TrueTomHarley

You are just trying to kill off 4Jah with cognitive dissonance and I do not approve. You know very well that he will wildly cheer one statement, turn furious at the next, and laugh hysterically at the one thereafter—and that the strain will cause him to drop dead. Such attempted manipulation ought not be allowed. I am forwarding a note to the elders who run this forum to ban you from it. It really is the case that in the last days people will be saying what is bad is good and vice versa. It is not only you. I just called out Arauna for trying to kill him too, by playing with matters of capitalization. Really, everyone is going awry here—all the true prophets have been killed off and it is only I that remains—yes, only I.

You know—he is right! Gasp! You are tipping your hand with capitalization of the letters!!! Well, you won’t get away with it on my watch! From now on, you are merely uncapped ‘arauna’ in my book. (Relax—uncapped beats unhinged) In fact, in view of your disrespect, I may drop the first letter altogether, Ruana. That ought to teach you a lesson!

No. Sorry. I just highlighted some words of yours to get your attention. It does sort of look that I am attributing them to Glock, doesn’t it? Do you mean they feared that if they left, Jehovah’s Witnesses would kill them? When Fauci says people may die if they do not wear a mask, do people take it that he means to kill them himself? When the fire department says you may die if you don’t change the batteries of your smoke detector, does it mean they are going to do the deed themselves. Of course not on all three. The game is too stupid to play. Such opposers are just upset that faith has power—they wish it were gutted. Of course, the Witnesses say that departing from Jehovah’s organized way exposes one to eventual death. A very good tell that such might be true is that whenever ones do it, in no time at all they come to think the Name itself is a hill of beans, and that it hardly matters if it is used or not.

How can one be so obtuse as Srecko? He fusses on and on about the GB’s counsel, as seen through the appreciative eyes of Glock. “It’s just good sound human advice,” he says. “What’s God got to do with it?” He misses the point most powerful so as to focus on the petty. Tell Jehovah’s people to obey the secular authorities, and they will. Tell ones of the greater world to obey, and they won’t—as a group, I mean—obviously there will be a Bell curve, but it is where that Bell curve falls that determines success of failure. Here is a post from CNBC entitled, “Salesforce’s Marc Benioff: Face masks can end the U.S. coronavirus crisis within weeks.” Within, Benioff says: “If everyone in the United States wore a mask for 3 weeks — just 3 weeks — we would not have anymore coronavirus because there would be no more spread, but people do not want to wear masks.” One would think that Srecko would be cheerleading for Jehovah’s Witnesses. One would think he would be urging all to come under their umbrella—for there is to be found the end of Covid-19 within three weeks. “People do not want to wear masks,” Benioff says. Witnesses do not want to wear them, either, but they are ready to It is as though it is a dirty word. Consistently Srecko uses it this way—he and all his cohorts raging on about the ‘control’ and ‘manipulation’ of the GB. In this case, such obedience, which JWs by and large will render, and huge portions of his people will not, will serve to rescue the earth from the pandemic. In fact, the very position of the Governing Body makes clear that they do not attempt to control people. They set an example—and people will take note of their example because they are highly regarded—but they make clear that each family head is responsible for the course his own family. As states open up—they are all over the board on this, just as they are all over the board on CSA laws—“obedience to secular authority” translates differently to different places—some localities require masks and some don’t—and there are further variances as to the circumstances that masks ought be worn. Suffice it to say that, if governments universally mandated masks in public, Witnesses would comply. Vast swaths of the overall world would not. It may be human advice, but Witnesses will comply because of the Bible requirement to be obedient to secular authority. At least some of the CultExpert’s followers will use their #FreedomOfMind to tell the government where it can go with it’s regulations. That is why the GB must be credited—for presiding over a culture in which people will obey laws of Caesar, providing only that Caesar does not over reach into matters of God. And on mandating masks for a limited period, he does not.

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

I do not look forward to the experience. But so often in life we cannot change our “assignment.” The trick is to be like Paul, who knew how to live regardless of his circumstances. All reports are that the Russian brothers are facing their persecutors with enormous resolve, courage, and integrity. I pray that should it become my turn, I will just as readily follow their example.

Sometimes all you have to do with a statement like that from the Glock is to show a little flexibility. Like the boy that was spanked by his Dad and protested that he hadn’t committed the offense he was being punished for. “Well—in that case, that’s for something that you did do for which you should have been punished but weren’t,” dear old dad said. So it is with Glock’s words. Covid doesn’t fit as well as we might like? Try the arrests in Russia—110 homes burst into, with persons—many elderly, many women, children among them, by cops in with assault weapons—in a single night. Maybe his words will fit better there:

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?

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

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.

Tell me about it. I had a real crush on her. ”And Zenob’s the name of his latest flame”

The GB makes mistakes. “Stay Loyal With Queen Zenobia and Obi Wan Kenobia!” some traveling overseers were parroting—they got it right from HQ!. She came crashing to the ground yesterday with no one to mourn her—with no one to say “Too bad, too bad, you great hen!” What a flip-flop to treat the old girl with such disrespect! How can God not be displeased?

It was warning about you. But you can yet get your act together—see prior post.

You mean the wife whom you said deserves sainthood for putting up with you? Give her a flower from me, also, will you? Maybe @Araunadid not—she’s sort of lazy—but I did. Eight and a half million of them, I asked every one of them, it took all afternoon—just so I would have an answer for you. You blasted idiot! Don’t sin! Put yourself somewhere that you will be aided not to sin. Put yourself somewhere that you can get your head around just how the ransom of God’s son works. Put yourself somewhere that you can appreciate how Paul can say ‘what I wish to do, I do not do,‘ and yet still say that he has run the race to the finish. Spurning God’s free gift, are you? Stop doing that! Life was horrible? I won’t challenge that. Yet, what does the Word say of God’s promise? “The former things will not be called to mind.” Where’s the faith?! Even the most horrible nightmare people do not retain in their conscous mind. God cannot do even more than that? If nothing else, your long-suffering wife deserves to see you healed up. You are a piece of work, 4Jah. You know you are. That does not mean that I am not, as with most others here, and everywhere else. It’s the human reality—a condition of the fallen flesh. Drop this ridiculous obsession against the GB and make peace with the earthly organization. Whatever it takes. It sure doesn’t appear that Witness’s FB page is helping you any, nor her upcoming project to quote the entire book of Jeremiah for the purpose of demonstrating that her rivals suck.

Is he ever! He is the gift that keeps on giving.

Well, that I can readily agree with!

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.

I thought the point I was making is that he could have chosen a different word and thus prevent this thread from coming into existence. Isn’t that your point as well?

Did you forget that I have television? I can see how obedient they are. JWs have put themselves among company in which peer-pressure is going to nudge them in the safer direction. Non-Witnesses, many of them, (recall that I said “with some exaggeration”) have put themselves in a place where their peer-pressure will not. Do not think that peer-pressure is nothing. It is the reason that we look at our photos of yesteryear and marvel at how we ever could have thought those dorky styles back then did anything for us.

That’s not “proof” either and the same unholy trinity here would bellyache about those words no less than they do what Glock really did say. I almost think that “prove’ should be stricken from the JW vocabulary. It is one more word that has been redefined to give it a narrow focus that it never exclusively had before. “Scientific proof” is all that people have in mind today, and if “scientific proof” was the order of the day, the stuff we have would not be called “faith.” Should Glock be expected to use the word “prove” in the scientific sense? Not hardly. He is a Bible teacher. How does the Bible use the term? The New World Translation uses the word ‘prove’ 46 times. Not one of them is in the scientific sense. Only 2 or 3 is even in the legal sense. Typical are verses like Jesus “sending you out as sheep among wolves; so prove yourselves cautious as serpents and yet innocent as doves, (Matt 10:16) “On this account, you too prove yourselves ready, because the Son of man is coming at an hour that you do not think to be it.” (Matt 24:44) “But wanting to prove himself righteous, the man said to Jesus:...” (Luke 10:29) “My Father is glorified in this, that you keep bearing much fruit and prove yourselves my disciples.” (John 15:8) In fact, What do you suppose is the etymology of “approve?” Does anyone think it suggests scientific proof? Or does it not denote meeting the standards of someone with recognized stature? It is ridiculous that Brother Glock should be taken to task by narrow-minded sticklers for a single application of the word which will almost certainly not be his, nor be the dominant one of history. Words change. There is no sense grousing about this. “Why so serious?” the Joker says, as he slits another throat. We may have to change on this as well—or just ignore the idiots and put pedal to the medal! Sometimes I think we should do that with the word “cult.” The word has changed. Rather than resist it, it may be better to embrace the new meaning. Point to the etymology of the word. It stems from the same root as does the word “agriculture,” which literally means “care of the earth.” Ones who care for “the matters of God” would be an appropriate definition for “cult.” I could live with it. One might even do what the cops did when their radical student “apostates” began tormenting them with the epithet “pigs”—doubling down when they saw that it got under their skin. Finally, one innovative officer decided to roll with it: P - Pride I - Intergritey G- Guts S - Service Can Witnesses do the same? “To the adolescents I became an adolescent,” Paul said: C - Courage U- Unity L - Love T - Truth One does not want to be like my (non-Witness) cousin, who grumbled till her dying day that she could no longer use the word “gay” because the homosexuals hijacked it. “I’m no prude,” she would day. “If they want to go AC-DC, that’s alright with me. (would she really wink just then?) But why couldn’t they invent their own word? Why did they have to take “gay?” She’d go on and on. I used to set her off just to watch the sparks fly. “She’s just mad that she can no longer speak of going to ‘gay Parie,’” I said to my right-wing brother. But my right wing brother had still not forgiven the French in the aftermath of the “Freedom Fries” fiasco. “Why can’t she?” he muttered.

The reason that the GB can say ‘follow the direction of secular authority’ and still have that count as spiritual guidance is that (with some exaggeration) JWs can do it, and non-believers cannot. Following the guidance entails putting up with delayed gratification. Those within the Christian congregation are better at doing that than those without. It entails the willingness to obey. Those within the Christian congregation are better at doing that than those without. It entails the ability to put love of neighbor above self-interest. Those within the Christian congregation are better at doing that than those without. “Do we really need to have a hashtag, #DontKillGrandma? said the CBS medical doctor recently. Yes—you do, if present trends are anything to go by. Witnesses don’t, but you do. This “proves” that the Witness organization has done well imparting Bible principles into its members, since there are plenty of churches today deemed to be spreaders of the virus. I even told the CultExpert, the one with the hashtag #FreedomOfMind, that my people were, by and large, more responsible than his. You don’t think that some will use their “freedom of mind” to tell the government what it can do with its regulations? Vic Vomodog called on me the other day, trying once again to entice me into his sinister cause. I protested that he was wearing no mask, but he laughed at me! I told him how foolhardy he was, but he said that the danger is past—our state in America is one in which the rates peaked long ago, and are in steady decline. I pleaded with him, yet he waved me down with hand gestures, just like opposers do in the dramas. However, as he stepped onto the public sidewalk, a truck loaded with emergency Covid 19 supplies bound for Texas jumped the curb and flattened him! And I can’t even visit him in the hospital—they’re not permitting that yet.

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