who is referred to here?

[TrueTomHarley]

Now TrueTom, knowing that the one part was made up of Rookites but the other of Butlerites, and yet another of Sreckoites, and let us not forget Witnessites, cried out in the Forum: “Men, brothers, I am a writer, a son of writers. Over the existence of God I am being judged.”  Because he said this, a dissension arose between the Rookites and the Butlerites and the Sreckotites, and the Witnessites, and the assembly was split.

For the Sreckotites say that there is neither resurrection nor angel nor spirit, but the Rookites accept them all except for 85% that they say is crap. And the Butlerites also say the 85% is crap, but they DO believe in some of the 15%. And the Witnessites believe—well, who knows what they believe except that their Queen Mother is the REAL anointed and the anointed of Jehovah’s Witnesses are no good—and the Queen Mother has a Facebook page to prove it. 

So a great uproar broke out, and some of the ones with common sense of the party rose and began arguing fiercely, saying: “We find nothing wrong in this man, but if a spirit or an angel spoke to him—.”  Now when the dissension grew great, the military commander feared that TrueTom would be torn apart by them, and he commanded the soldiers to go down and snatch him from their midst and bring him into the soldiers’ quarters. 

All in a day’s work.

[JOHN BUTLER]

I suppose TTH thinks he is funny.  Keep writing those books Tom. Perhaps Tom thinks he's on a level with his GB.

A bit of fame, a lot of followers, and writing rubbish which it seems some folks are empty headed enough to read and believe. 

 

[TrueTomHarley]

17 minutes ago, JOHN BUTLER said:

I suppose TTH thinks he is funny.

In this case, the gist of the spoof is spot-on, even if the humor should miss. The four participants referred to are implacably opposed regarding spiritual matters, but for the sake of slamming the JW organization, they are soul-mates. Get them scrabbling with each other, and I can write my next book in peace.

And don’t get me going about the Billyites, the Bubbatites, The Annites, and the JWwhites.

[Bubba Johnson Jr]

don't forget the TrueTomHarleyites

[TrueTomHarley]

7 minutes ago, Bubba Johnson Jr said:

don't forget the TrueTomHarleyites

Most of those bad boys are either in the hoosegow or the asylum.

[Srecko Sostar]

8 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

and he commanded the soldiers to go down and snatch him from their midst and bring him into the soldiers’ quarters.

hehehe, do not forget - you are in this "lion cave", "prison" voluntary, you entered in it by your own free will and choice. :))

....i am not sure about part where - but if a spirit or an angel spoke to him - because that would be contrary to official teachings how people in JW Church are not "inspired". If someone today would go with claim how spirit or angel spoke to him, people, not only worldly but JW people especially, will be very suspicious about mental health of that individual. :))

But you are Writer of books. You have licence to write what ever you like. Artistic freedom..... i almost wrote Arctic freedom but google translate put red line under word to alarm me. :)))))

[JW Insider]

20 hours ago, Bubba Johnson Jr said:

#1 We will not know the "day or the hour" until it occurs, but we have enough evidence to see that we are, as David Shafer said "right on the cusp of the Great Tribulation

This is true. But then again this will always be true because the end is closer now than at the time we became believers.

• (Romans 13:11, 12) . . .And do this because you know the season, that it is already the hour for you to awake from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than at the time when we became believers. 12 The night is well along; the day has drawn near.. . .

Since the late 1600's, especially, religions that focus on where we are in terms of chronology and prophecy have claimed we are at the cusp of the Great Tribulation. The Millerite movement apparently produced at least 100,000 people who could be convinced that 1843/1844 was the end. A Millerite named Barbour was able to convince Russell from his updated version of Miller's chronology that Barbour had used to prove 1873/1874 was the end. The Watchtower said that the signs were unmistakable that the last days had begun in 1799 and the Watchtower pointed to heavenly signs in the sun and stars in the early 1800's as proof. The evidence is so overwhelming now, today, that it would seem crazy to deny that we are deep into the last days, and yet we should keep in mind that the evidences seemed just as overwhelming to Miller, Barbour, Russell and others, and probably just as overwhelming to Paul's contemporaries.

And we truly HAVE been on the cusp of the Great Tribulation ever since 70 C.E. when the first part of the prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem was fulfilled. Remember that Jesus said that "immediately after those days, the sun would be darkened" etc. As Peter said, it could be 1,000 years off, and yet we are still to live as if the parousia could be within our lifetime. If we happen to survive to that time, we were on the cusp, and if we happen to die before that time, we were on the cusp, because our next waking second after our death, should be in the resurrection.

 

[JOHN BUTLER]

This above is so funny, just as funny as the overlapping generations.  A JW excuse to keep people in the Org.

Tell them the 'end is nigh'  and also tell them they have to be a baptised JW to survive. Scaremongering and blackmail rolled into one. 

Well I suppose it does keep the $$$$$$ rolling in.  

[TrueTomHarley]

3 minutes ago, JOHN BUTLER said:

Well I suppose it does keep the $$$$$$ rolling in.  

Not so much as it encourages people not to blow off Jesus’ words as nothing:

’”What I say to you, I say to all; keep on the watch.”

[JW Insider]

21 hours ago, Bubba Johnson Jr said:

#2 I would never add anything to an illustration developed by the "faithful and discreet slave" to help us to understand what Jesus Christ is saying to us NOW.

I hope you know that the ruler I added to the illustration was just a joke, to show how anxious some people are to get any additional information about the timing of the Great Tribulation. The joke is actually based on comments that Russell made, and a related comment here by someone else about how Russell had used just such a method on a rough illustration of the Great Pyramid at Giza. He took the original illustration from C. Piazzi Smyth's book (1864) about the Great Pyramid, and tried to measure various lengths to show where all the prophesied dates in the pyramid landed and finally ended. Most of this was borrowed from Joseph Seiss who had not only done the same thing, but who had "teased" the readers of his book (MIracle in Stone, 1877) by producing an illustration which didn't exactly predict the end date but showed the reader the "known" dates, in an illustration and then tempted the reader with just how easy it would be to see where the dates of the Great Pyramid finally dropped off. He said he wouldn't include that date in the text of his book because it might not be prudent. It was clearly designed to tempt readers to get out a ruler and measure it for themselves.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramidology#Joseph_A._Seiss

C. Piazzi Smyth himself and Seiss, elsewhere, had predicted dates for the end from the 1880's up until the early 1900's as each previous date failed.

So my joke was NOT intended to add any further information about what we could know, but only because I agree with Jesus and Paul about the silliness of any such attempts:

• (Acts 1:7) 7 He said to them: “It does not belong to you to know the times or seasons that the Father has placed in his own jurisdiction.
• (1 Thessalonians 5:1) . . .Now as for the times and the seasons, brothers, you need nothing to be written to you.

[JOHN BUTLER]

37 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Not so much as it encourages people not to blow off Jesus’ words as nothing:

’”What I say to you, I say to all; keep on the watch.”

It is enough just to know that there will be a judgement time. And it is enough to know that God will decide when. 

Anything beyond that goes beyond the things written. 

Keep on the watch does not mean make false announcements. It does not mean frighten people into staying in an organisation.  People should be content with the 'mana', God's word the Bible. People should not need threats or blackmail. 

As the song goes 'Where is the love?' 

[Bubba Johnson Jr]

45 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

So my joke was NOT intended to add any further information about what we could know, but only because I agree with Jesus and Paul about the silliness of any such attempts:

• (Acts 1:7) 7 He said to them: “It does not belong to you to know the times or seasons that the Father has placed in his own jurisdiction.
• (1 Thessalonians 5:1) . . .Now as for the times and the seasons, brothers, you need nothing to be written to you.

Oh, Ok. I misunderstood the joke. Was my explanation clear. I tried to keep my thoughts together long enough to type them out. This was something that just dawned on me because of comments in recent WT studies. I realized that I did not fully understand those scriptures in 1 Thess. 5. The JW Library and other web sites by WT Society makes it easy to research the scriptures thoroughly. Up to the present understanding. I appreciate your comments.