Elder, the other is currently the Chairman of the B.O.E.
The last time I saw the first guy, he suggested we go out for a meal sometime, and I said we would.
I don't see him taking a blind bit of notice of this crap, but the second guy is a proper "Org. man" ,does it all by the Book. (The Book not being the Bible of course !)
It will be interesting to see how this works out, but I guess these guys, and my J.W family, will view it that so much time has passed since I left, decades, that none of this applies to me.
But as said above in another Post, the org. are shitting their pants at the number simply drifting away, formerly there was nothing the Org. could do about Faders who kept quiet about what they knew, and simply drifted away.
They are now trying to make that harder, good luck with that, you bastards on the G.B. I hope this comes back to bite you on the Bum !
unveiling the true meaning of 666. for centuries, the number 666 and the mark of the beast have sparked widespread speculation, fear, and countless interpretations.
some believe it signifies an actual physical marking, while others see it as symbolic of spiritual allegiance.
but amidst all these theories, one question remains:.
Those that claim there is a "later fulfilment" are obviously unable to read the plain words of the Bible Writers and absorb and take on board what they mean.
For example, the Writer of "Revelation" makes abundantly plain that he expected his predictions to be fulfilled shortly after the time in which he wrote, within a few years.
Other Bible Writers plainly state the same, about their predictions.
How on earth can an honest person put weight on SOME words that were written, and ignore the Context and plain statements that are in front of them ?
I put such people, J.W org. being huge offenders of course, on a par with Conspiracy Theorists.
there is a lot of exjws who have been out 10-20-30-50 years, but for some reason, when they see a group of jehovah's witnesses, sitting by their carts, drinking coffee, scrolling through phones, laughing, something inside happens.
most can't explain it.
some say it makes their blood boil.
Necessarily all Ex-JW's suffer from Post Religious Traumatic Stress Disorder as one Psychologist labelled it.
Some ex-JW's suffer much less than others, some in-between, and for some it is a serious condition, causing depression and even suicidal thoughts.
Whatever is the case with you, it is necessary to treat the problem. I found for me it worked well and quickly by proving to myself that ALL of the teachings of the J.W org are false and based upon lies, many of those lies are deliberate.
I then set about eradicating ALL J.W. influence upon my personality and thinking, so that I could become the Real Me.
I even worked to get rid of silly triggers, such as the sight of someone having a Blood Transfusion.
Any traumatic elements of my J.W life, I put in to a mental Box, seal it, and put it deep in the cellar of my mind.
As a person I am now like one that has never been a J.W, yes, the memories of all the experiences are still there, but none of that has any effect upon me now.
When I see J.W's at Carts there is only the normal person's reaction, " Look at those weirdo's !", if I am walking at the time, and I know them, I will say a few words to them, but there is no problem for me with having contact with them.
By putting in a little work on myself, I am now Free, and Truly Happy.
I encourage all ex-JW's to put that work in, and to then be able to lead the best Life Possible.
hi guys.
so this weekend the 2025 regional convention starts.
anyone who has access to the recorded versions or a streaming link?
I went to my last Convention in 2006, I had partially woken up then, and decided for the same reason as you Tonus , that the numb-bum and total boredom was not worth the effort, ever again.
The funny thing was, nobody noticed we were not there ! family and fellow J.W's just assumed we were, and hadn't seen us. We had not missed a convention for all our lives previously.
In 2007, I woke up fully to the the fact that J.W teaching and unique Doctrines were all false, and left for good on the 23rd March 2008. I walked out of the K.H, looked back at it knowing I would never go back, but with some regret, as I was leaving life-long friends, and my family were all in.
But I could no longer be part of a religion that taught Lies as Truth.
https://www.investigatewest.org/investigatewest-reports/wa-law-mandating-clergy-report-child-abuse-to-be-investigated-by-trumps-justice-department-17882445.
investigatewest.
wa law mandating clergy report child abuse to be investigated by tr.... .
" clergy penitent privilege " does not exist in Law in the U.K, where a Criminal Act is concerned, and has not done so since the Reformation.
Even where it does, it is Morally Wrong not to Report a Crime STARAIGHT AWAY to all the appropriate Authorities and Bodies who are trained and skilled in how to deal with the situation, the Elders are NOT !
here's the wt standard for lying: "while malicious lying is definitely condemned in the bible, this does not mean that a person is under obligation to divulge truthful information to people who are not entitled to it" - insight pp.
244-245. vs. websters dictionary:.
lie, noun.
I was most disturbed by this concept and method when I was a fully believing and active J.W.
I felt that telling Lies was wrong in all situations, except where telling the truth endangered someone who did not deserve to be endangered.
But I did use the method prescribed by Jesus in the Gospels , of not casting my "Pearls before Swine."
italy meets another bomb in front of the kingdom hall, after having caused a scandal on tv, now it is also dangerous to go to the hall.
here is the image of the press release.
From the Article from the Org. which works for Freedom of belief,
"Our goal remains to prevent hate crimes starting with countering hate speech through correct information and objective knowledge of the phenomenon."
I agree with that worthy aim, and obviously violent acts are always wrong, nothing good comes from Violence, nothing ever could.
All Countries need to have Laws which heavily punish the publication of Hate Speech.
Freedom of Speech should never allow that. The CEO's etc. of any Platform that publishes Hate Speech, as well as individuals, should face huge Fines and possible Imprisonment.
But it may be revealing to find out the motivation of the perpetrator, or perhaps not, some people just go slightly crazy when Hate Speech gets through to their tiny minds.
briefly said, the various/diverse ancient stories present ezra as directed by a persian king to establish religious/national law and order in judea.
he is said to have re-introduced the locals and returnees to the law of moses.
he and five others present this law to the people with mixed and brutal results.
Liverani does an interesting job of reconstructing the literary methods used by Ezra & Co. and shows why and how they wrote what they did, it is quite an eye-opener !
Professor Liverani is an Italian Historian and Professor of Ancient near East History History at the University of Rome Sapienza. A member of many related institutions etc. and well respected.
As "Sapienza" suggests, he has the learning and experience, I am presuming he has the Wisdom to have drawn correct conclusions ! (?).
But re-writing the Torah obviously occurred !