TrueTomHarley

I’ve often thought that, too.
It is why I’ve in the past made my own little witticism, as though G .K Chesterton himself:
It is hard to direct a large group of people. One says, ‘Thanks for the new rule!’ whereas his neighbor says, ‘Huh? Did you say something?’

Also brings to mind Acts 21:20: "On hearing this, they began to glorify God, but they said to him: 'You see, brother, how many thousands of believers there are among the Jews, and they are all zealous for the Law.'"
In this verse, the believers in Jerusalem are acknowledging that many Jewish converts to Christianity are still devoted to observing the Jewish law (the Mosaic Law). The phrase is used to highlight the continued practice of Jewish customs and traditions among some Jewish Christians in the early Christian community.

Even then the customs were including a lot of things which weren't written in the Mosaic Law. Yet they kept doing them. This is why it doesn't surprise me that there are some who see changes in certain areas to be faith shaking because these have equated certain practices of the past to have been unequivocally scriptural, and if the GB ever suggested we should adopt pattern A, rather than pattern B, then that was as good as scripture to these.
 

I was thinking how (I mean I don't know because I'm not privy to the GB's private thoughts, but I can imagine them being frustrated at) some who have the desire to worship the organization.
Reminds me of this scripture:
"...But when the apostles Barʹna·bas and Paul heard of it, they ripped their outer garments and leaped out into the crowd, crying out and saying: 'Men, why are you doing these things? We too are humans having the same infirmities as you have. " Acts 14:8-18

Exodus 20:3 : "You must not have any other gods besides me."
Psalm 118:8 : "It is better to take refuge in Jehovah than to trust in humans."
Psalm 146:3 : "Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, who cannot bring salvation."
Isaiah 2:22 : "Stop trusting in mere man, whose life's breath is in his nostrils. Why should he be taken into account?"
Jeremiah 17:5 : "This is what Jehovah says: 'Cursed is the man who puts his trust in mere humans, who relies on human power and whose heart turns away from Jehovah.'"
1 Corinthians 3:4-7 : "For when one says, 'I belong to Paul,' but another says, 'I to A•polʹlos,' are you not acting like mere men? What, then, is A•polʹlos? Yes, what is Paul? Ministers through whom you became believers, just as the Lord granted each one. I planted, A•polʹlos watered, but God kept making it grow."
Matthew 23:8-10 : "But you, do not you be called Rabbi, for one is your Teacher, and all of you are brothers. Moreover, do not call anyone your father on earth, for one is your Father, the heavenly One. Neither be called leaders, for your Leader is one, the Christ."
Colossians 2:8: "Look out that no one takes you captive by means of the philosophy and empty deception according to human tradition, according to the elementary things of the world and not according to Christ."
Galatians 1:10: "Am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I would not be Christ’s slave.
 Acts, 12:22 - "But the crowd were calling out, 'A god’s voice and not a man’s!'"
In this context, the people were praising Herod Agrippa I to the extent that they attributed divine qualities to him.It underscores the danger of excessive praise and attributing divine qualities to human leaders, which can have negative consequences, as Herod Agrippa I faced divine judgment for accepting such adulation.
Nope. Go no further than scripture allows.
1 Samuel 8:6-9 : "But the thing was bad in the eyes of Samuel, because they said: 'Give us a king to judge us.' Then Samuel prayed to Jehovah. Jehovah said to Samuel: 'Listen to the voice of the people as regards all that they say to you, for it is not you whom they have rejected; they have rejected me from being their king. Like all the other nations, they have done to me the same that they have done to you.'"
        Prophets, yes? Kings? How very predictable and disappointing.

"And he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelizers, some as shepherds and teachers, with a view to the readjustment of the holy ones, for ministerial work, to build up the body of the Christ, until we all attain to the oneness of the faith and of the accurate knowledge of the Son of God, to being a full-grown man, attaining the measure of stature that belongs to the fullness of the Christ." (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Ephesians 4:11-13 does not suggest that ecclesiastical authority should hold a believer's conscience in thrall or control. Instead, these verses emphasize the role of certain spiritual gifts and positions within the Christian congregation for the purpose of equipping and building up believers.

I dunno. This looks a lot like Vic Vomodog who, years after he left the faith, would continue to show up at hospitals, bare his arm, and order, ‘Fill ‘er up!’ just to show Jehovah’s Witnesses what he thought of them. Doctors invariably tried to shoo him away, but he would always return.

You may be missing something here.

Precisely! 

Some of those who never celebrated their birthday may soon be celebrating Beard Day. Mark December 15th on the calendar. We don’t have that many holidays.

I dunno. This looks a lot like Vic Vomodog who, years after he left the faith, would continue to show up at hospitals, bare his arm, and order, ‘Fill ‘er up!’ just to show Jehovah’s Witnesses what he thought of them. Doctors invariably tried to shoo him away, but he would always return.

Precisely! 

Some of those who never celebrated their birthday may soon be celebrating Beard Day. Mark December 15th on the calendar. We don’t have that many holidays.

Some of those who never celebrated their birthday may soon be celebrating Beard Day. Mark December 15th on the calendar. We don’t have that many holidays.

It was a show well ahead of its time. Occasionally an episode is so surreal as to resemble a Twilight Zone. I like the running bit about the Chinese bellhop (is he really named ‘Hey boy?’) routinely reading Paladin’s telegrams and the gun for hire can do nothing about it.

I think it indicates that people want a ‘king,’ somewhat like in Samual 8. They can’t handle subtle. They want a king.
’Alright, alright, we’ll give you king,’ says the visible org, ‘An entire Update to say ‘We don’t care about beards!’ That means you don’t have to either! Sheesh! We were trying to get away from that.’
Seen from a different standpoint, I think those seeking the downfall of the earthly organization also resemble those Israelites who demanded a king. Those ancients couldn’t handle the seeming vagaries of judges popping up here and there. They wanted a king, with all the trimmings, that they could see strutting around at all times.Similarly, people look real closely into the GB, see it is composed of men who have all the differing idiosyncracies of the first century disciples and they can’t handle it. How can God’s direction come from such a human arrangement? They either want an undisputed miracle-backed single entity (which we all know is not going to happen today) or they want dissolution of the whole model, going back to a ‘Jesus and me’ model. This usually means a ‘Me and Jesus’ model, since it is personal disagreements over this or that policy that motivates the desire to sink the earthly organization. They either imagine the ‘Jesus and Me’ model will continue to safeguard the unity and doctrinal uniqueness of JWs or they think that the unity and doctrinal uniqueness is not worth safeguarding—they are content to let it evolve, just like in the natural world of competitive struggle and how good things supposedly come of that. ‘Guardians of doctrine? Don’t make me laugh!’ they say.
My Bethel chum told me many years ago that it gets more challenging to see God’s hand as you get tighter with the organization. The friends in general will ooh and ahh over this new direction from God, and you will say, ‘Yeah….it’s only because so-and-so is too stubborn to……’
This is where faith comes in. It is the divine/human interface. Fleshly eyes can only perceive the ‘Indisputable miracle-backed, controlled Prophet’ model or the ‘Jesus and Me’ model for congregation headship. It takes spiritual eyes to see that, if God is really worth his salt, surely he can move dedicated men to adequately serve as his conduit. The GB is screened by being anointed, further screened by a lifetime of full time service, further screened by intensive Bible training on how to work with others by implementing Bible principles.
This training to work according to Bible principles, strive for unity, learn how to defer to one another, resist the temptation to run-over those with whom you disagree, produces good results. In individual congregations, elders periodically gather for such training in ‘elder schools,’ where they learn, among other things, that unity of the body is always the goal. This does indeed perform well, at least in my congregation, so I extrapolate it to others. (It might be different if my congregation was one of those basket-case Revelation 2 and 3 congregations) Though I am reliably informed (I can shake facts out if I want to but I usually refrain from doing it) that there is disagreement amongst our elders, you would never know it by the united front they display. Instead of shaking them down for disputes, I seek occasions to (genuinely) commend them for what they do.
It is not healthy to ‘expose’ present disagreements. (not that I don’t lap it all up if I hear of them here) People thereafter pick their favorite horses, which encourages further division. Of course people are going to disagree. The thing that counts is for them to resolve disagreements and carry on unitedly. That is the evidence of having God’s spirit.
Human traits will never disappear. ‘We have this treasure [of the ministry] in earthen vessels,’ but, being humble, God can work with such men as those comprising the Governing Body. Proud persons He can’t do much with other than squash them in time. ‘God is using imperfect people today because that’s all he has at the present time’ Mark Nourmair (approximately) says, not referring specifically to GB brothers. And, when the younger brothers fall to squabbling, the old-timer smiles, tilts back in his chair, and marvels, ‘It’s amazing what Jehovah accomplishes given what he has to work with.”
 

I'm kind of split in half......I can't make my mind up. The thought of having someone's blood pumped into my veins, that dark red bag hanging from the IV stand, makes me feel physically sick. But that may be because of years of "indoctrination". (I don't mean that in a bad way....just that this is what we have been taught and believe).
The main thing is how does Jehovah feel about it of course. The admonition to abstain from blood seems pretty clear, I don't know how else one could interpret that....I mean I know this whole thread has attempted that, but then some of the arguments get too ridiculous and again, remind me of the cat parody....

I get confused when I read things out of order.

Sometimes I think we overuse the chariot illustration. 
Recently my wife and I were invited on a KH remodeling project. At my age and non-skill level, I am not going to be any major player in anything, but I appreciated the invitation and accepted a two-day stint along with my wife.
Safety training is required—a lot of it before you even set foot on the project. For one session online that I was informed might take up to three hours—several videos followed by answering questions off the master safety document, I found myself beating back the cynical thought that some too-starryeyed artist might insert God strapped into his chariot in one of the videos. But it did not happen and I could not help but think that the quality of training would be the envy of any construction organization. The way scriptures were interwoven was masterful. Even the verse of the ‘overconfident one who comes to ruin’ was applied to the experienced worker inclined to blow past safety regulations because he is so experienced as to think himself immune. Nobody blows past anything when it comes to safety, experienced or not. You’re dismissed from the site if you do, but I didn’t see anyone coming even close to grumbling over such rules of safety, which are iron-clad. Zero accidents is the goal.
Not just the training, but the project itself. The people skills on display far outshone what would be found on any secular construction site. The abilities of volunteers, some experienced and some not, was harnessed to an astonishing degree. Always, there was a brother with oversight to accommodate any skill level and to break any task into doable steps—and always with the safety and overall well-being of participants placed even ahead of the job itself. First of all, they are shepherds, I am told—that is incorporated into their training. In short, I’ve never seen anything like it—even if the chariot was not on visible display.

It is hard to go wrong with an Eddie Murphy movie. Unless it is too foul to watch.
I feel a duty to screen movies for Many Miles who hasn’t seen that many.  The Amazon Eddie Murphy movie ‘Candy Cane Lane’ is okay and pretty funny, assuming you don’t spaz out over Christmas.
There is about a 20 year period of my life where I saw almost no TV, my ‘righteous years.’ There are shows that everyone speaks about of which I’ve never seen an episode, though a few I’ve caught up with afterwards, such as Psych.
Public television was unlimited and free for my kids, but for commercial TV they had to redeem ‘TV tickets’ we issued them weekly, and it didn’t allow for much. To be sure, I believe they found a way to counterfeit them, but the practice still served to shield them from much rubbish. 

Still working our way through the ‘Have Gun Will Travel’ shows
 

I’ve taken advantage of my new freedom to wear a skull & crossbones, eyepatch, and cut off my leg for a peg leg.
To hear the crazies on the exJW site, you’d think it might happen any second.

It is hard to go wrong with an Eddie Murphy movie. Unless it is too foul to watch.
I feel a duty to screen movies for Many Miles who hasn’t seen that many.  The Amazon Eddie Murphy movie ‘Candy Cane Lane’ is okay and pretty funny, assuming you don’t spaz out over Christmas.
There is about a 20 year period of my life where I saw almost no TV, my ‘righteous years.’ There are shows that everyone speaks about of which I’ve never seen an episode, though a few I’ve caught up with afterwards, such as Psych.
Public television was unlimited and free for my kids, but for commercial TV they had to redeem ‘TV tickets’ we issued them weekly, and it didn’t allow for much. To be sure, I believe they found a way to counterfeit them, but the practice still served to shield them from much rubbish. 

Many this kind of nonsense has to be hashed out before another leg of influx can begin. Sort of like the hundredth year anniversary of hauling out the nonsense that was trinity and hellfire. After all, Pudgy has pointed out that, given that this is the truth—that is, the collection of teachings so that the Bible makes sense, you would people would be beating down our doors to get it, rather than the reverse.
Somewhere on social media there is the list, counting time—crossed out, no-beards—crossed out, and next on the list is ‘ties.’ I can’t see these ever being crossed out, but maybe we can reach the point of not insisting upon wearing them in the jungle (rain forest).

Some of these posts are as dumb as I’ve ever seen….

Soul patches and hair donuts should be grounds for immediate disfellowshipping and so should those with man-buns.

I’ve taken advantage of my new freedom to wear a skull & crossbones, eyepatch, and cut off my leg for a peg leg.
To hear the crazies on the exJW site, you’d think it might happen any second.