James Thomas Rook Jr.

and for the pièce de ré·sis·tance:
"True, there have been those in times past who predicted an 'end to the world,' even announcing a specific date. Yet nothing happened. The 'end' did not come. They were guilty of false prophesying. Why? What was missing?...Missing from such people were God's truths and evidence that he was using and guiding them," (Awake, Oct. 8, 1968).

Disregarding the plain ugliness of nipple piercing with hardware hanging from the punctured holes, having pins, rings, chains, baubles and beads hanging from one's nipples is a REAL PROBLEM when you go through metal detectors at Airport Security.
... that why Ah wears clip-ons!
*koff*

I see that fire tornado was the piller of fire that kept away the Egyptians from the Israelites during the Exodus. Anyone agrees?

A  Fire  Tornado. These  are  not  exceptionally  rare,  just  rarely  documented. Mt. Conner  outback,  Australia...
NEVER  SEEN  IN  REAL !!

I sang to my daughter, Michelle, on her mother's stomach during her gestation, and when she was born, instead of a slap to get her going, I talked to her.  She said "WAH!" instead of crying, and turned her head towards my voice.
She was delivered by midwives, not in a hospital.

After Colombine, newspeople said that grief counselors had been dispatched, with the same air as they might use reporting that fire fighters had been dispatched to the house fire. “I’d love to hear what they have to say,” I told one woman in service. Her eyes got big. “You have an interesting job!” she exclaimed.
But it’s not as interesting as Ezekiel’s.
“Honey, I’m hooomme!”
“Oh, Ezekiel. How was your day?”
“Great! Today I bored a hole through the wall and carried out some luggage.”
“Oh daddy, daddy,” the children come running to embrace him. “That sounds like fun. Can we do that?”
“Ha, ha, you’ll have to ask your mother first. Remember, she didn’t like it much when you crayoned on that wall.”
“How did you get that bump on your head, Ezekiel?”
“My boss had me cover my face so that I couldn’t see where I was going. Some of the guys at the assignment – it really is a rebellious place – said that I should report him to OSHA! Some of the other guys asked me what it meant that I was doing.”
“And what did you tell them?”
“I told them it meant they were toast.”
“Oh, honey, I’m so proud of you!”
“Thank you, dear. It was almost as fun as my gig last week, lying on my side naked staring at a brick.”
“It’s a wonder you didn’t catch your death of cold.”   
I have a lot of comments I can make at the spiritual gems portion of the meeting this week. The trouble is, will any of them be 30 seconds or less? (Highlights from Ezekiel 12)

I don't think so either Melinda, who would want to be turned upside down

Since that is the case, it probably is less of an issue than you suppose. He makes the same point himself in his ever-so-lengthy rebuttal - so lengthy that I nodded off before I got to it.
Does JWI need an apologist? He has not asked for one. Nevertheless, perhaps I am like him in a few regards. Perhaps I am more like him than he himself is.
1.) I am a good writer, if one is not fussy.
2.) I can explain Jehovah's Witnesses inside and out - at least the portions of it that interest me. Not all do, such as things that happened in Russell's time. Who cares? These days complete villains makeover their image in decades
3.) I am not good at anything else.
Therefore, if I choose to offer my 'gift,'  it is going to be writing about the faith I know so well. I can and do write about other things, but the dialogue ultimately comes around to the same thing: 'it's all screwed up because we 'need the kingdom.''
Now, if my gift is anything other than writing, I can offer it to my heart's content, and receive nothing but praise for it. But if I write about the thing that most interests me, I am subject to misinterpretation by some on my own team who think that is wrong. Of course, i could write about how we know there is no hell-fire or trinity, but that gets old and you find yourself talking to the most stubborn people on the planet. So I write about topics of the day. Alas, we have some people who misinterpret mere knowledge of political things as 'taking a side.'
Perhaps JWI has felt some of that frustration. If he has not, I have.
I have not read Franz' book, the same as I have not read ARC report material gift-wrapped for me by those who hate us. I am not opposed to reading the report itself, and I no doubt will, as such material is included in the new book. As to Franz' book, there hardly seems a point to my reading it, since everyone else sums it up for me. However, it's hard for me to find fault with him for writing it - whatever he goes on to say is another thing. He leaves Bethel as he is getting on in years. it is a 'vow of poverty' place; he does not leave with a 401K. What is he to do? Work at Mickey D's?

Actually, those sites are all jealous of him, for his collection far surpasses their own for numbers and quality. The secret is to water and fertilize them each day. Don't hold back on the cow manure.
I actually do not recall pointing it out. If I did, then it is 'silly me,' for it is a little like pointing out that bears live in the woods.

I suppose you’re aware your comments are most derogatory and, in my opinion, unfortunate.
For we, the JW's, one of the most reprehensible sins is to be considered as apostate. The Insight book declares under this term:
“…a withdrawal or abandonment of the true cause, worship, and service of God, and hence an abandonment of what one has previously professed and a total desertion of principles or faith. I don’t view myself as apostate, I’ve not abandoned my faith nor my religion.
You probably are worried, sincerely worried and indignant because some in this forum should ponder these principles:
·        Jud 8 “despising authority, and speaking abusively of glorious ones” ·        1Cor 1:10 “you should all speak in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you may be completely united in the same mind and in the same line of thought.” Quoting the Insight-Jonah reference:
“Another evidence testifying to the authenticity of this Bible book is its candor. Jonah’s improper attitude toward his commission and concerning God’s action in sparing the Ninevites is not covered over” This candor is one of the evidences the Bible is the book of God. There is no cover over any sin, mistake or lack of judgment of the anointed ones leading the people.
Where have we learned that Noah got drunk, or David killed Uriah? In false religion’s books of that period?
How did we have knowledge about the fight between Paul and Barnabas, or the lack of judgment of Peter? Through Simon the magician posts?
Why Jehovah didn’t consider it proper to cover these mistakes? You don’t think the Bible is an apostate book because is full with faults of God’s people in all ages, do you?
And these mistakes were presented as such, as errors. Not in the style: “well, we, despite all almost hit the mark.”
The situation is that if we read in the Bible about errors this is proof of their humility. But if we read or talk about our present day mistakes, we’re apostates.
The motivation @JW Insider, me and others share is, precisely avoiding others have the necessity to reach to poisonous places to find some facts we have denied. We have denied because are hidden or “colored”
Regarding the coloration process @JW Insider has provided a lot of PROOFS. I just wish to recall one I’ve written about. Recently we study in our Watchtower study there were errors in last century, for example when the Watchtower gave support to the peace initiative of president Wilson. But, in reality, the petition in our magazine not was a petition to pray for peace, instead, to pray for USA would win the war.
Now, what is it better, to hide this (lack of sincerity / half-truth)? But the information, the real information is spread all around the world. You can easily find the President Wilson exact petition and the word by word article in the 1918 Watchtower.
Regarding the late point. Why have I had to reach “dangerous” sites to get all the Watchtower articles, from 1879? Why my religion didn’t provide a “safe” place to download absolutely all this older literature?
If you read our posts with other glasses you easily see that we’re trying to justify the brothers on charge. But no describing them as “almost-inspired” but as they really are: mere humans.
Now, you mention “unrepentant ones should not be disfellowshipped” but I never have mention this. Expulsion has Bible basis. But the “mechanism” to dealt with has been subject to changes. Do you grant the possibility of new changes? If so, these new changes will try to fix injustices or problems with our position. Meanwhile, what should we do with these injustices? These problems are openly seen by the world and by a lot of loyal brothers.
You also mention that if I don’t believe that Christ begun to rule in 1914 I should leave my religion! Should have I abandon when the 1975 affair?
What backbone, determinant, core teaching is 1914 for you! But not hundreds, nor thousands, but hundreds of thousands of brothers can’t explain which is the Bible basis for this teaching!! Should they leave their religion?
I and other with this posture firmly believe we’re serving with the people Jehovah is using for His purpose. But, remember, @bruceq, sometimes God’s people has needed cleaning. Why not now? Is, perhaps, more relevant the role of the present-day GB than the older times apostles? If Christ had to clean the seven congregations (in spite of the apostles influence) why in these days is impossible a new cleaning, in spite of the GB influence?

One day I was looking at my cloth roll of wax carving tools, on the table, out of their sewn sleeves in the roll (they look a LOT like dental pick instruments), and from behind me, my eldest son asked me what they were ... he knowing I did not do my own dental work.
Over my shoulder I gave him my best Jack Nicholson "Here's Johnny!" look with a maniacal grin, and said "... this is how I get people who lie to me to tell the truth!"
You know, raising three children, I cannot remember any one of them EVER lying to me.
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To treat family members lower than strangers is wrong, it is not loving, it is not encouraging nor is it up building. This practice is only meant to control.
I agree 100% .... but then again I got my morality not only from the Bible, but from the old "Code of the West", and I embrace BOTH.
Sometimes we become parts of EXTENDED families... like joining a wagon train for mutual support and protection back in the early settling of the West. (Western United States ... think Cowboys and Indians, and the struggle for survival in a hostile land.).
..and sometimes that extended family abandons you, or casts you out as a perceived danger to them, when ignorant incompetence and  peer pressure prevails. 
 

...uh ..OK.
I guess some humor just does not translate across language barriers ...

I have been thinking about this for some time ... but I just don't get it.
Please tell me why this is funny.
Thanks!

The difference between you and I,  bruceq, is that you are looking for stuff to support your orthodoxy ... and I am looking for TRUTH.
I do not care WHERE it comes from.
Any time someone tells you NOT to read something, or NOT to hear something, it is a red rocket in the night sky that they are trying to limit your powers of reason and MAKE YOU STUPID ...
... for your own protection ...of course.

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You do of course (hahaHAhaha!) realize that EVERY TIME there is "new light" on any subject ... that by definition that means you are APOSTATIZING from what you believed YESTERDAY!
That is what happens when you search for TRUTH.
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Very simple test TTH:
You have an unbroken 100% consistent record of NOT addressing issues .. instead ... castigating people's morals, perspective, and integrity.
PLEASE, for a change .. CHALLENGE what I say about ANY subject, and prove me WRONG.
If you don't, you have with your own fingertips on the keyboard ... condemned yourself as a petulant slanderer.
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I did too, by my family who experienced the "code of the west" which was loosely based upon the Bible.
 
this is exactly the same thing going on. It is sad to think that the group mentality out weighs the moral compass in instances like this. It is a collective thinking instead of people making up their own minds on the matter, hence your statement of ignorant incompetence. Lemmings will go over the cliff, sheep will wander off together, but we were created with a mind to use and unfortunately some choose not to use it but relinquish it to others. 

My wife can certainly detect 99 million more odors than I can.

@Gnosis Pithos being offended is not the criteria for removal. He is not attacking you or another specific person.

You'd think so, right?
Sometimes I think that even if the Bible had already called Jesus "the king of kings" and "ruler of the kings of the earth" that it still wouldn't be enough.

Except for people with a combination of tourette's syndrome, dislexia, and one leg shorter than the other, which gives you brain-tilt .... that seems to wrap up THAT discussion.

Gnosis:
You obviously have NO sense of humor whatsoever or you would have realized what was REALLY being said when I made my comment.
I find YOUR comments outrageously FUNNY! ....  and please be assured they are much appreciated!
James Thomas Rook, Jr.
... also known as Willey-the-half-sprung -lampshade
PS: Chill out! have a few beers ... relax ... you will be a LOT happier .. and live a LOT longer.
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Oh ... you need to put that in context ....
 
 
 

You must be new here. Most things JTR says has to be taken with a pinch of salt, and definitely not personally. And this is how those who reacted probably took it too, just JTR black humour. 

Except for people with a combination of tourette's syndrome, dislexia, and one leg shorter than the other, which gives you brain-tilt .... that seems to wrap up THAT discussion.