Posts by Cold Steel

Spoletta » You can assume that you've defeated me with your brilliant rebuttals and barrage of right wing links, so I'll let you bask in your victory.

Truth is truth, it's not left or right, and it requires reason, substance (not smoke) and an open mind. If Jesus weeps every time you hear something that troubles you, perhaps it's best you not seek after it.

Pizzagate is another example. I find it difficult to research because of the nature of the allegations; however, anyone who researches it, reads the e-mails and the FBI and NYPD background knows there's something to it. When I hear people in the media dismiss it, I know they've either failed to read the info or they're most likely complicit in it.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=K6vvx2rHid0

6

No screenshots of jw.org?

by charity7 in

hey guys!

saw this posted on social media and was wondering (super curious) what this was about?

i was reading the comments and many people were saying that we need to be obedient because the end is coming?

Cold Steel

Well, you know, if that's what the Governing Body wants....

When they say the end is right around "the corner," what corner are they thinking of?

18

Is time moving faster?

by Fisherman in

jw
friends

do you get the feeling that time is moving faster?

what do you think?.

Cold Steel

Time is perception as well. As we live longer, our perception of time seems to go faster than it did during the first 20 years of our lives. That first twenty really seem to go on forever. From 40-60 the years seem to go much faster and the answer seems to be in our perception of how time flows.

I like to think the last twenty or so will go very quickly, but those are the ones most of us dread the most. Not only in the strength and energy we lose, but in the loss of our friends, or spouses and other family members. We lose the ability to think and retain.

I have a friend who lived the first 62 years of his life becoming a 3-star admiral. Every star looked great and he'd stand in front of a mirror and say, "Man that star looks great! Another one would look even greater!" And with each one his power would grow. He was whisked in and out of doctors' offices. People held his door open. And when he retired, he said, he wanted to stay in Washington because that's where his friends were.

But that all came to an end. The day after he took those stars off, the friends stopped calling. The dinner parties dried up and he became another geriatric in a waiting room. He moved to North Carolina and played golf with other old men who dressed in clashing clothes. He didn't lose his wife, fortunately and she was with him to the day he died, but every thing he thought was important to him he lost. And when those admirals and generals add those stars, part of them see what's coming.

That's why I hope a part of us becomes wiser and doesn't lose hope. Because if that's all there is, you might as well save yourself the trouble, as did a neighbor of mine. Suffering under the ravages of cancer, he wrote his wife a note while she was away, and taped it to the door leading out to the garage. Then he sat down in a chair and shot himself in the head. Very sad.

It didn't surprise anyone, though, as he was a member of the local Hemlock Society. So it's all in perception of time, I think.

17

Saying "CNN is fake news" is fake news

by Coded Logic in

cnn has the highest rated accuracy level out of any cable network.

okay, so that's not setting the bar very high.

but i see people on this forum bashing cnn ad nauseam.

Cold Steel

It has more to do with new coverage and analysis. As a conservative and a journalist, I was trained in ethical objectivity. If doing a series on the death penalty or gun control, for example, or right to work, I should write it so that my audience has no idea of where I come down on the issues.

CNN and the other networks sin not only by commission, but by omission. How many covered the fact that our former chief executive was never even properly vetted before running for President? (I refer, of course, to Obama's lack of any valid birth certificate.) Every single one proffered by the White House at the time has proven not only to be a forgery, but very poor forgeries! We don't even know who his real father was, but we know his book, Dreams of My Father, was a laughable piece of fiction, yet only the so-called "alt-right" covered the many inconsistencies.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=gqlEEHdaFFM

https://youtube.com/watch?v=7EAxesVQ8wo

50

Pharaoh tries to kill all male babies - later Moses orders the very same thing!

by George One Time in

so many things that i just discoved about the bible.. .

so from the book my book of bible stories, we all know how little moses was saved from a cruel pharaoh.

of course the king of egypt was afraid that those cute little babies would endanger his empire eventually.

Cold Steel

George One Time » That is what Moses did to the Midianites. Even all the baby boys were to be killed, not the female babies.

The difference is that both the Mideanites and the Canaanites were monsters. They weren't just peaceful farmers who suddenly found themselves facing Israelite swords and spears. The cultures were driven by base sexual rites that included the ritual murder of infants. The Canaanites were a profligate, bloodthirsty lot. They were beyond redemption. And though it's popular for critics to judge things with incomplete knowledge, I find it...unwise...to judge God based on incomplete knowledge.

When Korah appeared before Moses with his family and supporters because they couldn't hold the priesthood, and when Moses and Korah lit them to see to see whom God would support, there came a great earthquake and the ground opened and swallowed Korah, his family and his supporters. But even though Moses never touched Korah, it's interesting that the people blamed, not God, but Moses for their deaths. There's no human I know of who can create an eathquake, but the people apparently felt Moses had deceived God into backing him, and they were too frightened to blame God. Still, Moses defended the people.

To judge God or the Bible, one should know every aspect of the arguments one is purporting. God proposed wiping out all the people to settle Moses' problem, but He knew Moses would object, sparing them. So unless you know the nature of God and what the people were up to, you're in danger of judging wrongly. And many of the people died because they so presumed.

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/246641/jewish/Korahs-Rebellion.htm

15

God’s name (Jehovah) is so ambiguous to the extent of even supporting The Theory of Evolution!

by venus in

we have been taught that the name jehovah means “he causes to become.” it is interpreted that he causes himself to become whatever needed to accomplish his will—as happened in the case israelites to whom he “caused himself to become” a savior leading them from slavery in egypt.. but there is a problem with this definition.

nobody would use the phrase “cause to become” with regard to himself.

one may say: “i helped him,” (but he won’t say: “i caused myself to become a helper to him.”) “causing myself to become a helper to another person” obviously implies helping nature comes with effort as though it is not in my nature.

Cold Steel

SK Ditta » The word, "Lord" seems to imply respect. If someone addressed a person as "Lord", such as a judge in courtroom, it would seem to imply respect.

Well, yes, "Lord" implies respect, but it was used to keep the Hebrews in remembrance of the sacred nature of their God. Everyone may know the judge's name is Harry, but no one would call him that in the courtroom. To maintain his demenor, even his closest friends would not address him by his name in the courtroom.

Venus » why should God choose a name the meaning of which no one is sure? Name should be self-explanatory, or else it is not a name.

All in good time. The Jews attempted to keep it sacred by restricting its use. No one knows who the restrictions were imposed by, but given ready mankind's nature to pollute that which is holy, it's likely they were imposed by heavenly messengers, themselves, as protocol (if one believes in such messengers).

There are those on this site, for example, who, because they were badly deceived by the merciless machinations of the manmade sect bearing Yaweh's name, seek reprisal by polluting the holy name in their posts. Others pollute it because they believe in nothing holy. But the key word is pollute. People use words to pollute, tear down and denigrate. Thus the Jews sought to protect that which they deemed as holy.

There are numerous meanings that have been attached to the holy name. "Unchanging One" or "He Who Amasses Armies" -- we may not know what it means, but after the great battle against Jerusalem in the last days, the prophets tell us that the name of God will "no longer" be polluted (see Ezekiel 39*, Zechariah 14**).

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* So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.

** And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.

15

God’s name (Jehovah) is so ambiguous to the extent of even supporting The Theory of Evolution!

by venus in

we have been taught that the name jehovah means “he causes to become.” it is interpreted that he causes himself to become whatever needed to accomplish his will—as happened in the case israelites to whom he “caused himself to become” a savior leading them from slavery in egypt.. but there is a problem with this definition.

nobody would use the phrase “cause to become” with regard to himself.

one may say: “i helped him,” (but he won’t say: “i caused myself to become a helper to him.”) “causing myself to become a helper to another person” obviously implies helping nature comes with effort as though it is not in my nature.

Cold Steel

Forget "Jehovah" -- it was the Latinization of the much older Yehweh (YHVH), which is thought to have come from the Canaanites or the Egyptians. Actually, the name, which is believed to mean "He Commands the Wind, or Storm," actually was given by God to Abraham who then subsequently lived among the Egyptians and taught them astronomy and mathematics. The name, as given, was "I Am," which was also given to Moses. The name itself was also, in later form, said to mean "the Unchangeable One." Exodus 6:3 says that He was known to the earliest patriarchs as El Shaddai (God Almighty), but by the name Jehovah was He not known to them. This is contradicted in other writings and has led some to wonder if the original text wasn't posed as a question (there have been numerous changes over the centuries, but none containing huge doctrinal problems).

The biblical text does not say where the various forms of God came from, but we know the patriarchs respected the name and refused to say it, substituting the word "Lord" for it. I'm not sure where you got the "changeable" part of the name as it was just the opposite. Technically, the early Christians saw YHVH as being Christ, the Mediator, not the Father. If you look at the titles, the role, everything -- the Son is the one who spoke to Moses. He was God of Israel and the Judge of mankind (see Margaret Barker's The Great Angel: The Story of Israel's Second God**). She argues that the earliest Hebrews saw Yahweh as God's Son, not the Father.

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**What did "Son of God," "Messiah," and "Lord," mean to the first Christians when they used these words to describe their beliefs about Jesus? In this book Margaret Barker explores the possibility that, in the expectations and traditions of first-century Palestine, these titles belonged together, and that the first Christians fit Jesus' identity into an existing pattern of belief. She claims that pre-Christian Judaism was not monotheistic and that the roots of Christian Trinitarian theology lie in a pre-Christian Palestinian belief about angels--a belief derived from the ancient religion of Israel, in which there was a "High God" and several "Sons of God." Yahweh was a son of God, manifested on earth in human form as an angel or in the Davidic King. Jesus was a manifestation of Yahweh, and was acknowledged as Son of God, Messiah, and Lord. Barker relies on canonical and deutero-canonical works and literature from Qumran and rabbinic sources to present her thoughtful investigation.

23

Another family needlessly torn apart

by Visitor1984 in

i'm feeling very angry tonight as i watched my mother in law end her relationship with my husband, her son, tonight.

we were happily inactive, enjoying a distant but decent relationship with my in laws until they saw some christmas decorations and everything changed.

i spent two hours getting drilled on whether my husband and i celebrate holidays, to be told that my laws won't socialize with us anymore.

Cold Steel

How do you perceive this, is this over Christmas decorations or is this the straw that broke the camel's back? In other words, if you suppress using the decorations, would things return to normal (such as it was)? By this time it's probably safe to assume she's spoken to someone in the chain of command and has been counseled in how to proceed. If not, though, you may be able to reach an aggreement regarding future holidays, if you're prepared to pay the price.

In Christianity and Judaism, nearly everything is based on symbolism. The sacrifice of the firstlings of the flock -- those without blemish -- represent the sacrifice of Christ. Baptism represents death and resurrection, of going into the earth and coming forth in a newness of life, a re-birth. This is how Yahweh presented the law and how later, as Jesus, he continued on. It's true the Christmas Tree wasn't devised by Christ, but I think he would approve.

The tree itself represented the night. The lights (or ornaments) represent stars and the star at the top is the Star of Bethlehem. The gifts at the base of the tree represent the greatest gift God can give, that of Eternal Life. As a teaching representation, even though it's not in the Bible, it's not bad...or evil. Perhaps if you explain it like that, she might find it somewhat less objectionable.

That the holiday occurs on December 25 should not be objectionable, either. That it replaced a heathen holiday and taught a correct principal should be a plus and I can't understand the JWs opposing it as they do.

It's easy to respond to such senseless and obstinate views with anger and hostility, and that's my first reaction as well, but you may offer this to her as reason. If she won't accept it, it means a life without her son and grandson. And finally, the Governing Body has itself admitted that it's not led by revelation, nor is it infallible. Thus, it could be wrong on this point.

9

Christianity (Including JWs) Debunked

by HowTheBibleWasCreated in

1 cor.

15: 21,22 rnwt: for since death came through a man,+ resurrection of the dead also comes through a man.+ 22 for just as in adam all are dying,+ so also in the christ all will be made alive.. .

so according to the nt jesus makes alive those that die in adam.. given the overwhelming evidence that adam as a man did not exist jws lose the battle on this verse.. however foolish christians like pentecostals and catholics like to call adam figurative.. okay... read it again^^^^^^... .

Cold Steel

No one said it was a bunch of dead patriarchs. It said the graves of many were opened and appeared to many, and frankly, no one knew what any of the patriarchs looked like, anyway. And we don't know anything beyond what I just said. And that no one recorded anything about it also isn't unusual.

First, the Roman and Herodic authorities were trying to suppress such accounts (that's why guards were placed at the tomb of Jesus). Second, people didn't write things the way they do now. There were numerous miracles that happened in the early church I belong to; some were written down and some weren't, but they were dismissed because the unbelievers didn't want to believe, and the witnesses were thus not deemed credible. People don't change, and they don't gain or lose credibility just because they're ancient.

Religion is all about faith. You can say the Jesus story was simply a myth all you wish, but it doesn't change the fact that Christianity was simply too big to have been a concoction. As I said, every apostle except one was killed. Churches were established, epistles written, doctrines created and defended and many documents written. The Coptic Christian church collection alone proves Christianity was more than a mere concoction. It's an absurd proposition, sir, and is a super-minority position as most critics of Christ believe he existed.

If you have a decent Bible, try reading it. Read Isaiah 53 and listen to the lecture I posted for Shepardless. The sheer consistency of the story is a strong argument in its favor. You may not agree with what Jesus said and did, but the man and his followers both lived and died for what he believed in and taught.