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Ready for the Rapture?

Ready for the Rapture?

“The prophetic speedometer of end-time activity,” the Rapture Ready site claims to factor together end time components into a “cohesive indicator” and to “standardize those components to eliminate the wide variance that currently exists with prophecy reporting” to measure the type of activity that could act as a precursor to the rapture.

“You could say the Rapture index is a Dow Jones Industrial Average of end time activity, but I think it would be better if you viewed it as prophetic speedometer. The higher the number, the faster we’re moving towards the occurrence of pre-tribulation rapture.”

There are 45 indicators, but they don’t appear to show the names of the 2 “false prophets” that head the list. Lots of interesting reading. Sheesh.

Thanks, Michael, for the link.

Ask A Former JW: True Religion and Criticism

Ask A Former JW: True Religion and Criticism

This form was submitted: Feb 13 2005 / 15:55:06
by a visitor with this IP Address: 203.97.11.222

Name = Drew
Email = drew_anywhere@(edited out for privacy)
URL = http://
Message = I am amazed by the number of anti-Jehovahs witness sites. Other religions have very few in comparison. I wonder if the true religion would have many or few in a world so influenced by Satan?

Dear Drew….anywhere….

I can tell you are a JW yourself because this is a classic formulation and very familiar to me. So I’ll break it down.

The implicit argument rests on some false assumptions. First, there is an analogy between two dissimilar things: a world, which is satanic or as you say “influenced by Satan,” and people who are critical of any aspect of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Isn’t that a little bit like saying that those who oppose the invasion of Iraq aren’t real Americans?

It is true that there are many web sites with advice and warnings about JWs – and you will note that the majority are from former JWs. No-one talks much about the blood guilt of those led astray anymore, but many of these people were treated unjustly, without love or caring or concern or compassion. Their congregations certainly didn’t show the signs of the spirit according to the often quoted, hardly ever followed, 1 Corinthians 13. But of course, you’re not supposed to read their sites… or mine.

There are also many sites that warn about Scientology, the Church of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) and other, even smaller, groups as well. Would you want to claim that these others should be judged as being “the true religion” (assuming there is such a thing) since many people are also critical of them? Are you really trying to imply that the true religion would be the one most criticized? In that case, I guess we should all get out the cool-aid!

Sometimes criticism is valid, and any group working together for wisdom and guidance would have to be able to freely argue the points of contention. Of course, that is not allowed. I remember being called a “rebellious youth” simply for asking a question for purposes of understanding at a time when I simply looked for guidance from those toward whom I had utmost respect.

In any case, persecution – what JWs (and others) like to rely upon in this kind of argument as proof of their religious status – is about not being allowed to worship God in freedom. It has to do with punishments from cultures and governments which do not allow freedom of religion, who do not allow religious expression outside of what the ruling class or majority can find acceptable, tolerable, and recognizable as valid forms of worship.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have faced persecution – around the world and probably most notably during World War II – but I think it’s a little much to argue (and especially in an underhanded way that no-one outside of a JW or a neo-republican would recognize as valid) that web sites which are critical of JW destructiveness to families, lack of compassion and support, etc etc have a “satanic” dimension.

JWs themselves are so intolerant of others that they won’t even allow a family member to enter a church or a synagogue or a mosque for a wedding or funeral. They want freedom – but only for themselves to control others. The leadership collects benefits, but they don’t allow the people to vote. It is, of course, impossible for the organization to admit it might be wrong about anything, but that “new light” of understanding is blinking pretty hard for a people who haven’t even gotten around to absorbing the milk of human kindness yet.

The fact is that the organization is very controlling, and often uncaring of the spirituality of its members. I have many issues with the hidden leadership, but individual JWs I have met in my lifetime are often fine people. When they write to me with problems and tell me that they cannot talk about them or get spiritual guidance from anyone at the Hall, I feel badly for them. When people, following the direction of the organization, are cruel, simply cruel, to family and friends, it is hard for me to accept that there could actually be so LITTLE spirit, so LITTLE wisdom. Even a few people gathered together in a simple spirit of love know more of God than that.

I believe that the good news of Christianity is about love and forgiveness and kindness, not about the destruction of most of the world and its inhabitants. What kind of good news is that? I don’t believe that God wants us to be slaves in service to any worldly organization nor to any traditions of men, but rather to have a relationship with others such as Jesus modelled. We are meant to see the spirit in every human being. You reference “the least of these my brothers,” and still you turn away even your own when they have been broken or twisted by the psychology of the organization.

Have you asked yourself why pedophilia and sexual issues generally are such a problem in all such authoritarian groups? Ask yourself. Ask yourself why – and “pay attention, hold fast to what is fine.”

Should it turn out after all that God is not the god of love but the god of destruction, then he wasn’t worth my regard or worship anyway. I model myself after Jesus (among others), not Paul, and I don’t believe that God is much interested in our little organizations whether they be based in New York or in Rome or in Jerusalem.

I thank you for your question. It’s a classic, and it has been a healing exercise for me to be forced to think it through, write it out, and give it back. I hope it helps someone else.

Addendum: Response

I did try searching “mormons” before I made the comment I did. Perhaps 20% of the google finds were anti-mormon compared to probably 90% for the witnesses.

I must disagree with your comment on the congregations being without love or compassion. I am sure there are examples of injustice, or where the elders have got it wrong or made mistakes, jumped to conclusions and the such. But from my experience I know them as places of real love and care. I’ve travelled around the world and turned up at congregations where I know no one (sometimes not even the language) and been welcomed like a long lost brother. When someone unknown comes to our hall the witnesses go up and talk to them and try to make them feel welcome. My family were Presbyterian before my parents studied the Bible. When they went to see the minister they were told they needed an appointment, and their letter withdrawing from the church never got a reply.

If I rang an elder in my congregation and said: “John, I don’t think this is the truth.” He’d drop everything and be around in five minutes to talk it over with me using God’s word. Why? Because he’s paid to? Because I give them money? Because he want’s control over me? None of the above. They cares about the congregation.
Alas, they are imperfect. They make mistakes.

I think there must be a true religion. God has always had an organisation that represents him. The nation of Israel in ancient times. The Christians congregations in the first century. (Always imperfect. Alas) But overlooking the mistakes we see the truth. Do we conclude Jesus apostles didn’t have the truth because they made
mistakes? Why would I give up something that makes 95% sense, when nothing else I know scores more than 50%?

You mentioned what the Bible says about God bringing an end to this system. Most Christian religions don’t even know that. I asked a pastor on a plane once what the Kingdom of God is. I asked at least twice in the conversation and she couldn’t answer me! She didn’t even know the basics of what the Bible says.

What is the truth if the Witnesses don’t have it?

Anyway, you are right. I shouldn’t read such sites. It will do me no good spiritually. However I thank you for your thoughts. If there is a God (and we both know there must be) and the Bible is his word (I suspect you are sure of that to) we can all draw closer to him and the truth by studying it. John 17:3 eh?

All the best
Drew

Thank you, Drew, for your considered response. I am happy if your experience has been otherwise than those who are critical. I’m not sure that you have fully grasped that my objections have to do the with controlling and corrupt nature of the top-down organization and not with individuals. I don’t approve of any such organizations, nor do I believe that any such group has the whole truth. No, I don’t believe that the apocalypse is near, nor do I believe that the Bible is God’s only word – far from it. But I appreciate your graceful reply and I too wish you all the best.

Arrogance the Opposite of Faith

Arrogance the Opposite of Faith

This was posted by Richard Francis on the Love Ministries Blog. He received it as an email, and I finally found the link where it seems to have come from. It was an address given by Dr. Robin Meyers at Oklahoma University Peace Rally on November 14, 2004 and released December 29 2004 as a press release by Progressive Christians Uniting. The email was titled “A Minister Speaks Out” (and it’s high time – I’ve been wondering where on earth the closer-to-christians were hiding out). Since it was a press release, I am posting the link as the title above and blogging nearly the whole thing. It says in very plain language the basic anti-christian behavior of this administration. It’s only the broad strokes – but let’s see someone who calls his or herself a christian argue this one!

“Tonight, I join ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus, but whose actions are anything but Christian.

We’ve heard a lot lately about so-called “moral values” as having swung the election to President Bush. Well, I’m a great believer in moral values, but we need to have a discussion, all over this country, about exactly what constitutes a moral value — I mean what are we talking about?

Because we don’t get to make them up as we go along, especially not if we are people of faith. We have an inherited tradition of what is right and wrong, and moral is as moral does.

Let me give you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those in power who claim moral values are on their side:

— When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if your deceptions are justified because you are doing God’s will, and that your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are some of us who have given our lives to teaching and preaching the faith who believe that this is not only not moral, but immoral.

— When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, build the Unite d Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral.

— When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn them on their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount stuff like that we must never return violence for violence and that those who live by the sword will die by the sword), you are doing something immoral.

— When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.

— When you find a way to avoid combat in Vietnam, and then question the patriotism of someone who volunteered to fight, and came home a hero, you are doing something immoral.

— When you ignore the fundamental teachings of the gospel, which says that the way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test, by giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us so the strong will get stronger and the weak will get weaker, you are doing something immoral.

— When you wink at the torture of prisoners, and deprive so-called “enemy combatants” of the rules of the Geneva convention, which your own country helped to establish and insists that other countries follow, you are doing something immoral.

— When you claim that the world can be divided up into the good guys and the evil doers, slice up your own nation into those who are with you, or with the terrorists — and then launch a war which enriches your own friends and seizes control of the oil to which we are addicted, instead of helping us to kick the habit, you are doing something immoral.

— When you fail to veto a single spending bill, but ask us to pay for a war with no exit strategy and no end in sight, creating an enormous deficit that hangs like a great millstone around the necks of our children, you are doing something immoral.

— When you cause most of the rest of the world to hate a country that was once the most loved country in the world, and act like it doesn’t matter what others think of us, only what God thinks of you, you have done something immoral.

— When you use hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out record numbers of evangelical voters, and use the Constitution as a tool of discrimination, you are doing something immoral.

— When you favor the death penalty, and yet claim to be a follower of Jesus, who said an eye for an eye was the old way, not the way of the kingdom, you are doing something immoral.

— When you dismantle countless environmental laws designed to protect the earth which is God’s gift to us all, so that the corporations that bought you and paid for your favors will make higher profits while our children breathe dirty air and live in a toxic world, you have done something immoral. The earth belongs to the Lord, not Halliburton.

— When you claim that our God is bigger than their God, and that our killing is righteous, while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble the enemy we claim to be fighting, and that is immoral. We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us.

— When you tell people that you intend to run and govern as a “compassionate conservative,” using the word which is the essence of all religious faith-compassion, and then show no compassion for anyone who disagrees with you, and no patience with those who cry to you for help, you are doing something immoral.

— When you talk about Jesus constantly, who was a healer of the sick, but do nothing to make sure that anyone who is sick can go to see a doctor, even if she doesn’t have a penny in her pocket, you are doing something immoral.

— When you put judges on the bench who are racist, and will set women back a hundred years, and when you surround yourself with preachers who say gays ought to be killed, you are doing something immoral.
I’m tired of people thinking that because I’m a Christian, I must be a supporter of President Bush, or that because I favor civil rights and gay rights I must not be a person of faith. I’m tired of people saying that I can’t support the troops but oppose the war — I heard that when I was your age, when the Vietnam war was raging. We knew that that war was wrong, and you know that this war is wrong — the only question is how many people are going to die before these make-believe Christians are removed from power?

This country is bankrupt. The war is morally bankrupt. The claim of this administration to be Christian is bankrupt. And the only people who can turn things around are people like you — young people who are just beginning to wake up to what is happening to them.It’s your country to take back. It’s your faith to take back. It’s your future to take back.

Don’t be afraid to speak out. Don’t back down when your friends begin to tell you that the cause is righteous and that the flag should be wrapped around the cross, while the rest of us keep our mouths shut. Real Christians take chances for peace. So do real Jews, and real Muslims, and real Hindus, and real Buddhists — so do all the faith traditions of the world at their heart believe one thing: life is precious. Every human being is precious. Arrogance is the opposite of faith. Greed is the opposite of charity. And believing that one has never made a mistake is the mark of a deluded man, not a man of faith.

And war — war is the greatest failure of the human race — and thus the greatest failure of faith. There’s an old rock and roll song, whose lyrics say it all: “War, what is it good for?” And what is the dream of the prophets? That we should study war no more, that we should beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Who would Jesus bomb, indeed? How many wars does it take to know that too many people have died? What if they gave a war and nobody came? May be one day we will find out.

Time to march again my friends. Time to commit acts of civil disobedience. Time to sing, and to pray, and refuse to participate in the madness. My generation finally stopped a tragic war. You can too!

Cocoon Ex-JWs Support

Cocoon Ex-JWs Support

My dear friend Brenda offers a free support newsletter for exJWs. She doesn’t yet have a website, but you can sign up to receive the newsletter via email by requesting at BrendaLee567 {at} comcast.net

Cocoon is a FREE monthly newsletter which provides information and support for ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide. The newsletter in no way attempts to convert the reader to another religion. It does, however, contains website links, biographies from former members, questions and answers, poetry, inspirational quotes, JW-related jokes, and other items of interest. Email addresses are kept confidential (via blind carbon copy).

JW Chronicles: Praise for ExJW Info

JW Chronicles: Praise for ExJW Info

“I am so heartened (if that’s a word) to read this website, even though I am not a JW. I have made an effort to be respectful of the beliefs of the proselytisers who have knocked on my door, even though I do not share that particular confession. Indeed, I have learned a lot about some people from the way they argue their case. Often I think Paul’s message in Galatians 1:6-8 applies. (That or Jesus’ words in Matthew 23:15.) Your intelligence and sense of humour make this website worth a read for many a Christian. God bless you! Ian”

Thank you Ian.

Active JWs – Wanna be on “Trading Spouses”?

Active JWs – Wanna be on “Trading Spouses”?

Here’s a casting call for interesting and special JW families that was posted to my DoodleBoard on the main site. I know you’re out there, JW lurkers – here’s something for you!

“My name is Cat Wegner. I work as a casting director at “Trading Spouses” for Fox Television and Rocket science laboratories. I’m contacting you for this because I’m hoping you might be interested or could help me. I am trying to find interesting families who are active Jehovah’s witnesses and who would like other people to learn about their religion or culture. Trading Spouses is a family-themed reality show that airs on Fox, Monday nights at 8PM. The purpose of our show is to compare and contrast various families across the country while highlighting their unique interests and cultures! For example, we’ve had everyone from hunters to vegans, alligator wranglers to family bands, tattoo artists to political activists appear on our show. Currently, we are casting for new episodes and would love to meet more interesting families who could show the world a little bit about what makes them so special! This is a terrific opportunity for any family who is energetic and who wants to learn about another way of life. In addition, every family who has appeared on the show has been compensated $50,000! All families who want to be on our show must have at least one child between the ages of 5 & 18 and must be legally married. Please have a look on our website: www.fox.com for more details. If you know of anyone who might fit this description, please contact me as soon as possible. My number is: 323 8020538 or please E-mail me: cwegner@rocketsciencelabs.com Thanks so much for your time! Sincerely, Cat Wegner”