Posts by konceptual99

7

New way of preacing?

by dogon in

i have noticed that in florida at least i see at every flea market and or town square jws sitting drinking coffee with a table and a couple of sandwich signs with watchtowers and awakes doing nothing more than playing on their phones and or talking to each other.

i have not yet seen anyone going up to them and engaging them but i bet they are counting time.

what a cheat.

konceptual99

Yup - it's easy ministry and a great way to build up LOADS of hours for that all important headline of total hours preached.

63

2015 Convention Releases

by wifibandit in

http://www.jw.org/en/publications/jw-convention-releases-2015/.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc7cyswlvwg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfmuamqiv4k.

konceptual99

I am not one to call conspiracy on every little detail and maybe I am reading too much into this but note the way the reference is worded:

A careful study of Bible prophecy reveals that “the Lord’s day” began in modern times. In 1914, what became known as World War I broke out. And the decades since then have been marked by more wars, plagues, starvation, earthquakes, and other evidences marking a large-scale fulfillment of “the sign” that Jesus gave his apostles about his “presence” and “the end.” (Matthew 24:3, 7, 8, 14) The preaching of the good news of the Kingdom is now being done, not just in the area of the Roman Empire, but globally.

It says the Lord's day began "in modern times". 1914 is not referenced directly as the start of this nor is the establishment of the Kingdom linked directly to 1914 in a way that it would have been in the past. 1914 is simply referenced as the start of WW1

Now this maybe very subtle but could this be a move to disentangle 1914/WW1 from the establishment of the Kingdom?

On the other hand, pages 258/259 discuss Matt 24 and the generation is still linked to the last days. One part of this says:

Jesus is once again showing that what he is foretelling is not of limited scope. He is not prophesying about events that would occur in a few decades and that would affect only the city of Jerusalem or the Jewish nation. No, he is pointing to developments that “will come upon all those dwelling on the face of the whole earth.”

When you read the whole chapter the generation teaching is still very much related to events of the last days....

55

JWs and their views on Sex

by campaign of hate in

in the past i have read on this forum that the wt have a say in the "bedroom" of couples.

i thought that was a bit overkill at first, but recently i have come to conclusion that this is true.. the control administered by the wt cooperation on ones sex life is not on only intrusive, its damaging.

they control every aspect of ones thought and action, thus leading most down a path that said corporation wants them to tread.. this path is to get married young, and then eternal loyalty the the organisation.. so how can an organisation force you to get married young?.

konceptual99

I think the impact of JW supposed rules on sex in most marriages over the past 20+ years has been minimal. I know no one who really thinks oral sex is banned. I know no one who really thinks that there is only one position or is not adventurous in some way. We knew an ex bethelite couple who had a wardrobe full of sexy role play dressing up clothes.

My wife and I have been faithfully married for a long time over 2 decades now. We both followed WT doctrine as far as sex before marriage was concerned. I can honestly say that the elders or the Watchtower have never had an say in how we behave. We enjoy a really good time and that's because we love each other and have worked hard to have a successful marriage. At the risk of being shot down I do think some of this is due to principles and practical guidance that we have both tried to apply as Witnesses. I am not saying you a happy marriage is only possible by being a Witness, just that even in my mentally out state I do think there was perhaps something positive from my time in.

No doubt some do have sexual hang ups or do not enjoy a healthy sex life. In my experience this is not thanks to WT doctrine on sex in itself but down to problems people either have with themselves or with each other far beyond what goes on in the bedroom. There is no doubt that there are a significant number of Witnesses who remain in unhappy marriages. I doubt very much however that this is because of some hang up what goes on in the bedroom. I think it is because they got married too young, too quick to the wrong person. Their goals diverged. The outlook diverged. There aspirations and hopes were not met. Keeping their life "simple" brought money worries and dissatisfaction as they could not do the things others were doing. The marriage was too hierarchical with a bright wife forced to be in subjection to a dim husband. They lost respect for themselves and each other.

Problems in the bedroom are generally the symptom of bigger problems elsewhere, not the cause. I am 100% sure that many of the Witnesses in happy and successful marriages are enjoying lots of things in the bedroom that would have given Freddy boy a coronary.

63

2015 Convention Releases

by wifibandit in

http://www.jw.org/en/publications/jw-convention-releases-2015/.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc7cyswlvwg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfmuamqiv4k.

konceptual99

The Sophia video is sickening. For a org that claims never to solicit to have something, which 100% will be shown at the assembly to thousands, that directly manipulates young minds so much is outrageous.

True, there have always been examples of young children getting involved in activities like preaching and donating but the exposure to this has always been far more controllable by the parents. The Bible Story book never had anything remotely as blatant in it. These videos are the new JW babysitters and the kids watch them over and over again.

[EDIT] - The fact it's an slightly older young one (i.e. not a child of 5 or 6) is meaningless - the audience starts at infant level.

It's wrong. Plain and simple.

63

2015 Convention Releases

by wifibandit in

http://www.jw.org/en/publications/jw-convention-releases-2015/.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc7cyswlvwg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfmuamqiv4k.

konceptual99

If you click no then the page redirects to the main publications page. So the only way you can get to the releases if you have not attended is by lying. How happified Jehovah must be that the GB are using such a basic tool to enforce loyalty.

Any dub who does lie then can't discuss it with anyone else 'cos they will know they lied. Once again guilt and group psychology are used to control.

64

What triggered your doubts / awakening?

by Tornintwo in

i am sort of new here, used a different username for a while but things got 'difficult' at home so i've since been lurking.... what i would be really interested to know, if you don't mind sharing, is what it was that triggered your doubts and initial research which led to awakening, was it a bad experience, injustice, changed doctrine?

for me, it was seeing mistreatment of young ones in the congregation, they're under so much pressure and as soon as they go even slightly astray they are shunned, either informally (as bad associations which pushes them further into the 'world') or formally - with elders dying to throw the book at them so they even lose their family.... ...then reading about child abuse issues in the press.... ...which led me to silentlambs.

...then jw facts, this forum and coc, wham!

konceptual99

Oh yeah - I'd forgotten that I sussed the blood issue was a crock of bull during my slumbering awake phase. Mainly because I did not understand how you could get bolloxed for donating blood yet were perfectly OK in accepting a blood fraction that someone else donated but should have poured out on the ground.

And then there was the obvious problem with billions of people being fecked at the Big A. What's almost worse is the amount of people being born everyday into a situation of injustice and death. Yet most Witnesses want to believe this isn't the case yet can't work out why this makes a mockery of the "warning" work.

16

They lie about everything, why don’t they lie about annual publisher growth?

by John Aquila in

jwfacts show that publisher growth was 15% pre- 1975 and has decline to about 2%.

what prevents them from fudging the annual growth and keeping it at something more positive like 10%?.

"a great crowd that no man is able to number".

konceptual99

Don't forget that relatively few look in detail at the annual report and even less look at it in comparison with historical records.

They use headline figures like number of hours and peaks of publishers and studies. They use figure like number baptised, divvy it by 52 and come up with 5000 people being baptised each week, implying there are 50 congregations a week being formed. Not true - there are just as many dying, fading, getting thrown out.

They don't point out that there are more hours for less results. They don't point out it takes 7000+ hours to get one person baptised. They don't point out the obvious stagnation in developed lands.

Figures around how many kingdom halls need to be built are another great headline but the reality is that very few congregations in Western lands actually NEED a KH in that they don't have one or it's completely unsuitable. Who cares - quoting 1000s of halls are needed in the US, Canada, UK, France etc. just makes everyone think there is crazy growth.

The figures have been fudged for years and because too few care no one has noticed. On the other hand, I don't think the same is true about the constant pitch for cash. I am not suggesting this will be the big wake up call to the masses but I don't get the feeling that as many are prepared to suck up the bullshit as perhaps the GB would like.

64

What triggered your doubts / awakening?

by Tornintwo in

i am sort of new here, used a different username for a while but things got 'difficult' at home so i've since been lurking.... what i would be really interested to know, if you don't mind sharing, is what it was that triggered your doubts and initial research which led to awakening, was it a bad experience, injustice, changed doctrine?

for me, it was seeing mistreatment of young ones in the congregation, they're under so much pressure and as soon as they go even slightly astray they are shunned, either informally (as bad associations which pushes them further into the 'world') or formally - with elders dying to throw the book at them so they even lose their family.... ...then reading about child abuse issues in the press.... ...which led me to silentlambs.

...then jw facts, this forum and coc, wham!

konceptual99

For me it was a slow burn. I had always tried to do the right thing and be obedient but always erred on the side of liberalism - e.g. I saw no need to pioneer from school or your level of visible activity being the critical indicator of your spirituality. I also had long standing questions about squaring the pseudo science of the Creation account, the Flood etc with what secular sources were saying.

I served as an MS for many years and it was only my attitude to the ministry that prevented me from being appointed as an elder. I regularly played a game of logic with elders sent round to use unscriptural reasoning to try and guilt me into pretending to do more.

Anyway, there was a point where a member of my family who was a long serving elder was very badly treated and thrown out for a completely stupid reason. This really made me question the real nature of the body of elders and where their loyalties really lay.

From there I started to question if the organisation really was displaying the love I felt Christ practiced. I also started reading Dawkins and others on evolution. That led me to start look at sites like JWFacts. I then got a copy of CoC which I devoured.

I was already aware of the UN scandal but had kind of parked that as perhaps a little overblown by apostates. On second reading however, in the light of the other CoC revelations I was far more outraged.

By the time I started participating on this site I was already well on my way to being completely mentally out. It did not take that much longer before I was convinced the Witnesses did not have the "Truth" and, even more critically, I came to doubt the existence of God at all.

[EDIT] - Oh and then there was all the changes to the generation and other teachings that just seemed to suggest the GB knew bugger all about anything.

36

How long until the "Generation" gets Revised/Dropped?

by Lemonp in

if you don't already know this; the latest revision of the insight book has no mention of the "overlapping generation" bs online library, insight book .

obviously that change will not bee seen by the vast majority of people, so when will this "brighter light" shine through in a wt or assembly talk?

predictions?.

konceptual99

Dropping the generation, or at the very least reducing the significance of it is entirely possible. The wording change in the Insight Book already removes the specific argumentation that it has a modern day fulfilment.

The overlapping teaching still gives them significant time to simply stop talking about it.

The move to online publication storage means that an increasing number of dubs will not have access to material within "approved" channels that says anything different to the current teaching. Of course the info will be there but only if you are prepared to hit the apostate sites.

Given the recent argumentation used about the F&DS Slave being more "discrete" now by assigning less and less significance to parables in the Bible I can see a time when there could be QFR that comes out with some reasoning that the generation only had a literal application in Jesus day and the discrete thing to do now is simply serve Jehovah without a time limit in mind.

The significance of the generation teaching is now only really felt by ones in their late 30s and older - the ones who lived through the use of the generation teaching (and memorial partakers) as a sign of the imminence of the big A. Give it 10 years and all the current crop of young men that become the elders of the future will have no comprehension of the emphasis and import placed on the teaching what is ALREADY 20+ years ago.

8

JW Library app with convention releases ?

by Elisa1966 in

they are talking on jwtalk about this, but no details.

has anyone access to jw library ?

just curious... :-)

konceptual99

I don't think the releases will be up until they have been released at the first convention this weekend.