Posts by jula71

8

Did Gentile Christians celebrate holidays and stuff? Evidence?

by ithinkisee in

does anyone have some good references i can look up on some specific differences between gentile and jewish christians in the first century?.

the reason i ask is because i get the impression from the scriptures that the gentile christians probably even celebrated worldly holidays and attended pagan festivals still - while the jewish christians did not.

perhaps they even looked and dressed differently.

jula71

*** w96 7/15 pp. 19-20 Maintain Unity in These Last Days ***

16 We can help to maintain Christian unity even when making a decision that is totally personal and neither right nor wrong Scripturally. How so? By showing loving concern for others who may be affected by our decision. To illustrate: In the congregation in ancient Corinth, a question arose regarding meat sacrificed to idols. Of course, a Christian would not participate in an idolatrous ceremony. However, it was not sinful to eat properly bled leftover meat of this kind that was sold in a public market. (Acts 15:28, 29; 1 Corinthians 10:25) Nevertheless, the consciences of some Christians were troubled over the eating of this meat. Paul therefore urged other Christians to avoid stumbling them. In fact, he wrote: “If food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat flesh at all, that I may not make my brother stumble.” (1 Corinthians 8:13) So even if no Bible law or principle is involved, how loving it is to consider others when making personal decisions that could affect the unity of God’s family!

*** w89 4/1 p. 13 Hear What the Spirit Says to the Congregations ***

12 Jesus also warned the congregation in Pergamum against those “holding fast the teaching of Balaam.” (Revelation 2:14) What teaching was this? Someone in Pergamum was corrupting Christians there in the same way that Balaam corrupted the Israelites in the wilderness: by encouraging them “to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication.” (Numbers 25:1-5; 31:8) Jesus warned the congregation in Thyatira against “that woman Jezebel.” This woman too was teaching Christians “to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols.” (Revelation 2:20) Has Satan tried to introduce a Balaam or a Jezebel influence into the Christian congregation today? He certainly has, to the extent that almost 40,000 a year are disfellowshipped, most because of immorality. What a tragedy! Both Balaam-like men and Jezebel-like women have rebelled against the elders and tried to corrupt the congregation. May we resist such unclean influences with all our might!—1 Corinthians 6:18; 1 John 5:21.

That's a little I found on what you mentioned Classicist

12

Help on the resurrection

by stevenyc in

.

does anyone know the reasoning of the resurrection of people during christ's millenial reign from revelation?.

steve

jula71

In all my years as a JW, I lost count how many times that has changed. Resurrection of all right after the big A, then only some and the rest will follow but only a few at a time so the Earth isn't overloading to fast, then no one till after the 1000 year reign, then all after 1000 years, then some after a 1000 years...........all this "new light" really is hard to keep tract of!!

27

A question for the Christians...

by misspeaches in

hi guys.

wondering if you have any input on this one.. now that you are no longer a jw what is your interpratation of the lords prayer where it says 'let your will take place in heaven also upon earth'.. i would love to hear your opinions on this matter.

as a christian the belief is that you are going to heaven right?

jula71

Little side note that I always thought was funny. Jesus said, "pray then this way..." and the dub's say "pray like that, but not exactly like that." Which is it? Pray this way or not exactly this way? The more I continune my journey, moving away from the dub's, I'm starting to question all religions.

24

Them thinking that pioneering is equal to my full time job!

by LongHairGal in

this was a topic that annoyed me and i got into a bit of an argument years ago over this.. some sister (who never worked a day in her life i might add) with the cushy life, affluent husband thought that because she pioneered it was equal to me having a full time secular job.

there were others there who naively thought the same thing.

somehow i gave them an inferiority complex because i worked so they had to dream this up to make themselves feel better.. while i agree that someone who pioneers may be physically tired at the end of the day, there is no comparison to what i have to deal with in going to and from and being on a full time job.

jula71

Well, back in my hard-core dub days I had some pretty close pioneer friends. I can't count how many hours were counted on say fishing trips. They would bring someone not-baptized on purpose and "share" a few thoughts, count the time. Or how many hours we spent zig-zagging the city, do a call on the south side, then one on the north side, then one on the west side, then back to the south side.....you get the picture. Even my mom has told me about the "pioneer shuffle" and other tricks like doing a call BEFORE the group meets in the morning and keep the clock running just to get your time started. Geeezzz, I wish my job was like that!!!!

25

The Purple or the Pink Triangle? : My Choice, My Story

by dorayakii in

theres an interesting thread here:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/14/92000/1.ashx and i thought i'd open up the discussion again in the guise of "coming-out" to jwd.

it's taken me about 5 hours to get the language and style of this post right.

jula71

I know how guilt plays into it. I lost a friend to suicide because of guilt. But What I find interesting is the same ones that believe homosexuality is by choice or nurtured are the same ones that totally disqualify evolution. The same way God "made" man, homosexuals have to be made in their eyes. The thought that some things just happen escapes them.

8

The Seven Deadly Sins

by Crumpet in

i listened to this on the radio this morning as i scampered around trying to get ready for work and i thought it was excellent so i wanted to share it.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thought/documents/t20050620.shtml.

"today is the start of social science week and to mark it the economic and social research council has published a report which links all kinds of current social ills to pride, anger, lust, avarice, gluttony, envy and sloth - in other words, the seven deadly sins.

the report finds the sin of pride in the persistence of sectarian prejudice in northern ireland, it sees anger in uncontrollable tantrums in children and road rage in adults, lust in the ever-rising number of people who think its ok to have more than one sexual partner, avarice in the mounting levels of executive pay, gluttony in binge drinking and also in the steady overconsumption of alcohol by the middle-aged, envy in spiralling personal debt and lastly, sloth, the apathy reflected in spectacularly low turn-outs at the last two general elections.

jula71

That’s pretty interesting. Now that I’m exploring the world outside of the WT, I’m starting to see many "bible stories" and topics are creations of man written after the bible is said to be dated and in same cases before.

6

WT Article: The Historical Development of Freedom of Speech

by Dragonlady76 in

the historical development.

of freedom of speech

"sex on the internet might actually be good for young people," time reported on her view.

jula71

That is the normal trend of the WT, look out for yourself. Helping others in the process is just an unfortunate by-product. Here’s a side WT legal story for you. You know I’m still fading so I had endure a CO visit not to long ago. He gave a talk on the need and responsibility to knock on doors. Here is the part I thought you would enjoy. He said that right now Bethel is housing a huge legal department, MOST of which is working tirelessly working on preserving the legal right to knock on doors. All this time I thought they were fighting abuse cases………

32

Do you "now" look for more reasons to dislike or hate the JW's?

by free2beme in

jw
friends

i have noticed from reading over this site and from having contact with former witnesses in my personal life, that a lot of time is consumed in the beginning of your exit from the witnesses, with finding further reasons to hate or dislike the jehovah's witnesses.

with this i was wondering, is this done to give yourself more reason not to return or is it an expression of your freedom to find out what you want without borders.

from a pure psychological stand-point, i am prone to wonder if it is a means of feeding an inner anger to bring one a faults sense of security, when they are challenged from within to decide if what they are really dealing with is correct thinking or a path that is truly wrong.

jula71

With me it's not really looking for reasons to dislike but rather reasons why it can't be truth. And what I've seen so far, I don't really have to look hard.

17

the Faithful and Discreet Slave

by Evanescence in

.

hi i have heard jehovah's witness mention "the faithful and discreet slave.".

evanescence

jula71

In reality the use the story of the FDS is to put a mask on who really is in charge. I have heard a million times the FDS are directing the work and the GB are just “helpers”. Who else is buying that? Not to long ago, there was a thread about 2 anointed that were trying to be tracked down for a JC for apostasy. As I said, the FDS is only a façade.

10

Explaining BORG belief about the UN

by Panda in

have you ever tried to explain about the united nations place in revelation as the beast?

i was explaining to a frind who had read that fundementalist christians hate the un.

well i made an attempt and she said "say, what?

jula71

Well, the Wild Beast is the total of the world governments all of them and the UN was the “image” of the wild beast. It has the appearance of the wild beast but it’s supposed to be different and it’s own entity. But, that’s where it gets all screwy. I don’t believe the original Wild Beast is mentioned again. But the UN is the image of the wild beast to which the original wild beast “breathed life into,” as mentioned in Rev 13:15. That’s the WT interpretation. I’m sure it can be interpreted a million ways, which is why I’ve lost faith in the bible. You would think a god that wants all to live would have made his path a bit clearer.