February
2008
But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts,
always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to
give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness
and reverence - 1 Peter 3:15
Watchtower Magazines now Available Online!
Many ministries to the Jehovah's Witnesses have been frustrated that the Watchtower and Awake! magazines are not available by subscription to the general public. Although it is possible to obtain the magazine by an active member in good standing in person, none-the-less having it sent to you by a member is difficult. I advertised on the internet and found several witnesses willing to send me the magazines. However, after a few issues they linked my name to our ministry and changed their mind.
While the new policy sounds good there is a catch. Rather than being able to glance through the digitized version cutting and pasting interesting articles in your word processor, ALL articles are SOUND files. You can "listen" to articles but you can't search for key words or paste pieces in your personal files.
Furthermore, huge search engines such as GOOGLE, won't be able to search articles and place the contents in gi-hugic databases for the world to search. Capturing embarrassing statements like false prophecies etc. will be more difficult to document. It would take several hours to listen to one magazines contents, where you could search for key words like "Jehovah" in seconds if the contents were in a text format.
Screen capture of Watchtower.org website listing sound files and terms of use.
Ministries will probably find that a hard copy of the Watchtower will be easier to review than these new sound files.
Interesting, you can hear the April, 2008 Watchtower, several months before it's printed as you can see from this screen capture from their site. This may be an error since their help files state that the audio files are released after the magazines are published. Also, the "Terms of Use" linked to the page obligates you not to share, publish, or edit these files.
I downloaded the last article for April 15, 2008 from the Watchtower and found it was about 13 minutes long. The file name is "Jehovah's Word is Alive - Highlights From the Book of John."
After a quick scrubbing through the file I noticed that Jesus is inferior to God and the Holy Spirit is not a person. From the file name it would be impossible to know these things without listening. It was a males voice with no music or sound effects at all and was rather droll.
Personally, I wouldn't be able to listen very long without falling asleep, but apparently the governing body feel otherwise.
The Watch Tower is obviously using extreme caution when using the net, but from their stand point there is the potential to reach the world with their message with little effort.
HELP IF YOU CAN
We have already this year sent out 2 cases (80 copies) of Peter’s “The Watchtower in Light of Scripture” book at no cost. One case is going to Haiti as the witnesses are so successful there. The other is to a ministry by an ex-witness striving to get the word out.
We are determined to give away 500 copies this year to further the warning of Watchtower errors and promote the true gospel. We covet your prayers and financial support. All donations are tax deductible.
Newsletter
Published Monthy
E-mail: challenge.min@cox.net
web site: www.challengemin.org
Direct all correspondence to:
Challenge Ministries
P.O. Box 20195
El Cajon, Calif. 92021
All donations are tax deductable.
Thank You.
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