James Thomas Rook Jr.

In Germany, as in MANY of the European countries, you put your religious denomination on your tax filing documents, and the German Government takes out additional taxes FROM YOUR PAY,  to pay your registered affiliation organization.

FREE MONEY ... and a LOT OF IT!

Many religious people list as "atheists" so as to not have their pay confiscated and forwarded.

This is certainly WORTH a 26 year legal battle ... as the money spent can be made up very quickly, and the rest is pure PROFIT for the religious organization.  

It also forges an almost unbreakable bond between that religious organization, and the European Governments, as they are now surgically joined at the hip, the religious organizations promising NOT to have sex with the "Kings of the Earth", ... but hey ... things happen!

Such are the immutable lessons of civilization's history.

Primarily, the legal status they now have ... is a tax collection status.

Who needs a collection plate with a scheme like that?

" Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany are grateful that their sincere religious activity has been recognized by the government as qualifying for public law status. They hope that such recognition will alleviate some of their past challenges and will benefit them as individuals and as a religious community. "

If you are a JW in Germany .... Check your pay-stub next payday .

32 minutes ago, Anna said:

Which is where we encounter the problem because THAT generation is all but dead

I see from the double circle  sketch that the generation begins about 1880?

May I suggest that it is JUST AS REASONABLE to say that a generation can be 3,000 years if you take the square of the last three numbers of your car license plate, and add it to 1880, and round it back arbitrarily to AD 4180, in anticipation of the formation of the First Galactic Empire.

I apologize for not having a graphic of MY reasonable theory, but the cat was sick.

And although the "overlapping generations" idea was never in the Bible ... never ... ever ... there were perhaps other things that equally were COMPLETELY left out .....

There is that old proverb ... beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone.

Usually because of the fact that if a Sister gives importance to such things, her thinking becomes more and more distorted, until it becomes a self-fufilling "prophesy".

Ever notice that over time, people and their dogs begin to look alike?

Same thing.

It is an empathetic response feedback loop.

You ARE what you THINK!

Would you want to get on an airplane designed by the average very theocratic Pioneer?

NOT ME!

TTH:

Because you are COMPLETELY clueless as to the lessons that can be learned from the Classic Book "1984" by George Orwell ... as many AGENDA driven people are ... you are doomed to repeat the lessons of history you did not, and cannot discern.

Since when did "baptism dates" have

ANYTHING to do with how long a generation is?

Very simple, when children misbehave at the Kingdom Hall, just do what they do in Australia ....

.... take them to the lost and found / and foyer coat closet,  for a duct tape time-out.

I don't know about you, but I LIKE flying Business Class .... it makes flying First Class like being in a cardboard box.

I only flew business class one time, from North Carolina to Norway, and the ticket was $9,450 ... and worth every cent!

What made it even BETTER is that ten thousand children and more had to sell their pet chickens, and do without ice cream cones to pay for it!

 Oh wait ....  that was for the GB's Business class ticket.

... never mind.

1 hour ago, Melinda Mills said:

If you don't want the corrections, when the updates come in to the computer, you can tell it No.  And keep your bound volumes.

Melinda:

You really, REALLY need to seriously read George Orwell's book "1984" to understand what this conversation is REALLY about.

2 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

And yet she could still object to someone 'rude, crude, and a bore!" What an amazing woman.

It was an accurate description of myself ... I did not mind at all that she was aware of it, and accurately labeled me ... but there was no follow up point.

She did not seem to object when I married one of her daughters.

.... You are PROJECTING again, Tommy .....

... you are PROJECTING again Thomas .....

That is EXACTLY ... and I mean EXAXCTeLLY .. the same job that Winston Smith had in the George Orwell Book "1984".

THE BOOK "1984" WAS A WARNING ... IT WAS  NOT INTENDED TO BE USED AS A SCRIPT!

3 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

What in the world was wrong with that crazy person?

She was severely overworked single mom with health problems and no teeth, living in abject poverty, and had five children, three of which were dying of Cystic Fibrosis.

That is enough to make anyone crazy.

3 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

This also is nonsense, like most of what you say,  and it also betrays a basic misunderstanding of people and how they are motivated. The ones with income and power tell the others what to do and they do it. That's how the chief priests stirred up the common people to demand Jesus' death - people who had kind of liked him.

TTH:

Do you even realize that all you have done is paraphrase what I JUST SAID!?

Compare the two statements .....

You need  a college course on reading comprehension.

Oh ... and Tom ... Honest hearted people DO RESIST when they "find dog poop in their salad", and go elsewhere.

This is called "voting with your feet".

If they can't because of hostages, they "vote" with their wallets.

...and your last sentence:

3 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

It is like the verse says in the JTR translation: "If they have hated me, they will nevertheless love you, unless there is drivel from the GB."

That last sentence was drivel .... an irrelevant, off-topic knee jerk response that is classic projection.

2 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

This comment, as usual, has nothing to do with anything and is just you building a platform on which to bellow. I never said college was worthless. I said a day of divine education is worth 1000 years of it.

This comment, as usual, has nothing to do with anything and is just you building a platform on which to bellow.

I never said a day of divine education  was worthless. I said If the Aeronautical Engineer that designed the airplane you rode on did not have a college education, it is a safe bet you WOULD be getting a Divine Education, right now.

It is interesting to me that magic was a Scripturally  RECOGNIZED PHENOMENON that was to be despised, as the force was evil in nature and source.

Remember the Egyptian priest that threw his staff down before Moses,  and IT BECAME A SNAKE?

Without any hard evidence to the contrary, my current belief is that this is HOW the Egyptians built the great Pyramids.

Magic.

Recently, I forgot to push the "save" (submit reply) button ... came back, and my posts WERE GONE!

If the Aeronautical Engineer that designed the airplane you rode on did not have a college education, it is a safe bet you WOULD be getting a Divine Education, right now.

My wife and I usually eat just one meal a day, at a buffet called "Golden Corral" .  It is RELATIVELY expensive,  but the way we operate it's cheaper than buying groceries .... no preparation ... no dishes to wash ... and an incredible variety of food.

When money is worthless,  then there will be total anarchy ... as people will eat the weak.

Until then ... I give worthless money no concern whatsoever, as there is NOTHING I can do about it.

When a hamburger costs $600 ... only those with $600 will eat hamburger.

The ANIMALS usually manage to eat .. usually ... and THEY have no money.

Kinda makes you a believer in WD-40, doesn't it?

I too, have been concerned about the deletion of JW-Archive posts ... but I realize I am a guest here and have NO rights whatsoever ... much the same as if you were in MY living room and being obnoxious.  The Librarian has deleted MANY of my posts, though not recently, as I do TRY to keep the foam off of my mouth when I type.

So ... who is REALLY deleting the posts that disappear?

Sometimes they are not actually deleted, but moved to more appropriate threads ... even starting new ones ... I know I have spent time searching for something that had been moved, but there are evil forces afoot, and one should never discount her.

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Hope you had a VERY good breakfast today ...

John Houston:

Thank you for that interesting new take on things .....

Years ago, an ex-relative once told me I was "crude, rude, and a bore!'

I looked her straight in the eye and said "YEAH! .... what's yer point?"

Remember the Scripture about not muzzling the oxen on the threshing room floor?

What do you think that actually means anyway?

IT MEANS THIS!

The Brotherhood PAID for the gazebo, and the land around it, and the lake in front of it, and built it ALL with their sweat ... but when the GB is NOT using it ... neither can THEY.