Broken, I understand your intro story a bit better now that I've seen her.
under_believer
JoinedPosts by under_believer
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587
Show us your picture
by Honesty in.
that is, if you are able to without the prospect of facing a three-man kangaroo court appointed by jerhover to keep the congregation clean from apostate influences.. i'll go first: .
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under_believer
Speaking anecdotally (please read with your salt shaker firmly in hand,) there has been speculation in the past that early "Christianity" was just an Essene sect. In other words, Jesus was born to Essene parents, Joseph and Mary. Indeed one can see Christian, or at least proto-Christian beliefs in the Essenes, if one looks from a certain point of view. Certainly Essenes would have been regarded as heretics by the other major Jewish sects of the time, the Pharisees and the Saducees. As the story goes, Jesus was such a successful leader that his martyrdom gave his particular flavor of Essenism the boost it needed to turn into full-fledged Christianity.
Continuing the speculation, the Romans saw this movement (which, by the way, never referred to itself as "Christianity" but rather used the term "The Way") as a big threat, because it was a particularly virulent strain of meme that was infecting not just Jews but people outside of Israel. Fortunately they detected schisms in the burgeoning movement and quickly moved to exploit them, by sending a Roman agent named Paul in to co-opt the faith for their own uses. Paul was overwhelmingly successful in this mission, effectively declawing it and turning it into something that didn't threaten the established Roman power structure.
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At least, that's the crazy story. Probably as full of holes as a big block of Swiss cheese, but still fun to speculate about. -
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Friday District Convention notes: Control, control, control
by truthseeker inwell, one third of the convention is over, i had no choice but to attend due to my current situation.. the talks were worse than last year, and as usual if you have seen the program you will not find jesus in any of the talk titles - in fact, the only time jesus is mentioned is during a prayer or in connection with the ministry.. when you become aware of how sidelined jesus is, you can't help but notice that jehovah's witnesses are a modern version of the old testament religion - it's all about control, be attentive, obey the "faithful and discreet slave" etc etc, in stark contrast to belief and salvation through jesus.. only the talks with midly interesting material or that had ridiculous phrases used by the speaker are shown here.. friday.
9:50 be attentive to jehovah's promises of deliverance .
would you believe that this 20 minute talk was solely about being attentive to the program?
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under_believer
Lady Liberty, I was at the 2005 convention, but I don't remember that paintbrush illustration. I have kids though and they are pretty distracting at times. That illustration defies belief.
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108
Does the Rainbow Covenant Disprove the Flood?
by Severus inthe story goes that god provided the rainbow as a symbol of his promise to never again destroy the world by flood.. noah and his family saw the rainbow after they left the ark.
after the waters had receeded.
after it had stopped raining for months.... yet a rainbow is simply sunlight spread out into its spectrum of colors and diverted to the eye of the observer by water droplets.
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under_believer
Leolaia, mine too. To this day, I can't watch Sesame Street or old Fraggle Rock reruns with my kids without feeling a bit sad. For that matter even the Jabba the Hutt scenes and Yoda in Star Wars reminds me of Henson, he being responsible for those character designs.
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Make Me Laugh!
by ButtLight inok, how bout a little friday fun.
the first person that can make me laugh wins, and then we have to make that person laugh, and so on!
no lagging allowed, you laugh your done!
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under_believer
Brooke, out of curiousity... how much did they weigh? Or not. /slap BAD UNDERBELIEVER! BAD!
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108
Does the Rainbow Covenant Disprove the Flood?
by Severus inthe story goes that god provided the rainbow as a symbol of his promise to never again destroy the world by flood.. noah and his family saw the rainbow after they left the ark.
after the waters had receeded.
after it had stopped raining for months.... yet a rainbow is simply sunlight spread out into its spectrum of colors and diverted to the eye of the observer by water droplets.
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under_believer
Totally OT. I wish this thread would die, not because it isn't a good thread (it's a GREAT thread,) but because every time I see the title I think of that song from the Muppet Movie "The Rainbow Connection."
Someday we'll find it / The Rainbow Connection / The lovers, the dreamers, and me.
That song always makes me a bit misty. :)
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587
Show us your picture
by Honesty in.
that is, if you are able to without the prospect of facing a three-man kangaroo court appointed by jerhover to keep the congregation clean from apostate influences.. i'll go first: .
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under_believer
Darth Adonai, are we actually brothers? Or are you my other personality? That is exactly like my dad, right down to the Trash-80.
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46
Friday District Convention notes: Control, control, control
by truthseeker inwell, one third of the convention is over, i had no choice but to attend due to my current situation.. the talks were worse than last year, and as usual if you have seen the program you will not find jesus in any of the talk titles - in fact, the only time jesus is mentioned is during a prayer or in connection with the ministry.. when you become aware of how sidelined jesus is, you can't help but notice that jehovah's witnesses are a modern version of the old testament religion - it's all about control, be attentive, obey the "faithful and discreet slave" etc etc, in stark contrast to belief and salvation through jesus.. only the talks with midly interesting material or that had ridiculous phrases used by the speaker are shown here.. friday.
9:50 be attentive to jehovah's promises of deliverance .
would you believe that this 20 minute talk was solely about being attentive to the program?
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under_believer
I will be going, to the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, OR this year. I am so not looking forward to this. I wish I could get in a car accident or something so I didn't have to go.
like I was an apostate or something.
LOL @ truthseeker!
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Overheard in a public library
by under_believer inwhen i was a kid, my parents (strong in the truth: father elder, mother regular pioneer) encouraged me to read.
in reality, they could hardly have held me back; i come from a long line of bookworms, including my father.
books were like water.
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under_believer
juni, it was ENTIRELY based on the picture on the cover. Even my conservative mom was okay with Hardy Boys after she read a couple and realized that it was innocent, but this missionary sister saw the picture and that was enough for her. It was a skull or a zombie or something. I don't remember the actual title, but it was one that looked something like this:
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Serving with a date in mind.
by Fleshybirdfodder inmy parents had a "feeling" that the end would come in october 1994. i have no clue what this was based on, but i remember this was preceeded by other "feelings" about when the end would come that didn't materialize.
i guess they just did it to get keep the feeling of urgency since the end was "just around the corner".
my dad was an elder and i don't remember anyone making a stink about it when he voiced his ideas in service... just a big hearty chuckle all around with a "you may be right!
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under_believer
My mom (and a lot of other Witnesses actually) are in the midst of having a "feeling" like that right now. I'm sure it's something that some Witness somewhere is always feeling, but incidences of it seem to be up at the moment.