Posts by Cold Steel

25

Speaking for God: The Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses

by Tahoe in

very well put together!.

https://youtu.be/yyxg8klhtve.

Cold Steel

Moster » ...women cannot fight (Joan of Arc)

Well, she led, but I don't know if she could fight like, say, Achilles, Sgt. York or my wife, but I'll bet she was still pretty tough.

34

Can the GB be directed by Holy Spirit and at the same time be not inspired ?

by Chook in

yes god directs our writings but they're not inspired, so gods directions are staggered and overlapping , so the genuine innocent believing jw has a wonderful life of overlapping bullshit.

so next time you meet a jw priest ask them what is the difference between being directed and inspired, then i promise you will hear first hand an example of overlapping bull..

The Holy Spirit can't communicate to someone without it being revelation, and revelation has to be perfect and infallible. But the Governing Body can't have it both ways. They can't be led by the Holy Spirit and have it be anything but inspired.

If they don't have the Holy Spirit, then they are blind guides leading the blind.

4

Philosophy of religion

by venus in

create a superhuman character performing amazing feats, make him speak very good proverbs and parables which find easy acceptance among people, thus make him an authority on spirituality, and then make him speak business: become rich through improper means (luke 16:1-12) and avoid going into hell by sharing a portion of the ill-gotten wealth to the poor (mathew 25:31-46; contrast luke 16:19-31) which resulted in many orphanages and similar institutions coming into existence with the rich sponsoring them and the management living in luxury while working on behalf of the poor.

or make him provide basis for adoption of rituals that ensures a luxurious living for the management..

Cold Steel

What's your point?

A person goes to Paradise or Hell because of what's in his heart. Neither is permanent; they're where you go to await the resurrection. You can't trick God by works, nor can one be saved by them. One cannot be saved without works (i.e., baptism, etc.), but one cannot be saved by them.

17

Does Christianity Promote Self Hatred?

by Brokeback Watchtower in

i think that christianity's teachings pose a very unproductive world view and are a danger to our survival.

their teachings that man is sinful and worthy of death and in need of a savior to rescue him and free him of his sinful tendencies or else feel the wrath of god.

these things that condemn man as sinful are his own powerful drives given to him at conception which he now must deny due to indoctrination and consign to his shadow(jungian).

Cold Steel

Brokeback WT » I wouldn't want to do any biblical hop scotching to make each individual point so I just said it in as little words as possible or in a nut shell if you prefer.

Nevertheless, it's one of the more repulsive doctrines we see coming out of the Protestant movement and is one of the hallmarks of Calvinism. The idea that the Father has given the Son a number of souls worthy of salvation and everyone else is lost except those souls has been hotly debated in the Protestant movement.

Not every branch of Christianity has bought into this self-hatred aspect of the religion, but certainly whole segments have and when they show us what HELL is like, it's not only self hatred but God hatred as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQQOa10O_BE

40

we have a laid off bethelite with an engineering degree!

by nowwhat? in

this guy have been at bethel for 25 years when he could have been making 75-100 thousand a year as an engineer.

so they kick him to the curb so they don't have to house him and his wife anymore.

they run into a problem at warwick and they ask him to come back for 3 weeks.

Cold Steel

Fairly simple. As long as these people think they're working for Jehovah's Kingdom on Earth, they'll come back for more abuse. Anyone who gets laid off is going to feel hurt and rejected to a certain degree. But if Jehovah himself calls, who's gonna turn down God?? Maybe Jehovah will take him back and give him a better salary because maybe it was a test!

Like Abraham. Only there's no angel to swoop down and save the day.

Chook » all they have to do is google the words Jw governing body, then they will realise that any company can make money with free labor yet these guys couldn't even do that.

I did that.

They look like the list Patrick Jane had of "Red John" suspects in The Mentalist.

Weird.

14

Creationist on their death bed

by Coded Logic in

i would really like to read the thoughts of an creationist as they lie on their deathbed.

their honest thoughts.

their terrors.

Cold Steel

Do they really believe all that noise they spread? As they lay there contemplating their final breaths, do they really believe that soon, they will start a new life. In our ever changing world that teeters on the brink of annihilation, they believe that none of this even mattered and they can just jump into a "perfect" new world?

Yes, I believe everything I've ever told others. I have no doubt that man and animals have spirits, and that they existed before they came to the earth and that they'll continue after they depart this world. I believe intelligence cannot be created nor can it be annihilated. When I look at a dead body, whether it be man or beast, it's obvious to me that something is gone. It's more than a light that goes out. It's like it's gone.

I have no fear of death and am content to go whenever the good Lord calls. (In truth, this is but a figure of speech. I believe our friends and families are the ones who oversee our lives until we're called home. Those who have had near death experiences that I believe have all described what they experience in the same terms. The colors, the vastness of that world which is every bit as vast as our own. The buildings, the plants, even the discussions they had with their friends and families who had previously died. One (who has since passed on for the last time) said they don't like the term "death" because of the connotations it has. Another, who also has passed on, said his father at first rebuked him for the life he'd lived, but then embraced him and told him he could stay. When he asked to go back and put his life in order, his father told him he could return, but that he would come for him in five years. He returned, turned his life completely around and became a whole new person. Some who knew him well had doubts about his story, but he said all they had to do was count the years. Sure enough, five years later he passed. He fell sick and his family swears he called out to his father just before he stopped breathing. So I have no doubts but what he was telling the truth.

Years ago, I became ill. I didn't die, but I had hallucinations. I remember seeing oranges that would change shape on a television screen. Then they changed colors. My wife said I said there were "oranges and pumpkins" on the TV screen. My point is that later I couldn't remember the details, the shapes or even the colors. In fact, I could remember shapes, but no colors, nor anything else. I experienced a hallucination. The people who have near death experiences have memories as any rational man would. Colors, people, who said what when and other things they experienced were all completely non-hallucinatory in nature.

So people can believe what they wish.

17

Does Christianity Promote Self Hatred?

by Brokeback Watchtower in

i think that christianity's teachings pose a very unproductive world view and are a danger to our survival.

their teachings that man is sinful and worthy of death and in need of a savior to rescue him and free him of his sinful tendencies or else feel the wrath of god.

these things that condemn man as sinful are his own powerful drives given to him at conception which he now must deny due to indoctrination and consign to his shadow(jungian).

Cold Steel

Their teachings that man is sinful and worthy of death and in need of a savior to rescue him and free him of his sinful tendencies or else feel the wrath of God.

This is only one of the iterations of Christianity. It's not a biblical teaching, nor will you see any of the apostles that taught it. John wrote:

2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
1 John 3:2-5

Man is not "deserving" of Hell. Christianity teaches that through Adam all men fell. But through Christ, all men would be made alive. In other words, man is created with a type of safety net. Without Christ, we would indeed be lost, without God and without a place in His creations. Christ, however, saves even the worst sinner after he has paid the price of his own sins.

Many Christians are speaking of man's fate without Christ and they assume sinners don't have that safety net. But yes, part of the reason we're placed on Earth is to combat our own natural tendencies to do evil. Through Christ, man achieves the ability to become like God.

20

My 1 Year Update - I've Been Disfellowshipped One Year Today

by pale.emperor in

what a journey!.

it was a year ago today that i was announced from the platform by brother paul "twofaced" castley that i was "no longer one of jehovah's witnesses".

i didn't go to that meeting to hear the announcement because i already didn't believe the watchtower religion.. how was my first year?

Cold Steel

Dawkins doesn't say anything compelling in my view. He simply taunts things he knows nothing about. In school I read a lot of Albert Camus. Then during the summer I met an old man at a country club, a grounds keeper that smelled like booze, but he was brilliant. Nearly all of his teeth were gone but he was clearly a victim of the bottle. As we talked, he brought up Camus when he saw I was reading a book by the man. Turns out he was a friend of his and worked with him during the war with French intelligence. The two of them were targeted by an enemy agent and given poisoned chocolate. Camus didn't eat any but this man (I'll call him Jack) did. That night Jack became deathly ill and Camus did everything he could to keep him alive. Jack spent most of the night throwing up and even chipped a tooth while they tried to give him something in a bottle.

Camus and Jack had many discussions on existential matters. But he told me what most people didn't know was that Camus, as he neared the end of his life, had a complete change of heart. He began to again embrace Catholicism and, at the time he was killed in an automobile accident, was even thinking of entering the priesthood.

Religion is a spiritual thing and one can't prove know God exists through the Spirit and only through the Spirit. James 1:5 states: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbradith not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that waivers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord."

This is a divine promise, and if one asks for wisdom in faith, God is obligated to respond by granting it. It's worth a shot if you're leaning towards atheism.

20

My 1 Year Update - I've Been Disfellowshipped One Year Today

by pale.emperor in

what a journey!.

it was a year ago today that i was announced from the platform by brother paul "twofaced" castley that i was "no longer one of jehovah's witnesses".

i didn't go to that meeting to hear the announcement because i already didn't believe the watchtower religion.. how was my first year?

Cold Steel

It's unfortunate you lost your faith in God, but I understand why this horrible religion drove you away. Any religion that isolates its members to control them is damnable in my book. And any religion that uses HELL as a means of control also is damnable in my book. (Check out the content of YouTube and the number of "I Went To HELL" videos that pop up.) It's a hard sell to describe such a place of torture, then tell people, "God loves you but if you don't do this and that, that's where you'll end up!"

The JWs are all about control and manipulation, and they can rob people of their friends and family and leave them alone in the world. Others use the fear of HELL to intimidate.

It's unfortunate that you lost your family. I assume your wife left because you blew off the Society. How did she react when you first mentioned your intentions? Were there fireworks or did she go silent? Is she afraid you might influence your daughter?

Good luck!

1

Two witness rule using the other 2 bibles on jw.org

by pleaseresearch in

so i was thinking, now jw.org uses two other bible translations/versions on their website.. can we not use the two witness rule regarding certain doctrines.

for example john 1:1 this is absolutely amazing to me that they would have two bibles for jesus being god.

but only one bible, their own translation in support of jesus being a god.

Cold Steel

One has to understand what the author had in mind, and the Trinity is a difficult doctrine to deal with. In Isaiah, God says He knows of no other gods besides Him. Yet in the New Testament, Jesus is praying to the Father (1+1=2). And in Genesis 1 and Psalms 110, there seem to be gods (elohim) speaking to each other ("man has become as one of us" and "Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool.").

It is a conundrum. So they try to interpret the doctrine so they can translate the scripture. They don't believe Jesus is Jehovah, so they try to make him "a god."

But in the New Testament, Christ is given "all power" and allows himself to be worshiped (Matthew 28:18). In the Old Testament, YAHVH is described as being the "First And The Last." (Isa. 41:4; 44:6; 48:12), but in the New Testament, it's Jesus who is the "First and the Last" (Rev. 1:8; 16-18; 22:12-13, 20).

In the Old Testament, YHVH comes personally to the earth with fire (Isa. 66:15), but in 2 Thess. 1:7-8, it's Jesus who comes with fire. There are other scriptures referring to both as the Shepherd, King of Kings, Judge of mankind, Savior and Creator. If one didn't know better, they could be taken as a single entity!

So the brass at JWHQ have a big problem and the only way they can fix it is to creatively interpret the scriptures. Jesus tells the criminal on the cross, "Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise." But they can't interpret it that way, so he says, "I'm tellin' you today, you will be with me in Paradise!"

So once they begin fudging one, they have to keep doing it. The result is a translation that's a laughing stock. But other churches do it to a lesser extent; it's just that there's almost zero scholarship when it comes to the JW translations. And it makes it tough trying to discuss religious topics with JWs because some of their translations are so outlandish. But it's tough to bring in the law of witnesses here unless you use other translations as witnesses. Or scholars.

Is that what you mean?