James Thomas Rook Jr.

This is a phenomenon that ALWAYS occurs when any large group of people are governed from a "Central Control" ... whether it be secular or theological.  The people who see themselves as wise and competent BECAUSE they have achieved power to direct people's lives ... with the highest ideals and purest of motives ... and having checkbooks with many zeros before the decimal point in their back pockets, and their front pockets filled with righteous incompetence bereft of understanding .... cause massive irreparable damage.
This is the way it has always been with the affairs of men,.
To paraphrase an old saying " A Board of Directors ( or a congress, politburo, or Governing Body ...) is an alien life form with at least sixteen legs ... and no brain.".
There is a word for this !
Normal.
In the case of China, there was a whole generation whose descendants today were told stories of the mass starvation of billions of people, and having to mix dirt with water to eat, so it is a lasting cultural memory to this day.
 

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.

I was born in a small town of a small country. I have a bit of school education and ordinary city life. But I'm becoming a peasant when I see how little I know and how much knowledge there is in this life - before, now and after today (yesterday, today, tomorrow) the past, the present, the future - in the eons of time. :))))

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.

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.

The cool thing about "bent light astronomy", or "gravitational lensing", is once you learn how, sometimes it is possible to see galaxies hidden behind foreground galaxies .... and get multiple snapshots in different epochs by calculating the difference in the timing of light ray paths.
 

As the August 2018 Watchtower on page 3 points out a profound general principle that cuts on BOTH sides of the sword ... NOT JUST THE SOCIETY'S SIDE ....
"When anyone replies to a matter before he hears the facts, it is foolish and humiliating"  -  Proverbs 18:13
This assumes that the "hearer of facts" has the slightest bit of common sense, which may or may not be the case.
 
Gravity Electricity Wind .mp4

Knoor's Law: "No matter what happens ... SOMEBODY predicted it."
As far as TRUE predictions ...... it just was not .... us.
We do know, however, from GB member Stephen Lett, that (paraphrased) " ... there is more evidence of God's Kingdom on Earth now, than there is for gravity, and electricity."
... but for the life of me, I find it impossible to wrap my mind around that statement.
If Ah had stated that ... Ah could legitimately be involuntarily committed to a mental institution, and wear size 400 sleeves that tie in the back.

My Movie.mp4

What could two self made, high energy multi-billionaires POSSIBLY have in common?

The same way that the Scriptures  are quite clear about motorcycle maintenance ...
Look at the results of this bogus philosophy and fantasy of the Trinity and component parts as explained by Christendom -at-large.
During World War I two great armies met on the battlefields between France and Germany, and in a battle that lasted a full year, making this area look more cratered than the surface of the Moon, more that a million men  were killed in mortal combat, and over 4 million wounded.  Men's bodies and blood were mixed into the soil by artillery day after day after day.
Almost all of the combatants ON BOTH SIDES .... were Trinitarians who believe as you do, Cos.
Brethren murdering brethren .... because of the FRUITS of their bogus Theology.
Does not the Scriptures clearly teach "You will know my people, for they have love for one another ..."?
Christendom's belief system FAILED that essential test, always has, and always will ... and they even have Chaplains in the Military to bless and support this carnage, and those who perpetrate it.
Jehovah does NOT.
He has withdrawn his active force blessing them, about 1700 years ago, when the Theology you espouse was adopted from pagandom.
The "FORCE" is not with you, Luke.
 and like a motorcycle tire ... THAT'S where "the rubber meets the road!"
 

I really enjoy all of AllenSmith's comments ... seriously.
He has a perspective on life that is truly astonishing, and entertaining !
Scary, in a "Roseanne Roseannadanna" kind of way .... but astonishing and entertaining !
 
 

Assuming your obfuscation is purposeful, I'll try to translate your apparent intent:
"I, AllenSmith, have never yet failed to understand the true character and intent when I view certain people here. To myself, I now understand that I had previously misunderstood the main thing that 'JWInsider' was saying, although since I will never actually admit a fault, be they ever so blatant to others, I will, instead, focus on the new claim that that I never misunderstood the subliminal message."
If you meant @Srecko Sostar, I have never seen this person as a staunch supporter. If you meant @Melinda Mills, then you probably missed the fact that she does not typically "support" my views in areas where they might differ from the Watchtower, and never staunchly even when she does. In this case, she merely pointed out the fact that I left out the word "not," because the sentence wouldn't have made any sense in context as it stood. But she was pointing out what I must have meant, not what she necessarily believes. I see she did "upvote" a comment or two of mine, and that is always a dangerous thing for people to do when you are around, since they will often have to brave your disapproval. You often convey this disapproval of any kind of support in a bullying manner and go after people for assumed sins just because they found something agreeable in a post of mine. I hope you will stop this kind of bullying. (I'm not saying that what other people do doesn't ALSO come across as bullying . . . [ahem..j.t.r..ahem] . . . but it's easier to take when it's cushioned with a sense of humor.)
Yes. It's true. I gladly admit that this post was not primarily about the differences in our view of the GB. Still, many JWs believe that the time will come when the UN will attack religion, and there is an associated assumption that this will result in a collapse of religion in some global sense, and will thus precipitate a specific attack on Witnesses which is thwarted by Jehovah, Jesus and the angelic hosts. This is supposed to be our lot between the great tribulation and Armageddon. We are told to expect that it means times of being cut off from communication with New York, and a need for almost unquestioning reliance on local leadership through the guidance of congregation elders. In some cases, we expect that some will be cut off from even that much association.  JWs want to feel prepared to face such a time without fear.
I don't think it's out of place, then, to discuss this entire supposed "UN episode" in the light of such expectations.
I don't feel right about discussing it unless I also disclose that I have my own questions about the readiness of many Witnesses to face such a scenario. Part of that is the strained relationship that I see many Witnesses have with their local elders, and others in the congregations in general. Part of that is what I see as an unhealthy and immature relationship of dependency on the Governing Body for almost every aspect of their spirituality and worship. For me personally, I must also deal with the fact that I look to the track record of the Governing Body in attempting to predict the meaning of scripture, and I realize that so far they have something like a 0% accuracy rating in everything ever predicted when it comes to fulfilled prophecy. So, just out of the honest need for full disclosure when I give an opinion, I will be forced to include some of my personal hesitance to accept these predicted scenarios as necessarily accurate.
But I should still have a right to an opinion, and you should have a right to yours, and a right to give counterbalancing evidence if you have any.
Interesting. It's false to say they have never claimed this. But it's usually more subtle than an outright claim. Whether they claim it or not is immaterial. It's an impression that is given and never completely corrected. We could have a whole separate discussion on this topic.
I never claimed they asked for anyone to glorify them. Please stick with the evidence, not stuff you make up.
They should feel no superiority for having served at the "Bethel House." No one should. I certainly don't. In fact, as you have pointed out yourself, sometimes serving at Bethel is a detriment to true spirituality.

You know... I am just sitting here .... minding my own business ... when on my 3rd monitor I see some guy in  three piece suit run by, and with his hair on fire, crying "heretic! Heretic! HERETIC!" !!
 

When you do not know the answers, sometimes it is best to let those who pretend to know, comment.

You know... I am just sitting here .... minding my own business ... when on my 3rd monitor I see some guy in  three piece suit run by, and with his hair on fire, crying "heretic! Heretic! HERETIC!" !!
 

I had a conversation with an Elder sometime in the summer of 2016 about this explosion of technology that the Brotherhood had adopted, from the bottom up ... and I asked him "Do you remember when computer competency, and having an Internet connection was frowned upon, and considered evil?
He paused ... looked down ... raised his eyebrows and  let out a long sigh ... and said "Yeah ....".

The same way that the Scriptures  are quite clear about motorcycle maintenance ...
Look at the results of this bogus philosophy and fantasy of the Trinity and component parts as explained by Christendom -at-large.
During World War I two great armies met on the battlefields between France and Germany, and in a battle that lasted a full year, making this area look more cratered than the surface of the Moon, more that a million men  were killed in mortal combat, and over 4 million wounded.  Men's bodies and blood were mixed into the soil by artillery day after day after day.
Almost all of the combatants ON BOTH SIDES .... were Trinitarians who believe as you do, Cos.
Brethren murdering brethren .... because of the FRUITS of their bogus Theology.
Does not the Scriptures clearly teach "You will know my people, for they have love for one another ..."?
Christendom's belief system FAILED that essential test, always has, and always will ... and they even have Chaplains in the Military to bless and support this carnage, and those who perpetrate it.
Jehovah does NOT.
He has withdrawn his active force blessing them, about 1700 years ago, when the Theology you espouse was adopted from pagandom.
The "FORCE" is not with you, Luke.
 and like a motorcycle tire ... THAT'S where "the rubber meets the road!"
 

I had a conversation with an Elder sometime in the summer of 2016 about this explosion of technology that the Brotherhood had adopted, from the bottom up ... and I asked him "Do you remember when computer competency, and having an Internet connection was frowned upon, and considered evil?
He paused ... looked down ... raised his eyebrows and  let out a long sigh ... and said "Yeah ....".

Trump reflects a view of the world that US leaders have promoted for about two centuries. Internal documentation for U.S. political decisions are never released until many years later for "national security" reasons. But after they are released, it's easy to see that, to some extent, at least after learning what is really going on in the world, all US leaders themselves have obviously "known better." It is clear that they had to use various propaganda tactics to foist a specific world view on US citizens that aligned with prejudices about "US/American interests." Facts they learned as leaders had to be suppressed, spun or re-packaged for the public in order to promote the necessary fears and prejudices that allowed the USA to position itself as those leaders deemed necessary.
The US public, as with most other "Western" nations by now (UK, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Israel) is so well influenced by propaganda that the people in their blindness will only choose leadership who are already fooled and ready to fool them some more. Citizens generally don't want people who can see a need for justice in the world, because most voting citizens only watch corporate-sponsored news (including so called "public" radio/television) and already believe that if it's good for the USA, it's good for the world, no matter how unjust to the rest of the world, in actuality.
Saudi Arabia is the U.S.A.'s gas station. They buy US weapons for billions and the USA then helps them to abuse the rights of nations around them, creating as much chaos in that part of the world as the US believes it can possibly get away with. But I don't mean chaos through mistakes and blunders, which is how US history explains these messes after the fact. It is not by accident, but on purpose, that the USA has for example, supported terrorists around the world and even Al-Qaeda and Isis in Syria to keep the nation as divided as possible. Israeli news has not been as careful about hiding the same reasons their leaders have also pushed for support of Isis and Al-Qaeda.
By about this time in history, the current civil rights record in China is much better than the current civil rights record of the United States. It's true that China filters out porn and Western "news" propaganda from the Internet, for example, but it's the USA that leads in incarcerations, capital punishment, and even methods of suppressing political dissidents. As far as Middle Eastern countries go, Iran has been a civil rights paradise, just as was Syria before the outside attempts to create a long-term civil war succeeded. Israel has a civil rights record that is one of the worst in the world.
This doesn't mean that other governments are somehow "good" when compared to the US and its allies, but it means that there are complexities and prejudices that make a mess of the claim of hypocrisy. Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and Obama all ignored the abuses of Saudi Arabia and even encouraged many of them. The same people who call Trump hypocritical may be just as hypocritical in the type of government they would promote in his place.

NOTE: This is not a religious section of the forum, but I will respond based on the link between JW beliefs and certain expectations concerning the UN that are fairly unique to JW teachings.]
The protection of the civil rights of various religious groups for some will look exactly like the suppression of religion to others. If someone has a religious investment in defaming other religions, then telling them that they can no longer defame others is considered to be an encroachment on their own religious rights. There is no perfect solution to this problem. We know that Jesus and the apostles, too, set an example of pointing out the hypocrisy and wickedness found in the leaders of other religions. The attitude of the world itself and its non-religious philosophies are also defamed in the Bible. So there is nothing unchristian about defaming religion and empty worldly philosophy.
So what happens if there is a demand supported by international law to protect the civil rights of individuals by outlawing the defamation of their religion by another religion? This supposedly makes it impossible for religions which require the conversion of persons of other religions and ideologies. It is a necessary tenet of our religion that we promote it publicly just as 'Acts of Apostles' shows the earliest Christians spreading religion through conversion of others.
There have been several interesting tests of how Jehovah's Witnesses have reacted to political or legal pressure by the rules and laws of various nations. When I first visited Jehovah's Witnesses in Mexico, Mexico had rules that supported the Witnesses. We could preach and convert people exactly as we do in the United States and elsewhere. But due to past problems with the political power of the Catholic Church, they also had rules that restricted religious organizations from owning property. The Watchtower Society didn't like this restriction even though other religions had no problem with it. So it was decided that it would be OK for Witnesses in Mexico to act like a non-religious, civic organization that basically taught people how to read (using WT publications), but without prayer and singing and use of the Bible in door-to-door work. The talks at the Hall were considered to be "educational" and the TMS was about speech training. There could be no purely religious talk, especially of the kind that spoke out against other religions. Of course, as soon as the rule changed so that the Watchtower would now be allowed to own property, then the Watchtower allowed singing of kingdom songs, prayer and use of the Bible in service. The Watchtower had suppressed these proper forms of worship among Witnesses for decades, until the property rule changed.
In other places, most recently in Russia, Jehovah's Witnesses are being suppressed from Russia's own legal system, their national courts. (The undue influence from the Russian Orthodox Church also seems obvious.) In Mexico the suppression came from the rules of the Watchtower Society, but now the rules (in Russia) are part of the law of the land. Apparently, the initial design of the rules was not to stop Jehovah's Witnesses from worshiping, praying, using the Bible or singing kingdom songs. Any religion, including JWs, could still exist and Witnesses could do what they wanted, as long they wouldn't denigrate other religions through their publications and preaching activity. In Russia, we would have to become a religion that could not convert others using the current version of our message.
But, in Russia, we would not have to act like a civic organization. The goal was to "blunt" the sharper edges of the religion in terms of its control over membership through its own sets of laws and punishments. Russia would allow the religion to go on, but to be independent of literature produced or translated from the United States (that demeaned other religions) and independent of the control from the United States. Of course, this is not how the hierarchy of Jehovah's Witnesses works. The new interpretation of the "faithful and discreet slave" requires a close observation of the latest changes made by a specific group of 8 men in the United States. The brothers tried to convince the Russian court that they were not directly dependent on rules emanating from the United States, but this was actually seen to be a false claim and the court didn't accept it.
But this makes me think of a few questions. Is it possibly true already that enough influence has already emanated from the Governing Body so that Jehovah's Witnesses can now continue to follow the practices and doctrines already defined from prior publications and educational direction given in the past? This could be an important question because our publications have already promoted a view that, at any time, nations of the world could turn on Jehovah's Witnesses, and individuals might be "on their own" and will need to follow the direction of their local congregation elders. In some countries, the suppression could be so harsh that it may be difficult to find fellow members of a dissolved congregation. And this is also considered to be an indication that it may no longer be time for continued preaching work for the purpose of converting others, but time to remain faithful even if we seem to be on our own. 
Another question is a more basic one. Could our preaching work go on if we were not able to demean and diminish other religious choices publicly? Is this really the primary goal of the public preaching? What would happen if, in such countries, under such legal restrictions, our ministry transformed to one of good works for others of all religions, but especially toward those related to us in the faith. In the earliest public ministry mentioned in Acts, it is the sharing of food and possessions with those related in this faith in Jesus. That appears to be the big attraction of "the Way" -- those who would be Witnesses of Jesus to the most distant part of the earth. With a reputation of showing love and caring for their own, people were interested in what motivated them to such acts of goodwill and kindness toward each other. It was likely that the majority of those who were converted learned more about Christians from this reputation. Would such a new style of ministry work with JWs in Russia? What if JWs were the most well-known for how they took care of each other? What if they had the best practices for taking care of orphans and widows and honoring their elderly parents and other elderly members? If people came to them over their loving reputation and only THEN did the JWs happily explain why they do such things, might this actually result in an increase in those who want to follow them? There would be less need for JWs to formally go out to others. (There is some evidence that the actual growth of JWs in most places has been primarily through informal contacts, not formal door-to-door contacts.) I wonder if it's possible to transform a ministry to work just as well by having people come to us. Wouldn't Jehovah bless the work that is motivated correctly? Wouldn't Jehovah make sure that media was attentive to such stories of charity and goodwill?  

When you do not know the answers, sometimes it is best to let those who pretend to know, comment.