Thinking

Pretty much this, and the attacks are, ironically, only focused on Christian Minorites, i.e. US, UK backed forced handing a defenseless Christian village over to ISIS just because they wanted the land back in the past, being one example. Something I have pointed out many, many times. As what was said in the past, there are Christians who are not touched due to the fact they are already enticed by Babylon vs. the minorities, who don't ascribe or entertain the idea of siding with those who are against them.
As what was said, there are grave things taking place as of recent and it is only going to escalate. There are now groups out there that are shifting their attention to minorities, that includes your faith community. So tread carefully.

Chaos will erupt from either side no matter the victor, due to the fact both Trump and Biden are equally puppets, a Trojan Horse to a grander scheme. I brought this up to Rook a while back due to the multitude of groups other there, one in particular whom I have been keeping my eye on, The Boogaloo Boys, and a legitimate adversary of mine, her group being BAMN.
These people want civil unrest regardless of the outcome while the MSM continues to spin people's minds. There is a bigger scheme beneath all of this and in the next few hours, on election night, the uptick in chaos will tick like a timebomb and explode, and it is going to be a few days of hell. It will not be pretty for anyone, granted among the chaos there are opportunists that will not only be looting, but wanting to push ill intent to others physically or mentally.
The biggest test in all of this is evading the Mark of the Beast. For, in the last several weeks, the United Nations and Babylon has been making their own levels of progression during all of this.

More like playing the politician...

Do you think it's possible for someone who is not yet aware of the importance of God's name, to feel they have relationship with him?
I know my grandpa loved God, and talked to him as if he was a friend. But he never had the opportunity to realise the importance of using God's name.
What about those through the centuries, who may have been anointed, but may have only vaguely been aware of God's name, and in some cases not even known it.

My favorite is one of those Hollywood blockbusters of decades past—I think ‘The Ten Commandments.’ 
Early on the distressed Israelites complain that they don’t even know their God’s name.
Later on they are as happy as pigs in mud. They have learned it. It is ‘The LORD.’
 

I would be inclined to agree with Thinking..
Br. Jackson was in a rather precarious position. He had to be very careful and diplomatic in order not to make us appear presumptuous and haughty. As a result, there has been some confusion on the part of some Witnesses wondering what he meant, because they had always been led to believe that the GB is the only chanel God is using.
So what did Br. Jackson mean?
(that is a rhetorical question, as it's off topic here)

We will just have to wait and see 😃
One thing is sure, whatever Jehovah does, we can trust will be just and loving.

I sort of like Russell’s thoughts on it...not sure if it’s wrong or not...but he explained exactly as to the point you have made...that many won’t ever here the preaching work...for what ever reason this Is ...they will not experience the second and final death at Armageddon....but just the first death...thus pay the price of sin....they will then be resurrected back IN to a new world and be given an opportunity to learn what they never did in the old world...they may or may not listen to it...then they will pay the price of the second death.
Many will definitely experience the second death at Armageddon because of their willful ignorance,,,(the false prophet and the beast) ...maybye more...??????
Rutherford changed that understanding,,,as he did with the Joel and the locust...we have reverted back to a number of teachings or understanding of Russell.....this may be one of them...hopefully 

I had my own experience of 30 years ago recounted to me by the one who was my companion at the time:
During one of the early pioneer schools, testing out what we had learned, we had been paired together. Upon my ringing the bell, the householder asked: “Are you Jehovah?”
”Oh, no,” I modestly replied. “I would never presume to call myself by the name of the Most High God. I am but a lowly servant of his, trying in my own imperfect way to serve him.” Thirty years later I ran across that companion again and she recounted how every time she reviewed it in her head, she was so impressed at my abject humility.
It never happened! She had reworked it in her head. Never trust urban legends.
What I had said when the good-natured woman asked “Are you Jehovah?,“ through the screen door, from the far-removed kitchen, for she was distracted in cooking, was: “Well—no, actually, I am not.” Whereupon she realized just what she had absent-mindedly said, and laughed uproariously at the joke. 
We did end up having a pretty good discussion, and maybe it is from that circumstance that my companion elevated me to near sainthood. I’m not really all that deserving of it.
 

London Has Fallen | Retail, Hospitality & Entertainment Collapse! This video will show you London like you've never seen it before. Businesses are simply collapsing, retail, hospitality, entertainment, it's all disappearing at a rapid rate. The London we all remember and love, is disappearing and will never be the same again. I travelled down early in the morning on the train, and for a peak time train, it was almost empty. The underground was much the same, almost no one getting on and off. And just this week, TFL (Travel For London) announce bankruptcy due to the mandated lock downs! Can you imagine, a transport line that was built in 1863 is now going bankrupt over the lockdowns. Oxford Street, the worlds busiest shopping precinct, was nowhere near the level is that it normally is. And those people who were on Oxford Street, we are being very picky and careful in their purchases. There was an air of caution in the air, as if people didn't want to spend too much money right now due to the risk of an even deeper recession. Carnaby Street, London was even worse, with almost no customers anywhere! We then travelled through Soho, into Leicester Square, then Covent Garden before walking down to Trafalgar Square. Again it was the same story, there were no overseas or local tourists and the locals were nowhere to be seen. I stopped to speak with a number of business owners, and they all said the same thing, they were really just waiting for the government to step in and save them, but otherwise, they will need to declare the business bankrupt any day now. I was most shocked to see businesses that I've known since I was a child, now not only closed, but completely stripped bare inside. Some shopping areas when 90% void! That means that nine out of every 10 retail units were empty! These are just some of the things I noticed, I haven't even discussed the London shows been cancelled and the performer is completely out of work. These are people at the top of their game, celebrities in their own right, now unemployed. I made this video to show you the truth of what's really going on... There is no V shaped recovery. It's all a huge LIE. In tomorrow's video, I will be doing a financial analysis and making a prediction on the economy for the next six months leading us into 2021.
 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/bishops-warn-boris-johnson-against-worsening-the-north-south-divide-over-covid-19/ar-BB1alT5z?ocid=msedgdhp
 
 

As far as I am concerned, that Wiki article (I assume this is the source—if not, it is exactly what they do these days) is a prime example of what co-founder Larry Sanger complained about —that it is no longer unbiased. It is also the first example I have seen of that unbias going beyond politics. (Granted, I don’t pay overly much attention).
Here the bias is to reinforce the anti-cultists. The goal is to discredit Introvigne. Nothing stated is incorrect (probably) but if Sanger’s complaint hold true in scenarios other that pure political, one side is developed in minute detail, and whoever attempts to develop the other side is overwhelmed, or even overruled. 
There are certain hot areas that continually go back and forth on Wiki. One fellow commented on my blog to the effect that he regularly updated Wiki posts about JWs to keep them “right”, and he had to do it constantly because opposers would change them right back to their hot-button issues. I got the impression that that was his assignment, but I could be wrong—he may just have been an independent apologist. At any rate, he was worried that I immerse myself into these things too much and that it would be wearing on me because among them are so many slimeballs. But as it turns out, I don’t immerse myself. Witness prays that I will read all the negative Reddit comments. In fact, I have read some—not yet on the topic she eagerly thinks she has dirt on, but there are no end of such topics, and I have read some. I even have a Reddit presence, r/truetomharley, but I have tired of it.
I don’t think I have ever seen a complete video production, mostly because they are so self-important or tedious or malevolent that the first minute is a turnoff. Rarely do I sample them, and when I do, rarely do I get beyond a minute. It is my own bias—one can read in a minute what some smug and pedantic boor will take 30 to develop. 
Wiki has its place, but it has long fallen from its unbiased perch. Maybe the best way to appreciate its silly underbelly, which increasingly threatens to become the main event, is to look up an obscure historical figure, and find there two or three paragraphs. And then look up a television series and see every single episode written up in endless detail, often meriting a page of it own. How much of Mr. Ed does one need?

A group of 50 religion scholars from around the world is calling on President Vladimir Putin and his administration to end the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia.
The scholars' statement, released Thursday, follows the Center for Studies on New Religions’ one-day conference, “Jehovah’s Witnesses and Their Opponents: Russia, the West, and Beyond,” held online from Vilnius, Lithuania, in early September.
“As institutions and individuals concerned with religious freedom, we have followed the events in Russia with increasing alarm,” the CESNUR statement reads.
Among those events is a reported armed raid of 110 homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia’s Voronezh region in July that the scholars call the “largest number of coordinated raids on Jehovah’s Witnesses in modern Russia” and an “escalation” in the persecution of Witnesses in the country.
More than 170 Jehovah’s Witnesses have reportedly been imprisoned or put in pre-trial detention in Russia since 2017 for practicing their faith.
https://www.sightmagazine.com.au/news/17366-scholars-call-out-putin-and-the-escalation-of-persecution-against-jehovah-s-witnesses-in-russia
https://www.cesnur.org/2020/jehovahs-witnesses-statement.htm

I hope things work out for you both..and wherever you go I know Jehovah will be with you 

I hope things work out for you both..and wherever you go I know Jehovah will be with you 

I talked to a friend who says the lock downs at Patterson Bethel are very depressing. He is not someone who would have any influence on teachings but he says that there are many whispers of this type of thinking that you (@Arauna) have shared. How could all the Bethel be in lockdown (earthwide) without something really big about to happen? He only gets about an hour outside his room every day, and he thinks there is something big planned for the first of October. Perhaps a big meeting. Some think it's an exciting announcement, and some think it's a hint that they are letting people go. As it is, he has very little to do. All Caleb/Sophia videos have been completed up through the end of next year, and he and several others literally have nothing to do right now. Just waiting. He says that brothers in the legal department (some still sharing space there) are saying that KH's up for sale just aren't selling, and that big checks go out daily for "you know what," but with a lot less contributions coming in already. Brothers and sisters are beginning to (unofficially) shift their congregations through Zoom to join congregations half-way across the country, which they had moved away from for employment, etc. "This must be it!" he says.
And of course, I'm all for it. Whenever it is Jehovah's time, he will move things in his own way. Of course, I still think that what happens does not need to wait on anything more specific "coming upon all those dwelling upon the face of the whole earth." We already say that what happened in 1914 came upon all those dwelling upon the face of the whole earth, in the sense of a change in the direction of history: "the year that changed the world." But I'm still of the opinion that what comes upon the face of the whole world needn't wait for anything specific beforehand. All these things might happen, but there is no reason to claim that such things must happen. The actual end comes upon the whole earth as a surprise, even if we are sure this must be the season.
Anyway, I tried to cheer him up by telling him how each congregation has a different personality, and that I have seen a lot of joy come through the use of Zoom in the congregations. I attended a couple "funerals" recently that were attended by brothers and sisters from all over the country, who would never have been able to attend otherwise. And in each case the Zoom was left on for about 45 minutes after the memorial talk and small, "break-out" groups of us chatted and reminisced and got to see others we hadn't seen in many years. Some congregations are losing "headcount" but others, like ours, had a new peak in auxiliary pioneers (special hours for CO visit, and circuit assembly months). Everybody wants to see one another, which is great, but so far we are doing fine in our congregation.
 

We are sitting during the first lock-down which may last at least till march next year but there is talk that it will last until all are vaccinated. By that time the world economy will be restarted in a new format to suit UN agenda 2030. 
Millions will die of hunger, suicide, job losses all over the world.  A controlling form of scientific (technocratic) UN government will later take over and lead us to the wonderful situation where they can call peace and security.
The next milestones for agenda 21 and 2030 is a new money system by 2022;  2025, and 2030 dates they have set for certain goals/ milestones.  By 2050 they want the 4th industrial revolution to be complete.  Hopefully Jehovah will intervene before then. 
Jehovah is allowing them to go the whole way with their new god of science and what I think is the 'god of fortresses' - a world database (including DNA) of all people which will secure every person within the grasp of the authorities.  Anyone who does not do as told will find themselves outside the system and will struggle to survive. 
The plans they have is anti-human .... so I really hope it happens before the 2030 milestone (by which time I will be close to 80 and my chances are not great of being around.)  I feel for the youth living now  (70 CE) and know that Jehovah will resurrect all those who die from hunger and suffering before His Great Day - that is my comfort.
I suspect that this lock-down will be like the first lock-down in Jerusalem. Once they open up it may be 3 and half years before they lock us down for the next phase of agenda 21 - the 2030 plans.   By this time many will  have died and the vaccinations (which will be administered regularly according to new indications) may have unprecedented side effects. 
The final lock-down will see them in total control and they will destroy all religion -  If I am around I will walk in the streets like Jonah and be glad to shout that the time for their destruction is here.  May Jehovah grant me the power and courage to do so.......

Well, they did build good roads, those Romans did, and that is said to have aided the spread of Christianity. 
Recently archeologists have unearthed inscriptions of the songs they sang while laying roads down over that untamed earth:
Well, I'm a steamroller, baby
I'm bound to roll all over you
Yes, I'm a steamroller, baby
I'm bound to roll all over you I'm gonna inject your soul with some sweet rock 'n roll
And shoot you full of rhythm and blues
Well, I'm a cement mixer
A churning urn of burning funk
Yes, I'm a cement mixer for you, baby
A churning urn of burning funk Well, I'm a demolition derby
A hefty hunk of steaming junk
Now, I'm a Napalm bomb, baby
Just guaranteed to blow your mind

Oh dear, as someone here would say. I don’t know whether it is worth your time or not but I do know I will miss you if you leave.
As for me, I’ve tried to leave numerous times but the old hen always sings her siren song and lures me back:
”Oh mother, tell your children, not to throwww away their decorum,
Spend your life in sheer misery on the old hen’s world media news forum.“
 

To be fair, the Jehovah's Witnesses were already deemed a target after being robbed by an ally of the church, and after the head of RoC came back from a spiritually powered journey in Antarctica, a bit after his meeting with the Pope, a historic meeting.
What you do not see is what the RoC is doing since the JWs are not on the streets, and what they are beginning to do to other Christians, technically, so to speak, holding a gun to their head or they will meet the same fate. The RoC has also expanded, for there was a group, who also have a channel now on YT that is working to expand the Catholic Church with the aid of anyone connected to the Pope, hence the whole talk about the One World Religion thing, clearly JWs and several others are not for this seemingly forced unity, hence they become targets.
Other then that it is odd that now Catholics, in robes, are going door to door in place of JWs, at times, if the complex is own by the church, they will come to your door to, kick you out if the rent is not paid, and they'll do it by force once you hear the knock, if not, expect the FSB to saw down your door, jump through your window, crash into your roof, rambo style, in order to arrest you.
I'll have to find my source again, and if I o I'll post it so you can see the situation in Russia for yourself.

LOL! I'm sure no one thinks it's ever a complete surprise. (Although that has supposedly happened, too, in rare cases.)
Jesus said that the "synteliea" [which can mean a "destructive final end"] would come upon Jerusalem within one generation, within the lifetime of some of those disciples who heard him speak. So it could not have come as a complete surprise. They knew the "season" just as anyone who sees a fig tree blossom knows that summer is near.
But apparently Jesus himself didn't know how long long this judgement event (proto-parousia) upon Jerusalem would have to wait. He only knew that the kingdom was not going to manifest itself instantly and that there would be a need for patience and endurance, that there would be a seeming delay, and that they should not be misled by great earthquakes, or international wars, or persecution, or famine. They would go through a period of time that would allow for preaching to be done all around their known world. Jesus knew that the Gentiles would be preached to during that same generation. The good news would be preached in all the known nations of their world before that end came. Paul did not declare that this had happened until the 50's or 60's when he told the Colossians:
(Colossians 1:23; New Living Translation) But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don't drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God's servant to proclaim it. Only after the actual first sign, the parousia and synteleia upon Jerusalem (the "sign" they asked about) could the parousia and synteleia for the world now occur at any time "instantly." Matthew 24:30-36, New Living Translation:
And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.h 31And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the worldi—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven. 32“Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near. 33In the same way, when you see all these things, you can know his return is very near, right at the door. 34I tell you the truth, this generationj will not pass from the scene until all these things take place. 35Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear. 36“However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself.k Only the Father knows.  

After having spent twenty five and more years discussing things like this with people who have strong ideas about such things ... but like myself, NOT HAVING THE SLIGHTEST CLUE, I have given up even caring about such things.
Things ARE WHAT THEY ARE .... and,
THEY ARE NOT WHAT THEY ARE NOT
... and a million word exposition  by the clueless ... myself included ... will not change that.
Do the best you can ... chill out ... have a beer ...  relax ... take more naps.  Pay more attention to your children while you still can.
Most "pangs of distress", I have found ... are self inflicted.
About the OTHER "pangs of distress" ... soon ... perhaps too soon ... we will all know.
I will probably be worse if you built your home on the side of an active volcano, or you live close to Yellowstone Park.

Nice points from both of you. 
For my son I had an intuitive feeling that something was about to happen but no significant signs, e.g. broken amniotic sac or contractions.   Since I was tired only, I checked myself in  just before sunset and had the baby just after midnight , although the nurse told me I was not in labour.  Just to show that sometimes one can't go by the normal signs. Still shows you have to be always ready, as you are expectant.

I used to think the same thing, until after my first, second, and third child. That's when I realized that my idea about pangs of pregnancy had actually been influenced by my (our) incorrect understanding of this very scripture. I had to think that the "pangs" would be a "generation" long, in some similar way to how up to 120 years of a generation compares to the 1,881 years from 33 CE to 1914 CE. In the long run, I could rationalize that the final generation was only about 5% of the full period, and this might be considered "instantly" in some sense.
But then I realized that my wife was able to work a full-time job (high school principal) right up until the day she went to the hospital and then she always had the baby within a matter of hours. The "5% solution" implies that the pangs of distress (labor pains) last at least half-a-month. With the new definition of the 'generation that never seems to pass away' the percentage rises to 10% or nearly a whole month.
So the expression about the labor pains is really a huge hint that Jesus actually meant what he said about something coming as a surprise, as if without warning. Just like the days of Sodom would have seemed to suddenly come to an end without warning.
Just an aside, but others have already pointed out that the labor pains analogy was appropriate for the birth of the kingdom. This hardly seems to fit a birth that starts in 1914 and then the labor pains only start AFTER the birth and last for 120 to 240 years. Labor pains usually start BEFORE a birth, not AFTER.
[moved out of order with next post . . . read that one first.]
Actually, all we have to do is look into the meaning of the original Greek word to understand that this is not about when contractions can start:
The original-language word rendered “pangs of distress” refers to the intense pain experienced during childbirth. [Source: Internet]

I don't question that Revelation 17 has an important meaning for us.
Yes. We should always pay attention to our teaching. 1 Tim 4:16: "Pay close attention to your life and to your teaching. Persevere in these things, for by so doing you will save both yourself and those who hear you." [Berean]
If this Watchtower eschatological scenario could be absolutely known for sure to be correct then I would think that some hints could be discerned from political and ideological developments. Of course, I trust that Jesus' words preclude any human from knowing absolutely what the future scenario might look like. However, when the Bible says that God puts the idea in their hearts it likely means (as the Watchtower teaches) that Jehovah allows these entities to go ahead with intentions that already existed in some form. Therefore, such a future scenario could very well be discernible to some extent in advance. To the extent that anyone might feel it useful to look for such hints as a way of testing the validity of the teaching then there is a legitimate reason to "test the spirits." [1 John 4:1]. But I would think there are much more basic and important Bible principles to test against before we can get to that point.  
I think Jesus told us why. He made it clear that the very topic of the end and the natural desire to get advance information about when it would occur would result in much confusion and persons who would end up misleading others, either on purpose or just human nature. So Jesus made it clear that there would be a lot of things happening that people would latch onto in order to claim that they KNEW more about the closeness of the end. So Jesus made it clear that wars would continue to happen, but that they shouldn't get all excited and think this was a sign that the end must be close. Jesus made the same point about earthquakes that might shake someone from their reason and make them think the due time had approached. Or pestilence, famine, persecution. All these things would go on happening, but there was no reason to become inordinately excited. In fact, Jesus added that during the period leading up to the final end [the synteleia/parousia] people would be marrying and being given in marriage, people would be eating and drinking, and the parousia would come upon most of them as if without any warning. In other words, these people would be crying out 'there is peace and security' before sudden destruction came upon them. Peter adds that scoffers could even say 'Where is this promised parousia [that will shine brightly like lightning from one part of the heavens all the way across to the other]? Things are still going on just as they always have.
So, yes, Jesus gave a lot of details about the prophecy related to the end times, but many of those details were to show that there would be NO specific details that could be seen as an advance sign of the end, but that Christians should remain active and endure patiently in spite of the lack of signs. But when the end finally came, THEN there would be an unmistakable sign that this parousia was upon us suddenly like bright visible lightning.