Posts by Cold Steel

14

The definition of a false prophet

by HereIgo in

the last time i spoke to my mother, who is a devout jw, she threatened me with typical jw scare tactics telling me how oh so close the end is and how me and my 2 young daughters will be slaughtered by god himself in armageddon.

knowing that this is just a scare tactic, i respectfully listened, then replied that the jw's have wrongfully predicted the end of the world three times and were incorrect, 1914, 1925, 1975. i asked doesn't that make them false prophets?

her response; " no, because the brothers are imperfect and jehovah knew their heart was in a sincere place.

Cold Steel

Ummmm...why would God kill your two young daughters? You I can understand. (You're just an old worldly apostate.)

But what's the thinking on killing your daughters?

14

Name one Watchtower date that they got correct

by FatFreek 2005 in

it was the year 2011. remember that one?

surprise, surprise -- it wasn't one of their predictions.

it was from one of their competitors, harold camping.. "religious leaders sometimes predict tragic worldwide events to warn mankind and gather followers.

Cold Steel

The JWs have always left a little wiggle room in its predictions.

Most of the JWs I've spoken to immediately say 1914, adding that no other religion was able to pinpoint that date except them. They were very proud of that accomplishment.

I'm still trying to appreciate the prescience. Perhaps someone could help me.

21

Living Vicariously Through the Sheep.

by donny in

when i got baptized as a jehovah’s witness in the summer of 83, my honeymoon period lasted about two years before i began to wonder if the society and its adherents were all it claimed to be.

no of the things i encountered for the first few years was really faith shattering, they simply just made me pause and think.

after a short while, i would file those issues in the back of my brain files and move forward.. .

Cold Steel

For a moment I thought this was going to be a tale of misappropriated funds.

Here you are collecting money, you see folders. I thought for sure it was going to end up with someone going to prison!

How long after this did you go inactive? With people collecting funds alone, how can they make sure people don't get sticky fingers? (Maybe I should have worded that differently.)

50

Why Finding the One True Religion is Impossible

by Simon in

jws like to think they have found the one true religion.

but like so many other religious people, it's usually the religion they were born into, the only religion they know because it's the first one they found or, at the most, one of two or three (typically the second one after they left their first / born-in faith).. the trouble is, there simply isn't enough time to explore and investigate each and everyone of the many thousands of belief systems, religions and sects around the world.. think of it this way: which is the best neighbourhood to live in where you would be most happy and most successful?

not just in the city or even the country you are in, but the entire world.. how would you ever know?

Cold Steel

Deegee » The Bible states the soul lives on after death but it also says that the soul dies.

It's all in how one defines "soul" and "die."

Soul usually is the being, as in spirit and body are the soul of man. Die/Death is the separation of body and spirit. The soul dies when the body and spirit are separated. The spirit cannot die or cease to exist. The soul can die a spiritual death, which is the separation of God and man.

50

Why Finding the One True Religion is Impossible

by Simon in

jws like to think they have found the one true religion.

but like so many other religious people, it's usually the religion they were born into, the only religion they know because it's the first one they found or, at the most, one of two or three (typically the second one after they left their first / born-in faith).. the trouble is, there simply isn't enough time to explore and investigate each and everyone of the many thousands of belief systems, religions and sects around the world.. think of it this way: which is the best neighbourhood to live in where you would be most happy and most successful?

not just in the city or even the country you are in, but the entire world.. how would you ever know?

Cold Steel

Simon » And yet some would have us believe that "God" expects us to find the right one and will kill anyone who doesn't.

Yes, but many would hold that that would make God unjust. Why would God "kill" anyone who doesn't find His true religion? If God is bound by by a law of justice, He would have to judge people by what was in their hearts. Very few Christians believe that people "sleep" when they die. Origen, who literally had one foot in the first century church and the other in the later church, when trying to recall the early teachings of the church, wrote: "After death, I think the saints go to Paradise, a place of learning or school of the spirits, in which everything they learned on Earth would be made clear to them." This is actually consistent with countless near death experiences, and of the many I've read, not ONE of the people who had them did anyone ever mention being asked which church they belonged to. But they did undergo "life reviews," in which they learned a great deal about the lives they lived.

I think even atheists receive a fair shake if their beliefs are sincerely held. It would be a narrow, vindictive God who would expect a person to be a member of a particular church, or else.

27

Here's a morbid thought...

by Rainbow_Troll in

it probably will never happen but... imagine the gb recieved some new light that told them the great tribulation was imminent.

the world is going to hell and all jws can expect until armageddon is terrible persecution the likes of which no christian has ever experienced in two thousand years.

but jehovah has a solution: put yourself and your family 'to sleep' and after armageddon's over, jehovah will 'wake his people up' at the resurrection.

Cold Steel

Rainbow_Troll » If the GB is fallible, then they are no more worthy of obedience than any other self-appointed body of men and JWs should have the freedom to either accept or reject their pronouncements as their concience directs them.

This is why Jesus gave the parable about blind guides leading the blind. If the leaders and followers are both blind, both will fall into the pit.

On the other hand, no one's perfect. Even Paul, an apostle with authority from God, had some notions that clearly were his own fallible ideas based on his own strict Jewish background. If I were a JW, I wouldn't expect perfection from the Governing Body, but I would expect them to be led by the Holy Spirit in a way that would benefit the organization.

But the GB offers interpretations of scripture (blood doctrine, Armageddon, Jesus=Michael) that could be known only through communication with God, as none of the Society's teachings in those areas is clearly spelled out in the Bible. If the GB is not inspired; if the spiritual food is not "perfect spiritual food," that means sometimes they'll be wrong and I, a lowly congregation member, might actually be right. But none of those things the Society teaches may be right, yet none may be argued or discussed openly.

The Bible doesn't answer all questions. How does one baptize? What about the laying on the hands for the gift of the Holy Spirit? What of church offices? What does a bishop do? What does an elder do? Or a priest? Deacon? How are these offices administered? What about ordination, how is that done and by whom? Paul said the priesthood had been changed. How? What did Jesus do and say during the 40 days he spent with the apostles after his resurrection?

And there are many more. That's because the Bible isn't a manual. Christians largely worship on Sunday, the first day of the week; but where is that authorized in the Bible? Exactly? How do we know the Sabbath was changed.

None of these things is answered, so if the GB is uninspired and fallible, how can it give the household of God the spiritual food it needs? What is its purpose except to interpret? What if it's wrong on the great crowd? What if it's wrong that Jesus chose them in 1918?

32

Jesus Christ was no Moses

by smiddy in

moses has a history of what 80+ years as a servant of jehovah ?

in one form or another .. moses wrote / penned the first five books of the bible and went through many trials and tribulations in serving his god jehovah in his long lifetime.interacting with god at times.. jesus was born and nothing is recorded of him until he is a young adolescent child ?

and very little about him.. then we are introduced to him when he is 30 years old and gets baptised ,and only then does he start his preaching .. does he start preaching to the world ?

Cold Steel

Smiddy: » Moses has a history of what 80+ years as a servant of Jehovah? in one form or another.

What you say is true, but then, who gave Moses the Law? Who called him from the burning bush? When the Jews asked Jesus who he was, he said, “Before Abraham was, I Am!" The Jews were so angry at this affront, they tried to kill him.

Another time, Jesus looked upon Jerusalem from the mount of Olives. He said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"

How could he have gathered them anciently, in the days that the Jews killed the prophets, if he was not the God of Israel? Granted, he was not the Father, but as Yahweh he was the intercessor between God and man.

Isaiah, in Chapter 11, compared the “stem of Jesse" with Moses, and most Christian scholars agree that this stem of Jesse was Christ. And Isaiah, in the last few verses of Chapter 52 and all of Chapter 53 refer to Jesus. Clearly Moses could lead them, but gathering them and making himself a sacrifice for sin was beyond Moses' abilities, but like Moses he was a great law giver, only Moses delivered the Law and Jesus the Gospel.

The New Testament even states that Jesus was the one who went before Moses in the desert.

Anointed1 » Jesus too performed many miracles—including resurrection, yet none of the recipients came for his support nor for preaching after his death.

Well, we don't actually know whether they did or not as the scriptures don't tell us one way or the other. After Jesus was resurrected, he stayed with his disciples together of and on for 40 days. According to some accounts this is where he broke the news about them being ultimately rejected and killed. We don't know if any healing recipients stuck with him or not. They weren't exactly happy times, though.

27

Here's a morbid thought...

by Rainbow_Troll in

it probably will never happen but... imagine the gb recieved some new light that told them the great tribulation was imminent.

the world is going to hell and all jws can expect until armageddon is terrible persecution the likes of which no christian has ever experienced in two thousand years.

but jehovah has a solution: put yourself and your family 'to sleep' and after armageddon's over, jehovah will 'wake his people up' at the resurrection.

Cold Steel

Is that what happened at the end of The Bunker video? The National Guard bursts in through the door and everyone bites into a cyanide capsule?

16

Would you trust your Doctor if he got things wrong??

by stuckinarut2 in

just thinking..... assume we had a family doctor that we had seen all our lives, perhaps he had been the doctor for your extended family too.

he is lovely man, very kind and honest hearted.. but if he had prescribed treatment or medication that was wrong, and had bad effects on you, then changed the medication to something else, then randomly changed it again etc, how would you feel?.

if you did some research into him, and found disturbing facts and things in his history that made you question his qualifications, how would you feel?

Cold Steel

Well...if your doctor said his accreditors gave him an invisible medical degree and four years later said Blue Cross, Blue Shield chose him as the only competent doctor in the area, but that they wouldn't issue a press release and weren't answering their phones, well, I'd have to check his prices.

18

AUSTRALIA: Jehovah's Witness Malcolm Lee guilty of raping 80-year-old-woman

by jwleaks in

friday 16, december 2016. abc news: malcolm lee, 56, has been sentenced to three years, nine months jail for the attack on the woman, 80, at her home near lakes entrance in march.

during a home massage, organised as a gift by the victim's daughter, lee touched, kissed and digitally raped the woman.

he claimed he believed at the time it was consensual and she was enjoying it.

Cold Steel

Saename » That's probably not the most appropriate thing one can ask, but... it's been on my mind for so damn long...

Well, some people like Lady Ga-Ga and Madonna.

So there's no accounting for taste.