Anna

So by your reasoning, it's like if Armageddon came on December 1st 1975. Now imagine we can see into the future like Jehovah can:  A Witness would have knocked on your door Saturday morning December 2nd and planted a seed which would have grown and seen you get baptised a few months later. Well oops.....sorry Derek, obviously too late! By that time you will have been pushing up daisies for several months already.
Does that kind of reasoning make sense to you?

I would hope that we will have learned our lesson, and remember Jesus's words.. "concerning the day and hour nobody knows..."  So setting any kind of date, by anyone, would hopefully be seen as plainly wrong.

There were probably many prior to 1975 that had a similar attitude, but they were looked down on as lacking faith. And they were told that "now was not the time to be  toying with the words of Jesus that "concerning the day and hour nobody knows..." * It was those who sold their houses to quickly pioneer before the end came who were praised.

The brother in the convention video a few years ago certainly was not only toying with the words of Jesus, but he was actually reminding himself of those words! And he didn't change his schedule and follow those who sold houses and quit their jobs. Watch it starting at the 13:07 mark.
https://www.jw.org/en/library/videos/#en/mediaitems/VODBiblePrinciples/pub-jwbcov_201705_4_VIDEO

Hindsight is 20/20 of course, as evidenced in the video. 
* paragraph 35 https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1968602 
 
 

My first ever meme to call my own. I figured if I could make one here, I can make one anywhere!

If I had been at this convention in 1967, and listened to Charles Sinutko's talk (a District Overseer), I would have been convinced the end was coming in 1975. Although he said it was a "possibility" it got drowned out by all the other things he said which made it more of a probability. If we would hear a talk along similar lines today, a prominent brother, perhaps one of the helpers to the GB, mentioning the year 2030 (for example), not once, but several times throughout the talk as a possible year for Armageddon, how would we feel? But it seems that some of us find it hard to be honest with ourselves.
1967 District Convention talk by Charles Sinutko:

Your browser does not support the HTML5 audio tag.
 
On a positive note, Charles Sinutko's life story can be found here: https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/102004607 
Of course there is no mention of 1975, but despite what must have been a disappointment, his faith was obviously not shaken, and he remains a faithful brother.
 

I agree. But where did they get the date from? Those who were serving with a date in mind didn't just pull the date out of thin air did they?

I agree. But where did they get the date from? Those who were serving with a date in mind didn't just pull the date out of thin air did they?

I agree. But where did they get the date from? Those who were serving with a date in mind didn't just pull the date out of thin air did they?

Sounds like all of the above!

Sounds like all of the above!

https://dilbert.com/strip/2020-11-01 😁

and yet the people who directly voted AGAINST  her—I wonder if she sacks all of them.

This is the second time I have said something derogatory about you but have left you unnamed so as to spare you embarrassment (“crying about it for their next five posts”). Each time you say: “Me! It’s me you’re talking about!” Sheesh.
Maybe he will have to go through a little purgatory first.

He is actually the only person on this forum that I have ever seen change significantly. This he did only at the end, and so who can say how enduring it will be? But even at his most outrageous, I did come to respect him in that if I hit him over the head with a baseball bat he would strive to give as good as he got without complaint. There have been some here that if I so much as step on their toes they cry about it for their next 5 posts.

Yes. Something I have been telling Rook for sometime. But I do warn all of you, as I have done so with where I have been. The two factions will be going at it with each other, some areas there has already been a few sparks of violence, and the echoes of the 2017 slaying of Heyer.
You know it is bad when your own enemies are trying to jump into the fray, even after their own has gotten out of jail.
The chaos will not only be effecting US soil because there are other groups in the EU who are also ready.
With this in mind, it should be already known to you to be cautious, and take every step wisely, especially during this pandemic.

I am glad you shared this. I had a very similar experience just this past week with a memorial for an older sister that died. I was so impressed with the experience that I was almost moved to want to share it on here but then I thought nobody would be interested. So I'm glad you brought it up. 
Our memorial had only half the attendance of yours, but we had people I had never met, from various  states as far as NY and California. It was very interesting meeting everyone. The memorial talk was one of the best I had heard. It was presented by a relative, who was not an elder (although he had been an elder at one time). The family chose him because they felt he knew the sister the best. Although there was the regular "witnessing" part of the talk, it only occupied about 10% of the total. The rest was all about the sister's life and how we are all looking forward to seeing her again. Both prayers were again, very personal. Afterwards we were put into "breakout" rooms, to meet and talk with the family, and with each other. It was really nice,  and I too felt the love and genuine friendship and brotherly connection.
The whole thing lasted much longer than normal, nobody seemed to want to leave. We were expecting to be on for an hour, but we stayed on for well over 2.

I just attended a memorial service for my uncle yesterday. At least 800 persons tried to attend through Zoom. My uncle was part of a large extended family. About 400 stayed for the comments afterward, and they lasted for more than 2.5 more hours, making the entire memorial about 3.5 hours long. There were attendees from all over the world, including Dubai and China, but mostly Californian and South Carolina. Based on statistical averages there is probably a fair chance that at least one of the other 16,700 members of this forum was also on that same Zoom call, assuming most of those members are JWs.
The brother who gave the talk continued to "host" the whole time. My aunt and a cousin allowed for anyone to speak who wanted to say something. Dozens of persons had examples to share of his sense of humor, funny incidents that happened in field service, and a lot of nice things to say about his sincerity and kindness when it came to shepherding. He had been a circuit overseer and substitute circuit overseer for a good part of his life.
This second portion of course is mostly a new Zoom thing for us, where the personal experiences are offered, and even children sometimes speak about their grandpa and great-grandpa. But I saw so much love coming through, and no one seemed to want the experience to stop.
It's only the second of such memorial services I have attended like this, but I have heard of another one a month ago.
Just looking for comments, I guess, on whether others have experienced this. I think it's a very good thing, and I was glad that some non-Witness relatives could share this experience.

Sorry, I was just clearing my throat. No. I’m not the owner. It’s sort of an inside joke.
Some of the more paranoid participants here (have you noticed not everyone plays with a full deck?) began asserting that I was the owner (along with JWI) and that from time to time I would delete persons. 
It did no good to deny it. They would just insist upon it all the more. So I reversed course and took ownership instead.
@adminowns the site. Several years ago @The Librarian(that old hen), who had been running a separate JW site, combined forces with him. Just digital, you understand, they may not even know each other. As far as i know, Admin is not a JW and the Librarian is. I think the latter will not disagree if I say that his philosophy, akin to that of the Washington Post, is that: ‘theocracy dies in darkness.’  Hence, the variety of characters here, some the type of people that AM3 was referring to.
 

T. THOMAS — Residents will soon be able to access the Watchtower magazine with a few keystrokes on the Jehovah’s Witnesses website.
That’s because the a special edition of the magazine entitled “What is God’s Kingdom” will be distributed in both print and electronic format as part of a global campaign that kicks off Sunday and throughout the month of November.
“The answer to that question has captivated the attention of people from many different faiths for centuries,” and Jehovah’s Witnesses will distribute the magazine to the general public, business owners, local and national government officials as well as court officials, according to Javier De La Rosa, a local spokesperson for Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The printed editions will be mailed out, he said.
“Due to COVID-19 we’re respecting both members and the households by mailing the printed edition and not going door to door,” De La Rosa said. “We will make efforts to reach out to business and government officials so that it can be mailed to them.”
An electronic copy in over 300 languages will be available on the website at jw.org under the link Library/Magazines.
http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/jehovah-s-witnesses-to-distribute-special-issue-of-watchtower-magazine-online-via-mail/article_e19e9ee2-a68e-5fd1-addf-94134de47770.html

Ahem

Do you think it's possible for someone who is not yet aware of the importance of God's name, to feel they have relationship with him?
I know my grandpa loved God, and talked to him as if he was a friend. But he never had the opportunity to realise the importance of using God's name.
What about those through the centuries, who may have been anointed, but may have only vaguely been aware of God's name, and in some cases not even known it.

OH!
Some of what looks like water is actually "OH" not H2O, and this hydroxyl can be a real "OH-OH."
The link you gave mentioned:
But it was unclear whether that hydrogen was in the form of hydroxyl – the chemical that makes up drain cleaners – or in the form of H2O, or water.
The NIH.gov site cites a biochemical journal about hydrogen peroxide (HOOH), which adds this:
. . . to generate hydroxyl radicals (OH.) from H2O2 has been investigated . . .
And all this, of course, was presented, just as a setup for the old H2O2 joke:

Angel on the right shoulder: “Don’t say it, TrueTom. Just don’t. Everyone has heard it a million times. Haven’t you embarrassed yourself enough?”
Devil on the left shoulder: “Go for it, TrueTom. They’ll fall over themselves laughing and they’ll think you SO witty. Think of the great NAME you’ll be making for yourself!”
Yes, but so far no one has answered the question: “What is H2O 4?”

That's what was supposed to attract the cheaters...
I'll fix it...😊
 

Not bored. But I might be giving myself a diversion just to avoid responding. I tend to muddy the waters sometimes. Of course, I know there are probably a lot of people who want to discuss 1914 and China, maybe both under the same topic heading. 😁
I'll wait for the upcoming Neutrality talk before I say anything more on politics, though.

My edit buttons include B I U S, and the S is the strikethrough. But you don't need it. I think it's better to just erase the used tiles. Seems easier. For example, let's say I responded to QUETZAL with BANJAXED (I never knew that word before today; cheating is encouraged!). I merely erased the used letters. The problem is that it is harder to see if a mistake was made in the erasing.
0 Points - Blank tile.
1 Point - A, E, I, L, N, O, R, S, T and U.
2 Points - D and G.
3 Points - B, C, M and P.
4 Points - F, H, V, W and Y.
5 Points - K.
8 Points - J and X.
10 Points - Q and Z.
The color-codes here are
Triple Word Triple Letter Double Word Double Letter
                                Player 1   Player 2                                   QUETZAL 120 BANJAXED 91                                                         B                                       A                                       N                                       J                             Q U E T Z A L                                     X                                       E                                       D                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     A A A A A A A                         B C C   D D D                             E E E E E E E E E E                 F F G G G H H                           I I I I I I I I I   K                     L L L M M   N N N N N                 P P   R R R R R R                       S S S S   T T T T T                       U U U V V W W   Y Y                   [ ] [ ] O O O O O O O O                                                           Sorry, I added the O's on the last line (after the two [blanks] instead of after the N's.