Christianity was exterminated in much of the Middle East, and this is just continuation of the trend from the past. Tunis used to be a center of the Roman Catholicsm, where St. Augustine, Cyprian, and Vitus wrote their monumental work influencing Latin Christianity, in era, where Christains were still minority in Italy. This civilization parished long time ago. Similar fate happened to Christian communities in Yemen, Sudan, Iran, which had vital Christian civilization in the 500-1000 AD. Egyptian Christians are facing similar extermination as do Iraq' Christians. While most of the damage was done by Islam, it is crucial to say, that Orthodox Christianity was detrimental for expelling Churches of the East after Nestorian split and condemning all non-Greek christianity as heretic and many times supported Persians and Arabs to suppress them. Western world has share of the blame as well, not only having by GW allowing devastation of the Iraq's Christian community, but also with British, French, and Russian colonial powers who cared less about these churches in 19th and 20th century.
Posts by kaik
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2But ... I cant see Jesus anywhere. The end for Iraqi Christians.
by fulltimestudent inpentecost 33 ce (well, maybe?).
when they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.
7 utterly amazed, they asked: arent all these who are speaking galileans?
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How would YOU like to die - At home with your family, or in Hospital with Strangers
by fulltimestudent ina big decision no one wants to make, but would you have a preference?.
and, i guess it may depend on what kind of relationship you have with your family.. .
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kaik
My issue with dying at home is the sense of privacy. In ex-Czechoslovakia, many people used to die at home and the relatives had than had the body on displays for entire neigborhood to see. I was always disgusted with this prospect and I would rather die in hospital than be paraded in coffin. Once my neighbor died and the children had him brought out in the coffin right at the entrace of the appartment complex. It was summer, they had him there for entire day so everyone could "pay" the respect. The same when my great-grandfather died, it was in July, and they had him also in open coffin for like two days. I heard that he started to smell. Thanks that I was too small to remember it. After this my grandmother preferred to die in hospital. People should die with dignity, but sometimes it does not happen at home, and dying in hospital is not nice. Hospice care is probably the best at the end-state scenario.
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How would YOU like to die - At home with your family, or in Hospital with Strangers
by fulltimestudent ina big decision no one wants to make, but would you have a preference?.
and, i guess it may depend on what kind of relationship you have with your family.. .
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kaik
Nothing wrong to die in hospice... there is one in my hometown with view on castle and deep wood of the mountains in the background. Much better than stressing my family with dying at home.
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What Made You Finally Wake Up?
by Tenacious inhello to all.
i've been on this site for a couple of weeks now posting here and there but have not had the opportunity to read about many of the regular members and what led up to their leaving the wt.. i understand that some of you (i'm part of this club) may not be able to disclose many details and i can appreciate that.. i'd love to hear what was it that finally made you renounce what is and hopefully soon to be "was" the wt.. i truly look forward to having good discussions.. thank you to all for your kind participation.. .
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kaik
For me it was book Revelation, It is grand climax at the hand. We studied this book around 1992-1993 and I thought it was all BS. It was not making any sense. Some unimportant conventions in 1920's in place that I could not find on map represented the trumphets, and other nonsense that confirmed me that it was false religion with invented theology that I walked away right after the book study was over.
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Anyone been to a psychic? Id love to ask about JWs future.
by jemba inive been to an eerily accurate psychic who got so many things right.
i dont believe in god but i definitely believe in a spirit world.
if you have been to a psychic who has been accurate have you ever asked about the future of jws?
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kaik
EoM, yes it was true to the point. I went to business trip into Ukraine via Slovakia and Poland. We stopped at northeastern Carpathian mountains where I saw a store with a tarot cards. There was not much else to buy, so I bought a pack of tatot cards, they were nicely medieval style. The guy offered me the psychic reading for free, because I bought items in his place and I agreed, what the heck. It did not last too long. He placed the tarot cards on the table, and did some bs talks that are generic, etc, but he put on the side several cards... which one he said represented my father recently passed (~1 year) and I still mourn him. He told me that my mom tries to date a guy, but he is a bad man and warn me to help me to stop her from doing it. He also told me that my grandmother was alive from my dad site, but she will die shortly. And warned me on two women who will be big headache to my family. Both would be relatives. One was JW aunt who was spreading rumors that were hurtfull, and other aunt, sister of my dad was sueing us for his inheritence. The lawsuit was lasting for two years. How he could knew it all, I do not know. I was in different country seing this old man for the first time. Yet, he knew about the lawsuit, my granny to be alive, my mom who did not want to be widow... This is only psychic reading I have done.
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Anyone been to a psychic? Id love to ask about JWs future.
by jemba inive been to an eerily accurate psychic who got so many things right.
i dont believe in god but i definitely believe in a spirit world.
if you have been to a psychic who has been accurate have you ever asked about the future of jws?
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kaik
I actually went once, which was interesting experience. The psychic used tarot cards. I do not think anything spiritual behind it, but I was suprised that person knew things about my life, like my father was recently dead, and my mom was dating a guy who will be a disaster - which was. He also said that my JW aunt was evil and scheming against us with other relative over my father inheritance. This was a problem for years and true do the point.
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major split among JWs
by sidex ini am a jehovah's witness from siberia.
please tell us who knows what and where thesplits occurred after the death of rutherford.
now in russia there are many schisms.. .
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kaik
There were always splinter groups from JW in Eastern Europe, which was result of the isolation behind the Iron Curtain and the "new light" had not a chance to get there so, many JWs there worshiped the old light. When the world openened in the 1990's many JWs find themselves to follow incorrect teaching and they felt betrayed or decieved by Brooklyn. You talk about JWs who were often imprisoned under Stalin and had to face unspeakable horros to be told that they must accept new teaching or to be labeled apostate. This is not issue related to Eastern Christianity versus Western Catholic/Protestant. Czechoslovakia was never Orthodox country and there is no Orthordoxy among Czech native population as it was historically Catholic land in Holy Roman Empire and for 200 years also a Protestant which gave the world Bohemian and Moravian Brethens who built Lititz, Winstom-Salem, or Bethelem, PA. Yet, there were splinter groups which one was called Children of Jehovah who also used Russell to Rutherford teaching and had all these old publictations from interwar period, but they refused to follow Knorr nonsense. Another group there which was also in Slovakia was called Witnesses for Jehovah. Both groups were considered as extremely dangerous apostate for "mainstream" JWs. In Romania, there was a reconcilation among these two groups and majority joined to the tit of the Brooklyn. But this was not universal and many old timers refused to deal with anything that is presented from Brooklyn gang.
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Feeling sad over a wasted life in watchtower
by wannaexit init's been 12 years since i first read ray franz's books and the scales came off my eyes.
by that time i was in my forties.. since 2002 i went back to school and have worked with 3 very professional organizations.
but my biological clock is ticking away and while my peers are looking forward to retirement, i am only beginning.
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kaik
Wannaexit, I hear you as well. I was glad to leave in my 20's, but I wish I have not grew up in it. I earned my B.S. when I was 30, my professional degree when I was 38. I am one year from my M.S. People were climbing in the ladder of the corporate opportunities, while I was working at evening on the degree. Life is gone and there is nothing much to do. Some nations waited for 40 years in communist or other dictatorial rules and they could never get their years back. Life is not fair, but come issues is hard to control. It is like to be locked as a prisoner innocent of crime and released to the society with appology that you were convicted wrongly.
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Why do "Apostates/exjws" always go into "Watchtower-bashing" when you show them inconsistencies in the Bible?
by booker-t ini have noticed with "apostates/exjws" they always resort to "watchtower-bashing" whenever you show them inconsistencies of the bible.
we could be talking about contradictions, such as where did cain get his wife if adam,eve, abel, and cain were the only ones on earth?
the usual answer when they cannot answer will be "well the wt gave false prophecies in 1975".
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kaik
nonsense. I do not care about WT publication as I am out for 20 years. I see much more nonsense with Christianity that utterly twisted meaning of OT for their religious beliefs. Anyone who studies Old Testament with a Jewish point of view will see how stupid, primitive, and lying Christianity is. I do not need to point out to inconsistency of the bible with finger pointing toward WT and JW organization nor associating other extreme, evangelical groups. Christianity itself is irrational belief system that would anyone with critical thinking skill reconsider its theology. Where to start? God paying debt to himself, original sin, God self-sacrificing one part or His son to salvation, Devil, Armageddon, Revelation, Virgin mother, 12 dudes and Messiah.... There are just too much problem with NT when it is analyzed by the Judaism that it cannot be ever reconciled with the OT.
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The Watchtower Confirms that The "Faithful & Discreet Slave" in 1914 Were Prophets.
by objectivetruth inresponding to the question - who are the two witnesses mentioned in revelation chapter 11?.
"so in the fulfillment of revelation chapter 11, the anointed brothers who took the lead at the time of the establishment of gods kingdom in heaven in 1914 preached in sackcloth for three and a half years.
" (watchtower 2014 11/15 pp.28-30).
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kaik
Studies in KH in the 1980's used to say that Two Witnesses were after 1918, not before. They were the group that was arrested and released in the spring of 1919 when Jesus inspected religion and find Rutherford gang to be the one to be married with. There were later changes in new light that claimed that these two witnesses started in fall of 1914, but this did not correspond exactly to 3.5 years when Rutherord was arrested for sedetion. The period when these men were held in prison was called the spiritual death of two prophets to be resurrected in 1919.