Posts by slimboyfat

152

Do JWs believe Jesus is an angel?

by slimboyfat in

i would suggest:.

the short answer is yes.. the longer answer is a qualified yes, with some caveats.

the short answer is yes because jehovah’s witnesses teach that jesus is michael the archangel, their leader, eldest and most powerful, and have taught this since the very beginning of the religion.

slimboyfat

Everything in Revelation is symbolic, and the reference to writing the divine name on the forehead is a symbolic reference to Tetragrammaton on the headband of the high priest. I don’t know what you’re intending to dispute here, that the high priest wore a headband with the divine name, or that the author had this in mind, or that we should notice the connection?

In terms of the use of the divine name in the book of Revelation check out the work of Gerard Mussies and Sean McDonough, in particular: Sean McDonough (1999). YHWH at Patmos: Rev. 1: 4 in Its Hellenistic and Early Jewish Setting. Mohr Siebeck.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/YHWH-Patmos-Hellenistic-Jewish-Setting/dp/1610971558

4

Odd bit of Watch Tower history

by vienne in

https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2024/08/1912-world-missionary-tour.html.

from russell's 1912 world tour.

.

slimboyfat

That’s our theocratic heritage you’re denigratin’ 😮

152

Do JWs believe Jesus is an angel?

by slimboyfat in

i would suggest:.

the short answer is yes.. the longer answer is a qualified yes, with some caveats.

the short answer is yes because jehovah’s witnesses teach that jesus is michael the archangel, their leader, eldest and most powerful, and have taught this since the very beginning of the religion.

slimboyfat

By the way, the phrase "name of the Father"does not need to be associated with the Tetragrammaton

In the context of being written on forehead as with the high priest it most probably does refer to the divine name. But in view of the references to the trigram Yaho in the first chapter of Revelation, perhaps in the form Yaho rather than YHWH.

152

Do JWs believe Jesus is an angel?

by slimboyfat in

i would suggest:.

the short answer is yes.. the longer answer is a qualified yes, with some caveats.

the short answer is yes because jehovah’s witnesses teach that jesus is michael the archangel, their leader, eldest and most powerful, and have taught this since the very beginning of the religion.

slimboyfat

There are scholars who argue that the idea of a pre-existent angelic Messiah was already present in texts such as Micah 5 and Isaiah 9 and that Christians picked up on an idea that the Jews had already explored. See William Horbury’s Jewish Messianism and the Cult of Christ (1998):

8

Lost aoul

by LostSoulUK in

jw
friends

hi everyone, i just joined and i have been lost a long time, growing up i was a witness with my mum.

i walked away when i was older, did drugs, sex, travelling all my life never stopping anywhere more than 3 months my entire life, relationship after relationship, pain and hurt after pain and hurt.

i always felt like there was something missing, and tried to find what it was.

slimboyfat

Watchtower recently relaxed their rules on shunning, and have instructed JWs to be slightly more approachable and friendly to people who have left, though the details remain sketchy. But it perhaps means that you will be able to have more contact with your mother and brother than in the past without going through the whole process of returning to the Kingdom Hall.

Going to Ukraine is a story in itself, it doesn’t need embellished. Search for meaning is a powerful impulse, as you have demonstrated more dramatically than most. I tend to just read books. 📖 I wish you well on your journey.

24

Voting, why make it easier to vote??

by moomanchu in

democrats are always harping on and on about voting rights and how the ability to vote should be easier and access unrestricted.

the most progressive ones want to allow prisoners, and illegals with no voter id the ability to vote along with the criminals, drug addicts, and uneducated low lives who already can vote.. .

after they push for everyone and anyone to be able to vote they then tell us it is a sacred privilege, a duty and honor, and a big responsibility blah, blah ect..... if it is all those grandiose things are true i think it should be harder to vote not easier.

slimboyfat

America spends more on its military than the next ten countries combined because that’s what it costs to maintain the largest empire in human history. Do some Americans believe their rulers spend this way out of the goodness of their heart? Some inexplicable benevolence toward the rest of humankind? Because the rest of the world isn’t buying it. The US maintains the largest killing machinery ever because it is in its financial as well as its strategic interest to do so. If Europe took the bait and built a military to rival the US then the US would be unlikely to welcome that outcome. If Europe had a military equal to the US then the US might be less likely to blow up European pipelines at will to further its own economic interests, for example, and Europe might be less supine if the US attempted it in those circumstances.

https://youtu.be/C7ne8CCkPn4?si=Hg0pBASOXjkTfVnT

152

Do JWs believe Jesus is an angel?

by slimboyfat in

i would suggest:.

the short answer is yes.. the longer answer is a qualified yes, with some caveats.

the short answer is yes because jehovah’s witnesses teach that jesus is michael the archangel, their leader, eldest and most powerful, and have taught this since the very beginning of the religion.

slimboyfat

Paula Fredriksen explains that Jesus is distinguished from God in Philippians 2.

The Greek, however, does not quite correspond to the RSV’s English. In Philippians 2, Jesus is not "in the form of the (high) God,” but in the form of "a god." Jesus does not demur from equality with God the Father, but from "god-status" or, closer to Paul's word choice, equality with "a god." The god who exalts Jesus in verse 9, by contrast, is the high god (ho theos, the god), referred to as "God the Father" in verse 11. The conventions of English capitalization - "God" with the upper-case G in all clauses - obscure Paul's Greek. Paul distinguishes between degrees of divinity here. Jesus is not "God."
Paula Fredriksen, (2017). Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle. Yale University Press, page 138.

152

Do JWs believe Jesus is an angel?

by slimboyfat in

i would suggest:.

the short answer is yes.. the longer answer is a qualified yes, with some caveats.

the short answer is yes because jehovah’s witnesses teach that jesus is michael the archangel, their leader, eldest and most powerful, and have taught this since the very beginning of the religion.

slimboyfat

Those who read Philippians 2 in agreement with later Trinitarian dogma are invariably scholars who have a prior faith commitment to the Trinity. Scholars who approach the text from a historical perspective read the text in its own first century context, not the fourth century. Many more scholars could be cited, such as Paul Holloway, who explains the passage this way.

Paul conceived of what is commonly referred to as Christ's incarnation as a kind of metamorphosis. According to Phil 2:6-11 Christ was a mighty angel who originally existed "in the form [opñ] of God." For the sake of humans and in obedience to the divine will he took "the form (opon] of a slave," changing himself into human "likeness" (Quoíwua) and "appearance" (oxnua). After his death on a cross, God restored him to his original angelic form, but now as the even more glorious ruling angel who bears the divine Name and shares the divine throne: "therefore God more highly exalted him [UTEpú|woe] and gave him the Name that is above every other name [rò ovoLa Tò UTTÈo Tav övoua], in order that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow .. to the glory of God the Father. "
Paul Holloway, (2017). Philippians. Fortress Press, pages 49 and 50.

You don’t need to agree with the way JWs read passages such as Philippians 2 but you would do well to acknowledge that their reading of such texts is in line with a broad sweep of serious scholars who have studied the text.

152

Do JWs believe Jesus is an angel?

by slimboyfat in

i would suggest:.

the short answer is yes.. the longer answer is a qualified yes, with some caveats.

the short answer is yes because jehovah’s witnesses teach that jesus is michael the archangel, their leader, eldest and most powerful, and have taught this since the very beginning of the religion.

slimboyfat

E.P. Sanders was a senior biblical scholar who had a huge impact on the field of study. His comments on Phil 2.5–11 are to the point.

In any case, “equality with,” like “form of,” avoids direct identification of Christ with God. The New Testament authors had not yet thought of the idea of the Trinity, and so making Christ a part of a larger Godhead was not an option. His precise relationship no God was usually just called "sonship," which could have a broad meaning as we shall see when we discuss Romans 1. All Israelites were in some sense "sons of God."
In later years, Paul's use of "form of God" and "being found in human form," would lead to numerous debates: was he God or human merely in appearance? In particular, was he a real human? Fortunately we do not have to delve into this. The hymn as written uses "form of" to mean "possessed at least some of the characteristics of," not merely "appeared to be." On the other hand, "possessed at least some of the characteristics of" proposes less identity between God and Jesus than is expressed in the much later formulation, that God and Christ were of the same ousia, "essence."
E. P. Sanders, (2016). Paul: The apostle's life, letters and thought. scm Press, p 603

152

Do JWs believe Jesus is an angel?

by slimboyfat in

i would suggest:.

the short answer is yes.. the longer answer is a qualified yes, with some caveats.

the short answer is yes because jehovah’s witnesses teach that jesus is michael the archangel, their leader, eldest and most powerful, and have taught this since the very beginning of the religion.

slimboyfat

According to many such approaches, Paul construes Christ as a divine being in 2:6, and his comment about not seeking "equality with God as something to be grasped by force (or as 'booty')" means that Christ did not try to usurp the status of the supreme God (res rapienda). Though the language in v. 6 remains difficult, such a reading makes much better sense of the drama of 2:6-11, which seems to require a move from a lower rank in the heavens to a higher one. Furthermore, though many writers ridicule the use of terms like theos (god) for any but the supreme God of Jewish lore, this amounts to a polemical overstatement that is not carried out consistently in practice (see, e.g., IIMelchizedek ii.10. Thus, the statement that Christ was "in the form of a god" (2:6) need not suggest that Christ had some special identification with the supreme deity, though this idea has proved seductive for some. Instead, and in a rather straightforward way, being in the "form of a god" conveys that Christ was originally a lesser divine being, probably a member of the council or heavenly entourage.
Emma Wasserman, (2018). Apocalypse as Holy War: Divine Politics and Polemics in the Letters of Paul. Yale University Press, page 133.