This was previously discussed in some detail here.
Earnest
JoinedPosts by Earnest
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God's Name (not 'Their') reveled at last!
by Revealed inhttps://religionnews.com/2018/01/25/the-original-hebrew-name-of-god-re-discovered-in-1000-bible-manuscripts/.
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Earnest
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The Deity of Jesus Christ
by Reciprocity infair warning, i am not a jehovah's witness believer, but i am curious about what it is you believe and why you believe it.
so i am interested in talking to you instead of reading about you from my own christian perspective.
after all, who understands what jehovah's witness believes better than a jehovah's witness?
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Earnest
Reciprocity : Earnest, do we have the same nature as God too? Or is Jesus special in this case?
As Fisherman wrote above, humans do not have the same nature as spirits. A physical body and a spiritual body are two different things. We know what the nature of a physical body is, but it is not so easy to say what a spiritual body is, or what it means that the Word has the same nature as God.
Edward Gibbon wrote (in Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol.2, chapter XXI, Part III) that "the profane of every age have derided the furious contests which the difference of a single diphthong excited between the Homoousians ["of the same substance"] and the Homoiousians ["of a similar substance"]."
Of course, neither term exists in scripture so it is a silly argument which I will not indulge in. John says that the only-begotten god who is at the Father's side is the one who has explained Him. So he is one of a kind. He is a special case. All the angels and everything else were created through him.
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The Deity of Jesus Christ
by Reciprocity infair warning, i am not a jehovah's witness believer, but i am curious about what it is you believe and why you believe it.
so i am interested in talking to you instead of reading about you from my own christian perspective.
after all, who understands what jehovah's witness believes better than a jehovah's witness?
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Earnest
Jehovah's Witnesses do believe in the divinity or deity of Christ. John is quite clear that the Word is god by nature, but is not the God with whom he is. After his resurrection he says (to Mary Magdalene) "I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God".
So, he is not God in the sense of being our God, Jehovah. Our God is his God. But he has the same nature as God, who is his head.John 10:30 is quite instructive because Jesus makes quite clear what he is claiming. After saying "I and the Father are one", the Jews wanted to stone him for blasphemy. He then says to them (vs 36) "do you say to me ... 'You blaspheme,' because I said, 'I am God's Son' ?".
That is what Jehovah's Witnesses believe. If that is not clear enough there are plenty of threads on this board that debate the trinity ad nauseam which you can consult, e.g. Trinity Challenge for JWs (which goes on for 46 pages). Alternatively, you can access the JW website here and request someone contact you to discuss their beliefs. -
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Hines v. Watchtower
by DNCall inthis could be a big one.
sexual abuse case naming the gb as co-defendants.
watchtower's response is due on january 21, 2022. here is the docket: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/documentlist?docketid=t1yahx0ao9yz84iphf0ypa==&display=all.
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Help with 1975 please
by jhine ini answered a question on quora about jw flip flops .
i mentioned, amongst other things , the 1975 debacle.
how witnesses were told that armageddon was coming in the fall of that year.
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Earnest
waton : Newton would have it in 3060 btw.
Newton did mention 2060 but note the context (Yahuda MS 7.3g folio 13 verso) :
So then the time times & half a time are 42 months or 1260 days or three years & an half; recconing twelve months to a year & 30 days to a month as was done in the Calendar of the primitive year. And the days of short lived Beasts being put for the years of lived kingdoms, the period of 1260 days, if dated from the complete conquest of the three kings A.C. 800, will end A.C. 2060. It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner. And This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fansifull men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, & by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail. Christ comes as a thief in the night, & it is not for us to know the times & seasons which God hath put into his own breast.
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Evolution News: Humanlike Footprints in Crete Dated to 6 Million Years Ago!
by Disillusioned JW ini find it astonishing that humanlike feet could have existed that long ago.
i wonder if some non-human upright ape might have had that kind of feet that long ago.
see https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/humanlike-footprints-in-crete-dated-to-6-million-years-muddle-archaeologists-1.10301706 and https://scitechdaily.com/oldest-footprints-of-pre-humans-identified-in-crete-six-million-years-old/ .
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Earnest
DATA-DOG : How do Scientists know what “Ape-Men” looked like?
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Science News article: ‘Case closed’: 99.9% of scientists agree climate emergency caused by humans
by Disillusioned JW ina news article has the headline of " ‘case closed’: 99.9% of scientists agree climate emergency caused by humans"; see https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/19/case-closed-999-of-scientists-agree-climate-emergency-caused-by-humans .
the article says in part the following.. 'the scientific consensus that humans are altering the climate has passed 99.9%, according to research that strengthens the case for global action at the cop26 summit in glasgow.. the degree of scientific certainty about the impact of greenhouse gases is now similar to the level of agreement on evolution and plate tectonics, the authors say, based on a survey of nearly 90,000 climate-related studies.
this means there is practically no doubt among experts that burning fossil fuels, such as oil, gas, coal, peat and trees, is heating the planet and causing more extreme weather.. a previous survey in 2013 showed 97% of studies published between 1991 and 2012 supported the idea that human activities are altering earth’s climate.. this has been updated and expanded by the study by cornell university that shows the tiny minority of sceptical voices has diminished to almost nothing as evidence mounts of the link between fossil-fuel burning and climate disruption.. the latest survey of peer-reviewed literature published from 2012 to november 2020 was conducted in two stages.
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Earnest
Rivergang : While The Truth that leads to Eternal Life does quote Acheson as predicting a world "too dangerous to live in" by the mid-1970s, did he in fact really say that?
The US News & World Report of June 13, 1960, reports on a speech that Dean Acheson delivered at Goucher College, Baltimore, on May 17, 1960 and which was broadcast over WBAL-FM, Baltimore.
Acheson is talking about having parity in the arms race with Russia. He says, on p.119
It means also that an inherent part of American policy and an inherent part of American arms policy is the control and limitation of armaments. I assure you that I know nothing which is classified, but I know enough of what is going on to assure you that in 15 years from today, this world is going to be too dangerous to live in. We really will begin to get destructive capacity which can make Nevil Shute look silly. [Shute was the author of "On the Beach," a novel depicting the end of the world through nuclear war.]
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Help with 1975 please
by jhine ini answered a question on quora about jw flip flops .
i mentioned, amongst other things , the 1975 debacle.
how witnesses were told that armageddon was coming in the fall of that year.
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Earnest
jhine : ... the 1975 debacle. How Witnesses were told that Armageddon was coming in the fall of that year.
It would be more correct to say that they were told 6,000 years from man's creation would end in 1975, with the assumption that the millenium would start the following year. So, the various prophecies regarding the attack of Gog, the great tribulation and Armageddon would all have to happen before then. As the Bible does not specify how long these events would take they could occur at any time leading up to October 1975.
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Jesus is a horse?
by Diogenesister injgnat posted this in one of punky's posts.
third century.
why is jesus portrayed as a horse, does anyone know please?.
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Earnest
It is natural to assume that the Alexamenos graffito is depicting the crucifixion of Christ because we are so accustomed to seeing depictions of the crucifixion of Christ. But in the second and third century that was not the case. For example, in Polybius' Histories, Book 8, chapter 23 it recounts what happened to Achaeus after he was captured by Antiochus :
However the council met, and a long debate ensued as to what punishment they were to inflict upon Achaeus. Finally, it was resolved that his extremities should be cut off, his head severed from his body and sewn up in the skin of an ass, and his body impaled.
So, who might have been depicted in the Alexamenos graffito? John Henry Middleton wrote in Remains of Ancient Rome, Vol.1, 1892, pp.208, 209 :
One of the most interesting things about this building is the large number of graffiti, or incised inscriptions, which are deeply cut into the plaster. One of these is the rude drawing of a crucified man with the head of an ass or jackal, and a standing figure, apparently in act of adoration, with the rudely scratched inscription, "Alexamenos worships God." This is usually taken to be a caricature of the crucified Christ, but is more probably a scene of Gnostic worship, representing the Egyptian god Anubis. A similar device occurs on certain late Gnostic gems of Egyptian origin.
A German philologist, Richard Wünsch, focused on the Y traced on the right of the crucifix and which has been found on some of the tablets dedicated to the god Set. He concluded that Alexamenos belonged to the sect of the Sethiani. He writes in his book Sethian Curse from Rome, 1898, p.112
[That this is] a symbol from the thought circles of the Sethian Gnosis, is proven by this: to the right of the donkey's head of the Crucified One there is a Y that has not yet been interpreted; it is the same Y that is found on our tablets to the right of the donkey's head of Typhon-Seth and, as stated above, indicates his power over the ways of the underworld.
So, in 2nd/3rd century Rome there were many sects and this crucifixion could have related to several of them. But could it have related to Christianity, as many believe? Perhaps, but there are some problems. There are no depictions of the cross which are clearly Christian elsewhere at this time, and the adulation of the cross only came centuries later. Minucius Felix, who wrote in the latter part of the second century, wrote in the dialogue of Octavius "Crosses, moreover, we [christians] neither worship nor wish for. You [pagans], indeed, who consecrate gods of wood, adore wooden crosses perhaps as parts of your gods." That seems the more likely truth of the inscription.
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Pilot program for in-person meetings for the vaccinated
by Vidqun inpilot program for in-person meetings to resume, to be launched in hong kong in nov. 2021. only fully vaccinated publishers are to be invited.
it's going to be a fader's paradise.. https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/q9e9pg/and_so_it_begins/?%24deep_link=true&correlation_id=fb861c4a-8c7e-4bad-b1e3-4c86b3254daf&post_fullname=t3_q9e9pg&post_index=1&ref=email_digest&ref_campaign=email_digest&ref_source=email&utm_content=post_title&%243p=e_as&_branch_match_id=936859150293933406&utm_medium=email%20amazon%20ses.
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Earnest
"The results of this pilot program will determine if additional congregations can be approved to resume in-person meetings. The announcement also stated that, in general, in-person organizational activities will remain suspended until at least January 1, 2022."