Patiently waiting for Truth

12 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

17 minutes ago, Patiently waiting for Truth said:

you become an inactive publisher and you get a talking to.

Even more encouragement!!

No, threats. They only allow a person to become inactive when it suits their own purpose.

For example, when I told them I was leaving and gave them the reason, they said i could just quietly go inactive. The obvious reason they said that was, if i remained in the Org they still had control over what i could say to others, because the thread of D/fed would be there. They wanted me quiet but controlled. 

But normally congregants are told to do more hours, put in more effort, make more time for the ministry. and those that do not are given warnings and shunned.  Yes I've seen it happen to some that I was close to way back then. 

1 hour ago, JW Insider said:

3 hours ago, Witness said:

There are already movements by elders, to remove the GB.

Sounds doubtful. Almost as if it needs to be true just to make that particular interpretation work. Worse than eisegesis.

Perhaps @Witness needs to go careful ? She may find herself at the end of Billy the Kids rope as i did. 

We have to be careful what we say about the GB don't we ? 

6 hours ago, JW Insider said:

We are "encouraged" to report, it isn't "demanded."

If you don't report you become an inactive publisher and you get a talking to. Been there done that. 

And on top of that the number of JWs is counted by the number of reports / active publishers. 

Now this should be a new topic  

11 hours ago, JW Insider said:

Paul is saying, basically: I didn't just teach you brothers publicly [among other people], but even [privately] in your homes.

Notice that the literal expression in the Kingdom Interlinear is "according to houses" not "from house to house."

11 hours ago, JW Insider said:

NLT: I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes.

11 hours ago, JW Insider said:

It's just that Acts 20:20 isn't really about that kind of preaching activity.

NNWT Act 20 : 20

while I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable* nor from teaching you publiclyp and from house to house

So, Yet another misinterpretation / misuse of scripture by your Governing Body, as a means to control it's congregation and distribute it's propaganda... And on top of that they demand a report of the hours you spend going from house to house. 

11 hours ago, Pudgy said:

I always enjoyed the house to house work, but I never enjoyed getting up early in the morning, having to shave and put on a monkey suit … er …business suit and going out and sweating as if someone was hosing me down with a sprinkler.

I was told once that the Europeans can always tell Americans on the street because they are the worst dressed people in the world. To me I thought that was a compliment because I am not a “clothes horse” myself.

I strongly suspect, almost to the point of certainty, that if the Society would relax their dress standards and allow casualwear it would double or triple the publishers that would present themselves for Service.

One thing I know for an ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY …. and that is that the general public does NOT disparage casual dress or beards.

It has been 75 or so years since suits and Roman Army face shaving has been the norm.

However, my favorite form of Field Service would be to collect about a hundred or so tons of old magazines that have piled up at Witnesses’ houses, and over medium to large cities, shovel them out the back of a C-130 cargo plane.

Love it !. What you seem to be saying possibly (and yes i have to be careful what i attribute to you) is that some of the rules and some of the practices handed down by the Governing Body, are in fact totally unecessary and 'wrong'. 

A certain Elder i know  is the literiture servant in a big multinational town near London. He covers all the literiture for three congregations that use the same Kingdom hall. This Elder is 80 years old, of poor health, and is deteriorating mentally. He tells me that none of the younger men in the congregation are interested in taking on the responsibility. And as you say 'old magizines' are a big problem. Brothers and sisters acutually take mags' from years ago back to the hall and just pile them up and leave them there. 

This same Elder actually 'dresses down' to go into the ministry. No suit, shirt sleves in the summer. Here in Devon England we were allowed to go into the ministry, in the countryside, in an open neck shirt and smart trousers. Devon being farming country people seem more ready to talk to a person dressed more 'normally', not 'poshed up'. At that time I actually believed the things I was told to tell others, so the ministry was very enjoyable. 

5 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Can you imagine the participants here all pulling together in times of chaos? 

In times of serious importance, then Yes. But nothing that important goes on here.  

In my opinion most people here do have a few things thing in common. We all want God's Kingdom to be firmly established in Heaven and on Earth. We all want God through Yeshua / Jesus to rule over mankind. We all want peace on Earth. 

We just have different views as to how those things will be accomplished. 

4 hours ago, Arauna said:

I think they take people off here when they show extreme abuse not just threats. 

Talking of abuse - the photos at the end of this article shows the physical restraint  of the Muslims in China. It is a BBC article of a secret cash of documents stolen off a Chinese computer.   The UN thinks that China is the model for the rest of the world. A " Chinese approved " man is heading the WHO. Tedros comes from Ethiopia and has the backing of Mr Gates and China.  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/85qihtvw6e/the-faces-from-chinas-uyghur-detention-camps?xtor=ES-208-[52635_NEWS_NLB_ACT_WK21_Tue_24_May]-20220524-[bbcnews_china_newsworld_uyghurs]

I don't tend to dig deep into such things but are you saying that Muslims in China are being treated as bad as JWs in Russia ?   

12 hours ago, Anna said:

Interpol, CIA, FBI  😂

I never did hear from any of them 

There seems to be a couple of points being brought out here. 

1. That from the time Rutherford took over, the doctrine became that the Organisation is the New Ark.

From this it seemed to evolve into "You have to be a baptised JW to be saved".  Baptised into that 'new ark' 

2. @Anna and possibly others, 'not happy with' the doctrine of 'always obey the GB's instructions through the Watchtower or Elders'. Obey without question. 

Which evolved into the GB saying that "God and Jesus trust the GB so therefore every JW must trust (and obey) the GB".

There was a third point concerning Armageddon and the yeat 2000, which @JW Insider didn't answer, but no matter.

Only point one seems relevant to topic and I thought JWI was going to move all other comments to a different topic, but i suoopse the other points have been discussed a million times before. 

WP makes some good points and seems sincere in his comments. Such a shame he is so aggresive with it all .

Peace and Christian love to all. 

3 hours ago, Thinking said:

Sometimes I wonder if Jehovah allows these things to see who will follow man and who will have worked on their faith hard enough to to see thru this

BUT, your GB state that 'God and Jesus trust the GB so all JWs must trust the GB'

So isn't that a contradiction ? Would God want the GB to say those words above, and then the GB give false inforamtion ? 

You JWs do not think it all through do you. 

3 hours ago, JW Insider said:

It's human nature, I guess. If things go on the same, I expect the same kind of talk in 2025 or so, in preparation for a subliminal belief among us that the end must come by 2034

If this is the case then it would prove that your leaders have learnt nothing. 

3 hours ago, JW Insider said:

Yes, I also heard that this was around 1989. That's because the January 1, 1989 Watchtower had just predicted that the new system would be within about 11 years.

"He was laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our 20th century."

This was a "necessary" belief based on the then-current understanding of "this generation."

Are you admitting here that the Watchtower / GB / JW org stated that Armageddon would happen by the year 2000 ?

A simple yes or no, please. 

4 hours ago, xero said:

But this poking around the septic tank of the organization is unhealthy and unwholesome.

Maybe some folks want to know the foundation that the JW Org is built on. Rock or sand ? 

5 hours ago, Anna said:

What really irritates me though is this constant need to harp on about the reason to obey now .....the reason being that if we get used to obeying now,  it will mean our salvation in the future when we have to obey this one last instruction (whatever "impractical" thing that will be) to get saved. That is wrong. It's like a veiled threat. 

And you wonder why some are now onthe outside ? 

6 hours ago, Anna said:

What gets me is when we keep going on about obeying instructions in order to survive Armageddon. This weekends WT study mentioned it agaiin....comparing the GB to Joshuah and Zerubabel. (Otherwise the study was very good). "Sometimes God’s people received direction that did not appear to be practical from a human standpoint but turned out to be lifesaving". 
The WT gave a couple of current examples....just stopping short of mentioning getting vaccinated against covid (thank goodness).

Are we not putting too much emphasis on the organization being the saving power, in other words our salvation being dependent on instructions coming from imperfect men? Whereas salvation is clearly going to come from Jesus, and we may be anywhere doing anything when Jesus saves us. Or is the mark for survival from the secretaries ink horn contingent on having our backpack ready or hunkering down somewhere?? As if Jesus cannot save us uless we listen to these types of instructions. I always thought the criterion was dependent on pure worship. This whole life we live is a test of our loyalty to Jesus and Jehovah. Everything we do today and tomorrow, the choices we make with respect to pure worship is what places that mark on our foreheads. And after all these tests we encounter every day, then there will be another test to see how obedient we are to the GB?? Give me a break! Past Bible examples do show that there were certain procedures the people had to follow in order to survive, BUT the situation at Armageddon will be incomparable, it cannot be said to parallel any other situation before then. I don't know why we keep obsessing that it is the same. It's like regurgitating types and anti types again....drawing parallels where there are none.

WONDERFUL WORDS but when I say anything similar or if @Witness, or @Srecko Sostarsays so, then we get shot down for it. 

7 hours ago, JW Insider said:

is that just a day or so ago, WalterPrescott told PWFTT that he should get his demons exorcised

 I haven't seen that   On Friday 6pm -10pm UK time I was in A&E and haven't been on here much since. I really don't think I've seen that one  .....  WP = BTK  I'm laughing at this one. 

1 hour ago, Arauna said:

No - I think us plebs want to know when people are trying to bamboozle us.  I get suspicious when I see the same characteristics in the writing. But I do not like to do that kind of research....to see who it is. So I welcome it when someone points out that someone is toying with us - which is a deceit and unchristian.

Well I would change my name back to my real name if it was allowed, and I still have no idea who banned me or why. 

Being banned without even one warning does give a person a good reason to come back with a false name, and in my case I was not allowed to return using my real name. If the forum boss had contacted me before banning me maybe the situation could have been sorted out.  Billy the Kid on here pretending that I was threatening the GB then total ban, no warning. The Boss Elders (or higher ranks) run their forum as they see fit, which is fair enough. And other 'admin types' here, it seems, can alter people's comments, move comments, remove comments, so who is to know what is genuine or not. 

Ya know guys, trying to read all this rubbish is more painful than the 4 hours I've just spent in A&E. I've been told to take the meds and just rest, so I came on here. But this is all so, well, pathetic. 

I hope you are all well  . 

On 5/20/2022 at 7:58 AM, Thinking said:

Sometimes it’s like you are two different people

He is many different people, don't you already know that ?  

2 minutes ago, Pudgy said:

I hope you were joking. 
If not, you are one scary dude!

Next subject the Twin Towers 

7 minutes ago, Pudgy said:

By the way, PwfT, people all over the Earth cheered and celebrated as July 20 1969 the greatest thing mankind has ever accomplished took place … escaping Earth’s gravity and crossing 240,000 miles of hard vacuum, to safely land on another world!

I remember everything about that day in bright, sharp detail.

Yeh it was a good film studio  Almost convicing 

Things like it have been done on film a hundred times. 

11 hours ago, Pudgy said:

.

 

The pretend moon landing was an experiment into examining the intelligence of the American population. 

11 hours ago, Thinking said:

Well from now on pudgy you can now and go get jumped on….I’m done  with ya !!

Surely you know he writes 99% rubbish here.  A tiny bit of it is humour but not much  

That's not an insult Pudgy it's the truth. 

Nothin' spiritual here then. I was thinkin' of startin' a new topic but they all end up like this one has  .

Oh well, back to Facebook then. At leat that has some sensible content and will accept two way conversation in a polite manner.  (We know SM doesn't like FB but does he like this rubbish on here ?) 

Hope you are ALL safe and well and well fed.