TrueTomHarley

16 hours ago, Ann O'Maly said: I bet you wish you had posted p. 208 yourself, hey Neil, like you were asked, instead of baiting me and @Anna to find another source. Then you wouldn't have found yourself splattered on the windshield of the @AlanF juggernaut yet again
I hate it when juggernauts splatter our people this way.
 

16 hours ago, Ann O'Maly said: I bet you wish you had posted p. 208 yourself, hey Neil, like you were asked, instead of baiting me and @Anna to find another source. Then you wouldn't have found yourself splattered on the windshield of the @AlanF juggernaut yet again
I hate it when juggernauts splatter our people this way.
 

!

If it was up to me, this site would be Bible 303 - an elective.
Bible 101 is learning the Bible. It is a requirement. Bible 201 is applying it. It is a requirement. 
Bible 303 is seeing how people reevaluate their vow after a time - who sometimes back out of it - and why. They provide vivid examples of Bible themes that become meaningful only when you see real examples of them. Ultimately, it is simple. The myriad reasons people leave, generally collapse into one: "Demas has forsaken me because he loved the present system of things."
You see people choose individual rights over the Bible-required model of self sacrifice. (rights over responsibility)
You see people who insist upon extracting the straw from their brother's eye. 
You see people who cannot forgive.
You see people who go livid over authority, to the point that Miriam and Korah's carryings on are but polite disagreements in comparison. 
You see modern examples of what seems incomprehensible otherwise - Jews wanting to go back to Egypt - who would even stone those dissuading them.
You see people who stumble even seven times, and lose all desire to get up. The reward is farther off than they first thought. The price to pay is higher.
You see countless examples of a line you might not appreciate otherwise: "Jehovah's let his heart become hardened." I mean, nobody ever yields an inch here or softens one iota. (it is true of many subjects today) Given only the caveat that you never know for sure just who is who, you cannot reason with such ones - their mind is long made up - and you shouldn't even try, IMO. When you address them, you are addressing the audience beyond. To reason with them specifically over time would make me uncomfortable - I would think I am violating such verses as have nothing to do with certain ones. Speaking to whoever might be reading later is not the same. In some cases, the best example you can give for such ones is to slap the villains hard.
The best way to get people to do something is to tell them they can't. New Christians, or immature Christians will come online, and some are like kids playing in the street - blind to the fact that there are villains trying to run them down, swerving like terrorists to nail as many as possible. There is a place for ones more seasoned to hang around, because they can sometimes succeed in hurling a stake into their spokes, sending the nasties head over handlebars. 
Of course, you can also empathize with those who have had hard times and suggest alternatives to their just giving up or even opposing the ones with whom they were once best buddies.
It's not such a bad thing for brothers to see this, IMO. Bible 303 is an elective, because you cannot blow off as nothing the verses, such as Haggai, that say the unclean will rub off on the clean, and not the reverse. "Leave them be, blind guides is what they are," Jesus says, not "Let's rumble!"
Bible 303, therefore, cannot be required and it is not for everybody. But for those so inclined to submit their faith to the tests that will surely come anyway, and see others in various stages of testing theirs - and some having failed outright -  it is elucidating, because advanced Bible themes as love for God and love for the brotherhood and Christian loyalty play out right under your nose. You can ask yourself: "Just why am I serving Jehovah, anyway?"
2 Peter (or is it Jude?) speaks of those who despise authority. I am convinced that was at the root of everything in the first century just like it is today. Even should you want to live immorally, that will not go down as the reason for your apostasy. In the greater religious world, if you want to live immorally, you simply live immorally. It is only when someone tells you that you can't that it becomes a problem - and then the oppressive authority will go down as the problem, not the determination to transgress Bible laws of how we should live.
 

Whatever happens, don't nobody leave the keys in the chariot when it is idling.

I feel privileged as though watching a superhero movie with fantastic heroes and villains converging, ready for combat & settling old grudges once and for all. But what will happen if I get up for popcorn or to use the restroom?
(wait till @Top Cat O'Malighan reveals his true identity)
(and just where does the Librarian fit in? What great personage was she back in the day before ruin set in and she gathered some books to start a new persona?)
(and exactly who is @Ann O'Maly and how did she get her paws on every paper that's ever been printed?)
(why does @AlanF call @scholar JW Scholar Pretendus and how did Christopher Hitchens become Yoda the wise?)
(has @JW Insider succeeded beyond his dreams summoning up the spirits, perhaps scaring even himself?)
(who is Neil Galt?)
(Am I full of you-know-what?)

I feel privileged as though watching a superhero movie with fantastic heroes and villains converging, ready for combat & settling old grudges once and for all. But what will happen if I get up for popcorn or to use the restroom?
(wait till @Top Cat O'Malighan reveals his true identity)
(and just where does the Librarian fit in? What great personage was she back in the day before ruin set in and she gathered some books to start a new persona?)
(and exactly who is @Ann O'Maly and how did she get her paws on every paper that's ever been printed?)
(why does @AlanF call @scholar JW Scholar Pretendus and how did Christopher Hitchens become Yoda the wise?)
(has @JW Insider succeeded beyond his dreams summoning up the spirits, perhaps scaring even himself?)
(who is Neil Galt?)
(Am I full of you-know-what?)

Whatever happens, don't nobody leave the keys in the chariot when it is idling.

I feel privileged as though watching a superhero movie with fantastic heroes and villains converging, ready for combat & settling old grudges once and for all. But what will happen if I get up for popcorn or to use the restroom?
(wait till @Top Cat O'Malighan reveals his true identity)
(and just where does the Librarian fit in? What great personage was she back in the day before ruin set in and she gathered some books to start a new persona?)
(and exactly who is @Ann O'Maly and how did she get her paws on every paper that's ever been printed?)
(why does @AlanF call @scholar JW Scholar Pretendus and how did Christopher Hitchens become Yoda the wise?)
(has @JW Insider succeeded beyond his dreams summoning up the spirits, perhaps scaring even himself?)
(who is Neil Galt?)
(Am I full of you-know-what?)

The inventor left a text message in the first mined block which reads 'The Times 3 January 2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks'. The text refers to a headline in The Times published on 3 January 2009. It is a strong indication that the first block was mined no earlier than this date. The genesis block has a timestamp of 18:15:05 GMT on 3 January 2009. This block is unlike all other blocks in that it doesn't have a previous block to reference. This required the use of custom code to mine it. Timestamps for subsequent blocks indicate that Nakamoto did not try to mine all the early blocks solely for himself.
I think this was released in response to the financial credit crisis. 
Basically the financial world had a heart attack, the central banks pumped funny money like never before to revive it (the banks) diluting the $ of the savers.... hence, Satoshi Nakamoto presented Bitcoin as an alternative to the banking system.
We are just now starting to see how powerful it might become.

I feel privileged as though watching a superhero movie with fantastic heroes and villains converging, ready for combat & settling old grudges once and for all. But what will happen if I get up for popcorn or to use the restroom?
(wait till @Top Cat O'Malighan reveals his true identity)
(and just where does the Librarian fit in? What great personage was she back in the day before ruin set in and she gathered some books to start a new persona?)
(and exactly who is @Ann O'Maly and how did she get her paws on every paper that's ever been printed?)
(why does @AlanF call @scholar JW Scholar Pretendus and how did Christopher Hitchens become Yoda the wise?)
(has @JW Insider succeeded beyond his dreams summoning up the spirits, perhaps scaring even himself?)
(who is Neil Galt?)
(Am I full of you-know-what?)

I did run afoul of this once with regard to my own books before I learned how to behave.
I self-policed myself recently with regard to an update from @Queen Esther. She started a thread in which there was a report that consensus view of the Russian brothers is that the Family Glory award was given to soften the blow against Witnesses and signal that the government actually knows we are good people. I linked to my own site where I had speculated about this at the time. 
Esther wasn't sure about it and seemed not to like it, so I removed the link and rewrote my comment simply to read that I had mentoned it at the time.
A few times here I have indicated I am writing a book on the Russian situation. It is no longer far off. I started a thread which I think will not incur the wrath of @The Librarian: 'Did Malachi Have Teenagers? - A Russian thread.' Everything relevant to that book will be placed on that thread, save perhaps for one brief comment somewhere when it is finished.

I like it that the application of Bible principles is always a qualification of authorship in the WT publications or at jw.org. Thus, some brilliant scholar in the world might write in a guest article on nearly any outlet, but it would not happen on jw.org. You have to apply Christian principles in order to have a voice. They would never take a guest post from Top Cat O'Malighan.
Doubtless they miss out on some scholarship that way, but they also safeguard themselves from much error, as it is not uncommon for yesterday's scholarship to be today's trash. I like it when @Arauna mentions motive. It is often the most relevant factor, though persons with ill-motive will dismiss it as ad hominem attack.
Of course, one cannot expect Wt standards to prevail here. It has never been claimed that they do. Nor do I imply that whoever takes the 'right' or 'wrong' side on any discussion is or is not applying Christianity. There is no way to tell. But on jw.org, they always are. It lends that source a huge measure of confidence, granted that their ship may not always turn on a dime. It takes a while to establish that something really is something and not just the tossing of rubbish on the waves and the trickery of men.
On this forum, many can and do tell the GB what to do. This is the internet and people can do what they want. But such correction by the people, though popular today,  is not the Bible pattern. When David truly was being a scoundrel, it was not the people who called him on it, but an already established prophetic channel. 
 
 
 

I cannot speak to this. I really don't know. I did see a link you posted that no longer is there. Why it disappeared I do not know. 
But I do know that @The Librarian favors original content. She doesn't like it when people are just lazy and link to some sorehead who they think will do their dirty work for them - especially when it is same-old same-old - something that has been discussed many times before and addressed, but a whiner just wants to repackage it and run it through again.

I will not forget my first Bible student in the late 1970's - my grandmother who had always attended 'nice' baptist churches. She was much troubled that I was in a religion that didn't believe in the Trinity. I reviewed the doctrine and she said that she had never believed that - all she had meant was that there was a Father and a Son and a holy spirit. She had never imagined that they were the same.

Apparently I have seen it, as he has lured you into pounding the daylights out of your own machine and stranding yourself.

RUSSIA  - The Holy Spirit of Jehovah in action....    ENJOY !
I thought it would be heartening to share an experience I had while working on the Bethel Chelmsford site   a couple of days ago.
I worked with a Russian-speaking brother and, of course, I asked him if he had "any updated news about our brothers and sisters in Russia". He has been talking to some of his friends in Russia and told me that "many inactive" had begun to return to the truth when they saw the persecution as a sign of the nearness of the end of this system. He also mentioned that some employers who have witnesses as employees have been interested in the truth, since they can not relate the good behavior of their employees with the label of "extremism". This has made some of them curious about our beliefs and teachings. Also those interested have had their interest reached by what has been happening, so some have increased their interest. Also the fact that some of the law enforcement countries have had to go through our literature trying to find something extremist has meant people who would normally have nothing to do with the truth have come to understand our message of the good news.
It is amazing how Jehovah has used this prohibition and the unjust treatment of our brothers as a catalyst to get people interested in the truth.
He also mentioned that there was consensus that the "exemplary family award" that was given to the family of witnesses at the award ceremony was purposely made to be a symbolic gesture that "yes, Jehovah's Witnesses are good people" and as people who have no problem with us Almost nobody believes it was an accident, since nobody can get so close to Putin without the powers to know everything about you, your family, the way you live, including your religion, and everything others about his life and that of his families. The timing was well judged and "it seemed to be a way of letting the world realize that it was trying to be fair and balanced, maintaining its position on extremist activities." :confused:
The preaching work is done very covertly and they do not go out of their way to mention that they are Jehovah's Witnesses, maybe just a few words in a conversation and then they continue normally. In the smaller cities where everyone knows everyone, there is more persecution than in cities where it is easier   to mix.
Some brothers are leaving the country and find it very easy to request asylum for reasons of religious persecution even more than asylum seekers from countries torn by war.
I believe that the spirit of Jehovah is working firmly in Russia, even though there is a lot of religious persecution. Jehovah is using this situation in a very positive way, just as we thought he would. I know that this information comes only from one source and that other sources may have a different opinion on all this, but I found it extremely encouraging to hear the positive effect that this situation has had on the country of Russia.
( shared  by  our  dear  Spanish  Brother...)  THANK YOU !! 
                      ? .•*¨`*•..¸???¸.•*¨`*•. ?

Gasp!!!!!! Neil is not allensmith28, is he? (the first one to react)
And 27, and 26, and 25, and so on all the way down to allensmith?
And - no, it cannot be! - even Allen_Smith? the one who once sported the most glorious stache I have ever seen but has since shaved it off?
(more than once I have had the impression that everyone on this forum knows one another except for me)

I do not know who Neil is. In responding to a post of mine before, you seem to assume that I do. (I have not followed this thread closely)

I do not know who Neil is. In responding to a post of mine before, you seem to assume that I do. (I have not followed this thread closely)

I had been devoted to God since a child, but as a Roman Catholic. I was planning on becoming a Catholic Nun. In high school I read Matthew, which taught me many interesting things about the future that I was not being taught. Then at 17 I was babysitting...there were JW books and brochures at the home, which I read. At that point I decided that I could NOT become a Nun because what I read was so VERY different than anything taught by the Church. I began searching to find the truth. I knew it would be in the Bible, so I used to search for early copies to learn what was REALLY God's message. It became impossible to find the truth. When the brother came to the door, and I saw that the JW's had a book that REALLY taught the Bible, I KNEW that I had FINALLY found the TRUTH!!!

 
 
First Responders!!! STAT!!! Food fight in aisle 607!!