Arauna

I like how at the annual meeting, Mark Sanderson examined Hebrews 2:15, of how “through [Jesus’] death [God] might bring to nothing the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil, and that he might set free all those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death.”
He then spoke of the Nuremberg trials, in which various Nazis who had committed unspeakable atrocities were asked the simple question, “How could you do those terrible things?” “What did they say?” he asked, and then related the answer they had given: “We had no choice. If we didn’t obey they would put us to death.” 
“Those people could be manipulated,” Sanderson said. “They could be controlled. They could be made to do the most wicked things because they were afraid.”
That’s manipulation. That’s control. That’s the consequence—shall we say it?—of not being one of Jehovah’s Witnesses benefiting from the program of spiritual food directed from the Governing Body. And here is Witness (and numerous others) sniveling about “brutal peer pressure!” The woman is a joke, as are all those who rage against the “control” of the GB. Had there been similar “control” among the Axis population, there would have been no need for the Nuremberg trials.
https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2020/02/if-youre-going-to-bewail-manipulation-bewail-it-where-it-counts.html

Anyone who has thought about society knows that peer pressure is everywhere. At work, any club, in groups of friends, gangs - everywhere you go there is some form of peer pressure …to be accepted, even to have the image of being free in a so-called group where everyone follows their own desires, even there, there is is peer pressure - that of appearance of conforming to the image. 
How did Hitler become so powerful?  Radio propaganda and peer pressure.  Why did people follow orders ?  Peer pressure made them kill others... against their natural instinct.  So peer pressure can be a good thing or bad.  So when people say peer pressure to conform to good standards is brutal.... then you know what you are dealing with. 
Several experiments were done in the 1950s due to the Hitler era.  They are on Youtube. One experiment was about the amount of pain a person would inflict on others if ordered by authority to do so. Another experiment I recall was also interesting:  A group of people were in on the experiment. One candidate was brought in to choose the shortest line among many.  Others in the (informed) group all chose the wrong ones and vocally said so... eventually the person went against his own (correct) conviction and chose the wrong answer because most of the others had chosen it...
Why I say the governments are so evil now is because of all the secret experiments they have done on crowd control, mind control and social engineering.  They are manipulating internet to get people to think how they want you to think.  (conspiracy)? 
There are many historical documentaries online that show how the government used the Nazis (dr. Mengele types - they secretly brought them to America - operation paperclip - and here these Nazis received positions, new names) Their compromised consciences allowed them to further their research on mind control...and many programs were started which were in secret. MKULTRA was one of these programs.  These psychological research/brutal experiments ( done in secret) is only now surfacing with the release of old documents. 
That is why we are now in a time when they will manipulate everyone to do their bidding and only those with very strong faith will survive.  I have read about the use of frequencies etc to stimulate certain parts of the brain etc. They will use this in future as well.  Jehovah will have to step in.  All I know is - this world is totally evil and many vulnerable people were experimented on in USA and Canada without their knowledge  (so-called countries with human rights).  Some of the things they did to these people are shocking!
Better to have a little peer pressure to do the right thing than peer pressure to worship the state.  China has got all the technology to do this now and most citizens dare not speak out, even if they do not agree with what is going on.  CCP  used to hide this from foreigners in their midst but it is totally out in the open now.  everyone has to bow to their will.
So for those here who have a problem with peer pressure - your own desires to be accepted bring on the peer pressure. If you are a natural rebel, then you will also have a problem because in broader society you will have issues - except with immediate family.  Now the state is starting to attack family structure as well.  if they break this - you will have no support system.
The hunger and food shortages coming (due to extended lock-down) will make people conform even further - to get food.... you may not be able to buy and sell?  Let us see first what kind of new economic fedcoin, yuancoin, blockchain coin, or whatever digital system will arise in place of petro-dollar. The bank of international settlements, world bank, IMF etc will come up with something......

When the song “Give us Courage” was released at the 2018 Be Courageous Regional Conventions, an accompanying video displayed soldiers in full military gear closing in on entirely ordinary and manifestly harmless Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were doing no more than minding their own business. “How cult-like!” said the ridiculers. “What is it with these people and their “persecution complex.”
If fact, the video prefigures events that have come to pass, as absurdly unlikely as they might seem. After all, arresting entirely harmless people is crazy in itself. But what multiplies the craziness 100-fold is to arrest them in full military gear. There is no possibility of them offering resistance and everybody knows it. They are almost the only group whose entire history demonstrates that under no circumstances do they resort to violence. Yet they are arrested as you would terrorists.
Assuming that arrests are called for (a ridiculous assumption that we will let pass so as to pursue a greater point), why would arrests be made in such a violent manner? Two reasons present themselves,
1) Outright hate.
2) Saving face.
If you declare people “extremists” and then arrest them as you would a jaywalker, you are only making yourself look silly. You are only proving that they are not extremists at all, and that you well know it—and so what does that say about you? It is why Abraham Lincoln said that he was not smart enough to lie—he knew he would have to adjust every subsequent statement and action to accord with that first lie simply if he would retain an ounce of credibility. Having lied to assert Witnesses are extremists, you have to act as though they are.
The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses foresaw this. It is the most unlikely scenario in the world, and yet they foresaw it. Does this “prove” that Jehovah is with the Witness Governing Body—to transfer Brother Glock’s remarks to more readily adaptable content?
 

Russian authorities armed with assault rifles raided 110 homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Voronezh Region on July 13, 2020, according to an official press release by the Voronezh Region Investigative Committee. This is the largest series of raids conducted in one day on Jehovah’s Witnesses in modern Russia. Preliminary reports from my colleagues indicates that at least two Witnesses were beaten.
Some Witnesses reported that when the officers stormed into their houses to conduct the searches, they would force people to the ground and press their faces to the floor. Additionally, the law enforcement officers did not wear masks or take any precautions against the spread of COVID-19.
Jarrod Lopes, spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses, states: “This month, the total number of Witnesses’ homes raided has surged to over 1,000 since 2017. For reasons passing understanding, heavily armed officers—as if being deployed for combat—are storming into the homes of peaceful Christians, many of whom are elderly. Human rights advocates and international judicial bodies continue to publicly condemn Russia for targetting Jehovah’s Witnesses. We hope Russian leaders will halt the persecution and uphold the freedom of religion and belief that is enshrined in its Constitution.”
#jwrussia
 
Read more: https://thezimbabwedaily.com/world/497627-russia-raids-110-homes-of-jehovahs-witnesses-largest-in-one-day.html

A lot of them a kind of stupid— No tom the stupid ones are JWs that stay in the CCJW and serve the GB 
 

Article 6 of the Russian Constitution states that individuals cannot be stripped of their citizenship. Kim (and, more recently, two jailed Jehovah's Witnesses), however, was deprived of his Russian citizenship on the basis of an amendment to Article 22 of the 2002 Citizenship Law which entered legal force on 1 September 2017.
 
Article 22 states that citizenship can be annulled if it was awarded on the basis of forged documents or "false information". The 2017 amendment added that conviction under particular articles of the Criminal Code, including Article 282.2 ("Organising" or "Participating in the activities of a banned extremist organisation", with which Jehovah's Witnesses and Muslim readers of Nursi's works are most commonly charged) and Article 282.3 ("Financing extremist activity", with which many Jehovah's Witnesses have also been charged), is taken as equivalent to knowingly presenting false information in a citizenship application.

As a result, therefore, authorities may annul the citizenship of a person who has been found guilty of one of these offences, and who acquired Russian citizenship by naturalisation (rather than by birth).

"This law on the annulment of citizenship is vicious," Alexander Verkhovsky, Director of the SOVA Centre for Information and Analysis, commented to Forum 18 from Moscow on 8 July. "It assumes that the person, when applying for citizenship, was already going to undermine the constitutional order, and in this sense gave false information about themselves, and therefore the decision to grant citizenship is invalid."

Verkhovsky pointed out that a person then could change their views over time. "They might not even have imagined that their views imply a change to the constitutional order," he added.
Read more: http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2585
#jwrussia
 

A lot of them a kind of stupid—I doubt that will happen.

I clicked. I thought this line was especially funny:
"That evening I prepared a protest sign: “Zenobia Lives!” but then I realized there would be no convention to carry it to."
It hadn't occurred to me that apostates will no longer have a venue to carry their messages. I hope that none of them discover the Internet.

Sorry. That was just for 4Jah’s sake. He’ll believe anything bad about a JW.
I likened it to the ingredients of a sandwich disappearing. When that happens, what’s the point of keeping track of the two slices of bread that enclose it?
When the ingredients reappear—well, we know that God’s people are to be between a rock and a hard place. Who corresponds to that? What two parties during the World Wars hate each other’s guts, and also give the covenant people grief for the same reason, that of neutrality?
I agree with you. I think things become very clear as we near the end.

He identified Jesus so they could apprehend him. He became complicit.
The bible itself says it was as though he was never born - he is going into oblivion (Gehenna).  It also says that Satan went into him when he left to betray Jesus. These are just reminders to you.... you are supposed to know this history.

OK dear, I am done.  Jesus put his SOUL in death.  That is the crux of the ransom sacrifice.  That guarantees our resurrection because Christ was really dead (body, soul, breath - did not exist any longer) and he was resurrected by his father...…the life-giver........that TRUTH very few people on earth understand because churches do not teach this. JWs teach this. That is what brought me to the truth - the fact that Jesus put his soul in death.  If you do not get that, understand this fundamental truth, then you never were a good witness in the first place (one that understood everything about the ransom) and impossible to be anointed.  You do  not even understand the ransom sacrifice properly - so Jehovah can forgive you for all that and even your rebellion.  Jews are starting to wake up about the ransom.... Some have discovered Isaiah 53 the last verses.... which uses the word SOUL to indicate that Jesus was prophesied to die.
Either you make a decision to study again and get this straight or go on playing the victim in the world out there and teach your disciples falsehoods about Jesus death. If you are not humble enough you will NOT do this and you will have to be accountable for that in front of Jehovah.
Yes - the JWs teach the TRUTH about the ransom sacrifice  - if you do not understand this..... then I suspect there is a lot more you do not understand.  I feel sad for you.  YOU will have to put your pride in your pocket and beg Jehovah's forgiveness. 

It is a good example though..... I was making a point
Is that not viewed as such in the bible?  But that does not make you rethink your situation?  I feel for you but you are doing it to yourself by your stubborn attitude.  Instead you prefer to always rale against the organization that taught you the truth about the ransom sacrifice and god's name.  Without them you would not have been in the privileged position you were in.  But like an unthankful dog you still bite the hand that fed you.  Think what you are doing to yourself. You seem to be all over the place! All it take is a little humility!  There were anointed in first century that were shunned and came back!
I am sure if they saw these persons in private they would definitely apologize (even though they personally were not the perpetrators)…… but you obviously do not understand the implications of legally apologizing..... that is totally a different matter. 
We JWs do NOT condone pedophilia ….or any form of porneia…... so why should we apologize in court or public for something we as an organization we do not condone?  The organization has sinning individuals in it and in this world the entire system is imperfect - and to top this off one cannot expect 100% perfect way of dealing with every case.  Expecting this would expect perfection, perfect judgment and seeing into everyone's heart!  Ask your self - how would I have done if I had to judge this matter.  Bring me any organization that has dealt with pedophilia perfectly a 100 percent of the time!  Legal organizations cannot even do it - and they have child psychologists top advisors - the lot!  This is why the Australian government had the inquiry in the first place because there were gaps in the laws they needed to close up!  
I think I know more than most about the Jews, the Muslims and some other religious denominations where pedophilia and child suffering is much worse than people can ever dream it to be...… but yet these ignorant people do not expect perfect case handling from them - if a case ever comes to the fore.... lol - because people are too afraid of the religious leaders.  This is like expecting a fools dream in the real world. But they expect 100% perfect case handling from JWs.  
Pedophilia is everywhere  is very prevalent an even covered up in courts of law (Epstein, gangs in UK). There is a case that went on for several years in Brooklyn USA in the ultra orthodox Jewish community. A Jewish school teacher fled to Israel (the school paid her flight because her husband was a Rabbi) and because she was prominent the accusers could not get her extradited for several years from Israel - the government and Rabbis covered it up in Israel.....   Nothing much in newspapers.  Not to speak of UK where the court system covers up big-time.  So why should we apologize for not handling every case that comes up with perfection..? When courts themselves find it hard to find enough evidence to convict?   DO you live under a rock or something when you expect 100 percent people in JWs to never have a secret sinner? …. And when we do get enough proof and shun a sinner then then you are the first guys to criticize this? Where is the sympathy for the shunned person you say?   This kind of double speak or double tongue is often found in those who do not understand both sides of this issue. 
Yes - those are the very ones who have been disciplined by JW and turned to defaming.... but they do not tell the public that they were sinning or in which capacity.... 
One question:  when are you going to get ready for the end?  You think a world-wide lockdown is important? … similar to Jerusalem when the Romans came and surrounded the city the first time, you do not think it is significant at all?  Putin himself is now president for life... and what did he do this week?  started putting journalists in jail.  He has a port in Syria now and now he is expanding into Africa working with Libya - to get access to the port.   So what must all happen for you to realize the world is a little deeper in the cesspit than we realize.
 
 

It is a good example though..... I was making a point
Is that not viewed as such in the bible?  But that does not make you rethink your situation?  I feel for you but you are doing it to yourself by your stubborn attitude.  Instead you prefer to always rale against the organization that taught you the truth about the ransom sacrifice and god's name.  Without them you would not have been in the privileged position you were in.  But like an unthankful dog you still bite the hand that fed you.  Think what you are doing to yourself. You seem to be all over the place! All it take is a little humility!  There were anointed in first century that were shunned and came back!
I am sure if they saw these persons in private they would definitely apologize (even though they personally were not the perpetrators)…… but you obviously do not understand the implications of legally apologizing..... that is totally a different matter. 
We JWs do NOT condone pedophilia ….or any form of porneia…... so why should we apologize in court or public for something we as an organization we do not condone?  The organization has sinning individuals in it and in this world the entire system is imperfect - and to top this off one cannot expect 100% perfect way of dealing with every case.  Expecting this would expect perfection, perfect judgment and seeing into everyone's heart!  Ask your self - how would I have done if I had to judge this matter.  Bring me any organization that has dealt with pedophilia perfectly a 100 percent of the time!  Legal organizations cannot even do it - and they have child psychologists top advisors - the lot!  This is why the Australian government had the inquiry in the first place because there were gaps in the laws they needed to close up!  
I think I know more than most about the Jews, the Muslims and some other religious denominations where pedophilia and child suffering is much worse than people can ever dream it to be...… but yet these ignorant people do not expect perfect case handling from them - if a case ever comes to the fore.... lol - because people are too afraid of the religious leaders.  This is like expecting a fools dream in the real world. But they expect 100% perfect case handling from JWs.  
Pedophilia is everywhere  is very prevalent an even covered up in courts of law (Epstein, gangs in UK). There is a case that went on for several years in Brooklyn USA in the ultra orthodox Jewish community. A Jewish school teacher fled to Israel (the school paid her flight because her husband was a Rabbi) and because she was prominent the accusers could not get her extradited for several years from Israel - the government and Rabbis covered it up in Israel.....   Nothing much in newspapers.  Not to speak of UK where the court system covers up big-time.  So why should we apologize for not handling every case that comes up with perfection..? When courts themselves find it hard to find enough evidence to convict?   DO you live under a rock or something when you expect 100 percent people in JWs to never have a secret sinner? …. And when we do get enough proof and shun a sinner then then you are the first guys to criticize this? Where is the sympathy for the shunned person you say?   This kind of double speak or double tongue is often found in those who do not understand both sides of this issue. 
Yes - those are the very ones who have been disciplined by JW and turned to defaming.... but they do not tell the public that they were sinning or in which capacity.... 
One question:  when are you going to get ready for the end?  You think a world-wide lockdown is important? … similar to Jerusalem when the Romans came and surrounded the city the first time, you do not think it is significant at all?  Putin himself is now president for life... and what did he do this week?  started putting journalists in jail.  He has a port in Syria now and now he is expanding into Africa working with Libya - to get access to the port.   So what must all happen for you to realize the world is a little deeper in the cesspit than we realize.
 
 

All that repetition by JB about how the GB could be "taken out" either by God directly or through the hands of humans (and that it would happen sooner or later) was probably interpreted by some here as a semi-veiled threat. I remember exactly what you said at the time, and never took it as all that threatening. But someone did. Perhaps more than one person. And the action taken in removing JB was probably made at an admin level, not by any of those who might volunteer as moderators. I would not have thought you should be kicked out, but a website owner probably could face some kind of legal scrutiny if someone carried through on a threat, and they had let such talk go on.
Personally, I don't want anyone thrown out of here. There are many things I don't like about the content of several of your posts, but I'm sure there are things you don't like about mine, too. I can't believe all those "laughing" emojis I get from you are given because you think I am saying something comedic, especially when it's little more than a scripture quote that you appear to be laughing at.

It is a similar situation - where one must adhere to rules.  Unfortunately at secular clubs one usually just gets the rules typed out.  In Jehovah's organization you know what the rules are when you become a JW - there is no excuse.  Even after a mistake one is not shunned unless you show rebelliousness.  
I am a reader of history - I know what Catholic excommunication means....  how can you even compare what is written there to what we do.... like comparing and orange with mars.
It is not what you think that is important but what Jehovah thinks about idolatry.....  he is a jealous god and does not tolerate paraphernalia of other gods pushed in his face. Do you not read the old testament?  And it was one of the instructions at acts 15:29 which Christians also have to adhere to..... that and abstinence from blood. 
 
A very true statement.  How sad to serve so long and in the end to be found wanting.  It can happen to any of us - we can lose our life when we stop to do introspection and look for flaws only outside yourself.

I think that is why there is so much injustice in many places. The court system is broken.  I marvel at some of the decisions taken these days. 
I think we can refer to it in a modern word of our choice, which serves the purpose, as it embodies what the BIBLE tells us to do with rebellious people. We cannot use an old Greek word...... If you belong to a club you have to follow the rules of the club or you are shunned/disfellowshipped/ told not to come back.  Just try it ...and behave badly at a golf club and see what happens to you.  As video shows - disfellowshipped means spiritual contact lost and one can be re-instated.
This very idea was tried in court a while back was it not? When a gay couple took a baker to court for refusing to bake their wedding cake.  The baker was shunning them was he not?  he did not even want to take their money.  You see, legally we are on shaky ground here.  When these kind of people start winning court cases then they can come for all religion... force you to accept LGBTQ and what else?  And this is what our dear friend MR 4JAH does not understand... He is so blinded by being right (or finding fault)  that he does not get the subtle nuances of these things. The autonomous decisions of different religions is being eroded...…(JWs included) .. in a big way at present.  So when he gleefully publishes these clips..... I just shake my head.
We know the system is coming for ALL religion soon and the world is heating up to it.  Satan is busy getting ready to create a counterfeit world government to bring peace and security to the earth.....and Satan's moral rules will be forced onto all of us such as LGBTQ, pedophilia may be included, no rights to shun, no male elders (according to them it is a white supremacist, colonizer, patriarchal idea which comes from the patriarchal bible which has been the oppressor of humankind for a long time), vaccinations and blood forced on you...…...and replaced by atheism and the immorality and free sex and free whatever now already taught in most schools. 
(By the way I am not antivaccine but I read this morning how they are making it and I believe it has potential to harm DNA in the body - trials started in UK, brazil and South Africa and Oxford university is doing it -  big money can come from it).  Just like before the flood there is a horrible arrogance and a changing of human DNA.  They are messing with things they should be leaving alone.)
 
Depends on your inclination and the subject.  Here on this forum you hold up well because there is only one view spewed by you.. a destructive one.  I think I can make a good case for NOT watching videos against JWs.  You are a good example of it ...... your hate-…... seems to be fueled by watching all these videos against JWs which are spinned and propagandized in a certain way.

Just remember : it is much easier to critisize than to build up, easier to destroy than to show love.  When you are ready to destroy, one can use just about use anything as a weapon and you can hold your own because it is easier to break than unify.   Try it on your wife and you will see I am speaking truth.  

I think that is why there is so much injustice in many places. The court system is broken.  I marvel at some of the decisions taken these days. 
I think we can refer to it in a modern word of our choice, which serves the purpose, as it embodies what the BIBLE tells us to do with rebellious people. We cannot use an old Greek word...... If you belong to a club you have to follow the rules of the club or you are shunned/disfellowshipped/ told not to come back.  Just try it ...and behave badly at a golf club and see what happens to you.  As video shows - disfellowshipped means spiritual contact lost and one can be re-instated.
This very idea was tried in court a while back was it not? When a gay couple took a baker to court for refusing to bake their wedding cake.  The baker was shunning them was he not?  he did not even want to take their money.  You see, legally we are on shaky ground here.  When these kind of people start winning court cases then they can come for all religion... force you to accept LGBTQ and what else?  And this is what our dear friend MR 4JAH does not understand... He is so blinded by being right (or finding fault)  that he does not get the subtle nuances of these things. The autonomous decisions of different religions is being eroded...…(JWs included) .. in a big way at present.  So when he gleefully publishes these clips..... I just shake my head.
We know the system is coming for ALL religion soon and the world is heating up to it.  Satan is busy getting ready to create a counterfeit world government to bring peace and security to the earth.....and Satan's moral rules will be forced onto all of us such as LGBTQ, pedophilia may be included, no rights to shun, no male elders (according to them it is a white supremacist, colonizer, patriarchal idea which comes from the patriarchal bible which has been the oppressor of humankind for a long time), vaccinations and blood forced on you...…...and replaced by atheism and the immorality and free sex and free whatever now already taught in most schools. 
(By the way I am not antivaccine but I read this morning how they are making it and I believe it has potential to harm DNA in the body - trials started in UK, brazil and South Africa and Oxford university is doing it -  big money can come from it).  Just like before the flood there is a horrible arrogance and a changing of human DNA.  They are messing with things they should be leaving alone.)
 
Depends on your inclination and the subject.  Here on this forum you hold up well because there is only one view spewed by you.. a destructive one.  I think I can make a good case for NOT watching videos against JWs.  You are a good example of it ...... your hate-…... seems to be fueled by watching all these videos against JWs which are spinned and propagandized in a certain way.

Not exactly. Translation of ancient languages is an art. A lot of choices are based on context. I suppose we could get an online literal word for word translation that additionally has a pulldown menu when a specific word can mean 10 different things, and it could provide the thousands of choices for how to handle idioms and phrases that can change a bit based on context.
And, as Arauna mentioned, the causative (or reflexive resultative) can be translated with "prove to be . . ." The NWT is not the only translation that used this, although most other translators use it much more cautiously, because it can imply something in modern English that is not implied in the actual causative construction. In fact, one of those things it can imply is "proof" and yet it has nothing to do with the word "proof." That is why I brought it up here.
It is often appropriate in giving a certain importance to something that a person of power and prestige might say that is not so appropriate for the average person. And yet it is exactly the same verb construct for both, and consistency in a literal translation should acknowledge this. Also, there is always a certain amount of bias in any translation, and sometimes this bias is good, but even if the bias is in the right direction, it is still better to be as "neutral" as the original language was. If it's important to explain a certain bias in what it means, that can be done through teaching or commentaries.
A person, like Jehovah, with a self-directed purpose, actually means "I will prove to be," in the fullest implication of the words, when He says "I shall be." As a kid, I was once in a convention drama where a character kept telling another character, in a Captain Picard fashion, "May it prove to be so!" It was all pre-recorded, of course, but it was clear that it was more often used for "authority" because it has a more profound sound to it. For Jehovah, and for prophets speaking in his name, it still seems appropriate. And, as Arauna said, it is appropriate for Jehovah's use of ehyeh because Jehovah makes/conducts/reveals himself to display his qualities. This is why the Zondervan NET Bible (Full Notes Edition) has the following for Psalm 18:25 (and 2 Samuel 22):

Note E says:

 

Wait till you see what’s coming your way soon. 
If he was committing perjury, he would be disbarred. Wait till you see if that happens before you crow. He just said something you did not like, which is not the same as “committing perjury.”

I sure find humor in them, however.
Of course.
I think that is hardly settled. Who is to say that Franz’s take on the language is inferior?
I don’t think that is such a sin, to speak of God or Christ in the superlative, to heighten their “importance.” Are they just good ‘ol boys that you might belly up to the bar with?
Still, I appreciate your input on things that happened away back then.

Victor Blackwell, a Witness attorney who defended many brothers before the various town courts of the American south during WWII days of conscription, told of his experience with one. The judge ordered him to shut up!—he, the defending attorney—or he would throw him into jail himself! “I looked around and I saw lawyers, prominent businessmen, and educated persons—I knew I wasn’t going to jail, so I said, ‘Your Honor, if we have reached the sorry state when justice has so disintegrated that an attorney is barred from defending his own client, then at that time the most appropriate place for me to be is behind bars with him.” (not an exact quote) Blackwell related at a special assembly in Niagara Falls how the judge’s face reddened and his veins stood out on his neck. A week later, he died of a stroke. “You killed our judge,” townspeople told him at his next trip to that area. “I”m sorry,” he replied, but it seemed that his degree of true remorse was suspect.
“I killed another judge,” he told the entertained audience, of whom I was one, and he went on to relate events in another town. Interestingly, he treated the judge’s of high courts with the greatest deference, especially those of the Supreme Court, whom he practically revered—as well as those justices of military courts—they were professionals who knew the law thoroughly, but the judges of some town courts were little more than popularly elected swaggering bullies popularly who often didn’t know much of anything other than what they wanted.
Now...let’s see if we can get 4Jah going. C’mon, let’s see what happens:
Now, let us change the setting to that of Jesus on his final night on earth:
“About the ninth hour, Jesus called out with a loud voice, saying: “Eʹli, Eʹli, laʹma sa·bach·thaʹni?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46)
Okay—I admit it—it’s a little bit of a cheap shot. But nobody deserves it more than that piece of work 4Jah, who sits at the feet of Anna and JWI as though at Gamaliel’s, thankIng them profusely whenever they drop some nugget he thinks beneficial to his cause, and heehawing like a donkey throughout everything else they say.

Just remember : it is much easier to critisize than to build up, easier to destroy than to show love.  When you are ready to destroy, one can use just about use anything as a weapon and you can hold your own because it is easier to break than unify.   Try it on your wife and you will see I am speaking truth.  

I have a quote of anna above but I direct it to a few of the 'spiritual elite' over on this forum. 
I just marvel at you guys - you have lived in or like to be living in a literary world, or scholarly world  (or must I rather call it a critical thinking bubble), where every word is literally dissected.  A normal regular guy will not be able to come on this forum and chat with you because you guys will destroy his every word.....for real.  He cannot say what he thinks in the best words for him without an over-reaction.  I find it a pity that your thinking is so one-sided or should I call it self-centered?  (I think Furuli became the same....his scholarly habits caught up with him when he retired and he could only think of all the things he needed to critically analize.....  and then wrote his final dissertation .... pity.  He did not see the good things any longer or the mitigating things). He made his own puffed-up trap.
The reality in the world is:- it consists of mostly people who are plain, common people.  Yet, you do not make any excuses for people who have never learnt to put their thinking on paper.  There are many people out there who have never done this or looked at their writing self-critically.  They plainly say what they think or feel.  Once they have been shamed by a bunch of puffer upper poisonous fish... they run away or be silenced and you will not hear from them again.
Just remember, their experience in the world out there was totally different to yours. This does not mean that they can be dismissed or their ideas are de-legitimized and cannot be explored by a question... why do you say this..... etc.. The attitude here is that when you come here you must be able to converse with the real mature men! … 
Is it possible that you can broaden out your thinking?   I stand up for the common man..... please think of your actions or what you are doing. That was a brother!!!!!!  I have luckily been in both worlds.... and to tell you the truth, I prefer people like him... they say what they think…in the passionate words they know...... without first looking up the words on Google or looking it up in some historical book... or looking it up …or critical thinking or political correct or ….. well... I have said my say.
Think outside your box.
 
For your information - the GB closed our meetings BEFORE government regulation. So GB had caution and respect for life and most assuredly prayed to Jehovah for direction.  
Tom, most probably like me, does not humor modern-day Judas'..... He can see the difference between those who sincerely make mistakes, or are imperfect, and who sincerely are looking for answers...... and those who have made a conscious choice to oppose anything to do with GB, JWs - regardless of mitigating reasons or not.  He does not need me to stand up for him... he will just ignore you...… but I am quite sure he has matured up.
I am not a Hebrew scholar - but it is very closely related to Arabic..... and Arabic has causative verbs..... so I have no issue with Franz' translation of the causative verbs into English.  " to prove to be".   In Arabic it is understood that you already exist, therefore  (to be) is built into all its verbs. That is why 'I AM' is not the correct translation - because Jehovah would reveal himself as one who "causes to become" in Egypt with causing plagues and miracles.
I think the organization changed the verbs in the revised edition to simplify it.... because that was the purpose of the revised translation.
 

Yikes! There’s a photo of me with arms around Srecko, 4Jah, and Witness!