Posts by slimboyfat

28

how do you feel about the use of the name Jehovah now?

by enoughisenough in

for those who still believe in god and the bible, how do you feel/think about the name jehovah now?

i am one who never wanted to bring reproach on god's name.

i will admit using the word jehovah now makes me feel rather icky...like i am promoting a lie of sorts.

slimboyfat

Very interesting. Vasileiadis is a JW from Greece from what I can gather. His essays are good. I recommend the book by Shaw, The Earliest Non-Mystical Jewish Use of IAW, if you can get your hands on it. He amasses the evidence from various sources for Yaho.

https://www.amazon.com/Earliest-Non-Mystical-Contributions-Biblical-Exegesis/dp/9042929782/

Recently a couple of Evangelicals, John Meade and Peter Gurry, have published a book Scribes & Scripture, where they acknowledge that Yaho was the popular pronunciation of God’s name and are open to the idea that Jesus used this pronunciation. (See page 55) This is an advance on earlier Evangelicals who argued that Jesus would not have used God’s name.

https://www.amazon.com/Scribes-Scripture-Amazing-Story-Bible/dp/1433577895/

Do I gather from what you say that you’re someone who still holds the beliefs of JWs on the divine name but you don’t believe God is using the Watchtower organisation? What are your views on other beliefs, such as Jesus is an angel, future paradise, 1914, blood, the 144,000 and so on? Do you know others in a similar position as yourself?

28

how do you feel about the use of the name Jehovah now?

by enoughisenough in

for those who still believe in god and the bible, how do you feel/think about the name jehovah now?

i am one who never wanted to bring reproach on god's name.

i will admit using the word jehovah now makes me feel rather icky...like i am promoting a lie of sorts.

slimboyfat

FreeTheMasons is correct, the Greek pronunciation of God’s name is Yaho and this is perhaps the form of the divine name that Jesus used. I came across this in books by McDonough and Shaw. I wonder where you came across it? Because the textbooks of a previous generation claimed that Jesus didn’t use God’s name.

2909

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

by Simon in

jw
friends

uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

slimboyfat

I feel sorry for them. What a terrible misfortune that their daughter stumbled across this English narcissist, a wolf in sheep’s clothing at the Kingdom Hall. Life could have turned out completely different for all of them if he had been prowling somewhere else at the crucial moment.

6

Another way you are being spied upon

by careful in

from jeremy hsu, technology writer for new scientist magazine.. smart tvs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second.

smart tvs from samsung and lg take screenshots of what you are watching even when you are using them to display images from a connected laptop or video game console.

read the whole article below.

slimboyfat

Phones and cars and perhaps other devices do listen to conversations that are within range of their “hearing”. Ten years ago I would have thought that was a crackpot idea, but now I think it’s pretty likely the case, given what we know from: Snowden; US spying on Merkel; three-letter agencies controling social media; the technical feasibility of doing so; the increasingly obvious propensity of government and business to spy on everything for their own advantage; as well as my own experiences, and others I know, of the phone apparently reacting to in-person conversations, as the other poster mentioned.

53

WTS 2024 Annual Business Meeting ...

by careful in

... is just three weeks from this saturday.

the org has been tight-lipped, really, successfully secret about advance info on these in recent years,.

now that these relatively recent changes on dress and grooming, reporting fs time, judicial matters, etc.

slimboyfat

A new book on Revelation is overdue. The previous one was published 36 years ago in 1988. That’s longer than any previous period between books covering Revelation.

The Finished Mystery (1917)

Light I & II (1930)

Babylon the Great Has Fallen (1963)

Then is Finished the Mystery of God (1969)

Revelation—Its Grand Climax at Hand! (1988)

New Book (2024?)

But then, Watchtower is no longer primarily a book publishing organisation, so maybe the interval is no longer relevant?

A new Revelation book would present potentially difficult choices, such as whether to stick with a literal 144,000, with the 1914 and 1919 dates, and the wacky bowls and trumpet blasts interpretations.

If they do attempt it, then it will probably follow the pattern of the Pure Worship book on Ezekiel, and the book on Acts, which both declared that they were not verse by verse commentaries and therefore focussed on highlights and themes instead. Then they could effectively avoid parts they find tricky and offer impressions and lessons rather than detailed interpretations.

62

Ten reasons Jehovah’s Witnesses have the true religion (plus a bonus one)

by slimboyfat in

thinking back when i was a true believer these are probably the top ten reasons why i believed jws are the true religion.

1. they show love among themselves by not going to war.

not killing your fellow believers in any circumstances, including war, would seem to be a very basic requirement for true christianity.

slimboyfat

Interestingly, while historians have made estimates, the Jehovah's Witnesses likely know the exact figures but choose not to share them.

The exact figures of what, how many “resisted”? You are trying to put an exact number something that is impossible to put an exact number on. Someone who spoke against the regime, went to jail, renounced their faith in custody, was released, later regretted that decision and rejoined. Did they resist, or not? People who broke down under torture and gave up names of their fellow believers. Did they resist, or not? People who reasoned it was proper to lie on forms to fool the Nazis and got released from prison that way. Did they resist or not? Someone who was a JW for social or family reasons but decided it wasn’t worth it when the Nazis came to power. Is that counted as a failure of JWs to resist? People who were true believers but simply couldn’t withstand the terror, or who compromised to save themselves, or their children, or others. Children who were removed from parents and were indoctrinated by the regime. All these scenarios, and many more complicated situations played out countless times. I don’t think we are in a position to judge except to say that any act of resistance was remarkable in the circumstances. We don’t need exact numbers to make the obvious observation that JWs stood out massively. We don’t need an exact figure in order to draw the same moral conclusion as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum that JWs were an “island of spiritual resistance” and that other churches have had to come to terms with the “widespread complicity” of their leadership and ordinary members.

62

Ten reasons Jehovah’s Witnesses have the true religion (plus a bonus one)

by slimboyfat in

thinking back when i was a true believer these are probably the top ten reasons why i believed jws are the true religion.

1. they show love among themselves by not going to war.

not killing your fellow believers in any circumstances, including war, would seem to be a very basic requirement for true christianity.

slimboyfat

… WW2 demonstrates the dangers or neutrality …

If everyone was neutral there would have been no war, obviously, but you’re entitled to your opinion, notsopeacefulpete. Your entire post is a whole lot of cope, attempting to downplay the stand JWs took in Nazi Germany.

Protestant historian Detlef Garbe described the conduct of JWs in the Third Reich as a “ray of light in a dark age”. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum called JWs “an island of spiritual resistance”. Former JWs who attempt to deny reality on this do themselves no favours. It’s a sign of being in a bubble. Not everything about JWs is bad. If you can’t straightforwardly recognise opposing the Nazis as a good act it’s maybe time to reflect.

62

Ten reasons Jehovah’s Witnesses have the true religion (plus a bonus one)

by slimboyfat in

thinking back when i was a true believer these are probably the top ten reasons why i believed jws are the true religion.

1. they show love among themselves by not going to war.

not killing your fellow believers in any circumstances, including war, would seem to be a very basic requirement for true christianity.

slimboyfat

StephaneLaliberte this is also a subject I have taken an interest in.

The only real difference was the numbers—there were many more Catholics, and therefore many more traitors and Nazi sympathizers, but the ratios were likely similar.

The ratios are entirely dissimilar. The overwhelming majority of JWs resisted the Nazis whereas only a small number of Protestants and Catholics did so. This is why the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum describes Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Third Reich as:

an island of spiritual resistance to the Nazi demand for absolute German commitment to the state.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jehovahs-witnesses-in-germany-from-the-1890s-to-the-1930s

Whereas it concludes its article about Protestants and Catholics this way:

After 1945, the silence of the church leadership and the widespread complicity of "ordinary Christians" compelled leaders of both churches to address issues of guilt and complicity during the Holocaust—a process that continues internationally to this day.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-german-churches-and-the-nazi-state

Note the contrast between “an island of spiritual resistance” and “the widespread complicity of ‘ordinary Christians’”.

62

Ten reasons Jehovah’s Witnesses have the true religion (plus a bonus one)

by slimboyfat in

thinking back when i was a true believer these are probably the top ten reasons why i believed jws are the true religion.

1. they show love among themselves by not going to war.

not killing your fellow believers in any circumstances, including war, would seem to be a very basic requirement for true christianity.

slimboyfat

If those accusations are true then Barr would be an awful person. But I don’t believe an accusation just because someone makes it. If I remember reading about this case before, wasn’t there serious doubt about the timing of the accusation because some of the people accused were not where they would have had to have been? If I remember correctly there was a possibility that the accuser was mixing up some details including perhaps mixing up one GB member for another. The fact is I simply don’t know, so I won’t make a judgment either way. The things I do know about Barr for sure make me think he was a sincere person.

62

Ten reasons Jehovah’s Witnesses have the true religion (plus a bonus one)

by slimboyfat in

thinking back when i was a true believer these are probably the top ten reasons why i believed jws are the true religion.

1. they show love among themselves by not going to war.

not killing your fellow believers in any circumstances, including war, would seem to be a very basic requirement for true christianity.

slimboyfat

Here are some of mine: I thought they were honest and I thought they really loved me and I thought they really loved Jehovah and I thought they really loved truth and I thought they really loved other people.

Yes, that too. Call me naive, but I do think there were and are many genuine brothers and sisters, including in the leadership. There have certainly been pretty awful people too, such as Leo Greenlees and Ted Jaracz, and some leaders lower down, and local elders. But I still think people like Lloyd Barry, Jack Barr, Geoffrey Jackson, Tony Morris in his own way, Fred Franz even, as well as many elders, and other brothers and sisters I’ve come across could be described that way.