Posts by Doug Mason

6

What constitutes the great Apostasy?

by wannabe in

Doug Mason

Centuries after the Apostles died, the believers in the Trinity decided which writings would be accepted as their Holy Scriptures.

Little wonder they got it wrong. Pity the WTS still includes those forged documents in their NT.

Doug

8

The Watchtower, the faithful and discreet slave indeed!

by dgp in

how many of you think that this is true of the watchtower, as the (self-appointed) faithful and discreet slave?.

24no one can slave for two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stick to the one and despise the other.

you cannot slave for god and for riches.".

Doug Mason

Who is the FDS?

What is the Governing Body's relationship to the FDS?

What are the GB's responsibilities to the FDS?

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

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

What is the organisation's Religious Worldwide Order, whose members sign a Vow of Obedience and Poverty?

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/march5/12.25.html

Doug

55

VAT 4956 Astronomical Observations

by VM44 in

starting a new thread to discuss the astronomical observations recorded in vat 4956..

Doug Mason

Larry,

Does the tone of your reply indicate the effect Christianity has on people's minds?

Do your snide and personal remarks indicate how Christianity poisons people?

What advertising is that for Christianity?

Little wonder religion has been at the root of major conflicts, and still is. When we look at history, we see the outcome of such religious attitudes. The very worst war in modern times, in terms of casuaties compared with the size of the population, was the religious war between the Protestants of England and the Catholics of France, named the Thirty Years' War. Consider the bloody internecine wars of the Christians in the 4th and 5th centuries, the behavious of Christians during the Spanish Inquisition, the effect of the Christians during the invasion of South America, and down to our own days in Ireland, and so on.

Your personal attacks, which show your self-considered superiority, completely damages your cause.

Doug

6

What constitutes the great Apostasy?

by wannabe in

Doug Mason

Maybe the great apostacy is becoming a follower of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society?

Doug

19

Does anyone know what the Watchtower's corporate ladder would be like?

by dgp in

i was wondering if anyone knows how a brother would make his way up to the governing body.

in my (worldly) opinion, there has to be something like a corporate ladder to climb.

does anyone know what the "procedure" would be?.

Doug Mason

This is my very unofficial interpretation of the WTS hierarchy:

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

Do not ignore the fact that they have a Religious Order akin to that of the RC Church. Each member of the WTS Religious Order signs a vow of Obedience and Poverty.

The WTS has used the existence of this Religious Order successfully when arguing cases in courts of law. For further information, see page 5 and 6 of my Study:

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

I notice that a copy of the vow signed by each member of the Watchtower's Religious Order is shown at:

http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com/2011/03/vow-of-obedience.html

Doug

21

Critique of the October 1 Watchtower article"When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?"

by Doug Mason in

my critique of the october 1, 2011 watchtower article "when was ancient jerusalem destroyed?

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

i am looking forward to hearing of correction or omissions.. please note that this is a large file (almost 7 meg) which takes a while to download and a while to format in a web browser.. the design of the critique allows a single major topic to be individually printed, so that those pages may be handed to an apologist for the watchtower society.

Doug Mason

wannabefree,

Thank you for your eagle eyes picking out the following two typos. I have corrected them. No excuses on my part.

page 3 last sentence under heading A difference of about 20 years, reads "... while everyone else others depends on ..."

page 11 2nd line of title reads 'Who The "Seventy Years" Aimed Were At'

The required corrections are obvious.

I have updated the file.

Again, thanks.

And thank you everybody for your kind words.

Doug

8

For those of you who love the bible, do you think its been a little overcomplicated?

by TimothyT in

this weekend i read the gospel according to matthew and john.. it felt lovely as i was simply learning about jesus and his teachings, which are incredibly easy to understand and which amount to what i feel is a fabulous guide to life.. but what about the old testament... is it just history?

is it important?

should a christian spend too much time reading it?

Doug Mason

TimothyT,

I wish I had your simple, if somewhat simplistic, faith.

Each writing in the Bible has to be read through the culture of each community that produced it and edited it. This requires understanding each community, looking at each piece through their ancient Jewish eyes.

The Gospels you find endearing were written from the middle to the end of the first century. Each Gospel was written to counter heresies that had arisen at that time, which need to be understood. For example, to counter the Jewish Jews (as against the Christian Jews), the anonymous writers searched the Hebrew Scriptures to show that they pointed to this person Yeshua (= Joshua). They used Isa 53 and Ps 22, but they had to distort the original meaning. The Jews could not understand how a murdered person, and hence defeated, could be considered the Messiah; they had the concept of a victorious, powerful, military figure who would free them. The Christian's Messiah was defeated and put to death by the occupying powers!

The Gospel writers took verses that had nothing to do with a Jewish Messiah (=Christ) and reworked them to say that they did apply to him (born in Bethlehem, come out of Egypt, etc.). They wrote stories that made Yeshua the new Moses (invented the Sermon on the Mount, feeding the 5000 = manna story, etc, for example). They wrote miracle stories, not to show his power over nature, but each was written to demonstrate that he performed those same great things performed by the Hebrew heroes (raised the only son of a widow, walked on water, etc.). They were not interested in saying whether these things really happened, they were giving a message to their contemporary Jews that this was the new Elijah, the new Elisha, the new Moses, and so on, all rolled into one.

If you want to get closer to the time of Yeshua, you are stuck with Paul, since he died before any other NT writing was produced. Paul had to write because he had so many opposers and detractors. We get an idea of their views through Paul's comments. (Remembering which NT writings are genuinely his. So many are not). Then you are compelled to research the writings of the times that were not included in the NT canon -- and then research the canonisation process and the reasons for the selection of those writings by that Pauline section of the 4th century church. The NT would have been so different had the Petrine sector been dominant.

It's not simple, but the process adds colour, depth and meaning to what we read.

Doug

12

When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed? Part Two

by Maze in

an excellent presentation of secular archeology supporting jerusalem's destruction in 607 b.c.e:.

http://download.jw.org/files/media_magazines/wp_e_20111101.pdf.

when was ancient jerusalem destroyed?.

Doug Mason

Maze,

How do you know that the Jews returned in 537 BCE?

How does the WTS get 539 BCE without the Babylonian clay tablets?

2 Chronicles and Josephus say that the 70 years ended with Cyrus. His first year ran from March 538 to March 537, but the WTS ends the 70 years in October 537, during Cyrus' second year.

Doug

21

Critique of the October 1 Watchtower article"When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?"

by Doug Mason in

my critique of the october 1, 2011 watchtower article "when was ancient jerusalem destroyed?

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

i am looking forward to hearing of correction or omissions.. please note that this is a large file (almost 7 meg) which takes a while to download and a while to format in a web browser.. the design of the critique allows a single major topic to be individually printed, so that those pages may be handed to an apologist for the watchtower society.

Doug Mason

Thanks.

If it helps just one person, it will be worthwhile.

Doug

21

Critique of the October 1 Watchtower article"When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?"

by Doug Mason in

my critique of the october 1, 2011 watchtower article "when was ancient jerusalem destroyed?

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

i am looking forward to hearing of correction or omissions.. please note that this is a large file (almost 7 meg) which takes a while to download and a while to format in a web browser.. the design of the critique allows a single major topic to be individually printed, so that those pages may be handed to an apologist for the watchtower society.

Doug Mason

Please remove the (meaningless) bullet point at the bottom of page 2.

The corrected file is online.

Doug