Anna

They have explained it, just like I quoted.

Our congregation is beardless, bar one sister, she's been wearing one for years. She doesn't care about the peer pressure. She's one bold character with a backbone of steel. Besides, the elders have never counseled her about it as far as I know...

Why do you think there is to be a new system? Because God is enthralled over the noble independence-seekers of this one?
Rather than become focused over a trifle, it is good to consider Nathanial Hawthorne's take: "People who think the most bold of thoughts have no difficulty conforming to outward norms of society."
Nobody thinks thoughts more bold than Jehovah's Witnesses.
Actually, I think the reverse is also true. People who kick up a huge fuss over trifles tend to be the most conformist of all when it comes to bold things. Wear a beard if you want to. No one ever said you couldn't. You just would have to endure some peer pressure, and thus, might decide it was not worth it. That is the aspect that appears to be changing.
 

I visited a church in Sweden this weekend - massive church with tall glass windows..... and in the glass engraved is YOD HE WAW HE....  I took a picture but too unclear to paste here.   This church has many visitors because it is 700 years old..... and most do not see or understand this..... but I immediately understood the letters and what it stands for! I am so happy to know Jehovah!

This is picture of ancient letters in Hebrew and the bottom is the letters in Aramaic script - now used and recognized by everyone.    You will see far right letter (the short one) - this is Yod.......  they have it other way round on your diagram like "mirror image" because they think western people read from left... to right - this is why it is like it is.
As I said before - these four letters have the same meaning no matter what vowels you add.  If you add vowels it changes to a verb or noun or adjective..... but the meaning is basically the same.  So it does not really matter what vowels you put in .... it is the use of the name and acknowledging the name that is important. Jehovah chose this name because it has significant meaning in the outworking of his purpose  as the creator.  It is the causative form for "He causes to become" ...  He can fulfill his promises... he can prove to be by his actions....
Hope this de-confuses you...and thanks for sending the other stuff.....

This article was very good, but the graphic is wrong.
At the top the statement is correct that Hebrew is read from right to left, but then the Hebrew letters in the graphic are written from left to right. This means that:
the Hebrew letter just above the 1st 'He" (H) is actually not "He" but "Yod" the Hebrew letter just above the "Vav" (V) is actually not "Vav" but "He" the Hebrew letter just above the 2nd "He" (H) is actually not "He" but "Vav" the Hebrew letter just above the "Vod" [sic] is actually not "Yod" but "He"  Also, of course, there is no letter "Vod" where it should say "Yod"
Also, it is misleading to say at the top
Jehovah (English) Yehovah (Hebrew) We don't have a good idea how "Jehovah" was pronounced in Hebrew, but we are almost positive that it would not have been pronounced "Yehovah."

THE CLOCK FACE ILLUSTRATION' - Nice! Share and Care! 
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Enjoy, it never can be said enough times....
A Bethel speaker was talking about how all of the brothers and sisters are important in the congregation, "but we never want to overlook the part the older ones play in keeping the congregation strong even when they aren't able do as much as they once could". 
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He pointed out that on a clock face there may be three hands - the second hand, the minute hand, and the hour hand. He likened the second hand to the younger ones in the congregation. They have lots of energy and race around doing things, just as the second hand goes all the way 'round the clock face in just 60 seconds. 
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The minute hand is like those in the congregation who are a little older, even middle-aged. They don't have the energy of the young ones but still accomplish much, just as the minute hand moves slower than the second hand but still gets around the clock face once every hour. 
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The older ones in the congregation are like the hour hand, which moves a lot slower than the second hand or the minute hand but still gets around the clock face every twelve hours. They aren't able to do as much - quantity-wise - as they once did when they were young. But they keep moving along at their own pace. 
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Each hand on the clock has its function. 
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But then he asked, "If you had no second hand on the clock, could you tell what time it is?" Yes. 
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If you removed the minute hand too and just had the hour hand, could you still tell the time? 
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Yes, not as precisely, but you could make a pretty close guess. 
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But if the clock had only the second hand could you tell the time? No. 
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How about if you had only the minute hand? No. 
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Even if the clock had both the second hand AND the minute hand, could you tell what time it is? No, you need the hour hand. 
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So, even though the older ones may not be able to keep up the pace of the younger ones, they are very important to the spiritual health and stability of the congregation. 
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They are encouraged to keep doing what they can, at the pace they are able to maintain, for the benefit and blessing of all in the congregation. 
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For the congregation to be at its strongest spiritually, all our brothers and sisters, young and old, are needed.
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"The power beyond what is normal may be God's and not that out of ourselves"- 1 Cor 4:7.

Weren't those instructions directly from Jesus?
With my question "HOW will the discreet slave of Jehovah's Witnesses, lead us to survive the great tribulation" my intention was not at all to cast doubts on the FDS, but plainly and simply to see if anyone had any ideas as to the PRACTICAL meaning of the statement "that only if we remain united with the authentic and discreet slave of Jehovah's Witnesses, will lead us to survive the great tribulation. . Do we have reasons to believe that the FDS will receive some miraculous instructions from Jesus himself? Which they then will pass onto everyone else? To me, this does not seem likely and I do not think the FDS thinks this way either. After all, this is not how it functions now. So would that change in the GT? Is there some scriptural evidence for believing that the FDS will receive some special instruction by way of a revelation of some sort? (Bearing in mind also that we believe the remnant will receive their heavenly reward during that time and will be gone from the earth). From the last convention it was implied that we will be grouped together, hiding some place, in this case a basement. A kind of US and THEM scenario. Of course the brothers admitted this is just speculation, and that it may be quite different in reality. Is Jehovah not able to save individuals in whatever situation they may find themselves in, maybe even separated from their friends? It seems that the criterion for surviving is described well by Peter:
"Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, consider what sort of people you ought to be in holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion, as you await and keep close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah...... Therefore, beloved ones, since you are awaiting these things, do your utmost to be found finally by him spotless and unblemished and in peace." (2 Peter 3: 11-14) And other scriptures such as Matt 24:13, Romans 10:9,10, John 3:36, John 3:16, Heb. 7:25, Acts 16:30, 31 and I am sure you can think of many more. Conversely there are many scriptures showing who will NOT be saved.
The other point about being devoted to men, is covered very well in JWInsider's comment, I just want to add one little thing I thought about. If we were devoted to "men" what would happen if a member would become apostate as has happened in the past? There is no guarantee in men. The only unfailing guarantee we have is in Jesus and Jehovah as revealed in the Bible. As for organizational procedures and suggestions, these we find on the website, but mainly in the shape of letters to the congregations. That is not to say the FDS does not provide us abundantly with spiritual food via the WT and other publications and we are grateful for that. But it is still our personal duty to make sure all is in harmony with the scriptures. The FDS expects us to do that also.

That's about 7,600 years ago, not 12,000 as stated in the title. 12,000 referred to an ice age that was supposed to have begun melting off much more quickly 4 to 5 thousand years later.
When people like Ballard go looking for something specific, they either find it or claim success even if they didn't find it.
Not saying his story isn't worth taking notice, but there should be more people looking at the same pieces of evidence to see if they come up with the same story or a different story.

Careful who you blame for this. Brother Geoffrey Jackson (of the Governing Body) just announced last year in court that Jehovah's Witnesses are now casting off this particular cord, too. In print, at least (and in court statements) I think we will only be considering this "rod" to be a figurative "rod" referring to "instruction."

Yeah .... if he is drooling, stabbing the seat cushions with a knife, and brings a lunch to the 2017 Convention with fingers sticking out, they may need to reconsider the microphone thingy.
There are PLENTY of examples of men in the Bible who slaughtered each other in wars, conflicts and assassinations ... AND THEY ALL HAD BEARDS!
 

The first Kingdom Hall I went to I had a tile floor sloped downward like a movie theater to the stage and podium.
I had a large bag of marbles I hid from my mother.
We arrived late and sat on the back row.
I dropped the bag and the marbles spilled out and rolled to the front, each making noise and hitting chair legs and shoes on the way down.
That's when I learned to pray.
.
 

LOL. Every now and then Allen goes on a gift-giving campaign of the same sort with me. I already got three out of three from him, one for each of my posts in this new topic alone. I don't feel badly, however, because I notice that he typically gives them out when he realizes he can't respond truthfully to a point without agreeing, and it's anathema for him to agree. So he has only these two choices. I actually prefer receiving the negative point, rather than be embarrassed for him when he goes off into another dishonest or unscriptural diatribe.
There, with that statement, I just gave him a chance to claim a completely different rationale for his reactions. Maybe he will thank me for this one!

I don't think Allen liked me saying "I like it when you get carried away" he gave me a negative point, my first one on here I think!! Boo hoo, I think I'm upset an I'm going to cry, and there isn't even a crying emoticon on here! And I think the Librarian is dead, she's not been chastising anyone for changing the subject for a while now, I mean look at the previous 1914 thread, although a reconciliation has been reached, its all gone silly on there. Everything is falling apart. I think I'm going to go out in the garden, sulk, and eat worms....good night everyone

Thank you for putting my thoughts into words

I don't doubt this at all, what I am doubting is that anyone who read the CNN story would start thinking of studying the Bible with Jehovah's Witnesses, or even studying the Bible, period. People are happy to be reading those verses, believe God is their refuge, and that's that. But will it necessarily motivate anyone to do anything? Also, it shows that you can pick and choose a passage to suit yourself, because the other passages are not nearly as encouraging, if anything, they could be viewed negatively under those circumstances. This is not the same as finding a Bible study aid in the rubbish, because the Bible study aid actually motivates people to want to study the Bible.

Come on friends, get real . What JWInsider posted

That's ok I like it when you get carried away
Yes, the example you present would be perfect, because as you say, dogmatic explanations are SO susceptible to revisions, so much so that it is not really a prudent thing to do.....and references would be great for those who wish to "make sure of all things". I think @ComfortMyPeoplementioned once that it would be nice to have more of a commentary style for some of our publications and use more expressions such as "perhaps", "most likely",  "it would be reasonable to conclude", ....etc. But that has not been the style of the society (although improving a little) and my theory is, and I have mentioned this before, that the GB feel like they must speak with authority, otherwise they may lose respect and trust, i.e. the parent/child model. However, this has backfired in more ways than one quite a number of times...
P.S. I think one particular book had quite a few overt dogmatic statements on things that no one could possibly know for sure, it was one of the prophetic books we studied at our book study, either Isaiah, Ezekiel or Daniel. I remember one mature, studious sister got a little upset and exclaimed; how can they know that! I wish I could remember what it was...

It always cracks me up that on a mostly anonymous forum, some feel the need to correct and chastise complete strangers, who could be Jack the ripper posing as mother Theresa for all they know. I wonder if they count their time?

I remember reading that on your blog some years ago! It was enjoyable. What is telling though is your comment above that "it's a little dated"
Nah, that wasn't it. But seriously, it was quite a presumptuous statement. The brother in writing must have felt he had had an epiphany.

I don't think Allen liked me saying "I like it when you get carried away" he gave me a negative point, my first one on here I think!! Boo hoo, I think I'm upset an I'm going to cry, and there isn't even a crying emoticon on here! And I think the Librarian is dead, she's not been chastising anyone for changing the subject for a while now, I mean look at the previous 1914 thread, although a reconciliation has been reached, its all gone silly on there. Everything is falling apart. I think I'm going to go out in the garden, sulk, and eat worms....good night everyone

That's ok I like it when you get carried away
Yes, the example you present would be perfect, because as you say, dogmatic explanations are SO susceptible to revisions, so much so that it is not really a prudent thing to do.....and references would be great for those who wish to "make sure of all things". I think @ComfortMyPeoplementioned once that it would be nice to have more of a commentary style for some of our publications and use more expressions such as "perhaps", "most likely",  "it would be reasonable to conclude", ....etc. But that has not been the style of the society (although improving a little) and my theory is, and I have mentioned this before, that the GB feel like they must speak with authority, otherwise they may lose respect and trust, i.e. the parent/child model. However, this has backfired in more ways than one quite a number of times...
P.S. I think one particular book had quite a few overt dogmatic statements on things that no one could possibly know for sure, it was one of the prophetic books we studied at our book study, either Isaiah, Ezekiel or Daniel. I remember one mature, studious sister got a little upset and exclaimed; how can they know that! I wish I could remember what it was...

That's ok I like it when you get carried away
Yes, the example you present would be perfect, because as you say, dogmatic explanations are SO susceptible to revisions, so much so that it is not really a prudent thing to do.....and references would be great for those who wish to "make sure of all things". I think @ComfortMyPeoplementioned once that it would be nice to have more of a commentary style for some of our publications and use more expressions such as "perhaps", "most likely",  "it would be reasonable to conclude", ....etc. But that has not been the style of the society (although improving a little) and my theory is, and I have mentioned this before, that the GB feel like they must speak with authority, otherwise they may lose respect and trust, i.e. the parent/child model. However, this has backfired in more ways than one quite a number of times...
P.S. I think one particular book had quite a few overt dogmatic statements on things that no one could possibly know for sure, it was one of the prophetic books we studied at our book study, either Isaiah, Ezekiel or Daniel. I remember one mature, studious sister got a little upset and exclaimed; how can they know that! I wish I could remember what it was...

It's a little dated. But it does fit the theme of an updated Revelation book:
http://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2007/07/will-the-real-a.html

@Anna I'd love to see a new Revelation book, too. I don't think it would remove types and anti-types completely, because I agree with @TrueTomHarley that Revelation "fairly begs" for these applications. Besides, the new "rule" on avoiding speculative types/anti-types doesn't cover prophecy; it only covers narratives and parables. (We also can make an anti-type prophecy from Nebuchadnezzar's tree dream in Daniel 4, because it shows up in Daniel, a book of prophecy, although we do not make a prophecy out of the "Lion's Den" narrative, or the "Three Hebrew 'Children'" narrative. Also we make an exception for parables that immediately follow a prophecy such as the end of Matthew 24, which is evidently why we treat the "faithful and discreet slave" parable as a prophecy about the Governing Body starting in 1919, although here, too, we make no prophecy out of the specific features of "two women grinding at a mill, one left, the other taken away, etc.")
I would love to see a book on Revelation that is done in the style of a standard commentary, so that it contains several possibilities for the meaning of each verse, instead of dogmatic explanations that effectively make the entire book obsolete as soon as something changes. I'd like to see a style that is heavier on expressions like the following (where the ** refers to scripture citations, footnotes, or other references):
"This verse in Revelation 11:1 is clearly alluding to similar verses in Ezekiel and Zechariah where the context of those verses discusses the preparations for rebuilding an earlier temple at Jerusalem which was destroyed by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar.** The rebuilt temple lasted from the time of Zechariah** until Herod the Great expanded it in the decades before Jesus was born.** That temple was destroyed in a horrific holocaust by the Romans in 70 C.E. Through the centuries, many have believed that this verse is an indication that a new physical temple will literally be built in Jerusalem before the final visitation of judgment on the world. It was while Herod's expanded temple was still standing that Jesus said: "Tear down this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." ** In fact, Paul speaks of Christians themselves as each one a temple** and all being built up together into a holy temple**. Therefore, it appears that we could look for a spiritual, rather than a physical application of the temple spoken of here. Note, too, that there is a specific time element associated with the temple preparation.**ref 1,260 etc** This could be an indication that the verse applies to some specific event in the time period leading up to the final judgment of the world. Perhaps it is a time period that we can identify within the recent history of God's people.** Perhaps it is something we will come to understand in the very near future! Some commentators have even applied it to events that would have been clear to the hearers of this vision who had lived in the first century. Recall that many in that generation had just experienced the traumatic event in 70 CE, seeing Jerusalem and its temple destroyed in a war that took well over a million lives.** In fact, a specific length of 1,260 days might have reminded them of the time period between [etc. etc. etc.]
The next verses, however, may shed more light on the meaning of this and give evidence that the fulfillment is not limited to a first century application . . . etc etc etc...
Sorry, got carried away.