Jeebus could have been nailed on a coconut palm tree, it doesn't matter cos he never existed anyway, he's just metaphorical like the rest of the bible accounts. Only WTS would make a big deal of something so trivial and unimportant.
dos it really matter if it was a cross or a stake???
by highdose 23 Replies latest jw friends
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ProdigalSon
Yes it does. It's not about a literal death of a historical person, it's about the symbolism. The cross is an ancient sacred symbol representing the union of male and female, which is the key to enlightenment and ascension. In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus said that when we unite the two, we will enter the kingdom of heaven. It has to do with removing the veil between the left-brain and right-brain. It also has the same meaning as when Jesus referred to making your eye single. He was referring to the third eye, the pineal gland.
Additionally, the cross represents the Southern Cross, a cluster of stars upon which the sun rises on the Winter Solstice. But of course since Astrology is demonized in Christianity this also had to be suppressed.
So what the Watchtower does by having Jesus die on a stake is remove the esoteric symbolism of uniting male and female, and have him dying on a phallus instead. This is to match their narcissist OT god whose feminine half was suppressed to make him a bearded old tyrant in the sky. Jah-Havah means "Adam and Eve". It means we all have "Jehovah", both male and female, inside. That would eliminate both the Watchtower and Jesus the historical figure as mediators. We don't need one.
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Room 215
in a word, no
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Palimpsest
I wrote a somewhat lengthy reply to a previous thread on this topic, but I can't find it, so...here's the summarized version.
Even if it doesn't matter theologically, it matters for PR.
NRMs need something to make them distinctive and separate from other NRMs and mainstream denominations. They also need to promote themselves as having "truths" that other denominations don't have. By saying that a) everyone else is wrong about the cross and b) only they have the correct answer about how Jesus died, they're able to promote themselves as having more of a direct connection to God and a greater claim on the title of "One True Faith."
So yes, it's absolutely pivotal. Without those seemingly minor differences, they'd be just another branch of Christianity. By emphasizing their differences, they can claim that they're the Christianity.
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JRK
I don't care. Whatever!
JK
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Pika_Chu
No. It doesn't really matter. It's just a way for the WTS to say "hey, look at us! We're different than the blinded-by-Satan mainstream Christianity! The fact that they teach Jesus died on a different shape of wood somehow matters, and that's why we're the one true religion!"
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PSacramento
It matters enough to the JW's for them to make an issue out of it and make it part of their doctrine.
The evidence for it being a cross and quite probably in the T formation is quite overwhelming.
But when did somtehing silly like evidence ever stop JW doctrine? LOL !
Case in point 607BC.
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LostGeneration
Like others have already stated, its just another tool used by the WT to brainwash their followers.
Cults claim to have "special knowledge" that others don't. Part of having "special knowledge" is being different. Thats all it is, being different for the sake of being different. It doesn't matter to the rest of the world, only to JWs.
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Scully
No, it doesn't. It's like saying it matters whether Cinderella's dress was pink or blue.
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Band on the Run
It is telling that the cross vs. stake debate overlooks the central Christian gospel: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Alleulia.
The Witnesses get so bogged down in detail as though the very trivia somehow mattered. I knew about no cross, no Christmas, no long hair for men, no short hair, Jesus sans beard, Jesus with beard, etc. yet being born-in I knew not about the nature of Christ. Paul taught a simple gospel about the folly of the cross or stake.
Sometimes I wonder whether they will start reporting the color of mary's garb or how Magdalene styled her hair and what Peter's sandals looked like.
It is comical.