John 12.24to28

Jehovah's going to expose it soon!😃 "The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, And the waters will flood out the hiding place." (Isaiah 28:17) (The plagues of Revelation will expose the lies. That's what the hail is really about. During the great tribulation, all the false teachings will be completely exposed. The foundation will be laid bare.)

😆 people looking to "Greek philosophy" instead of Jesus for the answers...lol hahaha...

Yeah, it's kinda like this one, lol... 😝 (And I read that quote in TTH's book last night too, Mr. Manson made it, yuck!)

If "worldly people" are recipients of Jehovah's holy spirit and show love to us, how much more so we, claiming to be Jehovah's representatives and witnesses, we should show love to them, not just by measured "love" through a time-counting system of literature placements and hours "in the ministry", but by real affection for and attention to our fellow humans made in God's image. How much more so we shouldn't view them in our hearts as the "am-haarets" and "lepers" of the world, but as children of God with gifts and potential, rather than something to be despised and avoided. "We have opened our mouth to speak to you, Corinthians, and we have opened wide our heart. We are not restricted in our affections for you, but you are restricted in your own tender affections for us. So in response—I speak as to my children—you too open your hearts wide." (2 Corinthians 6:11-13) The verses that follow that are often misapplied. Here is what they say: "Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what sharing does light have with darkness? Further, what harmony is there between Christ and Beʹli·al? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever? And what agreement does God’s temple have with idols? For we are a temple of a living God; just as God said: “I will reside among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” “‘Therefore, get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah, ‘and quit touching the unclean thing’”; “‘and I will take you in.’” “‘And I will become a father to you, and you will become sons and daughters to me,’ says Jehovah, the Almighty.”" (2 Corinthians 6:14-18) The Watchtower will misapply this as a way of creating physical divisions. But Paul was talking about, not a physical wall, but our hearts. In our hearts we must not be unevenly yoked with unbelievers. Unbelievers don't have faith in the power of Christ's redeeming blood. Unbelievers look to physical things to lead them. We are not to be that way. "Righteousness" means doing what is right. It is right to love. Jesus said to even love your enemies, feeding them, taking care of them, showing them compassion. "Light" means the glory of Jehovah, the sunshine of His love reflected off our hearts to light a glow in the lives of others. The sunshine is not partial. It doesn't just shine on specific people. It shines wherever it goes. "We are a temple of a living God." Jehovah's spirit in us makes us alive in love. To be "sons and daughters" to Him we have to remain connected to Him, in union with Him through being in union with the Christ. We imitate Jesus, we cling to him, we walk with him, we try our best to do what he would do in each situation. That's not saying we purposely go do a bunch of "worldly" things and hang out at bars or something. That's not what it means. But just remembering it's not men we follow. If we were to follow men, then we would be following idols. That's what the unbelievers do - follow idols. The GB has become an idol. "The Faithful and Discreet Slave" is what people follow rather than the Christ. "This is your god, oh Israel, that led you out of Egypt!" (Sound familiar?) That idol is about to be removed. "What agreement does God's temple have with idols?" We are a people for Jehovah's Name. It's Jehovah's spirit that guides us, not some men made of dust. Organization is good. It has its place. Jesus said there would be a congregational arrangement in our day. We just have to be careful to see where the boundary lines are, when the organizational tool ends and the danger of crossing over into worship of men takes place. That is not a good place to go, that idol worship. It negates sacrifices in God's eyes. "For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have?" The law of the Christ is what guides us. Those who disobey the law of the Christ, the kingly law of love, are the lawless ones. It doesn't matter if they have the label "one of Jehovah's Witnesses" or "The Faithful and Discreet Slave". It matters if they obey the law of love. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love, I have become a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and understand all the sacred secrets and all knowledge, and if I have all the faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my belongings to feed others, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I do not benefit at all." (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) "The one who exercises faith in the Son has everlasting life; the one who disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him." (John 3:36) Many of Jehovah's Witnesses are in a dangerous situation. They have forgotten how to show Christlike love. "Look! I am coming as a thief. Happy is the one who stays awake and keeps his outer garments, so that he may not walk naked and people look upon his shamefulness." (Revelation 16:15) "Clothe yourselves with love." (Colossians 3:14)

I think it was last year sometime that we read Tharcisse's book, but from what I recall (and please forgive me because I really don't remember all the details exactly so I might get it a little mixed up without checking it again) wasn't it a non-Witness that hid them most of the time? And wasn't it non-Witnesses that helped them a lot of the time? And didn't one of the guys that was a Witness later stop helping them? I have to look it up again, but to me it seemed Tharcisse was just reporting the facts of how it all played out. It has been my experience with the trials my family has faced in the past few years (nothing like what he went through) but the people that were here for me and my kids, a lot of the time it was Witnesses who abandoned us and treated us the worst, and it was so-called "worldly people" who showed us the most love and practical help when we needed it most. It was just like in Jesus' illustration, where instead of the Levite and the priest walking by the beat up person on the road, it was the elder and the pioneer and the "Jehovah's Witnesses in good-standing" who walked right by. The "Samaritans" in my case were sometimes the figurative "tax collectors and prostitutes". I learned that lesson, and I can see that Tharcisse did too. Each person is an individual, and to assume that the label "Jehovah's Witnesses" is merely an exterior one that can be applied by men and relied upon is fallacious. Who really is a witness of Jehovah? In Tharcisse's book, the non-Witness who helped them gave witness of Jehovah's holy spirit. In my case, the "worldly people" who helped me gave evidence of Jehovah's holy spirit. It was love that motivated them to help me and my kids. Love is a fruitage of Jehovah's holy spirit. Therefore they were being Jehovah's witnesses when they helped us, more than the ones with the official label "Jehovah's Witnesses". (Just my opinion on the book.🙂But thank you for sharing yours!)

It is interesting how some people "throw away the Bible" as a source of wisdom because of these older accounts; whereas others try to make rules for modern society based on these older accounts - when in truth they are there as a historical record for us. For example, the Watchtower says that having Bethel is like having the temple organization of old with singers and workers and leaders and so on, and they look at the two witness rule and try to make it fit for today. They try to say shunning is like the old stoning. But in all actuality, none of those things are for today. Jesus did not set up a commune arrangement with singers and tithes and Levites. Jesus did not say to stone anybody figuratively. (If he wanted to he could have, but he didn't say anything remotely like that.) That was the old way. "Nobody sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old outer garment, for the new piece pulls away from the garment and the tear becomes worse. Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins. If they do, then the wineskins burst and the wine spills out and the wineskins are ruined. But people put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." (Matthew 9:16,17) People don't like change. They get comfortable with the old way. It seems easier to have rules than to think for ourselves. Jesus said that's how people are. "No one after drinking old wine wants new, for he says, ‘The old is nice.’” (Luke 5:39) But we all have to grow up sometime. "But speaking the truth, let us by love grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ." (Ephesians 4:15) The old way with the rules on polygamy and regulating slavery and so on was appropriate at the time, because the cultures the people lived among did all those things. They were a stiff-necked people and they weren't ready for the "new wine". In many ways, the people today are stiff-necked too. But the new wine is coming anyway. It is the appointed time. The training wheels are about to be removed, and the Way of the Christ will shine brightly. "I pray that he may grant you through the abundance of his glory to be made mighty in the man you are inside, with power through his spirit, and that through your faith you may have the Christ dwell in your hearts with love. May you be rooted and established on the foundation, in order that with all the holy ones you may be thoroughly able to comprehend fully what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of the Christ, which surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness that God gives." (Ephesians 3:16-19)

"Do not touch the stove" is a law I gave my kids when they were little. Just like "don't go in the street". Now they are old enough to cook, so I say "be careful, the stove is hot." And I send them to get the mail across the street after reminding them to look both ways first. The apostles made clear that God's holy spirit says the law of circumcision and the law of animal sacrifice and the law of tithing are done away with, however God's laws banning the use of blood and on forbidding immorality are still in place. "Is the Law, therefore, against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, righteousness would actually have been by means of law. But the Scripture handed all things over to the custody of sin, so that the promise resulting from faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those exercising faith. However, before the faith arrived, we were being guarded under law, being handed over into custody, looking to the faith that was about to be revealed. So the Law became our guardian leading to Christ, so that we might be declared righteous through faith. But now that the faith has arrived, we are no longer under a guardian." (Galatians 3:21-25) "For the holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to you except these necessary things: to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper. Good health to you!” (Acts 15:28,29) And the Kingly Law of Love will never be done away with.💖 "Do not owe anything to anyone except to love one another; for whoever loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. For the law code, “You must not commit adultery, you must not murder, you must not steal, you must not covet,” and whatever other commandment there is, is summed up in this saying: “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does not work evil to one’s neighbor; therefore, love is the law’s fulfillment." (Romans 13:8-10) "Love never fails." "God is Love."🥰

(Hey, @TrueTomHarley, just wanted to let you know we are adding your book to our homeschool curriculum for this year, since my kids tablets are connected to mine I shared the book with them and they are already enjoying it - my son liked the part "about the author" where you mentioned you have a brother who you play Scrabble with who cheats😆...Anyway, in addition to reading the Bible out loud together my kids and I read a life story together before bed at night, and during the school year we also read selected works by Jehovah's Witnesses out loud together, some of the books we've done that with are Facing the Lion by Simone Arnold Liebster, No Greater Love by Tharcisse Seminega, Faith on the March by A H Macmillan, and Beyond Courage by Robert Aros. Thanks for giving us another one to add to the list!☺️)

Jesus said even a child could understand the truth from God's Word. The "philosophy" made up by pagan Greeks and cut-n-pasted into where it doesn't belong is a form of transgression that has permeated through the "church" or congregation. The org is "entitled" to do what they want, but since they claim to be in a covenant or special relationship with Jehovah and their actions are now bringing reproach on His Name, they will reap what they are sowing, namely, God's wrath. The Bible guarantees it. Jehovah will allow them to be attacked by the UN when the rest of religion is attacked, but there will be a faithful remnant let remain and then true worship will be refined. Me, too...it's just as it says in 1 John 2:18-22: "Young children, it is the last hour, and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared, from which fact we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of our sort; for if they had been of our sort, they would have remained with us. But they went out so that it might be shown that not all are of our sort. And you have an anointing from the holy one, and all of you have knowledge. I write you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie originates with the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?" Jesus' example is the way to follow. Those men on the GB who claim to be anointed and yet left the way of the Christ are "former members" of the body of the Christ. They have become "anti-Christ" by means of teaching philosophy of men rather than what is written in God's Word and was exemplified by the Christ, Jesus. The GB claims to be "the christ, the chosen one, the faithful slave" and wants people to follow them rather than Christ Jesus. The GB are in a lot of trouble. When Jesus is enthroned as king in heaven, he will throw them down the same way Jehu threw down Jezebel, because they are doing spiritual fornication and encouraging the people to take part in it in Jehovah's name. They are very, very naughty. Jesus is going make them stop it soon. Praise Jehovah.

I'm enjoying it already...😁 (I love My Fair Lady, and beavers are cool😎) "“Dam, dam, dam, dam!” to misquote Professor Higgins. “They’ve grown accustomed to my face.” And I have customers to face. How am I going to face them with a new book I say is stellar when I have firmly planted the notion that I originate rubbish? Someone should have told me the ebook needed work. Then the present salvage would be unnecessary. That’s the trouble with the friends—they’re either too polite to tell you that your work stinks, or they have such a low bar of approval, happy to read anything complimentary, that they don’t think it does. And no, I did not misspell dam. I spelled it the friendly beaver way for the sake of my people. Not only does the homonym not trigger offense, but it puts in a plug for education. Everyone knows that beavers are highly educated, graduates of Dam U, every one of them.” 😆 Excerpt From I Don't Know Why We Persecute Jehovah's Witnesses: Searching for the Why Tom Harley https://books.apple.com/us/book/i-dont-know-why-we-persecute-jehovahs-witnesses-searching/id1560211086 This material may be protected by copyright. Thank you!☺️

Thank you, @TrueTomHarley☺️ During the pandemic my kids and I got a lot of strength from reading the statements of the brothers in the court transcripts.💖

I love Jehovah. I love to talk about Him. I have a relative who won't talk to me because I've been labeled "disfellowshipped". She wants to hang out with my kids. Here's my dilemma: if I go, she will treat me like we're in some kind of "apartheid" arrangement. I cannot support "apartheid" because it is antiChrist. I told her as much. I won't teach my children that it's okay to treat people that way, as if they are subhuman because of a manmade label. That is not Jesus' way, to treat people like that. My relative said, "well, you can come, but you just can't talk about spiritual things." And that's supposed to sound acceptable to me? Are you kidding me? Jehovah is My Dad. He is My Best Friend. I will talk about Him when I want to talk about Him. If I see a beautiful bird, or a sunset, or enjoy a delicious meal and I want to Praise Jehovah, I'm not going to hold back that praise just because some stupid manmade rule, no way! What kind of ridiculous antiChrist doctrine is this? The organization of Jehovah's Witnesses is telling people to Not Witness about Jehovah? To Not Praise Him? And people think this is acceptable? That it's something Jesus would want? They are wrong. Jesus hates that dumb rule. It is antiChrist. "We'll talk to you about family business, but just don't talk about spiritual things." Jehovah is Our Family Business! Jehovah is Our Father! How can anybody make rule to not talk about Jehovah? Do you know who would make that kind of rule? To demand that somebody doesn't talk about Jehovah? Jesus said the Pharisees were behaving just like their father, the Devil. It's not surprising that Pharisee doctrines lead to satanic behavior. "By their fruits you will recognize them."

Hi, James! @Pudgy Here is the website Derek was talking about: https://jw-russia.org Back in around 2019/2020 I used to go to that website quite frequently, and it had a large percentage of court transcripts available, as well as translation into English. When I visited that website just now, it has changed a bit. There are less court documents available, it seems mostly just the "last word" from each case. Also, the translation tool on the website didn't work as well, only the beginning of the pages would translate. I had that happen before on that website, sometimes the translation tool worked, other times it was slow or seemed to not be working properly. I don't know about that "wayback machine" website, if you could go back and look at the jw-russia.org site from 2020, there would be more court documents available. (I am always too late for the party!)

Some people get away with running the wrong direction on a treadmill now and then too... (I can't remember if we've done this before😆 they say sometimes history repeats itself...) "Hez·e·kiʹah had asked Isaiah: “What is the sign to show that Jehovah will heal me and that I will go up on the third day to the house of Jehovah?” Isaiah replied: “This is the sign from Jehovah to show you that Jehovah will carry out the word that he has spoken: Do you want the shadow on the stairway to move forward ten steps or back ten steps?” Hez·e·kiʹah said: “It is an easy thing for the shadow to extend itself ten steps but not to go back ten steps.” So Isaiah the prophet called out to Jehovah, and He made the shadow on the stairway of Aʹhaz go back ten steps after it had already descended the steps." (2 Kings 20:8-11) Jehovah can reverse the effects of sin, make them go backwards, because Jesus got the beatings intended for us, the ones we deserved to get. He already paid, to the death. Because he wants us to live, to know we are loved by him, and to share that love. Jesus said: "I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples—if you have love among yourselves." (John 13:34,35)

😝

I think it's an awful read 😝but everyone is entitled to their opinion! Greek philosophy influenced the oral law of the Jews. The Talmud reflects this Greek influence and apostasy from the Hebrew Scriptures. Such Pharisaical traditions continued after the death of the apostles in the Christian congregation. Greek philosophy influenced many so-called "Christian" writers, such as Thomas Aquinas, who wrote Summa Theologiae. Greek philosophy continues to influence religious institutions today, including Jehovah's Witnesses, as is reflected in some of their doctrines such as on disfellowshipping. Jesus came to make things simple. When he comes again, he's going to clean house of all these false teachings.

...It's been a fun flight, @Pudgy but I think I'm going to go hit the landing pad for now...talk to you later, my friend!😌 Over and out for now!

I don't need to keep a list, really, I am forgiving. It's kind of like the difference between when you've been shot in the past versus when there is an active shooter in the neighborhood. It's not that you're not forgiving or not letting go of resentment, it's that you're still trying to keep on the defensive because there's a guy with a loaded gun pointed your way, figuratively speaking, of course.

On the emails from the elders they said: "The children can go to the meetings with your husband, but you are not allowed to be present." There is no way on earth that I am going to let them go to that Kingdom Hall without me present. My husband is friends with that exCOBE. He's not going to protect the kids. No way. When I was banned, we just stayed home. Now that I'm not banned, when I went a few weeks ago for the CO visit (my husband didn't go when we went, he was tired), just the kids and I went, but since I will talk to people after meeting now, they'll just ban me again so we'll just keep doing meetings at home and my husband will go to the KH. Yeah, the exCOBE kept sending a gift subscription magazine to the kids all this time, I told him to stop, I told the elders to tell him to stop, he wouldn't, and they didn't care. He just bought my son a guitar. Whatever. I gave up fighting that part of things. If I can see my "enemy" in front of me instead of sneaking around behind my back, I am more comfortable because I know where he is. I would rather he not be an "enemy" - I've tried to make peace and talk, but at this point he still won't admit he ever did anything wrong, so I can't trust him with my kids. No way.

He even has a profile on this forum to "keep tabs". @Just sayin

At least by making it public, it scared him a bit and he backed off.

Jehovah is the One who has protected us.

He was after my kids. My husband was too distracted by the drink to notice. Even after my husband got arrested, the COBE and his wife tried to get custody of my kids. He wouldn't stop. Even now, he still sends them gifts.

Who do you think I was trying to protect? Who do you think the COBE was harassing?

We didn't need a committee meeting of three elders in a secret back room. We just needed common sense and to pray to Jehovah and meditate on scriptural principles. It wasn't that hard once we figured out to not overcomplicate things.