If you weren't able to find an amendment to the 1999 Watchtower teaching, Jeff, that means that it hasn't been repealed and is still current "truth."
Athanasius
JoinedPosts by Athanasius
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So 144,000 will go to Heaven? Is this to be taken literally even though......
by I_love_Jeff inwe have something within their own literature stating otherwise?.
"apocalypse, or revelation, is the name of the last book in the bible, written toward the end of the first century c.e.
in view of the prophetic nature and highly symbolic language of this book, the adjective apocalyptic came to be applied to a form of literature that began long before the bible book of revelation was written.
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So 144,000 will go to Heaven? Is this to be taken literally even though......
by I_love_Jeff inwe have something within their own literature stating otherwise?.
"apocalypse, or revelation, is the name of the last book in the bible, written toward the end of the first century c.e.
in view of the prophetic nature and highly symbolic language of this book, the adjective apocalyptic came to be applied to a form of literature that began long before the bible book of revelation was written.
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Athanasius
It only becomes old light if a later Watchtower publishes a retraction adjustment indicating that the brothers had the wrong understanding of the Scripture (even though that's what the GB taught them) so the new Watchtower is correcting their mistaken beliefs.
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2 she-bears kill 42 children
by confusedandalone inwe all remember this passage vividly: from there elisha went up to bethel.
while he was on his way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him.
"go up baldhead," they shouted, "go up baldhead!
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Athanasius
The Watchtower as usual picks a couple of verses from the Tanach and applies it to the JWs. 2 Kings2:23-24 must have been in the Watchtower outline, Separation of Powers, as I recall our CO making the same point, also some 40 years ago.
But we must remember that the Tanach, or Old Testament, is a Jewish book. The Rabbis study the whole book and don't cherry pick verses out of context like the Watchtower. Moreover, if one reads 2 Kings 2:19-22 it puts the bear incident in a different perspective. Elisha had healed the waters of the town which had an economic effect on youth employment. The Soncino Books Of The Bible, Kings, page 175 says this about the angry youth who mocked Elisha: "They were angry at having lost their means of earning their livelihood, which until now had been to supply the town with sweet drinking water." So Elisha was as popular with these kids as a CEO who closed the local factory, laid off all the employees, and transferred the jobs overseas.
Unfortunately I don't have it handy right now, but another Jewish commentary said that the Hebrew word translated "little boys" in the NWT can also mean teenagers. So situation was more threatening than dealing with a group of Kindergarten kids as the Watchtower would have us believe. Since there was no unemployment insurance or job training programs back then, one can understand why these young men were angry. How were they going to make their chariot payments without a paying job? Being unemployed wouldn't impress the Israelite girls either.
But the moral of the story is that should you lose your job, if you don't want to be eaten by bears, don't insult a baldheaded man.
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Article: It's Time to Outlaw Extreme Shunning in Modern Society
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://gilmermirror.com/bookmark/23272594/article-extreme%20shunning#.ufwjurllscm.facebook.
extreme shunningthe gilmer mirror.
its time to outlaw extreme shunning in modern society by: richard e. kelly .
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Athanasius
Right on Barbara.
Educating the public is the key to ending the Watchtower shunning practices, especially here in the US where the Borg gets most of their donations.
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Freemason Wilbur Ross... buying back Watchtower assets for the Rothschild family
by Calebs Airplane infreemason wilbur ross, a well-connected banking tycoon with strong ties to the rothschild family has just bid on some watchtower buildings in brooklyn... is the watchtower returning assets to their mother organization?.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/ross_for_jehovah_witnesses_bldgs_komlwtyitfqj3e0ly5fsmk.
also, please view this fairly recent interview with forbes magazine... seems carefully scripted on both ends.... http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyabenedicto/2011/01/31/wilbur-ross-on-the-economy/.
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Athanasius
My grandfather was a Mason and though I never joined, I did attend one of their open house gatherings. However, I didn't notice any conspiritorial activity, just a group of guys having a good time. But I've been told that if you want to get ahead in business, join the Masons.
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I can't find any bibles...seems to be a shortage...
by Legacy inhowdy,.
i have been trying to get 4 bibles for some folks i know who use to be jw's...not sure if they are returning but i'll do my part...can anyone shed some light or let me know where i can call to get bibles....patterson says there is a shortage, i've asked around to different halls in different states.. could it be because of jw.org ?.
take care,.
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Athanasius
Hi Legacy. You might try the Salvation Army, St. Vincent DePaul, and Goodwill Thrift stores, as they always have a few NWTs in their second hand book sections, some in mint condition. Of course you could follow your own advice and call Watchtower headquarters and ask a staff member why they let the English NWT go out of print.
Regarding a revised NWT, I think Slimfatboy is right on. The foreign language NWTs are not translated from the original languages like most foreign language Bibles, but are translated from the English NWT. If the Watchtower is too cheap to employ competent scholars to translate their foreign language NWTs from the original Hebrew and Greek, then they won't go to the expense of revising the non-English NWTs to agree with a revised NWT English version. And since the Borg requires conformity, no revision on the horizon.
Since we're speculating about why the NWT is out of stock, here's another possibility. Freddy Franz completed the NWT in 1960, and with minor revisions, the JW Bible has kept Freddy's peculiar renderings and late 19th Century wording. In fact some of the language and terminology of the NWT was obsolete at the time it was first published. So an NWT in modern English is needed if the JWs want to understand their own Bible.
However, 40 years ago the Watchtower released THE BIBLE IN LIVING ENGLISH, translated by Stephen Byington. The BLE was a much better translation than the NWT, but do to an agreement with Byington's estate, the Watchtower wasn't allowed to edit Byington's work to fit JW beliefs. But what if the Watchtower acquired a manuscript similar to Byington's work that was written in 21st Century English, but with the proviso that the Borg could make adjustments to the translation to fit the JW theological bias? This solves two of the Borg’s problems.
1. All JWs will need to donate to obtain a copy of this new Bible. The cash flow improves.
2. Like other churches, the JWs now have a modern English Bible that they can sort of understand.
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Manhattan Project Arrives in London
by scotinsw inlast friday and saturday i saw the new manhattan project carts in a few places in london.. one, smack back in the middle of the street outside one of the busy central london train stations is asking for trouble!
situating it in the middle of the pavement!?!
are they crazy?
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Athanasius
When I see the JW literature tables set up on shopping malls, I always ask the JW in charge if they have the Book Of Mormon. They always say no. Interestingly they never identify themselves as JWs and that the Book of Mormon is currently not a Watchtower publication.
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Oh, Kwap! Now they're REALLY getting on my nerves!
by stillin inonce in a great while, i stop by a local repair shop and enjoy a cigar with the owner.
he's a great guy with a lot on his mind and we always have a lot to talk about.
last time i was there i noticed a watchtower on his counter with an actual pen on top of it!
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Athanasius
Gestapo is good. We used to refer to the Governing Body as the KGB. "Kingdom Governing Body" if an uberDub asked for clarification.
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Blast from the Past
by Athanasius in[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>normal</w:view> <w:zoom>0</w:zoom> <w:donotoptimizeforbrowser /> </w:worddocument> </xml><![endif].
last friday i got a message on my classmates account from alice, a jw girl i hadn't seen in over 40 years.
i checked her profile and in her current photo she is wearing a native american necklace and earrings with tribal or religious symbols.
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Athanasius
Hi Scully. I liked your final reply to your former JW friend. It was very fitting. I think that the JWs who lead double lives have a more difficult time leaving the cult than those who are more honest about their JW activity.
I don't plan to reply to Alice's last message because this was the message I sent in answer to her question if I was still a JW:
"Hi Alice,
Why do you ask? After all you contacted me. But in answer to your question: I've been inactive since 1984. So I guess the answer would be no.
If you are still a JW, then I understand your concern and have no hard feelings if you choose to discontinue conversation.
Cheers,Athanasius"
As I mentioned earlier, Alice led a double live when I knew her and it doesn't look like she has changed. My quess is that she will go down with the JW cult, even though by Watchtower rules she won't make it into paradise.
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Tech49 on DC: Experiences are not truthful
by Tech49 ini was sent a link to a homemade video from our summer district convention, not the one i attended, but the next weekend.
it was a video of a local brother, relating his "experience" of "trusting in jehovah", and how he was blessed.. it was just about 1 short minute long.
ms harper showed it to me first, she wanted to get my comment on it before she said a word.. background: we both know this brother, he is about our age, so we know the "real" story.. anyways, his story goes like this: this experience goes back about 10 years (jeez, we must be really searching for the experiences now!).
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Athanasius
I stopped believing the DC experiences way back in 1968. At the 68 DC they had an older sister from my congo give an experience about her 40 years of active servic. She related how she became a JW in the early 1930s, was active preaching, and how she was blessed, etc. This didn't go over well with the older JWs in our Circuit who knew the sister's real story. Moreover, I conducted the CBS in her home and she had told me a totally different story. The truth is that the sister was contacted by JWs in 1930 or 1931 and took their books. Later she attended a few meetings but didn't do any preaching. None of her children became JWs, in fact her sons served in the military during WWII for which she received a patriotic medal, which she wore proudly during the war. Instead of being a JW, she was really what they used to call "an interested person." She didn't really become an active JW until the mid 1950s. So instead of the 40 faithful years of service that was claimed in the DC experience, it was really less than 15.
Since the sister was honest in relating here life story to individuals in the congo, my guess is that she yielded to pressure from CO to embellish her story. No doubt he appealed to her JW patriotism. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to ask her why the story she told me was so much different from what she related at the DC.