Posts by Cold Steel

13

Does The Universe Have a Purpose? Video

by frankiespeakin in

Cold Steel

It's a BIG step, and a misstep, imo. Those miniscule spirits can manifest in some ways, but the omnigod can't? Something is wrong w that step that you suggest.

I never said that God can't manifest Himself. But when He does it, it's always a bigger production. God has manifested Himself to prophets and holy men ever since the world began. And He's always left witnesses. Not only did Moses see Him face to face, but later seventy elders of Israel, and a few others, not only saw Him, they dined in His presence. And the apostles of old were transfigured on the mount with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, all of whom they saw for an extended time. All of the apostles, with the exception of Judas, also stayed and conversed with Jesus for 40 days off and on after His resurrection. That's a long time to spend with someone who was crucified, then resurrected.

God is omnipotent, but not omnipresent. He is the Father of all spirits, but those who remain behind after death are those who, for whatever reason, don't want to move on until they're ready. I've studied numerous near death experiences and the consistency makes me think that many are telling the truth. For the good, decent, honorable people who move on after death, they find great peace and growth. Those who remain behind can become bitter and morose. But my point is that if atheists are correct in saying that science can answer all questions, there shouldn't be hauntings, for that would suggest that man has an eternal nature. It also is indicative of the fact that we all have our free moral agency, and that even after death, God will not force anyone to move on until they're ready. I also think there are evil spirits that have never lived in mortality. These can mimic children or those who have gone on, which means we have to try all spirits that seek us out and not try to seek them out.

I'll always love science...and astronomy. I'm fascinated by the richness and size of the universe, of black holes and dark matter; however, with all the things that science has revealed, I've never found anything that would lead me to doubt God's existence. In everything, there are those things that act, and those things that are acted upon. That's the whole creative process.

21

Petition to help Palestine

by Nambo in

http://www.avaaz.org/en/palestine_worlds_next_nation_uk/?bmiddbb&v=19229.

if you are the anti-apartied sort of person who would like to end the suffering of a persecuted peoples, please sign the above petition.

Cold Steel

The United Nations has no authority to grant statehood to anyone, particularly states that have no land, no armies, no constitutions and no governments. The Lord gave the land now occupied by Israel to Judah. He dispossessed the Jews of the land in 76 A.D. when the Romans took it from them and dispersed them all over the world. But when Jacob blessed his twelve sons, he specifically gave the land now known as Israel to Judah until the coming of Shiloh, or the Messiah. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, he stated: “ The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. ” (Genesis 49:10) When the Messiah came, the scepter departed from Judah and his seed was scattered to the four corners of the earth. But Jacob added that “unto [Judah] shall the gathering of his people be.”

What gathering? Isaiah wrote: “ And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” (Isaiah 11:11-12)

Even though the birthright was given to Joseph, it was Judah’s seed who were to inherit the land the Lord gave Jacob by the hand of Moses. Nothing is said of Esau’s seed being established in the land. But Ezekiel, Zechariah and the apostle John state that the nations “round about” Jerusalem would seek to destroy Judah in the latter days, and they prophesy that they would be associated with Satan, not God. (See Ezek. 38-39; Zech. 12-14 and Rev. 11)

Does this mean that Judah and the state of Israel will be the righteous, while the surrounding nations be evil? No, the indications are that although Israel’s enemies are the Antichrist, John referred to the city of Jerusalem as that “which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt.” In other words, Judah will be in an apostate state and in many ways will be as wicked as its neighbors. Eventually the gentile states surrounding Israel will ally themselves with a vast northern power, and it will come down upon Jerusalem with the intention of destroying it.

“ And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people,” saith the Lord. “All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. ” (Zech. 12:3)

If the Palestinians get a nation, where will the land come from? It can’t come from Israel, which is too small. And if it was established, what would keep the new Palestinian state from lobbing missiles over into Israel and its cities? When Israel first decided to foolishly hand over Gaza to the Palestinians, I knew they were going to attack Israel consistently; and I think Israeli leaders knew it too. But they were under tremendous political pressure, despite its foolishness.

Jerusalem will not be divided, nor will they cede the holy parts over to the Palestinians. In fact, before the second coming of Christ, the Jews must rebuild their temple on the site of the ancient temple. So as for me, I’m not signing anything that would oppose the plan God has for His people, despite their sins and rejection of their Messiah.

And I would urge others to do the same.

13

Does The Universe Have a Purpose? Video

by frankiespeakin in

Cold Steel

Dr. Tyson's a very intelligent fellow and I respect his views, but to me an atheist is just as crazy in many respects as any theologian. So we'd have to begin the discussion by allowing that there are many things that may or may not be true, and that those things which are would, or could, be mighty difficult to prove or disprove.

I don't know about you, but I watch a lot of these paranormal shows, and many of them feature fairly credible evidence that there are entities out there known as spirits; and that these spirits can manifest themselves in many ways, and they do. Some of these shows are better than others, but I've not only seen some compelling stuff, I've experienced it, and I have friends who have had some awful problems with them in their homes. Seems like some of these atheists should kick in with some of these folks when they're out investigating some of these things and see for themselves whether there're any such things as hauntings. If they determine that they're real, it's only one step up to God.

Years ago, in the early 60s (what great days the 50s and early 60s were!), my brother, me and a friend would walk into old abandoned houses and just walk around. I can still remember the smells and the feeling of eroded carpet under my feet. We called them "haunted houses" even then, and many times we flew from such dwellings when we'd hear footsteps in the halls and there'd be no one there! There was one guy who even swore he saw a face staring back at him. On some of these shows, they get impressive evidence like faces, the sounds of merrymaking, full sized apparitions and voices.

So there's a lot about our universe that we don't know anything about. The textbooks aren't all written and most of the knowledge remains out there unknown.

1

Hipocrisy and man-made religious organizations

by MacHislopp in

- im sorry i should have posted the topic in this section - .

i could not resist to post this material taught and printed by the society:.

men have formed religious organizations and have caused such organizations to promulgate dogmatic statements, teachings or creeds, which are held up as a guide to the people, by which millions of persons have been deceived.

Cold Steel

Oooooh...nice!

Merry Christmas to you, too!!!

8

A world without borders, your perspective.

by jam in

michael clemens has some interesting ideas about free.

movement of labour throughout the world.. " a modest relaxation of barries to human mobility between.

countries would bring more global economic prosperity than.

Cold Steel

Not only do I think this is a foolish notion, look at what immigration has done to the United States. We let in people from all nations and cultures, including those who despise us or, if not that, they despise our government. They see nothing special about the U.S. Constitution and are not particularly wedded to our Bill of Rights. In many of their countries, there are limitations on the freedom of speech to protect certain state religions or royalty; thus, they are not avid proponents of the First Amendment. Also, in many of their countries, only the police and military are permitted the use of firearms; so they actually oppose the Second Amendment and vote for gun registration and other oppressive gun controls going all the way up to the complete abolition of private firearms ownership.

We've also destroyed our way of life by letting people who are too young and who lack wisdom vote. Many U.S. citizens don't pay taxes, and if a republic is to survive, only those who own property and pay into the system should be able to vote. Those on the public dole should not be allowed to vote, nor should those who can't answer basic questions on who George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the current vice president or speaker of the House are, and cannot produce valid identification be able to vote. And 26 should be the minimum age people are allowed to vote.

In other words, the borders should be tightened in most instances, not relaxed. Israel, for example, wouldn't last very long with open borders. The poor would flood into the lands of the wealthy and instead of the people of those nations pulling them up, they would pull the people of those nations down. And finally, most peoples don't mix well because of serious political, religious and philosophical differences. This is natural and, to me, not a bad thing. When I was 21 years of age, people knew about the Constitution and recognized a Marxist when they saw one. Now they see a Marxist and don't even know he's a socialist!

So them's my views. Take 'em or leave 'em. It's too late for the USA. We've sunk too low. As one great man said, "When a people lose the Spirit of God, they lose the ability to act in their own self-interests." This has clearly happened to us as we pile up trillions of dollars in debt and very few seem to be experiencing any alarm. We're told of possible solar or EMP attacks that could knock out our power grids and send us all back to the 1800s in just a few seconds. Has anyone proposed to fix this? Nope.

Again, eradicating borders would erupt the world in war and destruction. "Diversity" is not a scriptural virtue, but a modern liberal progressive characteristic we all must all receive mandatory training is.

Poppycock!!

22

I really thought i was going to live forever

by Aussie Oz in

random discussion today ended up in my wife mentioning when she saw halley's comet (1986?

) and all of a sudden i had a total recall moment!.

when it came by, rather than make the effort to watch it, i flippantly said "nah, i'll see it next time!".

Cold Steel

bloody religion! Made me miss a once in a lifetime event!

Oh, don ’ t be put out! Think of it as a giant sperm cell stretching itself across the great vault of the heavens. Shucks, you didn’t miss squat! But if you really want to see a comet, well, I have an old transport kit I got from a bunch of nice folks at a cult I joined by the name of Heaven’s Gate! I didn’t use mine, but I’m willin’ to sell it.

It comes with a square purple cloth, a brand new five dollar bill, three quarters, a black shirt and sweat pants, black and white Nike Decades sneakers (size 10C), a plastic bag and two small bags of powder with instructions. It also comes with a VHS recording on how to transport yourselftoaUFOflyingbehindthecometonajourney tothenextstageofevolution...all of these I’ll sell for a lot less than I paid for them! Anyway, my 39 buddies at Rancho Sante Fe took off without me. I was supposed to go, but a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses showed up at the back door gate and told me that I could live nigh on forever if I could hold out until the Year 2000. So I skipped my other ride and joined what was called the Watchtower cult. They gave me some cheap magazines to pass out and the ink got all over my hands. I went back to the ol ’ El Rancho to see if I could get my other buddies with the Away Team (that ’s what we called ourselves) , cause I figured if I could get the other 39 to stick around and get baptized as JWs, that I could rack up enough field work to last me to at least 2000. It would also free up a lot of space on that UFO, and I’m sure them alien fellers would have appreciated that. But they was all asleep when I went in to the dorms and I didn’t want to bother them none.

So my new buddies said everything would be all over by the time Hale-Bop returned, anyway. That’s why I have this neat UFO kit which I’ll sell for $49.75 plus postage. Now you have to follow them instructions exactly, without deviating from them in the least, and if you take the powder and the Vodka, seal the plastic bag and it don’t work...why, I offer a full refund, no questions asked, less postage of course. But I think you’ll be pleased. My 39 buddies didn’t complain nary one little bit. Anyway, imagine seeing a comet up close, from four kilometers away! You can’t rightly beat that if you want to leave them fine folks with the Watchtower crowd.

I enjoyed my old Heaven’s Gate setup. We had bunk beds and got to listen to a lot of tapes, just like those meetings at the Kingdom Hall. But heck, I like them Jehovah’s Witnesses even better. If you do something wrong, no matter how small and seeming inconsequential, they’ll just take you aside and tell you! So I don’t see what’s not to like about ‘em. They said they’d continue to tell me what I do wrong, even when I get to Paradise Earth! They said they would be spirits and that there’d be 144,000 of them watching everyone on Paradise Earth and telling them what they were doing wrong. When I asked ‘em why the angels couldn’t do that, they wrote it down in a little book and told me I didn’t have the right attitude. And when I asked how I could be one of the 144,000, they wrote that down, too. (I hope they have lots of pens and notepads in the Spirit Heaven!)

So lemme if you want this Hale-Bop kit. It’ll take you to the next point in human evolution, I reckon...if it does what it’s ‘sposed to do.

Kirk out!

54

Celebrating Christmas?????

by DATA-DOG in

i am just curious, and not judging.

if you are a christian and you know that december 25th is not jesus' birthday, and may have pagan roots, then why celebrate it?

i was raised a dub as most of you know, and have learned the ttatt so i know how wrong they are about a lot.

Cold Steel

Well, I celebrate Christmas because it's fun, I love the beauty of the lights, the wonderful music and the memories of Christmases past! Just recently the pope admitted in an interview that Christmas was a pagan holiday that had crept into the canon. Didn't bother him a bit. Oh, and best of all, I love smelling the food part of the day and then eating it the rest of the day. It's a day a feller can have three pieces of pumpkin pie and no one will think anything about it.

The gifts ain't too bad, neither. Seeing family members you haven't seen in ages also is nice.

76

more wifey issues. she seen my phone and this web site was op

by unstopableravens in

my son grab my phone and wifey seen this site.

on for a second she was mad.

led into arugment today.

Cold Steel

i have showed my wife just about everything there is. i have showed the elders.and well i can understand why it hard for her because this not what she wanted.

my JW wife left me for no other reason than I'm an 'apostate'(TM) DA'd from the WBT$. It began with the withholding of my 'due'. Then sarcastic remarks. Then she left me and the boys because of the cult mind control.

I too am going through a similiar situation. My wife is in and fully trusts the WT and FDS. I also have a 3 year old and that really complicates things and makes it all the more important we get out together. I wont go on living as a witness....

I would hate to see anyone go through a divorce, especially if they have to leave children. I don't know why women think sarcasm could positively influence anyone. It's certainly not honoring one's husband. Conversely, men should be patient with their religious wives. I know I might get some grief for this, but in incorrigible cases, I hate to see spouses walking out on each other. When people marry in strict religions -- especially religions that think they're the only true church and everyone else will be lost -- it can be very difficult on spouses when one decides to bail. In a real sense, this should have been ironed out before marriage because, to the one who doesn't "see the light," his/her entire future seems to crumble. They effectively lose the power to raise their children in the faith and the "crutch" they thought they had for the rest of their lives now becomes a subversive element. It's not enough that one leaves the church, it many times destroys the marriage. The shame of apostasy is terrible for believers and it divides families. Once people are out, however, they wonder how they could have ever bought into that mess.

But until you are all out of the sect, I think it's important to stay together...especially if kids are involved. I know it can be tough, especially with a religion as potentially pickey as the JWs. If no recourse is agreed upon, and you value your family, siimply go with patience. If that doesn't work, you might want to remain marginnally active until you can work out a routine. But if your family can't handle patience, then you may have to bail. This kind of head butting just can't continue forever.

Hopefully, your wives in these cases will listen to reason. If they get sarcastic, reassure them that your only interest in this matter is in to discovering the truth. If they do balk or become impatient or sarcastic, just deal with them as you can.

76

more wifey issues. she seen my phone and this web site was op

by unstopableravens in

my son grab my phone and wifey seen this site.

on for a second she was mad.

led into arugment today.

Cold Steel

Cold Steel, what part of Maryland are you from? There is no way I could do anything as a JW nor would I want to. It way beyond that.

I'm from Bethesda, Raven. And I understand where you're coming from, to a point. It's just that I don't know your situation and I don't know if you're a convert or are even an active JW, nor do I know anything about your wife, your relationship with her and so forth. I also don't know how far you'd go to keep your relationship or how far your wife would go after she learned you were hanging out here on this forum.

I have a friend who got married to a very nice (or so I thought) young lady at work a number of years ago. I attended his wedding and went over to his home a few times for dinner. After a few years I was astounded to learn that they were getting a divorce. I later learned that she did everything she could to dominate him. She counted the money in his wallet at the end of each day and logged it. And she packed his lunch and gave him only enough to get a soda and maybe a candy bar. Even so, he built up a slush fund by collecting his change and selling things he had at home. He kept the slush fund at his work place, until his wife dropped by one day while he was out. Nosing around, she found a key in an envelope tucked away in a hanging folder and it just happened to fit the cabinet right over his computer. There she found the bounty of money and, when he finallh actually got into a hot argument with him over it. When he told me his situation, I asked him why he had ever let her get away with that, and he didn't know. He told her immediately that he wanted a divorce.

My point is that many of these things happen because one spouse attempts to exert dominion over the other. Whether this is happening with your relationship I don't know, but you have to work it out one way or another. Please keep us apprised!

65

What strand of Christianity gave birth to WTBTS?

by Band on the Run in

i know about johnathan edwards and william miller being some of the forerunners of the wtbts.

how about much earlier in time?

was there a group during the middle ages or even earlier that preached something similar to the wt doctrine?

Cold Steel

Since the JWs see themselves as Restorationists, they don't believe the ancient church survived in tact. I don't know of any Christians believing in soul sleeping, for example. The early apostles referred to the body as a "tabernacle" in which the spirit resided. And I think it was Peter who wanted to "depart" and "be with Christ," but he said to remain in the flesh was more needful to the church. The JWs believe that, to Peter, the transition would be only a split second, so to him it would be like departing one second and seeing Christ the next. You can talk yourself blue and it won't change them.

The JWs also make historical things a matter of doctrine, which I find to be strange. Like Jesus not having long hair and dying on a torture pole. Indeed, I even remember seeing Jesus being depicted clean shaven! It's okay to believe or not believe these things historically, but if you're a JW who believes Jesus died on a cross, you might just end up shunned or disfellowshiped. It's become a matter of doctrine. The Catholics also believe and teach that Mary was assumed into heaven without tasting death. There's nothing in either scripture or tradition that can be used as a basis for this. It's merely a papal declaration. But by making historical questions doctrinal, you risk the chance that archeologists and historians will prove you wrong. If it's historical in nature, so they were wrong? Sue them. But if it's doctrine, you just suffered a blow to your credibility.