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No More 3 Day District Conventions?
Submitted by Teeny on July 12, 2012 - 9:22 am 67 Comments
Randy and Susan at the Twickenham, London District Convention
Rumours are rife that this series of Jehovah’s Witness District Conventions will be the last time we’ll have to sit through 3 entire days of complete and utter boredom.
Nothing’s concrete at the moment, but word from District Convention committee members is that there will be no 3 day district conventions planned for 2013. No stadia are being booked, hotels aren’t being pressured into lowering their room rates and finally, we won’t have to listen to any more experiences from Brothers and Sisters who lost their jobs because their boss didn’t allow them to take the Friday off.
If it’s true and we’ve just witnessed the final 3 Day District Conventions, I am sure you’re all wanting to know why the boffins up in Watchtower HQ decided to pull the plug. JWB intelligence tells us that it’s the culmination of a few things:
- The contributions are drying up
- The Watchtower Society isn’t raking in the donations like it used to, so why bother with a 3 day convention when it can just as easily put up a 2 day convention.
- Cost of renting stadia is going up
- I’ve ever only been to the Twickenham (London, England) District Conventions. It costs thousands to rent out stadia like Twickenham and as the above point shows, it’s just not worth the Watchtower Society’s while.
- Change is good – change shows we’re in the “Last Days”
- Have you noticed that the word “Change” is changed to the term “New Arrangement” once you’re in “The Truth”? Whenever a “New Arrangement” comes along, the Brothers & Sisters get excited. They’re not sure why they’re excited, so we start to hear some sound bites to the tune of “Well, this shows that the end must be really near”. Or, “Whenever the Organisation make a change like this, it must mean Armageddon is right around the corner.”
- Friday’s are a killer
- Since I can remember, the Watchtower Society has been trying to get all the Jehovah’s Witnesses to take Friday off from work and attend the first day of the District Convention. Here are some examples that we’ve been told over the years. Bear in mind, these examples have a slight JWB element added to them.
Does this District Convention Experience Bring Back Memories?
A couple of months before the big day, we’re told about Susan, a loyal and god-fearing Sister. She’s a single mum as her husband had an affair with hundreds of women since finding out his wife wanted to become a Witness. Susan is also a regular pioneer and works shift work at her local supermarket.
In the 10 years as a Jehovah’s Witness, our Susan has never missed the opening day of the District Convention. Each and every year, she knows that she’ll have a real struggle with her Atheist boss. He’s a good man, but doesn’t believe in God and so can’t understand why Susan wants to take a day off.
Before Susan approaches her boss, she prays to Jehovah – the supreme being who created the plants and then the sun – and asks him to open up her Atheist boss’ heart so that he can allow her to take the day off.
The next day, Susan asks her boss if she can take the following Friday off as she needs to attend the FREE 3 Day District Convention.
“Susan, I am sorry, but it’s just not possible this year as you’ve had all your days off when you went to that Pioneer School thing. Besides, haven’t you heard your religion is involved in the biggest payout of any religious organisation in a child abuse case?”
Susan thanks her boss. Deep inside, Susan can picture the day when birds peck out her boss’ eyes. She hopes that something can change her boss’ mind, but she’s running out of time.
The next day, Susan approaches her boss and resigns. Her boss is distraught because he has always tried to hire Jehovah’s Witnesses because of their honesty and well-mannered ways.
Susan is a single mum, a pioneer, and now she’s out of a job. She’s decided to look for a job after the District Convention. Susan has decided to put the Kingdom first in her life and fully relies on Jehovah to support her.
On Thursday (a day before the District Convention), Susan is out on the ministry alone (with two hunky angels by her side). She’s been assigned to knock on the doors of some very large houses. As she approaches one, it takes her fancy and she can picture herself living in it after Armageddon.
When she knocks on the door, a man answers the door.
“Hi, my name is Susan…”
Before she can finish, the man says, ”Hi Susan, I’m Randy. Please come in.”
Susan is taken aback. She follows the man into the house and towards his office.
“Now Susan, the job is only on a part-time basis, but the pay is excellent and if you can prove yourself, I’ll up your pay even more.”
“But Randy, I… I am not here for an interview, I came here to talk to you about…”
“Susan, you’re a Jehovah’s Witness, right?”
“Yes, I am!”
“Well Susan, I only hire Jehovah’s Witnesses and if you think you can file, write some letters for me and post them promptly, the job is yours if you want it. Also, don’t you have one of your conventions coming up?”
“Yes, it’s tomorrow in fact.”
“Okay. I’ll tell you what. I’ll come with you. What time should I pick you up?”
Susan looks over at her hunky angel companions and whispers “thank you”.
Brothers and Sisters, do you see how putting Jehovah first in your life can lead to better opportunities… or a Window Cleaning business?
See you on Friday.
No More 3 Day District Conventions?,27 Comments
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Sakura Reply:
July 13th, 2012 at 1:23 am
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adeyemmy Reply:
July 17th, 2012 at 5:48 pm
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Teeny Reply:
July 17th, 2012 at 8:56 pm
Tammy Reply:
April 28th, 2013 at 2:32 pm
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Steve Reply:
April 29th, 2013 at 3:25 am
You are committing the fallacy of applying your life experiences to another. Just because you weren’t pressured that doesn’t mean that others have not been pressured.
When young people cave in to pressure from parents and other authority figures it does not mean that they are “weak,” but rather that they are human.
Sakura’s relating the pressure is not “tearing down your brothers and sisters,” it is just stating a fact — a well known fact which many others have also shared on this site: http://www.jehovahswitnessblog.com/baptism/why-were-you-baptised/
Then you have the audacity to blame Sakura’s attitude!
Please stop blaming the victims of your authoritarian, unforgiving, and unrelenting religion which tries to disguise itself as “warm Christian love.”
The truth IS for everyone: the Watchtower has no monopoly on it. In fact, the GB wouldn’t know the truth if it hit them in the face (as it often has, without so much as a glimmer of recognition in their eyes.)
Sally Reply:
August 3rd, 2012 at 4:25 pm
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ruth Reply:
August 28th, 2012 at 5:51 am
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B_LO Reply:
August 5th, 2012 at 4:13 am
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Andrew Reply:
August 5th, 2012 at 5:21 pm
Secondly, what makes you think you, out of all 33,000 denominations you speak of, have the right one? Why not actually answer some of the criticisms we raise on JWB. Find anything that isn’t true, and provide evidence, and we’ll retract it. You can even count time on your ministry report.
Third, the Jehovah’s Witnesses were associates of the UN for many years. So much for “getting out of her”.
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Andrew Reply:
August 5th, 2012 at 7:33 pm
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Geraldino de souza Reply:
September 20th, 2012 at 8:04 am
In fact jws do that when they peddle Gods word. You are not preachers but peddlers, robotic minds that cannot think
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Kristi Reply:
October 16th, 2012 at 9:24 pm
You are mistaken too about pioneering. Regular pioneers do 130 hours or more each month, special pioneers do 70 hours a month, auxiliary pioneers do 30 or 50 hours a month.
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Merri-Ella Reply:
December 12th, 2012 at 5:59 am
I’m just questioning your numbers a little. I left the JW’s in 2007. At that time a regular pioneer was devoting 70 hours a month to door knocking. The book study was 1 hour long, the service meeting and theocratic ministry school was 40ish minutes each (they were on 1 night in my cong. and it lasted 1 1/2 hours, with a song inbetween), and the watchtower and public talk were each 45 minutes (again on 1 days and together with songs opening and closing and inbetween, lasted about 2 hours).
To my understanding, the JW’s now only meet 2 days a week, and if the book study now is 30 minutes, it has INDEED been shortened, and the reason for the book study being in individual homes was for that home to be our safe house. If the end were to come we were to meet at that home. It was also intended to strengthen the bonds of the people within one book study.
I also remember when regular pioneers put in 90 hours a month. That ended December 1998, and I know that date in particular because that’s the last month that Auxillary pioneers put in 60 hours. I, along with a handful of friends, aux. pioneered that month because we thought it was cool to put in the additional hours. The next month, aux pioneering was lowered to 50 hours.
So if it has changed (again), when was the change to a regular pioneer putting in 130 hours? I remember distinctly when the hours went down because so many of the pioneers, that I was very close to, found this a blessing, and many new pioneers joined that year as they found the diminished hours to be more affordable.
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Sally Reply:
December 12th, 2012 at 4:12 pm
At that time all of the meetings were one hour in length, so we met for 5 hours each week. The magazines were bi-monthly and 32 pages long, and we got 3 or 4 new books every summer that we had to read – and I’m talking at least 2 192-pagers and one 384-pager.
Circuit assemblies were 3 days long, District conventions were 4 days long (International Assemblies were 5 days, and we had one of those every 5 years).
So you can’t tell me that there’s just as much spiritual food/work going on as ever. Things are slowing down.
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Michael Steele Reply:
February 7th, 2013 at 2:54 am
I was a “born in” as you folks call it. I do remember the food. The burritos at those assemblies were GREAT. So was the ice cream. The paper tokens you were referring to were called “Script”. I fired the witnesses back in the 90′s but I like to check in from time to time on sites like this to see just how far they are straying from their original message. It’s always fun to see what “new-light” they concocted to try and bring themselves into mainstream acceptance. That 1914 generation new-light fandango was a big one for me. I remember COUNTLESS assemblies, meetings, bookstudies, service hours talking about how “this generation would by no means pass away before the end of this system took place”. What’s sad is that a new generation of dubs probably have no idea what i’m talking about and the older generation will take it with a grain of salt for fear of losing all contact with their jdub families.
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Andrew Reply:
September 13th, 2012 at 8:00 pm
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Kristi Reply:
October 16th, 2012 at 9:08 pm
And no, it’s not boring to listen at the conventions. I have been diagnosed with the extremely rare disease, FOP, and I loved the 2011 and 2012 conventions. I even wished everyday was a convention day. I love the feeling of being focused on spiritual things. It’s so peaceful, meaningful. Unfulfilled expectations does not mean that we’re not in the last days. But the way things are going, maybe Jehovah will answer my wish for Armageddon to come before I’m 16, and I won’t be until 2014. Manufacturers take away quality in order to speed up their products. But Jehovah isn’t like that. Since Jehovah can create his productions fast and perfectly with the perfect quality, he can speed up world events and the preaching-work. Jehovah ‘is speeding it up in his own time’ says Isaiah 60:22. Everyday brings us closer to Armageddon. Just imagine having Satan’s influence and power taken away from the earth! People have the right to make decisions, but every decision has an outcome, sooner or later. People who refuse to appreciate the life Jehovah gave them by refusing to learn about Him and observe his commandments will not live forever. (Psalm 37:10)
And its not true that donations aren’t being sent. Every Kingdom Hall has a contribution box and anyone who wants to can put in money to send to the Watchtower. Armageddon is so close, there might not be an assembly in 2013 like there was in March 2012.
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Andrew Reply:
October 16th, 2012 at 9:10 pm
Merri-Ella Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 5:38 am
Hi it’s me again, the one who was questioning your numbers earlier. I hear what you’re saying about loving the conventions. I just described to my husband (sitting in the room with me, not a JW) what it was like to get the Jan. KM with the insert about the District convention. I loved the conventions. My problem was I didn’t want to eat during lunch because I wanted to see all the friends that I didn’t get a chance to see the rest of the year. I used to sit with the donation boxes, and I found it a privilege.
But it sounds like you’re young. Honestly, I remember when I was in pre-school and every day at lunch, (i went to school in the afternoon) I would ask my mom if armageddon was coming today. Of course the answer was always no.
I used to aux. pioneer anytime I had the chance, so that meant all summer long and often during December (long school break). I also liked to pioneer in Jan and Feb because I knew it was the hardest time for the pioneers and I wanted to support them.
The point of that is, that some people who leave this religion, were as honest hearted as you seem to be.
Please don’t think that everyone on this site that blasts the JW name is someone who’s heart wasn’t in the right place. It’s just that many of us have learned to truly abhor this religion, because we’ve seen what it does to people. We’ve seen how it takes the nicest people we know, and completely turns them away from us from even making eye contact on the street. We’ve seen it break apart lives by the secrecy it upholds.
Trust in you, trust that you know right from wrong. The elders are just men who have been given responsibility, and many of them don’t deserve it. You seem to be smart and you must have a strong heart, I just looked up FOP, and I didn’t know that was even real.
Keep your chin up, and you’ll find the peace you are looking for.
kimbal Reply:
March 7th, 2013 at 2:25 pm
He does not respond, when I call on his name, he does not listen to my feelings on things and he even lets his people hide the facts about their crimes – ( ie: paedophilia as one example ) without intervening.
When I ask genuine questions about the Society when they knock on my door, the minute they hear my questions they turn their back and leave because they don’t like being argued with.
The witnesses are inconsistent in their beliefs because they cant read in between the lines of Watchtower innuendo and subliminal messages. world wide – and don’t even have the same belief on a subject between congregations.
Most witnesses today cant string 2 scriptures together if they tried, let alone understand their own history.
For example my ex-mother in law speaks to me yet my fleshly brother does not. both are right but both are out of sync with the bible.
As a result Jehovah must be a divided god and have two tables within the congregation. and so all I can conclude form that experience is the apostle Paul’s conscience ruling is “crock of crap” as its divides the congregation.
Another division is – the clergy-laity grouping – with the Faithful & Discreet Slave who are imputed with perfection before death – hence are infallible – and those who are imperfect and wont gain perfection until the end of the thousand year reign ( namely the average JW ).
Personally I think someone in Bethel is pulling themsleves, when they write this crap and promote it as truth.
Why is Fred Franze and his company always in the forefront of publication pictures with the anointed ? A bit egotistical if you must say.
Why are Jws an American based iconic religion as that is their origin ? Just like Mormons and numerous other groups.
Why does Jehovah always used the USA as his instrument to guide the rest of the world. Is God a yankee supportee ?
When I produce tax returns from Bethel about its spending, any points raised are smoothly watered away as meaning something else.
When the bible says the early Christians were known as THE WAY ( Acts 9:1; 18:25-26; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22 ) that is another way of saying they were a cult. And you know what people think of cults ! Even today Jws say they are a way of life and jesus said he was the way , the truth & the life ., no one comes to the father except through him. How egotistical and arrogant is that statement !
If your god is so great and powerful, why is he so impotent that he can’t shut my mouth, if I am so wrong – or better still – answer my questions in a truthful manner to shut me up for all time ? Even Satan has been given 6,000 years to prove himself and a second chance at the end of the 1000 year reign, but me, I don’t get even 6 minutes on the door step and if I’m destroyed at Armageddon I wont even get a 2nd chance like satan does.
So I’m far worse than satan in your god’s eyes.. So how fair is that ?
I can never get 2 Jws to agree on the same point, which highlights spiritual division in the ranks of the Society. If I raise the issue up i get told the other Jw had it all wrong, or more to the point, I got it all wrong and misheard the facts.
The fact Jehovah is dumb struck and can’t speak for himself but needs slave class to do it for him, is proof in itself he is an accessory to your crimes and totally incompetent as a universal ruler. He can’t even make a perfect human body as he has to test everything to see if its good. Having to test something means you have doubts about its ability and his calculations. Testing also shows he has no idea of what he is doing in creation. he has to tet it to see the end result, meaning he cant predict the future and does not know it. So much for being omniscient !
Rather, his inaction in stepping in, is allowing me to be vindicated over time !
He supposedly struck Saul of Tarsus with blindness because he was persecuting the early disciples and mocking the Christ, but he’s far from capable of striking me, to convert me to the faith as he dose not do miracles any more.
Why not put him to the test and see if he can’t put his great power into action to prove how wrong I really am.
Saul killed the disciples ( steven ) yet he was latter saved and deemed one of the latter apostles ( so how privileged is he ), but all I find when I ask questions, is I get ignored and spoken of abusively.
Even Satan has more hope or redemption than I’ve been given, by god’s so called true people. So much for expressing undeserved loving kindness on his new found enemies – namely me.
Having so called love amongst yourselves, just wreaks of rules and conditions..
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Andrew Reply:
September 15th, 2012 at 6:38 pm
That aside, you should always judge what people say on its own merit – not on who says them. So, mighty detective, why not actually go through our blog and point out any lies. If you can, we’ll remove them.
I guarantee you won’t because no JW has yet done it. They just come here and insult and never actually put up a good rebuttal to what we say (because the JW religion is bulls*%t).
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kimbal Reply:
March 9th, 2013 at 3:13 am
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Andrew Reply:
January 3rd, 2013 at 7:09 pm
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kimbal Reply:
March 9th, 2013 at 3:17 am
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Andrew Reply:
January 14th, 2013 at 1:19 pm
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kimbal Reply:
March 9th, 2013 at 4:01 am
I know you believe you have the truth, but using a couple of smaller examples here should illustrate my point ; –
The use of the word AMEN at the end of a prayer is of pagan origin – yet the bible uses it. AMEN was the pre-deluvian mediator before God and Man who was called Ammun, later known in Egypt as Ammon RA ( note spelling changes ). So every time you ask your god to help you, you are ending your prayer with the word AMEN which is giving recognition to this predeluvian mediator Ammun-Ra who has been ousted form heaven. Ammun was the precursor to Christ before the flood, but left the heavenly abode and was later replaced by Christ. The current understanding of “so be it” or “so must it be” is a much later modern distortion of the word.
So if you want to be technical, as the Jw’s so often are – even the book of Revelation supports and encourages the use of the word which is a pre-christian pagan teaching. Hence the whole book should be removed from the biblical cannon if you want to be a true purist.
Jws only accept the biblical cannon that Christendom approves of ( ie the Popes of pagan Rome ) – hence they deny the facts in the apocryphal books which are quoted in the bible books they currently use. So that alone tells one they don’t have the complete truth under one book cover,
Another point is the use of Wedding rings, they too are also of pagan origin – and yet most JW’s wear them and claim to be Christian. when they can’t deal with something they say “its a conscience thing” – which is a cop-out for “we don’t have all of the truth and can’t answer that because the bible is silent on the matter”.
I don’t feel in my heart, in all reasonableness that I can be associated with any organization claiming to have the truth yet promotes pagan teachings like these or does not have a complete bible.
Those few points alone are a very big stumbling block to me, accepting your organisation as having the truth – and hence your Faithful and Discreet Slave, in line with Jesus words about stumbling the sheep, should have a mill-stone cast about their necks be thrown into the sea,
What’s more after teaching these pagan ideas, the FDSC during the 1980s, started to “impute themselves with perfection in advance” as taught in the publications, more-or-less making themselves infallible like the Clergy.
Again another stumbling block.
I was born in the Jw’s and left after 30 years. I was also one of Australia’s biggest Watchtower book collectors during the 1980′s.
Since leaving , the Jws are not all that different in some cases to the Catholic Church. Just relabelled in my opinion.
It’s unfortunate the slave class now have a lot of blood of their heads to answer for.
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Darren Reply:
May 5th, 2013 at 6:59 am
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Andrew Reply:
January 28th, 2013 at 1:48 pm
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Darren Reply:
March 9th, 2013 at 4:38 am
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Andrew Reply:
January 28th, 2013 at 1:47 pm
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Teeny Reply:
January 30th, 2013 at 7:26 am
By “cleansed earth”, you’re talking about the killing of over 7 billion human beings. That includes babies. Think!
With regards to me using my own opinions, I can see that you’ve not really read any articles on here. I openly display my sources, unlike the Watchtower.
You’ve made a claim, back it up. Ball’s in your court.
Regards,
Jaymes
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I’m not surprised the Governing Body held onto the “1914″ teaching for as long as they did. It was a POWERFUL revenue and fear generator. I knew many witnesses who did not dare question the society or skip a meeting or donation box because they reasoned that the “1914″ generation was almost all died off so Armaggedon must be right around the corner. Here is my basic question to you current JW’s. If new-light is truly an increase in understanding of a current belief then why does it often contradict or completely negate the old-light? Shouldn’t the new-light just build upon the foundation of the old-light and not completely wipe it out or alter the old-light to where it is no longer recognizable? How did God get his light so mixed up? How could God have been wrong about so many predictions and understandings that JW’s held to be the gospel truth at the time.
Having said that my “brothers and sisters” I will leave you with this…Deuteronomy 18:22 “If the prophet speaks in the LORD’s name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the LORD did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared.
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kimbal Reply:
March 9th, 2013 at 4:59 am
I agree with you 100% – The bible says in Daniel 12 that “the true knowledge would become abundant in the time of the end”.
Today we have the internet and many other resources available, explaining history and the facts of the past – as well as – the Watchtower’s history.
Living in denial of this abundant true knowledge – especially of facts which clash with Watchtower doctrine [ such as a complete copy of VAT 4956 located in the British Museum which quotes the missing segments of the Babylonian King-list dates, supporting 587 BCE instead of 607 BCE, as to when Jerusalem fell - of which 607 as well know was latter used to support the AD 1914 teaching and the pouring of holy spirit on the Anointed in 1919 AD ] – such ignorance of historical facts, tantamounts to living, not the truth – but LIVING A LIE – some thing my conscience won’t allow.
Every JW living today is baptised because they want to save their skin at Armageddon, so they are serving their god out of “fear of death” and disapproval.
Though they deny this verbally, they state it’s because “they love God and his promises”.
To love someone means you have a relationship with that person on some level. Yet their relationship with Jehovah is a conditional one-sided binding – based on reward, fear and personal selfishness on the part of the witness wanting salvation.
As Satan declared to Jehovah in Job 2 “Is is for nothing that man serves god ?” – and then Satan declared “Skin in behalf of skin, everything a man has he will give in behalf of his soul”.
Man will serve a god for what he wants, and especially HIS SOUL.
Ironically Jws today, are actually by their 24/7 faithfulness to their god proving Satan’s words in Job to be correct and Jehovah the great liar – simply by staying faithful until the end.
Yet again ironically, they point the finger at the Satan and claim he does the same thing.
To me it’s the pot calling the kettle black !
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Andrew Reply:
March 6th, 2013 at 10:26 pm
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Maria Reply:
March 28th, 2013 at 11:21 pm
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Teeny Reply:
March 8th, 2013 at 7:23 am
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Darren Reply:
March 9th, 2013 at 2:08 am
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PS: OUT OF 41,000 denominations of ‘Christianity’ how many of them have the right to use gods name in their title? If the Catholic Church decided to try and change it’s name to the Catholic Church of Jehovah, do you really think Jehovah would let them? Bahahahahhahaa. .. . . . .
There’s a reason why there’s only one organisation in the world using his name in their title people. It’s the only organisation that he will let use his name in their title.
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Steve Reply:
April 12th, 2013 at 2:06 pm
No one I know of is “blogging about hatred.” People can criticize the Watchtower while loving (and trying to save) those held in that organization’s clutches. In fact, that’s the usual motivation.
If you really think that criticizing a religion is a sign of hatred, then how do you explain the tons of ink the Watchtower has expended in criticizing all other religions (especially since your organization has claimed to have “abolished hatred”?)
In answer to your question about using the name Jehovah as a title: there’s a Lutheran church in the city where I live called “Jehovah Lutheran Church.” http://www.jehovahlutheran.org/index.htm It seems that your god let them get away with this. Someone once started a group entitled “Jehovah’s Atheists” — they got away with this as well, without a single thunderbolt hurled from the heavens.
The Catholics don’t bandy about the “divine name” in the ubiquitous manner of the Witnesses out of respect for what they consider sacred. Others don’t use it because they know it’s a meaningless mistranslation. To be consistent, the Witnesses shouldn’t use it either due to its Catholic origin (having been invented by a Catholic monk in the middle ages). As we all know, the Watchtower identifies “Christendom” with Babylon the Great Empire of False Religion. So why would they use the Catholic-invented name for god?
Besides, you’re not even witnesses to what that scripture says you’re supposed to be witnesses of: that no god was formed after YHWH (Is. 43:10). As you know, WT theology holds that Jesus–as “the Word”–was “a god” formed after YHWH.
So using “Jehovah” in your title is hardly something to be proud of. In fact, to use your word, I’d call it just plain “dumb.”
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Steve Reply:
April 29th, 2013 at 5:55 pm
I wouldn’t go so far as saying that anyone is “persecuting” Teeny here for his post (even though he’s been called a liar and “dumb” and threatened with murder by someone’s god.)
For the most part it’s just a good healthy discussion. And we all know that the Watchtower encourages us to examine our religion, right? So, let’s continue the examination without either “side” being silly enough to holler “Persecution!”
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Steve Reply:
May 5th, 2013 at 1:26 am
I hadn’t realized this before, but, as with most things, the Bible contradicts itself on just what magic formula is supposed to be used during the ritual. You pointed out one formula in Acts, but the other predates the Nicean council: it is found at Matthew 28:19, where Jesus reputedly commanded: “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit.” (NWT) Revealingly, the Watchtower doesn’t quote the last part of that verse on their site regarding baptism, placing a period after “baptizing them,” which I think is a case of misquoting their own translation: http://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/bible-teach/baptism-and-your-relationship-with-god/
But I don’t think the JWs use either formula. I think that they just ask the questions shown in Teeny’s post on baptism: http://www.jehovahswitnessblog.com/baptism/why-were-you-baptised/. I’m not sure if the baptizing brother says anything at all when he dunks his victim under the water. (Being under water at the time, I wouldn’t have heard what he said anyway.) Does anyone else know?
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The Trinity was formalated by some glown who ditch that sect and started another sect, and the catholic church moved with an iron fist to choose the latter if you didnt accept there mode of salvation at the time after 325 nicean council, off to the gallows with you mate. they totally hated the christians of the time and the huge following they had, people getting saved and all that, so they stuck with the triune formula that you have today in 2013, to take away the true revelation of Baptism in Jesus Name, theres power in that name of JESUS as quoted every eye shall see, every knee shall bow at the name of Jesus……oh and the guy who founded the trinity is tertullian considered to the father of the trinity..look it up, father son and holy spirit is not true foundation
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Steve Reply:
May 5th, 2013 at 5:03 pm
I already DID show you: MT 28:19.
Are you saying that the early Christians didn’t follow Jesus’ command, or are you saying that MT 28:19 was added later by the Catholic Church?
The JWs accept MT 28:19 [the full verse IS quoted later in that article I referenced: I hadn't noticed that at first] but they still deny the trinity [how they do this is also demonstrated in that article.]
I don’t need to look up Tertullian; I’m very familiar with the history and arguments of the trinitarian controversy. I think it will rage as long as there are fundamentalists, because the Bible both supports and denies it, in its ever-contradictory manner. (On this, please see chapter 5 of my book Falling in Truth: http://smmcroberts.net/religion/fundamentalism/watchtower/fit/chap05.html.)
Jesus was a fairly common name back in the day. Was there really power in that name? When Hannah called her little boy Jesus home for supper did all the other kids bow down as he passed? If you claim that there is power in that name, please provide evidence for your statement. I’ll bet that if I stood on the corner and yelled the name “Jesus” I’d get a lot of strange looks, but very few bended knees.
In order to meet the challenges of the real world with rationality, humankind desperately needs to pull itself out of the quagmire of superstitious beliefs in — and futile hostile debates over — magical words, formulas, and rituals. Jesus and/or Jehovah won’t save us: we need to roll up our sleeves and save ourselves. That will require clear thinking and compassion, not divisive never-ending arguments about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, or what magical formula is the correct one to use in the magical ritual of baptism.
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