I dont understand the term "Celebrated WT scholars"because the WT to my knowlege doesnt print articals with anyones name on them, unless they have changed there position on this. Also scolars usually if they are scolarly do a doctorate before they are realy considered a scholar.
Posts by barry
-
184Celebrated WT scholars? :)
by Augustin inprof lester l. grabbe on rolf furuli's "oslo chronology":.
"once again we have an amateur who wants to rewrite scholarship" (jsot 28:5 [2004], p. 42).. ...celebrated wt scholars?
--augustin --
-
-
-
131
Guantanamo Bay Suicides - a PR Move
by eyeslice inquote from bbc website .
a top us official has described the suicides of three detainees at the us base at guantanamo bay, cuba, as a "good pr move to draw attention".
colleen graffy told the bbc the deaths were part of a strategy and "a tactic to further the jihadi cause", but taking their own lives was unnecessary.
-
-
barry
Today Abu Baka Bashia was released from jail in Indonesia after only 2years of detension. He is the spiritual leader of the bombers who attacked the people in Bali where in excess of 200 were killed including 70 Australians.Here in Australia I have a muslim friend who has lived here for 35 years and he beleives that ultimately all non muslims should be made to submit to god or be executed.
There is an Australian in guantanamo bay who has been held there for 4 years David Hicks and will be charged because he was an illegal combatant in Afganistan. I understand most of those in detension there are classified as illegal combatants.
So the sort of things I am hearing here is
1 The prisoners should have legal representation , which they will have in due course.
2 They are inocent until proven guilty. This is a principle of English common law but does not apply to these prisoners in guantanamo bay because they are outside the us. In fact this principle doesnt apply in many other countries of the world including many developed european countries.
Should they be treated as POWs and be under the geneva convention? I dont so the reasons being that the Genevia convention is agreements between countries whereas in this instance we are dealing with illegal combatants. In a war countries make agreements about treatement of prisnoers and when hostilities end prisoners are returned to their respective countries.The situation we have with the war on terror is if these illegals are released the hostility by them does not necessarily end in fact some have returned to the battlefield.
We are not dealing with POWs we are dealing with sub human filth and only have themselves to blame for the situation they find themselves in.
-
8
Will only Christians be saved?
by greendawn ini asked a catholic priest if one needs to be a catholic to be saved, to compare with the jw belief that one has to be a jw to be saved.
his answer was interesting and based on romans 2:12-14 (nlt version) .
"14 even when gentiles, who do not have god's written law, instinctively follow what the law says, they show that in their hearts they know right from wrong.
-
-
barry
Greendawn thats the same explanation you would get from an SDA but the reason is not everyone beleives in th esecond chance theory as the JWs do. The SDAs beleive in a mixture of pre millenelism and A millenelism
-
25
Higher Education: Is The Issue Really That Important?
by Warlock inthe catholics think they have the true religion, but they don't discourage higher education.. the protestants think they have the true religion, but they don't discourage higher education.. the j.w.
's think they have the true religion, but yet they do discourage higher education.. why?
do they really think there would be a mass exodus from the org.
-
-
barry
In SDA church higher education is promoted to the extent that in the US a college education amoungst SDAs is twice the national average.I would have to dissagree with most of you about how the WT society fears higher education. They should rightly fear there members being educated although with larger incomes they would certainly get more donations.
The SDAs have had all sorts of problems with the creation -evolution debate and there young earth theorys with scientists going against there teaching even at there own institutions and has resulted in church meetings at general conference level over the last three years. Needless to say I dont beleive anything will come of such meetings .
One Scientist made a statement during these meetings that while the universe started about 15 billion years ago God has only been a theologin for 6 thousand years. he got the biggest laught that particular day .
-
26
Once saved always saved?
by greendawn inat one extreme are people like the jws that we criticise for relying too much on works for their salvation and so they have to live through a lot of anxiety day after day out of fear of failing.
at the other extreme are those that say "i am saved by faith alone, once saved always saved, that's why jesus died for us" and seem to ignore completely the good works factor.
obviously the right balance is somewhere between the two but we need more sophisticated thinking to grasp it than just: i need works to be saved or i need only faith to be saved.
-
-
barry
The truth is qcmbr none of those works will save you because even if we do all those works and are perfect until christ comes what about our imperfect lives up until now Also we were born in sin and are sinful. It is our very nature.The confusion is we are talking about two different things here one being Justification which is 100% and is the free gift of Salvation the other is Santification which is the growing up of the christian into maturity and is never 100% until christ comes when the faithful are glorified and there sanctification = there justification.
Those that would say a person must be perfect for salvation usually say if pressed on the issue 'Well God wouldnt expect us to do something we are not capable of' Isnt that a bit like lowering the high jump bar for the Olympics when God expects perfect obediance? The truth is we are perfect in our representitive because his righeousness is imputed to us though we may fail and we do fail 1000 times a day.
-
4
How to make $360 in three minutes
by Elsewhere intoday i needed to update some payment information for my cable service.
after taking care of that with a billing rep i asked her to transfer me to the sales department.
when i got the sales rep i simply asked her if i might qualify for any promotional discounts right now... and she immediately said yes!
-
-
barry
Gday Mate, You didnt make 360 in 3 minutes you only saved it. Just like my wife when she goes to the sales she doesnt make anything because she actually spends money.
-
32
Dinner with moderate Muslims
by peacefulpete inmy wife has a classmate that recently married a pakistani man.
he's here only on a student visa and is faced with returning to pakistan as soon as he graduates.
he has an application for greencard pending but the wheels turn slow.
-
-
barry
I had a mate who said he was an extremest muslim at one time. One night we were all together at a club we used to attend on a regular basis. He came up with the idear the world would be a better place if the rubbish was gotten rid of in the world. The way he proposed this would happen is that Islamic nations should get nucleur weopons and tyears and haveing been taken as a immigrant for a better life here could say such rubbish. I went home and couldnt sleep the rest of the night. Barrry
-
23
do other religions shun?
by aoxo ini was wondering if other religions like catholics or baptists shun ex members like the jw's are supposed to shun their ex members.
-
-
barry
The change came in the 50s when Barnhouse and Martin studied Adventism two books were printed one by the General conference called 'questions on doctrine' and the other by Barnhouse and martin called 'The truth about seventh day adventists' . These books were sold to Adventists and in christian book stores. These discussions brought evangelicals and evangelical adventists closer and with greater understanding.
one factor that brought confusion was that Adventists have a range of beleifs from Arianism to the Trinity which exists even now and the evangelicals were unsure of what the offical position was because they presented papers with the church logo which presented both views. SDAs also have differing views on the gospel the coservatives teaching a works based salvation similar to the catholic church while the rest teach the protestant gospel of righteousness by faith.
-
23
do other religions shun?
by aoxo ini was wondering if other religions like catholics or baptists shun ex members like the jw's are supposed to shun their ex members.
-
-
barry
Gday JWs
Just thought i might put you on the straight and narrow.
Im a third generation Adventist and to my knowledge Adventists have never shunned but in the year 2000 It was decided at the general conference held that year that Adventists would no longer excommunicate members because it was thought the excommunication of members may be hurtfull even though excommunicated members have never been shunned.
The most prominate apostate in the SDAs in recent years DR Desmond Ford was never shunned even though he was sacked from his job. In fact soon after his sacking he held meetings in Canberra were the minister of the church I attended went to his meetings where we found many of the people attending were church employees ministers and administrators.
The SDAs have only used excommunication rarely before 2000 and now a member can only be asked to leave.
-
146
Extra training ... so you know that shooting babies is WRONG ?!?
by Simon inhow dumb and pathetic.. no extra training should be necessary for even slightly trained and disciplined soldiers.
i guess it is for some of the rabble that the us call "troops" though.. of course the real problem is not just those on the ground that have committed the latest attrocity.
it is the chain of command that tried to cover it up and all the way up to the president who sanctions bombing of civilian targets with nothing more than rumour for "intelligence".. from now on america, you are on your own.
-
-
barry
No I dont beleive 3000 inocent people deserve to die on 9/11 and Im not even a yank