Very Pathetic questions but. . . .

by peacepipe 7 Replies latest jw friends

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  peacepipe

  1) Does anyone have any explanation as to why so many/most/all of the people in the Awake Magazines always say *name changed* or the letters from readers in the back only give first name/last name initial & country?
  Wouldn't it be more interesting to know the names of the "brothers & sisters" and maybe what congregation they were from?
  I found this to strike me as being made up.

  2) Does anyone know anything about if it was John the Apostle who wrote the Book of Revelation? I once watched a discovery channel show hosted by Leonard Nemoy, aka Spock (maybe someone else so it) disproving that because they had a "hosted by Leonard Nemoy "-you know- Spock- program on the discovery channel & they said it was not that John but some other John.

  3) Has anyone done any reading on Hypatia and do you know any good books pertaining to that era (370-415)?

  4) There is not 4.

  As always any comments are warmly embraced.

  The unexamined life is not worth living
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  Satanus

  hypatia - A smart pagan woman ripped to peices by the loving christians, only because she was of another faith. If i remember, she was a librarian.

  As a side point, the founding fathers: jefferson, franklin, and madison were not christian, they actually were a little bit ant-christian. But they believed in freedom and education. Contrary to current leaders, they had faith in the thinking ability of the common man. Their friend, thomas paine was rabidly anti-christian. Had it been up to the puritins, there would not have been religious freedom, other than for puritins.

  S
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  peacepipe

  I do alot of reading when I have time but recently have been trying to delve into the time period when christianity really started to take it's hold. I feel I could get alot of my questions answered if I get the facts straight in my mind. I've been told by the JW's that christianity was so tainted after the apostles but throughout the years there were always a few who kept true to the faith (though we don't know who they were) up until WT founder.
  So I'm just trying to find that history out on my own; unfortunantely, I don't get a hour long bible study with anyone for that so . . . here I am.
• 

  LDH1

  I have only the answer to question #1. Why are the Awake correspondents not given names?

  You are correct, the correspondents do not actually exist.

  For proof of this, I only need look 5-6 years ago. At the time, my sister and I spent quite a bit of time at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC. Some of you may know a small shop there, called the Russian Tea Room.

  My sister fell in love with and purchased an authentic Russian Matroiska (sp.) doll. You know, the ones where there's a smaller and smaller doll inside. The smallest one was solid gold. I remember she paid about $6,000. The shop owner gave her a book titled "The history of Russian Matroiskas" or some other title similar.

  She read the whole book, and like me, has an outstanding memory.

  Some months later, an article appeared in the Awake magazine. You guessed it. About the history of those famous dolls.

  Some of the phrases stuck a chord in my sister's mind. She pulled her book and and guess what?

  GASP!!! The whole article had been plagarized from the book!

  They didn't even bother to change some of the phrasing.

  My parents were outraged. Not at the WBTS. But at my sister for pointing this huge gaffe out to them.

  Now, we formed a few theories about this. One, the WBTS didn't expect anyone to have this book, since your library is supposed to consist of only WBTS approved materials. Two, that no one would ever recognise the phrasing.

  Now that I think of it, I'm going to post this on the experience thread.

  True story.
  Lisa
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  Quester

  Raymond E. Brown, Catholic New Testment Scholar
  in his book "An Introduction To The New Testament" c. 1997,

  indicates that it is "highly implausible" that an apostle
  wrote Revelation. And continues, "...the conclusion that
  does the most justice to the evidence is that the seer of
  Rev was an otherwise unknown John."

  Modern day Bible scholarship differs quite a bit from what
  we learned for Bible basics in the jw religion. I would
  recommend reading Brown's books. You should be able
  to get them from the library.

  Quester
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  Pubsinger

  Peacepipe.

  I also went down the same research line as you on Christian history.

  I suggest that you carry on because it does help to get your head straight. I found the most interesting thing was that often the Society had taken actual events and twisted the back grounds and motives behind them. Classic examples of this are Constantine and the Council of Nicea.

  You should be able to get a one volume, encyclopaedia style book on the subject. I've seen quite a few, you know a sort of "History of Christianity" type presentation.

  I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

  Pub.
• 

  Pubsinger

  PP.

  The one thing you certainly will find no evidence of is that throughout history there was a thread of "true" believers who essentially believed what JW's do today, and who passed this "truth" on through the generations.

  Remember what Russell supposedly did? He decided to ignore what the religions around him had taught him (passed down to him?) and start with a blank page and a bible. Great idea but unfortunately a massive task. By refusing to accept the beliefs which had been passed down in the 1900 years since Christ he only succeeded in making the errors that had been made, considered, debated and then rejected thousands of years before.

  All of the groups that the society sometimes infer were JW forerunners such as the Waldenses, actually believed what the mainstream Christian churches do today.
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  peacepipe

  hi again!
  LDH1: thanks for that story, I'll be sure to read others thoughts on the other thread you started. I do find alot of interest in the subject matter of JW literature but most of the time its very mundane and it has no substance. At least the article you spoke of that they copied may of been more stimulating(lol)

  Quester: thanks for your thought. I thought I was correct in saying that about Revelation. I can add also as a regular attendee of catholic church the last 15 years that I really don't think they make much reference to Revelation (I usually sit in church and read through the book we use and read all the verses and stories & then go home and compare to my WT bible and my regular bible) so I'm not suprised that came from a catholic scholar. I'll be anxious to read his book.

  pubsinger: I'll definently be keeping up my study on history. I also found it interesting in the study of the "Daniel Book" how everything we studied towards the end of the book was saying how all these prophecies in Daniel related to the WT and it's founding members. I was thinking to myself "now c'mon, I'm supposed to believe that!"