Divine Name

by brotherdan 33 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  OUTLAW

  YHWH..

  Historical overview

  ??????? in the Karlskirche, Vienna.

  Observant Jews write down but do not pronounce the Tetragrammaton, because it is considered too sacred to be used for common activities. Even ordinary prayer is considered too common for this use. The Tetragrammaton was pronounced by the High Priest on Yom Kippur when the Temple was standing in Jerusalem. Since the destruction of Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the Tetragrammaton is no longer pronounced, and while Jewish tradition holds that the correct pronunciation is known to a select few people in each generation, it is not generally known what this pronunciation is. Instead, common Jewish use has been to substitute the name " Adonai " ("My Lord") where the Tetragrammaton appears.

  Gods name was never meant to be commonly spoken ,even in ordinary Prayer..

  Not only do the WBT$ and Jehovah`s Witness`s have the name wrong..

  They never shut up about it..

  ........................... ...OUTLAW
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  brotherdan

  Undercover, you guys have helped me in a HUGE way in alot of these subjects. I'm so gratefull to all you guys for your experience. You guys know that I agree and disagree about a lot of stuff, but I hope none of you take what I say as personal attacks. Sometimes when I'm attacking a specific point of view, I'm just trying to reason it all out in my own head.
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  Terry

  When you are selling something you need a recognizable brand.

  Coca-Cola had to fight to patent the name COKE! People had shortened the actual brand name into a shorter one. It was starting to be generic for soda pop (any soda pop!)

  Making COKE exclusively Coca-Cola preserved the franchise opportunities. (They had to make it stick: the REAL THING!)

  Things go better with COKE was a compromise that paid off.

  Christendom has used THE LORD or CHIRST for centuries. All christian know who is being referenced.

  But--JEHOVAH clarifies the distinction between Jesus and the Old Testament Father.

  The cast of characters blurs between Old Testament thunderbolt-tossing Jehovah and apple-pie, fuzzy slippers Jesus.

  The Trinity doctrine doesn't make it any easier.

  For Christendom it almost doesn't matter what you call The Lord since you are inclusively referencing the package deal (Trinity). You are bound to be 1/3 correct. And nobody can make you wrong.

  But, as Pastor Russell's followers discovered under Judge Rutherford---they were in a war with Christendom and needed uniforms of a different color.

  The Bible Students had balked at Rutherford's roughshod tactics. Russellism was cult-flavored. How was Rutherford going to capture the flock and notify the world at large something COMPLETELY SEPARATE was going on at the local Kingdom hall?

  Being a lawyer and part-time Judge, Rutherford concocted a legalism: witnesses who testify in court must swear to the Truth!

  Rutherford branded his new religion: JEHOVAH'S witnesses.

  The accuracy of the pronunciation wasn't a problem at all at first. Why?

  Christendom was familiar with the name and pronunciation and scholarship was not refined and critical enough to matter at that point in history.

  That came later!

  Rutherford staked out JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES as a thumb in the eye religion of provocateurs hellbent on getting other Christians pissed off at them.

  It was iconoclastic, rude, and smart-assed.

  As the years went by and the two world wars ended and a time of relative peace allowed the religion to become more settled--the new President of the Society decided the brand of Jehovah's Witnesses meant----not PROVOKING---but EDUCATING sheeplike persons of goodwill.

  So bound up was the Watchtower Society in seeing themselves as EDUCATORS they didn't realize what a trap had been set.

  As bible scholars (real ones--not Fred Franz wannabe's) researched into antiquity and explored textual documents it became clearer and clearer that JEHOVAH was an error and not a person.

  The trap was sprung!

  The Educators would have to allow themselves to be educated by the very person's they were superior to!!

  Or not!

  They chose: NOT.

  From that time forward, the Education work of the Watchtower was on shaky ground because they made excuses and back-peddled their arguments.

  From about the mid-1960's, the Watchtower Society became intellectually dishonest liars with their homebrew New World Translation and their ARMEGEDDON mongering preoccupation with 1975.

  (I select the mid 1960's because the green bible became a unit rather than volumes).

  As more and more of the Watchtower theology started ripping apart at the seams Fred Franz went bonkers and put all his chips on predicting the END.

  The soon-to-be Governing Body could hardly dissuade him or naysay their own prophet. They tossed the dice and gambled away their credibility. ALL of it.

  Today the religion has become insular as a Top Down autocratic bullyboy cult pretending to be what it once was: witnesses to Truth.

  The old timers aren't fooled. They hang in there bitterly and skeptically (having learned to play the game and keep their mouths shut.)

  The Sunk-Cost Fallacy prevails (I've come this far---too far to quit now! I'll lose everything I've invested if I leave.")

  It is a religion about NOTHING. It pretends it is important.

  The use of the name JEHOVAH is a hold over. It is their version of Christendom's cross of Jesus. They can't abandon it or they cease to exist.

  Honesty (intellectual or otherwise) is a non-starter.

  (Yahweh's Witnesses just doesn't sit well on the tongue.)
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  Ding

  Stressing use of is the divine name is an example of the Watchtower majoring on minors anyway.

  (1) In Exodus 6:3, God tells Moses he didn't reveal his name YHWH to Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob.

  (2) We never see Jesus or the apostles rebuking the religious leaders for not using the divine name.

  (3) The apostles never called themselves or their disciples "Jehovah's Witnesses." They called themselves "Christians."

  (4) Where in the Bible does it say that if you don't address your prayer to "Jehovah," the prayer goes to Satan? If true, Jesus' "Father" prayers went to Satan.

  (5) The Watchtower doesn't want JWs thinking of God as "Father." You can talk to your father without going through some organizational heirarchy.
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  brotherdan

  oooooh, nice points Ding! I'd like to ask a JW why Jesus and his apostles never called themselves "Jehovah's Witnesses". That's a point I've never heard before! Nice job!
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  slimboyfat

  Things have moved on since the Divine Name brochure. The Society have since highlighted work from scholars that supports the form Jehovah.
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  cameo-d

  Outlaw: "Observant Jews write down but do not pronounce the Tetragrammaton"

  Interesting metaphor here. The Illuminati use a ritual where the code is in reverse. Considering that Jah's name can be written but not spoken, think what happens when you write your name down. Since birth, your own Divine name has been corrupted.

  When you were born, your parents applied for a birth registration. This application was sent down the line, and a "foreign corporation" created a TITLE for you. Just like a title for a car or any other merchandise or chattel. Your parents received the certificate for it (you). This TITLE became a corrupted form of your name by capitalizing all the letters. It looks like your name, but it's not. It is a fictious legal entity and it is traded in commerce.

  Your name was given for you to be called by; it became profane by being changed to an Instrument of commerce.

  The opposite of Jah's name which could be written but not spoken.

  I am sure whatever "Jehovah" name represents, the written form has also been corrupted and is not true.

  And there is something very significant about our names being changed to a capitalized form. Who really holds your TITLE? You only have the Certificate (receipt) of TITLE.
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  brotherdan

  slimboyfat, I've found that you can find scholars that support just about anything you want. So the WT using other scholars to support their statements mean nothing to me. History doesn't change. I know that Jehovah came to be known as the common useage of the divine name. That doesn't make it true. In fact the WT can NEVER claim that it is 100% true. It can be proven that almost certainly his name was NOT pronounced "Jehovah". So they can keep finding scholar after scholar that they want. It won't change the facts.
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  Mad Sweeney

  If we know that the vowels from Adonai that were inserted into the Tetragrammaton were the wrong ones, doesn't that give a really strong clue as to which vowels might be the right ones? And from there, isn't it possible to rule out certain combinations that would make the name/word mean something no God would name himself?

  Seems to me that although we can't KNOW the original pronunciation, we should be able to get down to a pretty accurate guess. It also seems to me that that's what scholars have done with Yahweh.

  Can anyone confirm where the "preferred" Yahweh version came from?
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  clarity

  "It is a religion about NOTHING. It pretends it is important."

  Terry love this line! I've thought that, more than once through the years. A bit like the Seinfield show!!

  Actually I am starting to think, that Rutherfords god Jehovah, is not the God we thought he was. What I am trying to say here is, that there is Jehovah .... and then there is the real Creator God who's name is so all powerful that we can't know it! And so it was not revealed to us by Him or Christ Jesus. If Father, is the name that Christ shows us to use, .... then what is it about FATHER that Rutherford didn't understand! ??

  Why was the Watchtower name changed from the Kingdom of Christ to "The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom" Why is a pagan watchtower emblazened on the cover and since about the '50's a special 'Jehovah' bible was produced for him, .... also on cover? Hmmm ...just saying...

  clarity