James Thomas Rook Jr.

RATS!   I lost my Captain Midnight Babylonian Calendar Decoder Ring!

Perhaps the Universe has decided you have "bad karma", and is out to GET YOU!
BrouhaHAHahahaha !!

I still have a copy of "Defending" ... which guided me when I was faced with prison for refusing military service during the Vietnam War, when I was 18 years old.  I have no objection to any principles outlined in it ... at all.
Unfortunately, the "Truth" during the 60's was defined by principle, and refined by the fire of circumstance ... and the "Truth" we have today is defined by the Society's Lawyers, and Accountants .... even the "Blood" Issue ... crystal clear and unambiguous ... has been perverted by the accountants and lawyers so the SOCIETY WILL NOT BE SUED INTO OBLIVION.
As Dorothy said to her dog in the "Wizard of Oz" .... "we're not in Kansas, anymore, Toto".
I do not mind at all following Jehovah's Chariot ... but I do check the route and weather before following the Circus Clown Car.
 

I still have a copy of "Defending" ... which guided me when I was faced with prison for refusing military service during the Vietnam War, when I was 18 years old.  I have no objection to any principles outlined in it ... at all.
Unfortunately, the "Truth" during the 60's was defined by principle, and refined by the fire of circumstance ... and the "Truth" we have today is defined by the Society's Lawyers, and Accountants .... even the "Blood" Issue ... crystal clear and unambiguous ... has been perverted by the accountants and lawyers so the SOCIETY WILL NOT BE SUED INTO OBLIVION.
As Dorothy said to her dog in the "Wizard of Oz" .... "we're not in Kansas, anymore, Toto".
I do not mind at all following Jehovah's Chariot ... but I do check the route and weather before following the Circus Clown Car.
 

Hmmmm... is it "OK" to read stuff from MORMON Apostate Websites?

RATS!   I lost my Captain Midnight Babylonian Calendar Decoder Ring!

It was once said that Hillary worshiped Satan, which is of course not the case.
Satan worships her!

The thought just occurred to me with
That the "official" designation of a "Generation", in Jehovah God's viewpoint ... IS 70 YEARS.
Hmmmm ...
... comments?

How would I know? The opportunity for you to research is there if you really want to know. 
 
 

The bible says 70 or 80 years..... but one never finds a generation where everyone is the same age - they all vary.... born in different years.... so they overlap.... 80 if one is strong and 100 if exceptionally strong!.... something I will not see! 

This, while true in ancient biblical times because we are told by God's word, is only a prop created by the gb/wt. The same can be said of each and every religious organization on the Earth today, if their followers will believe it. You see, the wt/gb have been saying they are "the only game in town" for so long, some people actually believe that they are. Its only those who choose to challenge that theory, who actually see that it is self professed and not "written in God's word". 
 
This is wt talk at its finest. It poses the reader in the position of either you agree with the wt or you have no discernment. 
Question the answers JTR. 

Who is the other game in town? Show me. Tell me how you know. Tell me what they have to show for themselves.
JTR will doubtless follow you and he'll make a lot less trouble here. Seriously. They way he carries on, we would all be pleased to be rid of him. Show him the other game. Don't just say that the doers aren't doing it right. Show him someone else who is doing it right. Show us what they are doing. Be specific.

But it was "Pastor Russell's" own journal "The Bible Students Monthly" that included the following, in 1915, while Russell was still alive. I'll include the entire portion, although it was not the only contribution of its type found in issues of the Bible Students Monthly.
http://www.heraldmag.org/olb/contents/history/st paul defences.htm
How Pastor Russell Ranks in Greatness 
Dr. Jackson Analyzes Elements That Constitute True Greatness of the Man
 
A LEADER IN MANY LINES
 
His Temperament Poetic, Literary, Scientific, Analytical and Strong for Business
 
The world seldom recognizes its great men. Few or none saw the magnificent greatness of Lincoln until after his death. To the prominent and learned of the Roman Empire, Saint Paul was only an insignificant Jew; but we can see that in all that constituted real greatness he towered above them all, like a giant among pigmies. So it is today. If you ask "the man on the street," who are the great men of today, he is not likely to name Charles Taze Russell first, but let us see:
 
C. T. Russell commenced business for himself while yet a boy and with very little capital. When he was eighteen he owned a store, when he was twenty-four he owned five stores and was worth three hundred thousand dollars, and this at an age when John D. Rockefeller had hardly made a start, and J. P. Morgan, with his inherited capital, had but little. If C. T. Russell had devoted his life to business it is easy to guess that John D. would not now be the richest man in the world nor J. P. Morgan have been the prince of financiers.
 
However, that is the least remarkable thing about the career of Pastor Russell. With all this phenomenal talent for business he gave it all up and surrendered the most brilliant opening for obtaining wealth and power that has ever been offered to an American in order to take up a humble religious work. Such a thing as a man with surpassing wealth-getting power, voluntarily giving it up was unknown before in all history. He made no mistake, for the Master said, "Whosoever would become great among you shall be your servant." With an insight into the higher things that enabled him to choose aright, he saw from the Scriptures that the time had come for the greatest work of the ages to be done, and as he was the right man for the place, the Lord chose him to be his servant to lead the visible earthly part of this work, namely, the harvest work of the end of the Gospel Age.
 
In the case of the Apostle Paul the Lord chose a man of great business ability to do his work then, but in this "End of the Age," when business is on a scale a thousand fold greater than in Paul’s day, business talent is all the more necessary, and so the man chosen for His work today is a Napoleon of finance and business.
 
History shows that other men great in business and finance have not been richly endowed in other departments of the mind, but Pastor Russell in addition to his financial talent has remarkable mental talents of the most varied character. He has a frame of mind that may be described as a poetical mind that gets an insight into deep things by intuition, like a great poet or a Hebrew seer; it is as if Isaiah and J. P. Morgan were united in one individual. Poets are not usually of a logical scientific form of mind but Pastor Russell has these talents also, that is, he has the acute discrimination and analysis of a great lawyer, that can test the truth of things and sift the evidence on which they are founded. Thus the fallacies of the creeds of Christendom were brought to light as they had never been before.
 
His literary talent would distinguish him among the writers of his generation if he was tested by this alone. Without any special literary training he writes English in a simple and idiomatic style that sometimes reaches the sublime and that will make many passages from his pen take their place among English classics. Another phase of his many sided greatness is his scientific talent. He has the mind of an investigator and student, a scientific love of truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; the freedom from bias, the willingness to accept truth wherever found, willingness to be corrected, no difference how humble the instrument, in short a mind like Agassiz and Newton. The field of research to which Newton applied himself was the physical world, the earth and sea and sky wherein God’s plan is revealed in regard to physical things. The field of research which Pastor Russell chose was the moral world, the plan of God in regard to mankind as revealed in the Bible. As Newton discovered the great Law of the Attraction of Gravitation which binds the universe together and brings order out of seeming confusion, so Russell discovered the grand "Plan of the Ages" which binds all history together and brings order into the field of theology where before there was so much confusion and error; founding all his teaching upon the impregnable rock of Holy Scripture, his position has been unassailable. The united talent of Nominal Christendom has striven for thirty-five years to overthrow his teachings but has not been able to meet him on his own ground (the Scriptures), with a single fair argument.
 
Standing, as we do now, in the midst of the battle of Armageddon we can thank God and take courage because the Lord has sent us so great a leader. Courageous as a lion, pure as snow, wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove, a knight of God without fear and without reproach, no obstacle can turn him, no danger dismay him, no grief or pain distract him from his grand purpose. His motto is the words spoken for him by the prophets: "For the Lord God will help me; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be confounded."

Except when he said that small flies become bigger flies

That Dr. Jackson writes some flattering bios! At least Russell didn't write it himself. I am having to write my own bio and refer to myself in 3rd person, that's always awkward and weird....

As I recall, there was also something about the composition of the driveway, too. It was not the ordinary blacktop. 
and......the house number.....was........607!
Take it, guys! I'm off this thread!

DATELINE JANUARY 10. 2018
WASHINGTON—In an attempt to ensure the federal benefit program is not taken advantage of, a new regulation announced Tuesday will require all organisms facing extinction to actively search for a new habitat in order to receive funding for their protection under the Endangered Species Act. “Effective immediately, America’s at-risk species must prove they are making an effort to find a different ecosystem to live in if they wish to obtain government assistance for their continued survival,” said Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, adding that endangered creatures such as the black-footed ferret and Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep should not be allowed to just sit back and live on public lands at taxpayer expense unless they agree to take steps to better their own situations. “An ‘endangered’ status isn’t a free pass, and it’s important we put forth policies that encourage a culture of personal responsibility among our nation’s plants and animals. We’re not doing the star cactus or the salt marsh harvest mouse any favors when we allow them to live on the government’s dime, which can create a disincentive for them to secure a place in another habitat and become self-sufficient.” At press time, the Department of the Interior announced further regulations capping the amount of time a species can remain on the endangered list at six months.
The Onion News
 

When people cannot stand the cold ... they move to Florida ..... when they cannot stand the heat, they move to Vermont. Turtles do the exact same thing.
It messes up your study you are getting paid to do ... but turtles have been around for many hundreds of millions of years, and during the Carboniferous Period, it was a LOT hotter than anything we have today, etc. .... FOR  MILLIONS OF YEARS.
I have seen beaches from an airplane where fish were stranded on the sand by the hundreds of millions .... mile after mile, after mile, rotting in the sun.
99% of all life that has EVER EXISTED on the Earth is now extinct.
..........................................................................................................................
STUFF HAPPENS
GET USED TO IT.
As the famous line in Jurassic Park, the Movie pointed out "Life finds a way".
and......
...sometimes it doesn't.
 
 
 

Without getting into the logic and reasoning behind your detailed  explanation of "Which Came first, the Chicken or the Egg?', I would like to state as a side thought that the Chicken came first.
Chickens actually ... as it takes two to make a viable egg.

It works the exact same way with physics and chemistry .... and astronomy.
At one time we thought an atom was indivisible ... hence the name ... but now we know even its parts have parts have parts.
at one time we thought there were canals on the planet Mars, and deep jungles on Venus.
... before that, the Earth was flat, and the center of the Universe.
At one time the rudimentary "Periodic Table of the Elements" only had  earth, water, air, and fire.
... and yes, people that did not believe these things were shunned, banished, and burned at the stake.
We learn from our mistakes .... sometimes.
The relentless search for the TRUTH always comes with mountains of innocent bodies as collateral damage.
 

... be thankful dueling is no longer in fashion ....

I must admit ... I do enjoy the dual edged bladed agenda driven conversions on this topic.
It reminds me of what author Stephen King said about writing one of his books ... I think it was "The Strand", where he had so many characters running around on the pages he could not keep up with them ... so he wrote in an explosion that wiped most of them out.
18 pages of debate to support something that may or may not have happened outside the physical Universe 100 or so years ago ... that was, or is invisible, to me (here comes a variation on one of my favorite expressions ...) is like milking a mouse because you need to make five pounds of cheese .... which has already been sold in advance.
That's a LOT of work !
So .... what's a simple Barbarian like myself to think with all these arguments and counter-arguments ...
I think I will make a bucket of popcorn! .... and watch the show!
Carry on Troops!

It works the exact same way with physics and chemistry .... and astronomy.
At one time we thought an atom was indivisible ... hence the name ... but now we know even its parts have parts have parts.
at one time we thought there were canals on the planet Mars, and deep jungles on Venus.
... before that, the Earth was flat, and the center of the Universe.
At one time the rudimentary "Periodic Table of the Elements" only had  earth, water, air, and fire.
... and yes, people that did not believe these things were shunned, banished, and burned at the stake.
We learn from our mistakes .... sometimes.
The relentless search for the TRUTH always comes with mountains of innocent bodies as collateral damage.
 

... and just like the Sun ... the light DOES NOT grow brighter.  
Our Sun is a variable star, yes, but over a very long period of time ... but every morning it gets brighter BECAUSE obstructions are rotated out of the way.
... same with Theology.
The light was ALWAYS THERE!
It was HUMANS obscuring it.

Actually ... it's not the Sun coming up ... but the horizon going down..
Think about it !