Seeing is believing š
And I was right, it did collapse. It was a spiritual collapse š
https://youtu.be/rqyqibpnuos?si=zayoa2c-zvmj9_br.
under the theme "help for those who are removed from the congregation" study article 35 in august 2024 wafchtower that deals with the many changes the organization introduced recenly we specifically look into paragraphs 14 and 15 that deal with the way that we now treat disfellowshipped ones, or more accurately removed ones , since this is the new term.
and see how they still try to micromanage their members down to the finest detail and how still apostates and more accurately active apostates are public enemy number one.
Seeing is believing š
And I was right, it did collapse. It was a spiritual collapse š
https://youtu.be/rqyqibpnuos?si=zayoa2c-zvmj9_br.
under the theme "help for those who are removed from the congregation" study article 35 in august 2024 wafchtower that deals with the many changes the organization introduced recenly we specifically look into paragraphs 14 and 15 that deal with the way that we now treat disfellowshipped ones, or more accurately removed ones , since this is the new term.
and see how they still try to micromanage their members down to the finest detail and how still apostates and more accurately active apostates are public enemy number one.
It is only a small change, so it might end up to being nothing. On the other hand, it might be that once JWs get to talking to DFed/removed people the dam will break and the whole shunning apparatus will break down, especially if the new greeting rules are combined with a renewed reluctance to DF/remove people in general and a new policy of reinstating people more quickly. Overall it sends a message, and shunning might be become completely hollowed out as a result. I say might.
https://youtu.be/rqyqibpnuos?si=zayoa2c-zvmj9_br.
under the theme "help for those who are removed from the congregation" study article 35 in august 2024 wafchtower that deals with the many changes the organization introduced recenly we specifically look into paragraphs 14 and 15 that deal with the way that we now treat disfellowshipped ones, or more accurately removed ones , since this is the new term.
and see how they still try to micromanage their members down to the finest detail and how still apostates and more accurately active apostates are public enemy number one.
Yup itās a general amnesty, except for the dirty apostates! No mercy for them š
those of us who have deep roots into watchtower remember the shadowy whispers about "the evil slave" when we were kids.. for those that need to get up to speed: .
the internal crisis came to its full with the occurrence of an outstanding bible-predicted event, namely, the coming of jehovahās āmessenger,ā christ jesus, to jehovahās temple for judgment in the spring of 1918, to separate the āfaithful and discreet slaveā class from the āevil slaveā group.
(mal.
Thatās an excellent question. Iāve sometimes wondered whether Bible Students at times conceived of the Christadelphians as part of the evil slave class ā because they had similar doctrines to the Bible Students, but didnāt do ministry in the same way, and maintained ecclesial autonomy and democracy. If thatās so, then Christadelphians are still around. On the other hand, if it only applies to groups that broke away from the Watchtower directly, then I donāt know if there are any left in the UK at all. Maybe in the United States, especially around Pennsylvania, Ohio, the Midwest?
https://www.blogger.com/blogin.g?blogspoturl=https://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com/2013/07/complete-donation-what-happened.html.
He went underground, like Vincent š¤
i still read on reddit.
(though no longer post) occasionally, i'll venture over to the ex-seventh day adventist (sda) sub and catch up a bit.
it's been a long time.
I should have said: their numbers are up compared with before the pandemic.
In contrast with most churches that are down massively compared with before the pandemic.
i still read on reddit.
(though no longer post) occasionally, i'll venture over to the ex-seventh day adventist (sda) sub and catch up a bit.
it's been a long time.
The vast majority of churches declined dramatically during the pandemic. The only two exceptions I know are Seventh-day Adventists and JWs.
i still read on reddit.
(though no longer post) occasionally, i'll venture over to the ex-seventh day adventist (sda) sub and catch up a bit.
it's been a long time.
In Scotland the number of Seventh-Day Adventist congregations and attendance went up during the pandemic. In Carlisle in the north of England I noticed the following sign posted on their church.
in an earlier thread another poster asserted that there is no evidence that revelation 3:14 played a part in the 4th controversy that led to the trinity doctrine.
this was claimed as evidence that the description of jesus as āthe beginning of the creation of godā in the verse was not understood to mean that jesus was godās first creation.
the scholarly greekāenglish lexicon of the new testament & other early christian literature 3e (2001) by bauer, arndt, gingrich, and danker, in its latest edition states that āfirst creationā is indeed the probable meaning of the greek phrase.
Bingo. But somehow you have literalized these passages just as the 4th Arian 'heretics' did.
peacefulpete, both sides in the fourth century debate took Wisdom/Word/Son to be a person at the beginning with God, the difference is Arians maintained the distinction that the Son was created and subordinate to God, whereas proto-Trinitarians turned him into a coequal.
The idea that God had an angelic junior in heaven was not an Arian or even a Christian innovation. Jewish scholar Peter SchƤfer writes:
Summarizing the range of the [second temple Jewish] texts, it becomes apparent how many of them view the enigmatic godlike or semi-godlike figure alongside God to be an angel. This starts with the angel Michael in Daniel 7, the source of almost all further developments, and climaxes in the Qumran texts ā¦Christianity appropriated these binitarian rudiments and developed them further based on the ideas of the Son of Man and Logos.
Peter SchƤfer, Two Gods in Heaven: Jewish Concepts of God in Antiquity (2020), pages 87 and 88.
in an earlier thread another poster asserted that there is no evidence that revelation 3:14 played a part in the 4th controversy that led to the trinity doctrine.
this was claimed as evidence that the description of jesus as āthe beginning of the creation of godā in the verse was not understood to mean that jesus was godās first creation.
the scholarly greekāenglish lexicon of the new testament & other early christian literature 3e (2001) by bauer, arndt, gingrich, and danker, in its latest edition states that āfirst creationā is indeed the probable meaning of the greek phrase.
Some Christians base their belief in the Trinity on tradition. Others claim they can base it on the Bible alone. Some strands of Christianity, such as orthodox and Coptic churches have never used a Latin text of the Bible.
I donāt think anyone was saying codex Sinaiticus is a doctrinal authority in itself, but the point was that it indicates how the text of Rev 3.14 was understood by early readers.
Aside from that, Sinaiticus is an early witness, and most textual critics also consider it an important witness to the text of the NT.