“How many of our brothers have been affected?” During my years as a Jehovah’s Witness, that was usually the first question on the lips of friends and family whenever reports came through of a catastrophic natural disaster.
Watchtower literature frequently acknowledges that Witnesses are by no means immune from natural disasters, even hinting that such calamities are proof that we are living in the last days.
One scripture often referred to when disaster strikes is Ecclesiastes 9:11, in which King Solomon laments that “time and unexpected events” befall everyone.
I recall this bible verse being one of the few that made sense to me growing up as a believer, and especially in the wake of my mother’s death from cancer. The writer was essentially saying: “Shit happens, get used to it.”
I left the Witnesses in December 2013, but if I were still a believing member of the organization, I would struggle to reconcile the words in Ecclesiastes with the increasingly superstitious rhetoric of Watchtower and its leaders, who seem to leap on any fortuitous incident as evidence of “Jehovah’s hand.”
A perfect example can be found in the January 2016 episode of JW Broadcasting in which Travis Brooks, a design and construction worker for Watchtower, credits Jehovah with delivering sand needed for a kingdom hall build by means of a typhoon. (Skip to 04:25 in the video below to see Brooks interviewed.)
[Edit: The typhoon most likely referred to was Typhoon Maysak, which killed four people, injured ten, and caused $8.5 million worth of damage to property.]
No thought is given to the possibility that this was merely a fortunate coincidence. In the mind of Brooks, divine manipulation of the weather was the only answer for sand becoming readily available, thus enabling the success of a building renovation. And the Governing Body clearly ratified the “miracle,” because they signed off on the episode in which this experience is related.
But if you were one of the relatives of the 33 Jehovah’s Witnesses who perished on November 8th when Typhoon Haiyan ploughed into the Eastern seaboard of the Philippines, you might be less endeared by the sand story.
How could Jehovah use one typhoon near the island of Yap to deliver sand for building a kingdom hall, while allowing another in the Philippines to kill 33 of his worshipers – 22 of whom were huddled together seeking shelter in, you guessed it, a kingdom hall? Either Jehovah had no hand whatsoever in delivering the sand for the building project, or he DID have a hand but has woeful prioritization skills in how and when he chooses to tinker with the isobars.
But the sand story was no one off. As recently as October 2013 (a month before Haiyan) Geoffrey Jackson climbed on the stage of the Jersey City Assembly Hall (the Stanley Theater) and told the gathered throngs that Jehovah was responsible for engineering a cooler summer so that more copies of the latest New World Translation edition could be printed.
Perhaps it’s just me, but at no point during my Witness upbringing do I recall Watchtower’s leaders, either directly or in their publications, claiming that Jehovah was manipulating natural forces to their benefit. Perhaps an over-enthusiastic elder might give some ill-advised anecdote in a congregation talk in which divine intervention was hinted at, but there was always plausible deniability as far as Watchtower itself was concerned.
But all that has now changed. Over the last three years, despite Typhoon Haiyan furnishing the most grisly evidence that Witnesses are NOT immune from natural forces, the caution and sobriety of past leaders has melted away. Today’s Governing Body are deluded enough to insist that Jehovah DOES control the weather, even if it is only to assist their building and printing endeavors.
I can only hope these increasingly outrageous claims will register with thinking Witnesses, causing them to ponder which is more likely: (1) that Jehovah uses the weather to bulldoze some kingdom halls but to provide building materials for others, or (2) that the men who claim to represent him are actually deluded, narrow-minded narcissists who are detached from reality and utterly unworthy of respect and credibility.
Further reading…
The use of “Jehovah’s hand” makes me sick. And all the more so to say that his hand gave them free sand from a storm!! It’s sickening to think of the logical repercussions that has, and more so to think that JW’s around the world are eating this up. Cult much?
Funny, when you mentioned ‘caution and sobriety of former leaders,’ Rutherford immediately popped into mind.
Interesting article Cedars. Thanks.
About 15 years ago there was a guy from bethel that gave the dedication talk at a kingdom hall and as a part of that talk he went through a number of historical events that made it possible for JWs to flourish (the gist of it was that Jah created the US with freedom of religion and that allowed JWs to become what they are today). In this talk one of the factors that he mentioned was the destruction of the spanish armada by severe storms in the 1500s. It was no mere hint that this was a literal act of god.
In some ways it seems that there may have been an uptick in claims of divine intervention like this, but I think what’s really going on is that they’ve always been careful to keep their more insane stuff reserved for talks/conventions/etc and out of print. When it’s not in print and searchable, it’s much easier for it to simply leave an impression in someone’s mind and they can later claim that they never said something or that it was misunderstood because there’s no official record (why do you think they don’t want people making recordings of conventions available online?)
I think they’re still getting used to this internet thing where everything they do is immediately and indefinitely preserved, regardless of what form it takes.
“During the flood of Noah’s day Jehovah separated the continents. The position of each continent allowed for the development of today’s governmental super powers. Hence Jehovah preparing for the fulfillment of prophecy.”
That’s a quote from a talk I heard given by a member of the writing committee. Anything goes when you’re trying to convince people that you have access to secret knowledge.
Fascinating stuff by the writing committee, their overactive imagination knows no boundaries! Maybe Atlantis was paradise lost after all :-) lol
It’s like freakin’ Harry Potter.
They even said that the Pleiadi were God’s home. They are God’s only spokesman so who can contradict them? The mother of fools is always pregnant.
So, the garden of eden was located on the super continent Pangea, so it could possably be in Jackson County Missouri, so both the Mormons and jws would then agree. Maybe the 4 rivers were the Mississippi, Missouri, ohio and the Wabash, As for the other sheep that started in American too. (another Mormon belief), not to far from the jwdub version.
Someone should make a Board Game of all this. They’ll make millions! lol
Are there any audio recordings of this talk? Nowadays some of the more “progessive” JWs are even saying that the flood was a local event. They should be confronted with the fact that some of the governing body members believe in such bullshit!
Nice point about talks vs print. Never thought of that. Maybe they’re not quite as dumb as they look. :)
I couldn’t help but notice that the wording was very carefully phrased so that the entire statement was credited to the ignorant yokels in the Micronesia branch and not originating in NY. Bet they didn’t see that bus coming.
Excellent observation. You will notice, in most cases, any time a claim has even a slight amount of superstition, WT will go through lengths to absolve itself of potential blame. Read the articles, watch the broadcasts, and you will see how riddled they are with phrases like, “You no doubt believe that…”, or “Many feel that…”, or “He or she is confident that…”. All of these are ways of shifting the actual belief onto another person, instead of the author/writer/host.
Haha! This complete arbitrary use of the Holy Spirit has always driven me nuts! It’s complete superstition ! It is however engrained in witnesses to talk like that. I guess subconciously they feel it shows a high degree of piousness when you attribute everything to divine intervention. Years ago, one brother in our congregation mentioned in one of his talks that he had financial trouble and couldn’t afford groceries. A couple of days earlier someone had anonymously dropped a bag of food in front of his door! “How Jehovah was looking after him so well””. That exact same week, about an hours drive away, a group of witnesses on a bus accidently drove of a cliff on their way to a ski trip. 20 dead! Bad luck I guess?? Jehovah must have been too busy looking for groceries, because that’s what’s important! Lol
How dare you invoke the God of Luck! LOL :) :) :)
That’s exactly what I say about the whole child molestation scandal. A pioneer couple cries out “please jah help us pioneer, we need a part-time job with benefits”. Somehow the org finds this mystery couple and prints their life story.
In a similar manner a child cries out ” Jehovah save me from this child molester!” And…nothing. We never hear an experience where Jehovah intervened on behalf of this child.
BTW unfortunately your story about the brother receiving groceries sounds like something I would have said a few years ago
Same thing happened to me only it was someone who over heard me saying I had no food. It happened maybe twice that’s it. I was still a broke pioneer unable to pay my bills or repair my car. I guess I ran out of my blessing stipend for the year.
O u faithless one! Do u not realize it was JEHOVAH who placed that individual there at that moment, to overhear u. :) RFLMAO
Silly me! No coincidence’s in JW land.
Over the years I also hear tell of Jah’s interventions. Many from elders, CO’s in their talks. It was always the same theme. Pioneers out in service. Low on gas, no money. The they find $20 on the street. So, they can carry on the work. No thinking person could stand for it. Everyone could use some magic money appearing for bills. And why if god has this magic power for money, and weather doesn’t he use it all the time. Stupid stupid stuff.
@Peggy. $20 never got you to far! If Jah could have them find $20 why not send $100k right? I mean the scriptures say all the Gold and silver belong to him. I knew a brother who used to smoke a lot of Marijuana before he became a Witness. One day on his way to an assembly he found a bag of Marijuana. Well, he gave in and took it home, missed the assembly and smoked it all weekend! True story.
Does that mean Jah divinely gave him the MJ? The Rastafarians call God Jah and they smoke a lot of dope. Maybe Jah did send that bag of weed to him.
Nice article.
I think I’ll go with Conclusion #2. :)
I distinctly remember being taught that ALL miracle-working ended with the death of the last apostle. Yet ANOTHER contradiction by WT. Just throw it on the pile.
@redpilltwice
I posted this as a reply on the previous page, just making sure u see it — Re ur reference to Jesus referring to the Eden story as proof it really happened:
What if Jesus himself never existed?
Or what if he was not actually the Son of God, but just another charismatic preacher of the Day?
Check out JW Blog (JWB) – “Did Jesus Exist?”
It’s an eye-opener!
P.S. It seems you need to type “jwblog” as 1 word to get to that specific site.
…or not
It did anonymous, it did. I prayed to find it and…voila!… :-) it worked! Proof that the Lord…no, seriously, let’s go to the article you mentioned. It was quite good actually. After 20 years of brainwashing it’s so refreshing to reconsider arguments for and against without fear of theocratic inquisition tactics by the shepherds. It was a shock to read that secular quotes referring to Christ of Christians by Josephus and Tacitus might as well be forgeries. The Wt always embraced such secular quotes as means to persuade the final sceptics! To quote Mclintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia of Theological Literature: “Enough of the writings of [these] authors remain to form a library. Yet in this mass of Jewish and Pagan literature, aside from two forged passages in the works of a Jewish author, and two disputed passages in the works of Roman writers, there is to be found no mention of Jesus Christ.”
So, thanks for the info!
Some historians have come to the conclusion that the historical Jesus is not the same as the theological/legendary Jesus:
http://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-152,
for example.
Could someone explain to me what this has to do with the article?
If you want to really understand where Jesus came from, I recommend this site.
It is not finished (probably never will be) and he has been working on it for years, but it gives a very good overview of how Jesus came about.
http://pocm.info/index.html
I opened up my mind after reading the book Zealot, by Reza Aslan. The Life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. Excellent research!
Wasn’t this the same Jehovah who wasn’t able to proofread the first print run of the 2013 NWT bible, despite changing the weather to quicken it’s production, resulting in an embarrassing typo at the top of page 267?
The WTB&TS is rather like the people dumb enough to read their daily horoscope. (Aaahhh -from Satan!) You only take the positive events ignoring all contradictory events. I think that’s called superstition.
I also saw your vlog about the ‘Generation’ explanation.
Is it just me or is David Spleen really Howdy Doody?
Howdy Doody makes more sense.
So now WT Corp is basically saying that THEY, thru yahweh, vicariously control the weather. When it helps accomplish THEIR goals, which of course, they claim, are HIS goals. Talk…about…control…FREAKS.
“Watchtower”, May 2018:
“Brothers, since the asteroid that struck the Moon last month has altered its orbit around Earth, the oceans’ tidal patterns have changed, allowing us to obtain some previously unavailable beachfront property, on which to build a much-needed translation office. Can we not clearly see Jehovah’s hand in this? What a blessing!”
P.S. In no way am I insinuating that WT will last until 2018.
Great article. I am a statistician by profession. Any form of ‘good luck’ is basically the antithesis of ‘bad luck’ in a equally distributed probability density. In this case, the JW’s always say “Jehovah has blessed us with…” on the fortunate event and “Satan is working against us on …” Funny. This is really two sides of the same coin, so to speak. We all have fortunate and unfortunate things that happen to us. These rubes just try to associate it with supernatural causes rather than random chances.
I have to add: Yes, I do try to hedge my odds for fortunate events as much as I can by preparation. I also appreciate when people help me and I can help them. I try to learn from the unfortunate events so that I don’t end up in the same situation. If I thought numbly that all good events come from one side and all bad events come from another side, not paying much attention to the lessons learned, then I’m pretty much doomed to repeat the unfortunate events over and over and over.
“Those who fail to learn from History are doomed to repeat it.”
For those that follow the hype, “end is near”!
In the news, Al Gore’s ARMAGEDDON CLOCK About To Hit ZERO
It’s the final countdown.
It’s only 23 days and change until human civilization burns into cinders under the death shroud that is “climate change.”
Ten years ago, Al Gore made a nightmarish prediction that by this month, the world would end. Here’s how CBS reported it:
“The former vice president came to town for the premiere of “An Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary chronicling what has become his crusade since losing the 2000 presidential election: Educating the masses that global warming is about to toast our ecology and our way of life.
Gore has been saying it for decades, since a college class in the 1960s convinced him that greenhouse gases from oil, coal and other carbon emissions were trapping the sun’s heat in the atmosphere, resulting in a glacial meltdown that could flood much of the planet.
Americans have been hearing it for decades, wavering between belief and skepticism that it all may just be a natural part of Earth’s cyclical warming and cooling phases.
And politicians and corporations have been ignoring the issue for decades, to the point that unless drastic measures to reduce greenhouse gases are taken within the next 10 years, the world will reach a point of no return, Gore said.
He sees the situation as “a true planetary emergency.”
“If you accept the truth of that, then nothing else really matters that much,” Gore said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We have to organize quickly to come up with a coherent and really strong response, and that’s what I’m devoting myself to.”
in part & credit to http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/us/al-gores-armageddon-clock-about-to-hit-zero
Well, it’s been ten years. Have we reached “planetary emergency levels?”
Loser’s like Al Gore reminds me of those revolving doors at the casino. BTW, is AL Gore a JW?
IMHO
dogstar
Will I need an umbrella?
@ SIRIUS
You wrote: “is AL Gore a JW?”
Could be. One that takes the overlapping-generation concept to a complete new, refreshing level. After all, he IS a proclaimer of “soon” since 2006, isn’t he?
People believe what they want to believe. Al Gore believes that the world and nature cannot bounce back or adapt to changing conditions, good or bad. True science proves that no matter what man or nature can throw at it, it will change and adapt. Of course, I’m not saying we should pollute and not take care of what we have. We should be better stewards of our environment. My point here is, the JW’s believe what they want to believe, even if it flies in the face of facts and reality. Just like Gore and the doomsdayers. They want to believe there is a doomsday coming to reinforce their neurotic beliefs. I tell people that start worrying about anything that seems to them the world will come to an end, “The sun will rise in the east, it will set in the west, and the wheels on the bus will keep going round and round.”
In the business world it is much more cost efficient to keep an existing client as opposed to trying to sign a new client. In that same line of thought, I wonder if you can reason with a JW about these two different natural disasters. Does it make sense that a loving God would create a natural disaster to demolish a Kingdom Hall and kill 22 of his “existing clients”. OR does it make sense that a loving God would create a typhoon to provide sand to help build a Kingdom Hall in hopes of “signing new clients” ….. if the latter is the case then maybe God should go back to business school!
In the business world it is much more cost efficient to keep an existing client as opposed to trying to sign a new client. In that same line of thought, I wonder if you can reason with a JW about these two different natural disasters. Does it make sense that a loving God would create a natural disaster to demolish a Kingdom Hall and kill 22 of his “existing clients” and then use a typhoon to provide sand to help build a Kingdom Hall in hopes of “signing new clients”. If this is the case …..then maybe God should go back to business school!
I was just going over the parts of ARC I watched, in my head, and, I’m sure I’m not the only one who sees this, but anyway, in hindsight, it seems the Aussie officials there were ‘putting up’ with Geoffrey Jackson. I bet they were thinking to themselves, “What the hell is wrong with this guy?” I think it didn’t take long for them to realize they were dealing with a dimwit. Then they just ‘sat on their hands’ and waited for him to shut the f*ck up and maybe start cooperating a little by actually answering 1 or 2 of their questions. It’s like, Hey, Bonzo, do you have a clue where you are? This is an Inquiry – an Inquisition – an Interrogation. And YOU are on the Hot Seat. You are not the Star of this show.
a4 —> “You are not the Star of this show.”
Well, certainly not according to glorious, powerful spirit-directed WT standards, but to me Jackson actually WAS the star of the show by saying:
“Ah, that I think would seem to be quite presumptuous to say that we are the only spokesperson god is using.”
People tell other people to go f*** themselves, all the time. Jackson did it to himself, good & proper, without any encouragement whatsoever. LOL
Don’t you think Jackson’s father was ill due to divine intervention so that Jackson himself could be in Australia to give his wonderful witness for all to see?…..
You know I’m being sarcastic, right?
On a separate note, concerning the January broadcast, is Lett the new official poster child for panhandling for the org.? ….notice the pinkie rings came off…hard to beg for money with too much jewelry on..
It’s the Kindly, Grandfatherly Image. Only instead of giving the kids $, he’s asking for it.
I’m on holiday in south West England at the moment….do the wt have a weather channel or app for my phone so I can plan for tomorrow?
seriously the more I hear the more I laugh!
I can only say this:
my wife and I were saying only the other day that perhaps having two rebellious kids ( now in their mid twenties) probably saved us from a life sentence to the Wt organisation. ..
because we never got so involved socially into the hub of the congregation and therefore never developed really close friendships with that many .
this made drifting away easier…..I’m so glad we were so balanced in our decisions in allowing our kids to choose to follow or not…
once 13/14..their intelligence is developed enough to decide whether to believe or not…
thanks children for being naughty!
you saved us !
Ur kids were wise beyond their years. I wish I had been more ‘rebellious’ when I was that age. No worries though, I’m more than making up for it now. ;)
As soon as we stopped attending the meetings, my oldest 14 year old daughter declared herself agnostic. Thank god for her honesty, and she doesn’t even blame us for our years of theocratic devotion! She had her own non-religious mindset all the time but, like so many others, simply didn’t want to disappoint us and others. I’m so glad she has her own life now.
Love your blog, keep up the good work.
Funny because i always hear “Thank Jehovah” after everything. When I was looking for a job, they urged me to “talk to Jehovah”. I never once did and now i have 3 jobs. My dad is a retired firefighter because he got hurt. He always asks me do I pray that he get’s it. Honestly I hate that. It defames God. You use his so called name-which ironically isn’t his real name-whenever something good happens. But the minute disaster strikes you all claim he isn’t to blame. If according to witnesses he’s going to kill more than 5 billion people because they aren’t Jehovah’s Witnesses then what makes you think an earthquake here or a tornado there isn’t him. It’s scary how they reason.
Cedars and friends, happy 2016. Jehovah’s Witnesses are not real people living in the real world, everything is possible in a surreal world.
“Surreal” – Characterized by fantastic & incongruous imagery. If u see a goldfish fly out of a melting clock & offer u tango lessons, u’re having a surreal experience. Either that or u’re asleep & dreaming. Or on drugs.
I’m beginning to wonder if there’s ANY limit to what the JW R&F are willing to accept.
Jehovah’s Witnesses: Wake up from ur dreamlike state, come out of that ‘purple haze’, & realize the life u’re leading is ABNORMAL. No one else on Planet Earth lives like that. And that is NOT a compliment!!!
Great article!
If anyone would like to send me a check for $20, I have some magic beans I can sell you – kidding of course, but that seems to be the gist of it, eh?
When I see these claims of so-called miracles or divine intervention, I’m reminded of something Michael Shermer of Skeptic Magazine once said: ‘In science, we cannot solely focus on the hits, we also have to keep track of the misses.’
I think with all the failed predictions becoming more and more obvious – e.g. 1914, ‘this generation,’ the nearness of Armageddon, etc., the GB is grasping at anything they can to bolster the faith (credulity) of the rank & file masses.
WS
Michael Shermer is not a true sceptic. He is a tool of the establishment and heaven forbid anyone who goes against what the establishment and peer review articles decree.
See the following link on a rebuttal of him.
https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2015/10/05/comments-on-michael-shermers-article-in-sci-american/
@Deep Thinker
Thanks for he info. It’s good to keep abreast of both sides of the issues. I certainly have read other things from Shermer that I do not agree with. However, I believe that his points about the hits and the misses is valid.
WS
Many of the claims they make must be Rhetoric talk. I have a funny feeling they don’t really believe what they are saying. Sometimes I think they are trying to be cute? It’s hard to take them seriously when they say some of the things they say. And So insulting to the families who lost loved ones to natural disasters.
I’m curious to know which of the typhoons Jehovah used to “bless” the Yap congregation? Was it Typhoon Maysak, which killed 5 and caused extensive damage? Was it Typhoon Parma, with 500 deaths and over $600 million damage? Typhoon Noul, with 2 fatalities, $100,000 damage to Yap and $23 million damage overall? Interesting how the date of the KH extension was left out of the story, so no one could look up the cost of human life and financial damage it took for Jehovah to get his people some sand.
@Jarred Booth
It all goes to their attitude that so-called “worldly” people don’t really matter. God is going to destroy them all soon anyway. So as long as no JWs die it can be considered a blessing. And if God happens to kill someone who might potentially have been a JW convert, he can just resurrect them later. Never mind their suffering or that of their surviving family. How sick and dehumanizing!
WS
I wonder how Watchtower would explain the fortuitous timing of Geoffrey Jackson’s presence in Australia during the ARC? Was it Holy Spirit that timed his father’s illness with the ARC so they could subpoena him? I would like to think so, for the purpose of finally taking action against those who have brought more reproach to his name than any other man-made organisation in history. Hope springs eternal, but I think I’m going have to chalk that one up to Ecclesiastes 9:11 too. Sigh…
Yet another proof to what extent things are going downhill with those 7 jokers at the helm. Only Lett The Face with his saucer-eyes, his dancing eyebrows, his full body tourette and fist-clenching may act like a (bad) teller of bedside stories (I wouldn’t hire HIM for my kids!) – but all 7 are spinners of yarns. They seriously believe the nonsense they babble. There’s no class anymore – everything in JW.ORG gets dumbed down massively. Soon, they’ll replace the Bible by LOTR, telling us this is what really happened. “More proof for 1914 than for wind and electricity.” Oh yeah, and the earth is flat, and the moon landing never happened, suuuure. JW.ORG-“Theology” and the whole shebang surrounding it has become nothing but a big fat joke.
Relieve my ignorance here. What is LOTR?
Sure. LOTR = the commonly used acronym for “Lord Of The Rings”. The saga of Middle Earth. Hobbits. Elves. Orks. Wizards. Gandalf. Sauron. Dragons. Balrogs. Trolls. Gollum. Mordor. All real. Just as real as “More proof for 1914 than for electricity and wind”-nonsense, the “Overlapping Generation”-hypothesis, the “The End is coming SOOOOON”-eternal promise, “Only the 7 in BRK are the fadS”-delusion.
I was just going to say that we have finally left the domain of religion and are now entering the domain of Harry Potter.
People, have you all gone blind? Can’t you see the hand working? I mean we have villages after vilages refusing to sell thier sand and the only one that was willing to sell couldn’t deliver. So there was a thypon just minding it’s own bussines and the hand decides to dump some sand. Can’t you see the hand doing a handy work. I just want to find out whose hand it was so I can give it a handshake. It is all n the hand and we all know hands have been in the handling bussiness. Now if we good olny get the hand to drop food fro the hungry, Clothes for the naked and medcine to the sick it would all be handy dandy. But as they say the hand giveth and the hand takes away. So dear hand us se handy things so we can all handle wha ever it is on hand.
Sounds like that typhoon was quite a hand job.
JW’s are stewards of Jehovah God, a loving God. He is loving when it works in his favor. So I guess the 33 that died were no longer obeying him…
Exactly..they probably were super-bad..perhaps had coffee with a coworker, wore denim to meeting, grew a scruff on vacation, or, God forbid. Actually made an original comment at the theocratic review meeting.
Oh you silly people of course god controls the weather. Did you not read that there are store houses of snow. Thats for those in lala land to make snow men and snow angels and when they have had their fun the earth is stored up for fire so they can have a jolly good bbq. I have decided to reinterpret those weather scriptures because anything daft they say I’m sure I can come up with something dafter and more plausible. Ha ha ha. I kid you not an old timer said to me we should thank god personally when we have a particular nice tasting bit of fruit as it is from him. What about the billions who don’t eat much if at all obviously god’s rain and sun on them is not to produce anything for them they must be so unjdub. Jws really do believe in their modern miracles but are hard pressed to believe the Bible they claim to follow. I say it again jehovah’s witnesses do not read their bible or they would not come out with such nonsense and if their religion was real they would not be so brutal in the dismissal of the rest of mankind who are not branded through with jw.org. Such silly people.such wormy fruit. ruthlee
‘branded with jw.org’ — The Mark of the Beast
According to Geoffrey Jackson the Creator would control the weather to print a Bible with a different cover and very few verses changes instead of intervene to save people’s lives.
Bibles are available everywhere, you can download even electronic copies. So God is so capricious to print a Bible with sleeker cover rather than save a child life?
I think this is proof that the governing body are just a bunch of superstitious individuals.
All this is done to redirect all people’s attention to the golden calf, the organisation.
Oh, you with little faith. ..let me tell you how great my faith is!!! I planned a ski trip to Vail, we prayed for good condition, no wait. We asked for 20″ of fresh powder. …you guessed it, we got it….2 weeks later another group of elders and a c.o. went, but it rained on them.
Moral of the story,, I got the power…Vegas here we come, baby….
For the u.s. following, shades of Jim and Tammy, and Jimmy Swaggat (who the society secretly supported in his losing supreme Court case).
The GB and many JW’s make outrageous claims because they think they are God’s chosen people. They are very arrogant about that.
Great article and very tongue-in-cheek commentary; thanks again Lloyd!
Nothing that comes from the minds and mouths of the seven mental dwarfs inhabiting cloud cuckoo land (Watchtower H.Q.) surprises me anymore. Referring to this mindless indoctrination and idiocy as part of a “cult” is, in my humble opinion, being too kind.
This is a little off subject however, I had an interesting experience of attending a funeral of a brother who was in the truth during the Presidency of ‘Judge’ Rutherford. This brother served as a pioneer and elder for more than six decades. His father, a very wealthy farmer in Massachusetts, U.S.A., had enough financial wherewith-all to send him to Harvard University. He refused the college opportunity and choose house painting and pioneering. This was related to me by this brother on more than on occasion.
Because of his embitterment at a life wasted for absolutely no reward his funeral was pretty sparse. In other words, no flowers, no songs and no funeral discourse. It was a prayer followed by a reading of his obituary and a closing prayer. The absolute silence, at the Kingdom Hall afterward, was deafening. If that wasn’t a wake-up call to all “in the truth” who knew him than I don’t know what would be.
I’m sure the JWs at that kingdom hall will shortly hear a talk about why they shouldn’t serve Jehovah with a date in mind.
…………but nevertheless Armageddon is coming real soon!
Jehovah’s on his way. Put on ur raincoats.
U know, I don’t have a lot of disposable income right now, & the movies that r out there don’t really appeal to me (now that the Hobbit trilogy is done), but I am getting sooooo much entertainment, & laughs, from all the wacky antics of the Watchtower Corporation – the ones, of course, that are not tragic. Their constant bumbling and foot-in-the-mouth statements & assertions remind me of the Keystone Kops, or Abbott & Costello. “Who’s on First? What’s on Second?…” :)
Lloyd, thank you for such a thought provoking article. This website has helped me to dispel many of my long held beliefs. I appreciate your hard work.
~Nee’