Srecko Sostar

Last Christmas
I gave you my heart
But the very next day you gave it away.
This year
To save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special.
 
Last Christmas
I gave you my heart
But the very next day you gave it away.
This year
To save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special.
 
Once bitten and twice shy I keep my distance
But you still catch my eye.
Tell me, baby,
Do you recognize me?
Well, It's been a year,
It doesn't surprise me (Merry Christmas)
I wrapped it up and sent it
With a note saying, "I love you,"
I meant it Now I know what a fool I've been.
But if you kissed me now I know you'd fool me again.
 
Last Christmas
I gave you my heart
But the very next day you gave it away.
This year To save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special.
 
Last Christmas
I gave you my heart
But the very next day you gave it away.
This year
To save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special.
 
Oh, oh, baby.
 
A crowded room,
Friends with tired eyes.
I'm hiding from you
And your soul of ice.
My god I thought you were someone to rely on.
Me?
I guess I was a shoulder to cry on.
A face on a lover with a fire in his heart.
A man under cover but you tore me apart, ooh-hoo.
Now I've found a real love, you'll never fool me again.
 
Last Christmas I gave you my heart
But the very next day you gave it away.
This year To save me from tears I'll give it to someone special.
Last Christmas I gave you my heart
But the very next day you gave it away.
This year To save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special.
 
A face on a lover with a fire in his heart (I gave you my heart)
A man under cover but you tore him apart
Maybe next year
I'll give it to someone
I'll give it to someone
special.
Special...
Someone...

This playing with cups thing is somehow extremely popular with youth culture....
I like how she used it in this song.
The music video must have been extremely expensive to make. I do like the message and the ending.

Some day, when I'm awfully low,
When the world is cold,
I will feel a glow just thinking of you...
And the way you look tonight.

Yes you're lovely, with your smile so warm
And your cheeks so soft,
There is nothing for me but to love you,
And the way you look tonight.

With each word your tenderness grows,
Tearing my fear apart...
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,
It touches my foolish heart.

Lovely ... Never, ever change.
Keep that breathless charm.
Won't you please arrange it ?
'Cause I love you ... Just the way you look tonight.

Mm, Mm, Mm, Mm,
Just the way you look to-night.

She had not been alone in that reasoning. My wife' mother gave same lesson to her ;))) Imagine how many miles Croatia and your country have distance, but The Same Teaching moves around heads of JW's. Tell me someone, please, how is possible that some individual in USA start to make gossips about 1975 and how that wrong idea ended in one little town in one communist Balkan state ???  :)))))
Have in mind how we talking about generation borne in 1961. In 1968/69 they start to go to Grammar school. Here we have 8 years (you have 10) of this school. And 1975 is so close .... There is no chance to finish school before 1975 Armagedon :)))))
Definition of dogmatism
1: the expression of an opinion or belief as if it were a fact : positiveness in assertion of opinion especially when unwarranted or arrogant 2: a viewpoint or system of ideas based on insufficiently examined premises Merriam Webster source   stating your opinions in a strong way and not accepting anyone else's opinions: Cambridge source   Every ideology we facing is dogmatic !!   

ok... let's add to the list.

1      I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes. 

2      There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead. 

3      Life is sexually transmitted. 

4      Healthy is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die. 

5      The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth. 

6      Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing. 

7      Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to? 

8     Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again. 

9      All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism. 

10     In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird.  Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it  Normal .  

11     How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire? 

12     Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, 'I think I'll squeeze these dangly things and drink whatever Comes out'? 

13    If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him? 

14      Why does your OB-GYN leave the room when you get undressed if they are going to look up there anyway? 

15      If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests? 

16        If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from? 

17      Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?   

18      Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive faster? 

19      Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?   

20     Do you ever wonder why you gave me your email address?

Anna said:
I was taught the same thing in the late 1960s about 1975.
I don't believe I said in 2000, but by 2000. If not, that's what I should have said, because that's what the first two references explicitly say: "a work that would be completed in our century" and "within our twentieth century, the "battle in the day of Jehovah" will begin". Can't get any clearer than that.
"Insinuated" is the wrong word for what those charlatans did.
Nope, it's very specific. "Within the decade ending in 2020 Britain will be out of the EU." Nothing open about that.
Two things: Samuel didn't think this up by himself -- the Society taught him. The Society puts 'experiences' like that in its publications for a reason -- to tell JWs what they ought to be thinking.
You keep forgetting what Jesus warned his followers: do not follow anyone who claims to represent him and God, and says "the due time for the end has approached". That's what he meant by "keep on the watch", because his followers could not possibly know in advance when the end had approached. He even said,"if you think you know -- that's not it!"
Sure, after proclaiming every which way that it was God's prediction not his.
Of course it was. Did you read the links I gave you?
Which shows that the Bible Students under Russell did not have God's holy spirit guiding them, even though they claimed they did. Russell even said, using the royal "we": "These are God's dates, not ours."

James Thomas Rook Jr. said:
Those examples don't revise history -- they are history.
But there are hundreds of examples of Watchtower writers revising 'problematic' Watchtower history. I did a study some years ago examining several hundred statements about what the Bible Students believed about 1914 before that date arrived. Only a handful were truthful. Most were deceptive in the sense that they conveyed a wrong view about what was believed, but without a flat-out lie. A couple of dozen just flat-out lied, like "the Bible Students believed that Christ would return in 1914, and that Armageddon would begin then." The truth was that Russell taught that both events had already occurred in 1874, six years before he published an account of 1914 in the 1880 Zion's Watch Tower.
My favorite example of such mealy mouthed deception is from the Proclaimers book (p. 163). Speaking about what Rutherford and company taught in the decade after 1914, it said:
<< As the years passed and they examined and reexamined the Scriptures, their faith in the prophecies remained strong, and they did not hold back from stating what they expected to occur. With varying degrees of success, they endeavored to avoid being dogmatic about details not directly stated in the Scriptures. >>
Note that expression "endeavored to avoid being dogmatic". It doesn't say that they succeeded in avoiding being dogmatic, so the statement is not technically a lie. But it gives the strong impression that the main goal of the Bible Students under Rutherford was to avoid being dogmatic -- which simply reading Watchtower literature beyond 1914 proves is not true. Rutherford actually taught that what was written in The Watch Tower was equal to the Bible in authority, including his 1925 prediction of Armageddon where he self-admittedly "made an ass of" himself.
Exactly what most JWs do when confronted by information like the above.
Of course it is. Tell that to Watchtower leaders.

Thanks for those references. I obviously must have read some of them, especially the ones from the 80's and I am aware that our mothers would say we would never go to school, that Armageddon would be here by then. This was nothing new to me since we were saying this almost since the founding of the JWS. What I was questioning was the specific date 2000. That Armageddon would come in that year, in the same way as was insinuated for 1975. "Within the 20th Century" is open, and just because 15 year old Samuel "visualizes something happening in 2000" doesn't mean we had to think it will happen exactly then, lol. Samuel is 48 today, probably with kids, maybe a grandad,  and probably still a JW. I know plenty of people who visualized something happening, and nothing happened, and they are still visualizing it. But, everyone in their right mind yearns for good things, and Jesus told his followers to "keep on the watch" and Peter "await and keep close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah".  As for the society setting specific dates for the end, 1925 sticks in my mind, for which Rutherford apologized, and 1975, which was not official anyway. And 1914 of course....

IF
 
I have a nose, NOW.

Not necessarily. That's a rough guide, is all. The best guide, I think, is the consensus of competent scholars over a long period of time. Even then, no one can be sure that we really possess the original manuscripts, because there are many examples where, for example, the Masoretic text differs significantly from the LXX, which many argue is based on an older and more authentic Hebrew text. Of course, if a bona fide ancient Hebrew text from 300 BCE or earlier is found, that would throw a big monkey wrench into Biblical textual criticism.

There is always the final arbiter .... the "smell test".

James Thomas Rook Jr. said:
I suspect that this is true in all other language translations.
I completely agree -- in principle. In practice, with the Bible we're dealing with three dead languages, so there exist no fluent speakers. Nevertheless, I think competent scholars still do a pretty good job of translating. That's esecially so when independent scholars arrive at essentially the same translations.
Pretty spotty, I expect.

What gets me is, as in the book 1984 ... the Society revises history, as stated in the examples given above,
That was Winston Smith's JOB ... to revise history.
THEN .... when called on their actions, stare blankly into the headlights and say "No, we didn't!"
It's a good thing I understand such things as normal to all people, or it would "stumble" me.
 

Anna said:
The Society made direct statements as well as more subtle suggestions. Take a gander:
<< How thrilling that must have been for Paul and Barnabas-sailing to their first foreign assignment! The apostle Paul was spearheading the Christian missionary activity. He was also laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our century. >> January 1, 1989 Watchtower, p. 12
Note that "in our century" was changed to "in our day" in the bound volume and in the CDROM Library.
Note that when the following statements were made, the Society was teaching that "the generation of 1914" meant the group of people alive in 1914 who survived until "the end".
<< Shortly, within our twentieth century, the "battle in the day of Jehovah" will begin against the modern antitype of Jerusalem, Christendom. >> -- "The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah"-How? - 1971
<< And if the wicked system of this world survived until the turn of the century, which is highly improbable in view of world trends and the fulfillment of Bible prophecy, there would still be survivors of the World War I generation. However, the fact that their number is dwindling is one more indication that “the conclusion of the system of things” is moving fast toward its end. >> -- October 15, 1980 Watchtower, p. 31
<< It has been thrilling to see the fulfillment of Jesus’ sign showing that the Kingdom was established in the heavens in that momentous year 1914. And Jesus has told us to rejoice at seeing the dark storm clouds of Armageddon gathering since that time. He has told us that the “generation” of 1914—the year that the sign began to be fulfilled—”will by no means pass away until all these things occur.” (Matthew 24:34) Some of that “generation” could survive until the end of the century. But there are many indications that “the end” is much closer than that! >> -- March 1, 1984 Watchtower, pp. 18-19
<< The Time for a Change Is Near!
Carole, from France, has a “marvelous hope” and foresees, for the near future, “something marvelous—not at all like the world we live in.” Samuel, a 15-year-old youth from the same country, also believes in a complete change: “For the year 2000, I visualize a world transformed into a beautiful paradise! But I don’t think that either the present world or its rulers will live to see that day. . . We are living in the last days of the system of things.” Ruth, a German girl of 16, also expresses her confidence in these changes: “I know I’m not smart enough to change the world and make things run right. Only Jehovah, our Creator, can and will do that soon.” >> November 8, 1986 Awake!, pp. 7-8
 

I am still of the opinion that when translating from ENGLISH, to another language, a person MUST be a fluent EXPERT at both languages, and have lived in areas where both are spoken extensively, and also have a DEEP knowledge of the history and culture of both places, AND have a potload of plain old common sense .... which is not all that common.
I suspect that this is true in all other language translations.
We have Bible translations in over a thousand languages (...or is it just some Bible literature?) ... but how good are those translations?
The Polish people fought the Nazi tanks on horses, with horse drawn artillery, and they acquitted themselves magnificently ... but it was no contest, and they lost miserably.
..... same thing.