I will start a new thread called "Wish you knew? Ask a Jew." I will start it tonight and try to get through all your questions by tomorrow. Someone just brought donuts. That means I'm gonna be busy for the next couple of minutes until I can find the bottom of this here box.
How the Watchtower Screws Up Your View of Scripture
by CalebInFloroda 63 Replies latest watchtower bible
-
-
Viviane
Append "We do too!" to your thread title for accuracy. -
C0ntr013r
Okay, sounds good!
Looking forward to it.
Maybe re post our conversation from this thread in the new one so it will be easier for others who want to join the conversation? Get everything gathered in one place so to speak.
Enjoy the donuts ;)
-
oppostate
I don't believe Christianity is pagan. It's origins are Jewish.
Earlier you said:
It is pagan to base your beliefs and religion on so-called sacred texts.
Is not Christianity based on the OT and NT are those not sacred texts?
JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES ARE ACTING LIKE PAGANS WHEN THEY USE THE DIVINE NAME. (all caps yours Caleb)
I would grant you that JW religion is cultish, but it is a Christian cult. They teach faith in one God and in Jesus as the Christ (Messiah). Does that not make them Christians? I don't believe they are acting like pagans. They aren't acting like Orthodox Jews, but Evangelists and other denominations use the Name in worship and preaching, does that make them pagans? I think you're exaggerating the pagan thing a bit much.
In the Torah the Name is used by His people often. The exclamation Hallelujah has Jah in it. It showed up in most Hebrew names Netanyahu, Yeshayahu, Yirmiyahu, Matthiyahu (called Theophoric names). They also named some places with the Name such as YHWH-YIREH, YHWH-NISI. Heck, it's even used in greeting one another in the OT.
The abstaining from mentioning the name is a later tradition, and not typical of OT worship.
And I've never quoted from the Jewish Encylopedia. In fact I can't remember ever using that as a resource.
Earlier you said:
Wikipedia states under “Firmament”: “The firmament is the sky, conceived as a vast solid dome. According to the Genesis creation narrative, God created the firmament to separate the "waters above" the earth from those below. The word is anglicized from Latin firmamentum, which appears in the Vulgate, a late fourth-century Latin translation of the Bible.”
This from the same Wikipedia article on Firmament:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmament
Like most ancient peoples, the Hebrews believed the sky was a solid dome with the Sun, Moon andstars embedded in it.[7] According to The Jewish Encyclopedia:
So you're quoting from Wikipedia, and it plainly quotes from the Jewish Encyclopedia. I guess you may not have realized this. Either that or you're putting me on.
But the rest you have written may be right. I will leave it to the others here and my Creator to decide if I am a hypocrite.
Well perhaps hypocrite was too rash a term. I took it that you meant what you said (earlier) and if you say one thing and then do another that's hypocrisy.
But you actually denied saying what I understood you to say, and that made me wonder. Maybe there was an assumption on my part and I should not have taken you at your word the first time.
So if you meant no hypocrisy I retract my statement and offer my apology for the rash accusation.
However, there is ample room to see a discrepancy in the things you wrote at first and how you write things later, (as you one can see from your quoted words above).
-
CalebInFloroda
oppostate...
You too wound up about things and need to chilax. You are splitting hairs and reading things into my comments that are not there and far from my intentions.
I understand you may got some hating to do, and I'm okay with that. Go ahead, send it my way. But you got me all wrong. Not sure what I did to get you upset, but so sorry.
I have another thread so people can spout all they hate about me for being a Jew, a gay man, and or being circumcised and loving cream-filled pastries too much called WISH YOU KNEW? ASK A JEW! Feel free to bring it all there.
But in the end I am not here to challenge you or anyone, just trying to give an additional viewpoint to counter that stubborn JW theology as it don't come out with plain soap and water like most stains do. If I am not welcome please tell me to leave and I promise this boy will dance out like Gloria Gayner!
-
oppostate
You too wound up about things and need to chilax. You are splitting hairs and reading things into my comments that are not there and far from my intentions.
Ayuh! I'm too wound up, and in need of healing like Ben Harper wrote and Marvin sang it.
Jews come in all different shapes and sizes, you can't just ask a Jew because just about every single Jew has a different opinion, there's secular Jews, and reformed Jews, and progressive reformed Jews, conservative Jews, agnostic Jews, constrictivist Jews, marxist Jews, atheist Jews, and Orthodox Jews, and even Ultra-Orthodox Jews--How do you expect to make headway with your individual point of view if other Jews would argue tooth and nail about things you say?
How about re-titling your "new" thread WISH YOU KNEW? ASK "ME", CALEB.
-
C0ntr013r
How about re-titling your "new" thread WISH YOU KNEW? ASK "ME", CALEB.
The title says: ask "a" Jew, so the title works fine with "every single Jew has a different opinion"
-
CalebInFloroda
@oppostate
"Different shapes and sizes"? What you saying? Do I look fat to you?
What if I stand this way? Still?
Now look, I have a glandular problem that the doctor said If I stop eating donuts, Pop Tarts, and soda pop that I could die!
-
CalebInFloroda
I wrote this on another thread, so just in case you don't see it there I wanted to post it here too. I understand that people are used to a site where people see various points of views as challenges to one's current set of values and convictions, much the way many of us saw such things as a Jehovah's Witnesses. That isn't what I've been here trying to do, though I understand it appears that way to some.
One of the most important tenets I strive to employ in my daily life comes from my strong conviction that all people have the right to exercise their conscience freely as they see fit.
As such I am also against the idea of debating in an attempt to alter one’s view over to mine or to make comments to make others feel that their religion or lack of religion is somehow inferior to mine. While not agreeing with Jehovah’s Witnesses, I also do not feel it is right to attack those who wish to follow that path.
My main reason for being here as an ex-JW is to encourage people on their path, support their view whatever that might be, and add what I know to the vast amount of knowledge that exists on this board. I find proselytizing unjust, and have no objective to win others over to my views in order that become Jewish themselves.
Some have found helpful information in my comments, but a lot of people have told me I am just an irritant and have wished me and my Jewish convictions bad (and not always on the public side of this board). Since I believe that these people are also capable of much good and have much to offer for the benefit of the world, and because some of these confuse my comments with an attempt to challenge or tear down their own, I am from this point on going to limit my comments to humor and just hang around in general.
I feel that the JWs are to blame for creating an atmosphere here where in some cases the slightest suggestion of anything that reminds a person of that religion is hurtful to some. That is not my intention. Since I want to promote healing and freedom for people who really need it after leaving the Watchtower, I think it the best thing for me to do is to leave my personal convictions and knowledge as a philologist at the door. My desire is to help, not hurt, and I think this is the right way for me to be helpful to as many people as possible.
-
TD
I would grant you that JW religion is cultish, but it is a Christian cult. They teach faith in one God and in Jesus as the Christ (Messiah). Does that not make them Christians?
I would say that if it's right and proper to view Christianity through a lens wide enough where even the JW's qualify as Christian, then maybe Caleb should be cut a little slack here too?
JW reasoning on the blood issue is quite striking, because it is exactly the two stage, inductive/deductive approach that a Rabbi takes to a medical halacha issue. The JW's have cast Judaism's moral anchor and trammel point overboard and arrived at a conclusion that the Pharisees in the 2nd Temple Period would likely have rejected, but they're still practicing the same approach, which is pretty unique for a religion that bills itself as Christian.