careful

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Posts by careful

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  21

  Aid to Bible Understanding - can you help summarise any useful sections?

  by Fernando in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  randall watters presents the fascinating backstory of the "aid book", and the brouhaha surrounding it, in this article:.

  "the watchtower bible and tract society: the critical years 1975-1997".

  so far it seems the project to research and write the "aid to bible understanding" revealed serious doctrinal and institutional flaws that the gb wanted to preserve nonetheless.. it seems what ray franz and his team were learning, and were largely blocked from presenting:.

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  careful

  SBF, a good observation.

  Crazyguy,

  He even helped out on some of the Greek translations of the new updated Septuagint bible that was published a few years ago
  

  Do you mean the revised NWT of 2013? Surely you are not thinking of the translation of the Septuagint done by real scholars in 2007 and published by Oxford, and slightly revised in 2009. That was the first English translation of the Septuagint into English in over a century. Do you think that Reinhard Lengtat "helped out" with that?

  Fernando, I think it is in the old Aid book that I first saw a reference to the translation of the New Testament by George Woosung Wade (1934), an Anglican scholar, trained at Oxford with a doctorate of divinity, and who was a professor of Latin at St. David's College in Lampeter, Wales for 40 years. He was a liberal academic theologically and his NT translation is quite good. The Aid book cites it, if I recall correctly, at Rev. 19:1-6 because Wade used "Jehovah" in his translation of the four instances of "Hallelujah" there. Unfortunately, I never saw this excellent translation used again in any WTS publications. It has a lot to offer beside the use of the divine name at Rev. 19. I suppose it was deemed too liberal by WTS writers, a real shame.
  

  So there is one useful thing in the old Aid book that I can remember.
  
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  7

  Information Disparity

  by doublespeak in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the scriptures reveal that god never takes advantage of the ignorance of anyone.. j.rutherford, jehovah, brooklyn, international bible students association, 1934, p.19.

  would that the oligarchy followed suit.. tom..

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  careful

  Jeremiah 20:7—how does that fit into JFR's theology here?
  
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  10

  the 2013 NWT in Dutch ---- when ??

  by menrov in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  we are almost in 2017 and some 3 to 4 years have passed since the release of the 2013 revised nwt.

  also, i am supposed to believe much money has been spent on rto's.

  and as the end is even closer, i should have access to the "best translation ever" in my own language...how else can i be saved???.

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  careful

  Caminante's comment is quite interesting and revealing. If what he/she reports is true, it provides some info on the time frame it took to produce the revised NWT, namely that it had been in the pipeline for a decade or more before the English version was released. A bit more of the super secrecy is revealed!
  

  
  
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  36

  Noah a Preacher of Righteousness?

  by Spoletta in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  during the watchtower study today, i browsed genesis and looked for evidence of noah ever preaching to anyone.

  from what i could glean from the scriptures, it was a foregone conclusion that noah's family would be it on the ark.

  (unless they towed some rafts behind) my wife says that building the ark could be considered a witness of his faith to the wicked world, but that seems kind of lame to me.. so, should i just assume that god decided not to give anyone else a chance for redemption?

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  careful

  For any who care, the idea of Noah being a preacher was common in the historic milieu that 2 Peter reflects. Josephus reports it (AJ 1.74), and an extensive description of it is in the non-canonical Jewish Sibylline Oracles (1.125-129, 148-198); it's also in numerous rabbinic works (like the one referenced above), and other early Christian authors (1 Clement 7.6; Theophilus, Ad Autol. 3.19; Apoc. Paul 50). Not that the WT writers know this or are allowed to share it, if they do.
  
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  25

  JW employing pre-teens to work religious propaganda phonebank

  by oppostate in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  .

  what do you think about using pre-teens to work religious propaganda phonebank?.

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  careful

  Thanks for the info. I cannot help but wonder how this is connected to their push for child baptism...
  
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  29

  Watchtower April, 2017 Overview

  by Listener in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i'll start with the first study article.. this study article deals with vows made to jehovah.

  three main vows are discussed.. 1) your dedication to jehovah.

  we are told that it is not possible to claim that our baptism was not valid .

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  careful

  Sanchy, see my comment on this post, page 2:

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5767108283596800/there-biblical-basis-separation-divorce?page=2&size=10
  
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  29

  Watchtower April, 2017 Overview

  by Listener in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i'll start with the first study article.. this study article deals with vows made to jehovah.

  three main vows are discussed.. 1) your dedication to jehovah.

  we are told that it is not possible to claim that our baptism was not valid .

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  careful

  Two thoughts:

  1. Are they attempting to deal with the notion that this increasing number of children who have been baptized the last few years, since they really didn't know what they were doing, should have their baptisms declared invalid? When I was in, there was an occasional re-baptism, most often because the person involved didn't understand what he or she was doing, sometimes having gotten baptized without having gone through the 80 questions first. At some of the big assemblies with 80+ baptismal candidates, some newbies just got in the baptismal line and got dunked.
  

  Perhaps more recently there have already been problems with some Witness parents whose baptized youngsters have gotten in trouble, and such parents have told the local BOE/CO that their kid should not be subject to congo discipline because he/she was baptized without understanding the full implications of what it means. It would not surprise me if this is a cause of the first point in the WT study article: tough luck. A baptism is a baptism, regardless of how young the person was.
  

  2. It will be interesting to see whether the second point regarding a spouse separating b/c their mate learned some of the TTATT and became "apostate" has led or will lead to a new kind of problem. We all remember how many terrible marriages there are in JW land, and how some of those suffering in that situation would go to great lengths to undo their marriage, consulting together and plotting infidelity so as to get a scriptural divorce. Should we find it surprising then if now certain grossly incompatible sufferers are plotting, "Well, you 'go apostate' so that we can get a separation. After some time when we're both free to remarry, you can pretend repentance and they'll let you back in." I can surely picture such a scenario. If so, then down the line the GB and their lackeys will have to address this—in a future WT study article!
  

  
  
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  19

  Regional Kickbacks to WTS for Conventions

  by Simon in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i guess tax payers get to subsidize the conventions, who knew!.

  https://user-cb2rbzy.cld.bz/jehovah-s-witnesses-2017-regional-convention/4.

  no wonder they really push people to book through the congregation rather than privately, directly - it's all about the rebates!.

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  careful

  It surely fits in the trend we see from other sources. Thanks for the post.
  
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  14

  Question on the Special Order... document and its implications

  by careful in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  several times on this forum posts have been made about the "order of special full-time servants" in the wts and the document that must be signed by those entering it, bethelites, cos, and so on.

  the reason given for the whole thing has usually been for tax purposes, that by signing this document full-timers become exempt from taxation by belonging to this special group.

  basically then, end of story.. however, there is a clause in said document stating that any money made by the full-time worker beyond the allowance given by the society has to be turned over to the society.

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  careful

  Thanks to all for your thoughts, especially to Richard Oliver who seems to have an inside track on the procedure. One question: the "consulting services" you refer to, is that some office at Bethel or what?
  
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  12

  Who of us has ever thought, 'What's the point? I'm going to die anyway'

  by Funchback in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  when i truly believed the jws had the truth, i usually reverted back to 'what's the point?

  i'm going to die anyway' as a way to justify for doing so-called bad things or not doing so-called good things in jw land.. i shouldn't be watching this r-rated movie.

  (why stop?

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  careful

  I knew a bro. whom I helped to baptism and beyond. He later left his wife for other women and was DFed. i called on him and he had the notion you voiced. "Well, I'm going to be destroyed at Armageddon. What's the point? At least I now know I won't be tormented in some hell."