Volunteers Needed for Watchtower Reference Folder (W.F.R.)

Does anyone want to work on a research project? My belief is that it will positively impact the lives of hundreds or even thousands of us. I’ve wanted to get on this for months, but my free time is very limited lately, as running JWStruggle.com has taken up quite a bit of it as many of you know. Team members will be able to collaborate on the project using Google Docs, so geographic location will be a non-issue. A call to take on the following project is now hereby being made. A small group of reliable people are needed. Read on, and prayerfully decide if you can help us tackle this project:

OUTLINE OF PROJECT, ENTITLED “WATCHTOWER REFERENCE FOLDER”

The following team shall be assembled:

  • A project manager to oversee the project and guide the team. This person needs to be organized and pro-active, and have access to the current WT Library.
  • An editor to carry out the PM’s direction, someone who has an eye for detail and is fluent in using WT Library and the Microsoft office programs Word and Excel.
  • Multiple researchers, operating under the direction of the editor.

The undertaking will benefit both awake and asleep Witnesses, as well as countless others. The end product will be a ready-to-print PDF file, that can be made into a loose-leaf folder containing several hundred (or even thousands) of the best quotes and snippets from Watchtower publications, arranged in a topic-by-topic way with an index. The quotes will be taken from all Society magazines and books, from the 1800s up to the present day. Also, letters and correspondence written by or to the WTS may also be included if appropriate. The great advantage of an indexed collection like this is that since it will contain ONLY Watchtower writings and basically nothing else, it cannot be deemed an “apostate” publication per se and will be a great asset and aid in our struggle and those of others.

The project will be broken down into stages. One or more of these stages can be delegated to each person and the workload shared. However some of the steps are dependent on the previous one, so those are more critical. A team of perhaps four to eight people could work on the folder and complete it in a matter of months in their spare time. The two key members, the project manager and the editor will be vital to keeping the project alive and on task.

PROJECT STAGES OF THE W.R.F.

1. Create a spreadsheet with a numbered, columned list of categories that most concern us as awakened, struggling Witnesses. These are the topics we turn to the most for personal research and if we were to try and reason with friends and loved ones about “the truth about truth”. Categories will no doubt include, but not be limited to:

  • Apostasy 001
  • Blood 002
  • Chronology – 607 BCE versus 587 BCE 003
  • Chronology – 1914 CE 004
  • Disfellowshipping / Disassociation 005
  • Divine Name – pronunciation .
  • Divine Name – worship .
  • Elder arrangement .
  • Field service .
  • Meetings .
  • Governing body .
  • Organization .
  • Slave class .
  • Conscience .
  • Freedom of thought .
  • Jesus – name .
  • Jesus – pronunciation / Hebrew word .
  • Jesus – worship .
  • Jehovah – see Divine Name .
  • .
  • .
  • .

The categories will only include things that are referred to or directly spoken about in Watchtower publications. This stage must be completed prior to the proceeding stages being completed, however as more quotes are found and catalogued, some additional categories or merging of others may be necessary.

2. Collect and then collate an extensive list of WT Library 2010 edition references, possibly getting people to email their WT library favorites (bookmarks) of the most useful quotes and snippets based on the above created list. Many have hundreds of these they have accumulated over the years. This will be the easiest way to populate the binder with the most pertinent and useful information based on the categories from the previous step. Also culling the quotes from the hundreds of sites found online will further populate this list. An effort will be made to gather at least enough on each of the listed categories to enable the user to make a defense of their faith from the Watchtower Reference Folder. As time goes on, more quotes will be located and added to the WRF.

3. References and quotes will be gleaned from all major books about Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Watchtower Society. These will include Crisis of Conscience, Captives to a Concept, In Search of Christian Freedom, The Gentile Times Reconsidered, The Four Presidents of the WT Society, Thirty Years a WT Slave, Is The Watchtower God’s Only Organization, and others.

4. Collect a list of quotes from articles and books that pre-date the WT Library CD-ROM. Extensive quotes exist on many hundreds of sites but need to be located in the same way as the above stage, then broken down and organized into the categories generated in stage one. Jpg scans or plain text files of articles are acceptable; whatever is easiest and looks best should be used.

5. Create a new spreadsheet or word document (As best deemed by the editor) and copy and paste all quotes or snippets into it, by category. Each individual quote should have a unique number assigned to it, using a category/ID format like this:

“012-0211”

The first three digits are for the category, i.e., “001” is “Apostasy”, “002” is “Blood”, and the second four digits are the actual unique ID number within that category, allowing for up to 9,999 quotes in any one topic. Note that all numbers will include trailing zeroes to ensure accurate sorting. Many quotes can be on their own page, and quotes would rarely ever exceed a single page. Small quotes could be grouped together on an individual page, assuming they are all in the same category. Only the front sides of each page should be utilized once the PDF document is generated. This will make flipping to pages and topics considerably easier once printed out. The purpose is twofold: expedient research and lucid reasoning with the friend, family member, or other person.

6. Create a detailed and accurate index of every unique quote, using the numbering system outlined above.

7. Ongoing maintenance and updates the WRF as time goes on.

CONCLUSION

Please contact JJ if you have questions or are willing to take on one of these roles. This can only be accomplished by a determined group effort of Christian brothers/sisters. My prayer is that God and Christ will bless our hard work to make the WRF a reality in the near future.

“Unless Jehovah himself builds the house, it is to no avail that its builders have worked hard on it.” (Psalm 127:1, NWT)

Volunteers Needed for research project

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10 Comments on Volunteers Needed for Research Project

  1. greybeard says:

    Hi JJ,

    There are many Watchtower quotes sites online that might be helpful as well. One could find an article there then go to the WTL to confirm and copy.

    http://www.quotes-watchtower.co.uk/

    http://www.jwfacts.com

    Those are but a few.

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  2. LonelySheep says:

    I would like to help..Anything to expose the GB for who they really are…(a wicked and evil slave)

    However I don’t want to commit to much at this time.

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    • greybeard says:

      Thanks Lonelysheep,

      Much has been done already on the net but it needs to be verified with the WTL. So if you have a favorite subject you might locate it online then quote out of WTL and document it for the project. Much can be done in little time.

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  3. Simpleman says:

    JJ I would like to know what the objective is here. There are countless sites committed to the ruination of the Watchtower with 1000s of WT references added in for good measure. Few however penetrated the Walls of the Kingdom Halls and the mind-set of JWs. Once the elders get a sniff of apostasy they’re like a ferret through a drainpipe, there’s no letting go.

    Even if you use Watchtower literature it would have to be of a critical nature in comparing and contrasting text, that will set alarms ringing.

    Piercing the minds of JW’s in my opinion is difficult. I can’t see you getting over the first hurdle on this one, unless of course you have a game plan.

    Just how do you plan on getting this information to the R&F, are they the targeted audience or am I getting this all wrong.

    In addition if JW’s are happy in the way they serve Jehovah why not leave them to their thinking.

    As I said I could be reading this all wrong, can you explain the objective here and the targeted audience?

    Thank you
    Simpleman

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  4. JJ says:

    Simpleman

    I appreciate your question, and the goal is not to bludgeon over the head someone that does not want to listen.

    Just as using the Insight Book or any other Bible commentary can be invaluable, so to, having the right WT articles indexed and at hand can be invaluable.

    If we are struggling to understand “the truth about the truth”, then it could help immensely. If we feel that we truly must share what we have learned with a close friend or family member, then this could possibly be the only way.

    After prayer and due consideration, this index may have no interest for you. You may not need it. That is your Christian conscience at work. But many of us take solace in finding references in the publications that confirm we are on the right path.

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  5. Papabear says:

    I think this would be great for a number of reasons, most of which JJ touched on. This could be used for finding out more if you have some doubts. It could be used to explain to your mate or other family why you feel the way you do without using anything outside what was written by the org. My personal experience is that my wife wants to hear nothing from secular books but listens closely every time I show her my issues in a specific WT article or statement. I would absolutely love to have a physical copy to study myself and use while explaining my “doubts” to others.

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