for years adventist sects, including the jws, have believed that the dead sleep at death and remain non-existent until the resurrection.
its strongest argument seems to be text in the non-escchatological book of ecclesiastes in the old testament.
although a part of the canon of scripture, the book is not written by a prophet, nor is there any prophecy or recognizable doctrine contained therein.
Cold Steel:
I also think it's inescapable that animals have spirits.
I think the adjective you're looking for is implausible.
Add to that the wealth of information in the field of near death studies.
Nothing at all about 'spirits' has been 'demonstrated' by 'near death studies'. People who are near death have an uncontrolled release of neurotransmitters, resulting in 'experiences' not unlike a vivid dream or a drug-induced hallucination. There is zero evidence that people 'have' 'spirits'.
for years adventist sects, including the jws, have believed that the dead sleep at death and remain non-existent until the resurrection.
its strongest argument seems to be text in the non-escchatological book of ecclesiastes in the old testament.
although a part of the canon of scripture, the book is not written by a prophet, nor is there any prophecy or recognizable doctrine contained therein.
Do People Have Spirits? What Do the Early Texts Say?Does an undemonstrable supernatural thing happen? Let's consult some superstitious primitives.
"and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.
for the old world and its evils are gone forever.
" rev.
Rosemarie:
personally...I want the animals to live forever..to form bonds with them.....remembering they will live a lot longer than now.....and then lose them.....I don't even like to think about it.
this is where we need to have faith In Jehovah and how he is going to manage things.
Even after parroting some primitive 'scriptures', you still have to fall back on 'God will do a magic thing'.
It's nothing more than a fantasy.
"and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.
for the old world and its evils are gone forever.
" rev.
Vidiot:
If the WTS were given control of a small country tomorrow, I guarantee you that within a decade, free speech and freedom of religion would be nonexistent, any alternative form of sexual expression would be outlawed, creationism would be mandated in schools, disfellowshipped people would be imprisoned or deported, and "apostates" would be sentenced to death without possibility of appeal or reprieve.
The Watchtower has previously expressed disappointment about not being to kill 'apostates':
*** w52 11/15 p. 703 Questions From Readers ***
Being limited by the laws of the worldly nation in which we live and also by the laws of God through Jesus Christ, we can take action against apostates only to a certain extent, that is, consistent with both sets of laws. The law of the land and God’s law through Christ forbid us to kill apostates, even though they be members of our own flesh-and-blood family relationship.
pardon my ignorance but lm a newby in here.lve tried researching it but l cant find a definitive answer.ls it dealing with one particular subject or multiple subjects?.thankyou in advance.regards atomant.my mistake.i meant ttatt.sorry.
Rosemarie:
If I'm wrong .....you won't have lost anything but time.
If I'm right.........
This is essentially an informal presentation of 'Pascal's wager'. It is a flawed argument: if some other equally improbable belief system (including but not limited to the many mutually exclusive Christian denominations) were actually the 'right' one, you'd be doomed anyway.
pardon my ignorance but lm a newby in here.lve tried researching it but l cant find a definitive answer.ls it dealing with one particular subject or multiple subjects?.thankyou in advance.regards atomant.my mistake.i meant ttatt.sorry.
Rosemarie:
The bottom line..is what the society teaches about the basic doctrines....death, ressurecction.paradise earth.the kingdom. Armageddon .....Etc is totally correct.....
Nope. Most JW beliefs, including their basic organisational structure, their view of the Bible and the general theme of their end-times dogma are derived from their Protestant origins via Adventism. (And the concept of a global paradise appears in the Bible exactly zero times.)
The few beliefs unique to JWs are pointedly false; most significantly, the doctrinal basis for their self-appointed claim of authority directly contracits the Bible.
At the foundation of JW theology relating to their claim of authority (see here) is their mishandling of the 70 years mentioned by Jeremiah. JW beliefs about the 70 years contradict what the Bible explicitly states about that period.
There are many additional problems as well. Feel free to ask.
a new letter was posted in jw.org to the elders who are under the brazilian branch:.
january 25, 2016to all bodies of eldersref .
: clap when given a readmission addear brothers:we would like to inform you about a recent adjustment.
So there is a letter from jw org in Portugese which is allegedly available to elders in Brazil but it is not available (yet) in English and it cites the May 2016 issue of the Watchtower page 32.
It wouldn't surprise me if it's a hoax intended to generate traffic to the JW website when people attempt to verify the claim.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i09wzqof4zi.
ha!
that is supposed to make people go back?!
WingCommander:
At 33:53, the woman uses the term "double life" when referring to her time spent with friends at work, etc.
I have NEVER in my life heard that term used by an active JW. In fact, I've only ever heard that term used on these EX-JW forums. I find it amazing, that such terminology would not only find it's way back to JW's, but actually IN a JW broadcast. Talk about having an effect! I wonder, who's going to slip up on the stage or in a video, and use the term "Borg" for the first time? When it happens, you'll just KNOW that person is an Apostate or was an ex-JW that got sucked back in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i09wzqof4zi.
ha!
that is supposed to make people go back?!
jehovah's witnesses are purportedly 'active' in 240 'lands', quite a remarkable feat for a planet with only about 200 sovereign states (206 if you count all that are recognised by at least one un member, of which jws are present in 166).
more than half of all jws worldwide are in just 10 countries.
over 90% are in 45 countries.. to achieve this mathematical miracle, various places that are not separate countries are counted as 'lands'.. tahiti is counted as a separate 'land' though it is part of the society islands, which is part of french polynesia, which is part of... france.
LostGeneration:
Ah yes... poor Mr. Spinks.Semi off topic, but anytime I hear "lands" now regarding JWs, I think of Angus Stewart
Love how he cracked on the witnesses with a smirk on his face over their stupid usage of "lands"!
He made things more difficult for himself by trying to deflect the question to how many 'lands' rather than defining 'lands' as he was actually asked.Q. I notice you use the word "lands" rather than "countries". Can you explain that?
A. I should know my geography better. How many lands are there in the world, Mr Stewart? How many countries? I've got an idea --
Q. I'm not here to answer your questions, particularly such difficult ones.
A. I apologise. You have asked me the question. I'm not certain how many countries there are in the world and how many lands, but it's simply - yes, I can't answer the question, but --
Q. What is a land? When you say there are Jehovah's Witness congregations in X number of lands, what do you
mean? Do you not mean countries?
A. It would include islands, so I think that is probably - it is probably not a significant point, but it would be 239 different islands or countries. I didn't write it. I'm not certain what it means.
Q. So you don't know why the language of "lands" is adopted by the Jehovah's Witnesses rather than "countries"?
A. Well, I don't think we refer - we use "islands", so whether there's some --
Q. Indonesia, for example - is Indonesia one land or however many it is, a thousand, lands, however many islands
there are in Indonesia.
A. No, you've got me, Mr Stewart. I couldn't explain. I don't know the reason.
Maybe they should add a section to the Correspondence Guidelines™ for when someone asks what a JW 'land' is.
