Spot on Blues! I don't remember having studied this book but we have others. This does not contradict my point. While they may have an actual explanation for everything, some of these subject are rather avoided and seldomly studied. None of these get the same attention as the issues with apostasy, donations, field service, etc ,etc. So people tend to forget and they rather have it this way.
StarTrekAngel
JoinedPosts by StarTrekAngel
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31
JWs and Exclusivity
by Don Schneider injesus, mark 9-40 (nwt).
the jehovahs witnesses assert exclusivity.
that is, they are the only true christian faith.
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JWs and Exclusivity
by Don Schneider injesus, mark 9-40 (nwt).
the jehovahs witnesses assert exclusivity.
that is, they are the only true christian faith.
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StarTrekAngel
Yes, I am. I am not an elder or MS. I hardly go to field service and in fact, have not done so for the past 3 months. With this you could say that I can not possibly call myself a JW. Point being is that just because I don't do these things, does not mean I have no faith. I simply can not conciously go around preaching these things anymore. I am in the fading phase and I know it is a matter of time before I get a visit from the elders. Many in my cong have approached me to encourage me to take in more responsibility but I just could not bring myself to it due to my own crisis of concious. Off course, given that I have family still in, I need to play the part because I don't want to create trouble. I have small kids too. I have brought this up to my wife and she is very open minded but this needs to be taken slowly. My approach has not been to convince her that we need out, but rather that we need to be selective on how we dedicate ourselves to this org. We have not supported the org or KW financially for the past year or more. In more than 12 years of being a member I have not signed my "no blood card" and neither have she.
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JWs and Exclusivity
by Don Schneider injesus, mark 9-40 (nwt).
the jehovahs witnesses assert exclusivity.
that is, they are the only true christian faith.
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StarTrekAngel
I am a JW in good standing... but just because they don't know that I come here. Good standing as a status is a relative term to me. I am in good standing with Jehovah but in the eyes of the org I would be an apostate.
Tha answer to your question Don, there is no need to reconcile this text with exclusivity. Most JW don't know such texts exists. In my experience, those who do really read the bible from page to page, don't do so conciously. Most, however, have not really read the entire bible in a fashion that would trigger your senses. See, the org gives you, if you ask, a list of paragraphs. In this list, it shows how you can read the entire bible in one year if you read the number of paragraphs per day as layed out in this paper. If you follow such list, you would have indeed read the bible from cover to cover. This does not mean you would have undertood it. There is so much chronology to be followed, names, geography and event that need to be correlated, that this list isn't enough.
The truth of the matter is that if you study the JW religion closely, you will realize that is utterly dependent on the absence of a handfull of key scriptures. Such would put the entire religion into question. Those scriptures are mostly avoided. It also dependent on the lack of correlation. Certain subjects are studied in isolation of text. For example, you could read 1 Cor 8:1-13 and you could read Acts 15:28 in different studies. But they would never be read back to back, because in first glimpse they technically contradict each other. To make matters worst, if you read them back to back, you would then have to explain the contradiction which, when put into context to explain it, would definitely show that the blood issue is unfounded, same for some celebrations. It would give the R&F too many reason to exercise their own concious choices.
I shown the text you mention to a couple of JW, including my wife and mother in law, who have been witnesses for much longer than me, and they have no explanation. The next question I asked is, how come we don't read this text at all. No answer either.
This entire religion is founded in a handfull of scriptures that are either heavily emphasized or heavily avoided. In a nutshell, I also understand that this is proof of the lack of exclusivity, and even proof of how unnecesary this push for unification is. But you don't need the bible to show them that. Just read the July 14 WT .The first two articles. I believe that in the second one there is a paragrpah that implies that congregational unity is more important than biblical truth.
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Can I block tv.jw.org from my internet?
by Emily24 inmy spouse and i have not been to the meetings in about 10 years.
recently i have noticed a very very strong push from my spouse's family.
they have been sending jw shit in the mail all the time.
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StarTrekAngel
From my point of view, it is a mistake to try to block it. It would only encourage them further to continue to persue it. As a head of the family, we must teach our children to think and reason. Believe it or not, they are very much capable of doing that if you guide them. For example, one of my arguments when it comes to defend my freedom to look at outside material is this. Jesus, the very own son of God, was driven by the very own holy spirit, to be confronted by the biggest apostate known in the universe. The most powerful and unrelentless of apostates attempted to stumble Jesus and failed. Such failure can not be attributed to his perfection or his powers, otherwise the test would be invalid. It can only be attributed to having the absolute truth. Jesus needed to prove that he was just as vulnerable as Adan in order for his sacrifice to be valid. (JW doctrine). So why can't I look at apostate material? If I have the truth and I am in constant crave of it rather than following selfish motives, then I should prevail (Isaiah 54:17).
I know its hard, I get the same feelings when my kids do that. But when I observe them, rather than dominate them, I realize that they only watch those videos as an excuse to grab the ipad (since they don't have one of their own). If given a chance to choose, they rather play video games.
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Spiritual Paradise?
by conflicted89 ini have searched the j-worg website for this term but couldn't find anything about it.
am i wrong in thinking they used to say witnesses had spiritual paradise now?
can anyone point me to articles about it?.
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StarTrekAngel
I used the term in my last school ministry talk, last wednesday. Everyone congratulated me on my talk.. .True story!
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Looking back to what happened since sept 2012... i must say its brilliant !
by insidetheKH inwho thought in the early months of 2012 that such a rebranding would take place in only a matter of 24 months?.
they managed to go from an antique looking and boring website (watchtower.org) with hardly any attractive content to go to a fresh looking new website with stuff for everyone, families, children, teenagers.. movies, and short videos about almost everything and new ones added every month.
cartoons, animation video's , interviews, picture activities all kind of projects, many audio files like dramatic bible readings, dramas and music, online research tools, new brochures for kids (off and online) etc.
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StarTrekAngel
Agreed with BluePill. I am a native spanish speaker myself and I can atest for what he is commenting. Could this be an attempt to make the "J" ambiguous? If you look at the latest WT article (like one or two weekends ago) They are speaking of being "witnesses of Jesus" as well as Jehovah. I think there is a hint at another change there.
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TV.JW.Org - WTF is Wrong With This Guy? - CAPTION THEM
by passwordprotected ini've heard about his bombastic, overly patronising, cartoon-ish delivery before, but i'd never actually seen it...until now.
and i should add, this religion bears little to no relation to the one i left 6 years ago.. .
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StarTrekAngel
Companies go to great lenghts to filter the visit counters to make sure they accurately reflect unique visits. Those that truly need accurate numbers do need this stuff. I wonder if they are not just taking a plain old counter to make up the numbers. A denial of service attack on the website could make the numbers skyrocket in a matter of seconds.
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Looking back to what happened since sept 2012... i must say its brilliant !
by insidetheKH inwho thought in the early months of 2012 that such a rebranding would take place in only a matter of 24 months?.
they managed to go from an antique looking and boring website (watchtower.org) with hardly any attractive content to go to a fresh looking new website with stuff for everyone, families, children, teenagers.. movies, and short videos about almost everything and new ones added every month.
cartoons, animation video's , interviews, picture activities all kind of projects, many audio files like dramatic bible readings, dramas and music, online research tools, new brochures for kids (off and online) etc.
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StarTrekAngel
By the way.. there was a talk at the spanish international convention this year, in Houston. The brother in charge stated that many other religions (I believe he specifcally mentioned mormons) have stated that the new preaching field was in social media and that it was easier and more effective to catch people there than at home. The brother affirmed and I quote "JW would never, ever do that. They way to get to people with such life saving message, is at home". I can see him eating his shoes in a short period of time.
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Looking back to what happened since sept 2012... i must say its brilliant !
by insidetheKH inwho thought in the early months of 2012 that such a rebranding would take place in only a matter of 24 months?.
they managed to go from an antique looking and boring website (watchtower.org) with hardly any attractive content to go to a fresh looking new website with stuff for everyone, families, children, teenagers.. movies, and short videos about almost everything and new ones added every month.
cartoons, animation video's , interviews, picture activities all kind of projects, many audio files like dramatic bible readings, dramas and music, online research tools, new brochures for kids (off and online) etc.
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StarTrekAngel
conflicted89, the reason they are barely catching up is because the org is directed by a bunch of technophones as well. Ultra conservatives that never thought that technology was going to come close to religion. They could see that technology was going to change the world... the way we shop and travel. This is evident in some of the early publications regarding the internet. But I don't think it occurred to them technology could bring about social and political change to the scale it did. No one really understood the power of technology in social and political change until the Arab Spring (coincidentally in 2012 as well) and the Obama election. From this perspective they were not too late. However, if they had foreseen sooner that technology was going to have this impact, then they would have been way ahead of the curve. Their lack of interest on the subject blinded them.
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Looking back to what happened since sept 2012... i must say its brilliant !
by insidetheKH inwho thought in the early months of 2012 that such a rebranding would take place in only a matter of 24 months?.
they managed to go from an antique looking and boring website (watchtower.org) with hardly any attractive content to go to a fresh looking new website with stuff for everyone, families, children, teenagers.. movies, and short videos about almost everything and new ones added every month.
cartoons, animation video's , interviews, picture activities all kind of projects, many audio files like dramatic bible readings, dramas and music, online research tools, new brochures for kids (off and online) etc.
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StarTrekAngel
I don't think that really matters much. It is expected that they will be ahead of us... if not, we would not need whistleblowers. The real issues here is the effect on its members and the damage caused to families. We should be happy if the pressure the internet puts on them end up creating a positive change. Many of the old timers would not forget, but at least moving forward things would be different. I don't believe they are going to go public and start preaching the same hateful doctrines they preach among the closed quarters of the KH. Eventually things would have to equalize. I am a bit skeptic in this sense. While it sickens me to think how many lives have been taken, I also see that there might be a small turn in their path. One with longer term effects that may result in a more regular, mainstream religion that has less and less intrusion into your life. I know it sound crazy but the subtle signs are there (some more subtle than others). They can't bring about too much change too quick, it would scare some away.
Did you see the July 2014 WT? Read the first two articles again and tell me if it does not point at a chance in the treatment of apostates? There is even a picture of Timothy arguing with one in front of the congregation. That would never happen in real life. I spoke with an apologist and he recognized the same hint at a change (without me mentioning it)