Eric
We are going to be launching a simple email newsletter. It is planned to be an occasional update with some links, some experiences, random (but helpful!) thoughts, etc.
If any would like to receive this, please add your email below.
Jargon is often used to obfuscate the intended meaning of something to those outside of a particular club or group. This is the stock-in-trade of lawyers, politicians, and orators. They manipulate the words and symbols of speech to persuade and to convince. It is their hammer and their wrench, and they use these tools with aplomb. Likewise, the auto mechanic and the computer repairman has been known to use the jargon of their trade to exert their influence and superior knowledge over the average person.
And this brings us to the “theocratic language”, a term coined and employed by Jehovah’s Witnesses. The scripture in Zephaniah 3:9 is used as the origin of the term. It contains the expression “pure language” and reads this way in the New World Translation:
“Then I shall give to peoples the change to a pure language, in order for them all to call upon the name of Jehovah, in order to serve him shoulder to shoulder.” (Zeph. 3:9)
I’d like to ask the members here, current and/or past Jehovah’s Witnesses, whether they believe that the name God gave his Chosen people was “Christians” as opposed to any other name, including Jehovah’s Witnesses? Acts 11:26 states:
“And, after he found him, he brought him to Antioch. It thus came about that for a whole year they gathered together with them in the congregation and taught quite a crowd, and it was first in Antioch that the disciples were by divine providence called Christians.” (NWT)
1914 is ONE of THE most important years in history after the death of Christ for Jehovah’s Witnesses. Their motivation to preach and to make monumental personal sacrifices is based on the proof given by the Society that Jesus returned in 1914. With only a generation from the time of Christ’s arrival to destruction of this world, many honest hearted folk feel obliged to do whatever it takes to preach and save lives and in many cases to give their own lives.
For the hierarchy of Jehovah Witnesses, known as the Governing Body this date is also pivotal, because they say when Christ became King in 1914 he gave them authority over the congregation, to lead his people into the promised paradise.
Reports are emerging through the Associated Press that the Watch Tower Society may face penalties over chemical waste that was buried many years ago near the Watchtower Farms complex in upstate New York. The Times Herald-Record reports that several 55-gallon drums containing benzene, xylene, and other chemicals hazardous to human health have been unearthed. The […]
Continue reading about Watch Tower Faces Clean-Up Bill For “Ruining The Earth”
We have written a number of times on the site about disfellowshipping and shunning of a fellow brother or sister. We know that even Jesus himself was “disfellowshipped” by the Jewish Sanhedrin. As currently practiced, this Witness doctrine goes far “beyond the things that are written” (1 Corinthians 4:6) by enforcing a list of over a hundred different things a person could be expelled for [1]. How much needless pain and suffering has this doctrine caused you or someone you love? 60,000 are added to this list by elders that are “just following orders” every year. Thousands of brothers have stepped down and resigned their position over the last several decades due to this and other aspects of the harshness and judging that they are pressed into service to do to their “fellow slaves”. (Matthew 18:28)
The following poem has been and continues to be inspirational to many that have been affected by this un-Christian practice:
he phrase “Jesus Loves You!” (with or without the exclamation point) is well known. In fact nearly all people on planet earth have heard it which of course to some extent makes the phrase a cliché. But the fact remains that Jesus does love us. He loves you, and he loves me. It can also be admitted that we all sometimes forget that God and his Son loves us. We forget in the sense that we get so wrapped up in the day-to-day pressures of life that we forget to reflect and exemplify Godly Joy as a fruit of His Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:22; 1 John 4:8) Due to pressing problems such as stress on the job, making ends meet, health issues, our sinful nature, etc. we can become discouraged. And of course a large source of turmoil for many of us relates to our awakening to the flaws within the Watchtower Organization and its leadership. It has taken the place of Christ for some Witnesses, and many of us too were enmeshed in this false conviction at one time. We are here reading and commenting together on JWS because of our shared confusion and pain, even resentment.
“In like manner, you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, in order that, if any are not obedient to the word, they may be won without a word through the conduct of their wives, because of having been eyewitnesses of your chaste conduct together with deep respect.” – 1 Peter 3:1-2, New World Translation
The above scripture is used repeatedly in Watchtower publications to define the role of a Christian wife who finds herself married to a husband who does not share her faith. The scripture advises women in such a situation that they can win over their husbands “without a word”, or by letting their actions rather than their words give evidence that faith can make one a better person. In no way does it command any wife who faces abuse from her non-believing husband to remain with him regardless, and endure a violent relationship in the blind hope that he will eventually embrace her faith and stop abusing her.
“Lord, whom shall we go away to? You have sayings of everlasting life; and we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.” –John 6:68-69 So answered Peter when asked by Jesus whether he wanted to abandon him along with others who had found his teachings untenable. Time and […]
There are many sincere brothers and sisters out there that don’t lie awake and wonder where the organization is heading. They are just trying to make the best of their service to Jehovah and love the friends. Despite being aware that something’s not quite right, they are trying to stay in “God’s love”. (Romans 8:38-39) Others among us cannot make that leap and continue to support an Organization that they feel has behaved as a false prophet and caused the loss of so many lives as a result.
Regardless of which camp we fall into, and no matter how intensely this struggle hovers in the back of our consciousness, keeping faith and not “losing heart” is critical. Didn’t Jesus emphasize that part of our successful journey along the narrow road is to endure to the end? (Matthew 7:13,14; Matthew 24:13) So a danger for us as awakened or former Witnesses is that we could come to feel that “if this isn’t the truth then there is no God”. This is a spiritually dangerous place to be. It’s like the boy that found out there was no Santa Clause and then said to his mother, “Well if there’s no Santa then maybe there’s no God either.” This may seem trivial to an adult, but the little boy’s realization that he had been lied to for most of his short life shook his tender faith. His parents credulity and his trust in authority was seriously damaged.
At the Watchtower study on November 10, 2011, you may have noticed these two paragraphs:
14 How do you react when Jehovah, the Source of spiritual enlightenment, sheds light on “the deep things of God” found in the Bible? (1 Cor. 2:10-13) We have an excellent example in the apostle Peter’s reaction when Jesus told His listeners: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.” Taking those words literally, many disciples said: “This speech is shocking; who can listen to it?” They “went off to the things behind.” But Peter said: “Lord, whom shall we go away to? You have sayings of everlasting life.”—John 6:53, 60, 66, 68.
15 Peter did not fully understand what Jesus said about eating His flesh and drinking
His blood. But the apostle relied on God for spiritual enlightenment. When spiritual
light on some matter gets brighter, do you try to understand the underlying Scriptural
reasons for the adjustment? (Prov. 4:18)
Continue reading about Who Today Sheds Spiritual Enlightenment?
The scripture in 1 Corinthians 1:10 is an important Bible verse. This passage teaches us that we need to be united in our brotherly love and belief in Jesus Christ. Here it is in two different translations:
Now I exhort YOU, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that YOU should all speak in agreement, and that there should not be divisions among YOU, but that YOU may be fitly united in the same mind and in the same line of thought. (1 Corinthians 1:10 NWT)
Now I entreat you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to cultivate a spirit of harmony–all of you–and that there be no divisions among you, but rather a perfect union through your having one mind and one judgment. (1 Corinthians 1:10 Weymouth New Testament)
Continue reading about Watchtower Tenets and the Bed of Procrustes
I came across a fascinating (but too short!) biography of a brother who used to post on JWnet. He went far in the organization, reached many goals and milestones, but like many of us, realized that things weren’t lining up with the Scriptures. The apostle Paul had this to say about his journey:
I was making greater progress in Ju′da·ism than many of my own age in my race, as I was far more zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called [me] through his undeserved kindness, thought good 16 to reveal his Son in connection with me, that I might declare the good news about him to the nations, I did not go at once into conference with flesh and blood. 17 Neither did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles previous to me, but I went off into Arabia, and I came back again to Damascus. (Galatians 1:14-17, NWT)
Continue reading about An interesting biography that shows us what’s ahead
It’s time for part two of my article, in which I am discussing the unnerving similarities between the methods of the Westboro Baptist Church, notorious for its picketing of soldiers’ funerals, and those of Jehovah’s Witnesses, by far a more benevolent organization, although still wielding a disproportionate influence over most of our lives. I would […]
Those of you who live in America will have been familiar for some time with the Westboro Baptist Church, a radical and hateful denomination that feels it is fulfilling its Christian ministry and following in the footsteps of Christ by holding up offensive signs and picketing funerals, most notably those of fallen soldiers. I recently […]
I have received a very kind invitation from JJ to contribute to this wonderful website, and it occurred to me that I would be remiss if I were to neglect making some kind of introduction. I then realised that introductions are considerably difficult, if not impossible, when done so anonymously. Like many who frequent this website, and like JJ himself, I am a free-thinking “inactive” publisher. I live in fear of being unmasked as somebody who disagrees with a significant percentage of the teachings of the organization I grew up in and once loved.
A brother using the name AwareBeing sent this to me and I felt it was worth thinking about:
Recently, a lot of current and former Jehovah’s Witnesses have increased their calls for reform in the governing body of it’s Watchtower and Tract corporations. Many are unsure where these efforts may be headed. Yet there are intriguing parallels to another incorporated religious body; that to outsiders looks like a sister faith to WT’s beliefs. It’s The Worldwide Church of God, founded by Herbert Armstrong!
We are bombarded with assertions and “proofs” all day long by the media, at school, through television and radio, books, newspapers, etc. The result is that we tend to take things with a grain of salt until we have had a chance to investigate it for ourselves. A common phrase is “Don’t believe everything you hear!” and it is for good reason that it is often repeated. The Bible at 1 John 4:1-3 tells us to “test the inspired expressions” so we can see if they are God’s words or not. Under inspiration, Job said “Does not the ear itself test out words As the palate tastes food?” (Job 12:11) When we read or study any subject,Biblical or not, this principle comes into play. We have to test it out for ourselves. Is the argument logical and reasonable? Does it align with the rest of the Scriptures in the Bible, or contradict it? Does it rely on human interpretation or theory? Is it easy to grasp or is the presentation very complicated? All these questions help us to “taste” the veracity of the claim, and figure out in our own mind if it is from God. With that in mind, a question and answer essay is presented on the topic of the star mentioned in Matthew chapter 2.
“Blinded By New Light” – A Response to the “Anti-Apostate” WT article of 9/11/2011, found in the July 15, 2011 study copy of the Watchtower. The following song represents a response to the inflammatory rhetoric and Ad Hominem attacks found in the Watchtower. It saddens us that the friends have been misled and revved up […]
The title of this article is “Rabbinical Legalism and Bible Study”, and I’m going to get to that first point momentarily. But let’s take the second part of the title first. I have finally been getting through Ray’s second book, In Search of Christian Freedom. It is superb, logical, and thought inducing over and over again. But to really understand the content and reasoning I have been looking up many of the references, and with a length of some 700+ pages, it’s taking me some time. That’s a lot to study! But whatever we choose to study though, you’ll agree that balance is needed. If we drench ourselves in an obscure passage of Hebrew Scripture and every footnote and cross-reference available for hours, days, and weeks, is that balanced if we don’t read or study anything else during those days or weeks?
Continue reading about Rabbinical Legalism and Our Personal Bible Study
Brother John May was an elder in Ireland for many years. Back when Brother Ray Franz was wrongly disfellowshiped he was bothered by it so much that he actually went into debt so that he could buy a plane ticket to America. He and another brother flew to Brooklyn, New York so that he could meet with the governing body at that time. He knew a couple of the brothers serving on the body personally, and had been an elder for many years, but despite that they refused to meet with him or the other brother, or to discuss what happened at Bethel and what happened to Brother Franz.
Continue reading about One of the best testimonies I’ve heard
Learning the truth about the Watchtower Society can be very painful for a number of reasons. First, it is so disconcerting to realize that the core of your existence and the foundations of your beliefs are false that it can throw you for a real loop. As Witnesses we are so confident in all of the answers we have been given, to questions that we never asked, that we mentally put ourselves up on a pedestal above the masses of poor, blind, “wicked” humanity. It sucks to realize that you are in the same place as all of the people you would look down upon previously. It is terrible when you look back and consider that your entire life up to this point has been devoted to faulty concepts generated by similarly deluded men.
Here are some quotes from the Watchtower concerning “imperfect men” and how we should not follow what men say:
—————————————————–
“You may wisely decide against putting your trust in imperfect men and their fallible predictions and promises.” (3/15/66 page 168)
“Build your hope on Scriptural truth, not on the imaginations of imperfect men.” 1/1/68
“How deep-seated within imperfect men can be the desire for distinction, to have prominent positions and prestige.” (10/1/68)
“The Bible’s main objective is to provide sound guidance for living in harmony with the will of God. Logically, therefore, what it says should be far superior to what imperfect men not following it have recommended and continue to recommend as a guide.” (3/1/75)
“According to First Timothy 6:20 it would be unwise to fill one’s mind with philosophies of imperfect men” (9/1/1975)
A friend of mine forwarded this reference to me recently via email, and I think that it bears looking over and discussing. The 1978 Awake article is entitled Do Others Do Your Thinking? and it makes some very good points. The deep irony is there for many of us of the “Conscious Class” to see.
Imagine boarding a bus with your family for a long anticipated vacation. The destination is a place that is promised to be beautiful warm and sunny. As you are boarding the bus you are given a ticket stub with several paragraph’s of fine print. Thinking nothing of it you stuff it in your pocket and find your seat on the bus. As you sit down you notice that all of the windows on the bus have been blacked out. The inside is lit with rows of florescent lights.
me: I wonder if i could ask u something…kind of serious…
Ben: suuuure. shoot.
Sent at 8:32 AM on Wednesday
me: Awhile back had a bro I’ve been friends w for a long time get DFed. He started emailing me all these links and I responded twice trying to defend truth but he asked to “examine all things” (scrip in Corinthians i think) and I did read a few of the pages
Ben: yeah?
Sent at 8:35 AM on Wednesday
me: we’ve all come across that stuff before, like when you read an news article about the blood issue and then there’s all these haters that post cr@p. I’ve never read any of that junk but he made a point with me
Ben: Yeah??
me: just wondered if that ever happened to you
Ben: Man……
At Romans 6:1-7 Paul speaks of sin. It is a cruel master and we all struggle to break free from it. Whether it is an addiction, unclean thinking, jealousy, anger, hate, etc. we as sincere servants of God struggle against these bad leanings. Verse six of this chapter says “that we should no longer go on being slaves to sin” and how true that is. (Romans 6:6) In waking up to the fact that we have been misled by the Watchtower leadership for so many years, it dawns on us that we are not just enslaved to sin as imperfect humans. We are (or have been) enslaved to men to one degree or another also.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are well-known for their knowledge of the scriptures. We train our children to learn Bible scriptures at an early age. We make scripture flash cards and quiz ourselves. It would be hard to argue that this is anything but a good thing for a Christian to do. However, there can be a downside to this. (1 Corinthians 8:1) Memorized scriptures are learned solely to become “proof texts”. A proof text is a bible verse that is quoted or read to “prove” a certain doctrinal point or idea.
A brother that resigned as an elder wrote this letter to the governing body of Jehovah’s Witnesses less than a year ago. Now it has been emailed to thousands of elders and ministerial servants. It is also being re-circulated and sent to many publishers. It is reproduced below:
Continue reading about “Open Letter to the Governing Body” is Creating a Stir
We’ve all heard the story about the man that refuses to listen to the Witness who comes to his door, saying, “I was born a Catholic and I’m going to die a Catholic!” We are saddened that he is that closed-minded and unwilling to listen. We would never consider ourselves to anything like him. I once asked a lady this question after a few minutes of speaking with her at her door:
“If I could show you something from your own Bible that was the opposite of what you had been taught at your church, would you want to change?”
She paused, looked up in the air for several seconds, and then said, “I don’t think so.”
One year ago Brother Ray Franz finished his earthly course. Hundreds of thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses have been personally touched by this gentle brother who served Jehovah God and Jesus Christ zealously for so many years.
We had a great conversation with a fellow struggler last week and his conversation is now online. Our goal is to do more of these and if you have someone you think would be a good candidate and be an encouragement, let us know!
Continue reading about PODCAST- Interview with Brother Mark Martin
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:
Continue reading about Volunteers Needed for Research Project
Most if not all of us have considered talking to a close friend and broaching the subject of “the truth about the truth” with them. How would we go about it? Is it worth the risk? How much should we share? How little? It is a dangerous course, but may be a necessary one. Ezekiel told us to sound a warning. Does that apply in this case? Only you and your Bible-trained conscience can answer that.
Continue reading about Sharing Your “Sacred Secret” With A Loved One
People since the beginning of time have been revising their history. When a person in favor with the king lost his status or went rogue, his name never spoken again. If his likeness or name was carved into the walls, the walls were destroyed or erased. Officially, he never existed. A number of books have been written about this, with 1984 by George Orwell being among the most famous. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is another great book that is ironically about the banning of books. It was itself a banned book for many years and may still be in certain places of the world.
Continue reading about Revisionist History and Keeping an Open Mind
The forums now have replaced the old “Stories” page. The contents of the page has been preserved below. In the future, go to the forums and share or read the stories there.
Continue reading about Site Change- “Stories” Page Moved to Forum
The following are questions and comments on the old “Questions” page that has been replaced by the forum. It is a bit messy, sorry about that, but at least it has been preserved for posterity:
Continue reading about Site Change- “Questions” now on Forum
As I was tucking in my daughter last night she asked me why we have to be so different. Her exact words were:
.
There’s these boys at school always bugging me about birthdays, saying ‘Why don’t you celebrate your birthday? Isn’t that the most important day of the year for you? It is for me…’
And sometimes I get it because I know we don’t celebrate birthdays because the only two people that did it in the Bible got their heads cut off. And I know that when we are born we haven’t really done anything yet either. But… I still don’t really get it!
.
She doesn’t get it- how interesting; how perfect! My beautiful, intelligent, innocent daughter doesn’t get it…
Who are your true friends and loved ones? What if you were tasked with making a list of them? How long would the list be? Usually the word “love” comes into play when you refer to the most important people in your life. Who do you love? This may not be something that is verbalized very often, especially among men towards one another, but nevertheless it is a valid part of this discussion. Here’s what Jesus said about friendship
Continue reading about Figuring Out Who Our True Friends Are
Many of us have mates that are not awake to the flaws and inconsistencies that we have discovered. They may refuse to even listen to what we have to say and it can hurt our feelings greatly. This varies in degree from marriage to marriage, but the primary thing for us to remember is this: Be as patient and loving with your wife or husband as you possibly can!
The story of Martin Luther, famous theological reformer and perhaps the first so-called apostate of the Catholic Church is fascinating.
How many are awake to the problems within the WTO? Of the 7 million or so that are active JWs is there any possible way to reach an estimated ballpark number of how many are out there?
I’ve been doing some research on this and I’m good at math but not a statistician (big difference lol) however I’m sticking with it. When scientists count how many hairs are on the human head they actually cordon off a small area (like 1 cm x 1 cm) and then count those and do an extrapolation.
Where was the Organization in the 18th century, the 17th century, the 16th century, the 12th century, the 6th century, etc? There was none. Why should it be any different today?
If one lived in the ten-tribe kingdom there was never a time when things were right. True, Jehu got rid of Baal worship, but the idolatrous calf worship remained. And Hosea indicated that there would be an accounting against the house of Jehu for the bloodshed at Jezreel. Elijah was so discouraged that he thought he was alone in the ten-tribe kingdom. Unknown to him, there were the “7,000” who had not bent the knee to Baal. (1 Kings 19:18) For all those people, there was no “Organization” or safe haven.
There are two basic ways that this could happen, and no matter how dim things appear to be, or how bleak the outlook is, we have options and choices. Let’s breakdown the possibilities and see what is the best path for each of us. This possible meeting can only happen in one of two ways, these being:
1. We request to speak with them voluntarily
2. A friend or family member tells either an elder or someone else who in turn tells the elders that you are weak in faith, have doubts about the truth, or are even “going apostate”
For the last month or so the very anti-watchtower website “six screens of the watchtower” has had a special caller on their bi-monthly call show, a young man claiming to be from Bethel. He is allegedly calling from inside Bethel, is assigned to the IT department and was tasked with monitoring so-called “apostate websites” and other computer and internet related duties. He claims to have fake Facebook pages to gain information on Witnesses and dig up dirt on them, as well as many other secret ways to hack computers. At first when I heard him I was skeptical, but then began to think that perhaps he is on the level. Many of the things he has brought out shows he know a lot about the organization and the governing body too.
I heard this quote many years ago and it came to mind again recently so I did some digging on its origin and meaning. It resonated with me for a number of reasons, the chief one being that humans know what they know due to this principle, and we as servants of God and Christ can and have benefited from it as well.
For those of you that have asked about it, here it is. The tab on the far right will open a chat window that any of us can use. One interesting feature is that even if you make a comment or pose a question and no one else is currently in the chat room, it can alert you later via email that someone has made a comment and you can link directly to it.
Shortly before we got “full-color” Watchtowers in 1986 this one was published in 1984. It features a number of elderly Witnesses, almost all from Brooklyn Bethel on the cover. I was a teen when it came out and little did I know I would go there and meet a few of the folks on this cover someday. I also never thought that my favorite presentation I used to use along these lines was so far off from what is contained in the Scriptures. It shames me to this day when I think about it, but let’s save that for the end of this post.
Continue reading about Cover Picture – The Generation of 1914
A new addition to the site is on the left side part way down. It is a collection of current articles and stories under the heading “New and Useful Links” and will be changing as often as need be.
I have been receiving a number of emails and contacts from brothers that are currently serving in the congregation. Also several that have stepped down, not for “wrong doing” but because their conscience does not allow them to continue to teach things that they have found are untrue.
The excerpts below are from a variety of these communications.
Continue reading about How Many are/were Elders and Ministerial Servants?
We all know that the number of partakers is on the rise. The question is how many and how fast? And what does a steady rise in partakers mean? What could it mean? Witnesses teach that the number going to heaven are 144,000. It was believed for many years (about 70!) that the calling of anointed ones was closed in 1935. Partakers dropped for some years, but in recent times it again began increasing. Then in May 1, 2007 the Watchtower made a change and said this:
Note: The text below is taken from a PDF article I recently wrote to a dear friend. It is mostly made up of small quotes from Watchtower publications, with some comments interspersed. It is reproduced below. Perhaps it will assist some that you know. I pray that it does have a positive effect on the many faithful ones among us that have been mislead and are worshiping a “golden calf” without even knowing it.
To the several that have asked, we now have a questions page. Please put all questions there and hopefully over time we will build up some clarity for all of us to appreciate. JJ Rating 4.33 out of 5 [?]
No matter what stage you are at in your life, the title says it all- sometimes you just have to “play the game” if you want to keep your sanity. Queen made a great song about that didn’t they? So anyway our circuit assembly had been coming up and I was dreading it, feeling down about the organizational problems, injustices, etc. And believe it or not but I am a very positive person by nature. So my family and I attended, and honestly, the old saying served me well.
There are many JW websites that are positive and
pro-Witness out there. These exist for most of the same reasons
other sites exist- to encourage their site members and provide a
safe forum to chat and gather. Understandably, many sincere
brothers and sisters are concerned about what they deem as apostate
influence and infiltration among anonymous internet users, so they
setup a registration process wherein they can restrict who is able
to participate and become a member of their website. Registration
on these sites are limited to only those that can look up something
from a current Kingdom Ministry or songbook…
Recently a new page was added and is found in the upper right tab of the site. My thought was that those that visit could anonymously leave a comment explaining what brought them here and where they are with respect to their service to Jehovah God and Jesus Christ and how it relates to Jehovah’s […]
Pinpointing this time period is extremely important to us as Christian Witnesses of Jehovah- I’m sure you will agree with that. The entire chronology we have been taught hangs upon the date of 607 B.C.E. By starting with this date, we calculate that the 2,520 years of the gentile times brings us to the year 1914 C.E. This then leads us to when Christ appointed a faithful slave over all his belongs in the year 1919. So without knowing when Jerusalem fell back in the pre-Christian era, none of these other dates could be calculated.
There is a story, possibly true; likely embellished, that has been floating around among the Witnesses for a few years. Here’s how it goes:
…Have you heard about the teens that were secretly living a worldly life and coined the phrase “double”? They would approach other youths and say “Are you a double?” referring to their little club as it were. They even went so far as to put two small dots on their lapel badges at Conventions, and spread the word that all the other “doubles” should do the same so they could recognize each other when they walked past each other.
all the way back in the 1970s the Watchtower had two excellent articles explaining the true and accurate meaning and depth of John 17:3. So why is it that 99% of the friends don’t really know what this verse means, and relegate it to the “Study the Bible” scripture? Just because most of us have it memorized doesn’t mean we understand it. And how accurate is the unusual rendering given to this verse by the New World Translation?
I met him briefly when I was there and of course heard him speak many times. He seemed to be a lovely man. But when you are convinced its all part of Jehovah’s Org and you are Captive to a Concept things tend to go “God’s Way” all of the time and it’s so much […]
Recent Comments