by jwfacts 65 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Regarding J.W.'s not celebrating birthdays "because the head of John the Baptist was offered as a gift to a queen". Here is what I reply to J.W.'s or anyone else interested.
"If you see someone deliberately run some one over with a car and kill them, are you going to stop driving cars"? Same logic, yes?
Hubert
My parents had me almost convinced that I was not missing out by not celebrating my birthday, but watching my son shows me how much I did miss out on.
So true. It was my birthday last week, and I had three cards (one of those being from someone I've never met - but befriended in recent years on internet). I used to feel sad when I'd see my friends have a whole windowsill of cards - yet those who knew when my birthday was were discouraged from acknowledging it.
Well done jwfacts, great reasoning! Love the part about dogs and eye-makeup!
Cedars
On someones birthday the idea is to make them feel appreciated, special and loved. None of those are bad things. You only get one birthday a year on which you are the centre of attention and you receive gifts and cards, however you will celebrate many other people's birthdays throughout the year in which you give without expectation of receiving yourself and in which you have the opportunity to make someone else feel appreciated.
The Bible says there is more happiness in giving than in receiving, so in order to appreciate the joy of giving there needs to be a recipient. Birthdays allow people to experience this joy by not celebrating you limit your capacity for joy.
Loved the article it helped to scrutinise the doctrine which we accepted for many years.
Weddings should also be banned. THere are lots of murders and killings at weddings in the Bible. We have the infamous story where King David bourhgt 200 foreskins after killing the previous owners as a dowry to Saul to marry his daughter. Perhaps the message in that story is that all xians should bring foreskins or a dowry to the father.
Excellent article. Can't really fault it. Another example of the WTBTS arbitrary rules. In reality most JWs actually get round the limitations by having " present days " & lavish anniversary parties. ( There are also a surprising number of JWs who have a meal on their birthdays as well , albeit they keep quiet about it. )
Perhaps you could add to your list of events or concepts in the bible regarded as negative that the WTBTS puts a positive spin on is the generation. The WTBTS admits this ( reference below ), yet they now interpret the generation as the "anointed".
w082/15p.23par.10Christ’sPresence—WhatDoesItMeantoYou?
Previously, this journal has explained that in the first century, “this generation” mentioned at Matthew 24:34 meant “the contemporaneous generation of unbelieving Jews.” That explanation seemed reasonable because all other recorded uses that Jesus made of the term “generation” had a negative connotation, and in most cases, Jesus used a negative adjective, such as “wicked,” to describe the generation.
There is another birthday mentioned in the scriptures which is often not recognised:
Gen 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
Gen 8:13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.
Splash.
wait............wait....... here it comes like a blinding flash... its .new light saying birthdays are ok now... read about it on the (now approved no longer satanic ) internet! Yay!
We always celebrated our children's birthdays but at home in private away from the congregations view.
