James Thomas Rook Jr.

Sam Anya:

AND the amazing thing is ... he willingly with fear and anguish gave up his life for them .... for sinners .... BEFORE they repented.

You bring up an interesting point .... it was a closed meeting.  I never thought about that before.  Perhaps thousands of disciples were NOT invited.  

  I guess it was just an Apostolic meeting.

Does that mean that he answered the panels question satisfactorily ... or he just stopped taking more questions ... or that they did not ask any follow-up questions?

Which ... makes all the difference.

There is a difference between lightning ..... and a lightning bug.

That specific item is not worth the effort .... the Book of James, to me .. is crystal clear, straight forward, and unambiguous.

It was then, and it is now.

In fact, my favorite scripture is no longer Ecc 12:12, but is James 1:27.

2 hours ago, Noble Berean said:

" .... Some brothers have been drawn into online debates and thus have brought added reproach on Jehovah’s name. An online forum is not an appropriate setting for “instructing with mildness those not favorably disposed.”' Sounds like another control grab. They don't want people having online discussions independent of the org, and that's sad. 

This is the real reason the 2nd Mid-week meeting, usually in someone's home ... commonly known as the "Tuesday Night Book Study" was eliminated, years ago.  It in reality had NOTHING to do with saving gasoline, which was the lame excuse for it's being cancelled globally, among other lame excuses.

People were having "Goodie Nights" about once a month with cakes and pie, and other goodies, afterwards ... AND DISCUSSING THINGS AMONG THEMSELVES, after the  Book Study.

Malignant, evil things, like "That paragraph six made no sense to me... did it make any sense to you?"

I particularly remember the "Commentary on the Book of James" ... longer by far than the actual Bible Book of James ... that made no sense to me ... but I thought at the time  it was my spiritual state being so poor EVERYBODY was "getting it" ..... except me.

I am sure JW Insider has more details than I about who wrote it, and why .... but many years later I found out that the book we studied globally, once a week, was written by a group of Brothers as an inside joke to see what they could get away with ... and the entire writing committee was several years DF'd later for apostasy. 

This explanation may or may not be true ... I wasn't there ... but THIS explanation made perfect sense to me.

I do know that I have brought up the "Commentary" several times with Elders who were there at the time, merely stating it was longer than the Bible Book ... and they did not want to talk about it.

Perhaps I should have offered then a piece of pie.

... for MANY reasons ... it  goes well beyond sad ....

1 hour ago, JW Insider said:

Yep. Looks like it got run over with a tank and had acid poured on it.

Sure, that was the EASY one ..... now find the three coins with the different date.

You have heard of "The Right To Bear Arms"?

Nature has the best surviving tricks .. YES!  .... but it is often helpful to have superior firepower, and have the high ground.

Remember ....  Bears and have just as much right to live ... if ... IF ... they can manage it.

Managing is easier with "twin 50's", on the deck of a ship.

 

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When a JW comes to a door with a sign on the door ....  "Conversations $50 a minute ... please pay in advance!", that is a VERY polite way of telling them to go away.

We can fly over in an airplane, and drop them straw to eat.

YUM!

I have found that the people with the very best of intentions are the ones who cause the most damage to the innocent.

LIke the Boy Scout who took the old lady's elbow and guided her across the busy street to the opposite corner ....... causing her to miss her bus.

The only problem with "new light", is climbing over a pile of corroded dead batteries you have accumulated.

Diplomacy is saying "Nice Doggy!", while you look for a really big rock.

It takes about 30 days for the fishing penguin to get back to where the brood is staying ..... walking on many kilometers of ice from the ocean. .... and he or she has no hands .... and vomits up the food for spouse and baby ..... the food has been inside the penguin for a month ... and is not fresh.

It's obviously nourishing food ... but starving penguins are not that fussy.

IF THEY STAY OUT OF MY FENCED IN YARD, I agree with you..

Anxiety and stress are caused by caring too much  about things that crazy people care about.

Most anxiety can be eliminated by ELIMINATING FROM YOUR LIFE crazy  people, drama queens,  hypochondriacs, and people who want "just a minute of your time ...", and complain when you give them an hour.

Learn to say NO! ... and learn to be extremely rude about it !

When someone monopolizes the conversation ... walk away, or disconnect the phone in mid-sentence.

FREEDOM and PEACE come when you tell the willfully clueless to go take a hike, and refuse to be a part of their panic state.

Learn to whistle!

When a snake comes in my yard ... even a non-venomous one, I shoot its head off.  It can still punch holes in my leg with fangs, or my dog's noses.

It's hard for a snake to plan a determined attack with no head, and besides ... I cannot fly.

That applies to reptiles, and two legged snakes.

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At least it was a REAL "Award", and not a "Telly Award", which is purchased like buying your own bowling trophies.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160313212427/https://www.jw.org/en/news/releases/by-region/world/jehovahs-witnesses-receive-telly-awards/

In Vietnam ... whole villages were napalmed to "save them" from the Communists.

It would not bother me any, but putting a prisoner into solitary confinement ( shunning) is considered to be an extreme punishment  for the sake of punishment ... not a "loving provision" of ANYTHING.

But then again ... the Catholics used to burn people alive at the stake as a "loving provision", as the fire was supposed to clean their "souls" so that with their death, the unrepentent guilty  could be more acceptable to their god.

It is not extremism to do these things if it is labeled correctly ... it is common and normal .... but it is extremism if you destroy whole families "because you love them", and call that a "good thing".

Is there really a "young person", anywhere in the world, at any time in the history of civilization ... that has looked at someone else and uttered the phrase "How can I prevent Burnout?'

I can imagine a LOT of weird stuff .... but not that.

That is so "cornball" it is almost a perfect sphere.

It would be like a sailor getting his hand caught in a piece of machinery and exclaiming "Oh, Golly Gee!  it appears I have had my fingers severed ! Whatever shall I do?"

1 hour ago, Anna said:

On 12/26/2017 at 5:51 PM, JW Insider said:

I would guess that as little time as possible is spent thinking about the mistake of 1914.

I would also guess that 1914 is here to stay because 

1. WW1, which is "on the ground" evidence as Arauna calls it, (even though originally it was supposed to be Armageddon).

2. Jesu's enthronement was invisible, so can't be disproved.

3. Most Witnesses don't have a clue about how we arrived at 1914 and of those who do, have no clue how we arrive at 607, and the few of those who do, have no clue as to why historians arrive at 587....and those even fewer who do, well...they are too few to make a difference...

Except for the times I fell asleep reading this and other threads on this subject, I think ( ... because I know you care so very deeply about whats Ah thinks...) Anna's explanation is the best and most succinct that has real practical value.

Especially item No. 2.

When I teach the Bible, I do not need to teach anything about that ... as some people believe that touching frogs will give you warts ... and some people do not .... and it may be true with some frogs, but not others ... and I will not live long enough to test the supposition ... assuming I cared at all, which I do not.....

It took the Australian Royal Commission to trap Bro. Jackson into a year or more later forcing the GB to admit what is common sense ... that they are neither inspired, or infallible, which is an understatement.

One real reason I have for faith in Jehovah's Witnesses as a collection of people is what we do right, DESPITE being so totally clueless about many, many things.  It's like when a circus clown car wins the Indianapolis 500 race .... the only explanation is divine providence.

I get headaches from watching the "new lights" flash on and off, on and off, on and off ....and it does bother me a great deal when, while swimming through an ocean of Jello, to see others drowning in it, and falling away ... but such is the way of reality when you are dealing with pesky humans ... and I need to stop being so sensitive a snowflake and letting the heat get to me.

So, is the Society's explanation of 1914 accurate or not?    Of course it's not ... it's PROBABLY a constructed fantasy ..... like an air-raid siren that short circuits, and periodically gives false alarms ... and for a hundred years nobody knows how to fix it.

Or, for some strange reason ... it may be completely true. 

Does that mean we get rid of the air raid sirens?

No ....  I have 10 smoke alarms in my house ... and when I boil water in the kitchen or light a candle, some of them  go off, and sometimes I have to disconnect the battery, to keep the noise down

Does that mean I should get rid of the smoke alarms?

No..... it just means I have to know the difference between theory and reality, (coffee water steam, or raging house fire ...) or live life in a continuous fantasy induced panic state.

Same thing.

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Oh ... and expect NOTHING from humans.

You will never be disappointed.

Everybody ..... has an agenda.

 

Opinions are like bodily orifices ...... everyone is entitled to at least FIVE ... depending on how they are tabulated.

Any HARD FACTS to back up that guess?

I personally would rather live during this time period than at ANY other time in history.

.... so far.

I do not believe it .... based on what I saw, it is opinion ... only.