Posts by moshe

49

I debated with my "devout" JW mom and her JW elders for 5 hours

by booker-t in

jw
friends

as most of you know by now i have told you that my mom has been a "devout" jw for over 40 years and i can't get her to budge.

well the last time we debated she left me totally confused and in a daze.

i did some fast research and this past sunday we had a free-for-all debate that lasted 5 hours.

moshe

For me, I could see very early on that any debate with a JW that uses the Bible or their literature usually fails. I find that talking about " personal feelings" works best.( were you upset about 1975? did you skip college to pioneer- do you ever wish for the career you missed out on to pioneer in 1975?, etc) If I can get them to admit to being unhappy about anything in the Org., it's a start. As long as they deny being unhappy, then why bother? I agree with Gary- be happy, live happy, be successful and make new friends. Someday the arrogant self serving JW leadership will finally make a mistake and get thrown to the dogs.

shalom,

Moshe

54

I can't get to grips with being shunned

by chuckyy in

my wife and i have been disassociated for about 2 months now.

every day in our small town we are being shunned by former friends.

one in particular annoyed me today.

moshe

I always loved running into JW's in stores- I talked to them and since they are shunning me , they can't talk back! Great!! I just yakked away and if I was in the check out with them I would say something like " I am talking to sister-brother so-an-so from the xxxKH- he/she won't talk to me because I decided to stop being a JW- if he was my relative he still can't talk to me and if anyone gets involved with them they can lose their family like I did when you change your mind about their religion, etc, etc.

Very embarrassing to the JW ego-And they have to face the fact that the general population thinks little of their actions. Some learned their lesson and if they returned my cordial hello, I left them alone. If they shunned me, I made it unpleasant for them. I had one sister practically crawl into a frozen food case in the grocery store- I watched her bury her head in the frozen french fries for a very long time, until she finally came up for air. She listened to me for all of 30 seconds , then abandoned her grocery cart and left the store. Now , who do you think had the most power in this situation? think about it? Don't roll over and wimp out friends.

Shalom,

Moshe

69

SIGNS NEVER SEEN ON THE KINGDOM HALL BULLETIN BOARD.

by TresHappy in

jehovah's witness blood drive...

moshe

Notice: and Brother or Sister who feels they have been treated unfairly by the Elders please call, 1-800-cry-baby

69

watchtower red flags

by Ticker in

jw
friends

when i was studying and in the org i never did put two and two together becuase first off it was peer pressure and a young baptism age.

i was indoctrinated as a child so i never got a chance to ever use sound reason and judgement toword the validity of the society's claims.

but anywho i was thinking the other day about certain things that are obvious red flags and far fetched claims that the org makes.

moshe

JW Ben said that " Bible is his basis for understanding." My friend ,you like most in Christians have not researched how especially your NT came into being and how half of the known material was deep-sixed`by the council of Nicea . Emperor Constantine ordered 50 copies of G-d's scriptures, so the canon was closed and the scribes got busy. GO READ THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS from the Nag Hammadi found in Egypt- see what the apostles started with- everything after that was good tasting filler. I only wish that the eyewitness apostles had written about the Jesus they knew, instead of hiding out in Jerusalem, looking over their shoulders. Most of what you read and take for "Truth" was written by what we call "cut and paste" artists today and they didn't even put their name to it. Do you know what the "Q" document is? I doubt it. Shoot, none of the so-called witnesses can even agree on the wording of the sign over Jesus at his execution. Only later by the 4 th century did the Bible become all-inspired as taught by the Church- later "believe or face the inquisition". There is no shame in saying " I have doubts and until G-d shows me otherwise I choose not to believe" Take a six month sabbatical from the KH and go up on the mountain- come down a human being. G-d led me to Judaism , and you can find YOUR path too. Don't spend another minute feeding the egos of some old decrepit men in Brooklyn.

Shalom,

Moshe

RELIGION IS A BELIEF SYSTEM TO EXPLAIN THE UNEXPLAINABLE- Moshe

33

The Jewish Messiah?

by AlmostAtheist in

moshe wrote in another thread:i studied with a rabbi and found out why i was so confused by the nt gospel teachings.

of course, i never bothered to ask any jew what they teach about their messiah, i just assumed that the christian teaching about the jewish messiah matched what the jews believed about the coming messiah in the 1st century-not!

you've only vaguely brushed up against your jewish knowledge on this forum, at least that i've seen.

moshe

I think everyone should read the gospel of Thomas- part of the Nag Hammadi found in Egypt. The only known sayings Gospel, I believe. It it probably very true to the early 1st century Christian knowledge base- before all the Gospel story filler was added by no-name authors .

Jews have looked for a Messiah , too.- 17th century Jews turned to a mystical philosophy called Kabbalah to help them make sense of the Messiah . Would anyone like an abbreviated explanation of the Kabbalah?

shalom,

Moshe

13

speaking of jews...

by in a new york bethel minute in

i am pretty sure there are many different (excuse my layman) "denominations" of judaism, but what typically is the hope of a jewish person?

do they believe they are going to heaven?

do they believe in a paradise earth?

moshe

I have to agree with bebee- I converted in 2001- it was a Conservative Temple. Had to study Judaism for six months- learn to read Hebrew and follow the prayer book and have a ritual circumcision-ouch!

Some Jews talk of heaven- our Rabbi won't rule out reincarnation either- and if this life is all there is, then all the more reason to do mitzvah for family and fellow man. I like being able to have free thought.

Shalom,

Moshe

36

2004 Numbers are on WT web site it looks like.

by garybuss in

jw
friends

http://www.watchtower.org/statistics/worldwide_report.htm.

can anyone confirm this is what it looks like?

i may be delivering old news.

moshe

I wondered how many annointed were left lately - looks like almost the same as in 1985. I did some research about their death rates in 1985. I called an actuary and asked his help. I gave him a starting number from about 1935 yearbook and estimated their ages on the young side. With that info, the actuary told me that with normal death rates about 3000 should still be alive- not 8500! I wrote the WTBS`asking why these firgures indicate a mass falling away of the faithful-and if Jehovah was so all-knowing, why he would pick so many losers. That letter REALLY put me on their radarscope- the star chamber was convened and I was summoned. Any idle talk of this was disloyal-yada-yada- severe consequences-yada-yada-yada. Due to family ties I shut up- well,for a couple years anyway.

shalom,

Moshe

4

Memorial 2005

by Haelcer in

when memorial is?

it the watchtower claims, that 24 march.

but jewish calendars pass date 24 april.. one month of error.

moshe

Since the Jews use a lunar calendar it gets out of sync with the solar calendar by about 11 days a year. Every 2 or 3 years an extra month is added. Last year Hannukah was early December, for this year it is December 26th due to the extra added month. I guess the WTBS doesn't use our Jewish calendar.

Moshe

33

The Jewish Messiah?

by AlmostAtheist in

moshe wrote in another thread:i studied with a rabbi and found out why i was so confused by the nt gospel teachings.

of course, i never bothered to ask any jew what they teach about their messiah, i just assumed that the christian teaching about the jewish messiah matched what the jews believed about the coming messiah in the 1st century-not!

you've only vaguely brushed up against your jewish knowledge on this forum, at least that i've seen.

moshe

Lets just say ,if you do the research Jesus didn't fulfill the tangible aspects of the Messiah. The virgin birth of a man-god precludes Jesus of being the Messiah from King David's line. Even Paul knew the problems of Jesus lineage and told his followers to skip it. Jesus didn't cause all the world to follow the one true G-d and follow his laws, either. He died before world peace was attained.I believe that Jesus early followers attempted to make sense of his death by studying their Bible and looking for scripture that could be used as proof texts in an attempt to look for Messianic fulfillment in Jesus. I do believe that Jesus had a vision or epiphany of sorts and he attempted to share his vision of a better way to worship G-d. Judaism continued to evolve over the centuries. Today we have the orthodox Jew who attemps to observe all 613 laws of G-d and then you have all the rest of the Jews. If we had access to all the written works known to 1st centurty followers of Jesus, I think we would have our many questions answered. Unfortunately, anything which contradicted the established church canon was destroyed.

Hope this helps.

Shalom,

Moshe

6

Mail Order Brides...

by Gretchen956 in

i came across a report at work (state of wa) regarding human traffiking.

to my surprise, included in the report was mail order brides.

i guess i had no idea how unregulated this industry is in our country (us).

moshe

I sure liked looking at the Europeon Connections magazine- so many lovely Russian ladies! I married a great American lady 5 yrs ago- I finally got my Russian girl ,too. We adopted a 3 yr old orphan from Ekaterinburg Russia in 2003. She is now 5 1/2 and the love of our life. I will be 55 this year and can't wait to get that happy meal for her with my seniors discount! This is what gives meaning to life- to hear your 5 yr old say " I luv you Papa".

shalom,
moshe