Srecko Sostar

Perhaps GB stick to the story of multiplying Masters money in too literal meaning and working with money in various ways. Investments funds of all sorts, buying, selling and building real estates. ... And is it not strange how US people, citizens are founders of WT Company-Religion? Because US are very good soil for prosperity in various way.    hehe  

The Witnesses purchased the building in 1975 . 
Who normally would have spend money to buy building in this old  wicked system just before 1975 Armageddon ??  

We also paid for people to move out of the building and ended up with about a dozen elderly persons who could not be bought out at any price. We would not be able to use the entire building until they died. We moved them all onto a couple of floors that Bethelites couldn't move into until they died. The construction crew had a kind of pseudo-celebration when the last one died.
It's a curious thing, though, that the Watch Tower's history has seen this happen several times. Russell spent his and his father's money in 1877 because 1878 was going to be the "resurrection" and change from fleshly body to spiritual body. Russell bought into Barbour's Herald and helped him distribute Barbour's "Three Worlds" / "Tabernacle Shadows" and then Russell's own "Object and Manner of the Lord's Return" in huge quantities in 1877 and 1878. Then in 1913 and 1914 almost all the finances of the Society were gone. MacMillan says the Society was completely broke by mid-1914. They had spent a tremendous amount on "Photo-Drama of Creation." There was not much need to hold anything back, as everyone involved in the Society was "going home" to heaven in 1914. Then, in 1924, just one year prior to the resurrection of the ancient worthies, Rutherford took possession of a couple of houses and a couple of expensive cars for David and Abraham to drive. (This is not your fore-fathers Oldsmobile!) Also in 1924, they completed gathering the money to build their own first factory at 117 Adams Street - 8 stories, taking up an entire block.

It is very nice that you put two translations of same verse, perhaps it will be good to use more of it. Because NWT have some err. 
it is not the same when NWT say - "obey your leaders" but Jesus said one is your leader, (so this is very big err in NWT), and if we hear "have confidence" NIV, but in all that one thing is more important - elders have to earn that trust from the people.
BUT my prime reason to respond on your comment above was this: It is not matter if  "one brings division into the church", in fact it is good to put on test and fire human doctrines, AND JESUS SUPPORT THAT TOO. YOU ASK HOW? READ THE BIBLE PLEASE. JESUS SAID: 
34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn
“‘a man against his father,
    a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
36     a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. – Jesus (Matthew 10:34-38)
According to this i am afraid that you are not familiar with "bible  principles, prophesies, teachings and many more". :))))

 

For me, all is human, men's commentary here. Some looks like your yin yang circle in black and white, some have colors .... and we all need to test all those ideas, logic, reason. We all do that with more or less success.
"... the Pharisees and the teachers of the law..." (aka GB scholars) can be furious on some JW members liberty to put in questions their doctrines and instructions BUT that is normal because Bible also said so - "test the spirit...." 1.John 4:1-5. If some dare to test the spirit of GB he/she is not doing nothing that would be against "bible principles"   

"If we were following a man undoubtedly it would be different with us; undoubtedly one human idea would contradict another and that which was light one or two or six years ago would be regarded as darkness now: But with God there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, and so it is with truth; any knowledge or light coming from god must be like its author. A new view of truth never can contradict a former truth. New light never extinguishes older light, but adds to it. If you were lighting up a building containing seven gas jets you would not extinguish one every time you lighted another, but would add one light to another and they would be in harmony and thus give increase of light. So is it with the light of truth; the true increase is by adding to, not by substituting one for another." (Watchtower Feb. 1, 1881, Reprints p. 188)
This quote is standpoint of former GB, in 1881. Today GB have different view on same issue. Some future GB (if would be in existence at all) will do the same as this days GB members.  Will change doctrines and proclaim outdated learnings as "old light".   In other words, they will give up from their predecessors, former GB members  Which of these time-varying GB groups has more "spirit" that they be able to claim how "this WTJWorg is god's spirit guided organization"? haha, ...and in what time period what GB group has more "spirit" in governing the Corp-org?  

Is this sound like hate speech?
Watchtower 2011 Jul 15 p.11 
"Apostates “quietly” bring their ideas into the congregation, like criminals who secretly bring things into a country. Apostates use “counterfeit words.” This means that they say things that make their false ideas sound true, like criminals who make false documents look real. They try to get as many people as possible to believe their “deceptive teachings.” Peter also said that they like twisting the Scriptures. They explain Bible verses in the wrong way to make others believe their ideas. (2 Peter 2:1, 3, 13; 3:16) Apostates do not care about us. If we follow them, we will leave the road to everlasting life. 
... The Bible says that apostates are mentally diseased and that they use their teachings to make others think like them. (1 Timothy 6:3, 4) Jehovah is like that good doctor. He clearly tells us to stay away from false teachers. We must always be determined to follow his warning. 
Watchtower 2004 Feb 15 p.28 
"It would be a mistake to think that you need to listen to apostates or to read their writings to refute their arguments. Their twisted poisonous reasoning can cause spiritual harm and can contaminate your faith like rapidly spreading gangrene. (2 Timothy 2:16, 17) Rather, imitate God's response to apostates. Job said of Jehovah: "Before him no apostate will come in." - Job 13:16." 
Watchtower 1993 November 1 p.19 
"True Christians share Jehovah's feelings toward such apostates; they are not curious about apostate ideas. On the contrary, they "feel a loathing" toward those who have made themselves God's enemies, but they leave it to Jehovah to execute vengeance." 
Watchtower 1992 July 15 pp.12-13 Christ Hated Lawlessness-Do You? 
"The obligation to hate lawlessness also applies to all activity by apostates. Our attitude toward apostates should be that of David, who declared: "Do I not hate those who are intensely hating you " 
Watchtower 1961 July 15 p.420 A Time and Place for Everything 
Jesus encouraged his followers to love their enemies, but God's Word also says to "hate what is bad." When a person persists in a way of badness after knowing what is right, when the bad becomes so ingrained that it is an inseparable part of his make-up, then in order to hate what is bad a Christian must hate the person with whom the badness is inseparably linked. Indicating that Jesus did not mean for us to love the hardened enemies of Jehovah, David expressed this God-approved attitude: "Do I not hate those who are intensely hating you, O Jehovah, and do I not feel a loathing for those revolting against you? With a complete hatred I do hate them. They have become to me real enemies."-Matt. 5:44; Amos 5:15; Ps. 139:21, 22. 
 

Why oh why do jws allow these men to dictate their lives like this? Can't they make up their own minds on things? Or would that allow too much freedom?  

Don't mean to confuse the issue; I was agreeing with you that the NIV translation was different than the NWT...you said,
compare with this translation; "For the wages of sin is death, NIV) not the same? Â 

Just to heat up a little about; sin, ransom, dead.
 "What Does the Bible Really Teach?", chapter five about Ransom, JWorg library quotes;
 "It is a gift from God to mankind... Clearly, then, when Adam disobeyed God and was condemned to death, he paid a very high price. His sin cost him his perfect human life with all its blessings. (Genesis 3:17-19) Sadly, Adam lost this precious life not only for himself but also for his future offspring. God’s Word says: “Through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” (Romans 5:12). ...The idea of a ransom basically involves two things. First, a ransom is the price paid to ...Second, a ransom is the price that covers, or pays, the cost of something....By sacrificing, or giving up, his perfect life in flawless obedience to God, Jesus paid the price for Adam’s sin. Jesus thus brought hope to Adam’s offspring.—Romans 5:19; 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22......
 
WHAT THE RANSOM CAN MEAN FOR YOU
14, 15. To receive “the forgiveness of our sins,” what must we do?
1)The forgiveness of sins
2)A clean conscience before God. 
3)The hope of everlasting life on a paradise earth.
NOW LET GET SOME ISSUE to comment   
Rom. 6:23 NWT say; "For the wages sin pays is death,..." and JW org explained this verse that when human died he/she are free of every sin he/she made while was living.    (compare with this translation; "For the wages of sin is death, NIV) not the same  
By this WT explanation Jesus ransom came to be unnecessary because particular person pay for sins, that had made, by own death. But as it said in "Teaching book", Jesus paid the price for Adam’s sin. By this then we come to point that our present sins would not be covered by Jesus sacrifice, because Jesus paid price only for Adam's sin and not for sins we made after acknowledge and accepting Jesus, because as some JW members had said in connection to Bible verse in Heb. 10.. How would be paid price for sin if person have not died?
For example, JW members survived Armageddon and as sinful imperfect humans start to living in Paradise. But they are still imperfect and doing sin. Who covered their sins?? We still have Romans 6:23-  "For the wages sin pays is death".  Heb 10:26, 27 said, "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,  but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." BUT again if we died even in that state of "deliberately sinning" as imperfect humans, than our dead will/would cover all sins we done, because after you die you are free of all your sins - Rom 6:23 again. And by that you can wait in grave for for second, third, fourth chance :)))))))
But here is something else what we can find in Bible, so please meditate about and try to explain what sins will be, would be covered by death of this people and under what circumstances, and when and for whom get, take benefits from the deaths of this people ??????? -Proverbs 11:8; 21:18 and Isaiah 42:1-3    
P.S. Additional verses: Isaiah 43:3; Ex. 30:12; Num. 3:46-51; Ps. 49:7; Romans 3:24 

@J.R. Ewing
My message was Bible based. I ignore ignorance! Allow all opinions of others. Truth is the “only” answer. Thank you! 

I suspect that it really is much worse in other religions. I have already seen people who take the data that comes out of the Australian studies to try to show that it must be about 10 to 50 times worse, as a ratio, among Jehovah's Witnesses as it is among Catholics. I think this interpretation of the numbers is ludicrous. I found it to be a useful point when you pointed out that the numbers among JWs may refer to both "higher ups" AND the "rank and file," while the numbers from the Catholic Church refer mostly to "higher ups."
I was trying to find a way of saying that it was not all four "higher ups" at the London Branch who had been accused. You might have already been aware of the news when three of the persons with the highest responsibilities at the Branch were dismissed at the same time, and I did not want to cast aspersions against all of them. But you have put me in the awkward position of thinking I should defend the truthfulness of what I said. In Australia not only does the list include circuit overseers, and a former district overseer, but the accused included a person who had been a former Australian Branch overseer himself. One of the very cases that we listened to testimony about in the ARC was a case where the accused was one of these at the top of the Australian Branch organization.
So I mention the parallels as a way of showing the seriousness, even though all of us have the desire to protect the reputation of the Organization. I think it's just as dangerous to minimize the cases as it is to exaggerate them.
With respect to the Interview you mentioned, it's hard to imagine this in any institution, but there really are parallels even if we are not trying to equate our problems with Catholic problems. Although I am not speaking of child abuse, exactly, there have been cases of collusion among some accused of wife-swapping, two or more elders who all committed fornication with the same young sister, and in at least one of these cases, more than one of the accused Witnesses ended up being friends with each other, and supposedly had used this friendship to cover for each other. Something related to this has been claimed for a couple of Australian congregations and three California congregations.
I can't claim direct knowledge of those things that I just mentioned in the last paragraph, but I can claim almost direct knowledge, or at least knowledge that came to me from a member of the GB, whom I worked for. At the time there were about 16 active members of the Governing Body, and one had been accused of homosexual tendencies (Chitty), while two others had been accused of multiple child abuse instances (Greenlees and Jaracz). Another was a 80+-year GB member (Fred Franz) who had made it a longstanding practice to meet with more than a dozen naked and semi-naked 19-year olds in the sauna (steam room), who came there to listen to his Bible discussions for up to two hours every Wednesday night. Two of those GB members were dismissed from Bethel, the other two remained at Bethel until they died. I mention all of these because it reflects on 25% of the highest organizational leadership at the time. We know that it's often those with a measure of authority who use their position to manipulate the situation allowing for the crimes and the cover-up of their crimes.
So, unfortunately, I cannot accept some of the excuses about needing to slap down those who see problematic parallels. Finding the parallels with other institutions might even be a way to find more solutions that have seemed to work in some of these other institutions. I don't think it matters who is better or worse, it matters that we find more ways to help the situation, help the victims, and keep the organization clean. Making the organization appear cleaner is not the same as truly working to make it clean. I'm a firm believer in facing the issue head on as the fastest way to clean it up.

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/402011525 We can enter into Jehovah’s rest if we obey him and work with his organization. 17 But we are acting against Jehovah’s purpose if we do not obey the faithful and discreet slave or if we choose to obey only what we think is important. It has become harder to search on text from the Simplified Watchtower in WOL.jw.org.

Did this GB member suffer from persecution at the hands of his own people, as Jesus did?  John 15:20; Matt 5:11,12; Luke 12:52,53  Did he suffer for his testimony of Christ or because he was part of the Watchtower organization? Rev  11:7; 12:17   Obviously, those in the Watchtower at that time period were thrown to a different “wolf” in Satan’s world.  Don’t you find it rather ironic that the organization, which compares itself to the early Israelite nation, promises safety in the organization when no real safety exists?  Yet, with the nation of Israel, whenever God’s people followed his laws closely, they were protected from marauders, and God provided all of their needs.  Isa 48:18
It is a lie to convince people that on the one hand, they are compared to God’s early nation, and they are taught that salvation is only through the organization; yet, on the other hand, they must fight for their worldly rights and suffer for it.  Since they suffer, which is the truth?   Is the organization similar to God’s nation of Israel, or are its leaders flying by the seat of their pants? 
Just as Jesus was persecuted by his own people, the type of persecution the anointed and brethren suffer when speaking out against lies, is from their own people, which thoroughly fulfills Matt 24 and so many other scriptures. 
Refinement has nothing to do with sacrificing one’s previous life goals to become a GB member, which position provides all one’s needs. Refinement is directed at cleansing the heart from all forms of hypocrisy, false prophesy and “new light”, which is another term for “lie”. Rom 8:16,17; Col 1:24; 6:5; 8:36; Mal 3:1-3; 1 Cor 3:13; Rev 3:19
The Bible has always followed the history God’s nation.  Surely, you must wonder why the Watchtower has turned the end time fulfillment  away from God’s people, to Satan’s world.  Why the change?  Satan is bent on killing the “remaining ones of the woman’s seed”.  Would a god of deception; an angel of light; do so in full recognizable view of the victim? Or would he point out a scapegoat as the cause?   There is no “war” against the “saints” in Satan’s world, but war happens when the “saints”, as well as their brethren, defend God’s word and reject lies in the organization.  Rev 13:6,7,15; 12:17
 
Any JW who may say there are no lies taught over the years of the organization, has fallen completely for Satan’s delusion.  2 Thess 2:9-12
 

Some are disappointed  because they have been waiting, and waiting, ....and waiting for the paradise, and now they feel they have wasted their life, because they think they could have got an excellent education, made lots of money, and had a good time, instead of devoting their life to teaching others about God's Kingdom and denying themselves the "good" things the world had to offer.  I am  sorry for not making it  clear.
So my question was, what could have made them disappointed? It was not being able to do those things I mentioned, which are selfish things. On the other hand,  ones who gave their life in pursuit of doing God's will unselfishly, have not regretted anything.....and they are still waiting, and will wait for however long it takes.

But then so is reading the comment in the first place

YES....  laughing  AND  respect !  Both  things  are  importend,  fun  and  good  behavior,  making  nice  days...

I remember once when Jesus demonized some pork, but it was at their own request. (Demon's request, not the pork's.)
(Matthew 8:31) . . .So the demons began to plead with him, saying: “If you expel us, send us into the herd of swine.” But Jesus also gave some good dietary instructions for raising pigs. They evidently don't digest beads of calcium carbonate very well, or else perhaps it doesn't sit well with them and makes them violent.
(Matthew 7:6) . . .“Do not . . . throw your pearls before swine, so that they may never trample them under their feet and turn around and rip you open.  
 
 

When you get old and fat and it stretches into something unsightly.

lol, superstitious much?

Does Jehovah forbid tattoos?

More questions ... I did not count, but there must be a DOZEN or more ...
Lets' try AGAIN, ....
The SPECIFIC question is: (ahem...)
WHY ? .... does Jehovah God forbid tattoos?.
... getting a straight answer is like trying to find chicken teeth.
.
.
 
( Hint ... and this is only a suggestion ... start your sentence with the word "BECAUSE ...")
 

Ok, AllenSmith ... I give up.
You have worn me down to the nub with many words . yadda yadda yadda yadda.
The question remains ....
WHY ? .... does Jehovah God forbid tattoos?
 
Going through what you wrote is like finding a specific four-leaf clover on a golf course.
Your short answer AND your long answer were not ANSWERS .. they were additional QUESTIONS !!
 

There is a balance, to be sure. When Paul speaks of not stumbling another, it is newer or weaker persons he is speaking of. He is not primarily speaking about those who have been around forever and who should have, by now, resolved such matters and learned not to be offended at the drop of a pin. 
In this case, I let myself corrected because I thought he had a good point. Maybe he was right entirely and I should allow myself to be reigned in. It made sense to me. If saluting the flag is a form of idolatry, surely 'liking' the comment of an apostate is a form of association.