With reference to your quotes from the January 1, 2007 Watchtower page 30 and 31 - one is talking about Armageddon and the other about the Great Tribulation.
Posts by IMHO
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41Comments You Will Not Hear At the 2-18-07 WT Study (1st Resurrection)
by blondie in"the first resurrection" now under way!.
"-1 thessalonians 4:16.. .
over 90,434 at the memorial in 1925 at a time when all were anointed, ten years before the "great crowd" doctrine was presented in 1935. there are 120, plus 3,000 then 5,000 alone reported in the first few years of the christian congregation.. *** w67 11/15 p. 694 par.
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Anyone in here(parents) homeschool the kids? What curriculms do you use?
by Jeepthing ini just want to know what most of jw(ex or inactive or active) parents use or used for curriculms.
and results of using certain ones.
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IMHO
That sounds like a typical JW comment. Basically your saying if you teach your kids at home you don't love them you don't want them to be well educated or well adjusted. Where is the Biblical basis for sending your kids to school? You might have guessed I teach my kids at home and everyone, yes everyone comments on how well they are doing.
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A call to all NF's and NT's (Myers Briggs)
by becca1 inok, some of you may be sick of these personality type issues but here goes.. i've noticed that whenever these topics come up, nf's and nt's come out of the woodwork.
in case you didn't know, these are the minority of the geneal population.
in a random setting you will have only 2 to 5% of n's (infp, infj,enfp,enfj,intp,intj,entp,entj).
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IMHO
INTP here and I KNOW what it means to be misunderstood.
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Do JWs know who the king of the north is?
by cultswatter ini think they used to believe that germany was the kng of the north.
what is their official take on that.
btw does the rev grand climax book talk about that ?.
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IMHO
You're all wrong. It's the EU.
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Comments You Will Not Hear at the 12-10-06 WT Study (SACRED THINGS)
by blondie inthis article will consider five things that are holy to all of god's servants.
(b) how do we hold jehovah's name as something holy?.
(matthew 20:28; hebrews 9: 14) we therefore hold jesus' blood as something sacred, "precious.
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IMHO
Further to the post by scully regarding the question from readers: "Surrogate Motherhood - Is it for Christians?". It stated in that article that there is no Biblical basis for making a distinction between insemination by intercourse and insemination artificially by donor implantation. Wouldn't it also be true that the Bible makes no distinction between blood and blood fractions when it says "Abstain from Blood"?
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A Challenge - An Illustration to explain suffering????
by IMHO ini mentioned this in passing in a previous post.
i think it deserves its own topic.
any takers?
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IMHO
That is a very philosophical and Atheistic view of suffering. Life = Suffering. Need I remind you that the Biblical view is that we should not in fact grow old and die or suffer in the meantime. Circumstances do change, friends do come and go but Change ? Suffering You say; “There is suffering because there is a natural longing for the peace, wholeness and permanence of our true Being”. Why do we have this longing, this as you say “natural” longing? Surely because we're living in an “unnatural” way. As far as your statement that “suffering is often the fuel to awakening to our true Being and Identity.”, in some respects I would agree; many, many great artists and musicians have created their finest work out of adversity. That said, I believe the reason most of us cannot tap such creativity is due to our imperfect state from which we can access a mere fraction of our potential abilities, but that is another subject. Suffice to say that being able to awaken our true being and identity is no justification for the suffering that many endure. To clearly see “what is” i.e. suffering; that to all intents and purposes; has always been; is no comfort to those that are enduring chronic pain.
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Big Question
by choosing life ini know there may not be an answer to this question, but i am truly interested in other's views.
i know many are of various beliefs and some do not believe in god at all.. the question is: why does god not stop the suffering?
i watch so many suffer for no reason and no matter how i try to figure it out, i always come back to the fact that a loving parent would not allow their child to suffer needlessly.
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IMHO
Why do we need the possibility to see how bad some people get and how good some people can be? If Adam and Eve hadn't sinned it wouldn't have been the case. --------------------------------------- If god solved everything, we could not do anything good because God would already have done it. And then we'd still be inexperienced and ignorant and doomed to re-do bad things. ---------------------------------------- But he is going to solve everything come Armageddon. We will still be ignorant and inexperienced then? ---------------------------------------- When a women suffers from birth-pangs ------------------------------------------- Only since Eve sinned. -------------------------------------------- Can you make a gem smooth by rubbing it in silk? -------------------------------------------- Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If gems were supposed to be smooth why were they not created that way. Man-made commericalism has put value on these 'stones' and the form in which they are presented. ----------------------------------------------- Our choices are our own ---------------------------------------------- Who chooses to suffer, to be in pain, to get ill. ------------------------------------------------- Suffering is not bad. Nobody really welcomes it, but it is catalyst for growth. ---------------------------------------------------------------- So when we're perfect and without suffering does that mean we cannot grow? We need to concentrate on the original posters problem. They are not talking about 'man-made' suffering in general but the suffering of, for example, chronic pain.
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A Challenge - An Illustration to explain suffering????
by IMHO ini mentioned this in passing in a previous post.
i think it deserves its own topic.
any takers?
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IMHO
I mentioned this in passing in a previous post. I think it deserves its own topic. Any takers? - Be prepared for rebuttals.
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Big Question
by choosing life ini know there may not be an answer to this question, but i am truly interested in other's views.
i know many are of various beliefs and some do not believe in god at all.. the question is: why does god not stop the suffering?
i watch so many suffer for no reason and no matter how i try to figure it out, i always come back to the fact that a loving parent would not allow their child to suffer needlessly.
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IMHO
There is an answer to this question but in my opinion no human knows it. I've never heard a good illustration to explain it either from the watchtower or the 'world'. The reason is because no human can illustrate something he does not understand. I challenge anyone to come up with an illustration that they belive explains suffering!!! Jehovahs' love, justice and wisdom go far beyond us and therefore at present it an explanation is beyond our thinking abilities. We just don't know the whole big picture. Vinny gives a long drawn out explanation of how he sees matters and his view is most likely held by 'most' JWs. However it does not address your problem with suffering. It is true that most suffering is man-made but chronic pain as in your case is not and as you rightly say it serves no good. To say that we suffer illness and pain due to imperfection would imply that we all suffer to the same degree, surely done of us are more perfect or more imperfect. So why do some of us suffer more? Time and unforeseen occurance may befall us all. But when it comes to personal suffering it befalls some a lot more than others. On the 'bright' side we have the example of Job. He suffered more than others for no known reason to himself. Yet there was a higher reason. So it is true with us today. But one thing is for sure it's not to make us better people. Sure it helps you in showing empathy to fellow sufferers but if none of us had that suffering we would not need the empathy. There are a lot easier ways to learn than through suffering. You would not expect your child to put it's hand in the fire to find out that it is not a good idea. Adam and Eve had a simple test that did involve suffering, and they were perfect. Why would Jehovah expect anymore of us?
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The Rise and Fall of "Experts" (wt Nov 1 06)
by IMHO inthe watchtower nov 1st 2006. .
the rise and fall of experts.
type the words parenting and advice into one popular search engine on the internet, and over 26 million reference instantly appear.. .
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IMHO
The Watchtower – Nov 1 st 2006
The Rise and Fall of “Experts”
Type the words “parenting and “advice” into one popular search engine on the internet, and over 26 million reference instantly appear.
Only 14 and a half million with Google.
If you took only one minute to look up and read each one, your child would grow up and leave home before you could even finish.
They would do a lot more than that if there were over 26 million it would take over 50 years at a minute a page.
Before the days of pediatricians, child psychologists, and the Internet where did parents go for advice? Generally, they looked to their extended family. Mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles were ready and able to offer guidance, financial aid, and babysitting services.
If we're talking about advice and guidance why add the 'extra' benefits of financial aid and babysitting services? What about books? How many new parents want the Mother-in-law interfering?
But in many lands, a massive population shift from rural to city life has almost completely severed such close family ties.
Is family guidance not possible over long-distance? What about the telephone or even 'letter' writing, or even email?
This shift is not new, in 1920 more than half of Americans lived in cities.
All too often today, mothers and fathers find themselves handling the challenges of parenting alone.
Not true in the Western world the Nanny State is all too willing to keep a check on you. Health visitors, social workers etc.
This is undoubtedly one reason why the modern child-care industry has grown so rapidly.
Not the main reason though. Mothers feel the need to go out to work for financial or emotional reasons.
Another reason is a widespread faith in science By the late 1800's, the American public was already becoming convinced that science could improve every aspect of human life. Why not child rearing? So when the American National Congress of Mothers publicly bewailed “the incompetancy of parents” in 1899, a parade of “scientific experts” quickly appeared on the scene. They promised to help struggling mothers.
Why the “American” public? Were the rest of the world too backward scientifically?
Parenting by the Book
Yet, what have these experts accomplished? Are the parents of today less anxious and better equipped to raise their children than those of yesteryear? Not according to one recent poll in Britain. It revealed that about 35 percent of parents with young children are still searching for advice they can trust. Others feel that they have little choice but to follow their own instincts.
Regardless of recent surveys, by the 1920s, one mother was so overwhelmed with child-care instruction that she confessed, "I try to do just what you say, but I am a nervous wreck just trying to be calm."
Why quote a poll in Britain when previously we were shown that it was the 'American' public that was becoming convinced.
To quote another poll from Britain: On 8 September 2006, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Families and Social Capital Research Group at London South Bank University presented research findings at the Diverse Britain: Social Practice and Social Policy conference. The research found that in a survey of 1112 parents of 'middle aged' children, the majority did not feel that parents need professional advice and guidance to help them bring up their children.
In her book Raising America: Experts, Parents, and a Century of Advice About Children, Ann Hulbert traces the history of professional literature on child reading. Hulbert, herself a mother of two, points out that few of the experts' findings were based on well-grounded science. Rather, their advice appears to have been influenced more by their own life experience than by any objective data. In retrospect, it seems that much of what they wrote was faddish, contradictory, and sometimes downright bizarre.
In should state 'in her opinion' with regard to the experts' findings, I'm sure they believed that their findings were based on science. Being a mother of two does that make Hulbert an expert. What relevance is the fact that their advice appears to have been influenced by their life experience. Isn't that true of anyone that states an opinion. Every family has different ideas and ways of bringing up children which they feel are best. How many people have you heard say; “I want to give my children what I didn't have”.
So where does that leave parents today? Frankly, many are confused, confronted as they are with more advice, opinions, and controversies than ever before. However, not all parents feel that they are adrift. Parents the world over are benefiting from an ancient source of wisdom that is still proving to be a wellspring of reliable advice, as the following article will show.
Few Bible students would not recommend following the Bibles' advice on rearing children. However there are many in the congregation who would also agree that however you bring up your children their will always be those who don't agree with how you're doing it.