1.we use a name to distinguish one entity from another to avoid confusion.. 2.if there is only one of something it is one of a kind.
elivis is elvis and those who pretend to be him are impersonators.
those who pretend to be jesus are false or pseudo-christs.
Are you wiling to state categorically that no accretions of a false nature have crept into the text?
Are you willing to state categorically that we have the ACTUAL VERBATIM text of the original uncorrupt autographs?
Arguments over "meaning" begin with texts. Do they not?
Oops, forgot to answer these didn't you Perry?
enjoy these remarks, friends.
and, as always, if you have received this from another source, please just delete, forgive me and move on!
saturday, january 9, 2010, 8:22 am .
JW's are changing before our eyes.
In decades past, you couldn't be a CO or a missionary unless you helped bring at least one person to the point of baptism. It used to be that the preaching work WAS about saving lives.
Now, it has taken the place of giving a cow to your local Levitical priest to sacrifice to Jehovah.
As already alluded to, there is a VERY pragmatic reason for the GB to frame the preaching work this way; its because the door to door work is an activity with diminishing returns.
So now they must condition their flock to view preaching as a way to show Jehovah how much they care. And you know how Jehovah shows he cares? He doesn't bring Armageddon so that you can REALLY show how much you care.
Because it at least made a little sense that Armageddon was being delayed so that some "right hearted"™ ones could respond to the preaching.
So it seems pretty clear that fewer and fewer are responding, and
It seems pretty clear that JW's have covered the entire earth with their witness, so long as you don't count a couple billion Chinese and Muslim's on two continents, and
It's just about time for Armageddon, except
Jehovah now wants to see how much you REALLY care and love him, by preaching to people who have already made up their minds.
This is real, unadulterated groping in the dark by the GB.
this is a complex question, and i just want to get a discussion started on the message of jehovah's witnesses and how it relates to their adventist roots, and esp calvinism.. bear with me, i will try to be concise.. we all know that while jehovah's witnesses like to deny adventist roots, that it is clear that according to them, the man jesus selected to get the whole thing started, c t russell, was heavily influenced by adventist ideas, esp the (adventist) idea that has really never left them; the idea that somehow, a time date or period can be inferred from the bible if you read certain scriptures through an adventist lens.
(thus, the 2520 years, 7 gentile times, etc.).
so while this is relatively well known, there is a concept that jehovah's witnesses teach against, yet practice.
Hi there. I would like to clarify myself, knowing as we do now that we have a Calvinist here to properly represent the religion. It is clear that my efforts at comparing an idea that JW's don't teach, but in my opinion practice in an ironic way with my rudimentary understanding of Calvinism was probably not the best way to broach the subject.
And I appreciate learning more then I did regarding Arminianism and Calvinism.
So, while this was just an observation of JW's, (a religion I know well) it wasn't meant to be a commentary on Calvinism (a religion I obviously am not familiar with.)
XJW4EVR, thanks for your input. While you are free to charecterize your religion as you wish, I would also remind anyone reading this that JW's claim to be a Christian religion, and most Christians don't believe that this is so, because they don't worship Jesus. JW's insist that they do, and that they also have keep their rights to define their religion as they so choose. Many disagree with them.
So while I have no doubt that my comparison of Calvinism and JWism regarding predestination was a bit of a stretch (admittedly so), I still seem to think that Calvins believe or teach in some kind of "predestination". Here is Wiki's opening salvo
Calvinism (also called the Reformed tradition, the Reformed faith, or Reformed theology) is a theological system and an approach to the Christian life. [1] The Reformed tradition was advanced by several theologians such as Martin Bucer, Heinrich Bullinger, Peter Martyr Vermigli, and Huldrych Zwingli, but it often bears the name of the French reformerJohn Calvin because of his prominent influence on it and because of his role in the confessional and ecclesiastical debates throughout the 16th century. Today, this term also refers to the doctrines and practices of the Reformed churches of which Calvin was an early leader. Less commonly, it can refer to the individual teaching of Calvin himself. [2] The system is best known for its doctrines of predestination and total depravity, stressing the absolute sovereignty of God.
Just curious, so that I may understand you. Thanks.
my avatar is a pic of a cool car, obviously.
.
Mine is Stephen Colbert of the US Speedskating team. He is the ultimate exposer of bullshit. I worship him. I sacrifice to his altar daily, I say my Colbert chants, and try to get bridges and satellites named after him whenever I can.
"united nations" and "beast".
"united nations".
this reference is done by paul of jwfacts.com .
Obviously, the WTS is trying to squirm out of their U.N. doctrine gradually. Still may be trying to become a NGO yet?
It must be hard for the GB, being the steaming pile of sh*t that they are, to suddenly try and step out of the great big pile of sh*t they stepped in with the whole UN thingy.
It's hard for terd's to tell when they've stepped into it, even harder to get it off ya.
i was born into "the truth" back in 1964. i made the big mistake of getting baptised when i was about 14 or so, purely to please my father as i saw how proud he was when my brothers were baptised....didn't work.. we moved to a new congregation when i was about 8, he introduced all my brothers to the congregation by name, a short bio of thier endearing qualities and how proud he was of them, when he introduced me it was "and this is our black sheep of the family, steve".. i remember living in fear at the fast approaching 1975....actually, living in terror is probably a more apt desciption.
all of you will full well know how it was instilled into us at every meeting and assembly how we are living in the last days.. as a 15 year old, a brother dobbed me in for kissing a worldly girl at school.
went through the marked process, judicial committy, disfellowshipped and the shunning which continues to this day by what's left of my family.
I know I definitely stopped caring before I stopped believing.
just think about it.... have you every seen what happens when you try to baptize a cat???
cats don't like it!!!
cats don't like it because they hate gawd!
They must be Sam Harris atheists.
thanks for reading this if you care.
i really don't have a particular reason to write this other then the mood hit.
it is likely to be rambling, and if it somehow makes some sense, i would consider that a bonus.. my life has distinct seasons.
Hi Gregor. The very rough sketch that I offered was more of major milestones that affected my thinking. There is a lot of texture and color inbetween there. All of the events listed were not related, just milemarkers I passed each day. They were big enough events worth mentioning. For example, 9/11 didn't lead to Gilead for example, it just led to me to a place where at Gilead, I was somewhat ready to be honest with myself.
The movies were just meaningful to me during a particular painful time in my life. I didn't learn to be liberal from them. I recognized how nice it was to be liberal from them though. Felt good!
And I certainly hope I have more epiphanies to come in life. That I think would be a good thing.
this is a complex question, and i just want to get a discussion started on the message of jehovah's witnesses and how it relates to their adventist roots, and esp calvinism.. bear with me, i will try to be concise.. we all know that while jehovah's witnesses like to deny adventist roots, that it is clear that according to them, the man jesus selected to get the whole thing started, c t russell, was heavily influenced by adventist ideas, esp the (adventist) idea that has really never left them; the idea that somehow, a time date or period can be inferred from the bible if you read certain scriptures through an adventist lens.
(thus, the 2520 years, 7 gentile times, etc.).
so while this is relatively well known, there is a concept that jehovah's witnesses teach against, yet practice.
Thanks for your thoughts. I bow to your representation of your religion and beliefs obviously.
Having said that, this has long been my view of Calvinism, likely due to JW indoctrination. But many have this simplified view of Calvinism.
I am no longer in favor of simplified views of anything. I hope my oversimplification didn't cause defense.
I will say from a theological/dogma point of view that predestination and providence to the "untrained" eye seems to be a distinction without a difference on many levels.
Thanks for your thoughts XJW4EVR.
thanks for reading this if you care.
i really don't have a particular reason to write this other then the mood hit.
it is likely to be rambling, and if it somehow makes some sense, i would consider that a bonus.. my life has distinct seasons.
Thanks again for sharing Jeff. I always enjoy reading your posts too. I looked up Yaounde Cameroon on Google images. I try to imagine you there.
Thanks Paul. Keep up the good work imagining me there. You can do it for me too. lol
