Posts by Doug Mason

13

The two stories of "The Flood"

by Doug Mason in

in genesis, the two stories of "the flood" have been combined into one.. each story was created by separate groups for their own theological purpose, and with very different attitudes towards god.. i have provided a scan from a book that untangles these two accounts.

http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=160b02654b38df6311d38f4932294874.

you need to wait for 20 seconds before the "download" button appears.. doug.

Doug Mason

John Doe,

The Bible writers and the main players - including Jesus Christ - were Jews. Even the gentile Luke was a convert to Judaism. The whole of Scripture is Jewish and if we fail to read the Bible through Jewish eyes, we fail to understand Scripture. I will start another Thread in which I shall provide thoughts from a Christian writer.

The manner in which the Jews recorded their stories was typical of the methods employed at that time by their surrounding communities. But we cannot point fingers at them, since today's historians do pretty much the same, colouring not only the past but the present as well.

Doug

11

Chapter 3 of "What does the Bible Really Teach?"

by Doug Mason in

i do not know if this is of use to anyone, but i thought i would share it anyway.. i prepared a personal analysis of chapter 3 from the wts book, what does the bible really teach?, and i have made it available at:.

http://www.jwstudies.com/bible_teach__chapter_3.pdf .

in the first part, i made notes against scans of each page.. following those pages, i insert the words of each scripture being cited, and at times i include verses from the immediate context.

Doug Mason

FuzzyPaul,

Thanks for your thoughts, I appreciate your ideas. Any more?

Doug

13

The two stories of "The Flood"

by Doug Mason in

in genesis, the two stories of "the flood" have been combined into one.. each story was created by separate groups for their own theological purpose, and with very different attitudes towards god.. i have provided a scan from a book that untangles these two accounts.

http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=160b02654b38df6311d38f4932294874.

you need to wait for 20 seconds before the "download" button appears.. doug.

Doug Mason

In Genesis, the two stories of "The Flood" have been combined into one.

Each story was created by separate groups for their own theological purpose, and with very different attitudes towards God.

I have provided a scan from a book that untangles these two accounts. It is available at:

http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=160b02654b38df6311d38f4932294874

You need to wait for 20 seconds before the "Download" button appears.

Doug

11

Chapter 3 of "What does the Bible Really Teach?"

by Doug Mason in

i do not know if this is of use to anyone, but i thought i would share it anyway.. i prepared a personal analysis of chapter 3 from the wts book, what does the bible really teach?, and i have made it available at:.

http://www.jwstudies.com/bible_teach__chapter_3.pdf .

in the first part, i made notes against scans of each page.. following those pages, i insert the words of each scripture being cited, and at times i include verses from the immediate context.

Doug Mason

yknot,

I haven't thought about doing any more.

I had a particular need but I could think about it - any particular chapters in mind?

Doug

11

Chapter 3 of "What does the Bible Really Teach?"

by Doug Mason in

i do not know if this is of use to anyone, but i thought i would share it anyway.. i prepared a personal analysis of chapter 3 from the wts book, what does the bible really teach?, and i have made it available at:.

http://www.jwstudies.com/bible_teach__chapter_3.pdf .

in the first part, i made notes against scans of each page.. following those pages, i insert the words of each scripture being cited, and at times i include verses from the immediate context.

Doug Mason

I do not know if this is of use to anyone, but I thought I would share it anyway.

I prepared a personal analysis of Chapter 3 from the WTS book, “What Does the Bible Really Teach?”, and I have made it available at:

http://www.jwstudies.com/Bible_Teach__chapter_3.pdf

In the first part, I made notes against scans of each page.

Following those pages, I insert the words of each Scripture being cited, and at times I include verses from the immediate context. I also add a few comments.

Please remember that are simply personal study notes.

Doug

12

The Joy of the coming "Thousand Years"

by Doug Mason in

i understand that only the twenty million jws will survive this imminent armageddon.

since the worlds population is about seven billion, this means that each jw man, woman and youth will be left to locate and bury 350 corpses killed at armageddon.. .

these survivors will spend the rest of the following one thousand years teaching the wtss kingdom to resurrected people who previously never had the opportunity.

Doug Mason

I understand that only the twenty million JWs will survive this imminent Armageddon. Since the world’s population is about seven billion, this means that each JW man, woman and youth will be left to locate and bury 350 corpses killed at Armageddon.

These survivors will spend the rest of the following one thousand years teaching the WTS’s Kingdom to resurrected people who previously never had the opportunity. The WTS teachings reach few of the world’s seven thousand million people, and there are those who lived before anyone had the opportunity to know about Jehovah’s Witnesses. So I assume that seven thousand million people will be given this opportunity during the remainder of that thousand year period.

These survivors of Armageddon will look forward to their visitation program and book studies with every newly resurrected person.

Let us assume that God resurrects one million people every single day. One million on the first day, followed by another million the next, relentlessly on and on, on and on, all over the world, people of all ages and throughout history.

Little wonder JWs look forward to this “new heavens and new earth”. Imagine the surprise and delight on the faces of these newly resurrected as they are visited again and again over several weeks learning this good news! And all the time, every day God is graciously resurrecting an extra million people for the JWs to visit.

At this rate of resurrections of one million a day – taking place in China, India, the Andes, Siberia, remote islands, Sahara, and the like, it will take only 20 years to get the people resurrected.

What joy and pleasure for the disciples of the Watchtower Society as they visit these extra million each day and arrange their new weekly Book Studies as well as continue with their existing studies.

Then they will have the joy of knowing they have judged rightly which people, young and old, who will be killed off again. Auschwitz never knew anything like it.

How many trees will they needed for all the books? How many electricity plants just to power the printing presses!

And think of the great technological skills these JWs will bring to this new earth as they operate the infrastructure systems needed for these billions of people, and also for killing them. No wonder everyone is happy and smiling.

18

The Anti-Type of ancient Israel! Can we learn who?

by wannabe in

{matthew 25:41} {revelation 20:7-10}.

"{genesis 28:10-14 asv} three times jehovah made the same promise, so we can be absolutely certain those promises will be carried out to the letter, because the god who made those promises himself, because there was no one greater than he, stepped in with an oath, and put his own guarantee on them as paul will now explain:.

18 so god has given both his promise and his oath.

Doug Mason

Just shows you what you can do when you jump all over different books, written at different times by different people, to their own separate communities.

Reminds me of the person who said, start from "Judas hanged himself" and then jump to "Go and do likewise".

Do you know when Chronicles was written and for whom it was intended, and the objective of the writer/author? And then with each of the other books you cite? Do you know whether each writer was consciously referring to all of those other writers?

You might find page 2 of my short piece handy:

http://www.jwstudies.com/knight_jump_hermeneutic.pdf

Doug

37

What did Jesus mean by "this generation"?

by Doug Mason in

by looking at every occasion that jesus used the expression "this generation", it is possible to work out what he meant.. i have listed these occasions, along with some questions, at:.

http://www.jwstudies.com/this_generation.pdf.

i am interested to know what you think.. doug.

Doug Mason

I know that all posters here are very familiar with Matthew 24, so there is no need to reproduce it in full here.

I suggest that you do print it out (or copy it into a word processing program) and then mark out which words you believe refer to the destruction of the Temple and to the end of the Jewish Age, and then mark out which words refer to some future event.

Then look to see if the reasoning flows consistently or jumps back and forth, depending on preconceptions. By that, I mean was Jesus (or the writers of “Matthew”) mistaken about the imminence of a physical Coming? Were they equating the future downfall of the Jewish “Age” (which is the subject of the original question) with this future Coming? (One must note the repeated references to the false Christs who were thick on the ground at that time.) Were they equating the downfall of the temple with Jesus' Coming?

It is my belief, and we must each be fully convinced in our own minds and I fully allow others to have their views, that the context of this “great distress” relates solely to the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem. And for me, Jesus’ reference to his immediate “generation” confirms that view.

Mt 24:1 attention to its buildings. Mt 24:2 “Do you see all these things?” … every one will be thrown down.” Mt 24:3 … sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Mt 24:4 … “Watch out” … Mt 24:6 You will hear … Mt 24:9 “Then you will be handed over … Mt 24:10 At that time … Mt 24:13 stands firm to the end will be saved. Mt 24:14 … kingdom will be preached … then the end will come. Mt 24:15 “you see standing in the holy place … Mt 24:16 those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. … Mt 24:19 dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! z …

Mt 24:21 “For then there will be great distress, … Mt 24:23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. …

Mt 24:29 “Immediately after the distress of those days “ ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ Mt 24:30 “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky … Mt 24:34 this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Doug

13

Some people who were important to Russell

by Doug Mason in

i have compiled a file that comprises pen-pictures of about twelve people mentioned by charles taze russell in his publications.

they either influenced russell, worked alongside him, or were influenced by him.

from their pages, they bring us a better understanding of that intense period.. http://www.jwstudies.com/people_important_to_russell.pdf.

Doug Mason

cameo-d,

Interesting question. I know that many many (30?) years ago, I heard of some brothers (siblings??) who went under the name "Witnesses of Jehovah" supposedly up in the Dandenongs and they were claiming they "had something over the Watchtower". I never found out more than that. (Sounds a bit like the SDAs and the Standish brothers.)

I guess you are not speaking of Henninges here in Melbourne. I see from their web site that they are now meeting near me. ("Christian Bible Students Melbourne"; CBSM). And there were of course the Bereans ("Frank and Ernest") who, from memory were here in Kew.

I found the State Library in Melbourne a great resource. That's where I located (in the 1970s) the books and magazines by Henninges. It might be possible to access the library by email. http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/

But none of these were "no name", so I'm not much help to you. Have you asked Bruce Price? There's a picture of Bruce (actually E B Price) at http://www.eastward.edu.au/news/2006archive.asp

I wonder if the Australian Government's archive might provide clues? http://naa.gov.au I notice that by searching with the word "Jehovah" it brings up over 130 records. This might be a happy hunting ground for some researcher. The summaries look tantalising.

Doug

13

Some people who were important to Russell

by Doug Mason in

i have compiled a file that comprises pen-pictures of about twelve people mentioned by charles taze russell in his publications.

they either influenced russell, worked alongside him, or were influenced by him.

from their pages, they bring us a better understanding of that intense period.. http://www.jwstudies.com/people_important_to_russell.pdf.

Doug Mason

slimboyfat,

I see that Tony Wills' book is available at Lulu.

http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/a-people-for-his-name/8304643

Doug