The divine name was in use in certain circles in the first century, but as yet there is no evidence of the divine name being in the New Testament. SBF, this has always been an important topic to you, yet as I mentioned, it is irrelevant to Watchtower longevity. There will be little more than a ripple if a fragment of a NT book is found with the divine name in it, partly because JWs are not aware of how dishonest Watchtower has been in propping up this doctrine.
jwfacts
JoinedPosts by jwfacts
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332
The most successful teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses and an amazing new book on the divine name
by slimboyfat injehovah's witnesses have had to revise their chronology and various doctrinal interpretations due to events and scholarly corrections.
but the one teaching where they have been consistently ahead of the curve is the importance of jehovah's name.. .
i'm going to run through a (necessarily selective) timeline of jw events and scholarly publications that demonstrate the phenomenal success of this teaching in the last days.
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332
The most successful teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses and an amazing new book on the divine name
by slimboyfat injehovah's witnesses have had to revise their chronology and various doctrinal interpretations due to events and scholarly corrections.
but the one teaching where they have been consistently ahead of the curve is the importance of jehovah's name.. .
i'm going to run through a (necessarily selective) timeline of jw events and scholarly publications that demonstrate the phenomenal success of this teaching in the last days.
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jwfacts
jwfawcts much has been made of the fact George Howard presented his idea as a "theory". It's true he wasn't dogmatic, he didn't need to be. He wasn't a JW and his faith didn't depend on it. But did he believe he was correct about the divine name in the NT? Well obviously he did or else why make the argument and assemble all the evidence to make his case? Plus his later work continued the theme as he attempted to demonstrate that an early form book of Matthew in Hebrew used the divine name.
jwfawcts - Is that a lisp, or a Boston accent?
Using the word "obviously" to support an assumption makes that sound like a Watchtower paragraph. Howard was not that dogmatic, he presents this as just a hypothesis, as per his following quote.
"The above examples are, of course, only exploratory in nature and are set forth here programatically. Nevertheless, the evidence is sufficiently strong to suggest that the thesis of this paper is quite possible. We have refrained from drawing too many conclusions due to the revolutionary nature of the thesis. Rather than state conclusions now in a positive manner it seems better only to raise some questions that suggest a need for further explanation."
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The most successful teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses and an amazing new book on the divine name
by slimboyfat injehovah's witnesses have had to revise their chronology and various doctrinal interpretations due to events and scholarly corrections.
but the one teaching where they have been consistently ahead of the curve is the importance of jehovah's name.. .
i'm going to run through a (necessarily selective) timeline of jw events and scholarly publications that demonstrate the phenomenal success of this teaching in the last days.
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jwfacts
What would happen if it was proven "Jehovah" did appear in the NT? Very little. Most Jehovah's Witnesses are so poorly informed, they already believe it is proven that it did appear in the NT, they are completely unaware of the dishonest way the subject has been presented by Watchtower.
People don't belong to religion because they care about whether the God's name is Jehovah, Allah or Geoffrey Jackson. They worship for the reward of an afterlife. Jehovah's Witnesses want the New System, and they would hang around for that carrot, whether YHWH is in the New Testament or not. They will hang around for paradise if the name is changed to Yahweh; even if Jehovah becomes Triune.
The bigger issues for Watchtower is the never ending delays in their doomsday predictions. The members are aging because young ones see little motivation in prophecies that refer to the 1900's, and are far more aware that the Bible itself is not inspired.
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332
The most successful teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses and an amazing new book on the divine name
by slimboyfat injehovah's witnesses have had to revise their chronology and various doctrinal interpretations due to events and scholarly corrections.
but the one teaching where they have been consistently ahead of the curve is the importance of jehovah's name.. .
i'm going to run through a (necessarily selective) timeline of jw events and scholarly publications that demonstrate the phenomenal success of this teaching in the last days.
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jwfacts
There is no evidence that it appeared, at best there is circumstantial evidence that it may have been there.
Their argument that this means the divine name appeared in the original NT has been supported by scholars George Howard,...
This is also an over-exaggeration. How speculates that the name may have appeared in the NT, he does not state that his conjecture "means" it is was in the NT.
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The most successful teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses and an amazing new book on the divine name
by slimboyfat injehovah's witnesses have had to revise their chronology and various doctrinal interpretations due to events and scholarly corrections.
but the one teaching where they have been consistently ahead of the curve is the importance of jehovah's name.. .
i'm going to run through a (necessarily selective) timeline of jw events and scholarly publications that demonstrate the phenomenal success of this teaching in the last days.
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jwfacts
There is a lot of fairly meaningless waffle in those points in an attempt that cover over that there is no evidence that Jehovah appeared in the New Testament. If it didn't, then the rest falls flat.
The topic of the word Jehovah is the one that Watchtower show draw upon more than any other to ensure their longevity, as it is a good differentiator from other religions. But it opens a can of words for anyone that comes to realize their dishonesty on adding Jehovah to the New Testament.
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Am I selfish?
by Jules Saturn intonight i had an argument with both my parents.
my parents are aware of my feelings towards the organization, and it saddens them because i am their first born son.
they had high expectations of me, my father dreamt of him and i serving together as elders.
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jwfacts
Think it through. If they don't believe what you do, you will be willing to continue loving then and socializing with them. On the other hand, if you don't believe what they do, regardless of your reasoning why, you are likely to be verbally abused, looked down upon and shunned by them. So who is it that is being selfish?
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Watchtower says: if your unbelieving relatives think you are in a cult, try to see things from their point of view
by cognisonance in12 have empathy for unbelieving relatives.
while we may be overjoyed about the bible truths we have learned, our relatives may mistakenly believe that we have been tricked or have become part of a cult.
we should show empathy by trying to see things from their viewpoint and by listening carefully to discern their real concerns.
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jwfacts
by listening carefully to discern their real concerns.
This rules out former members, so they are referring to unbelieving relatives that do not know much about the religion.
I also find it appalling the idea of only trying to understand where someone else is coming from without a genuine interest or care in their viewpoint, but only to find a way to argue your case with them.
That nails it. The article is intended to show how to use this as an opportunity to convert a relative.
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Where is the proof?
by stuckinarut2 inwe all know that the governing body claim to be "god's representatives" and the "faithful and discreet slave" that dispenses spiritual food..... but where is the proof?.
according to the bible (if we just for a moment take it as a reliable source), all of god's representatives in the past furnished proof of their appointment - not just self referential claims or statements.. for instance, moses and aaron performed miracles before pharaoh (such as the snake staffs.).
other prophets performed signs and miracles such as making the sun stand still, healing sick people, making walls fall down, etc etc.... even jesus performed miracles as proof of his divine appointment!.
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jwfacts
Good question, examples of Bible leaders always were able to demonstrate miracles and had direct communication with angels.
Watchtower tries to say that the gifts of the spirit ceased when that which is perfect arrived. Watchtower and other religious groups that don't claim to have gifts of the spirit conveniently say this was the completion of the Bible books, though the scripture shows it is when Jesus is seen face to face.
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why jw's commit suicide?
by notalone inwe all know the rate of suicide is high among jw's.
my question is this- was there some subliminal messages that encourage this.
i was a born in and my entire life i would have these thoughts that could come out of nowhere,"kill yourself.
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jwfacts
I have had a number of Jehovah's Witness friends commit suicide, and thought about this a lot. I don't think Watchtower specifically attempts to encourage suicide, on the contrary, suicide was said to be likely to result in losing a chance of a resurrection. However, the control through guilt, and teachings about the world and shunning mean that suicidal thoughts are a result. I personally always feared that if I left the religion, I would commit suicide, as being in the world would lead to unhappiness, being surrounded by people that could not be trusted, and life would have no meaning, waiting to be destroyed at Armageddon.
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Aust Census: JW's and Divorce Rates
by shepherdless inthis post is actually in answer to a question i got from jwfacts.
i think the issue was also raised on a recent thread.. first, some data from the 2011 and 2016 censuses:.
(a) 1,751,733 (7.5% of population) reported being in a de-facto couple on census night, but .
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jwfacts
Thanks Shepherdless. This confirms the trend from research I did ten years ago in other countries (Divorce Rate of Jehovah's Witnesses), that JW divorce rates are similar to the general population, and worse than certain segments of the population.
Interesting the increase in the percentage divorced from 5.86% to 6.47% in just 5 years. That averages out to an additional divorce in almost every congregation.