Forum participants we have known

[JW Insider]

3 hours ago, BTK59 said:

What have you done with George that you should have also done with Tom, Juan, and yourself? It's not fair to act impartial when you and Tom get angry and ban others instead of addressing the deceit and lies that all of you have contributed here as witnesses not in good standing or pretenders.

What I did with George was EXACTLY what I did with you, Tom, Juan, and myself. Which, of course, was absolutely nothing, in spite of your constant whining that makes you sound like a paranoid victim. You say "It's not fair to act impartial . . ." whatever that means. You say that I get angry, which clearly comes across as another laughable projection from an angry person. It's true that I am not happy that you give other Witnesses a bad reputation with your style of contentiousness. But I was very happy with George88 and am still happy with your responses to my point of view on certain controversial doctrinal topics. I think you mean well, and you think you are doing the right thing, but your responses are usually filled with hate and anger and spite and so void of anything substantive. They end up highlighting the strength of the point of view that I hope others will think about as they try to make sure of all things. I don't think you realize just how indirectly supportive you have been. And more often than you apparently realize, you have been directly supportive by inadvertently providing material that directly supports what I was saying, even though you apparently think that it doesn't. There is a good reason, therefore, that I do not want to see you banned, and I do not want to see your responses disappear.

[BTK59]

16 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

What I did with George was EXACTLY what I did with you, Tom, Juan, and myself. Which, of course, was absolutely nothing

Except for George, who we both know is a lie intended to mask your deceit as a self-righteous pretender, you are accurate about the rest of your opposing friends. You treat them differently just like you do with people like the apostate Srecko, who supports you.

Let's avoid getting into another unnecessary conflict, shall we?

[JW Insider]

9 minutes ago, BTK59 said:

Except for George, who we both know is a lie intended to mask your deceit as a self-righteous pretender, you are accurate about the rest of your opposing friends. You treat them differently just like you do with people like the apostate Srecko, who supports you.

Let's avoid getting into another unnecessary conflict, shall we?

That would be nice to avoid an unnecessary conflict, but I still stand for truth, and when I have time, might continue to respond when you say that something I said is a lie intended to mask deceit.

Why should I care whether you are Tom or Juan or Srecko support me? I happen to know that YOU support some of what I have said here, and that Tom, Juan, Srecko, etc., do NOT support much of what I have said.

If I say something here, it doesn't matter who reads it, or how they want to respond to it. Anything I write can be taken and reused by anyone without crediting me, or blaming me. It's just meant to get people to think about "making sure of all things." If they ignore it, that's fine, too. If they have something to respond with that shows I was wrong, then I will immediately change my view. So far, I have even changed my view every time you showed me that I was wrong.

[Thinking]

On 6/9/2024 at 8:02 AM, JW Insider said:

 I couldn't agree more, Kimball. 

(Proverbs 6:16-19) ¹⁶ There are six things that Jehovah hates; Yes, seven things that he detests: ¹⁷ Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸ A heart plotting wicked schemes, and feet that run quickly to evil, ¹⁹ A false witness who lies with every breath, And anyone sowing contentions among brothers.

Haughty eyes: Most of us have failed at times in thinking more of ourselves than we ought to think. But there are several accounts on this forum that quickly come to mind when most of us think of haughtiness: persons who constantly boast that they are the only true Witness here and who spend most of their time denigrating others, sometimes even indicating that there is only one sincere individual on the entire forum, and the weighty responsibility that this one person has taken on.

A lying tongue is harder to judge from a distance. Except for certain claims that have appeared to be ridiculous, or which have been later contradicted by the same person (sometimes under a different account name), no one can tell whether a person is "lying" or just has issues where reality gets mixed up and overridden through an obsession with their own ulterior motives. You can often suspect when a person is plotting to manipulate or using wordplay and technicalities to deceive, but we can't always judge whether the motive was defending something they don't themselves understand, grasping at straws and strawmen and logical fallacies, but without the true willful motivation of lying. We leave this one in Jehovah's hands. 

Hands that shed innocent blood. Fortunately, on a forum like this few will physically murder anyone. Some will take on personas like B.T.K. or Billy The Kid, known for shedding innocent blood, but this is just their own form of fantasy gunplay. There is a concern that is sometimes brought up that if someone brings up a controversial doctrine here (like chronology date setting related to the times and seasons, or "overlapping generations" or "pyramidology") that this alone will stumble persons and they will no longer respect the Watchtower or the Governing Body, which in turn can lead to their falling away and losing eternal life. That's a valid concern, but this can be taken so far as to be the equivalent of a claim that no one should read books, or read the old Watch Tower publications, or Russell-related court documents, or newspapers, or use Google or Bing. When all the same controversial information is available from Mr. Google, what does it matter if another person brings it up here? If there's a good answer to the controversy, then where else but to bring it up online, where the controversy can exist side-by-side with the truth about it. A person would only likely be upset about this if they want to continue to believe a perspective that they cannot defend. 

And anyone sowing contentions among brothers. I skipped a couple to get right to the big one. It's interesting to me that this is the one that ends the list, giving it special emphasis as if it tops off all the rest and somehow becomes tantamount to shedding innocent blood. When it comes to this forum, I believe that most persons only think of ONE person, and that person's DOZENS of accounts over that last 10 years. The person might mean well. They might even think they are a vigilante appointed by God to be a Wyatt Earp, N.K.Boswell, Walter Prescott, Moise Racette style lawman in a Wild Wild West World Wide Web. But it's worth considering why God would even want someone so prone to contentiousness to be his one and only spokesman of truth on a backwater no-account forum like this.

I have always felt guilty and scared when I read that scripture…in nearly 45 years that feeling has never changed………same feelings happen when I open the door to someone just about to knock the door down with their harsh knocking and find the police standing there…….the first thing they say is ..don’t worry you have havent done  anything wrong ( there had been break ins at our neighbours)

hope you pick another scripture that puts a smile on my face or makes me laugh 😆 

[JW Insider]

44 minutes ago, Thinking said:

I have always felt guilty and scared when I read that scripture…in nearly 45 years that feeling has never changed……

I know the feeling. For me that scripture is sometimes:

(Zephaniah 2:3) . . .Seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, Who observe his righteous decrees. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you will be concealed on the day of Jehovah’s anger.

How often has that word "probably" been emphasized to us so that we always feel like maybe we will be doing all we can and trying so hard to be the right kind of person and then it's still "probably" we might survive Armageddon.

It's a bit like last Sunday's Watchtower lesson which said that, like the sister named Amanda, "I tend to equate giving Jehovah my best with the constant need to do more." 

The best counterbalance to that Scripture in Zeph above is to read the context and see that a more specific great day of Jehovah's anger is being spoken of, not necessarily related to Armageddon. The very next line is:

(Zephaniah 2:4) For Gazʹa will be an abandoned

It includes the desolation of Gaza, and we know that this is not about our own day but something specific in the long past. Oh wait! Gaza? Just got scared again. LOL.

For me, that leaves the best counterbalancing Scripture, here:

(Matthew 11:28-30) ²⁸  Come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down, and I will refresh you. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am mild-tempered and lowly in heart, and you will find refreshment for yourselves. ³⁰ For my yoke is kindly, and my load is light.”