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.
slimboyfat
JoinedPosts by slimboyfat
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10
Apostates are still public enemy number one - WATCHTOWER August 2024
by raymond frantz inhttps://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.
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Apostates are still public enemy number one - WATCHTOWER August 2024
by raymond frantz inhttps://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.
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slimboyfat
Yup it’s a general amnesty, except for the dirty apostates! No mercy for them 😈
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Has The "Evil Slave" Died Out?
by Sea Breeze inthose 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 jehovah’s “messenger,” christ jesus, to jehovah’s temple for judgment in the spring of 1918, to separate the “faithful and discreet slave” class from the “evil slave” group.
(mal.
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slimboyfat
That’s an excellent question. I’ve sometimes wondered whether Bible Students at times conceived of the Christadelphians as part of the evil slave class – because they had similar doctrines to the Bible Students, but didn’t do ministry in the same way, and maintained ecclesial autonomy and democracy. If that’s 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 don’t know if there are any left in the UK at all. Maybe in the United States, especially around Pennsylvania, Ohio, the Midwest?
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What happened to Marvin Schilmer and his Blog against the JW's?
by TerryWalstrom inhttps://www.blogger.com/blogin.g?blogspoturl=https://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com/2013/07/complete-donation-what-happened.html.
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slimboyfat
He went underground, like Vincent 🤔
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Interesting that the other cult-cousins are going thru nearly identical hemmoraging of members.....
by WingCommander ini 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.
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slimboyfat
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.
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Interesting that the other cult-cousins are going thru nearly identical hemmoraging of members.....
by WingCommander ini 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.
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slimboyfat
The vast majority of churches declined dramatically during the pandemic. The only two exceptions I know are Seventh-day Adventists and JWs.
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Interesting that the other cult-cousins are going thru nearly identical hemmoraging of members.....
by WingCommander ini 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.
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slimboyfat
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.
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Alteration of Revelation 3:14 in the 4th century to support the emerging Trinity doctrine
by slimboyfat inin 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 “the beginning of the creation of god” in the verse was not understood to mean that jesus was god’s first creation.
the scholarly greek–english lexicon of the new testament & other early christian literature 3e (2001) by bauer, arndt, gingrich, and danker, in its latest edition states that “first creation” is indeed the probable meaning of the greek phrase.
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slimboyfat
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 Schäfer 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 …Christianity appropriated these binitarian rudiments and developed them further based on the ideas of the Son of Man and Logos.
Peter Schäfer, Two Gods in Heaven: Jewish Concepts of God in Antiquity (2020), pages 87 and 88.
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Alteration of Revelation 3:14 in the 4th century to support the emerging Trinity doctrine
by slimboyfat inin 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 “the beginning of the creation of god” in the verse was not understood to mean that jesus was god’s first creation.
the scholarly greek–english lexicon of the new testament & other early christian literature 3e (2001) by bauer, arndt, gingrich, and danker, in its latest edition states that “first creation” is indeed the probable meaning of the greek phrase.
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slimboyfat
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 don’t 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.
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Alteration of Revelation 3:14 in the 4th century to support the emerging Trinity doctrine
by slimboyfat inin 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 “the beginning of the creation of god” in the verse was not understood to mean that jesus was god’s first creation.
the scholarly greek–english lexicon of the new testament & other early christian literature 3e (2001) by bauer, arndt, gingrich, and danker, in its latest edition states that “first creation” is indeed the probable meaning of the greek phrase.
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slimboyfat
Earnest, some argue that Origen was the first to list the NT canon as we now have it, as early as 250 CE.
https://michaeljkruger.com/what-is-the-earliest-complete-list-of-the-canon-of-the-new-testament/