i just received an email from an unbaptised publisher that made the following comment;.
in the uk the age of consent by law for a child is 16 and only then can they be baptized of their own free will.
is anyone aware of jws that have been baptised younger than 16 in the uk?.
tiki:
if the legal age of consent is 16, those baptisms of kids younger hold no clout.
Age of consent is not the same thing as age of majority.
Same as entering into a contract - the contract cannot be binding if one party to it is a child who has not reached legal age of consent.
There is no legally binding 'contract' involved in being baptised as a JW, regardless of age.
The peer pressure employed by JWs has no legal weight, but that doesn't alter the impact it has.
i just received an email from an unbaptised publisher that made the following comment;.
in the uk the age of consent by law for a child is 16 and only then can they be baptized of their own free will.
is anyone aware of jws that have been baptised younger than 16 in the uk?.
The age of majority in Britain, which generally includes eligibiligy to enter into a contract, is - as it is in most countries - 18.
However, any 'verbal contract' implied by the JW baptism questions is invalidated by its terms regardless of the candidate's age, because the claim that their 'organisation' is 'spirit directed' is semantically ambiguous, and based on flawed chronology and stupid superstition.
As such, the Watch Tower Society / Jehovah's Witnesses have no legal right to make any JW members or former members do (or not do) anything at all, regardless of age. It is only their use of peer pressure (including convincing other members to shun dissidents) that 'allows' them to do so. The 'commitment' made to the 'organisation' has no legal standing.
Because baptism is essentially meaningless in legal terms, it doesn't really restrict a minor from undergoing the ritual.
how can the following be proved to be scriptural?.
what possible evidence supports these teachings and policies?.
1. jesus surveyed all christian denominations and chose the "anointed" under judge rutherford for his approved church in the year 1919.. .
Not many JW's (or ex-JW's ) know exactly when the Society changed their teaching concerning WHEN Jesus arrived.
Jesus being made 'king' was changed from 1878 to 1914 in 1920.
But it wasn't until 1933 that his 'coming' was changed from 1874 to 1914. - Watch Tower, December 1, 1933, page 362: "The year 1914, therefore, marks the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of glory."
lurkers.... check your calendars... october 2, 2014 is only 500 days away.... look for illogical nu-lite from the wt in publications and conventions that will attempt to explain this away.. they've already bought themselves some time by splitting a "generation" into 2 overlapping generations... still, they have a lot of explaining to do... this should get really interesting... stay tuned.... .
irondork:
Does this mean that there will only be 900 years of actual paradise-ness now? Are they skimming this off the top of my bonus?
Yes. And they're removing 10% of your panda as well.
lurkers.... check your calendars... october 2, 2014 is only 500 days away.... look for illogical nu-lite from the wt in publications and conventions that will attempt to explain this away.. they've already bought themselves some time by splitting a "generation" into 2 overlapping generations... still, they have a lot of explaining to do... this should get really interesting... stay tuned.... .
Larsinger58:
Your statement makes no sense, since the fulfillment of the chronology is conditional. It is a test. It is either fulfilled per the interpretation or not.
No, Lars. You're just wrong.
the saying people will make the same mistake over and over again is so true.
in the "revelation grand climax at hand" the revised one 2006 the wt again makes the same error and attributes the words at rev 22:12 to jehovah on pgs 306 and to jesus on the last page 319. you would think they would have learned their lesson from the 1978 wt blunder.
they almost use the same wording discussing the suddeness of jesus coming and jesus encourages his followers of his sudden coming and they list 5 scriptures and say jesus spoke them and one of the verses is (rev 22:12).
mP:
Look at 31-33, and notice that we have some astronomy mixed in with astrology where the author talks about how the constellations control our lives on earth.
Verse 31 refers to the positions of the stars relative to each other, in reference to the author's ignorance about how constellations stay the same (over relatively brief periods, cosmologically speaking) = astronomy. Verse 32 refers to when certain constellations seasonally appear = astronomy. Verse 33 is the only one that might allude to astrology as distinct from astronomy, though it is variously translated, and may be intended to refer to the affect of celestial bodies on seasons.
See http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Job%2038:33 for multiple translations of the verse.
None of the verses says anything about affecting 'our lives'; the word translated "earth" ('erets) specifically means land.
The Skeptics Annotated Bible (which you've quoted above) also doesn't anything about astrology in reference to those verses.
how can the following be proved to be scriptural?.
what possible evidence supports these teachings and policies?.
1. jesus surveyed all christian denominations and chose the "anointed" under judge rutherford for his approved church in the year 1919.. .
Where is your verification these Watchtower policies aren't just the opinions, prejudices and whims of ordinary human despots pretending to be the only true "channel" of the living God?
Let the circular reasoning begin...
the saying people will make the same mistake over and over again is so true.
in the "revelation grand climax at hand" the revised one 2006 the wt again makes the same error and attributes the words at rev 22:12 to jehovah on pgs 306 and to jesus on the last page 319. you would think they would have learned their lesson from the 1978 wt blunder.
they almost use the same wording discussing the suddeness of jesus coming and jesus encourages his followers of his sudden coming and they list 5 scriptures and say jesus spoke them and one of the verses is (rev 22:12).
mP:
Sorry i meant JOb 38.
The statements about constellations in Job 38 sound more like astronomy than astrology. It doesn't say anything about those stars influencing anything in particular.
More broadly (and I'm sure you'd agree), the whole chapter is a good demonstration of human ingorance at the time about astronomy, cosmology, geology, meteorology and evolution. Not Job's ignorance, but that of the author. The somewhat 'poetic' questions have since been answered, and are hardly 'mysteries of god'.
http://secular.org/news/atheists-say-irs-not-doing-enough-hold-churches-accountable.
washington, dcthe secular coalition for america today sent a letter to the white house, pointing out additional internal revenue service failings, including neglecting to investigate churches and religious charities that engage in politicking from the pulpit.. in its letter, the secular coalition said religious charities have been flaunting their flagrant disregard for [irs] laws for years.
over 1600 pastors participated in last years pulpit freedom sunday, where pastors not only violated the law by lobbying and endorsing candidates, but filmed their illegal actions and mailed them to the irs.. the secular coalitions letter comes on the heel of another letter sent to the white house by franklin graham earlier this week, asserting that the irs is improperly targeting religious charities for investigation, including the billy graham evangelistic association.
Adam Believed:
Am I missing something in the article? The one thing watchtower doesn't do is politick from the pulpit
Not sure. Can they really say:
*** w12 8/15 p. 15 par. 16 Carry On as Kingdom Citizens! ***
God’s Kingdom will be the only government ruling the earth
and still be considered politically neutral?? Insane maybe. But politically neutral?
i live close to a resonanbly busy street, 20 odd shops banks, a train station,a couple of cafes and coffee shops etc and usually see dubs doing street work close to the station and i'm now on nodding terms with an elder who is out most days of the week and have got close to recognizing most of the hard core of about a dozen of them , i was walking out of the cafe yesterday to be greeted by a couple of newbies i'd never seen before , a scruffy short dumpy man and a fairly well presented middle aged lady, i'll try and abridge the conversation as best as i can, we must have chatted for about 15 minutes and it was all in a good mannered style;.
me " have you sold many of those this morning ?".
jw guy " oh no we dont sell them we give them away for free" (like i didn't know that).
has she been banned? another reincarnation of Recovery? but with more lies?
Probably Recovery or thirdwitness. (Do we know for sure that they're not the same person anyway?)
