Posts by Saintbertholdt

17

A note on the Watchtowers property investments

by Saintbertholdt in

about a year ago there was a thread regarding the 2008 watchtower bible and tract society of new yorks tax return.. http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/287098/2008-watchtower-income-tax-return?page=1.

a reference was made to the provictor property fund iv which was listed as their primary alternate business activity.. turns out that at that time 75% of the chrysler building was owned by the provictor property fund iv until it was sold during that year.. http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/09/news/international/chrysler_building/?postversion=2008070913.

just thought you should know :).

Saintbertholdt

I fail to see the story here on this one?

The story is that in the original thread nothing could be picked up on Provictor fund IV. Provictor is a very secretive company and is actually German owned.

The Watchtower probably got the Provictor shares through someone bequeathing it in a will. They did not receive a lot of money but the REAL story is that the WTBTS of NY then had to file a 990T form to declare the profit when the Chrysler building shares sale went through.

The 990T is very enlightening.

75

Lurker trying to gain clarity

by questioningmyfaith in

jw
friends

hello all, i would like to first say that i am basically questioning my faith in god.

i am not negative towards the wt at all.

so honestly i am to concerned with more ad hominem attacks towards the wt because i still love the organization and the people in it.

Saintbertholdt

"Many blood brokers use arbitrage to obtain blood cheaply and then sell it all the while using "charitable" drives as the motivating factor."

Hi Questioningmyfaith,

Just a couple of things on blood regarding processing costs: 1. The type has to be identified with a cross-match 2. It has to be tested for HIV, HIV-2, Hepatitis B+C, Syphilis, West Nile virus etc. 3. It has to be put in cold storage until used and only after all of these can sub-components be extracted.

So yes there are profits to be made, but its also not cheap to prepare. Blood donation is just the first step.

75

Lurker trying to gain clarity

by questioningmyfaith in

jw
friends

hello all, i would like to first say that i am basically questioning my faith in god.

i am not negative towards the wt at all.

so honestly i am to concerned with more ad hominem attacks towards the wt because i still love the organization and the people in it.

Saintbertholdt

"If there is no god, is there hope for mankind"

Definitely. If you look at the statistics, for example: Average human life expectancy, average available calories per day per human, infectious disease statistics and even population growth you'll notice that things overall are getting better over time for the entire planet.

Regarding climate change: The fact that it has been detected and debated is a very good thing. You can't fix something if you don't know its broken.

"Why do humans seem to be so unable to rule themselves."

Slowly but surely the world is democratizing. This is a good thing as it also goes hand in hand with free markets which is also a good thing.

Human kind can still drop the ball in a big way, but I think that we're on the right track.

Believing in God and the Watchtower does seem to give one comfort in that one supposedly knows the future, but this is an illusion. The future is an unknown country which makes it scary but also exhilarating at the same time.

74

That's it! The Jesus stories are most reasonably explained as myth. History makes this obvious.

by Island Man in

a careful examination of the historical pagan religious context existing at the time of the genesis of christianity leads any reasonable person to conclude that jesus is just another one of several similar myths.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn7teoa9ark.

Saintbertholdt

There's supposed to be a Simpsons / Futurama crossover in the works...

Hi Vidiot,

Asked if there would be more crossovers between Futurama and The Simpsons, Groening said "it was possible." "What's amazing about Futurama is the fans are still watching the show on Netflix. You know how everything gets rebooted? Futurama will get rebooted someday. We'll see."

Over the past couple of weeks I've watched every episode from season 1 through season 7 (excluding the movies). I finished the last episode today.

74

That's it! The Jesus stories are most reasonably explained as myth. History makes this obvious.

by Island Man in

a careful examination of the historical pagan religious context existing at the time of the genesis of christianity leads any reasonable person to conclude that jesus is just another one of several similar myths.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn7teoa9ark.

Saintbertholdt

I pray to Joe Pesci

Image result for joe pesci goodfellas

74

That's it! The Jesus stories are most reasonably explained as myth. History makes this obvious.

by Island Man in

a careful examination of the historical pagan religious context existing at the time of the genesis of christianity leads any reasonable person to conclude that jesus is just another one of several similar myths.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn7teoa9ark.

Saintbertholdt

That a man called Jesus existed that roamed in Palestine and that claimed to be a Messiah is actually not a stretch at all. That he garnered disciples is also not a stretch.

In the 20th century there was a similar type of fellow. Charles Manson was not allowed to testify in front of a jury for fear that he would unduly influence the jury members. If you have ever watched an uncut interview with the man (where Manson hasn't been doped up with tranquilizers), you'll notice he's very convincing, charismatic, crazy but also has a coherent original philosophy even though he is a lay person. He has claimed to be Jesus (sometimes) but more a human incarnation of Abraxis. To this day he still receives thousands of letters a year from followers and admirers.

110

Just had a former elder friend tell me, “This Overlapping generation is crap.

by John Aquila in

last night i ran into a former elder friend, he is in his late 70s.

he asked how i was doing and i asked how he was doing.

then out of the blue he tells me; .

Saintbertholdt

I think it's exciting because just a few years ago, there was still some believability in what the organization said, but not anymore.

So they finally jumped the shark?

Image result for jump the shark

21

Saturday morning us newly weds visited by closet gay Special pioneer see why we stayed home!!? WIERD!!

by Witness 007 in

first let me tell you about george (his real name) the special pioneer.

not that good looking...a bit goofy, he had spiritual sisters literally ask him to date and flutter eyelids because of his positon.

he always made excuses about why sisters were "not his type"...had a bedroom full of pics of him hugging other brothers with a content strange look on his face....like this is my girlfriend look!

Saintbertholdt

Every good army, physical or spiritual, needs sterling tail gunners.

24

If they go bankrupt, so what?

by maksutov in

it seems likely that the watchtower is worried about its finances, given the downsizing, property schemes, and money-grabs we have been seeing over the last few years.

perhaps they suffered badly from the financial crisis.

for sure, there will be more expenses to come from child abuse payouts.

Saintbertholdt

My own worst projection for the Watchtower looks as follows:

For example: On 5 November 2017 the Watchtower declares chapter 11.
Who knows why? Perhaps bad investments, and they run out of funds during their building project upheaval and end up making lots of debt that the faithful can't cover. Who knows? Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria. Then the scandals keep on coming (sexual abuse, lawsuits etc.) and they do something really dumb like they try another date prediction, which backfires.

The Average publisher level in 2050 is 1.38 million. Very bad but the organization still survives. Come to think of it, its actually not that bad for the Governing Body. The Risk of Ruin of the organization is virtually zero.

17

A note on the Watchtowers property investments

by Saintbertholdt in

about a year ago there was a thread regarding the 2008 watchtower bible and tract society of new yorks tax return.. http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/287098/2008-watchtower-income-tax-return?page=1.

a reference was made to the provictor property fund iv which was listed as their primary alternate business activity.. turns out that at that time 75% of the chrysler building was owned by the provictor property fund iv until it was sold during that year.. http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/09/news/international/chrysler_building/?postversion=2008070913.

just thought you should know :).

Saintbertholdt

Hello there,

About a year ago there was a thread regarding the 2008 Watchtower Bible and tract Society of New Yorks tax return.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/287098/2008-watchtower-income-tax-return?page=1

A reference was made to the Provictor Property Fund IV which was listed as their primary alternate business activity.

Turns out that at that time 75% of the Chrysler Building was owned by the Provictor Property fund IV until it was sold during that year.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/09/news/international/chrysler_building/?postversion=2008070913

Just thought you should know :)