Posts by CyrusThePersian

24

Will the WTS ever show a decrease in publishers?

by cultswatter in

the world wide jw publishers increased by only 1.6% in recent years, so it is only a matter of time until the wts will have to start showing a decrease in publishers.

here are some reasons why.

1. many young jw are 'rebellng' against wts authority and are becoming just like mini satans according to a recent wt article.

CyrusThePersian

I'm with Zico, we will not see a decrease for a while because of the Watchtower's thrust into third world countries as well as outreaches to foreign language groups in first world countries like the USA and the United Kingdom.

However, just like any other apocalyptic group, time is against them. As the world continues on, day after day, year after year, with no Army-geddon in sight, people will inevitably lose interest therefore change and readjustment become necessary. The WT's tactic so far has been to push Armageddon into the unknown (but real soon!) future. Even this will wear thin in time. I wonder what their future tactic will be?

I'm sure any closet reformers at the Watchtower headquarters are well aware of the radical reform undertaken by the Worldwide Church of God ( an organization similar to the Witnesses in practice and teachings) in the late 1980's and how their attempts at mainstreaming led to the splintering from which that organization never recovered.

...but change is a must, unless they want to see their org die a slow painful death. I'm interested in seeing what they try. I think we are already seeing the beginnings of change with these tract campaigns, making service easier. What's next do you think? What ideas do they have up their sleeves to stave off the inevitable? It's interesting to me to watch the org in its death throes!

CyrusThePersian

21

How do/did you imagine Armageddon will/would be?

by JH in

and how do/did you imagine it would start.. i say, it would start a big cloud in the sky .

.

CyrusThePersian

I always imagined it would be like this:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/3405/1.ashx

CyrusThePersian

3

The text of Cyrus' Decree?

by Doug Mason in

i am looking for an authoritative english translation of the decree issued by cyrus that allowed the captives in babylon to return to their homes.

CyrusThePersian

Hmmm.... I don't remember making such a decree...

Seriously, try The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East edited by Charles F. Horne (an old book, probably available only in a university library, I got mine at a yard sale.) Here is his translation of the Kurash Prism, found in volume 1, page 460 of his book:

I am Kurash, King of the World, Great King, Legitimate King, King of Babilani, King of Kiengir and Akkade, King of the four rims of the earth, Son of Kanbujiya, Great King, King of Hakhamanish, Grandson of Kurash, Great king, King of Hakhamanish, descendant of Chishpish, Great king, King of Hakhamanish, of a family which always exercised kingship; whose rule Bel and Nebo love, whom they want as king to please their hearts.
When I entered Babilani as a friend and when I established the seat of the government in the palace of the ruler under jubilation and rejoicing, Marduk, the great lord, induced the magnanimous inhabitants of Babilani to love me, and I was daily endeavoring to worship him.... As to the region from as far as Assura and Susa, Akkade, Eshnunna, the towns Zamban, Me-turnu, Der as well as the region of the Gutians, I returned to these sacred cities on the other side of the Tigris the sanctuaries of which have been ruins for a long time, the images which used to live therein and established for them permanent sanctuaries.
I also gathered all their former inhabitants and returned them to their habitations. Furthermore, I resettled upon the command of Marduk, the great lord, all the gods of Kiengir and Akkade whom Nabonidus had brought into Babilani to the anger of the lord of the gods, unharmed, in their former temples, the places which make them happy.
CyrusThePersian

40

You Must Marry Only In The Lord!

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

you must marry only in the lord!how many times do you recall that expression blaring from .

the sound system at a district convention or circuit assembly?

you must marry only in the lord!

CyrusThePersian

When I was young, my problem in "marrying only in the Lord" was exactly the opposite from most people here. Growing up in Memphis TN, there were LOTS of single guys and very few single sisters. (Based on my fuzzy memory, back in the seventies there were 17 single brothers in their teens to early twenties and only four sisters in the same age range in my old congregation.) Of course the sisters only went with the most gung-ho fast-track-to-be-elder types which left the rest of us slobs with nothing to do on Saturday night. Most of us would go out of town, visiting other congregations, scoping out the prospects in Arkansas, Mississippi and west Tennessee or waiting for the conventions.

I eventually married a woman who lived sixty miles away from me. My best friend married a girl from Columbia, South Carolina. (He went WAAAYY out of town!). Another friend moved to Arkansas to get married.

Ironically, my daughter, who still lives in Memphis, says that the situation is still the same. She is the only single sister in her congregation and is constantly hit on by all the single brothers there!

CyrusThePersian

1

Tennesee PBS air times for Knocking

by candidlynuts in

jw
friends

independent lens: knocking.

tuesday, may 22, 9:00pm.

knocking examines the jehovah's witness religion.. independent lens: knocking.

CyrusThePersian

Ewww!

Channel 8 Nashville, that's my PBS station. I think I'll be busy that night...doin' something else!

CyrusThePersian

9

God Works in Mysterious Ways

by purplesofa in

jw
friends

or is it how we react to what happens to us?

how we make lemonade out of lemons?.

purps.

CyrusThePersian

God does indeed work in mysterious ways...in fact, EXACTLY like Random Chance.

Hmmm...

CyrusThePersian

44

1995 The Year That Saw A Turning Point

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

1995 the year that saw a turning pointduring the 1980s, the thought that this generation will not pass until all .

of these events occur was the watchtowers theme.

the countdown .

CyrusThePersian

1995 was THE big turning point for me! I remember 1975 but I was just a teenager back then so I didn't pay much attention to that but the 1995 generation change was HUGE. I remember it well, I was an elder but already having a few doubts, mainly due to the internet and what I was learning there.

I had told my (now ex) wife a few years before that the society would one day have to change their 1914 generation teaching if Armageddon didn't come soon. She all but accused me of apostacy, (if only she had known). But when that article came out, I didn't gloat. I was simply struck by the fact that the so-called "Faithful and Discreet Slave" was in fact neither faithful nor discreet. It was right there, right at that moment, that I decided to quit, or "fade" as we call it now, so I wouldn't lose contact with my family. I resigned or "stepped down" as an elder in January of 1996 and quit going completely by that summer. About a year or so later, my wife left me for another elder (a whole other story there) and I moved 200 miles away from my home town to live where I am today, so yep, BIG turning point there!

CyrusThePersian

3

LED Lighting - Part 3

by Jim_TX in

jw
friends

well, it's been a while now (like 2 months), and i am still using the led lights.

i've added a feature though - so that i do not have to use the alligator clip to turn it on and off.

yuppers - i've added an infrared (ir) switch to it.

CyrusThePersian

Pretty darn cool, too. We have about three or four IR controllers in the house (as do most people), and all I need to do to turn the LED lights on is aim the IR controller at the 'box', and click a button - any button - and the LEDs turn ON (or OFF).

This system sounds so cool! I think in the statement above you may have hit on your problem. infrared light is everywhere. What you need to do I think, is design a device that only responds to a specific IR code like a TV does.

Keep us posted on this great idea!

CyrusThePersian

19

The Question Of ReligionThe Question of Atheism

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

the question of religionthe question of atheism recently, i posted some thoughts and questions about atheism and after having .

read some of the individual thoughts on that thread it is understandable why some.

individuals on both sides feel the way they do.

CyrusThePersian

However, my biggest fear about both is becoming “locked” into a belief system
that does not allow for other views and perspectives on different subject matters.
If questions or disagreements are raised about either perspective, the individual
is subjected to insults or ridicule.

That's your Jehovah's Witness background talking. Being free of the borg means that you never need to be "locked" into any belief system. While it's true that sometimes a person may be subject to ridicule no matter what he or she believes, the freedom to believe what you want and to discuss it among others, both those who agree and those who disagree, is a fundamental freedom.

Therefore, I keep an open mind on a subject allowing for other possibilities

Here we definitely agree. In my own life's journey from that narrow cramped road of Jehovah's Witnesses, I investigated all sorts of religious thought and it occured to me that if there is a god and he wants us to serve him why didn't he make the way clear? Why is he playing a game of "Choose the Right Religion" out of 10,000 possibilities? That's when I began to read about the scientific breakthroughs that we have made. Evolutionary biology tells us how we got here. Sociology tells us why we act the way we do and even why so many of us need religion. To me the things that scientific investigation have discovered are far more intriguing than the "God done it" explanation of religion.

Open-mindness is necessary for science. Closed-mindness is the hallmark of fundamentalism, like the Witnesses.

CyrusThePersian

64

Why do dubs act as if 1975 wasn't failed prophesy or misleading?

by NotaNess in

from the evidence i have found, it was all but etched in stone.

so why try and defend the wts by saying "they never stated armageddon would be in 1975", as one witness tried to throw back at me.. seems that you could show them all the evidence in the world of this false organization, and it will repel right off them.

is there some sort of "force field" kool-aid they're serving at the halls?.

CyrusThePersian

Actually, the society did make a kinda, sorta back-handed apology for the mess made by 1975. Ray Franz mentioned it in Crisis of Conscience, Faced with declining numbers after 1975 the society voted to issue at least some acknowledgement of its error. This was done in the 3-15-80 Watchtower, cleverly hidden in an article entitled "Choosing the Best Way of Life" and in a convention talk with the same title:

Watchtower 3/15/80 Choosing the Best Way of Life

"In modern times such eagerness, commendable in itself, has led to attempts at setting dates for the desired liberation from the suffering and troubles that are the lot of persons throughout the earth. With the appearance of the book LifeEverlasting—inFreedomoftheSonsofGod, and its comments as to how appropriate it would be for the millennial reign of Christ to parallel the seventh millennium of man’s existence, considerable expectation was aroused regarding the year 1975. There were statements made then, and thereafter, stressing that this was only a possibility. Unfortunately, however, along with such cautionary information, there were other statements published that implied that such realization of hopes by that year was more of a probability than a mere possibility. It is to be regretted that these latter statements apparently overshadowed the cautionary ones and contributed to a buildup of the expectation already initiated"

1980 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witneses- Pages 30-31

"The brothers also appreciated the candor of this same talk, [Choosing the Best Way of Life] which acknowledged the Society’s responsibility for some of the disappointment a number felt regarding 1975"

CyrusThePersian