'Observing' or 'Commemorating' the Memorial (page 2)

still thinking

Of course you are not an observer AnnOMaly...you are a participant in the reject Jesus party.

You are activily participating in a Satanic ritual....Eggnogg...that is quite different from attending a graduation.

AnnOMaly

Of course you are not an observer AnnOMaly...you are a participant in the reject Jesus party.

Really? Me personally?

You are activily participating in a Satanic ritual

Oh for heaven's sake.

Eggiiiiie! Long time no see. The analogy was being invited to DINNER and yet practically all guests declining the food and drink offered to them. Yes, the point being made went totally over your head.

GLTirebiter

Sorry, MosheLars, but you are technically incorrect.

According to Judaism 101:

Pesach, known in English as Passover, is one of the most commonly observed Jewish holidays, even by otherwise non-observant Jews...

Pesach begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan

[...skip to bottom of page...]

List of Dates

Pesach will occur on the following days of the secular calendar:

Jewish Year 5772: sunset April 6, 2012 - nightfall April 14, 2012

still thinking

No...not you personally AnnOMaly...the whole thing is just a pathetic ritual. (sorry didn't mean that to sound like it was aimed at you)

And yes..the ritual they perform resembles the satanic more than the christian. Not that I give a toss since its all crap. But just sayin.

mythreesons

One time a few years ago the hall I went to had 3 memorials that were going to be held the same night. This made the last Memorial service start @ 10:30. I had young kids, was also an elder at the time. I was against having such a late memorial. It was on a Friday night, so I asked could we just have it the next day before sundown...cause I guess technically that was the same as having it at 10:30 at night. They couldn't believe I had asked such a thing.

Don't know what that has to do with the OP but I figured it was a blank slate...:)

djeggnog

@still thinking:

Eggnogg...that is quite different from attending a graduation.

Thanks.

@AnnOMaly:

Eggiiiiie! Long time no see.

I'm glad to see you.

The analogy was being invited to DINNER and yet practically all guests declining the food and drink offered to them.

I was talking about your analogy, @AnnOMaly, and it wasn't a good one; you do realize that it made no logical sense, don't you? Or, do you think it did? The memorial is a symbolic communion between you and Jesus, where "you" is assumed to be someone to whom God's spirit, through his or her reading of the Bible, has borne witness, someone to whom God's word resonates, someone whose spirit is directly impacted by what the word of God says to him or her personally. I don't know that you really understand what I just said in my previous sentence here, but let me go on to make my point: If you are the kind of person that appreciates being invited to be an observer as a spiritual event, then that fact that you would only be an observer at the memorial doesn't matter because all spiritual things pique your interest.

You and your husband, @AnnOMaly -- I don't know that you have one, but I'm giving you a good one now if you don't, and this man not only loves you, but you know he does! -- are contacted by friends that have season tickets at Madison Square Garden during the current basketball season for the NY Knicks to give you four tickets to the game this Friday evening, that is, if you want them, because your friends are going to be unavailable and won't be able to use them. You're a basketball fan and you give your support to Knicks basketball when you can -- not season ticket support, mind you, but for select games against certain NBA teams, you try to be in the Garden with everyone else to observe the game. Of course, you could watch the Knicks play on your HDTV -- you have satellite TV and you already have a NBA pass -- but, no, watching a basketball game at home is just not the same as being at MSG and observing the game with the ambient sounds and all of the movement that abounds when you are watching a basketball game in person as an observer.

Now what did I just do there in that last paragraph, I said a lot of things, but it seems I tried to use repetition to maybe emphasize the point I wanted to make here, @AnnOMaly, and I even italicized a few of the words in that last paragraph to ensure that you wouldn't miss the point, and so let me ask you this question for which everything I wrote in that last paragraph provides the setup: If you should accept the offer and tell your friends, "yes," meaning, 'I'll take those four tickets off your hands and use them, maybe I'll be able to find two others interested in going to the game with my husband and I this Friday, but thank you,' why if you are just going to be an observer do you go? Shouldn't between you and your husband one of you be the kind of person that appreciates being invited to be an observer of a sporting event? If you answer "yes," then that fact that you would only be an observer of a NBA event doesn't matter because all basketball events that involve the Knicks pique your interest, isn't this right?

Now as to what I earlier remarked about the memorial being "a symbolic communion between you and Jesus, where "you" is assumed to be someone to whom God's spirit, through his or her reading of the Bible, resonates, has borne witness and whose spirit directly impacts him or her personally, you are and your husband are now at the Knicks game, you are he have gotten situated in the seats with your food and your drinks, and "you guys" brought two friends along, so that you are all observing the game in person, when immediately after the horn signals the end of the second quarter, an announcement is made about someone in a certain seat number that has just won a new iPad 3 just for being at tonight's game and you check the ticket stubs only to discover that it is your seat number that the announcer called out. There's a sudden uncontrollable urge to shout out with a loud voice, "That's me!" as an ecstasy you've never known before grips you since you've never really won such an amazingly expensive gadget as the $499 iPad 3. It's your iPad 3, not the season ticket holders since the winner could have been someone that isn't a season ticket holder at all, and that's you! You cannot keep the words inside; they are going to come out, so in a loud voice that comes from the court-side seat in which you are sitting everyone in the Garden hear you say, "I won!" You're so excited, @AnnOMaly!

Now in that last paragraph, you may not have noticed the other point I was making there, because I wasn't clear there, but at Madison Square Garden there are more than 19,500 seats, but when the announcer whose voice you heard on MSG's public address system mentioned your seat number, you knew that the announcer was talking to you, did you not? You had heard this same announcer's voice during the first half of the game, but somehow you knew that the announcer wasn't speaking to you when the announcement about someone being tagged with a technical foul came, you knew that the announcement impacted someone actually participating the game you were merely observing, that the announcer was bearing witness to one of the basketball players on the floor. But this is different. In this case, you are in no doubt that the announcer's words were directed at you, that to only you did the announcer's words resonate. The announcer had borne witness to you and to only you and you were impacted personally by the announcement that the announcer made in which your seat number was mentioned.

The word of God impacts those who are called and chosen and anointed as heirs of God's kingdom in a way that doesn't impact you, for there exists a spiritual connection between God's anointed ones and Jesus that doesn't exist between you and Jesus, so that the words you read in the Bible do not resonate with you personally since you are merely an observer at the memorial. But if you are the kind of person that appreciates being invited to be an observer as a spiritual event like the Memorial of Christ's Death, then you would likely enjoy the ambient sounds and activity that take place at this event because all spiritual things pique your interest.

Not to come off as harsh here, but your analogy wasn't on point, @AnnOMaly. No one is invited to a dinner, shows up, but declines to eat. Like I said, this was a bad analogy; it made no logical sense. I never noticed this before, but I see now that you hail from Yugoslavia, so you may not be able to relate 100% to my MSG analogy, but, oh well.

@GLTirebiter:

According to Judaism 101:

Pesach, known in English as Passover..... Pesach begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan

Everyone has the right to observe pesach -- the passover -- on any day of the year they wish, even if they should decide not to base their beliefs on what the Bible teaches, or what Orthodox Judaism or some other religious group might decide it will observe the passover.

This is what the Bible says:

"And it must continue under safeguard by you until the fourteenth day of this month, and the whole congregation of the assembly of Israel must slaughter it between the two evenings." (Exodus 12:6)

The "first month" on the Hebrew calendar is Nisan. As for the passover victim, it was to be slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the [first] month, that is to say, on Nisan 14, "between the two evenings":

"In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening you are to eat unfermented cakes down till the twenty-first day of the month in the evening." (Exodus 12:18)

Beginning with the passover, unfermented cakes were to be eaten for eight consecutive days from Nisan 14 to Nisan 21, with the first day being the day when the passover was celebrated followed by the seven-day-long festival of unfermented cakes, with Day 1 of the festival being the second day and Day 7 of the festival being the eighth day.

"'In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between the two evenings is the passover to Jehovah. And on the fifteenth day of this month is the festival of unfermented cakes to Jehovah. Seven days you should eat unfermented cakes. On the first day you will have a holy convention occur. No sort of laborious work may you do.'" (Leviticus 23:5-7)

Exodus 12:15, 18, goes on to introduce a sabbath, the festival of unfermented cakes, to wit: "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening you are to eat unfermented cakes down till the twenty-first day of the month in the evening."

Every year, Jehovah's Witnesses observe the Memorial of Christ's Death on the day that corresponds to Nisan 14 on the Hebrew calendar for that year, the day on which the Bible indicates Moses led the exodus of the Hebrew people out of Egypt back in 1513 BC, who became the nation of Israel.

If you wish to observe the passover on Nisan 15, that's fine, but this won't mean that you would be observing the passover on the day indicated in the Bible, namely, Nisan 14. In fact, people can observe or celebrate whatever days they wish regardless of what days other people might deem special days, and decide to observe or celebrate.

@djeggnog

Ucantnome

Under the definition of observing there is

1. To be or become aware of, especially through careful and directed attention; notice. 2. To watch attentively: observe a child's behavior. 3. To make a systematic or scientific observation of: observe the orbit of the moon. 4. To say casually; remark. 5. To adhere to or abide by: observe the terms of a contract. 6. To keep or celebrate (a holiday, for example): observe an anniversary. (The Free Dictionary) If I go to an award ceremony I watch. I'm not offered an award. I am offered the emblems to partake of at the memorial. At the memorial I thought and was told we celebrate it. 6. to perform a religious ceremony, especially Mass or the Lord's Supper. (Celebrate. Dictionary.com) I perform my role of baptised christian with earthly hope by being offered the emblems and refusing them. By this refusal I acknowledge that those who have a heavenly hope partake. This was something that I done religiously ever year as the most important meeting of the year with everyone in attendance and those who are counting the partakers acknowledging my refusal. So I feel it's more than just watching. I dont attend the memorial now.

AnnOMaly

still thinking - OK, no problem :-) I think labelling it a 'satanic ritual' is a little OTT. You say 'pathetic' ... For me, it's more sad and irritating that the 'alien residents' of the Law covenant (according to the Bible) had more privileges within the Israelite community and religion than the anti-typical or spiritual 'alien residents' within the Christian community and religion (according to JW theology), when one of the points of Christianity was to surpass the Law and eradicate class distinctions and barriers between peoples (Eph. 2:11-22).

eggie - I'm not dealing with your rambling nonsense this time.

'Observing' or 'Commemorating' the Memorial

Share this