my brother and i were raised as jw, were both adults now and non believers.
my brother has many problems, he has no identity of himself, he is on drugs, he has no plans for his future, no plans for higher education, he never expresses himself, he doesnt show his true feelings.
i feel that he is a victim of being in a jw cult.
In this situation professional help is a must. But encourage him to look into the falsehoods of the organization. This will at least aid him in his recovery, as he will begin to see that he is not failure, and the problem does not originate with himself, but the organization.
j
i felt i would ask this question in the friends forum as it seems to get the most viewing.
my question is this.
leaving aside your research of what you have found out about the organisation and focusing more on your research of the "christian faith".
While I would agree there is good counsel in some of the New Testament, it seems clear to me why most of Christianity does not focus on the OT. Too many contradictions, and the god of the OT appears to be someone very different from the one Jesus preached about. That inconsistency, was very troubling to me. A further examination led me to the conclusion the Christianity was little more than a reform movement for the Jewish system, (Pharisaical law was very oppresive). A few accepted it, most did not. It only became something "divine" when the gospel accounts were written some years later.
Bottom line: It moved me away from religious beliefs altogether.
j
i was driving home today and elo's "mr. blue sky" came on.
i sang my ass off (closed windows of course).
whats your guilty pleasure song?
Ever hear ELO's version of Roll Over Beethoven? In my opinion, it's the best version and the string arrangement is damn wicked.
Yes. Excellent album (ELO II).
j
i think i was about 3 yrs when my mom started studying.
raised in a protestant religion.
she had said several times that all she learned in that religion was hell fire and damnation.
Welcome Annie!
j
i was driving home today and elo's "mr. blue sky" came on.
i sang my ass off (closed windows of course).
whats your guilty pleasure song?
At the outset Asheron mentioned ELO. Yes.
Actually, I'm listening to Styx right now, on vinyl no less!
j
think about this: if seven times mean only 7 years then daniel could have simply said 7 years.
why does daniel specifically use the word 'times' rather than years?
as we have already shown daniel used the word for 7 times instead of 7 years.
done4good again ask about the day for a year. Do you want me to copy and paste what I said again. I thought that was unnecessary and repetitive so I didn't.
I won't comment anymore about this subject, or any other that you post, because obviously you cannot understand that being "repetitive" is not the issue here. YOUR EXPLAINATION USES CIRCULAR REASONING. It is ASSERTION and ASSUMPTION only. Just like all WT literature.
done4good.
after reflecting on the article i have come to the conclusion of the author as well, in that the bible is not the word of almighty god.
perhaps some tribal demi-god but not god almighty.
good read:.
Good article, sinis.
j
not sure if this was posted already:.
starting oct 16- nov 12 there will be a special distribution of kingdom news #37 "the end of false religion is near".
don't understand the dates of this distribution.
Maybe they will bring back the old sandwich boards that read 'Religion is a snare and a racket'
LOL, If they do that, maybe I'll join them!
j
how did you get to the point where you are at now?
was it primarily new information that made you rethink religion and god?
learning about the ice age, the universe, the fossils out there?
Black Swan,
It, (my Atheism), really came from examining religion openly after leaving the WTBTS. I tried very hard to "accept" the bible, and attempted to reason for it, but the more I researched, the more questions I found had no answer. It became apparent to me that religion was merely the product of man, attempting to explain the unexplainable. I no longer concern myself with things I cannot "know", such as whether god exists or not, and prefer to focus on things I can better myself, and others with.
j
think about this: if seven times mean only 7 years then daniel could have simply said 7 years.
why does daniel specifically use the word 'times' rather than years?
as we have already shown daniel used the word for 7 times instead of 7 years.
If a day for a year is not applied then that means that the 7 times lasted from 607 to 600. Did a ruler of God's Kingdom come forth then? Logical reasoning will lead a person to believe that the day for a year rule must apply otherwise the prophecy is meaningless. We have as an example the seventy weeks prophecy of Daniel chapter 9. The day for a year rule must apply in Daniel chapter 9 or the prophecy is meaningless and is of no value.As we have already shown Daniel used the word for 7 times instead of 7 years. Therefore it must mean more than 7 years. Otherwise he would have said 7 years not 7 times. Do you think that Jehovah was trying to trick us by using the terminology of 7 times and then explaining the length of 3.5 times in Revelation only to merely mean that the 7 times that pass over are 7 years and that is all? AT the same time he supplied the rule ' a day for a year ' when Ezekiel laid on his side for so many days (which by the way pointed to the destruction of Jerusalem in 607). He also supplied the prophecy of the 70 weeks which also needs the rule of 'a day for a year' for it to have value. The 70 weeks from 455 brings us to 453.5. Nothing happened. So surely it must be a day for a year.
With that said, is there any other reason to apply the day for a year rule to the dream? For a moment lets reason why God wanted us to know exactly how long 3 1/2 times are. In one place he calls it 42 months, in another place he calls it 1260 days. If it only meant 42 regular months then why be so specific about it. What difference does a few days here or there make? Why not just 3½ years or 42 lunar or solar months? The only time a few days does make a big difference is when you are dealing with a prophecy that has a day for a year rule applied. In this case every day makes a big difference. When you combine this with the fact that every prophecy of Daniel either concludes with Jesus arriving in God's Kingdom or with the arrival of the Messiah who is the King of God's Kingdom, then you have a pretty strong reason to apply the day for a year rule.
I really fail to see anything conclusive here. Just assumption. Just beacuse "nothing happened", dosen't make it OK to just arbitrarily apply this rule. And what does "The only time a few days does make a big difference is when you are dealing with a prophecy that has a day for a year rule applied", mean? I'm not trying to be smug here, but there does not appear to be any obvious connection. Can you please clarify without using weak assumptions.
j
