Unless the articles are written by religious scholars, I pay absolutely no attention to them. Journalists tend to study a certain topic for days or weeks, then publish. Then they move on. They know a lot about everything, but they're not experts on anything, and quite frequently when writing on historical, social or theological issues, they miss a lot, use discredited sources, misinterpret existing source materials, and draw jaw dropping conclusions that defy logic. (Especially on the Huffington Post, where every article has an agenda.)
Cold Steel
JoinedPosts by Cold Steel
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If you still have some belief in a God - what are your thoughts on these articles, and the similarities?
by Fernando ingeorge barna of the barna group (51% of "christians" more like pharisees than like jesus, in attitudes and in actions)morgan guyton of the huffington post ("two christianities" - a concept with 2,810 hits on google)what are your views on the concept of two distinct "christianities" and/or these articles?.
(law versus grace, or legalism versus the gospel, coc versus isocf).
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Nice tid bit for those JW's that say Catholics are NOT Christian
by sinis inin fact, it would seem that christianity was from the very beginning catholic... hmmmmm, how they fail when it comes to history.... .
"the earliest evidence of the use of the term catholic church is the letter to the smyrnaeans that ignatius of antioch wrote in about 107 to christians in smyrna.
exhorting christians to remain closely united with their bishop, he wrote: "wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever jesus christ is, there is the catholic church.
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Cold Steel
Mp: How many christian churches read or discuss what the dead sea scrolls contain? The anser is none, because they dont want the rank and dumb to know the truth about their origins.
Can't speak for other churches, but the LDS (Mormon) church is certainly an exception. Not only do we study the scrolls, we publish scores of scholarly papers and articles on them. We also publish extensively on the Qur'an and the Nag Hammadi library found about the same time the Dead Sea Scrolls were found (circa 1947). In fact, the Book of Mormon prophesies that such records would come forth:
And after it had come forth unto them I beheld other books, which came forth by the power of the Lamb, from the Gentiles unto them, unto the convincing of the Gentiles and the remnant of the seed of my brethren, and also the Jews who were scattered upon all the face of the earth, that the records of the prophets and of the twelve apostles of the Lamb are true. (1 Nephi 13:39)
You seem to feel these writings discredit Christianity; however, our own scholars have found just the opposite. I also know that the Catholic Church also has considerable interest in these writings; however, whether their papers are as readily available to its members I don't know. I do know that Father George McRae came to BYU years ago to speak on the Nag Hammadi writings and the place was packed. Unfortunately, most of their papers are published in expensive journals and aren't available for download.
See:
The Messiah and the Manuscripts: What Do Recently Discovered Documents Tell Us about Jesus?
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If ARMAGEDDON Came, Would YOU Repent?
by Cold Steel inthe day finally comes.
you get up one day with the nagging feeling that it's going to be different.
you get dressed, get in the car, then notice how dark the weather's getting.
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Cold Steel
If I survived armegeddon and realized my fate was an eternity with JW's...
I'd murder myself.
Ah, but what if, at the very moment God was to strike you down, someone said, "Please...spare him!"
So...you're off the hook. Now you've really had it. You're alive forever in a world of Jehovah's Witnesses and you can't kill yourself. But in the trillions of years that lie ahead, you should get to know every single one of them.
Man, what couldn't you do with that much time.
I hear the first trillion years are the hardest. After that, time just seems to fly!
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If ARMAGEDDON Came, Would YOU Repent?
by Cold Steel inthe day finally comes.
you get up one day with the nagging feeling that it's going to be different.
you get dressed, get in the car, then notice how dark the weather's getting.
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Cold Steel
A lot of you missed my point entirely.
The thread was aimed at ascertaining what, given a chain of natural disasters that give way to world war (and isn't that what the Society is expecting?), the effect would have on you. Visualize anything the Society could think of about what Aramageddon would be like and ask yourself whether you would chalk it up to natural events and bum luck or whether you would go running back to the nearest Kingdom Hall to ensure you're on the right side?
The Society is actually WRONG about the Armageddon events. It's really about a battle for the survival of the Jews in Israel, but the Society believes it will be a worldwide catastrophic event, somewhat like the Norse Ragnorak, only in their worldview Jehovah wins the day.
My old economics professor used to say that if you predict disaster often enough, eventually you'll be right. The Society has been predicting disaster for how long? So if they finally hit the proverbial jackpot, what do YOU chalk it up to? Global warming? Sh-- happens? Or, could it actually be, at last, the long awaited, and dreaded, Armageddon?
[Add dramatic music here]
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Nice tid bit for those JW's that say Catholics are NOT Christian
by sinis inin fact, it would seem that christianity was from the very beginning catholic... hmmmmm, how they fail when it comes to history.... .
"the earliest evidence of the use of the term catholic church is the letter to the smyrnaeans that ignatius of antioch wrote in about 107 to christians in smyrna.
exhorting christians to remain closely united with their bishop, he wrote: "wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever jesus christ is, there is the catholic church.
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Cold Steel
The term "catholic" means "universal." In the so-called Apostles' Creed, it's used in verse 9 to represent the universal Christian faith, and the creed is used in Baptist and Methodist churches. My grandmother, a Southern Baptist, would recite the creed up to that point and then go silent rather than utter those hated words. Even though it's in lower case, she just couldn't bring herself to say it; it sounded too much like the upper case term!
The Apostles' Creed is as follows:
1. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
2. And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord:
3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary:
4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell:
5. The third day he rose again from the dead:
6. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty:
7. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead:
8. I believe in the Holy Ghost:
9. I believe in the holy catholic church : the communion of saints:
10. The forgiveness of sins:
11. The resurrection of the body:
12. And the life everlasting. Amen.
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In todays paper the Mormons have even admitted DTD is not the most effective way to reach people.
by life is to short inthere was an short article in my local paper today that started out with "mormons expand use of technology".
i am horrible at scanning so i will quote some of the article, it said "the common images of mormon missionaries has long been two young men wearing white shirts and ties walking through neighborhoods, knocking door-to-door.
but in a few years, that image may be replaced by one of young mormons sitting with an ipad, typing messages on facebook.
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Cold Steel
I just talked to a couple of missionaries a few weeks ago and they said the same thing about door-to-door (DTD) not being very productive. Will the church arm its missionaries with iPads? I can't see that working well, either. According to our own scriptures, the Lord states: "And it shall come to pass, because of the wickedness of the world, that I will take vengeance upon the wicked, for they will not repent; for the cup of mine indignation is full; for behold, my blood shall not cleanse them if they hear me not."
So according to our prophecies, that one given in 1830, we're expecting our missionary efforts to taper off and for world conditions to significantly worsen.
People just aren't into religion anymore. In Europe, they're closing down churches all over the place and converting them to business offices or storage facilities. Now it's happening here. Not only are we adopting European socialism with its assorted problems of deficit spending and unemployment, we're seeing an unprecedented drop in the beliefs of the people in religion. One problem is that religion is no longer held by the parents, and if not them, why would their children? There are still people who are looking, but in the case of the Jehovah's Witnesses, they really have nothing to offer. I've learned a lot about the Society and have noticed that those who leave the faith either turn to atheism or, in some cases, try to rationalize that the Society is still God's organization, but is in some state of apostasy.
Those who leave Mormonism also tend to embrace atheism or, strangely, evangelical Christianity. And many of the people who are coming into the church are doing so because of its emphasis on the Family, not necessarily because they believe it's doctrine, or see the need for apostles and prophets.
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Falling asleep whilst praying..
by punkofnice inwhen i believed in jehovah(tm), i'd pray to him at night.
i'd doze off.. i remember admonition from the podium that it was disrespectful to doze off during our personal prayers to imaginary sky god jehovah(tm).. i'd wake up.
say sorry to jehovah(tm) then either carry on grovelling or just end it.. one thing's for sure, asleep or awake, pray or not it makes no difference........no one's listening!.
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Cold Steel
I thought this thread would be discussing falling asleep while praying, not a Jehovah bash. Many of you have some real anger management issues, which I find unfortunate, but understandable.
As for prayer, it helps if you have a certain place like a dressing room or large closet where you can kneel and go to in time of need. If you'r4e married, you might also want to pray vocally with your wife, followed by private prayers. Also, I wouldn't pray to Jehovah. Yahweh is not the Father, but Christ, and we shouldn't pray to Christ, but rather, the Father. Jesus addressed him as "Father," so why should we do any different? Even if Jehovah was the Father, addressing him by his name would be like calling your father by his first name. In fact, there is no place in scripture where anyone prays directly to God calling him by a personal name.
Years ago there was a book entitled, How to Pray and Stay Awake. If you pray while you're lying in bed, you're much more likely to fall asleep. It's like snacking. Put some Cracker Jacks boxes by the sofa facing the television and *POOF!" -- they're gone! It's not a great way to diet. My dressing room is the ideal place for me to pray. Oh, and don't pray in the basement as sometimes the prayers begin to rise and bounce off of the main floor. It'll eventually get to God, but it may float around the ceiling for awhile until it finds a crack or the stairs.
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If ARMAGEDDON Came, Would YOU Repent?
by Cold Steel inthe day finally comes.
you get up one day with the nagging feeling that it's going to be different.
you get dressed, get in the car, then notice how dark the weather's getting.
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Cold Steel
The day finally comes. You get up one day with the nagging feeling that it's going to be different. You get dressed, get in the car, then notice how dark the weather's getting. And though it looks ominous, you drive into work, park and go inside. You see small groups of employees are centered around small televison sets. Short range telemetry has revealed a series of small asteroids headed for Earth and scientists are appearing on television to try to explain the danger. Their voices are low, but you can hear the concern in their voices. You listen long enough to tell that something crazy is going on, then decide to take off and see if you can locate your girlfriend, Sara.
The first asteroid hits at 9:14 a.m. You can barely hear the talking heads on the radio, as interference is making reception difficult. Then the air raid sirens go off. According to a news report, just coming in, several nations have declared war on each other and a nuclear device already had been detonated in Syria. In fact, Damascus now lies in ruins...and it's spreading.
Armageddon is upon the world. Or is it? As things go from bad to worse, you remember all those things the elders used to tout about the horrendous events that would accompany Armageddon. Now those horrors seem to be happening before your very eyes. Were you crazy leaving the Society at the very moment when they were finally right? Or are the evangelicals right? They've said for years that Jehovah's Witnesses were going to a forever Hell...also those who haven't come to Christ.
What to do? Should you pull over and recite the "sinner's prayer"? Or do you make a bee line to the Kingdom Hall and hope the elders forgive you in time to make good with Jehovah? Or is this all just a coincidental chain of events?
So what do YOU do?
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Jehovah's Witnesses, size, and the true religion
by Laika ina lot of the arguments jehovah's witnesses make in favour of their religion can only work because they are a very small religion and are spread so thin.
nowhere in the world do jws make up any kind of majority or even significant minority in any country or city.
considering how jws would have to work with larger populations exposes these arguments, for example:.
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Cold Steel
I don't think you have anything to worry about. As soon as the outsiders realized the JWs weren't educated, nor did they encourage it, a barrier would immediately spring up between the Society and the non-JWs. It wouldn't take long for the unbelievers to outclass the believers, and the brighter JWs (the ones who are generally excommunicated) would soon form closer bonds with the unbelievers.
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JEHOVAH and the TROJAN horse
by Terry inboth men and women and whole nations are destroyed by a single wrong.
the word "yes!".
the cleverness of the wrong is hidden in the camouflage of inverted morality.. willing participation is the entrance.. .
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Cold Steel
It's incredible that the Society would so slavishly avoid the word "servant" (which most other translations use, and which most Christians prefer). In the late 1800s, the president of the LDS church put it this way, and I feel the same way:
I was not born a slave! I cannot, will not be a slave. I would not be a slave to God! I would be His servant, His friend, His son. I would go at His behest; but I would not be His slave. I would rather be extinct than be a slave. His friend I feel I am, and He is mine—a slave! The manacles would pierce my very bones—the clanking chains would grate against my soul—a poor, lost, servile, crawling wretch, to lick the dust and fawn and smile upon the thing who gave the lash! ... But stop! I am God's free man; I will not, cannot be a slave!
The very leadership of the Society refer to themselves, not as the "faithful and wise servant," but the "faithful and discreet slave." In truth, who is the faithful and wise servant? It's the faithful man or woman who is ready to meet the Lord at his coming. Jesus was giving a parable, not a prophecy. He was speaking of his return and he said:
Which of you, then, is a faithful and wise servant, one whom his master will entrust with the care of the household, to give them their food at the appointed time? Blessed is that servant who is found doing this when his lord comes; I promise you, he will give him charge of all his goods. But if that servant plays him false, and says in his heart, My lord is long in coming, and so falls to beating his fellow servants, to eating and drinking with the drunkards, then on some day when he expects nothing, at an hour when he is all unaware, his lord will come, and will cut him off, and assign him his portion with the hypocrites; where there will be weeping, and gnashing of teeth. (Knox Bible)
The parable speaks of two servants, the faithful servant and the unfaithful servant. If you're a Christian, you're the faithful servant. Giving the staff their food and minding the house is the duty of each of us. And as John says, if we are faithful, we will become co-heirs with Christ and inherit all that the Father has. As servants, we're expected to feed and cloth the poor and serve our fellow man. And if we do it to the least of our brethren, it is as if we had done it to the Lord himself.
Had Jesus intended to specify an actual group of people, wouldn't he have said so? For the Lord God will do NOTHING, save he shall reveal his secrets to his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7) And in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. To my knowledge, the Governing Body of the Society has NEVER received one revelation, neither have they EVER seen an angel, or God. But the days of prophets has come and gone, they teach. No one receives revelation as the ancient apostles did.
Really? God called Saul/Paul to be a prophet and apostle after Jesus had been resurrected and ascended to Heaven. If he had a revelation and saw God, why can't people today? John had the greatest revelation ever given at around 96 AD. And in his vision he saw that two prophets (his words, not mine) would be called to minister unto the Jews just prior to the coming of Christ. (See Revelation 11) They will prophesy for three and a half years, then be killed and physically resurrected. Will the Governing Body be their seniors, or will they answer to the two prophets? If I were the GB, I'd declare those two prophets to be figurative prophets, not literal. That way, they won't have to stone them; just reject them and render them "invisible."
The Lord has called us his servants, his children, and his friends. But he doesn't call us his slaves, nor does he prophesy in his parables. That means you have to depend on yourselves, not them. If they have no revelation, then they are the blind leading the blind. Thus if you follow them, you both will fall into the pit. So YOU care for the household, feed those who need feeding and be ready for the Master's return when he comes.