Posts by Jeffro

25

faithful and discreet slave appointed in 1919?

by enoughisenough in

12 when did jesus appoint the faithful slave over his domestics?

to answer that, we need to go back to 1914—the beginning of the harvest season.

as we learned earlier, at that time many groups claimed to be christian.

Jeffro

Disillusioned JW:

Hey Jeffro, regarding their 1919 teaching of "The ‘Jews to be restored to their homeland’ is literal' is something they got right

They didn’t ‘get it right’ due to any special knowledge, nor due to anything magical about the Jews or the source material. Jews and Christians both had a vested interested in working towards ‘restoring the Jews to their homeland’, which is therefore unremarkable. Ascribing anything special to the Bible Student belief is an example of confirmation bias.

25

faithful and discreet slave appointed in 1919?

by enoughisenough in

12 when did jesus appoint the faithful slave over his domestics?

to answer that, we need to go back to 1914—the beginning of the harvest season.

as we learned earlier, at that time many groups claimed to be christian.

Jeffro

They were pleased with a small band of loyal Bible Students who showed that their heart was with Jehovah and his Word.

Why exactly would 'Jesus and his Father' be 'pleased' with this particular minor Adventist denomination that was basically indistinguishable from similar Adventist sects? In 1919 when supposedly 'selected', the 'Bible Students' taught that:

Jesus was made king in 1878
The archangel Michael is the Pope
‘Sleeping saints’ were resurrected to heaven in 1878
Russell was the ‘faithful and wise servant’
The Great Pyramid of Giza confirms biblical chronology
Christmas should be celebrated
The ‘time of the end’ began in 1799
The ‘Jews to be restored to their homeland’ is literal
The ‘great company’ (great crowd) has a heavenly hope
Christ’s presence began in 1874
Jesus died on a cross
Jerusalem was destroyed in 606 BCE
Congregation discipline should be determined by the whole congregation
The prohibition on eating blood is only a “suggestion” to gentile Christians
Birthdays should be celebrated
‘This generation’ refers to those alive during 1914

16

What other alternatives for the meaning of Babylon the Great ?

by enoughisenough in

i thought the reasoning sound as to the wt explaination of babylon the great, ( world empire of false religion ) but have any of you knowledge of other plausible explainations?

or knowledge of other sources that are in agreement with wt?

Jeffro

🤦‍♂️

16

What other alternatives for the meaning of Babylon the Great ?

by enoughisenough in

i thought the reasoning sound as to the wt explaination of babylon the great, ( world empire of false religion ) but have any of you knowledge of other plausible explainations?

or knowledge of other sources that are in agreement with wt?

Jeffro

'Babylon the Great' as used in Revelation was Rome, that is ancient Rome during the first (and early second) century. The Roman Empire, administered from the city of Rome, ruled over its various client kingdoms, one of which was Judea, each with its own king. The Greek word used for "kings" (basileus, βασιλεύς, Strong’s G935) at Revelation 17:2 is the same word for "king" (Herod) at Matthew 2:3 and Mark 6:14. Revelation 17:18 quite accurately describes “Babylon the Great” (that is, Rome) as a city with a kingdom over other kings. (Hence, the JW 'reasoning' that 'Babylon the Great cannot be a political power because it engages with other kings' is an obvious lie.)

Other attempts at saying "Babylon the Great" represents anything else are simply attempting to make it sound relevant, almost always to generate interest in a particular religious denomination.

36

Do you believe that this life is all there is

by Fisherman in

the bible records resurrections and there is orher evidence besides that gives hope.

what do you think, is there enough evidence to believe in another life?.

Jeffro

jwundubbed:

I have some science in my beliefs. Energy doesn't die, it just changes form. Our consciousness is energy making connections in our brains. That energy doesn't die, it just changes form. We don't have to know what that form is to know that this is a foundational scientific truth and to trust in that truth. If the energy changes form, then who we are exists in a different form.

Using words like 'energy' does not make superstitions about an afterlife 'scientific'. The conclusion that 'who we are exists in a different form' on the basis that 'the energy changes form' is not at all scientific. The fact that a quantity of energy has at some point allowed an organism to be conscious does not impart any property of that consciousness to the energy. You may as well be suggesting that a potato goes on being a potato long after it has been eaten because its energy was once a potato.

36

Do you believe that this life is all there is

by Fisherman in

the bible records resurrections and there is orher evidence besides that gives hope.

what do you think, is there enough evidence to believe in another life?.

Jeffro

Fisherman:

The Bible records resurrections

Stories in the Bible are claims requiring evidence, not evidence of anything.

Were all those people lying

False dichotomy. They could have been lying, but they could also have just been wrong.

and is the Bible a pack of lies?

Fallacy of composition. The Bible isn’t either ‘all true’ or ‘all false’, and contains a variety of myth, poetry, superstition, and political & theological bias along with some historically accurate details.

141

My Prediction Regarding New Space Telescope That Will See Back to 100 Million Years From the Big Bang

by Sea Breeze in

a new space telescope launched a few days age that will supposedly be able to see to within 100 million years of the big bang.

wow... only 100 million years from the big bang.

that is pretty early given the 12 billion year age of the universe assigned by scholars who adhere to naturalism.

Jeffro

Sea Breeze:

Big Bang Model:
The secularist has limitless faith that Nothing Exploded into Everything...even though this has never been observed. Then, supposedly after billions of years gases slowly coalesced into stars and then after more deep time the galaxies slowly formed, then after more time super massive black holes emerged, etc.

Strawman argument. Though the colloquial parlance is that the universe "exploded" at the 'big bang', the actual position is that everything was in a dense state that rapidly expanded. The big-bang model does not dictate what happened before that event, or that there was nothing before that, or whether 'before that' is even possible.

31

I made a Website to examine the scriptures/words usage in every JW publication since 1950/1970

by ComingOutaMyCage in

hi everyone!i'm new here, but have been active on the reddit r\exjw community.

i have just published a website where i analysed the last 50-70 years worth of watchtowers, awake, books, brochures, and kingdom ministries/work books.. i have collected all the data and published it at the link below.

you can also see below an example of genesis.

Jeffro

The site does not properly report statistics for Bible books with only one chapter. Suspect this is an issue with parsing the usual chapter/verse notation that is not used for those books.

13

Anyone else heard this?

by BoogerMan in

the other day, i chatted to an elderly woman and her daughter who was about 45-50. total strangers.. we were discussing covid when the daughter said, "my neighbor studies with jw's, and the jw's told her 3 months before the virus started, that they had to stop going from door to door because something was coming.".

i've never heard anything like this before - have you?.

Jeffro

Second-hand anecdote of an elderly woman’s recollection of a conversation from over two years ago probably isn’t the most reliable source.

540

Simple Question Re 1914

by Slidin Fast in

wt claims that satan was thrown out of heaven in october 1914 precipitating ww!

and the end times.

a small problem with that is ww1 started on july 28th 1914 whilst satan was still in heaven picking his nose.. how did we not see this and waste years of precious life?

Jeffro

'scholar':

So, the onus is on you and fellow critics to come up with a definitive date as either 588, 587 or 586 BCE.

The world according to 'scholar'. 🙄 It's a bit like if one person says driving from Sydney to Melbourne is 870km and another person says it's 865km, so in comes 'scholar' saying, "You people can't even agree. I say the distance is actually 12km, and if you can't agree on an exact distance, then you can't tell me I'm wrong." 🤣