Posts by confuzzlediam

Blondie, that's pretty much what the article said as well. To me, the WT reminds me of the Sadducees in regards to the wealth and power that they had and held. The WT would not have their wealth if not for the people they have power over. Great example of this is the recent plea for money and the quick response of the JW's who gave more because of it. The Sadducees also believed that the soul perished at death, same as the WT teaches.

I guess the Pharisees beliefs better fit the WT beliefs, to me.

21

Who were the Sadducees and the Pharisees?? Are there similarities between them and JW's??

by confuzzlediam in

last month, i had the privilege of traveling to jamaica with a study abroad group from my community college.

while there, we went to a place called my father's house in which severely disabled children lived when they had no one else to take care of them.

as part of their day, they hold worship in a small, outdoor meeting place.

confuzzlediam

Thanks FayeDunaway!! I remember sitting there, listening to this pastor talking about the Sadducees and the Pharisees and it just hit me BOOM!! Like this ton of bricks came crashing on my chest...honestly made my chest tighten and all of these thoughts started just flowing and I realized at that moment that what I had been taught for the first 39 years of my life was all lies. Kind of made me a bit sad, but at the same time thankful for being open to TTATT!!

52

Try Other Religions

by Sofia Lose in

sometimes i get a strong curiosity to start dabbling into other religions, other faiths, you know?

really different ones such as islam, judaism, hinduism, etc.. has anyone here looked into something else?

has your spirituality been satisfied by any other than christianity?.

confuzzlediam

I get the same way as well. My issue when it comes down to putting faith into something else, is most religions/faiths are based on what another human says we should believe. Make sense? Who's to say any ONE religion/faith has it right. Maybe they ALL do...maybe none of them do. Right now I'm at a point in my life where I just want to be a good person and do so because it is the right thing to do, not because someone tells me I need to do it or I won't receive life after this one.

21

Who were the Sadducees and the Pharisees?? Are there similarities between them and JW's??

by confuzzlediam in

last month, i had the privilege of traveling to jamaica with a study abroad group from my community college.

while there, we went to a place called my father's house in which severely disabled children lived when they had no one else to take care of them.

as part of their day, they hold worship in a small, outdoor meeting place.

confuzzlediam

Last month, I had the privilege of traveling to Jamaica with a Study Abroad group from my community college. While there, we went to a place called My Father's House in which severely disabled children lived when they had no one else to take care of them. As part of their day, they hold worship in a small, outdoor meeting place. I was a bit apprehensive about going to worship as I am not sure where I stand with the whole God thing yet. But, I attended out of respect for the group that I was with.

There was a visiting pastor, a woman, who blew me away! I could have listened to her ALL day. She was passionate about the scriptures and about having faith in God and in Jesus. Her sermon dealt with forgiveness and was quite moving. One thing she mentioned in her sermon was how the Pharisees and the Sadducees lived and they were known to be ones that were showy in their way of worship to God. I wish I could remember exactly what it was that she said that got me thinking that this is how the JW's live. They brag about how many hours they spend in the field service, about how many publishers they have, about how clean they are, how they are NO part of the world...etc. I was reading a post on a FaceBook group I am in where someone talked about how at every assembly, they brag about how clean they leave the convention centers that they meet in every year and how they are complimented by "worldly" people on their upstanding behavior in contrast to "worldly" events held at the same facilities. Essentially JW's say that their lives are SO much better because of following the WT's rules on how to live.

SO how does this make them any better than the Sadducees and the Pharisees that Christ rebuked? I have included info below my post that I found on a website describing who the Pharisees and Sadducees were and what they believed. If you look at the Pharisees, a lot of what they believed or taught sounds a LOT like what the JW's believe and teach!!! The Sadducees remind me of the wealth and power that the WTS holds.

Any thoughts on this? Every once in a while I have these AH HA moments that make me go hmmmm....

Question: "Who were the Sadducees and the Pharisees?"

Answer:The Gospels refer often to the Sadducees and Pharisees, as Jesus was in constant conflict with them. The Sadducees and Pharisees comprised the ruling class of Israel. There are many similarities between the two groups but important differences between them as well.

The Sadducees:During the time of Christ and the New Testament era, the Sadducees were aristocrats. They tended to be wealthy and held powerful positions, including that of chief priests and high priest, and they held the majority of the 70 seats of the ruling council called the Sanhedrin. They worked hard to keep the peace by agreeing with the decisions of Rome (Israel at this time was under Roman control), and they seemed to be more concerned with politics than religion. Because they were accommodating to Rome and were the wealthy upper class, they did not relate well to the common man, nor did the common man hold them in high opinion. The common man related better to those who belonged to the party of the Pharisees. Though the Sadducees held the majority of seats in the Sanhedrin, history indicates that much of the time they had to go along with the ideas of the Pharisaic minority, because the Pharisees were popular with the masses.

Religiously, the Sadducees were more conservative in one main area of doctrine. The Pharisees gave oral tradition equal authority to the written Word of God, while the Sadducees considered only the written Word to be from God. The Sadducees preserved the authority of the written Word of God, especially the books of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy). While they could be commended for this, they definitely were not perfect in their doctrinal views. The following is a brief list of beliefs they held that contradict Scripture:

1. They were extremely self-sufficient to the point of denying God's involvement in everyday life.

2. They denied any resurrection of the dead (Matthew 22:23;Mark 12:18-27;Acts 23:8).

3. They denied any afterlife, holding that the soul perished at death, and therefore denying any penalty or reward after the earthly life.

4. They denied the existence of a spiritual world, i.e., angels and demons (Acts 23:8).

Because the Sadducees were more concerned with politics than religion, they were unconcerned with Jesus until they became afraid He might bring unwanted Roman attention. It was at this point that the Sadducees and Pharisees united and conspired to put Christ to death (John 11:48-50;Mark 14:53;15:1). Other mentions of the Sadducees are found inActs 4:1andActs 5:17, and the Sadducees are implicated in the death of James by the historian Josephus (Acts 12:1-2).

The Sadducees ceased to exist in A.D. 70. Since this party existed because of their political and priestly ties, when Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70, the Sadducees were also destroyed.

The Pharisees:In contrast to the Sadducees, the Pharisees were mostly middle-class businessmen, and therefore were in contact with the common man. The Pharisees were held in much higher esteem by the common man than the Sadducees. Though they were a minority in the Sanhedrin and held a minority number of positions as priests, they seemed to control the decision making of the Sanhedrin far more than the Sadducees did, again because they had the support of the people.

Religiously, they accepted the written Word as inspired by God. At the time of Christ's earthly ministry, this would have been what is now our Old Testament. But they also gave equal authority to oral tradition and attempted to defend this position by saying it went all the way back to Moses. Evolving over the centuries, these traditions added to God's Word, which is forbidden (Deuteronomy 4:2), and the Pharisees sought to strictly obey these traditions along with the Old Testament. The Gospels abound with examples of the Pharisees treating these traditions as equal to God's Word (Matthew 9:14;15:1-9;23:5;23:16,23,Mark 7:1-23;Luke 11:42). However, they did remain true to God's Word in reference to certain other important doctrines. In contrast to the Sadducees, they believed the following:

1. They believed that God controlled all things, yet decisions made by individuals also contributed to the course of a person's life.

2. They believed in the resurrection of the dead (Acts 23:6).

3. They believed in an afterlife, with appropriate reward and punishment on an individual basis.

4. They believed in the existence of angels and demons (Acts 23:8).

Though the Pharisees were rivals of the Sadducees, they managed to set aside their differences on one occasion—the trial of Christ. It was at this point that the Sadducees and Pharisees united to put Christ to death (Mark 14:53;15:1;John 11:48-50).

While the Sadducees ceased to exist after the destruction of Jerusalem, the Pharisees, who were more concerned with religion than politics, continued to exist. In fact, the Pharisees were against the rebellion that brought on Jerusalem's destruction in A.D. 70, and they were the first to make peace with the Romans afterward. The Pharisees were also responsible for the compilation of the Mishnah, an important document with reference to the continuation of Judaism beyond the destruction of the temple.

Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees earned numerous rebukes from Jesus. Perhaps the best lesson we can learn from the Pharisees and Sadducees is to not be like them. Unlike the Sadducees, we are to believe everything the Bible says, including the miraculous and the afterlife. Unlike the Pharisees, we are not to treat traditions as having equal authority as Scripture, and we are not to allow our relationship with God to be reduced to a legalistic list of rules and rituals.

Read more:http://www.gotquestions.org/Sadducees-Pharisees.html#ixzz3ejzlYZUI

6

A Renewed Friendship After 10 Years

by confuzzlediam in

jw
friends

a little background first....i have been dating my boyfriend for a year.

both of us are disfellowshipped.

we attended the same congregation 7+ years ago when we were both married.

confuzzlediam

Thanks for reading it through and responding!! That is SO very true!! I hadn't thought of it that way. One of the reasons I am so excited about this is because they have a former friendship in common in addition to a former belief system. Both together will hopefully strengthen their bond!

6

A Renewed Friendship After 10 Years

by confuzzlediam in

jw
friends

a little background first....i have been dating my boyfriend for a year.

both of us are disfellowshipped.

we attended the same congregation 7+ years ago when we were both married.

confuzzlediam

A little background first....I have been dating my boyfriend for a year. Both of us are disfellowshipped. We attended the same congregation 7+ years ago when we were both married. He ended up divorcing his then wife, then getting disfellowshipped some time after. He would attend meetings once in a while after that, but stopped going all together.

Fast forward to a year ago. I had recently (three months prior) left my husband of 25 years and had joined an online dating site for shits and giggles. Within a week or 2 of joining the site, I found him and messaged him to say hello. We met up that night as I had a fire going in my back yard and ended up talking till 3am. We have not stopped talking since!! BTW...I had always had a small crush on him, but of course i kept that to myself, because we were both married.

Since we have started dating, he has mentioned to me that he really doesn't have any guy friends that he can talk to or hang out with. There are a few at work that he talks to and has gone out once with one of them. I have a small group of friends (4 of us total) that plan to get together once a month or so for a girls night out. Last Saturday was my girls night out. We all got tattoos!! It was a blast! The next morning, my boyfriend mentioned that he needed to find a friend that he could hang out with and that he missed his best friend from years ago because they just got each other. Something he has mentioned on and off since we started dating.

WELL....later that morning, he received an email from that friend, whom he had not spoken to for about 10 years!!! WOW!!! I was SO excited that he was wanting to get in touch with my boyfriend! How crazy we were just talking about him needing to find a friend AND talking about this particular friend and how much he missed their friendship!!! His friend left his phone number saying he would like to talk. My boyfriend ended up calling him and they talked for close to two hours!!

My boyfriend still holds on to some, not all, of the JW beliefs. I don't question his beliefs, but make sure I am clear with mine. While he was talking to his friend, who had recently been disfellowshipped, his friend started talking about the things he was finding out about the WTS!! My heart was full and I couldn't help but think that maybe his friend would help him see the BS that the society is filled with and maybe change his mind about some things. IF there is a God...which I am sometimes doubtful, then this friend was a God send to my boyfriend. It makes my heart happy to see him and his best friend reunited!!! I look forward to them talking more and getting together with each other. When my boyfriend talks about his friend, he has a smile on his face and that means the world to me.

Thanks for sticking around and reading this far! I know this was a long post, but I don't have many I can talk to about this who would understand why this means SO SO much to me on different levels!!

MAYBE this friend is on this site and reads my post... If so... thank you for reaching out!! As I said earlier, it means the world to me to see my boyfriend happy to have connected with you once again!

9

watchtower not following 1st and second commandment because they are ostrasizing and shunning fellow humans

by poopie in

jw
friends

shunning violates the law of love that is principled love agape.

you can never justify shunning another human made in gods image no human has the god given right to completely shun another human by giving them the silent treatment.

its also a form of bullying which the watchtower condems on its own website.

confuzzlediam

Yes, it goes against everything we are taught Jehovah and Jesus to be, that is showing unconditional love for one another and showing forgiveness towards one another as we have been freely forgiven by Him. Unfortunately, they see it as an act of love for the brother or sister who has been disfellowshipped. By shunning, love is shown by not talking to them to bring them back to Jehovah thus ultimately saving their lives.

24

What are the current rules about vaping from the GB?

by purrpurr in

jw
friends

i mean e cigs and vaping.

not even tobacco inhaling but inhaling other stuff like herbs etc.

is this allowed?

confuzzlediam

"electronic cigarettes that contain nicotine"

SO does this mean that one could vape with NO nicotine in it? Or would that be considered as "other products"?

My guess is vaping, even with no nicotine, would be a no no. Possibly because they would say that it could lead to using nicotine in the vape OR could lead to smoking cigarettes OR as Punkofnice pointed out lead to other sins! There is also debate on whether or not vaping is even much better than smoking as you are still inhaling something into the lungs, which could be considered a defilement of the flesh. Not to mention it would be doing something that those in the "world" do, so would want to stay away from it.

My son vapes and I smoke. I have not done much research on vaping, but am not convinced it is a whole lot safer than smoking. Still inhaling a substance into the lungs. BUT we do it anyways...