Matt. 24

by larc 7 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  larc

  Remember,

  Remember being at the door and reading from Matt. 24 to prove that we are in the last days? We believed it completely. We were programmed to only read and believe what was fed to us.

  I have seen JW's come here and use the gloom and doom terminology. Now, let us review the facts. As JanH pointed out on one of his threads, the last century was far better than all of those preceeding it. The 14th century was particularly nasty. What about the first and last half of the 20th century? In the first half we had WWI, the Great Depression, and WWII within a span of 30 years. In WWII. 20 million people died in Russia alone because of the war and because of Stalin killing his own people due to his paranoia. Germany - about 8-10 million. Now, in the last half of the 20th century, we have nothing that even comes close. As a result of less devastation and modern medicine, the average life span has increased by a full five years!

  The mind of the JW is made up. I hate to confuse them with facts.
  
  Edit comments: Oops, I meant to put this on the main forum. Sorry - and here I thought that I never make MISTRAKESS.
• 

  aChristian

  I just wanted to point out that it is not Matthew 24 that is in error here, just the Watchtower Society's interpretation of it.

  Jehovah's Witnesses teach that crime, wars, contagious disease, earthquakes, famine and the like are signs of Christ's second presence and have been much worse since the year 1914 than in past generations. They teach that this proves that Christ returned in that year. However, as Lark has pointed out, the facts show that, if the Bible is truly the word of God, this must be a misunderstanding of scripture.

  Read Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 carefully and you will find what Jesus was really saying. His point was that such conditions would exist all the way up to the time of his return and would not be signs of his return at all. He warned his disciples that they should not be worried by such things. He said, "These things must take place but the end will not come right away." (Luke 21:9) He compared the difficult times to come to "birth pains." (Mt. 24:8) For just as a woman must often undergo a long painful period of time before she finally gives birth, so Jesus indicated that our world had much pain to endure before he would return.

  To support their "composite sign of Christ's invisible presence" interpretation of scripture the Watchtower Society has shamelessly played with crime, war, disease and earthquake statistics for many years in an attempt to prove their contentions. The truth is, however, since 1914 none of these problems has gotten worse and most have gotten much better compared to past generations.

  An objective study of scripture and history clearly shows that the Society's "composite sign" interpretation is not a teaching of scripture. However, the dishonest men who run the Watchtower Society tell all Jehovah's Witnesses that they must accept this obvious misinterpretation of scripture and distortion of history.
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  larc

  up top
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  ozziepost

  G'day aChristian,
  I enjoyed reading your comments. Now we need to move on to considering how the WTS has subverted the intent of Matthew 24 by substituting 'coming' with 'presence'.

  Cheers,
  Ozzie

  "It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
  Anonymous
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  logical

  We are not in the last days. Matthew 24:6 proves this.
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  plmkrzy

  He compared the difficult times to come to "birth pains." (Mt. 24:8)

  Women’s birth pains can last any number of hours. Some women are in labor for as little as a few hours, example 3 and other woman experience labor for as long as two days or even longer. The one thing that most have in common is the CONTRACTIONS!
  They start out usually long periods apart and the typical or “normal” pattern is the less time there is between contractions the harder and more fierce they become.
  To sum it up quick.
  There are all kinds of pain
  There is other kind of pain people go through that’s just as long and much longer then giving birth.
  The only thing that is unique about the pain of giving birth is the sequence of contractions and the anticipation of an event immediately following the pain. Not to mention the periods of rest between the pain.

  So another possible way of interpreting that verse could be that the world would experience wars, famine, and earthquakes, ect. ect. ect. in waves. Getting closer and closer together as time goes.
  Has anyone researched our history really well as far as periods of time between bad times to date?
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  ballistic

  there was a great thread on how conditions have improved since the 1800's, I'll see if I can find it.
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  ballistic

  Here it is...

  * http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=16988&site=3