Posts by Atlantis

15

1975 Article with the Train

by Aude_Sapere in

.

does anyone have the link to the 1975 article with the train falling?.

i can't seem to find it right now.. -aude.

1975 Article with the Train

by Aude_Sapere in

.

does anyone have the link to the 1975 article with the train falling?.

i can't seem to find it right now.. -aude.

Awake! October 8, 1968, p. 26-27 "We sincerely hope that you are the one who will open-mindedly consider the facts, and that your faith in God's justice and love and in the truth of his Word continues unaffected by the doubts and scoffing's of a world that blindly rushes on in a disastrous course. (2 Cor. 4:4; Matt. 15:14) This system of things is picking up speed in its downward plunge . Will you stay with it and take the consequences, or will you listen to the counsel of God's Word and abandon it? The time remaining for a decision is short . The opportunity is still before you, like the open door of the ark built by Noah before the flood, and like the open gates of Jerusalem when Rome's armies temporarily withdrew. But that door of opportunity will soon close for all time . Prompt action is vital if you would be among the happy survivors of this present system destruction. What can you do and what will it require of you?...LIKE a train about to plunge into an abyss, this system of things is about to plunge into destruction. Time is fast running out for it! If you had the right opportunity to jump from a train that was heading for certain destruction, would you not do so? True, it might cost you a severe bruising; you might leave behind some of your possessions and the people on the train, but you would save your life. What will cost you to have the hope of living through the end of this wicked system of things? What will you have to pay to gain life in God's new order?...Similarly, eternal life in God's new order will be a gift...That is the key to eternal life, the doing of God's will. All the conditions that must be met are included in that framework. So then, if you want to survive the end of this wicked world and be given the gift of eternal life in God's new system, you need to do God's will."
We have that article scanned if you want to send me a [pm]. It shows a train speeding downward at a 45 degree angle into an opening in the earth falling into destruction. Cheers!

3

Great Multitude and Heaven (scans needed)

by golden age in

today in the wt literature, it is very clear that most people will stay on earth and the the 144k will go to heaven, but in review of the older literature it is very difficult to understand exactly what they believed.

they had 4 classes the 144k who would go to heaven, a great company who would also be a heavenly class, but they also had two earthly classes.

who were part of these earthly classes?

Atlantis

The Finished Mystery Book, page 134 says:

Instead of teaching that the saved of our race will all be saved to the same thing, the Scriptures show two degrees or kinds of Heavenly salvation, and two degrees or kinds of earthly salvation. In the second chapter of Genesis the stream which went forth from the Garden of Eden was divided into four parts. This is a Scriptural recognition of the fact that from Adam, the original fountain of life, will flow four streams: The Little Flock, who are to sit down with Christ in His Throne; the Great Company, who are to stand before the Throne, having the palms of martyrdom but without the crowns of glory; the Ancient Worthies, the Jewish fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Daniel, etc., who are to be made princes in all the earth; and the world of mankind, who will constitute the subjects of the Kingdom over which the Ancient Worthies will rule. The same lesson is taught in the division of the Levites into four camps, each located on a different side of the Tabernacle. (Num. 3:15; F128. 129.) It is also taught in the Apostle's statement in 2 Tim. 2:20, that in God's great House there will ultimately be found four classes of vessels to His praise.

1

Faith Based Initiative Stirs Debate!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169959,00.html faith based initiative stirs debatetuesday, september 20, 2005by wendy mcelroyon sept. 11, dalton mcguinty -- the premier of ontario -- announced that his province would not become the first western jurisdiction to allow islamic law to settle family disputes such as divorce, child custody and property settlements.

the announcement raises a question: when is it proper for the government to dictate the rules by which adults of sound mind agree to resolve family disputes?.

in the coming months, an uproar will rip through canadian society and courts.

Atlantis

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169959,00.html Faith Based Initiative Stirs Debate

Tuesday, September 20, 2005 By Wendy Mcelroy

On Sept. 11, Dalton McGuinty -- the Premier of Ontario -- announced that his province would not become the first Western jurisdiction to allow Islamic law to settle family disputes such as divorce, child custody and property settlements.

The announcement raises a question: When is it proper for the government to dictate the rules by which adults of sound mind agree to resolve family disputes?

In the coming months, an uproar will rip through Canadian society and courts. To understand the uproar and how the preceding question is being answered requires background.

The Ontario Arbitration Act (1991) allows family disputes on civil matters from divorce to inheritance to be resolved through an arbitrator rather than a court, as long as both parties agree. The arbitrated resolutions have the same legal force as court decisions. But the court retains power to reject a resolution that is "invalid" or embodies "unequal or unfair treatment of parties."

Catholics, Fundamentalist Christians, Jews, Mennonites, and Jehovah's Witnesses are among the religious groups that have established faith-based arbitration as an active alternative to expensive court proceedings.

But it is not merely a matter of expense. A Hasidic Jew, for example, might have more confidence in the wisdom of a rabbinical judgment than in a secular one. Now, rather than deny that option to one religion, McGuinty is vowing to eliminate faith-based arbitration altogether.

Cheers!

10

Not intended for general public distribution!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

interesting quote from the november 1971 kingdom ministry.. .

question box.

should the eighty questions in the "lamp" book be covered in personal bible studies with interested persons?.

Atlantis

Interesting quote from the November 1971 Kingdom Ministry.

Question

Box

•

Should the eighty questions in the "Lamp" book be covered in personal Bible studies with interested persons?

The "Lamp" book is not intended for general public distribution. So it is not something that we offer to people as a basis for study when we first begin to call on them. There is no objection to your using it to answer some of their questions. But to obtain a personal copy, the student must make request of the congregation servant, and this he would do when he is making good progress toward dedication and baptism.

Cheers!

1

Transformed by violence: Grief motivated him to change life's direction!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

thompson grew up in a family of seven children.

they were jehovah's witnesses and went to kingdom hall on tuesdays, thursdays, and sundays.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05262/574088.stm transformed by violence: grief motivated him to change life's direction.

Atlantis

Thompson grew up in a family of seven children. They were Jehovah's Witnesses and went to Kingdom Hall on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05262/574088.stm

Transformed by violence: Grief motivated him to change life's direction

Monday, September 19, 2005By Ervin Dyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The coldest winter day ever for Taili Thompson came on New Year's Day 1997.

The North Side native, who was doing five years for running heroin, was sitting in a drafty, gray cell in New Jersey when he was called to the prison chaplain's chambers to take a phone call.

It was his mother, telling him that his brother had been killed -- shot several times after being dropped off by a jitney at his Jacksonia Street home.

Thompson wept, briefly.

Then he stuffed the grief so far down that four months later, talking with his mom, he asked how his brother was doing.

His pain was hidden, but not inconsequential. Thompson sees the sorrow as the beginning of the way out for him.

"I felt my brother's death was God saying 'Take this,'" said Thompson, as he sat recently in a sherbet-striped polo shirt at Community College of Allegheny County, North Side, where he's studying to be a paralegal.

"When I look back at the life I was leading and realize I didn't lose my life, I know God had been with me."

His thoughts mark a personal evolution that left Thompson in search of a cleaner, more complete life. Though it would not be easy, he sat in prison and vowed to summon the self-discipline needed to re-invent his future. He went from street-smarts to college honor student.

Once a rising heroin distributor, Thompson's access to drugs and cash possessed him with the power to destroy not only his life but the lives of those around him.

"With heroin, I could go and find nine or 10 people easily who were willing to sell dope," he said.

The children on the corner looked up to the brother who seemed daring and rich. At Christmas and for birthdays, he spent lavishly on his brother's children.

"As a drug dealer, I wanted to make millions," he said. "I know I made a negative influence, because I didn't want at do something positive, like education or construction."

Beginning again wasn't easy.

When he was released from prison, Thompson sucked in his pride and worked for $6 an hour cleaning bathrooms and washing floors for a temporary agency. The double overtime paychecks -- he sometimes worked 70 hours a week -- helped ease the need to make money illegally.

He made the restitution payments and paid the other bills, he survived the temptations of other dealers looking for an experienced steward and he rode out having to live at home again.

Then a clash with the agency's owner ended with Thompson out of a job.

"Man, I went from having this star aspect [as a dealer], to working as a temp, to being out of work. That really crushed me," he said.

Unglued, he headed back to the corners and sold "some weed."

Within a month, by chance, he met Richard Garland, a one-time Philadelphia gang leader who had dedicated himself to pulling others away from thug living. Coincidentally, a few years earlier, Garland had reached out to Thompson's brother, Cheo, hoping to pull him away from life on the streets.

Garland, a familiar figure in his graying dreadlocks, was often seen riding through the North Side. He drafted Thompson into a new program being supported by Allegheny County, One Vision One Life.

The program sends outreach workers, who have done the time and the crime, into Pittsburgh's toughest neighborhoods to try to stop the violence and mend gang feuds.

At its heart, One Vision One Life wants to break the cycle of violence and, like Thompson, show the community that there is a different kind of power -- the power of positive thinking.

It has worked so far for Thompson. He's convinced two guys in his North Side neighborhood to enroll at CCAC and he's taken a guy from his block to join the carpenter's union.

He wishes he could no more.

"I can't get nine or 10 people jobs today," he said, "because the leads just aren't there."

Instead of focusing on elaborate holiday and birthday gifts, he's now investing his money for Cheona and Tatiyona, his brother's little girls.

"I'm getting myself to the place where I can provide them money for college," he said.

For the past two summers, Thompson has coached a North Side basketball league, hoping to turn bad attitudes into hope.

"This is an investment, too. I'm investing in counteracting some the negative things that kids are doing," he said.

Thompson grew up in a family of seven children. They were Jehovah's Witnesses and went to Kingdom Hall on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Though he later left the faith, he acknowledged the experience put morals into his life.

The family lived on Jacksonia Street in the North Side, when the Mexican War Streets still had some rough edges and when their neighbor, the artsy Mattress Factory, was still a dream. His mom was a single parent who ran a day care program and the house was like a community center.

Crystal Thompson-Dean was a stern parent who gave her dutiful, oldest son plenty of space, said Thompson.

By the time Thompson was teenager, Pittsburgh was approaching the height of an epidemic of drugs and gang wars. He seemed to sail above it all; an honor student at Perry High School, he played guard for the Commodores basketball team and was vice president of student council.

He owed much of his success to his mom, and to Chuck Franklin, a friendly but strict basketball coach who told his players to dream big. Franklin's team won the state championships in 1991, the same year Thompson graduated.

After high school, he ended up at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, a small college founded 168 years ago to educate the children of slaves. At Cheyney, which is close to Philadelphia and not far from New York City, Thompson found he had too much freedom and not enough money.

A guy who had never even smoked weed in high school, Thompson began to venture into some of New York City's dangerous neighborhoods, buying cheap drugs and carrying them back to Pittsburgh, where he marked them up and sold them for profit.

His drug trade grew and so did his risks. He rode planes, trains and automobiles, ferrying his stash of heroin, cocaine and marijuana across state lines in his luggage.

The business administration major quit college and put his smarts into drug distribution.

He disguised his menacing side like he disguised his weapons, hiding them behind a preppy exterior; he put his guns under his polo shirts or strapped them to his leg under his khakis.

Never too flashy, Thompson lived in a North Side apartment and drove a 1971 Cutlass Supreme. His only blings: a $1,000 Lougines watch and a $1,200 gold necklace.

His luck ran out on the George Washington Bridge from New York to New Jersey. He was only a passenger when the car was pulled over and everyone was searched. He and the three others ended up charged with drug and arms violations, and he was sentenced to five years in a New Jersey prison.

Thompson, whose first name means "man of much wisdom" in Swahili, has learned a lot. In his early life, he said, "it's crazy how you convince yourself to do stuff. Now, I'd definitely rather be a broke college student than desire any success as a drug dealer."

Today, Thompson is a new dad; Taili Jr. is 3 months old. He's living with his girlfriend, Shenee, and aiming to be an attorney, helping people like him -- "those who make a mistake" -- not have to pay for it for the rest of their lives.

As far as leaving the street life behind?

"I refuse to not be there for my son, so I have to be strong for myself," he said. "God keeps making a way for me to keep on keeping on."

84

Is Michael the Archangel really Jesus?

by twinkletoes in

for years i have believed what the wt says about michael the archangel really being another name for jesus christ.

but now i am reading lots of other non-witness books, i am beginning to question this teaching.. has anyone done any research on this particular subject.. your comments would be appreciated.

twink.

Atlantis

Hi twinkletoes:

I sent you a pm, to find out where you want me to send you this scan of the 1879 Watchtower.

Do you still want it?

pm me, if you still want the scan!

Cheers!

84

Is Michael the Archangel really Jesus?

by twinkletoes in

for years i have believed what the wt says about michael the archangel really being another name for jesus christ.

but now i am reading lots of other non-witness books, i am beginning to question this teaching.. has anyone done any research on this particular subject.. your comments would be appreciated.

twink.

Atlantis

Awake-2002-Feb-8-p. 16-17 says:

The

Bible’s Viewpoint

Who

Is Michael the Archangel?

ACCORDING to the Bible, there are millions of angelic creatures inhabiting the spirit realm. (Daniel 7:9, 10; Revelation 5:11) From beginning to end, the Scriptures make hundreds of references to the angels that remain loyal to God. Yet, only two of these spirit creatures are mentioned by name. One is the angel Gabriel, who personally delivered messages from God to three different individuals over a period of some 600 years. (Daniel 9:20-22; Luke 1:8-19, 26-28) The other angel mentioned by name in the Bible is Michael.

Michael is clearly an outstanding angel. For example, in the book of Daniel, Michael is described as fighting wicked demons in behalf of Jehovah’s people. (Daniel 10:13; 12:1) In the inspired letter of Jude, Michael confronts Satan in a dispute over Moses’ body. (Jude 9) The book of Revelation shows that Michael wars with Satan and his demons and hurls them out of heaven. (Revelation 12:7-9) No other angel is portrayed as having such great power and authority over God’s enemies. It is no wonder, then, that the Bible appropriately refers to Michael as "the archangel," the prefix "arch" meaning "chief," or "principal."

The

Controversy Over Michael’s Identity

Christendom’s religions, as well as Judaism and Islam, have conflicting ideas on the subject of angels. Some explanations are vague. For instance, The Anchor Bible Dictionary states: "There may be a single superior angel and/or a small group of archangels (usually four or seven)." According to The Imperial Bible-Dictionary, Michael is the "name of a superhuman being, in regard to whom there have in general been two rival opinions, either that he is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, or that he is one of the so-called seven archangels."

In Jewish tradition these seven archangels are Gabriel, Jeremiel, Michael, Raguel, Raphael, Sariel, and Uriel. On the other hand, Islam believes in four archangels, namely, Jibril, Mikal, Izrail, and Israfil. Catholicism also believes in four archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel. What does the Bible say? Are there several archangels?

The

Bible’s Answer

Aside from Michael, no archangel is mentioned in the Bible, nor do the Scriptures use the term "archangel" in the plural. The Bible describes Michael as the archangel, implying that he alone bears that designation. Hence, it is reasonable to conclude that Jehovah God has delegated to one, and only one, of his heavenly creatures full authority over all other angels.

Aside from the Creator himself, only one faithful person is spoken of as having angels under subjection—namely, Jesus Christ. (Matthew 13:41; 16:27; 24:31) The apostle Paul made specific mention of "the Lord Jesus" and "his powerful angels." (2 Thessalonians 1:7) And Peter described the resurrected Jesus by saying: "He is at God’s right hand, for he went his way to heaven; and angels and authorities and powers were made subject to him."—1 Peter 3:22.

While there is no statement in the Bible that categorically identifies Michael the archangel as Jesus, there is one scripture that links Jesus with the office of archangel. In his letter to the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul prophesied: "The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first." (1 Thessalonians 4:16) In this scripture Jesus is described as having assumed his power as God’s Messianic King. Yet, he speaks with "an archangel’s voice." Note, too, that he has the power to raise the dead.

While on earth as a human, Jesus performed several resurrections. In doing so, he used his voice to utter commanding calls. For example, when resurrecting the dead son of a widow in the city of Nain, he said: "Young man, I say to you, Get up!" (Luke 7:14, 15) Later, just before resurrecting his friend Lazarus, Jesus "cried out with a loud voice: ‘Lazarus, come on out!’" (John 11:43) But on these occasions, Jesus’ voice was the voice of a perfect man.

After his own resurrection, Jesus was raised to a "superior position" in heaven as a spirit creature. (Philippians 2:9) No longer a human, he has the voice of an archangel. So when God’s trumpet sounded the call for "those who are dead in union with Christ" to be raised to heaven, Jesus issued "a commanding call," this time "with an archangel’s voice." It is reasonable to conclude that only an archangel would call "with an archangel’s voice."

Yes, there are other angelic creatures of high rank, such as seraphs and cherubs. (Genesis 3:24; Isaiah 6:2) Yet, the Scriptures point to the resurrected Jesus Christ as the chief of all angels—Michael the archangel.

84

Is Michael the Archangel really Jesus?

by twinkletoes in

for years i have believed what the wt says about michael the archangel really being another name for jesus christ.

but now i am reading lots of other non-witness books, i am beginning to question this teaching.. has anyone done any research on this particular subject.. your comments would be appreciated.

twink.

Atlantis

Watchtower-1879-November-11,-page 48 says:

"Let all the angels of God worship him; (that must include Michael), the chief angel, hence Michael is not the Son of God)"

If you would like the scan of that Watchtower, I'll send it to you!

Cheers!

12

Secret Book

by jeeprube in

does anyone have a copy of the elders manual?

is there anyway to access it online?

Atlantis

We have the [Elders Manual] in pdf mormat if that will help any!

If you would like to have it just [pm] me! Make sure there is [room] for it in your e-mail.

Cheers!