Posts by blondie

4

SHAMGAR, THE INVICIBLE

by peacefulpete in

many moons ago i posted a thread about the need for superheroes.

today they dominate the movie industry but at they have always been top sellers.

in that earlier thread i mentioned my love of the hulk as a boy, he dealt with seemingly unstoppable foes with sheer determination and superhuman strength, kinda like shamgar of the book of judges.

This illustrates how jws and other people accept what is said in the bible. Why, because the bible is inspired of god. And how do we know that the bible is inspired of god. Because the bible says it is.

I appreciate the research you do to show how unreliable historical records can be depending on who is writing it.

History written by the people who were writing about their own history

History written by people who were enemies of those people

History written long after those events when no one is left alive who lived or witnessed them or to confirm them.

Historians trying to find any harmony between the two

History has be rewritten over time as well.

It would hard to be a historian living under the rule of the king they are writing about.

A related point, Galileo find out why writing about the scientific things he discovered about the solar system, was not well received the the Catholic Church who had their own unscientific ideas. As time passed and the hold the Catholic Church had on science waned and other people confirmed his findings, things started moving forward with more accuracy. But history cannot be proved in the way science can.

Thus, those examining historical records, have to read a great deal of information from many sources and determine what is reliable based on other historical records.

PS People today are woefully ignorant of current history that they lived through let alone the history from 100 years ago or thousands of years ago.

14

question about KH finance

by peacefulpete in

i've been free of the jws for many years now and have a question about kh finance.. 1. is it true that all khs belong to the wt now?

2. when remodeling is done who pays for it?.

3. how are utilities paid?

blondie

incognito, thanks for sharing that. That is the requirement for religious non-profits that the local congregation does not retain the funds received and the "ownership" ultimately lay with the WTS. The parent corporation, the WTS, must though follow the IRS rules regarding how the WTS handles assets etc., or lose their tax-free status.

Although KH ownership was initially under control of 3 local trustees, usually elders, I understand WT has long required specific wording in each congregation' incorporation documents that specified ownership of each KH is to be transferred to WT if the owning congregation is deleted or otherwise ceases to exist.

30

We pray for the governing body

by StephaneLaliberte in

since when has it become cool to pray for the gb?

i noticed that at the begining of my fade back in 2015, it had already been there for a good while and was already getting on my nerves.

i means, i grew up in it, but can't remember much further than the 90s and i don't remember this being always in the payers.

blondie

jws tend to copy what they see or hear being done at the assemblies/conventions. Almost always the prayers have something regarding their god blessing the GB. jws want to be seem as holy as the GB and their representatives so ape what they do. I remember when the CO used to put a table off to the side of the stage at the circuit assembly facing the ministry school students, so he could give counsel face to face rather than from the row in the front.

Then ministry school overseers starting aping/copying that by putting a table off the the side of the stage in the KH, giving counsel from there (no direction from the GB to do that, just started doing it on their own). Finally, the GB had the COs tell each congregation not to do that any more.

Monkey see, monkey do.

30

We pray for the governing body

by StephaneLaliberte in

since when has it become cool to pray for the gb?

i noticed that at the begining of my fade back in 2015, it had already been there for a good while and was already getting on my nerves.

i means, i grew up in it, but can't remember much further than the 90s and i don't remember this being always in the payers.

blondie

Quakers in the US refer to themselves as Friends. I found it confusing when older jws (and their imitators) used that word in regard to jws.

“Quaker” emerged as a derisive nickname for Fox and others who shared his beliefs. The group eventually embraced the term, although their official name became Religious Society of Friends. Members are referred to as Friends or Quakers.

13

Another silly Bible story...this time brought to you by Moses

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

does this silly bible story make any sense after you take off your rose-colored glasses?.

moses comes down from the mountain with two freshly made tablets of stone written with the finger of god.

one commandment on the stone tablet reads '' you must not kill/murder.

blondie

smiddy3, and add this so-called wisdom from the GB:

The GB says that the baby died because it would have died if Bathsheba had been put to death for adultery while she was still pregnant as the law code said she should be.

But Bathsheba lived although she was not ever mentioned as having been outstanding showing mercy to others, as the GB says was the reason David was not put to death for adultery and murder as the law code said he should be.

I found as I finally starting reading all the verse(s) in the bible, not just snippets the GB quoted, I starting having many questions about the GB "interpretation" of these verses.

16

retrospect on yesterday's wt "study" 29.

by waton in

go- teach.

par.1 : marching orders given to 500 attendees, none of them anointed, but 11 partakers, jesus taught and served people with an "earthly hope" and the commission to go was not as wt now claims a mandate to the gb members; the os only being supposed supporters.

4) new disciple stops drinking.

blondie

waton, thanks for sharing that sidepoint. I forgot that change:

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2011683#h=3:428-4:429

But consider the special reference to Israel’s 12 tribes that is found at Matthew 19:28.

Jesus said to them: “Truly I say to you, in the re-creation, when the Son of man sits down on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

2 Jesus said: “In the re-creation, when the Son of man sits down upon his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also yourselves sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” In this verse, “the twelve tribes of Israel” are those who will be judged by Jesus’ anointed disciples and who are in line to receive eternal life in Paradise on earth. They will benefit from the priestly services of the 144,000.

16

retrospect on yesterday's wt "study" 29.

by waton in

go- teach.

par.1 : marching orders given to 500 attendees, none of them anointed, but 11 partakers, jesus taught and served people with an "earthly hope" and the commission to go was not as wt now claims a mandate to the gb members; the os only being supposed supporters.

4) new disciple stops drinking.

blondie

nowwhat, just a sidepoint I keep in mind to ask elders humbly for an answer to the seeming deception.

Goes with the fact that the phrase "governing body" never appears even in the RNWT in Acts 15, but most jws will tell you it does until you show that chapter to them.

Anal, perhaps, but then elders and jws in general tend to be anal and this point is primarily for them. I did not mean to offend by sharing this.

Next time, I will start another thread.

16

retrospect on yesterday's wt "study" 29.

by waton in

go- teach.

par.1 : marching orders given to 500 attendees, none of them anointed, but 11 partakers, jesus taught and served people with an "earthly hope" and the commission to go was not as wt now claims a mandate to the gb members; the os only being supposed supporters.

4) new disciple stops drinking.

blondie

A little sidepoint (there are no "new scrolls" per the bible)

Does the WTS bible say "new scroll" or just "scrolls"? Most of the time the WTS just leaves out any quote marks.

Note how the WTS punctuates it here:

new "scrolls" putting quotes only around scrolls not with the word new, since that phrase does not occur in the bible.

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1101995030?q=%22new+scrolls%22&p=sen

New “scrolls” will then come into use. Evidently these are God’s written instructions that will serve as a basis for educating earth’s inhabitants. (Revelation 20:12)

Revelation 20:12 says

And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. But another scroll was opened; it is the scroll of life. The dead were judged out of those things written in the scrolls according to their deeds.

30

We pray for the governing body

by StephaneLaliberte in

since when has it become cool to pray for the gb?

i noticed that at the begining of my fade back in 2015, it had already been there for a good while and was already getting on my nerves.

i means, i grew up in it, but can't remember much further than the 90s and i don't remember this being always in the payers.

blondie

As to saying brothers when the WTS means brothers and sisters:

This has been an old, old problem that switches back and forth. For awhile the WTS was more diligent putting "brothers and sisters" and other double gender groupings.

My mother told me about an "anointed sister" who would sit in the front and every time the person on the stage said "brothers" when they meant brothers and sisters, she would say under her breath "and sisters." Everyone could hear her, that that was over 60 years ago.

Part of it that men from a certain era were trained by the vocabulary used by others around them. I could tell when a male member of the WTS would say men and women, he or she, brothers and sisters that he was from a generation that was used to hearing both genders mentioned where that was meant.

Checking the WOL with search, I still see frequent use of the phrase "brothers and sisters" now. But occasionally one slips through perhaps because an older male jw was in charge of the writing.

13

Another silly Bible story...this time brought to you by Moses

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

does this silly bible story make any sense after you take off your rose-colored glasses?.

moses comes down from the mountain with two freshly made tablets of stone written with the finger of god.

one commandment on the stone tablet reads '' you must not kill/murder.

blondie

David was an adulterer and tried to hide it by murdering the woman's husband. Both murder and adultery were capital crimes, punishment death. No mercy for other Israelites who committed adultery or murder even if they had been merciful to others. Yet David go off free of punishment, but the baby died, David's wives would be humiliated publicly, etc.

Remember he conducted a census too knowing god told him not too, and one of David's generals warned him but David ignored him.

God punished David by having him pick from several punishments, so David picked a plague, and 70,000 people died for David's sin.