Posts by ICBehindtheCurtain

26

WHAT DOES HAPPEN AFTER DEATH????

by chuckyy in

we all know the jw view on what happens at death.

however a friend of mine lost a very young son and went to a medium.

the medium told her the name of her son without knowing anything about her or even knowing that she had a child that died.

ICBehindtheCurtain

I recommend you read up on Near Death Experiences, it is very interesting, the ones I find most interesting are the NDE's of people that were born blind, in their NDE they were able to see, and described things in the room, there is alot we don't know about because we were kept from these things due to the negative connotations from the WTS. I really believe that we live on in spirit when we die, and what comes after doesn't matter, it will happen regardless. I believe that some mediums are quacks, but there are also phsycic's that are genuine, and for some reason can see things we cannot.

IC

30

Are ALL scriptures inspired by GOD?

by plmkrzy in

in mho, no.

i am guessing that everything in the bible is based on "a human need" im only guessing.

if we could figure out how to blot out all the insignificant crap garbage (i believe a lot was written/added that wasnt supposed to be: do not go beyond what is written.

ICBehindtheCurtain

defd --- I certainly understand, the reason why I decided to read it is because Josephus is the only historian who wrote anything about the existance of Jesus, the Church and all Christians hang on his words, if he was somehow involved in anything shady I wanted to know about it. Some scholars say that what Josephus wrote about Jesus was later tampered with by the church here's what he said:

About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.

- Jewish Antiquities, 18.3.3 §63
(Based on the translation of Louis H. Feldman, The Loeb Classical Library.)

Yet this account has been embroiled in controversy since the 17th century. It could not have been written by a Jewish man, say the critics, because it sounds too Christian: it even claims that Jesus was the Messiah (ho christos, the Christ)!

The critics say: this paragraph is not authentic. It was inserted into Josephus' book by a later Christian copyist, probably in the Third or Fourth Century.

The opinion was controversial. A vast literature was produced over the centuries debating the authenticity of the "Testimonium Flavianum", the Testimony of Flavius Josephus.

A view that has been prominent among American scholars was summarized in John Meier's 1991 book, A Marginal Jew.

This opinion held that the paragraph was formed by a mixture of writers. It parsed the text into two categories: nything that seemed too Christian was added by a later Christian writer, while anything else was originally written by Josephus.

By this view, the paragraph was taken as essentially authentic, and so supported the objective historicity of Jesus.

Unfortunately, the evidence for this was meager and self-contradictory. But it was an attractive hypothesis.

IC

30

Are ALL scriptures inspired by GOD?

by plmkrzy in

in mho, no.

i am guessing that everything in the bible is based on "a human need" im only guessing.

if we could figure out how to blot out all the insignificant crap garbage (i believe a lot was written/added that wasnt supposed to be: do not go beyond what is written.

ICBehindtheCurtain

I am currently reading a book called "Ceasar's Messiah, The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus", it's quite an eye opener, Defd I think you should read this, it might shed some light on the NT. Once you see all the parallels between Josephs' "War of the Jews" and the NT it's very hard to dismiss, the possibility that Christianity as we know it, was an ingenious invention of the Romans to take power away from the Jews. In this way it became possible to subdue a group of people who were uprising against the Romans, get them to be like sheep, obeying the authorities, pay their taxes, this seems amazing, but youv'e got to read the book, to see all the evidence.

IC

37

What Decisions Did You Make Only Because You Were A Witness?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i believe that most jws are deep down inside angry over the fact that they went along with the status quo and the majority just to be accepted.

some witnesses would like to have a tattoo, a mustache, a shaved head, a beard, a new red sportscar, etc.

but they don't because they would be viewed as "immature".

ICBehindtheCurtain

There are so many, let me think, oh yeah, here goes:

1. Gave up on becoming a Rock Star (teenage dream)

2. Gave up on pursuing a college degree (wanted to be a clothing designer)

3. Gave up on pursuing a modeling career (Jehovah came first)

4. Broke up with my Soul Mate because to continue with him would have jeopardized my relationship with Jehovah

5. Didn't pursue a relationship with someone very meaningful, because he was not a Witness

I just know there's more, but for now that's it, Damn them!!!!!

(thankfully, it's all worked out very well for me regardless, when life has given me lemons, I break out the salt and tequila

IC

22

Kingdom of Heaven...anyone seen this movie?

by candidlynuts in

jw
friends

.

i watched it last night..... ya know.......... it took place over 1000 yrs after christ, and here we are 1000 yrs later... all the centuries of faith and dying "for god" or in the name "of god" whichever religion you may be and we're supposed to believe that jesus is coming again?

um i might be an awful person for having such thoughts but hey jesus, your and mohammeds last visits caused a shitload of problems on the earth, if you come again, be better preprared this time k?

ICBehindtheCurtain

I too just saw that movie this past weekend, I liked it more that I thought I would. I noticed that Bael? was pretty fed up with religion, and seemed to be pushing a more universal type of acceptance of everyone, since we are all part of humanity. I saw important points being made in that movie, I hope Hollywood keeps em coming, I'm looking forward to the one being filmed now about the dead sea scrolls. It should be quite interesting.

IC

157

Where are you on the map? New Maps

by Lady Lee in

jw
friends

ok there are so many americans on the map now i had to split you all in half.. valis was kind enough to let me place the maps on his website until i found a new home for them.. photobucket seems to be a good option - at least for now.

so i have uploaded the new maps which have been updated to include everyone who has asked.. so if you were wondering where we are from.

or how close you are to other jwd posters in your area just take a look.

ICBehindtheCurtain

Lady Lee - Youv'e done a great job on those maps, can you add me please, yet another evil apostate in Texas you can just put me down as IC for short, thanks.

IC

18

What the heck is going on with the worsening world conditions!!!!!

by PaNiCAtTaCk in

jw
friends

another hurricane and the most powerful on record!!

mudslides, earthquakes, energy prices!

where is all this leading to?

ICBehindtheCurtain

Avishai -- Thank you for posting that, I am saving it to my favorites, hey maybe I can show it to my mom and help her to see that these things are normal, on the other hand no it won't do any good, she want's to believe things are the worse now, that way she feels the "Paradise" is closer still. But I will show it to some that like me know these things are normal.

Thanks,

IC

79

Why have you rejected all forms of faith?

by AlmostAtheist in

jw
friends

it seems that when a person leaves jw's, there's just no telling where he'll end up spiritually.

christian, jew, pagan, jamesthomasism -- i dare say every faith is represented among us.. but there are those that reject faith altogether.

they are often accused of letting the watchtower steal god from them, or throwing the baby out with the bath.. are you one those that rejected faith altogether after your exit?

ICBehindtheCurtain

After finding out how the bible was put together basically by priests who borrowed stories and myths from others and claimed them as their own, I saw that it was all about control, getting people to listen and obey God or so they said, when it was really the priest, king or ruling party at the time that made this up. What better way to get people to follow your instructions without disagreeing, pay their taxes, remain unconfrontational, ignorant etc. than telling them that God told you this, or you saw a vision of this or that.

After realizing this, I can no longer believe in Religion, because it is simply a control tool, if God wanted us to follow a "True Religion" he would appear in the sky for all of us to see, and he would tell all of us what to do to please him, if he indeed needed anything from us, which I don't believe to be the case. It would not be a revelation that one single prophet received with no one around to witness, that is when you know there is a lie involved.

I will never again believe that God would speak to someone over another, when we are all equal, he made us this way, the sun shines for all, good and bad. I just saw the movie "Kingdom of Heaven" very interesting by the way. If only people realized the fallacy of Religion, and the farce that is that book called the Bible, the hold it has on people would be removed. Because all the problems in the world now have really been created because of belief in that book, if Muslims, Christians and Jews investigated the veracity of this book, they would see that there is no need to fight any longer, that God has not chosen one over the other, we are all part of his creation, but of course it would take alot of humility and removal of the "We Are The Chosen People" mentality, and only this would really bring peace for everyone. I hope somehow God whatever his name is, helps us with this process of opening peoples eyes so we can see some kind of peace in our lifetime.

IC

34

Do you think that Armaggeddon is "near" or many, many years away?

by booker-t in

jw
friends

i am 40 years old and i have been hearing the same old song by jw's "armaggeddon is around the corner" since i was a toddler.

it has to come to their minds that how long are they going to keep saying that armaggeddon is "near" or "around the corner"?

or they eventually going to quit believing in this fantasy and look at reality?

ICBehindtheCurtain

You know, in reference to this situation with the oil, by brother and I were talking about this, and he found out that there are in the US vehicles that run partially on ethanol, which is basically alcohol made from sugar cane juice, just that the gasolines we currently use here are only 15% ethanol I believe, well, in Brazil they are manufacturing cars that use only ethanol, eliminating their dependency on oil by 85%, pretty incredible huh? I will bet that doesn't happen here! there is too much dough at stake for the big corporations. There are natural resources available that don't ruin the earth, and there is plenty of it around, but it would bring corporations to their knees, and they won't allow this, there is solar energy, wind mill technology for example. I know it will get rough in the near future, but I think man will eventually find a way, to survive the catastrophe.

IC

48

SIGN OF JONAH REVEALED BY: The King of "New Jerusalem" upon the earth

by EliJah in

to all that love g_d, jah, allah

i am a messenger of jah in our modern day with the task of leading the flock of jah under authority of jesus christ reigning from the heavens above.

the prophets of old were put into place as testimony of the authentication of the word of jah.

ICBehindtheCurtain

Sorry to rain on your parade Elijah, but I suggest you read the book "Ceasars Messiah, The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus" by Joseph Atwill, it turns out, that Jesus' Ministry and Titus' Campaign parallel each other and the NT the auther shows, appears to be a parody of Titus' campaign, remember Josephus is the only supposedly independent account that spoke about the existence of Jesus, the WTS holds on to his words and so does all of Christianity. I suggest you read this with your bible and then talk about the "New Jerusalem upon the earth".

IC