David Normand

Yes, Jehovah is watching all and his memory is long. He will take care of things in his due time.

Sad that you cannot meet in private homes. If you have friends over for dinner you cannot even speak about your favorite topic. This is just nuts.

"In short, a gambler seeks to get something for nothing. " This is patently an untrue statement. You are offering up something. It may be $1 but that is something. Just because the reward is outrageous, does not make the initial investment of no consequence. If a farmer plants one kernel of corn and gets 15 ears if corn that is a good investment. However, based upon the weather it could also be considered a gamble. Depends upon which farmer you talk to about it. Also, what about those times around the holiday season when grocery stores are offering turkeys or hams and such. All you have to do is put your name in a bucket. No purchase necessary at all. Is that gambling? (might be celebrating the holidays, but that is another question) No, gambling is not forbidden per see in the scriptures. You have to really reason on the scriptures to get to that point and even then you have to be a contortionist to get the the point where gambling is forbidden. Shepherd the Flock of God page 69 32. If a business gives out prizes or prize money to winners of a contest or to potential customers for advertising, accepting the gilt is an individuals personal decision to make. However, a person needs to be careful that accepting such a prize not does stir up greed. (Rom. 14:21; 1 Cor. 10:31-33; g7S 7/8 p. 28; w73 p. 127) The elders do well not to involve themselves in what individuals do with regard to petty gambling solely for entertainment. They may need to give counsel if this becomes a cause of stumbling for others or affects the spirituality of the individual or the congregation.-w02 11/1 p. 31. So, how do you define petty gambling? Is it the size of the wager or the size of the prize? Also, something to think about is how do you define being greedy? If a person donates most of the winnings to charitable causes perhaps even the Watchtower Society can you say the person is greedy? At any rate, all accusations of wrongdoing should be based firmly on scripture and not convoluted reasoning. Cheers,

Well, this just helps to prove that there are some really mentally sick folks out there.

The problem with tablets and other electronic devices is they will eventually die without a power source. Books of course will get old and brittle with age, but it takes many years. No idea what books we will have in NW, but my goal is to be there to find out. When some apostate or other opposed brings up some older publication I generally say that I am not interested in what they we believed in the past, but am interested in what we believe now. I am very thankful that Jehovah's Faithful Slave is willing to admit mistakes of the past and move forward. Cheers my friends.

I have had similar experiences to yours. That being said, the man's response on the video was really over the top. I have not had anybody speak to me that way in many years. Hopefully, his son will take note of how his father reacted to the situation and compare it to how the friends handled it on the receiving end. Seeds were planted, will see what will grow in the future.

Wow, I am surprised he did not stroke out with a fit like that. Perhaps when he goes to church at Easter or Christmas he can relate the experience to his pastor/priest using the same colorful metaphors to emphasize his feelings about Jehovah's provisions.

We just had our regional convention and one of the parts spoke about unjust imprisonment and the need to stay focused and never give up in such circumstances. They spoke about Joseph who was unjustly imprisoned and how he stayed strong with Jehovah to the point that the guards entrusted him with weighty responsibility in the prison due to his fine conduct.

My wife and I studied in the Paradise book and the United in Worship book. We also studied for a time the Truth book, but allowed family pressure to dissuade us from studying for a time. We have added some of the older books to our collection over the years just for the novelty of it. Sadly though, some apostates love to take what was spiritual truth at the time when the older publications were published and trash talk the society for some of their beliefs. It is time for friends to have these in their personal library, but there is a reason they are no longer in print and many are no longer cited in current articles at all.

Doctrine is "a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a church, political party, or other group." Online dictionary. An opinion may also be considered doctrine, but doctrine may not necessarily be an opinion. Doctrine may be based upon fact such the earth is round. However, doctrine may also be based upon opinion such as the doctrine of evolution which to some is based upon faith rather than observable fact. The appointment of the FDS in 1919 is opinion based upon reasoning from the scriptures and taught as doctrine. Opinions change. Interpretation of scripture changes. For example, the teaching of "this generation" has undergone significant change in the past decade. As well as the doctrine of disfellowshipping undergone changes from when Russell first discussed the matter in the 1880's to where it is now. Opinion is just that, an opinion and not necessarily a doctrine. I have my opinion about how the world will be cleansed from all the stuff man has done to it, but that is not JW doctrine. Very wisely, the FDS has really gotten away from having an opinion on everything and passing it off as doctrine. We can now grow beards, have a beer at lunch, and still participate at Christian meetings in the evening. Opinions changed based upon reasoning from the scriptures has driven doctrinal changes. Cheers,

Reminds me of when my son was 8 and the twin towers were bombed. Seems like that was the only thing on television (and for good reason); yet, my son finally said he had seen enough. Apparently it was really disturbing him even though his parents were really interested in the unfolding story. We took his lead and just quit watching it. His peace of mind was much more important than hearing the story over and over again.

Great article. Another case of injustice in this world. Glad to see (upon further research) that he was found innocent by reason of fact and not due to some technicality. The police actually arrested three other individuals and charged them with the crime which was really a murder for hire scheme related to some drug deal. Marco Contreras stated that it was his strong faith, as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, that kept him from spiraling into depression.

I appreciate what the brother said about preaching and the same can be said about our Christian meetings. When I get depressed and feel overwhelmed about the anxieties and skip field service or meetings, generally my problems and anxieties are still there. Same is true after preaching or meetings to a point. My problems are still there, but by focusing on something else for a short while then after field service or meetings my anxiety level is lower. Problems are still there, but being anxious about them is greatly diminished. Not only do meetings allow us to focus on Jehovah's spiritual food, we also get to associate with friends in the faith who do much to lighten our load and make us feel loved. Our friends in the faith are our "planks" that we can hold onto as this old sinking ship of a system breaks apart and sinks forever.

What a great life story.

Well, what the judge says is true. Children at that tender age are impressionable. However, the man is the child's father. Doesn't he have right too? It sounds like he was trying to be balanced in restricting his son's activities, but the boy is still his son and should be taught by his father. So what if he receives conflicting messages. That is all part of learning. He will receive contradictory messages the rest of his life and it will be up to him to discern how to tell good from bad. Correct from incorrect. It was interesting that the judge noted that while living with his mother he would be exposed to a wider world, he did not make any determination as to which was better. No doubt the father pressed as hard as he could to get what privileges he could with the custody. It will be interesting to see how this turns out in 10 years or so and what future choices the young lad makes.

It is an interesting opinion (Burnett 1943). Totally different from the 1940 decision when Felix Frankfurter was Associate Justice. Writing for the majority he felt that failure to compel students to recite the pledge would reduce loyalty to the nation. In the 1943 Burnett case, which effectively reversed the 1940 Gobitis decision, Jackson mentioned in the opinion that merely reciting the pledge did not make a person loyal. Further, Jackson stated that compelling people to recite the pledge against their will could actually drive them further against the government. It is interesting to me that over the 200 plus years that this country has been a nation most if not all people who have been convicted of treason were people who not only recited the pledge of allegiance that grade school kids are familiar with, but also usually were members of government in some capacity who also took an oath of their office that further codified their allegiance, duties, and responsibilities to this country. Just reiterating the point that merely reciting a pledge of loyalty to a particular country does not make one a loyal citizen.

Thanks for the laugh. I needed it. Got to keep a sense of humor in this life.

Wasn't Exeter mentioned in an article about Jehovah's Witnesses last week?

When under ban it is up to each believer to make up their own mind as to how they will respond to situations such as this. The leaders cannot make you maintain your spiritual routine. This is why it is imperative that we build up ourselves now while the climate is favorable for it. We are all going to be tested. This is surly a wake up call to all of us to stay spiritually awake.

Yeah, he definitely demonstrated the Christian attitude by hitting his wife. Typical Christmas holiday extremist.

The German Nazi party did much the same thing starting in the mid 1930's up until the end of the way. They targeted the children of witnesses for special treatment. This is a good warning to parents that is up to them to train their children so they can stand up for themselves should they be sent to an "alternative education" facility.

I have four children and I cannot imagine the heartache resulting should one of them die. Yet here, Manasseah willingly scarified some of his children to a false god as a burnt sacrifice. (King Ahaz did the same thing). No wonder the law of Jehovah was to remove anybody guilty of such a thing from the nation as that action was detestable to him (Jehovah) Even though Manaasseah repented and turned back to Jehovah, he could not undo what had been done. He could not bring his sons back from the dead. However, they would be in line for a resurrection on a paradise earth when all things will be made new. Imagine that family reunion.

Nice bit of trivia about another place where the divine name appears. Looks like a natural conversation starter for the friends in that town.

While it is true that we don't have the ability to predict the future, we were told to be on the watch and to be in expectation for the end of this system of things.

So true. Many more people in Russia ( as well as other countries) have received a witness about Jehovah because of this entire episode.