barry

Joined

• started 127 topics
• posted 1,729 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by barry

• 
  65

  WHO..decided the Bible canon?

  by gumby in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so with all the writers around during,and after jesus time....who decided which books would be part of the bible?.

  did god say...."i want his book, and his book and...let's see....his book....,to be part of my word.

  is that how it happened?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  barry

  The canon was confirmed by pope damasis in 372 ad at the second ecumenical council.
  Barry
• 
  65

  WHO..decided the Bible canon?

  by gumby in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so with all the writers around during,and after jesus time....who decided which books would be part of the bible?.

  did god say...."i want his book, and his book and...let's see....his book....,to be part of my word.

  is that how it happened?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  barry

  Seedy,
  The first list of the books of the bible that we have now was made by St Athaniasiaus in 369ad. St Athaniasiaus saw the Arian doctrine as a heracy that would destroy christianity and he fought against it with all is might. There are 3 great creeds used in the churches and the creed of Athaniasiaus is still used occasionally it has been dropped from some churches but talks about the trinity and the incarnation.
  

  barry
• 
  9

  True prophecy about the WTS and a novel approach

  by Lee Elder in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as i sit back and watch the pedophilia scandal unfold, it occurs to me that someone connected to the watchtower got it right - they prophesied what we are seeing.

  my friend jim penton in "apocalypse delayed" wrote about the impact of "brain drain" on the organization.

  no organization can afford to continually lose its brightest members, yet that is exactly what the wts has done for years.. what is the price of this constant "dumbing down"?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  barry

  Dear Lee,
  I beleive it would be the only thing to do, because if nothing is done nothing positive can come out of it. Only three weeks ago i had a theological difference with the lesson book used in the Adventist Church and I made my point in no uncertain terms at the class. I allmost took the meeting over but then had a twinge of concience and apologised to everyone at the end. I didnt know how they would think of my stand when I went the next week. Well the teacher next week approached me and said he would look forward to any more points I would bring up on the issues I raised and we could all discuss them in future lessons. You never know the good you may do and we all have a responcibility to do what we can in our own communities
  Barry.
• 
  81

  JUDICIAL COMMITTEE -- ANDERSON

  by silentlambs in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the wheels of the watchtower termination squad grind on.

  at 4:45 p.m. today barbara anderson was contacted by the chairman of her previous judicial committee from last week.

  barb was asked to meet with a new judicial hearing to face new charges which are adjusted as follows:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  barry

  As in the days of Caiaphas, Truth was Crucified so that the organisation might live.
  Barry
• 
  14

  Are there other religions w similar beliefs to WTS

  by Leander in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in particular the belief that the soul does die at death, (its not eternally tormented) belief in a paradise hope and other similar doctrines of the wts.. i'm curious as to just how unique the wts is.

  they claim to be the only ones with their particular set of beliefs but its something that i never really researched all the years that i've been a jw.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  barry

  Hello Leander,
  Seventh Day Adventists have 27 fundamental beleifs, number 25 states when a person dies he or she stayes in the grave and is ressurrented at the second comming of christ. Other similar beleifs are held by some Adventists addmitedly a small proportion beleive the Arian doctrine [the beleif that only the father is god same as the witnesses teach]. Most beleive the trinity but there is a congregation of Arian Adventists about 100 miles from where I live also my father knows an elder he knew who is an Arian. Adventists initially were more Arian up until about the 1930s and its probably the influence the pioneers of Adventism that influenced Russell in the formative years of the Bible students.
  Barry
• 
  3

  The Great Disappointment of 1844

  by barry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  being an adventist on this board i thought some of you might like to read this 1844 is often reffered as the great dissapointement to adventists until now.. it was autumn.

  roadside aspens and hickories were already lean and spiky.

  leaves lay in the waggon ruts, and grass in the field was still damp late in the afternoon.. this field was at phoenixville, on the south bankof the schuylkill.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  barry

  I dont know about that one Englishman Churches dont usually like to admit they are wrong the 7th day adventists and the Advent christian never made another prediction so im thinking it must of been probable one of the 2nd Adventist groups.
  Barry
• 
  3

  The Great Disappointment of 1844

  by barry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  being an adventist on this board i thought some of you might like to read this 1844 is often reffered as the great dissapointement to adventists until now.. it was autumn.

  roadside aspens and hickories were already lean and spiky.

  leaves lay in the waggon ruts, and grass in the field was still damp late in the afternoon.. this field was at phoenixville, on the south bankof the schuylkill.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  barry

  Being an adventist on this board I thought some of you might like to read this 1844 is often reffered as the great dissapointement to Adventists until now.
  It was Autumn. Roadside aspens and hickories were already lean and spiky. Leaves lay in the waggon ruts, and grass in the field was still damp late in the afternoon.
  This field was at Phoenixville, on the south bankof the Schuylkill. In 1844, the year this was, the riverleft the woods hereto flow through the rich plains of middle Pennsylvania. The meadow was owned by Josiah Levitt. The Levitt family had invited friends to pass a day there, in prayer, though it was not the Sabbath but a monday.
  Nearly twenty families arrived, most shortly before dusk. They were not late, because a day for these folk was measured from sundown to sundown. some had come from Vermont, some from New Jersey. The waggons and the sulkies were drawn into a circle. Horses were halter or hobble, were turned out to graze steaming by the stream.
  Some of these folk had not met before. Newcomers were welcomed with the words "Brother" and "Sister", and with familiar phrases from the Bible. There was greater warmth here than was usual in people who valued solemnity. On this day solemnity was an effort. Adults graced each other with their smiles. Shy children held hands. All were joyful for themselves and for one another. When they looked about they swaw only the glad faces of the servants of God.
  This was the twenty -second day in October. Everyone was here to watch the second coming of Christ and to be drawn up into the heavenly throng.
  The evening was cold, and many had brought only their Sabbath clothing. Some had dressed in white muslin robes they thought suitable for an Ascension. There was little food, for most beleived they would be well provided for. Elder Joshua Himes had said: "Go not into your houses to take anything out, Leave everything upon the Alter of God, and if He wants any part of it He will take care of it." The sceptics among them brought fruit and water for the journey.
  Night passed with hymns and recitations from the testaments. No one wnated to spend the last mortal night in sleep. Their singing swelled. Sara Amollett, after consulting with her husband, asked if their voices might not drown out the approach of the Heavenly Choir, but it was generally thought more important to give than receive, and the verses rolled on.
  The darkness was parted, not yet by angelic light, but by the advent of a pale sunrising behind the woods. Children stretched, and crawled out from underneath the carriages. The sun found everyone bright and warm, a condition they all recognized as curious. Nathaniel Brett said this was a sign.
  The year had been full of signs. Most were warnings of destruction to a sinful world. The month of March had seen earthquakes close to the southern seaboard. Towns in the Caribbean splintered, and American ships were hurled up on the shores of Texas. A comet was bright in the New England skies. Beneath it the northern weather had begun to change. IT snowed in Philadelphia on the summer solstice. Boston was covered with frost on 21st July. Cold in Austinburgh had killed an entire season of buckwheat. A God who would confiscate the summer would send his faithful a sign.
  So they sang. They arranged to face the east , since that was from where their sign had come.
  Mad Mary Chase, wife of Captain Chase, who now refused to be seen with her , sat next to her daughters. Four of these she placed in a line of diminishing size, but held the fifth in her lap because it was twelve weeks old. Old Amos and Martha Gower, childless all their seventy years of marriage, chose to be surrounded by the children of others. Matthew Lockitt, a fruit vendor, sat happily in his empt box-cart. Matthew was a seller of toffeed apples until last August, when he set up his stall in a washington park near an Advent meeting. By the time the preacher finished, Matthew had given all his apples awayto the crowd. His cart had been empty since.
  Behind Adin Shortbridge sat in company, though with a space on his left. He would allow no one to fill it . Adin's brother William had died while awaiting this Advent on a mistaken date. The Boston Liberator reported that William Climed a high tree, and mantled in his long white ascention robe he made one aspiring effort, but was precipitated to the ground, and instantly died from a broken neck. The space on Adin's left was for the use of William Shortbridge at the time appointed for the dead to rise.
  That time was brought closer by the passing of the sun overhead. It also brought sightseers from Phoenixville township and from the Inquirer newspaper in Philadelphia. The toenspeople leaned on the fence. A persistent wit loudly counted the dissipation of time. The reporter took a notebook from his pocket. He made across the grass just as the startingly resolute voice of young Hannah Ballou began Psalm 23. He made , too, an effort to seriously compose his face, to better his chances of an interview with somebody.
  The friends in Levitts green meadow were well accustomed to the presence of those that troubled them. Adventist meetings in the cities were often disrupted by volleys of detonating firecrackers. Howling youths pranced the aisles in white sheets. On winsy days, smirking men loosened the pegs on the marquee in which Adventists prayed, so that the poles tottered and the canvas fellin. Their quiet children were jeered in the streets. Cartoonists lampooned their earnest faces in the press.
  Threat of intrusion b the press retreated now with the sudden appearance, from somewhere behind a cartwheel, of the Ballous mastiff. With no command from anyone, it set the man from the inquirer over the fence. Hannah finished her verses, then wondered aloud what sort of man could so merrily count down the time to his own destruction, as did the wag on the rails. The severe wisdom of the child, and the dog, stiffened their backs and their resolve. The day was growing cold, but no winter was ahead of them.
  "And Jesus said: "If thou shalt not watch , I will come on thee as a thief , and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." Third Revelations, three.'
  "Yes , Brother. Watch for Him. He will come in the clouds of Heaven."
  "And with them that are raised from the dead." First Corinthians, fifteen fifty - two."
  "And first Thessalonians, four sixteen, Sister,"
  There was but half an hour to sunset. The portly Moses Clark, who had once been chairman of the land commissioners at Landoff, suggested they should form the waggons in a cross. This was accomplished without the help of their discarded horses. They had the advantage that rows of the seated now faced each of the quarters of the compass, and wondered why they had not thought of it before. Nathaniel Brett took up the count down that was once the delight of the wag by the fence. Old Amos and Martha Gower held each other's sparce hands. Mad Mary Chase prettied her little ones. They sang andd they sang , and the sun absconded with their dreams.
  Darkness fell silent. Adin Shortbridge rested his hand on the empty space beside him. George Florida, a blacksmith whose hot trade had numbed the breath in his throat so he had been able to sing, fingered his collar. Within a week the Boston Liberator will report that he has hung himself with a chain. MAd Mary Chase nursed the youngest three of her daughters all together. Already she had started to cry. The same newspaper will record her finding under the dray, tomorrow morning, the bodies of the other two children dead from the cold.
  Hiram Edson will recall , in a memoir, the way thay passed the long night. They wept until the dawn came up.
  The same sunlight falls on New Hampton. There is a small church. The forest walls here are cut back only far enough to allow for a sacrarium tiled with fallen leaves. This gives the pleasing impression that the church is the prespytery within a greater tabernacle. The trees ae straight as organ flutes.
  Two wooden dwellings share the ground here. Both belong to a family by the name of Miller. It was for this church that William Miller felled timber , drove pegs and carved plans into the blaze of a tree. It was also by Millers calibrations that the time was set for the second comming of Christ.
  Eleven families are here now. All were joined to the event by Millers persuasive teaching. They sit on the porches and in the doorways. The most common expressions are of resolution and piety, but this hides a deep spirit of dejection. It is a time they will later call the Great Disappointment.
  Continued silence from the church is an increasing distraction for them all. An hour after sundown , William Miller strode inside, alone, and has not yet come out. His brow was heavy. The corn of the Adventist farmers stands unshucked in the field because he advised them so . Potatoes lie wet in the ground, their unweaned heifers follow irritable cows, their store - rooms are dark and empty, their windows are boarded over. They are in the eyes of the world , a people jilted by their Redeemer.
  Barry
• 
  33

  non-jw's please check in here

  by dungbeetle in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i don't know if anyone has said this before, but i wanted to say a big thank you to all of you non-jw's who have put up with us and stayed with us and helped us out so much.. i know offhand: jerome, detective, and hawkaw.

  i know there are many many more of you, but please step up here and take a very well-deserved bow and get a very well-deserved hand from me and from others..

  salute!!!!!

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  barry

  Im still around too Beetle and thanks,
  Barry
• 
  18

  CULT, if JW ,how about Christ?

  by happy man in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when so much peopel say jw is a cult,comperd to the most religions we are very diffrent yes.. but if we go back to christ and was he was teching,you must say this was a cult to, he was telling he was the only one, a remark as you say on a cult, he was saying he come from the lord also a remark as you say,he was telling you must obey him also a remark on a cult as you say, he say if you dont se him as the son of the lord you have no life ,also a remark on a cult as you say,and he say he give his follower power from heaven, oups this is a very bigg remark on a cult.. littel confusing isnt is?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  barry

  Dear Happy Man ,
  Youre right in that christianity could be considered a Cult. However one definition of a Cult is that Cults worship the organisation or a charasmatic figure rather than God. Christianity has allways accepted Jesus as God in the doctrine of the Trinity and in so doing Christianity is not Cultic.
  Barry
• 
  76

  Shunning is the big story

  by joelbear in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just read the story about the family in oregon, gone forever, because of the pressure of shunning.. in my opinion, shunning is the big story about jehovah's witnesses.

  shunning and the fear of shunning is what enables the control of victims of child abuse.

  shunning is what destroys families.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  barry

  This subject came up at the bible study I attend. We were disscussing different approaches of running a Church the one conductor mentioned the Bretherine who shun to get them to return to the fold some else mentioned the JWs [not me ] and said they thought they might do the same. The class teacher said if most churches shunned people would just walk out the door simply because of a dissagreement with the practice toward anyone.
  Barry