James Thomas Rook Jr.

???
No. But that has already been dealt with. No point in rehashing old ground with people who don't want to listen.
We don't have any clear examples of how you shouldn't drive a car recklessly over the speed limit either, do we? But we do, as has already been stated, have laws, principles... But you already know that, right?
Let's turn that around for a change and give you a chance to explain which flock and congregation YOU think Jesus is head over and how he directs said individuals. It's not enough to snipe from the sidelines. If you've got something better to direct people to, let's have at it. And if the best you can come up with is an anarchy of individual perceptions, let me know so I can start laughing now. 

The classic example of this is the movie "The Sound of Music".
Eric Von Trapp willingly served Germany during World War II as a submarine captain, but when the Nazis came along Germany was no longer Germany, and he and his family (Julie Andrews included) did their best to escape to Switzerland. He was a loyal, patriotic Austrian/German ... but he had not forsaken Germany ... Germany had forsaken him.
( The Society had the blood issue correct the first time ... then changed it to stop being being sued and lose money. etc.)
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Theology is now being decided on the basis of economics.
I can still see Julie Andrews running up that 25 degree slope Swiss mountain with a suitcase and a guitar, and swinging them around as she sang "The hills are alive .... with the sound of  .... muuuuuusiccc ...", as the camera zoomed in.
I remember thinking if I did that, I would have a heart attack, and die right there.

Since there is no Switzerland for us ... I guess we will just have to endure.
 
 

This is the Dodo calling the world from England  
@TrueTomHarley Do you ever wonder why people get divorced ? 
Well one big reason is simply that people change. The person that one marries may be a wonderful, giving, loving, person. But somewhere down the line that person one marries may change. Of course both people will change to some degree. But if the marriage partner turns unpleasant, selfish, dishonest, disloyal, and even cruel, then it is understandable that one may choose to leave and maybe even divorce. 
So it is with the JW Org. It has changed. Changed so much it is barely recognisable. Changed so many of it's beliefs and doctrines. Changed even those who are supposed to be the F&DS. Changed to become selfish and only concerned about it's own welfare. Suddenly the 'hidden leaders' are paraded in front of the whole world. Those 8 MEN are seen as heroes, those whom call themselves the F&DS. And of course the 'dirty washing' of probably 70 + years, is suddenly revealed, as scripture said it would be. Things done in darkness are brought out into the light... Then of course we have the GB that gives it's blessing to the telling of lies, and they call it 'spiritual warfare'.  So, therefore, anything can be said and done. A scripture, but you know I'm useless at such things,  something about, 'wrong being seen as right, and right being seen as wrong'. So now lies are seen as right before God it seems. Well in the eyes of the GB and Co anyway. 
So the Jehovah's Witnesses that i joined so long ago was not the JW Org of out present day. Back then it had some element of truth and some meaning and purpose, other than it's own selfishness. But now it is just a shell which has been filled with disgusting things..... Add to this that back then there was NO internet. There was no quick way of researching things. It was not possible to compare information and to decide for one's self what was right or wrong. Only recently has this been possible... So there is your answer Mr Harley. The Org is not what it was, and the information, some of which is freely available on here, was not so available back then. 
 

I agree with you totally on this. That Almighty God is vindicated and His name (whatever it may be) is made clean. Those are the important issues. And that those in the heavens as well of those here on Earth have been given an answer once and for all times. We should all know that it is not about us. We are as dust. So indeed as you say 'God has bigger fish to fry'. 

Could be worse ... the Dinosaurs lost all of their WD-40.

TTH:
That's the way I look at it ... I am happy to be alive now, in this time... and in this place ... and with my wonderful wife, dogs and chickens, who somehow we all eat regular, and have superb medical care ... and if Jehovah remembers me, all the better.
If he does not, well, I have had a good run, and somehow survived with my hand on the doorknob to death's door more than a hundred times, and am somehow still here, and I know that people much better than me in every way have lived short lives of hardship and calamity, and are gone forever.
I pray for God's Kingdom to come, even if I don't make it.
But then again ... I have always considered myself expendable.
The PURPOSE of the Universe, is women and children.
The REASON we exist at all is our entertainment value to Jehovah God.
..... and that experiment with the Dinosaurs just wasn't working out, so God dropped a big rock on them.

STOP SAYING THINGS LIKE THIS!!!
I make up my mind to take you out as with a bazooka and then I read a remark like this and lose every bit of steam.

STOP SAYING THINGS LIKE THIS!!!
I make up my mind to take you out as with a bazooka and then I read a remark like this and lose every bit of steam.

I did check. It is word-for-word accurate. (surprising even myself)
I did not know that the same passage had appeared elsewhere, give or take. I was very taken with one article long ago (and I wrote a post on it) that ‘we are not so presumptuous so as to think that our personal salvation is the central issue of the universe’—this after pondering the vast outstretches of space. Much of Christendom, especially the evangelical variety, does think this way.

I was very taken with one article long ago (and I wrote a post on it) that ‘we are not so presumptuous so as to think that our personal salvation is the central issue of the universe’—this after pondering the vast outstretches of space. Much of Christendom, especially the evangelical variety, does think this way.
But of course your GB /Org do believe that ONLY BAPTISED JWs WILL GAIN SALVATION'. 
 

The point is that our personal salvation is not the central issue before all creation. It is a relative detail. God has bigger fish to fry and we do not imagine that it is all a about us. This is not the case with some faiths, at least, judging from the preponderance of their writings.

I never knew that the paragraph you just quoted was EVER in the Watchtower, but I do know, and entirely from memory, that it came out in the book "Things in Which It Is Impossible For God To Lie", on page 384, paragraph 24.   I used to know entirely from memory when that same paragraph, verbatim, ( slightly different from the one you quoted) was quoted 20 years later in the book "Life Everlasting in the Freedom of the Sons of God", or the book "Worldwide Security Under the Prince of Peace, if I even got that correct, also toward the end of the book, but my memory is not what it used to be.
Spoing!
I just remembered the address of where I lived when I was 9 years old, and ..... page 184, paragraph 10.
The only "Farmer's Experience" I ever heard that I remember was about the old farmer who used a section of garden hose to repair his milking machine, and the connection broke loose and blasted him across the farm yard with a jet of hot milk. 
It might  have killed him, had he been lactose intolerant.
 
 

No problem, that's why I keep a drawer full of spare gaskets.
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You know, the Bible way back then was actually just a collection of letters, stories, novels ( The "book" of Enoch comes to mind ...), poems, essays, and "church" stuff, some on scraps of papyrus, before it was edited and assembled into what we now call the Bible.
Since the Bible we have today was originally decided upon by the Catholic Church ( Eusebius of Caesarea was there and watched it being done, as well as helped ...), should we credit THEM with being inspired?
( I hope JWI jumps in on this one and does the "heavy lifting", to get it straightened out ....)

It's like a gun.
A gun is a tool that is no better or worse than the man who uses it.
 

Yeah .... I remember (hits self in head several times with a ball-peen hammer, to not laugh out loud ...) when the Catholics produced the KJV, about 900AD.
May I then take your answer to my question, César Chávez, as a resounding YES?

No problem, that's why I keep a drawer full of spare gaskets.
-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
You know, the Bible way back then was actually just a collection of letters, stories, novels ( The "book" of Enoch comes to mind ...), poems, essays, and "church" stuff, some on scraps of papyrus, before it was edited and assembled into what we now call the Bible.
Since the Bible we have today was originally decided upon by the Catholic Church ( Eusebius of Caesarea was there and watched it being done, as well as helped ...), should we credit THEM with being inspired?
( I hope JWI jumps in on this one and does the "heavy lifting", to get it straightened out ....)

No, I was not meaning to compare them to a fortuneteller, just the situation, the method of putting something out there and seeing if it sticks. Like a shot in the dark. I don't think the GB/wt do this all the time, just in a few cases. 1914 being one of them, and the overlapping generation another one....
There are many ways to put across the fundamental teachings of Jesus and the Bible without having to be specific about some things we are not sure about. For example we can preach the Kingdom, and what it will do, and that it will come soon, without even mentioning 1914, for example.
 

Hi Arauna!
In situations like this, with scriptures that can either be taken literally or symbolically, and then also the symbolism applied in more than one way, I like to just think "wait and see what actually happens"

I know the feeling .... especially since the Dry Cleaners lost my Superman suit.

I know the feeling .... especially since the Dry Cleaners lost my Superman suit.

Today’s Twitter gem from @rhetorical_rory:
lest we forget, the true meaning of christmas eve is sneaking up on one's enemies in the dead of night and slitting their throats 🙏🏼
 

A perfect topic for another day. This is a topic I might not be ready for. But I've seen enough to know you are making some good points and asking some good and thoughtful questions. I'm surprised that the topic gets completely ignored for the most part among Witnesses and every other religious group I've wondered about. 

That's a new one. Funny though.

It may well have been “brought out and analyzed.” But not by you and not on your “debate forum” Then—as now with the ones endeavoring to follow their lead—you would have been foremost in calling for his head.
You would have pointed out the BREATHTAKING INCOMPETENCE of those taking the lead then—you know you would—for they knew or should have known that Peter was a wuss—hadn’t he denied the Lord three times?
You would have savaged John, too. ”I rejoice very much because I have found some of your children walking in the truth,” he wrote. “SOME of them?!” you would have hurled back at him, “SOME? It would have been ALL of them if you had not been so grossly inept!” and you would have appended a few cartoons and then charged their blood on his hands.
You know you would. Or, if you don’t, everyone else does. I think your brain is every bit as calcified as that of Allen, and probably far more—for I can’t figure out exactly what game he is playing, but yours is crystal clear. You have a mind of concrete—all mixed up and firmly set.
 

via .ORGWorld News