It is nothing at all like Alice in Wonderland. In Alice through the Looking-Glass you have the Red Queen shouting "Off with their heads" but it never happens, even in the dream.
Earnest
JoinedPosts by Earnest
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50
King David's Three Choices
by Jehalapeno ineditor's note: found this on reddit...thought the meat of the post would be a good post for discussion here as well.. consider the three choices god forced upon david for taking a census.
these three choices were forced on king david, not for murdering people, not for raping women, not for lying, stealing, or any crime we can think of in our modern world that is repugnant, but simply for taking a census or in other words, counting people.. for counting people, jehovah forced a decision on david that involved the lives of thousands upon thousands of innocent people.. the choices all dealt with the “way” jehovah would kill thousands of unsuspecting loyal worshipers.. 1 chronicles 21.
“these are the choices the lord has given you.
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Earnest
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Proportional Representation vs Electoral Collages
by Simon inthe craziness of first-past-the-post elections .... we'll no doubt have to now live through the scotts demanding another referendum, because we may take their lands, but we will never take their freedom!
and so they want to be free of the uk, where they have a disproportionate influence in parliament, and be a little dot that's part of the eu.
yup, freedom.. but anyway, as it stands right now they have 48 seats after getting 1.2m votes.
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Earnest
Didn't that work with the United Kingdom? Oh, never mind.
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Corona-virus facts
by Terry incorona-virus facts.
in china, people generally do not wash their hands.
there is no soap in restrooms or even in hospitals.
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Name Thelogy explained by real bible scholar
by Steel inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuf_6bp-cke&t=205s.
its only 5 mins and kind of a eureka moment for me.
its actually pretty funny once you think about it.
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Earnest
Jesus had no need to provide the missing vowels of the Tetragrammaton. While the many references to the name of God indicate it was still in use at that time, even if it was not we know that the High Priest would pronounce it every year on the Day of Atonement.
In addition, later writers of the Hekhalot literature, such as Greater Palaces, Lesser Palaces, Account of the Chariot, and Divine Dimensions show that even after prohibition it continued to be used in some circles.
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Brexit Bill becomes law - a victory for democracy.
by LoveUniHateExams inexcellent, the lords' objection to the brexit bill has been overcome and it will now become law.. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2020/jan/23/brexit-boris-johnson-labour-leadershiop-eu-official-tells-johnson-to-face-dose-of-realism-as-he-claims-brexit-now-crossing-finish-line--live-news.
it's a guardian article, so it's well worth looking at a few of the below-the-line comments.
xd.
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Earnest
Interesting times. There is no precedent for a major piece of legislation being passed after all three devolved legislatures have refused consent.
The Scottish Parliament voted on 8 January 2020 to deny consent to the Withdrawal Agreement Bill by 92 votes to 29.
The National Assembly for Wales voted on 21 January to deny consent to the Withdrawal Agreement Bill with a majority of 35 votes to 15.
The Northern Ireland Assembly unanimously agreed a motion to deny consent on 20 January 2020,. This has not yet been ratified.
Democracy for England, perhaps.
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Where is it written?
by Ultimate Axiom insome time ago i came across this quote claiming to be from a watchtower publication;.
1953 –“bible chronology also fixes the time for christ's second presence and the assuming of his right to rule as at 1914; this date was published in the watchtower as early as 1879, 35 years before 1914.” (tscp 3).
this is of course misleading, for while the date was indeed published in watchtowers from the very beginning, christ’s second presence and his becoming king were not assigned to that year until many years after (1933 and 1922 respectively, to be precise)..
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51
Help please
by jhine inhi , would someone help me please with some info about the nwt .
during my study time l have been reading john 1:1-14 and colossians 1:15-17 .
both these passages indicate that jesus was not created as the wt asserts .
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Earnest
Am I damned with faint praise -
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Help please
by jhine inhi , would someone help me please with some info about the nwt .
during my study time l have been reading john 1:1-14 and colossians 1:15-17 .
both these passages indicate that jesus was not created as the wt asserts .
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Earnest
JoenB75 : Were the Jews Arians?
Of course not.. Arius and his followers lived hundreds of years later.
JeenB75 : Did they believe that "one of the chief princes" (Daniel 10:21) had created the world?
Philo, who lived in the first century prior to the writing of the Gospel of John, identified the logos as God's instrument of creation. Psalms 33:6 says "By the word of the Lord [logo tou kuriou, LXX] the heavens themselves were made...".
He also describes this logos as "the archangel".
In On the Confusion of Tongues 146 he refers to "... his first-born word (logos), the eldest of his angels, as the great archangel of many names..."..
See also Who is the Heir of Divine Things 205 where it speaks of "his archangelic and most ancient Word (logos)".
Both "Michael, the prince of you people" (Dan.10:21) and Philo's logos are archangels, both are described as leader of the heavenly host, both perform High Priestly roles, both are identified as the angel of the Name (Ex.23: 20,21). Clearly, some Jews at that time believed that the archangel Michael had been used as God's instrument of creation.
Whether or not that included Jewish Christians is difficult to say, but it is noteworthy that John's use of logos is very similar to that of Philo. It should also be said that we know there were Christians in the second century who thought of Jesus as an archangel, but this wasn't universal.
I should add a disclaimer that I don't consider that Jesus being the archangel Michael is a core doctrine of JWs. Although they both clearly share similar heavenly roles, it is not explicit in scripture.
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Help please
by jhine inhi , would someone help me please with some info about the nwt .
during my study time l have been reading john 1:1-14 and colossians 1:15-17 .
both these passages indicate that jesus was not created as the wt asserts .
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Earnest
jhine : the Greek word for all that is used in this passage is panta , which is given in Strong's as meaning all , everything , the lot etc . So different to the English word all .
Wonderment started a thread recently on the use of the word "all" [Gk., pánta] which is worth reading in full. In part, he says :
John Parkhurst (Greek and English Lexicon to the New Testament) gives one meaning of pas: “All, in a qualified sense, i.e. All, in general, though not each individual, most, a great many:
Matt. 4:24 [... and they brought him all (pantas) those faring badly ...];
Matt. 10:22 [And you will be objects of hatred by all (panton) ...];
Mark 1:37 [...All (pantes) are looking for you.];
Luke 15:1 [Now all (pantes) the tax collectors and the sinners kept drawing near to him ...];
John 12:32 [I...will draw all men (pantas) to me.].
Compare Matt. 23:3 [Therefore all (panta) they tell you, do and observe ...];
Parkhurst also adds (p.653):
1 Cor. 6:18, "Flee from fornication. Every (other) sin that a man does is [external to, Gk. ektos] the body," ...
The word is also obviously often qualified by the circumstances under which it is used. On Mat. 27:45 much has been written, but the prevailing opinion is, that by ["all the earth"] there, the land of Judaea only is meant. Again, in Acts 2:5 ["from every nation of those under heaven"], the expression evidently denotes only very many ... [The footnote reads : "Erasmus asks, whether they who defend the opposite opinion would affirm that there were any English or Scotch present."].
In John 10:8 ["All those that have come before me are thieves and plunderers..."] it is clear that Christ does not mean to reflect on the prophets and teachers really sent by God...Wonderment further wrote :
Robert Young (Young's Analytical Concordance to the Holy Bible) explains under “Illustrations of Bible Idioms” -- “Idiomatic Expressions”: “‘All and Some’ – The meanings of these words are frequently reversed in Scripture. The word all can mean some, and vice versa.”
Robert Young writes (p. viii):
54. Some particles such as ALL, are frequently used for SOME or MOST, e.g. -
Ex. 9: 6 LXX [...and all (panta) the Egyptians' animals died...];
Matt. 3 5 [... all (pasa) Judea and all (pasa) the country around the Jordan made their way out to him.];
Matt. 26:52 [... all (pantes) those who take the sword will perish by the sword.];
John 15:15 [... all (panta) the things I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.].
Quite clearly, then, as John Parkhurst says, the word "all" is obviously often qualified by the circumstances under which it is used.
The facts are that the early Christians, the Bible writers, did not hold a trinitarian belief as it was eventually defined at Nicaea and subsequent councils. They were Jews. When you read John 1 or Colossians 1 you read it with a background of hundreds of years of the trinity doctrine being formulated and refined. Those early Christians who read this had no such prejudice, in fact for the Jews it would have been anathema to them.
Most translations are translated by trinitarians, whether singularly or by committee. They show their bias in their translation. Those translators who believe otherwise also show their bias in translation. In both cases the translators think that is the way the Bible writers intended us to understand it.
The fact that your beliefs are not supported by a translation does not make it wrong. It should make you wonder whether your belief has the foundation you assumed.
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Greta
by road to nowhere inthe daily wire.
facebook glitch reveals father, activist behind greta thunberg's facebook .... i'm not good at getting links right.
but this is interesting in light of greta supposedly doing things on her own according to dear old dad.
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Earnest
JimmyYoung : A graph of population over all of human history, where has it ever went down?
I take your point as far as the twentieth century is concerned, although it's interesting that birth rates have gone down dramatically in first world countries.
But I do wonder how you know there were 4 million in 10,000 BCE.Our World in Data gives its sources here with the following variation:
Renfrew and Bahn (1996) (upper) 20 million
Renfrew and Bahn (1996) (lower) 10 million
Thomlinson (1975) (upper) 10 million
Thomlinson (1975) (lower) 1 million
Livi-Bacci (1997) 6 million
Kremer (1993) 4 million
McEvedy and Jones (1978) 4 million
HYDE 3.1 2.43 million
Our World in Data 2.43 millionAlso, I notice there is no dip reflecting the fall in population after the Flood, approximately 2000 BCE.