James Thomas Rook Jr.

I suspect when they looked at a 17 acre warehouse full of Polio and Smallpox Vaccine that they could not sell.

When Able was killed he was 126 years old.

How do I know this?

I do not have the slightest idea.

Not even a hint of the smell of a clue.

.... and since the Bible does not say .... I strongly suspect anybody elses WAG would carry equal weight.

I am not as fertile as a Turtle

But I have more fun than a tree

.... that lives much longer than me.

Turtles live 'twixt plated decks

Which practically conceal it's sex

I think it clever of the Turtle

In such a fix

To be so fertile.

6 hours ago, Jack Ryan said:

@James Thomas Rook Jr. will no longer be allowed to speak in favor of JW's. Sorry. Waste of time!!!!

Many fail to realize I try to be , what one enemy once called me (actually it was meant as an insult, but it is the nicest compliment I ever had ...) a "Champion" for Jehovah's Witnesses, and the 15% Core Truth that we have.

An Elder asked me recently if I could fully support "Jehovah's Organization".  I replied that I always have.

He asked me if there was anything I had against the Organization. I replied that I could do without Caleb and Sophia..

That seemed to satisfy him, and we went our separate ways.

I am so glad he did not ask about the 85% silly stuff.

Perhaps I should have kept what my Mother taught me when I was 3 to 6 years old .. "Never talk to strangers.".

I am a slow learner.

I wear a size 16 shoe (52 in Europe) and THIS is what I would like from Ronald McDonald!

Alithis Gnosis:

I see by your knowing where the correct answers may be found, but not posting them, that you have the same aversion to "heavy lifting" that I do.

That was the whole point of my ASKING ... I could find out the correct answer with several hours of research, but I am a chain saw kinda guy, and hoped that someone would already have more verifiable information at their fingertips than I do.

My thought was that if it was said at an Assembly ... they were using LAST YEARS figures, or whatever the Assembly speaker is reported by our Kingdom Hall Speaker to have said.

I completely agree with your quote:

3 hours ago, Alithís Gnosis said:

Do not be naive, or gullible. Be sure you have the facts.

That is why I am TRYING to check what I heard from the platform today .

The sword has to cut BOTH ways, except among the gullible, dull, and stupid.

I do not trust ANYBODY at face value, and I do not care about "rumors shipwrecking" my or anyone else's faith, as mentioned in your quote.

That is why I see the following video clips as just normal human stupidity.

 

This afternoon (Saturday) was our weekend meeting, and the public speaker said that at the Orangeburg, SC Assembly last weekend it was said that the Brotherhood had dropped to 7,500,000 worldwide.

It was my impression that we were at somewhere around 8.2 million, and growing.

That means (if true) that even with several BILLION HOURS of public witnessing .... there was a net LOSS of 700,000 JWs.

So, have we actually had that much decrease, and does anybody have any "official" numbers to verify what I heard today from the platform?

Festivus - The Holiday for the REST of us ?

"Seinfeld" was a very popular TV show a few years back, and one of the comedic sketches they had was the ad-hoc invention of a holiday called "Festivus"  -  completely made up out of thin air, to compete with those who did not celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah , or other holidays.

I have seriously (Hahahahaha) been thinking about making "Festivus" a family tradition at our house, as exemplified by the expression " .. A life without celebration, is like a very long road without an Inn ..".

If this is new to you, you can watch Seinfeld "Festivus" episodes on YouTube to get the idea, and Wikipedia has the full history of the Holiday.

 Hmmmm ... I will also send this question to the "Watchtower", "Questions from Readers", perhaps as an exercise in futility .. but even a blind pig finds an acorn, once in awhile.

I would appreciate it if you could answer the question as you see it, from whatever perspective you have.

I have mentioned this in the past, but to my knowledge the two most famous Presbyterians that I know about are Dwight David Eisenhower, President of the United States and Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in World War II, who was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, and Fozzie Bear, made from some discarded rental apartment carpet, and Star of TV and Movies as the resident Muppet Comedian.

When I was growing up, your predilection for irrelevancy was known as "taking a trip through Booger's Woods".

26 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

There is not a New Testament writer who does not deal, sometimes at length, with apostasy. 

Is that because the first century governing arrangement screwed it up, too?

I was discussing the comparison between the two court systems.

A valid charge of apostasy assumes that the people "with the bayonets" have it right ... which is not often the case.

Please tell me how the Congregational Court System worked among Christians in the first century.

Only with real data could I possibly know the answer to your question.

...  I DO know what we have NOW.

1 hour ago, TrueTomHarley said:

And just what would they investigate? They DID investigate sexual abuse of its members as cases came to their attention, and this is the source of their "problem" in the first place.

Among men of integrity, investigations produce results that lead to Justice. 

Just as in the case of USA FBI Director James Comey's investigation of Hillary Clinton's unsecured personal email servers that held top secret information .... if you make public statements that exonerate the people being investigated ... BEFORE THE INVESTIGATION IS COMPLETED ... you will NOT get Justice.

Agenda driven investigations are ALWAYS corrupted to protect the reputations of the people, or entities involved.

Colloquial fantasies to the contrary, we are NO DIFFERENT than anyone else in that regard.

1 hour ago, TrueTomHarley said:

They would have been far better off, practically speaking, to have hidden their heads in the sand and cried, Sergeant Shultz-like, "I know nothinnnggggg."

GB Member Stephen Lett already did that in 2015, if memory serves, about three months before the Australian Royal Commission blew the lid off of everything in that regard.  He referred to all such accusations as "... apostate lies !".

There are video clips on YouTube.

1 hour ago, TrueTomHarley said:

It is part of the GB's "problem." Come hell or high water, they put their understanding of the scriptures first, showing little deviation due to "the opinions of men."

The problem with that caveat, is that their understanding of the scriptures ... ARE THEIR COLLECTIVE PERSONAL OPINIONS ... and they are in fact "men", like any other men, who put their paints on one leg at a time, and have some ... and occasionally many opinions that are completely divorced from reality and plain old common sense.

1 hour ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Of course! Just like in a secular court of law today where any Tom Dick or Harry in the spectator section can rise to his feet and holler "I object!"

You and I probably watched  too much "Perry Mason" growing up ... but if Tom, Dick or Harry in the back of the courtroom stood up and yelled  "That is NOT TRUE", in a secular court I guarantee he WOULD BE HEARD.   The Judge may bang his gavel and the Bailiff may get tense, but he would be heard.

In OUR court system, held in complete secrecy, and no witnesses allowed  .... there is nobody to "stand up" for injustices that are the part of all "due processes."

There is a real and valid reason why Jehovah set up the system that served Israel well for two thousand and more years ... and there is a reason why we do not use that system today.

It  is that their understanding of the scriptures ... ARE THEIR COLLECTIVE PERSONAL OPINIONS ...

Sometimes they make sense ... many times they make no sense at all ... and apostates are CREATED ... where there were none before.

 

 

Don't you really hate how cats scratch the inside of your Microwave?

This used to be very important to me, and I know all the arguments, pro, and con.

It's intellectually interesting ... in small doses ... and the older I get ... the smaller the doses I need.

There is a saying "Is this the Hill you want to die on?'

I have had and sustained enough cannonades from the REAL world that I no longer care if Jesus is Michael ... or not.

It's just not important to me ...... anymore.

Plus ... you have to give SOME consideration to the apparent mental competence of those who do still intensely care about such things.

6 hours ago, Anna said:

This is also good for instances where congregationally a perpetrator is not disfellowshipped because of lack of evidence or some other reason, but if the perpetrator is convicted of a crime by secular authorities, especially the crime of sexual abuse of children, then this notoriety may warrant disfellowshipping.

That means that Theocratically, we can trust the judgement of the secular authorities judicial system MORE THAN OUR OWN.

The presumption is that the secular judicial system has in fact established the facts beyond reasonable doubt, whereas the Congregational judicial system was UNABLE to do it .... OR ... in the case of an unjust conviction by the secular authorities ...the fact would be that the Jehovah's Witness is innocent, BUT that his being SLANDERED by the secular authorities and the news media IS ENOUGH TO GET HIM DISFELLOWSHIPPED !

Fun, eh?

For thousands of years, the Jews had a court system that was completely public, open, and transparent, and in the City Gates, where anyone could observe, and SEE if Justice was being done ...  see who was telling the truth, and see who was lying. A person in the back could CHALLENGE anything that was said, and those giving testimony KNEW that.

The Governing Body chose the system we have now, as contrasted with the one Jehovah God set up, which worked well for thousands of years.

Fun, eh?

Abraham Lincoln was accused to being "two-faced" by his political adversaries.

His reply was "If I was two-faced ... would I be wearing THIS one?"

There is only one excuse for rebellion and treason against tyrants who are the legal government over you ....

... If you win!

... It could only be worse if we had female cartoon children giving morality lessons in some sort of institutionalized cartoon presentation.

44 minutes ago, Jack Ryan said:

The Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses has been talking recently about the possibility of some of them being jailed.

Elders in the congregations as well are starting to feel the dread of prison time soon.

Hey Jack!

You know better than  to post an unsubstantiated accusation with no backup !

It would be a shame if your credibility was destroyed by such suppositions.

Do you have the real nitty-gritty bird's eye low down on this caper .... or not?

It seems to me if you take twenty different believers, they will have 20 different expectations, depending on their intelligence, maturity, experiences and sharpness of perceptions.

You cannot legitimately castigate someone who is doing the best he or she can, with what they know to be true at any particular point in time.

36 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Why do I want to create a phony profile (another one!) ... that of a GB member who admits that, deep down in his heart, he knows that Witness is right, that he is utterly ashamed of himself, and that he is astounded by her phenomenal grasp of the scriptures and reasoning ability?

Compulsive Habit?

PS/PS:

Before 1934, here in the United States, any child could buy ( ..it was legal ..) a water cooled, tripod mounted,  50 caliber machine gun and ammo, BY MAIL.

There were NO "school shootings".

Remember that before King David was King David ... he was a soldier in hand-to-hand combat with a sword. 

Back then, they did not take scalps to keep count of the enemies killed ... they cut off the ends of their penises.   David's idea of a present to his wife was a box of such war trophies.

Yet .... David ... was beloved by Jehovah God .... even covered with the blood and gore of his enemies.

... it all depends on what ideas you are USED to considering.

Most people need "to get out more".