The Last Days (June 26 - July 2, 2023)
Issue No. 11
Welcome to the eleventh edition of The Last Days newsletter.
The Last Days delivers a collection of curated JW-related news articles from around the world, and other entertaining information, straight into your inbox every weekend. You choose what you want to read, believe, download, listen to, watch, or subscribe to.
You can find the last edition of TLD covering June 19-24, 2023, here if you missed it. If you prefer to read The Last Days on our webpage click here.
This edition of The Last Days, covering the week of June 26 - July 2, 2023, contains our leading Feature of the Week: Advertising in The Golden Age magazine; JW News from Germany and the United States; a JW News Fact Check that introduces fallacies; a JW Book Review; your regular JW Celebrity News ‘gossip’ section with this week’s celebrities in focus… Michael Jackson; a video on Bible contradictions from YouTube content creator, NonStampCollector; and more!
Enjoy the Last Days!
“The events unfolding around us, are making clearer than ever, that we’re living in the final part of the Last Days, undoubtedly the final part of the final part of the Last Days, shortly before the Last Day of the Last Days.” - Stephen Lett, member of the governing body of Jehovah’s Witnesses
Please support The Last Days for as little as the cost of a coffee.
The Golden Age magazine
[Commencing] in October of 1919 a companion to The Watch Tower was published in the form of the magazine The Golden Age. - JW.ORG
For most of its publishing existence, The Golden Age magazine (now known as the Awake!) was touted by Jehovah’s Witnesses as “a Journal of fact” and a source of newly revealed truths.
Below are two very different advertisements appearing in The Golden Age magazine of December 7, 1921. Enjoy!
Germany - published on June 29, 2023
United States - published on July 1, 2023
Jehovah’s Witnesses press release
We are working with the Sheriff’s department to identify the cause of this fire.
We thank them and the fire department for their quick and thorough response and we will continue to cooperate fully with their investigation. We are thankful that there was no one present in the building at the time of the fire.
We hope to accomplish a thorough cleanup and restoration as soon as possible so we may resume meetings at the Kingdom Hall. Until then, the congregation will meet via video conferencing. - Flowing Wells Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses
Previous news reports
“Why can we be certain that God has a visible organization? One reason is that he has an invisible organization.” - You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth (page 191) JW.ORG
Is the above statement a logical fallacy?
In commenting on logical fallacies, the website Mind Tools states:
Logical fallacies can be persuasive, and are often used in rhetoric to encourage people to think a certain way or believe certain things.
… The ability to discern a valid argument from a false one is an important skill. It’s a key aspect of critical thinking, and it can help you to avoid falling prey to fake news. - Mind Tools: Logical Fallacies
Learn to identify logical fallacies to protect yourself from misinformation.
Let’s face it, there are a lot of actors, singers, musicians, artists, sports stars, and celebrities that are former or even current Jehovah’s Witnesses, or that were raised as children within the religion.
In focus: Michael Jackson
as Jackson’s creative expression began to flourish in the 1980s with projects like “Thriller,” the Jehovah’s Witness leaders in Brooklyn started warning their followers of devilish music that was meant to pull them away from their religion. As Jackson continued to make groundbreaking music, his relationship with the Jehovah’s Witness community began to dissolve. [1]
The May 22, 1984, edition of the Jehovah’s Witnesses official magazine, Awake!, carried the following statement from Michael Jackson following the publication of the Thriller music video:
[1] Yahoo News
Podcast | Michael Jackson’s Legacy: It’s Complicated
New Boy: Life and Death at the World Headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses by Keith Casarona
What is it like being the new boy at Bethel?
Enjoy a fifty year odyssey of one person’s journey into the bowels of the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society, otherwise known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Living at the world headquarters of this organization became so surreal and crazy that many there could only leave the insanity by way suicide. How has this same organization, been instrumental in the death, suicides and insanity of thousands of people, many of whom are not even Jehovah’s Witnesses?
Keith Casarona has written a telling account of his life, in and out of the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization. Alternately humorous and painful, it is and intriguing educational read. - publisher’s blurb
In this YouTube video from NonStampCollector we look at the humorous side of Bible contradictions.
On Wednesday, February 22, 2023, it was announced at the World Headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses that
“Brother Anthony Morris III is no longer serving as a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
Still no news on the reasons for the removal of Anthony Morris III from the governing body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, or his whereabouts, although online speculation continues to abound.
