Believers and Non-Believers - What does this scripture mean?

by cantleave 27 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Witness My Fury

  Here's another doozy that even my hardcore JW mother admitted was highly doubtful (i.e made up shit):

  (2 Kings 6:1-7) . . .And the sons of the prophets began to say to E·li′sha: "Look, now! The place where we are dwelling before you is too cramped for us. 2 Let us go, please, as far as the Jordan and take from there each one a beam and make for ourselves there a place in which to dwell." So he said: "Go." 3 And a certain one went on to say: "Come on, please, and go with your servants." At that he said: "I myself shall go." 4 Accordingly he went with them, and they finally came to the Jordan and began to cut down the trees. 5 And it came about that a certain one was felling his beam, and the axhead itself fell into the water. And he began to cry out and say: "Alas, my master, for it was borrowed!" 6 Then the man of the [true] God said: "Where did it fall?" So he showed him the place. Immediately he cut off a piece of wood and threw it there and made the axhead float. 7 He now said: "Lift it up for yourself." At once he thrust his hand out and took it.
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  Band on the Run

  Tammy,

  You truly live in fantasy land. May magic be helpful to you in all your pursuits. I wonder why you left the Witnesses.
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  tec

  I never joined them, Band.

  They were not the truth they claimed to be. Christ is that Truth.

  Peace,

  tammy
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  still thinking

  
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  dorayakii

  This is actually really funny, I've never come across this scripture before, LOL
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  rawe

  Hi Cantleave,

  The NWT reads much like the ESV...

  Then Jacob took for his use staffs still moist of the storax tree and of the almond tree and of the plane tree and peeled in them white peeled spots by laying bare white places which were upon the staffs. 38 Finally the staffs that he had peeled he placed in front of the flock, in the gutters, in the water drinking troughs, where the flocks would come to drink, that they might get into a heat before them when they came to drink.

  39 Consequently the flocks would get in heat before the staffs, and the flocks would produce striped, speckled and color-patched ones. - Genesis 30:37-39

  I fall into the non-believer category. Hmm... what does this verse mean? Good question!

  The writer does want to seem to draw a connection between the still-most-staffs and the flocks getting into heat. I know of no reason why such staffs would have such an effect, but it should be noted that sexual reproduction is a complicated process. Many aspects of it are still not understood. I see two larger stories here, one is the theme of justice, wherein the wronged party (Jacob) is able to use a clever strategy to get the advantage over Laban. Secondly, the Bible typically contains a favorable view of shepherds. The ability to care for a flock and select good breeding stock is not surprisingly assigned to Biblical heros like Jacob. OT authors it seems were either shepherds or closely connected to them.

  Some have even suggested one of the reasons why pork is "unclean" in the Bible is rooted in how sheep herders would have viewed swine herders. And such is connected to resources such as land and water.

  Cheers,

  -Randy
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  yadda yadda 2

  What it means is that millennia old 'scripture' written by ancient, ignorant Jewish men cannot be trusted in the slightest, and all intelligent, enlightened, rational people should reject such silly stories and ridiculous nonsense.

  
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  jgnat

  What kind of believers are you looking for? It's pretty ridiculous if one were trying to prove the bible perfect, considering what we know of genetics today.

  As an aside, russian scientists were forbidden from studying genetics as it wasn't considered part of orthodox communist thought. Nevertheless a team aggressively selected for tame foxes and within twenty generations they had domesicated foxes who eagerly sought out human contact. Selecting for behavioral change coincidentally resulted in foxes with spotted coats. It is unclear if the coat coloring is related to domestication.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox