slimboyfat

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Posts by slimboyfat

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  88

  Annual Report

  by St George of England in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the latest report is now available for download on our favourite website!.

  george.

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  slimboyfat

  No I think I came before that in a letter, because it struck me as odd that it seemed to be rushed out, as if they couldn’t even wait a few weeks until the end of the service year for some reason. 🤔
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  88

  Annual Report

  by St George of England in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the latest report is now available for download on our favourite website!.

  george.

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  slimboyfat

  Very interesting! It looks like their best growth for years. When practically all other churches are declining in western countries. JWs somehow manage to keep growing. At first I thought the change in reporting time was the explanation, but that only came in August, is that right? So it would have caught the last month perhaps. Not sure.

  The number of congregations worldwide is up. Numbers continue to go up in Zambia and Memorial attendance is now over 1 million. I think that’s only the 5th country in the world to have over a million at the Memorial: United States, Brazil, Mexico, Congo, and now Zambia.
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  24

  Why you need Christmas to understand Easter/Memorial

  by Anony Mous in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so i went to a christmas evening candlelight service tonight and it hit me.

  i was primarily doing christmas since leaving the jw for the children.

  lots of people do it for family without really thinking of the relevance.

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  slimboyfat

  Amazing how most people who are born in christian countries have christian beliefs. Its mind blowing. Clearly, it must all be true just because of this.

  This is one of the cant old New Atheist talking points, along with other greatest hits of yesteryear such as, “I just believe in one less God that you do”, “why doesn’t God cure amputees?” and so on. A lot of people did find these kind of arguments persuasive at the time but they seem to have lost their magic. Although you still see a few holdouts here and there, like aging rockers past their prime.
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  405

  Is Jesus the Creator?

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  that's what the word says.

  .

  colossians 1:16. for by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through him and for him..

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  slimboyfat

  Jesus was an angelic being in heaven before he came to earth as a human. He is God’s firstborn, knows God better than anyone else, and is totally obedient to God. After he gave his life as a human to save sinful humans, he resumed his heavenly life in an even more exalted position, but always in subjection and to the glory of God. Jesus, as the image of the invisible God, so perfectly reflects God’s character that he could say that anyone who saw him had seen his Father also. God’s thoughts are unsearchable, but we can have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor 2.16)
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  24

  Why you need Christmas to understand Easter/Memorial

  by Anony Mous in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so i went to a christmas evening candlelight service tonight and it hit me.

  i was primarily doing christmas since leaving the jw for the children.

  lots of people do it for family without really thinking of the relevance.

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  slimboyfat

  Isn’t it sad to celebrate the birth of baby Jesus every year only for him to die three or four months later? 😜
• 
  405

  Is Jesus the Creator?

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  that's what the word says.

  .

  colossians 1:16. for by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through him and for him..

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  slimboyfat

  … and to mention, interesting aside, that according to scholar Robert Shedinger the Diatessaron provides some support for Howard’s thesis of the divine name in the original NT.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_and_titles_of_God_in_the_New_Testament#Diatessaron
  
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  113

  Luke 23:43 the NWT

  by Ade in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  luke 23:43 - and jesus said to him, "positively i say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

  nwt places comma here , giving a totally different meaning to the verse.

  now the average jw uses this to back their doctrine and it seems in itself virtually impossible to reason with them on it.

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  slimboyfat

  Claims that the Coptic supports the Watchtower interpretation are unsubstantiated when compared to broader manuscript evidence.

  Another examples of meaningless nonsense. What does the sentence even mean? It sounds like it should be saying that the Coptic doesn’t support the WT interpretation. But that isn’t true. Or it could be saying that it doesn’t matter that the Coptic supports the WT interpretation. But really it doesn’t mean anything. It sounds vaguely like a refutation but without actually saying anything.
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  7

  JW vs. Christian Message To the World - The Kingdom of God, or Reconciliation with God?

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  after stuydying jw's for over half a century, i haved concluded the following: .

  old light / new light is a primary doctrine of jehovah’s witneses.

  when they abandon on old prophecy or change a doctrine, they characterize this as “old light”.

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  slimboyfat

  JWs don’t have grace, they don’t know grace, some of them don’t even say grace. 😁
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  51

  Theocratic Warfare and Taqiyya

  by aqwsed12345 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the concept of strategic deception exists in several religious and ideological contexts.

  in this article, we will explore and compare the theocratic warfare doctrine of the watchtower society and taqiyya in islam.

  both concepts have parallels in their mechanisms of permitting deception for religious purposes but differ significantly in their application and historical roots.. 1. theocratic warfare: the "rahab method".

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  slimboyfat

  Hurtado does not argue that Kyrios was introduced into the LXX in the second century CE by Christians or otherwise.

  Yes he does. Anyone can read it here.

  https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2019/05/07/yhwh-texts-and-jesus-a-follow-up/

  Why are you lying? What is the point of this?

  Hurtado elaborates his view of the implication of copies of the LXX that Paul used containing the divine name. The who argument relies on the point that the first century LXX used the divine name not kyrios:

  Our manuscripts of the Septuagint (LXX) routinely have kyrios where the Hebrew has YHWH, but that is a scribal practice that seems to have developed sometime in the second century or so.
  

  So if, for example, the Greek OT manuscripts that Paul consulted had YHWH retained in Hebrew characters, this would have meant that the original referent was “God” YHWH. So, for Paul then to apply to Jesus a number of texts that originally referred explicitly to YHWH did not result from some confusion on his part, or some ambiguity in the text. Instead, this was a fully conscious and deliberate exegetical move. One could argue that the rendering of YHWH as kyrios in LXX manuscripts could have allowed for a certain ambiguity, for from earliest moments the risen Jesus was referred to as “the Lord” (the kyrios). But, given what appears to have been the dominant treatment of the tetragrammaton in earlier manuscripts of the Greek OT writings, this suggestion doesn’t work.
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  51

  Theocratic Warfare and Taqiyya

  by aqwsed12345 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the concept of strategic deception exists in several religious and ideological contexts.

  in this article, we will explore and compare the theocratic warfare doctrine of the watchtower society and taqiyya in islam.

  both concepts have parallels in their mechanisms of permitting deception for religious purposes but differ significantly in their application and historical roots.. 1. theocratic warfare: the "rahab method".

  1. 
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  slimboyfat

  Again, out of interest I asked ChatGPT about the divine name in the NT. I think the argument for the divine name in the NT could be asserted more strongly, but overall it seems a fair summary:

  Was the divine name originally used in the New Testament?

  The question of whether the divine name (YHWH) was originally used in the New Testament remains unresolved, as there is no definitive evidence in the earliest surviving manuscripts. However, scholars and researchers have proposed several possibilities, based on the cultural, religious, and textual context of the time. Here's a detailed look:

  Arguments Supporting the Use of the Divine Name in the New Testament

  1. Jewish Context of Early Christianity:
  • The New Testament writers were primarily Jewish and would have been familiar with the use of the Tetragrammaton in the Hebrew Scriptures.
  • Early Christians may have initially followed the Jewish custom of preserving the divine name in scriptural quotations.
  2. Evidence from Early Septuagint Manuscripts:
  • Some early copies of the Greek Septuagint, the Old Testament translation used by many early Christians, retained the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew letters (e.g., יהוה) or transliterated into Greek characters.
  • If the New Testament writers quoted from such manuscripts, they may have included the divine name in some form.
  3. Theological Implications:
  • The presence of the divine name in the New Testament could have emphasized the link between the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian message, underscoring the continuity of divine authority.

  
  

  Arguments Against the Use of the Divine Name in the New Testament

  1. Absence in Surviving Manuscripts:
  • The earliest extant New Testament manuscripts (dating from the 2nd century CE onwards) consistently use κύριος (Kyrios, "Lord") or θεός (Theos, "God") in places where references to YHWH might be expected.
  • No manuscript contains the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew or transliterated form.
  2. Greek Linguistic Tradition:
  • By the time of the New Testament's composition, the Greek-speaking Jewish and Christian communities commonly used "Kyrios" as a substitute for YHWH, following the practice of the Septuagint.
  3. Jewish Practices and Christian Adaptation:
  • Jewish reverence for the divine name led to its avoidance in speech and its replacement in writing with substitutes like "Adonai" or "HaShem." Early Christians, many of whom came from Jewish backgrounds, likely adopted similar practices.

  
  

  Theoretical Scenarios
  

  • Some scholars hypothesize that the Tetragrammaton might have appeared in the autographs (the original writings of the New Testament) but was replaced with "Kyrios" or "Theos" during later copying and transmission, reflecting the broader scribal practices of the time.
  • Alternatively, the New Testament authors may have followed the established Greek translation tradition and used "Kyrios" or "Theos" from the outset.

  
  

  Conclusion

  There is no concrete evidence that the divine name was originally used in the New Testament, but it is plausible that early drafts or quotations of Scripture could have included it, especially if the writers were quoting from Hebrew texts or early Septuagint versions retaining the Tetragrammaton. The consistent use of "Kyrios" and "Theos" in surviving manuscripts suggests that, even if the divine name was present initially, it was soon replaced as Christianity spread into Greek-speaking contexts.