Anna

7 hours ago, Srecko Sostar said:

Anna, if by "have to become Christians" you thought on obligation that person become part of organized religion, in your case JWorg, ... than i will not be so sure about that. 

I think we can be sure. You mentioned that I shouldn’t refer to God’s organization of the Jews, you said that was old, so then you referred to Jesus, as that being the new way. Well didn’t Jesus become the founder of Christianity?  Wasn’t it by divine providence his disciples became known as Christians, weren’t his disciples organized into congregations? I am sure you know the scriptures that talk along this theme, of not forsaking gathering together,....where two or three are gathered in Christ’s name.....to build one another up, you know about Paul’s letters being addressed to congregations, Jesus’ admonishing  the congregations (in Revelation), Jesus being the chief cornerstone of the congregation, etc. etc........

As for our day, well how else would you organize the global preaching work but by organization. Organization for many people has become a dirty word when it comes to religion. Why? Could it be because of organized religion’s bad reputation on the whole?

7 hours ago, Srecko Sostar said:

“Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ ...” so we can come to conclusion that is Gods choice to whom he give "salvation", no matter is person or not part of JWorg.

Of course, just because someone calls themselves a JW does not guarantee salvation, as the verse says: "but only the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will" so God's choice is based on those doing his will, as Jesus further says: " Therefore, everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does them...

7 hours ago, Srecko Sostar said:

Yes i have one fine bible example to support my view. Naaman, commander of army, gentile, idol worshiper, get salvation from JHVH without any BUT in spiritual, religious or moral proviso. Only BUT was about in what river to take a bath. After that Naaman recognize JHVH as  "only God" but there is no report he became "proselyte", worshiper of JHVH, left his family or nation or position as commander. He has some conscious dilemmas, it is explained in  5:18, but even that this was not problem for JHVH that Naaman make worship to idols

You come with ONE report, one that you would call “old”, as it pre- dates Christ, and with an ambiguous end, to support your view that God doesn’t care what you do as long as you “believe”.  In verse 18 Naaaman explains that as a servant of his lord he will go with him to the temple of Rimmon, and because his lord hangs onto his arm (maybe he is old?) when he bows down, Naaman will have to go down as well, but he will not be doing this in worship, but only because his lord is using his arm for support.  He definitely did NOT “make worship to idols”. We know how “jealous” Jehovah is of anyone worshipping someone else other than him. Paul, when writing to the Corinthians showed the seriousness of it: “ No; but I say that what the nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers with the demons. You cannot be drinking the cup of Jehovah and the cup of demons; you cannot be partaking of “the table of Jehovah” and the table of demons. (1Corinth 10:20-21) So I think it most definitely would have been a problem to JHVH!

You definitely cannot have it both ways. "Doing" and "obedience" play a major role even if God "picked" you for salvation, the ultimate result of whether he saves you or not is dependent on YOU, on your obedience:  Romans 6:  15 – 17: What follows? Are we to commit a sin because we are not under law but under undeserved kindness? Certainly not!  Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey,  either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? But thanks to God that although you were once the slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over.

“ For this is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments; and yet his commandments are not burdensome”

50 minutes ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

From the picture above, it appears Jesus shaved his arm pits.

Thanks for pointing that out, I never noticed! I wonder why the artist considered it inappropriate to include underarm hair.....must be an American thing....

1 hour ago, Rebecca Hirst said:

the Truth will be preached again in Russia

you mean it stopped?

39 minutes ago, J.R. Ewing said:

when the answer has already been given

But is it true?

1 hour ago, TrueTomHarley said:

1 hour ago, Anna said:

Ans that's why sarcastic people like you will never understand!

Well - you are certainly right about not understanding.

Hey, you quoted me, but I never said that!

1 hour ago, The Librarian said:

and all the rest.... as you can see this is another thread gone WAY out into left field from the 1989 Watchtower original topic.

Sorry! Truly. It's just that I think we get a little bored, and this is merely a frivolous light hearted interlude while waiting on others to gather something groundbreaking and worthwhile discussing

10 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Why is that?

Thats what I was wondering....but you asked

10 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Irregardless, indeed. What a long strange trip its been.

I find this advice from Ms. Webster:  "......There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.  So irregardless what you say, Tom Irregardless, I am not going to use it regardless how strange a trip

12 minutes ago, J.R. Ewing said:

The Governing Body is commissioned by GOD, others here aren’t.

Others may not be commissioned by GOD, but they still have eyes and ears

8 minutes ago, J.R. Ewing said:

God’s instruction for our understanding is through faith

And that faith is not blind either...

13 minutes ago, J.R. Ewing said:

unless you actually know why the society made the change.

Do you actually know why the society made the change?

44 minutes ago, Srecko Sostar said:

Did not Jesus show impartiality in every way to "gentiles" to people of other religion??

He did indeed, (and so do we) but if they wanted to get saved they would have to become Christians wouldn't they? And if they were a prostitute they would have to stop that wouldn't they?

44 minutes ago, Srecko Sostar said:

There is no impartiality if you set the condition, proviso, stipulation.

That is not a scriptural teaching if you put it in a scriptural context.

44 minutes ago, Srecko Sostar said:

His "law", his spirit and love He writing directly in people's heart, not looking who is who. And when He touched person, "repentance", and not only repentance, will occur in that special, unique moment of very soul, in the time of silence or in a time of scream, in a time of tears or in a time of empties. And will change us. In this or that direction.  

That happening has conditions attached to it, otherwise every single person on earth would have this happen to them, even Hitler. I had a Bible study once, a science teacher and a former atheist. Something she said that I had never really thought of in this way before, she said that we (JW) are kind of preparing people for living under God’s rule when it starts ruling over the earth.  I thought that was a very interesting observation from an outsider, and a practical aspect. But I would take it even further, how about God is preparing people to live under his government.  When you look around in the world, can you see why it is reasonable to conclude that God does have conditions for those who want to live under his rule, and that not just anyone will be invited? He gives humans the opportunity now to “apply for citizenship” in the new world and he also has a “program” going which helps them “meet the required standards” for entry.  After all “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of the heavens, but only the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will”. And you know the rest of that chapter....

On 10/22/2017 at 10:05 AM, Srecko Sostar said:

JW members are very much constrained by their own lives in the WT Corporation and do not see how other people suffer because of religious beliefs too, whether they are Christians or "Gentiles". Bible stating - "God is impartial!!"

You are quite correct, God is impartial and accepts every human, regardless of race or social status, "who fears him and does what is right". This brings us to the usual argument about what it means to do what is right, and in whose eyes. In other words can it be said that religion, just like race or social status does not matter to God either? The Bible seems to indicate that it does matter to God. It indicates that the impartiality does have a condition attached to it. And that is the whole point of "he is patient with you because he does not desire anyone to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance". Then what does repentance mean? Who sets that standard? God does of course and he lets people know what these standards are through the pages of the Bible. 

That being said, just because Witnesses get all involved with their "own" problems, doesn't mean they do not have compassion with people of other faiths. It is understandable that they will focus on their brothers in the faith first though.

I know it's the "fashion" now for many to believe that ALL Christians in any denominations are acceptable to God as long as they live  a morally clean life and try to do good to others. And that is fine by me because who am I to judge? BUT, I also believe that God has not abandoned his pattern of having a people, a group, unitedly worshiping together like he did in ancient times, separate from the world around them, but this time from every "tribe and nation" not just the Jews. The Scriptures do indicate this on a number of occasions when referencing spiritual Israel, and those who would attach themselves to them as "foreigners" or "other sheep" to make one flock, not individuals standing by themselves out of all the various denominations of Christendom....

43 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

. I'll share it for free: Read.

(that'll be $5.99, please)

Not paying you. My mum already gave me that advice. And she and you are right, reading quality books and classic literature educates you and broadens your mind like nothing else, not disregarding our Bible based publications which fill in the gaps that secular authors fail to fill. In saying that, college education does help train the mind to think analytically as well, which is useful.

Here's an interesting article on what might become the 2038 problem, oh, and isn't that about the same time the overlapping generation is due to come to an end?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

41 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

I can see you don't know anything about science.

Science yes, technology no

21 hours ago, J.R. Ewing said:

completely, therefore, a need to become in “our day”, just in case the Y2K would have become disastrous for print.

Wasn't the bound volume printed well before the Y2K problem?

10 hours ago, Srecko Sostar said:

Natural that some people supporting other people who are health and able to work with own hands and earn money for daily bread. So this WT organizational arrangement (Bethel, missionary, pioneers, some traveling elders) where some people are in position to live on other people's expense is not normal.

They do this full time, so when would you expect them to go to work to earn money for a living?

9 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

I am afraid you are correct about that ... so I have decided to write the Russian Embassy in Washington DC ... and the Governing Body in Warwick, New York, asking BOTH for English Language Transcripts,

Never know with you, are you actually being serious?

On 9/7/2017 at 4:09 PM, Alessandro Corona said:

I have an obligation to warn everyone when they are being misled

Misled? What specifics do you have in mind?

On 10/14/2017 at 3:28 PM, Noble Berean said:

There are plenty of human motives for keeping this failed theory around, but at the expense of spiritual truth.

You may be right, but  the GB may also be right. The thing is we just don't know for sure. We don't know for sure what is the truth regarding Jesus' words about the generation. And because of that we should humbly admit WE JUST DON'T KNOW instead of, as you say: trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.

On 10/14/2017 at 3:28 PM, Noble Berean said:

The GB holds onto 1914/the generation dearly, because it gives people a sense of urgency and makes our organization prophetically significant. Without it, JWs may become disillusioned or not cling to the organization.

That is merely your speculation. However, it does beg the question, is this all that keeps us worshiping Jehovah and living our life in accordance with his standards? It shouldn't be of course, so it would be nice to see the GB finally admit one day that they just don't know, and wait on Jehovah just like admonish everyone else to do.

7 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

ince this is not true, and is a pretty blatant untruth, it casts doubt upon everything else she reports. Had she said that many Witnesses are disinclined to run to authorities, that would be one thing. But she says they are prohibited, where right on jw.org are plain statements that they are not. So she hasn't researched. She's been fed a line by someone and she simply parrots it.

It's very annoying when reporters do that, and unfortunately there are more that do than don't.

4 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Well THH, you have the natural physical advantage .... no one else in the world knows how to get a wireless Bluetooth WIFI garden hose sprinkler nozzle to work.

 

Now you've kept that a secret! @TrueTomHarley

16 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

It is the first series of Watchtower pictures I have ever seen in which a person starts well-dressed, finishes less so, and the result is used to illustrate an improvement.

Actually he has a pretty fit body, as I remarked to my husband, much to his amusement

2 hours ago, JW Insider said:

Wikipedia article:

Thank you! Duh, why didn't I just think of doing that! I know, I must have thought you needed some work to do

1 hour ago, Witness said:

the GB is telling you that the organization’s need for money comes directly from scripture. 

The "need for money" makes common sense. It made common sense to Paul, and it makes common sense to people who have...well ummm....common sense, and want to eat and pay the bills. I have no idea how you think things are paid for. Long gone are the days where I gave you flour in exchange for a chicken....