James Thomas Rook Jr.

Is it fair?
 
 
Is it FAIR.wmv

Of course, it's not what WE think ... it's what Scholar Emeritus BillyTheKid46 thinks!

Youtube has a complete set : Keywords 2019 Love Never Fails.  Includes talks, commentary and  videos ... the WHOLE program. 
You can download them with
1.) "4K Video Downloader", a free program, or
2.) "WINX Youtube Downloader", another free program, or
3.) "GIHOSOFT TUBEGET" also a free program, or
4.) YOUTUBEBYCLICK", also a free program, or
5.) "BKPLAYER", also a free program.
Hope this helps you.
I would suggest you download them before the Watchtower Lawyers get involved, and have them removed, as if they were a military secret.
 

The things that should be confidential, is information involving INDIVIDUAL JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES.
All else is petty tyranny ... because you CAN!
It's a slippery slope, that ALWAYS leads to the same pit.

...
 
 
There is a difference between CONVEYED Authority .... and ASSUMED authority.

I have mentioned this before BTK46, that you are a real piece of work with many screws loose, and it's a wonder your parts are not scattered all over the place.
I NEVER INSULTED YOUR MOTHER ! 
In fact, it never occurred to me that you might even HAVE a mother, as your logic and reasoning seem to belong to some alien life form.
The only way you can conclude that  your mother was insulted is if you buy into the cartoon's setup that YOU are an ugly oversized talking cartoon pet turtle belonging to a cartoon dog ... which you seem to have effortlessly done ... and it is YOU YOURSELF that has insulted your mother!

I absolutely LOVE staggering irony, Billy, and you never fail to deliver!

Ever use binoculars, and look up into the night sky, and see all the craters on the Moon?
That was me!

There are people who have spent their whole lives in prison ... and when they get out ... freedom scares them so badly, they commit more crime for the sole reason to be convicted and GO BACK to prison, where they are surrounded with what they have become comfortable with.
As a small boy, I maintained that Santa Clause was real, long after I knew he was not .... because although I did not believe in Santa, I believed in presents!
Truth scares many people who have integrated a web of lies into their lives ... and they resist it and vilify it as it shakes the web and they are afraid of falling away.
So ... they wait until the spider comes, and eats them, secure in the knowledge of their noble sacrifice.
 
 
 

If someone is quoting ONLY straight excerpts from various Society's publications .... HOW CAN THEY BE MISREPRESENTING WHAT HAS BEEN SAID?

Since I am a self-proclaimed Barbarian, Billy, I can only assume you are trying to flatter me for some romantic reason.  It will NOT work!

The purpose of demanding TRUTH ... is to get TRUTH .... not someone else's delusional fantasys that are engineered to make a slave of you, and separate you from your money.
The PRACTICAL benefit of knowing TRUTH, years ago, is that I did not have to go to Vietnam, and kill people to support a political agenda, as THE classical example.

... in an earlier age, I would have had an "emotional support" Tyrannosaurus Rex, and my therapy would have been watching him eat Lawyers.

Science is constantly changing ... yes ... and physics and chemistry and nuclear science, astronomy and everything else becomes more refined as time goes on.
But when a scientific fact or principle is discovered or refined, they do not attribute the constant changes to inspiration from God, direction from God, and authority from God TO ENFORCE THOSE NEW CONCEPTS, under threat of banishment to Coventry.
A good example is the United States Marines .... everyone is flawed, and sometimes even more so the Officers ... and the work they do involves sacrifice, and life, and death.
BUT THEY DO NOT CLAIM AUTHORITY FROM ALMIGHTY GOD.
The same holds true with physicists, chemists, quantum scientists, astronomers, and a host of other's who learn as they go along.
BUT THEY DO NOT CLAIM AUTHORITY FROM ALMIGHTY GOD ...  and on the basis of that claim, collect sycophants, minions, and piles and piles of free money!
Those claiming authority and direction, and guidance from God, and have the power to ruin your life if you do not agree with them, MUST be held to a higher standard ....  or with a religiously inspired revelation and with great joy and happiness ..... we drink the grape kool-aid.
 

There were two problems:
1.) The Governing Body did not want to digitize everything as due to space requirements that  all text would have to be in lower case letters, and
2.) At the computer workstations  the mouses' cursors would bump into the edges of the monitors, and it would require building mouse pad extensions.

....
 

See how ignorance makes for peace?

Dogs have Guardians.
Cats have Staff... and all the protien, vitamins and minerals a healthy dog needs!
 

Science is constantly changing ... yes ... and physics and chemistry and nuclear science, astronomy and everything else becomes more refined as time goes on.
But when a scientific fact or principle is discovered or refined, they do not attribute the constant changes to inspiration from God, direction from God, and authority from God TO ENFORCE THOSE NEW CONCEPTS, under threat of banishment to Coventry.
A good example is the United States Marines .... everyone is flawed, and sometimes even more so the Officers ... and the work they do involves sacrifice, and life, and death.
BUT THEY DO NOT CLAIM AUTHORITY FROM ALMIGHTY GOD.
The same holds true with physicists, chemists, quantum scientists, astronomers, and a host of other's who learn as they go along.
BUT THEY DO NOT CLAIM AUTHORITY FROM ALMIGHTY GOD ...  and on the basis of that claim, collect sycophants, minions, and piles and piles of free money!
Those claiming authority and direction, and guidance from God, and have the power to ruin your life if you do not agree with them, MUST be held to a higher standard ....  or with a religiously inspired revelation and with great joy and happiness ..... we drink the grape kool-aid.
 

Science is constantly changing ... and physics and chemistry and nuclear science, astronomy and everything else becomes more refined as time goes on.
But when a scientific fact or principle is discovered or refined, they do not attribute the constant changes to inspiration from God, direction from God, and authority from God TO ENFORCE THOSE NEW CONCEPTS, under threat of banishment.
A good example is the United States Marines .... everyone is flawed, and sometimes even more so the Officers ... and the work they do involves sacrifice, and life, and death.
BUT THEY DO NOT CLAIM AUTHORITY FROM ALMIGHTY GOD.
The same holds true with physicists, chemists, quantum scientists, astronomers, and a host of other's who learn as they go along.
BUT THEY DO NOT CLAIM AUTHORITY FROM ALMIGHTY GOD ...  and on the basis of that claim, collect sycophants, minions, and piles and piles of free money!
Those claiming authority and direction, and guidance from God, and have the power to ruin your life if you do not agree with them, MUST BE HELD TO A HIGHER STANDARD ....  or with a religiously inspired revelation and with great joy and happiness ..... we drink the grape kool-aid.
 

There are people who have spent their whole lives in prison ... and when they get out ... freedom scares them so badly, they commit more crime for the sole reason to be convicted and GO BACK to prison, where they are surrounded with what they have become comfortable with.
As a small boy, I maintained that Santa Clause was real, long after I knew he was not .... because although I did not believe in Santa, I believed in presents!
Truth scares many people who have integrated a web of lies into their lives ... and they resist it and vilify it as it shakes the web and they are afraid of falling away.
So ... they wait until the spider comes, and eats them, secure in the knowledge of their noble sacrifice.
 
 
 

There are people who have spent their whole lives in prison ... and when they get out ... freedom scares them so badly, they commit more crime for the sole reason to be convicted and GO BACK to prison, where they are surrounded with what they have become comfortable with.
As a small boy, I maintained that Santa Clause was real, long after I knew he was not .... because although I did not believe in Santa, I believed in presents!
Truth scares many people who have integrated a web of lies into their lives ... and they resist it and vilify it as it shakes the web and they are afraid of falling away.
So ... they wait until the spider comes, and eats them, secure in the knowledge of their noble sacrifice.
 
 
 

Truth means "the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." Not whitewashed, partial truth, and not just the "spin" that tickles our ears.
That's everyone's own business whether they would rather know the whole truth, or ignore the truth, or assume that others can and should prioritize for them what they need to know as "the truth."
But, for me, I think we would be hypocrites to sing songs like we just did this last week. (Make the Truth Your Own), the comments on Colossians 2:8, etc., etc. Most of our meetings contain small reminders that we need to "love" truth. It shouldn't matter where it takes us. Actually, it should matter. And it should matter, even more, that some people don't want us to go where it takes us. 
It's difficult for most of us to admit that the "Watchtower religion" has been a cult in the past. (In the more pejorative sense of the word.) The Watchtower publicly admits that this is true, claiming that many of the Bible Students were cult worshipers of Charles Taze Russell. We know that Rutherford said he determined to rid the Watchtower of the personality cult that worshiped Russell. He called this "creature worship" because they were worshiping a man. But we also know that, for many years, Rutherford himself was part of the same cult, and even bragged in 1916 that Russell's enemies would soon have to come and "worship at his feet."
But, in general, I think Rutherford finally did a pretty good job replacing the cult members with persons who were looking for practical Bible truth, and not just for a man to do their thinking for them. But many persons, even Watchtower writers, have confused God and the earthly organization. And, this idea might surprise many, but I think that F.W.Franz gave evidence that he remained as a "cult" member until he died. He loved being seen as the the primary Rabbi --The ORACLE, they called him-- and it went to his head as he tried for his entire career to revive interest in dates, chronology, numerology, Jubilees, new truths (prophetic interpretations), parallel dispensations, the pre-eminence of the truly anointed, etc. I think his influence created cult members out of several ordinary Witnesses. I believe that my great-grandfather (from even before F.Franz was at Bethel) was a "cult" member in the organization until the 1960's when he died, even though my other relatives were (and are) regular JWs, and not cult members. I'm pretty sure that C.Woodworth was a cult member until the 1950's when he died. I know that when they searched out documentation and photos for the Proclaimer's book, they were astounded at the "cult" material still available in Witnesses' archives, including F.Franz himself.
And many Witnesses, today, are tempted to look at 8 men exactly the way that Bible Students looked at Russell. The way we defend or dismiss the material from our past history can be an indicator as to whether we too have succumbed to cult thinking. Even the way we defend current material that came out of long-standing traditions of the past can also be an indicator. I can talk to Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists for hours and recognize almost immediately which ones are in a "cult" and which ones aren't by the manner in which they defend Ellen G White or Joseph Smith when glaring problems are pointed out.
(Job 31:26-28) 26 If I saw the sun shining Or the moon moving in its splendor; 27 And my heart was secretly enticed, And my mouth kissed my hand in worship of them; 28 Then that would be an error deserving punishment by the judges, For I would have denied the true God above.

Can't follow the discussion no more - too high for me.   Just consider this exhortation.
13 But wicked men and impostors will advance from bad to worse, misleading and being misled. 14 You, however, continue in the things that you learned and were persuaded to believe, knowing from whom you learned them 15 and that from infancy you have known the holy writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.