Cygnus

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Posts by Cygnus

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  1

  Revelation 16 and John 8:58

  by Cygnus in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  oops.... hit enter after the subject line instead of tab.

  *** rbi8 revelation 16:5-7 ***

  5 and i heard the angel over the waters say: "you, the one who is and who was, the loyal one, are righteous, because you have rendered these decisions, 6 because they poured out the blood of holy ones and of prophets, and you have given them blood to drink.

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  Cygnus

  Oops.... hit Enter after the subject line instead of Tab. *** Rbi8 Revelation 16:5-7 ***

  5 And I heard the angel over the waters say: "You, the One who is and who was, the loyal One, are righteous, because you have rendered these decisions, 6 because they poured out the blood of holy ones and of prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve it." 7 And I heard the altar say: "Yes, Jehovah God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judicial decisions.

  ***

  Rbi8 John 8:58 ***

  58

  Jesus said to them: "Most truly I say to YOU, Before Abraham came into existence, I have been (i.e. I was, and I am.)

  Ahhhh I don't have the patience to try and copy and paste an interlinear translation of these verses. I don't know much about Greek but Rev. doesn't look anything like John. Has any trinity believer tried to collerate these texts?
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  76

  E-Watchman Has Sent NGO Letters to Over 5000 U.S. Congregations!

  by Greenpalmtreestillmine in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  e-watchman has sent over 5000 letters to congregations in the u.s informing them of the ngo debacle and a similar one to 101 branches around the world.

  and according to his guestbook post he has signed his real name to the letters!

  great work and great news!

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  Cygnus

  I think it's fair to say I know e-watchman fairly well. I used to communicate with him often from mid-97 to early 2001 on H2O, where he voraciously defended Witness scriptual beliefs. Then a couple of months ago I emailed him thanking him for his work (I was interested in what 'progressive thinking' JWs were working on; there had been a ~50 member online contingent working with the Writing Dept. at Bethel, but that mostly fell apart with Greg Stafford's Three Dissertations...). And since my dad is a quasi-JW who would feel comfortable going back to the JW fellowship if they adopted some of what e-watchman proposes, as well as a few other changes, I sent e-watchman the email.

  E-watchman was very gracious in his letter back to me. He explained he had been DF'd a couple of months ago 'for obvious reasons.' He said he has a book due out maybe this month. He also apologized for giving me a hard time in the old days on H2O, going so far as to say that even hardened apostates such as myself will be afforded another chance to accept Jah's rule of righteousness. And, significantly, he signed off: "Your Friend, [Real Name]." Why he admitted so much to me I don't know, except that maybe he has a deep love of the Bible, what he perceives as its truths, and is still mightily impressed with Watchtower theology, but obviously not their eschatology, and has become a bit more New Testament-like in dealing with those 'stumbled from the faith.'

  I wrote back, wondering how his wife was taking his being disfellowshipped but he hasn't written me back. Maybe he's too busy compiling the final draft of the book for print, or doesn't want to divulge any more than he has, especially 'cause of posts like mine. All I can say is I hope he fares well, doesn't waste too much time trying to convince those stick-in-the-mud Society men of his ideas, and I apologize to him if what he wrote me was meant to stay in confidence between he and I.
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  41

  The Time Of The End: Could It Be Upon Us?

  by jayhawk1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it has been so long since i had anything to say on this site.

  but here it goes.... for those who don't know or remember my story... five years ago i walked out of the kingdom hall for the last time.

  it was the weekend after my dad tragically died and just a few weeks after reading sites like freeminds.org.

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  Cygnus

  Hi Jayhawk. I'm not entirely fearless, by any means. I've been through many struggles, and the struggles are not near an end. I'm in danger of losing my house. So far this year I have worked to earn $4200.00 when I'm used to making 40-45K a year. I drive a gas-guzzling 1976 Buick my brother was nice enough to give to me when my nice car blew up. I have extreme difficulty cooking and cleaning and feel guilt when I rely on others. Since I was 12 I've always been able to make my own money and have supported myself since I prepared to get married at age 18. But far more people have had and do have it worse, far worse, than I do. I firmly believe human beings will find solutions to our problems, no matter how painful at first the experience may be to individuals at first. If worse comes to worse I have friends or family that could take me in. I'll just need to be heavily medicated, that's all. But ya know what, I'm OK with that. At least I'm darn sure the world will still be here when I'm gone. As JanH used to say, there's a better chance of a 100 ft. Sumerian marshmallow man destroying my world than some ancient semitic tribal war god.
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  45

  STUPID PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BREATHE!!!!!

  by prophecor in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

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  any questions?

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  Cygnus

  : Stoopid people do make for excellent entertainment value

  George Carlin made a good living for himself picking on stoopid people. 'specially dumm merkins.
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  45

  STUPID PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BREATHE!!!!!

  by prophecor in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

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  any questions?

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  Cygnus

  We need stupid people, especially stupid Americans. Yeah, really stupid Americans. The whole lot of them. Then we can be proud we're not American.
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  5

  Legal US Social Security for the Disabled (SSD) Question

  by Yizuman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  first of all, the good news, i am in love and am living with my girlfriend.

  she is disabled and on a wheelchair (looks isn't everything, it's the soul that counts).

  she was born with one leg and lost the other to cancer at the age of 15. .

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  Cygnus

  I'd be interested in this thread as I am going to apply for SSD or SSI and they turn everyone down on first application so I'm probably going to have to get a lawyer, cause I'm in the same boat. I need some of the $25K I've paid in taxes over the last 17 years to help me pay my mortgage until I can work again.
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  89

  OMG!!! YOU MUST READ THIS!!!! My appeal letter worked!!!

  by kwintestal in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for those not up-to-date on my situation ... .

  i was disfellowshipped and i posted about it here.. i wrote an appeal letter, and wrote about it here.

  so, i just got home from a weeks vacation, i was home for 3 hours.

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  Cygnus

  Quotes, yes.
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  120

  Cross or a Stake - which was it?

  by KAYTEE in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  we were always lead to believe, when we belonged to the jws, that jesus died on a "stake".

  was this really true or did he die on a cross as all other religions appear to believe.

  if it was a cross, what on earth did the jws get out of saying otherwise.

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  Cygnus

  Thanks, Leolaia, for continuing this thread for lurkers.

  That the WT completely botched their research about the cross being used as the instrument of Jesus' death was the final straw for me; I quit the JWs for good after researching this issue for myself.

  Of course I'm not convinced Jesus even existed.

  But that's another issue. Whatever Jesus allegedly died on is not really all that relevant to the discussion; the undeniable fact is that celebrated Watchtower scholars have deliberately mishandled references and others' research. Lipsius is clearly misused. This dogmatic assertion:

  *** Rbi8 p. 1578 5C "Torture Stake" *** Evidence is, therefore, completely lacking that Jesus Christ was crucified on two pieces of timber placed at right angles.

  ... is completely and utterly stupid. And, even Rolf Furuli agrees that "torture stake" is an untenable translation, grammatically speaking. Edited to add: Deut 21 says the person who dies on the tree is to be accursed, not the tree itself. So why does the WT use this as evidence?

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  w50 11/1 p. 427 Was Christ Hung on a Cross? ***

  Says the celebrated Jewish authority, Moses Mai·mon´i·des, of the 12th century: ‘They never hang upon a tree which clings to the soil by roots; but upon a timber uprooted, that it might not be an annoying plague: for a timber upon which anyone has been hanged is buried; that the evil name may not remain with it and people should say, "This is the timber on which so-and-so was hanged." So the stone with which anyone has been stoned; and the sword, with which the one killed has been killed; and the cloth or mantle with which anyone has been strangled; all these things are buried along with those who perished.’ (Apud Casaub. in Baron. Exercitat. 16, An. 34, Num. 134

  Scholar, was Jesus entombed with that telephone pole? (This question is mine; I can't decolor my text for some reason.)
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  21

  THANKS 'POSTATES!

  by CoonDawg in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i can't believe it.

  as many of you know, my wife is still a jw.

  she is very "liberal" and doesn't agree with all the dogma.

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  Cygnus

  Just don't let her know that e-watchman has recently been disfellowshipped. That might scare her away.
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  17

  Watchtower printeries operating at only 50% capacity

  by truthseeker in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  posted from channelc.org.

  makes you think!!!!.

  in the final talk at our district convention we were told that the printing plants are working at only 50% capacity (due, it was implied, by divine intervention).. the thought was expressed that this may be because there is going to be a massive increase in numbers coming into the organisation requiring more printing.. as we all know, growth has been minimal over many years now, so the question, where is this growth to come from, and if it comes, how are we going to stop the massive haemorrhage in brothers leaving?.

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  Cygnus

  : If all the printing is done in Wallkill in the United States, what's the HUGE Brooklyn and Patterson communes being used for?

  Gary, that's a really good question, and one I asked my dad about. He said the copyright on newly printed Watchtowers is still 25 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn. I had also heard from somewhere that the WTS was outsourcing or subcontracting out some of the printing of their books. Anybody have any specifics? Where's MikeMusto?