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Big mass shooting in Australia, 16 dead including child, 40 in the hospital. It’s classified as a terrorism. Jewish community was a target.

JWTalk Community Guidelines on AI Use Our JWTalk Community thrives on authentic human connections, personal experiences, heartfelt reflections, and the genuine “interchange of encouragement” between us (Romans 1:11–12). To preserve the sincerity, depth, and unique perspectives that make our community special, we ask that all posts, replies, and comments be genuine, original, and personally written by the member. Why We Discourage AI-Generated Content Artificial intelligence tools (such as ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, Claude, or similar AI Systems) may seem helpful, but content produced or heavily influenced by AI often lacks the personal touch, emotional authenticity, and individual voice that our members value. The many AI programs are not Kingdom publishers and therefore have not been invited members to this forum. We only accept human members who are practicing Jehovah’s Witnesses. We also recognize that the internet contains vast amounts of misinformation. Since AI tools draw from this pool, their results can be inaccurate. The old saying, “Well, I read it on the internet, so it must be true,” applies just as much to AI. Misuse Concerns Usurping spiritual responsibilities: Some members have used AI to produce biblical based brochures, videos, or outlines for distribution. This steps into responsibilities that Jehovah and Jesus have entrusted to the Faithful and Discreet Slave (Matthew 24:45–47). Replacing personal study: Others have used AI to summarize or answer study material, such as the weekly Watchtower Study. The Our Kingdom Ministry (November 1999) reminds us: “Using another person’s research for a talk or [as a substitute for] meeting preparation really defeats the purpose of personal study.” The same applies if AI becomes that “other person.” Relying on AI in these ways can leave us spiritually weaker, hungry, but not satisfied - similar to spiritual fast food. (Proverbs 26:15; Isaiah 65:13). Overall Goal It is not our goal to squash creativity or excitement about what these tools can do. That’s why we provide dedicated topics where members can showcase AI-generated images, art, or documents. But at its heart, JWTalk is a human discussion forum. Our expectation is that most posts and replies reflect your thoughts, your feelings, and your experiences. We love you and care deeply about what you think. What matters here are real voices, not artificial ones. By our keeping AI use very limited in the main discussion forums, we can preserve what makes these conversations special. YOU. Expectations All Topics, Posts, and Replies should reflect your own thoughts, feelings, and experiences, written from the heart. Minor use of tools for spelling, grammar, or basic formatting is acceptable, but the core ideas, wording, and expression must be your own. We encourage members to share personally and engage thoughtfully with others. This is the true meaning of an “interchange of encouragement.” Exceptions AI-generated images, art, music, or video should be posted in the dedicated AI Images and Art topic. AI-generated text, articles, PDFs, or other documents should be posted in the dedicated AI Text and Documents topic. It is acceptable to make a small reference to AI in a reply to another topic, as long as the AI portion is clearly marked, is on-topic, and does not outweigh your personal commentary. Final Note By participating in our forum, you agree to uphold these standards of authenticity. Repeated submission of AI-generated or AI-assisted content in the discussion forums, may result in post removal, warnings, or further moderation at the discretion of the moderators. Thank you for helping us maintain a warm, human-centered community where real voices of Jehovah’s children matter most. View full article

2025 GB Update #8 transcript

Perhaps, when it comes to AI, especially if we are going to post it on a forum for others to read, we should keep in mind the words of Paul at 1 Corinthians 14:19, "Nevertheless, in a congregation I would rather speak five words with my mind, that I might also instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue." A short post about a point that really stood out to you while doing "personal study" has much greater interest and impact that a "thousand words" in the tongue of AI.

Imagine saying to the brothers, “I let AI say my prayers to Jehovah. They’re really good prayers….some of the best on the internet.” Right away, you’d hear: Noooo! Why? Because prayer is personal worship. Jehovah can tell when it’s not coming from our own mind and heart. That’s what He values most….our sincerity, not polished words. And the same principle applies to study. If we tell a program, “Give me the important points of Isaiah 9 and 10,” we may get information, but we miss the worship. Personal study and meditation aren’t just academic exercises; they’re acts of devotion. They’re how we let Jehovah’s word sink into our heart. Just like Joshua who read Gods word in an undertone.. Of course, we don’t want to get too rigid about where the line is. We all meditate on information we receive, whether from publications, talks, or discussions. But there does need to be a point of caution. If we outsource the process entirely, we weaken our inner faith instead of strengthening it. So the safeguard is this: reading, reflecting, and praying over scripture ourselves. That’s what makes study worship, not just information gathering. That is what really draws the real me to Jehovah.. if that concept is do what Jehovah loves , maybe we shouldn’t be so quick with the quick answer…

AI was created and is backed by this world which is run by Satan. I wouldn't trust it for any answers regarding questions involving God's Word. Satan would like nothing better than to have us rely on AI rather than on the FDS for sound scriptural answers to our questions. I would use AI for mundane general questions (like cooking stuff and statistics) but not to find answers we already have printed in our publications that are easily found with our Research Guides and tools. I think more times than not, AI has been incorrect in it's answers even in general matters.

I like reading the different responses. It's like watching a tennis match. Someone poses a question or thought that may have never occured to me, then one gives a reply, I see and like the response, then the next person gives a different reply. It allows me to consider the many different ways that things may happen but I know only Jehovah will reveal the correct one. It keeps my curiosity high.

I hope friends and others are doing better in Cuba.

It's online. Code: 041 Host: Jackson

Isn’t it ironic that united world government in the form of strong UN won’t be achieved by humans but only by miraculous intervention of Jehovah? Maybe to make it really classy Jehovah will make nations strengthen the UN at the edge of it being dissolved?

AI answer to John 1:1 would still leave a person confused as to what to believe. If you did the research on JW.org online, there would be no confusion as to what to believe. AI will also tell you that it is highly likely that religion will never be done away with - our study of the Bible proves that to be completely false. That's why I don't defer to AI in these types of matters, AI will never put Jehovah's thinking on a matter first.

If I knew what "verse mapping" was I might be able to answer that. But whatever it entails, it doesn't sound like it's something that involves actually digging deep to find out what Jehovah intended us to understand about that scripture. Do you remember the concordance? Would that help in verse mapping? I was merely referring to the fact that I don't trust AI to tell me what Jehovah meant us to understand about Bible doctrine, principles and his standards. Even a scripture as simple as John 1:1 will not be correctly understood by AI or the creative days in Genesis. If I want to dig deep I'm not using AI.

The Supreme Court of India addressed a case involving Jehovah’s Witness schoolchildren who chose not to sing the national anthem while still standing respectfully. The Court ruled that such conduct did not constitute disrespect or an offence, since it neither disrupted the assembly nor interfered with others. The point worth noticing is the distinction the Court upheld: respect shown freely, without enforced participation. This recognition helps clarify how conscience can be protected while public order is maintained. Those who wish to read the exact passage and its wider context can view the highlighted section here: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/vande-mataram-debate-highlights-the-need-for-constitutional-protection-of-national-symbols-13725462.html#google_vignette:~:text=Avoiding%20compulsion,Honour%20Act%2C%201971.

A woman walks into a police department looking for a job. The officer interviews her and asks a few questions. “What’s 2 + 2?” “Four.” “What’s the square root of 100?” “Ten.” “Good. Now—who killed Abraham Lincoln?” She pauses. “I’m not sure.” The officer says, “Go home, think about it, and come back tomorrow.” That evening, a friend asks, “So—did you get the job?” She replies excitedly, “Not only did I get the job, I’ve already been assigned my first cold case!”

As brother Lett stated at the annual meeting …..We have AI - ALMIGHTY INTELLIGENCE Im comfortable sticking to the information the GB provides! 🤔 even that makes my head spin when I dig!

Paul, I agree we have some very useful tools, but they have some important limitations. If you wish to find a scripture or an article you need to type the exact literal words. Oh, yes, you can use some logical operators, but those are not for everybody. My parents are not even able to type without spelling mistakes, so they hardly ever find anything. Not to mention languages with diacritics or where words change depending on their role in the sentence. A couple examples from real life of how AI can be of help. I was recently trying to remember a scripture about listening to both versions of a story. I can never find that scripture because I don't remember the exact words. So I asked ChatGPT: "What scripture in the Bible says that you need to hear both versions of a matter to be able to make a good decision? Please quote it from the New World Translation." The reply? "A commonly cited Bible verse that teaches this principle is Proverbs 18:17 'The first to state his case seems right, Until the other party comes and cross-examines him.'" This is what I mentioned before about semantic search. Instead of looking for the exact words, it understands what you are talking about and finds relevant information. Another example. I asked ChatGPT "Please find some article exclusively on wol.jw.org about comforting someone suffering from old age". It gave me links to four excellent articles with a very brief summary of every one of them. Sure, I could have used the index, look up Comfort, then go down several pages of concepts until I found "the elderly" but this way it's much easier. I think a tool like that would be extremely useful to spend less time searching and more time studying.

Saturday, December 20 A man’s footsteps are directed by Jehovah.—Prov. 20:24. The Scriptures contain accounts of youths who drew close to Jehovah, had his favor, and saw their life turn out well. David was one of them. At a young age, he chose God’s side and later became a loyal king. (1 Ki. 3:6; 9:4, 5; 14:8) You can be encouraged and motivated by studying about David’s life and faithful service. Or you can focus your study project on the example of Mark or of Timothy. You will see that they served Jehovah from a young age and gained a lasting record of God’s approval. How your life turns out may be determined by how you use it right now. Your trusting in Jehovah and not in your own understanding will lead to His directing your steps. You can have a happy and rewarding life. Remember, Jehovah values what you do for him. What better way could you use your life than by serving our loving heavenly Father? w23.09 13 ¶18-19

Things are very difficult in that country. Beside several epidemics, they lack basic needs and spend most of their time without electricity.

I was thrilled by Brother Geoffrey's words about the pre-arranged Regional Convention program for minor languages. Thank you, Jehovah, and the Governing Body, for your thoughtfulness! 😀🙏

Indescribable faith and courage. It's wonderful to see how Brother Negede Teklemariam steps aside to make room for Jehovah and his brothers. The world is looking for heroes, but we have ours. I remember this very simple phrase: 'Jehovah will help us... we just have to ask for his help'. Also that even small children who could not even pronounce their names prayed for them.

I see a mixture of galaxies and chocolate. I think.

Immortality is actually repulsive without eternal youth. Unless aging would stop long before the human body starts breaking down, I would never want to live forever... 😕

Things I also want to have in JW Library is the "Read Later" If there will be a section where we can just save an article and save it on Read It Later, this will become useful so we can easily get back to what we are reading. Or maybe, the Read It Later is a feature similar in Watchtower Library where we can save articles and create folders for it. Hoping this will be featured in JW Library.

The language used in Revelation 18:19,21 rather indicates that it will be attack not the procedure, triggering GT and events that mankind never experienced before. Upcoming GT is called GT for a reason .

Yes, and It's online.

I’ve been thinking about this recently. I would love to participate in another one. Perhaps a new campaign would include our adjusted understanding of the “one thought” Jehovah plants in the minds of the nations' rulers. Since Jehovah used the prophets of old to warn people on multiple occasions, it’s a possibility.

Even at 77 years old, I admit to not being very knowledgeable about a lot of things "out there" in the world. And this is one of them. Recently a brother in my congregation came by for a visit an told me of a nice weekend getaway he and his wife had recently. They had spent the weekend at a large city about 100 miles away, and he said that one of the things they really enjoyed was going out one night to a Hookah Lounge. Not being familiar with the term, I later looked online to find out what the term referred to. Without further comment, I am asking if anyone here is familiar with the subject, and if it would be a fitting practice for a true Christian.

Sunday, December 21 Continue . . . forgiving one another freely.—Col. 3:13. The apostle Paul knew that his Christian brothers and sisters were imperfect. For example, he was misjudged soon after he started to associate with the congregation. (Acts 9:26) Later, some spoke about him behind his back to damage his reputation. (2 Cor. 10:10) Paul saw a responsible brother make a wrong decision that may have stumbled others. (Gal. 2:11, 12) And one of Paul’s close companions, Mark, greatly disappointed him. (Acts 15:37, 38) Paul could have allowed any one of these situations to cause him to refuse to associate with the offenders. Yet, he maintained a positive view of his brothers and sisters and remained active in Jehovah’s service. What helped Paul to persevere? Paul loved his brothers and sisters. Paul’s love for others helped him to focus, not on their imperfections, but on their fine qualities. Love also helped Paul to do what is mentioned in today’s text. w24.0315 ¶4-5

Early in November I went to New York to visit Bethel with my cousin and his wife. They've served at Wallkill and Patterson in the past and my cousin's wife still works remotely for the branch doing architectural drafting. She's like an architect without the eight years of school. My cousin is on a Hospital Liaison Committee. So, I got to see what they show everyone at Warwick, Wallkill and Patterson plus extra things from some of their friends and we got to spend time with some of their friends that still serve at Bethel. The Bible exhibits were amazing one of my favorite things as well as the first century village at Patterson. We also spent a couple of days in New York City had NYC pizza and went to the top of the empire state building, the 102 floor and we spent time in Central Park and looked at some of the buildings that the organization used to own in Brooklyn. We also got to meet one of our third cousins, (His great grandmother and our grandmother were sisters, fleshy and spiritual) he and his wife serve at Bethel sometimes. My third cousin just finished a three-year construction project so isn't currently working there but lives close and may be called back again in the future. We had never met him before but I knew he had been serving at Bethel and I got his number from one of my mom's first cousins and her husband who are in the truth also. We have a lot of relatives including many who have passed away, both closely and distantly related to us that are in the truth. It was an amazing trip. Everyone should go if they can. A word of advice, don't book two facilities in one day it's exhausting especially if you have kids. I book Warwick, Patterson and Wallkill on separate days.

Smoking is not a healthy or Christian activity. I'd have a quiet word with anyone I knew of who attended such an establishment...

Hookah pipes were, and in some places still are, originally used for smoking opium. Sometimes tobacco was mixed with opium. The connotations associated with that would keep me away. Even if I had no intention of participating, what would it look like to others?

It'll be nice to make jw drive available to us all so we can sync all instances of jw library on our devices at once.

Some really great articles that all say the same thing in language that's never been so powerful, probably because of how simple it is: Jehovah is eager to reward his faithful ones who have loved, endured, hoped, obeyed, and had complete trust in him (and therefore in his Organization). This Watchtower is a treat. It prepares.

The answer to your question may be that it won't involve a ban, per se'. The nations may decide that religion should pay taxes on their revenue and assets like everyone else. This would effectively put false religion out of business. The governments could move to seize their bank accounts and properties without "banning" them. Probably religions would try to resist and fight back. Then they could be shut-down as an enemy of the state. It will be amazing to witness . . .

Where its seems the govt has sad there is no basis for allegations against JWs - but seems one newpapers disagrees!! https://bitterwinter.org/denmarks-investigation-ends-tabloid-is-criticized-but-campaign-against-jehovahs-witnesses-persists/

And the newspaper has an ally in the Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs Morten Dahlin "I have no sympathy for Jehovah's Witnesses". Open hostility.

Measuring up: "Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds: “I find no crime in this man.” But they insisted, saying: “He stirs up the people by teaching throughout all Ju·deʹa, starting from Galʹi·lee even to here.”" Luke 24:4-5.

This made me want to use the movies in the ministry

People here have been asking for bro Teklemariam's full interview, well there it is

What do you see ?

Just another of Satan's ploys to distract the world and keep their eyes and hearts veiled from the real life. Even in perfection, humans will never be immortal.

Any update on this? Will Tucker Carlson say "oops, my mistake"?

Now back to our regularly scheduled program. . .

I am sorry, brother, if something like this is happening in our brotherhood, something that should never happen. But look at the text of 2 Timothy 3:1 to 9 APPLY THIS TO CONGREGATIONS AROUND THE WORLD! For men will love only themselves, they will love money, they will be conceited, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, disloyal, unnatural, unable to make agreements, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love for what is good, traitors, stubborn, full of pride, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and will maintain an appearance of devotion to God, but will reject the power of that devotion. Avoid such people.  Among them are men who slyly worm their way into families and captivate weak women, burdened with sins, led astray by various desires, who are always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth. These men have completely corrupt minds and are disapproved in regard to the faith. 9 However, they will not go very far, for their folly* will be clear to all, as in the case of those two men. Note that Paul also applied this to the congregation because he mentioned two people who were members of Israel and were with Moses. There is a Watchtower from 1988, 15/8 pp. 28-30, with the theme “How to Maintain Our Christian Unity,” which addresses two sides of living with brothers: Social Contacts. “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35) “Keep your foot from your neighbor’s house, lest he be weary of you.” — Proverbs 25:17. In other words, be loving But keep your distance! The reality is that we are approaching the Great Tribulation, and it will happen!

My only „issue” with JW Library is search feature, anything else is great.

This farmer just came up to me... ...he said 'I've got 68 sheep can you round them up for me?' I said 'Sure. 70'.

Why would a dialect be an imperfection? It's just a way languages change over time due to migration, new developments/ tech, discovering new things that need words for them. Anyway- I love all the different languages, cultures, art, music (which styles often reflects the language it comes from) etc. The more things are different from me, the better I like them. We speak the Pure Language now- that's good enough for unity, imo. Actual spoken languages can stay unique. ☺️ We don't know how things will play out in reality so I guess we'll see.

Looks like the access to these updates is back, from what I can see from their news page is that there was a major web server upgrade and then there was a faulty reporting to the servers and they had to halt until the data was fixed, most likely due to staff shortage. Once they have updated which they will confirm, I will update.

Yep. I remembered something about the angel who became Satan may have had oversight of the garden of Eden. I could have done a keyword search at wol.jw and eventually found what I wanted. Instead, I just put the question to Gemini and bam, I had the scripture, Ezekiel 28:11-19. From there, I can go to the scripture and see the study notes and related articles. It's a major time-saver. Would love to see the brothers incorporate it into our library. Just type your question and the references come up and you're on your way!