I was a third generation true believer, so most of this stuff I swallowed like an oyster with a beer chaser! But I remember being the reader many times for the Revelation book study and feeling very uncomfortable saying outloud that certain 20th century assembly talks were prophecy fulfillments or like "scorpion stings". Such ego!
Scriptures/Beliefs That Never Sat Right With You
by minimus 28 Replies latest jw friends
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mjarka911
Hey! - I'm a junior member now!
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gumby
Welcome JR. Can I call you JR from now on?
Gumby
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whyizit
I've never been a JW, but I can tell you the one thing that set off red flags all over the place when me and my husband were studying with a JW couple, was when the lady kept using the names "Jesus" and "Michael" interchangeably, when she was referring to Jesus. I've read the Bible a few times and am familiar with the verses that show the vivid contrast between Jesus and angels. When I asked her to show me where the Bible said that Jesus was Michael, she pointed to some verses and went way off into a long man-reasoned non-Biblical explanation. (The Bible never even began to show that line of thought.) She insisted I read about it in the Reasoning From The Scriptures Book. When I pointed out THAT was not my Bible, she changed the subject. I never did get a straight answer on that one.
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truthfullyspeaking
I've never been a JW, but I can tell you the one thing that set off red flags all over the place when me and my husband were studying with a JW couple, was when the lady kept using the names "Jesus" and "Michael" interchangeably, when she was referring to Jesus. I've read the Bible a few times and ....
The name "Michael" means "Who Is Like God?" thus indicating that this foremost prince upholds Jehovah’s sovereignty. Since Michael is also a champion of God’s people, there is reason to identify him with the unnamed angel that God sent ahead of the Israelites hundreds of years before: "Here I am sending an angel ahead of you to keep you on the road and to bring you into the place that I have prepared. Watch yourself because of him and obey his voice. Do not behave rebelliously against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; because my name is within him."—Exodus 23:20, 21.
We learn from Jude that Michael had the post of archangel. In fact, he was the archangel, since no other archangel is mentioned in the Bible, nor does the Bible use "archangel" in the plural. "Archangel" means "Chief of the angels." (Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament) Among God’s spirit servants, only two names are associated with authority over angels: Michael and Jesus Christ. (Matthew 16:27; 25:31; 2 Thessalonians 1:7) This, too, argues that Jesus and Michael are the same.
...The apostle writes: "The Lord [Jesus] himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet." (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
It is Jehovah’s will and arrangement for Jesus to resurrect the dead. (John 6:38-40) It is God’s trumpet that sounds the call for the dead to come back to life, just as God instructed that trumpets be used for an assembly of his people in ancient times. (Numbers 10:1-10)....
Jesus issues "a commanding call" to the dead to come forth, just as he did on occasion while on earth. (John 11:43) But now he calls, not with a man’s voice as he did then, but with all the power of "an archangel’s voice" (en pho·ne´ arkh·ag·ge´lou). However, only an archangel can call with an archangel’s voice! And no one but Jesus has been given the authority to resurrect the dead. Hence, this rousing prophecy gives additional strong reason for identifying Jesus with the archangel, Michael.The final appearance of the name Michael in the Bible is in the book of Revelation. There we read: "And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled but it did not prevail." (Revelation 12:7, 8) Here we see Michael in action as God’s archangel. He, along with "his angels," defeats Satan and casts him down to the earth.
Questions?
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blondie
I never could understand why it was so great at the end when Job was given back everything he had lost, his health, his wealth, his ten children, woops, that's right his wife had ten new children, the ten who had died were still dead. I wondered if that meant that the original ten children meant nothing and weren't missed?
*** When Someone Dies brochure p. 24 How Can Others Help? ***
Do not say, ‘You can have another baby’: "I resented people telling me I could have another child," recalls a mother who lost a child in death. They may mean well, but to the grieving parent, words to the effect that the lost child can be replaced can ‘stab like a sword.’ (Proverbs 12:18) One child can never replace another. Why? Because each is unique.
*** w83 7/15 p. 26 "Seek Peace and Pursue It" ***
At times Jehovah permits Satan to place severe tests on His people, as in the case of Job, though the final outcome to that integrity keeper was a happy one. (Job 1:18, 19; 42:12-15)
(Job 1:18-19) 18 While this other one was yet speaking, still another one came and proceeded to say: "Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their brother the firstborn. 19 And, look! there came a great wind from the region of the wilderness, and it went striking the four corners of the house, so that it fell upon the young people and they died. And I got to escape, only I by myself, to tell you."
(Job 42:12-15) 12 As for Jehovah, he blessed the end of Job afterward more than his beginning, so that he came to have fourteen thousand sheep and six thousand camels and a thousand spans of cattle and a thousand she-asses. 13 He also came to have seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he went calling the name of the first Je·mi´mah and the name of the second Ke·zi´ah and the name of the third Ker´en-hap´puch. 15 And no women were found as pretty as Job’s daughters in all the land, and their father proceeded to give them an inheritance in among their brothers.
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stillajwexelder
Increase in earthquakes since 1914
Almost anything to do with 1914 really
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Mrs.Congeniality
We are taught that the reason why we can not celebrate birthdays is because
1) Two instances in the bible where someone was killed: First of all nothing bad happened to the person having the birthday. example: If someone is getting married and has a reception and there is alcohol and someone leaves drunk and gets in an accident and dies are we never to have a reception again because someone died? More important the bible talks about a wedding in 1 King 9:16- (Phar'oah the king of Egypt himself had come up and then captured Ge'zer and burned it with fire and the Ca'naanites dwelling in the city he had killed. So he gave it as a parting gift to his daughter, the wife of Sol'omon.) 1 King 3:1-(And Sol'omon proceeded to form a marriage alliance with Phar'aoh the king of Egypt and to take Phar'aoh's daughter and bring her to the City of David, until he finished building his own house and the house of Jehovah and Jerusalem's wall all around. So the society says no birthdays because two people were killed on the birthdays mentioned yet it is ok to give wedding gifts. Not sure how they justify that accorting to the quoted scripture above. What about wedding anniversary parties? People have them all the time. Isnt that celebrating the birth of the wedding on the date every year.
2) We should not put someone on a pedistal: What about baby showers, I have never understood why we could have a baby shower but not a birthday. What is the difference? I asked an elder once that ? and he said it is to help out the parents. Well I dont know about you but my kids grow every year and they can always use new clothes and other things. What about bridal showers?
Just a few thoughts that have bothered me.