TrueTomHarley

@Pudgysteadily improves in my eyes. I am starting to think of him as ‘the dog that does indeed vomit but has the good sense not to return to it.’

3 hours ago, Pudgy said:

Again and again and again I have asked all here to show me something better, and they have, with a million words, failed to do so.

Exactly.

It is a fool’s game to base judgments on the flaws of those taking the lead anywhere, but it is also the oldest trick in the book. Honing in on the imperfections of the doers will allow you to discredit anything. The only ones not making mistakes are the ones not doing anything (as though that itself is not a mistake).

We’re in weak position to say what ‘should be done’ in directing the Lord’s work. To those who think a True Anointed is the answer, consider how Jesus surely was a true anointed, yet he said something that, if any of the Governing Body had said it, they would be blistering condemned as irresponsible and wrong.

Why did Jesus say as he did about eating his flesh and drinking his blood? (John 6) No clue here. Enemies of the truth would later seize upon it to spread the ill rumor that Christians practiced cannibalism. Early Christians were persecuted and killed, their enemies spurred on by this abominable report that could be traced to Jesus himself. Who would not, if they didn’t know it was Jesus, not quickly condemn whoever said the inflammatory words.

Like you, not all is as I personally would like it. Would things be better if things were more to my liking? No clue. They might easily be worse.  The one thing we know for sure—two dozen or more scriptures say it directly—is that true Christians will be hated by the world. That is a tough current to navigate against.

I have taken the Rolling Stones song as though my own, ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want.’ I’ve also observed that the point of contention is always going to be the divine/human interface, and have even speculated that this is even true with Judas himself: He and God were tight. No problems there. But this imposter claiming to be the messiah was not at all what Judas had expected. Jesus didn’t fit the bill at all in Judas’s eyes.

7 hours ago, Pudgy said:

But then again, George S. Patton was just as big

I didn’t like when he shot the jackass, though I suppose you can’t sacrifice the entire WWII effort on its account. I did like when he reappraised his toast decision, based upon ‘one SOB to another.’

49 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

What must actually be happening

Where is that recollection of the old bro tilting back in his chair whenever the younger ones take to squabbling and observing, “It’s amazing what Jehovah accomplishes considering what he has to work with.”? I like the observation of Jesus that it’s the one’s in need of a physician that actually seek one out.

56 minutes ago, Witness said:

Why do You make men like fish of the sea

Because Jesus portrays them that way. (Luke 5)

Come come, tell the truth and shame the Devil.

The WT explanation of the wild beast is instantly recognizable. You don’t have to agree with that interpretation to see how the International agency for peace and security is “an image” of the various governments and how it derives its power from them, and that through it ALL the nations  (ten horns) briefly combine to rule.

Your interpretation? It is that of the leadership of a religion that represents 1/1000th of the world population that even now, most are only vaguely familiar with and many have never heard of it at all. Seriously? Whereas the WT interpretation is recognizable worldwide, very few people have any idea of what “anointed” Christians are. They don’t even know what it is, and yet your grudge against them comprises the cornerstone of your belief system.

It’s just you playing Marvel Avenger evil superanointed heroes battling Marvel Avenger good superanointed heroes for who gets preaching dominion over the little people of the world.

It’s just pure loony—you playing out your grudge at tireless and tiresome length—making as though it was the very central theme of the Bible’s climax.

53 minutes ago, Arauna said:

No prophecy you utter does not have the GB in it! 

Exactly. The woman’s deranged.

The way to look at wild beast prophesies is as you have often said—the agency that comes into it’s own as humanistic ideologues put it to powerful use. 

“Now, the fly in the ointment of saying that international organization for bringing peace and security to the world, presuming to do what only God’s kingdom can do and thus betraying its ‘blasphemous’ nature—the fly in the ointment of saying that international organization is the mighty eighth king that draws its power from the seven is that it sure doesn’t act mighty. The sky-blue helmeted troops that nobody pays any attention to trying to enforce peace, whereas everybody knows you don’t put troops in sky-blue helmets. I mean, they’re sort of like Boy Scouts—they mean well but are not to be taken seriously. 

Maybe what must be done is reappraise the beast giving breath (Revelation 13:15) to the image of the beast, and figure just when does it do that? At its creation, yes, first as its 1919 forerunner League of Nations, then, after it goes into the abyss and re-emerges, as the United Nations, yes, then it “tells those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the wild beast that had the sword-stroke and yet revived.” (Vs 14) 

But there’s not a lot more breath breathed into it. You don’t breathe life into it while the harlot is riding high, hailing it as the “political expression of God’s kingdom on earth” at exactly the same time as Jehovah’s Witnesses are galvanized to “advertise, advertise, advertise the [real] king and his kingdom. You breathe life into it once is has grown weary of the harlot and is showing signs of bucking it—once the dominant culture has turned atheistic.

You don’t breathe life into it until the times immediately ahead? That humanistic framework is put in place as of the image’s founding, and then not much is done with it—until what is just ahead of us? Is it with the UN Agenda 2030 that life is breathed into it, and with that human scheme “the wild beast should both speak and cause to be killed all those who refuse to worship the image of the wild beast [as] It puts under compulsion all people—the small and the great, the rich and the poor, the free and the slaves—that these should be marked on their right hand or on their forehead, and that nobody can buy or sell except a person having the mark, the name of the wild beast or the number of its name.”  (Vs 15-18)

The humanistic way of saving the earth—tamp down that population growth. What can be better than pushing sexual conduct that won’t result in babies? Cool down that planet. How better to do it than squeezing out fossil fuels so that sun and wind will pick up the slack and if it doesn’t—well then, adjust. Redistribute that money. How better to do it that destroying the economy and re-emerging it in a great reset? Tamp down those freedoms people fixate on—they can’t handle them. Remake religion so that it’s ‘my way or the highway’—if it comes on board for backing human schemes, it can stay for now.

None of this can be done openly, for people love their own comfort and they love their own nations. They won’t stand by to see them eviscerated. It must be done clandestinely and it must be done by trillionaires—nobody else would have the wherewithal to pull it off. Oh, yeah—plenty of conspiracies can be spun from this. The problem with conspiracy theories is that, once a few of them turn out to be true, you tend to believe anything that comes down the pipe.

Some of the current conspiracy theories involve COVID 19, its origin, its trajectory, and regimens to deal with it. I’ve read the Breggin and the Mercola books and they do make for good reads—both of them heavily endnoted. The trouble is their solution to thwarting a conspiracy always lies in reverting to the status quo—as if all was hunky dory before COVID-19 revealed itself. Breggin keeps referring to those who benefit—and there are those who benefit enormously—as “global predators”fixated on their own “power, wealth, and self-aggrandizement.” If he says it once, he says it a dozen times. Why does he do that? They are humans fixing the planet—the humanistic way. 

On the other hand, the nations of this earth always paint themselves with laudable goals. They never paint themselves as beasts. Yet that is how the Bible paints them, for that is how they behave—ripping, tearing, and devouring each other and whoever is caught in the crossfire. Sometimes they even turn on their own citizens in the guise of helping them. So maybe Breggin is on to something after all.”

(from https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2021/12/doesnt-that-new-wild-beast-look-an-awful-lot-like-the-bible-wild-beasts.html )

12 minutes ago, Pudgy said:

I gave that comment a "sad" emoticon AND a "laugh" emoticon, because I would not wish that on anybody, AND it's funny, because it's a LOOOOooooong distance call .... except from Warwick, where it is a local call.

If you knew more about zoology you would realize that therein lies the answer to your previous question. The stars of the Pleiades are quite close together, making it easy for a kangaroo to hop from one to another.  

6 hours ago, Pudgy said:

It has been suggested, and with much weight, that one of the stars of that group is the dwelling place of Jehovah and the place of the highest heavens;

Oh great! You’ve doxxed them. Now they’ll be deluged with scammers and telemarketers! Good work, Bowser.

2 hours ago, Peter Carroll said:

there is a reason the elder is mentally out as is mentioned in the opening rant ,out for the count ,

I have known students to speak more of their teacher than the principal. I have known soldiers to speak more of their sergeants than their general. It is not the conspiracy she thinks it is. And since Jehovah’s earthly organization probably was the subject of that particular talk, it’s hardly a shocker, assuming the story is accurate.

4 hours ago, Dmitar said:

Can you explain your poorly worded sarcasm?

No.

4 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao…”

Yikes! It turns out that John Lennon liked Chairman Mao and regretted writing the lyric that suggested he didn’t.

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/beatles-the-lyric-from-revolution-john-lennon-regretted.html/

He and @JW Insiderwould get along just fine! In fact, didn’t JWI say he knows has friends in the music biz?

It is enough! I have figured it out! 

PSomH is John Butler. I am Dr. Max ‘Ace’ Inhibitor. Pudgy is—well, I know he’s been around under a different name. The Librarian is That ‘ol Hen. Dmitor is—the list would stretch off the page.

if you don’t have an extra handle, you are nobody! And face it—JWI is not nobody!

So……….(drum roll please)……..JWI is actually …..

JOHN LENNON!  (the pinko)

3 hours ago, Dmitar said:

Not to be indifferent by your attitude, but commonsense dictated to me to have to ask if you are Jehovah's Witnesses from a forum dedicated to Jehovah’s Witnesses Open Club. 

I think I’ve said before that my permanent year text is a modification of Romans 3:4.   

Every man online is a liar.

There’s no way anyone can know, so why answer? Anybody can say anything. It will have to be one of those “Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food?” kind of things, and if different people come to different conclusions—that’s okay too. It’s not as though anyone can construct their very own online congregation here.

I’ll say one thing about Jehovah’s Witnesses, though. The requirement to be humorless is not put forth in any of the baptism questions. Nor is the requirement to be holier-than-thou. Nor to restrict ones’ diet to Bible-sandwiches.

1 hour ago, JW Insider said:

I have resigned myself to the idea that any defense of China will be taken as excusing Mao, or people thinking that I think China is some kind of utopia,

“But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao…”

26 minutes ago, Thinking said:

I dont ask space merchant as I know he isn’t….but I respect him and his beliefs…as far as I have seen he’s never insulted anyone…

He did get a bit heated with PSomH once. But that character would test anyone’s patience.

1 hour ago, Pudgy said:

More to a point .... how did the Kangaroos get from the Ark, to Australia?

There are several archipelagos in the area and those suckers can hop! Duh.

10 minutes ago, Dmitar said:

Does, answering a question with a question a gimmick Jehovah Witnesses often use, instead of answering a simple question. 

It’s a game older than Batman:

“On top of Gotham, way way up there on that crazy high tower, Batman confronts his nemesis. “Now I’m going to kill you!” he snarls. “You’re going to kill me? You made me!” the Joker screams. But Batman is not to be outdone. That young punk who became the Joker murdered his parents long ago—gunned them down in cold blood before the impressionable lad’s eyes, plunging him forevermore into a twisted life of crusading revenge. “I made you? You made me!” he growls. Jack Nicholson does an aside: “I say he made me. He says I made him. How childish!” he mimics, before taking a punch that flattens his face.”

From ‘TrueTom vs the Apostates’—now in print and cleaned up to remedy format issues.

4 hours ago, Arauna said:

Unfortunately, witness conflates all these - she is sloppy and not meticulous

I thinks she views the world as though one of those Marvell Avenger movies, with good superanointedheros battling evil superanointedheros for control of who gets to preach the good news to the minions of the earth.

4 hours ago, Arauna said:

The trick is to see where revelation takes over from Daniel.

Right here: 

I’m working up a post on this one. Not quite there yet, but an excerpt is: 

It didn’t take long for word to spread about the new UN statue—doesn’t it looks a lot like one of those end-time Bible beasts? "Did they really think that they could put this up without anyone noticing?" said Michael  Snyder, who runs a religious blog.

The statue reminds me of Geoffrey Jackson’s words that, not only does Jehovah do something, but he does it in style. No, not that Jehovah gooses them to erect that statue, or any other. It is a gift from the Mexican government. But it’s like when people do something unknowingly that fits right in to the narrative, almost like one of those hooks in jaws scenarios.

I mean, come on! Here the JW organization has for 80 years identified the UN organization as the wild beast that “was, but is not, and yet is about to ascend out of the abyss,” the wild beast that is the image of the one that “was like a leopard, but its feet were like those of a bear, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth [which] the dragon gave to the beast its power and its throne and great authority,” the wild beast that draws its power from the seven world powers of Bible history it reflects, the wild beast that through it ALL the (ten) kings of the earth get a temporary crack at world rulership—who can forget that Daniel vision of the beast like a lion with wings of an eagle?—the JW organization puts such identification on the table, and then the UN itself erects a statue as though to say, “Yep—that’s us!” A guy can be forgiven the feeling that someone is manipulating the minions. 

Enter Scopes.com, the secular fact-checking site. Scopes.com, who wouldn’t know the significance of a scripture if they choked on one as a chicken bone. Scopes.com, who explains it all away by observing that, yes it is a composite beast, and yes, there are similar beasts in Daniel and Revelation, but this beast says it is good and the beasts of the Bible say they are bad—and besides, the Bible vision is a flying lion, whereas the UN displays a flying jaguar, and don’t those Bible people know the science of zoology? With this bit of secular theology, Snopes figures it has fact-checked the case closed.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2021/12/14/united-nations-end-times-sculpture/

Don’t get your wild beasts from Snopes, who wouldn’t know a wild beast from a gerbil. Get them from Jehovah’s Witnesses who would and who have written it up here.

What is Wild beast: https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/scarlet-beast-of-revelation-17/

It’s not enough that the UN erects that swords into plowshares statue from Isaiah and it’s but inspirational sloganeering for them without a prayer of it ever becoming reality and then Jehovah’s Witnesses come along and implement it without fuss? 

10 hours ago, JW Insider said:

When Twitter says "This account owner limits who can see their Tweets" it's actually a clever way of disingenuously expressing the idea that the account owner is limiting their viewability by not changing their view when Twitter doesn't want those views publicized.

I didn’t know that. The rats. I agree, it makes no sense to muzzle yourself on a mass media platform..

That much research you’ve done deserves a like.

I dunno, though. I did go through the entire video. Blumenthal touched on reports of North Korean defectors. Isn’t that the place where that kid swiped a flag for a souvenir, was sentenced to a million years hard labor, and was shipped back home a bit later as a vegetable? If Zenz (who I had not heard of —thank you for that) has issues that affect his credibility, I’m not sure Max doesn’t as well. 

4 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

I’ll bet he prefers Chinese checkers to the real top ‘o the barrelhead Snuffy Smif checkers.

And I also happen to know that, growing up, his family did Chinese fire drills but neglected to do actual fire drills, thus putting lives in danger!

I’ll bet he prefers Chinese checkers to the real top ‘o the barrelhead Snuffy Smif checkers.

Okay, let’s see what @JW Insiderdoes with this one:

A decision of the London Uyghur Tribunal that involves “eighteen months of deliberations, hundreds of thousands of documents, ten thousand hours of background research and scrutiny of 500 witness statements….” concluded that

“…crimes against Humanity attributable to the PRC were established beyond reasonable doubt … through acts of deportation or forcible transfer; imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty; torture; rape and other sexual violence; enforced sterilization; persecution; enforced disappearance; and other inhumane acts.”

https://bitterwinter.org/uyghur-tribunal-and-the-verdict-is-genocide/

I’m perfectly willing to accept that the kings of north/south and their allies incessantly slander one another and scheme to bend media to their will. However, the above decision involves 500 witnesses, not the 12 or so sources that JWI has spoken of in the past.

It this tribunal verdict means nothing, then Dmitar is right, even if not for the right reason. Don’t bother trying to figure out anything, for there is no way to know. Just read the Bible.

I mean, if these 500 witnesses can be so readily dismissed, maybe the 500 witnesses to Christ’s resurrection are next. (1 Corinthians 15:6)

1 hour ago, Arauna said:

We are in the time of the end - I know you do not believe this -

To be fair, he just called Bro Rando unfaithful and indiscreet for stipulating this system will go on twenty years, whereas it could end tomorrow.

3 hours ago, JW Insider said:

The NYT just ran a repeat of the debunked story of a Chinese tennis star who never claimed she was sexually assaulted, but the story repeated that phrase several times

Oh come sir, I think you’ve picked a poor example. The NYT reads sexual assault everywhere. It is sometimes true and sometimes not.

3 hours ago, JW Insider said:

I understand that CNN just recently ran another interview

Oh come sir, I think you’ve picked another poor example. Anything from CNN is.

Isn’t China on the cusp of assimilating Taiwan, a island nation that doesn’t want to be assimilated?

2 hours ago, JW Insider said:

In my opinion, China is not totalitarian.

Be that as it may, I can’t picture Bezos or Musk being muzzled as Ma was. You mentioned several posts ago how Trump lost a trade war with China. Other than short term, I wonder if it is possible to lose a trade war with a communist country. Clamp down on a too-audacious businessman and capital flees to where his counterparts won’t be clamped down upon. Alibaba, China’s Amazon counterpart, has lost about 2/3 of its stock value since Ma was reigned in.

And I don’t know what to make of reports that a good percentage of skyscrapers in China have never been occupied. Any edge you can provide on that? It seems crazy and unbelievable. But then, in a command economy where supply can be irrespective of demand, maybe it is not.

1 hour ago, JW Insider said:

Underhanded or at least backhanded.

At last, to my mind, you have scored a definitive hit, not a dubious one.

I’ll be carrying on about how I love big brother next.

Someone has overplayed their hand then, is what you are saying?

3 hours ago, xero said:

If the society begins to use pronouns not found in the bible, I quit.

More effective than any wall Trump ever could have dreamt up. And free, too.

1 hour ago, NoisySrecko said:

Does everything have to be quarrelsome to you as a follower of Christ?

You may be right. Stand by for my latest persona: NoisyNoisySrecko.

29 minutes ago, NoisySrecko said:

I am unaware a moniker can be considered unkind. Perhaps you can explain this?

Perhaps we should ask @Srecko Sostar. Does he consider NoisySrecko a jibe? Or is he flattered?

1 hour ago, xero said:

Lived experience" is crap

Friend, do you think such language is appropriate? Especially on a day when one notable land devotes itself to thanks?