Posts by Doug Mason

19

What three items were in the Ark of the Covenant?

by jam in

i will give you a hint.

1) jar of bread 2) stick 3) two stones.. and why were they placed in the ark of the covennant????.

i'm embarrassed to say, as a former elder, schooled by the.

Doug Mason

1. Which words from Exodus were written on the two stones?

2. Why were they written on the back and on the front?

Doug

4

one thing that's bothered me for a while about the use of john 6:68 (oddly, this has always been the bigger issue than the rampant replacement of 'whom' with 'where') was it's apparent condemnation by 2 timothy 4:3.. from the jw bible:.

john 6:68 - simon peter answered him: lord, whom shall we go away to?

you have sayings of everlasting life.".

Doug Mason

The Bible is not a flat canvas. It is important to determine the context, and by that I mean the religious politics at play with each writer.

Offhand, I do not know which of these was written first, nor do I know which community was responsible for each. Scholars know that no NT writer knew Jesus personally, and that these two writings (John and Timothy) were written fairly late, probably towards the end of the first century. 2 Timothy was written by an adherent of Paul, making statements that he/they felt Paul would/should have said.

Every NT and OT writing was being addressed to its own immediate community. What would be the point of writing to them when they were writing to some 21st century group, especially to nations that they did not know? Certainly by implication one could take their opinions as useful and helpful, but little more.

As you point out, the WTS arbitarily applies "good" things in the Bible to itself and "bad" things to those that they oppose. That's politics at play.

Doug

15

The City of Nazareth, and interesting find.

by Crazyguy in

i was watching a video on youtube about chistianity and its founding and it came to my attention that the city of nazareth did not even excist when jesus was said to be alive.

it was'nt really anything accept a cemetary until about 200 ad.

so just like the city of goshen were the israelites were said to be from when they left egypt during the exodus, looks like another major flaw in the bible..

Doug Mason

Crazyguy,

The Bible writings are not meant to be literal historically accurate records. They are theological histories, written to make a religious point to the community that each was addressed to - and continually modified throughout time to make the writing reflect the views of each age. Just like what the WTS did - making it fit their prejudices.

When you come to the realisation that each piece is tied to the particular community and was written in order to impress and control that community, the change in attitude towards their writings opens amazing horizons. Who were these people, how did they think, what were the religious and secular politics of the time, who was trying to take control, why do we read only the views of one side of the story, who decided which writings were Scripture, how did they do it, what mistakes did they make, why did none of the people who knew Jesus prepare a written account, why did Jesus not write anything, why should we trust Paul's visions for the foundations of Christianity?

Take the Book of Acts as one example: Why does it contrast and contradict Paul? Because it was written by someone living decades after Paul's death and the writer's intention was to smooth over the stark differences between Paul and James/Peter; so "Luke" concocted a religious history. Another example: only 7 of the writings attributed to Paul are recognised by scholars as havng actually being written by him.

Recognise that the Bible is a collection of human writings selected by humans to meet their needs. It then provides an amazing insight into the people who wrote, compiled, edited, amended, copied and printed it - not that there is just one source version. And that opens up more scope for investigation.

Doug

BTW. Regarding Nazareth. I had no idea that some doubted it existed; my understanding is that Jesus/Yeshua/Joshua was born in Nazareth and that his ministry was limited geographically to that region. His venture down to Jerusalem was seen as a display against the Roman powers, that he intended to set himself up as the King of the Jews, that the Kingdom was about due. He would become King when the Son of Man would come down from heaven.

DM

49

The List, by "Prominent Bethelite"

by morloc in

i occasionally pop through here to catch up on the latest, but this time i'm going to pop my own post on here.. some of you internet oldsters may even remember this.

my first experience on the internet regarding discussions about jehovah's witnesses and the watchtower took place on a now-obscure usenet group, before i eventually stumbled across hourglass2.. during those days, there was a poster who went by the name "prominent bethelite," an otherwise anonymous individual whom i remember most for an extensive, exhaustive compilation of date-oriented remarks, predictions, and expectations by the watchtower organization down through the decades of its history.. it became known as "the list" and it's definitely lengthy... but a fascination look at the abundance of errant statements made through the watchtower's history.. if you're curious, it's been available for a long time on hourglass2's site, and can be seen using the link provided below.. the list, compiled by prominent bethelite (1999).

that's about it for this stop through here.

Doug Mason

WOW!

I just had to make a Word and PDF file of that for myself!

Doug

1

Correspondence during the 1917 takeover of the WTS by Rutherford

by Doug Mason in

some of the correspondence during the 1917 takeover of the wts by rutherford is available at:.

http://www.jwstudies.com/1917_correspondence.pdf .

since the size of the lettering is small, the correspondence is also provided in landscape format at:.

Doug Mason

Some of the correspondence during the 1917 takeover of the WTS by Rutherford is available at:

http://www.jwstudies.com/1917_Correspondence.pdf

Since the size of the lettering is small, the correspondence is also provided in landscape format at:

http://www.jwstudies.com/1917_Correspondence__landscape_.pdf

No doubt this is available elsewhere on the www, so I would be interested to know where I can locate the related material from that time.

Thanks,

Doug

8

"Watchtower's Achilles' Heel" is available in Spanish

by Doug Mason in

the watchtowers achilles heel is available in spanish.. if reasoning with a jw on the governing bodys interpretations such as of the kingdom of god, parousia, the cross, blood, and so on is unlikely to break the governing bodys mental stranglehold, what then is its achilles heel?.

my study: the watchtowers achilles heel answers that question.

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

Doug Mason

Thank you all for your kind comments.

I see that an interesting DVD has just been released. I have seen trailers and discussions on it but I have not yet seen it. It is called "A Polite Bribe". apolitebribe.com

I am presently reading Bart Ehrman's latest book, "How Jesus Became God". It is well written, easy to read, and brings together many interesting issues.

Doug

8

"Watchtower's Achilles' Heel" is available in Spanish

by Doug Mason in

the watchtowers achilles heel is available in spanish.. if reasoning with a jw on the governing bodys interpretations such as of the kingdom of god, parousia, the cross, blood, and so on is unlikely to break the governing bodys mental stranglehold, what then is its achilles heel?.

my study: the watchtowers achilles heel answers that question.

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

Doug Mason

“The Watchtower’s Achilles’ Heel” is available in Spanish.

If reasoning with a JW on the Governing Body’s interpretations such as of the Kingdom of God, Parousia, the Cross, Blood, and so on is unlikely to break the Governing Body’s mental stranglehold, what then is its Achilles’ Heel?

My Study: “The Watchtower’s Achilles Heel” answers that question. It is available at

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

It is also available in Spanish:

Si el tratar de razonar con un Testigo de Jehová acerca de las interpretaciones del Cuerpo Gobernante referente al Reino de Dios, Parousia, La Cruz, Sangre, y muchas más, resulta en una estrategia fútil para liberarlos del control mental completo ejercido por sus líderes, ¿cuál es entonces el talón de Aquiles del Cuerpo Gobernante?

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

Doug Mason

13

Jacob becomes Isreal, Why? Bible Study Gen. 32-35

by What is Truth? in

i have had a facination with this passage for some time since starting reading james kugel's book "how to read the bible" and i am curious to get your imput.

it is genesis 32: 24-32 where jacob gets his name changed.. i am most interested in how this story relates to the early dealings with isrealite's god.

specifically, who is the person that jacob wrestles with?.

Doug Mason

Smiddy,

Do not presume that Moses wrote the first books of the Bible.

Doug

13

Jacob becomes Isreal, Why? Bible Study Gen. 32-35

by What is Truth? in

i have had a facination with this passage for some time since starting reading james kugel's book "how to read the bible" and i am curious to get your imput.

it is genesis 32: 24-32 where jacob gets his name changed.. i am most interested in how this story relates to the early dealings with isrealite's god.

specifically, who is the person that jacob wrestles with?.

Doug Mason

What is Truth?

For the Hebrews, a name was far more than a handle or a means of identification. It was the very being of that person; hence the need at times for a person's name to be changed.

The Hebrews used several names for God, depending on the situation. For example, the people who wrote Genesis chapter 1 did not use the name YHWH until it was revealed to Moses at the "burning bush", whereas the writers of the Creation myth of Genesis 2 used the tetragram for God's name.

The writers of Genesis 1 (written after Genesis 2, by the way) used God's name of "EL". Information is available on the sources of these names, and where the Israelites took their YHWH god from, but that's another issue.

In many instances, the EL is incorporated into the names of people and of places (Bethel, meaning "house of God", incorporates the EL name, for example).

Thus when Jacob encountered God his name was changed to include God's name - Israel. Knowing its origin will ensure that you will always spell it correctly.

BTW. EL was the "super God" who had a pantheon of minor gods; YHWH was one of these minor gods - he was an angry warlike god. When the Israelites adopted YHWH as their god, they took EL's wife Asherah and gave her to YHWH. You will see references to Asherah in the Bible; the general populace worshiped her alongside YHWH, as archaeology confirms. It's just that the priests were against that arrangement - and it is their wriitngs that you read.

Doug

30

Jehovahs witnesses dont have the name of GOD right so how can they be his witnesses

by smiddy in

the tetragrammaton ,does not appear anywhere in the christian greek scriptures see the new world kingdom interlinear translation.

the tetragrammaton translated in english is yhwh ( not jhvh) their is no j in hebrew.. the first edition of the book " aid to bible understanding" admits that the proper pronunciation of gods name is not known.. that they have used the name jehovah because it is the more popular name used in christendoms religions.

and they say christendoms religions are apostates / anti christs /babylon the great , can they have it both ways ?.

Doug Mason

The overall context of Isa 43:10 says that Jacob and Israel had witnessed God. These chapters do not say that Jacob and Israel were going door-to-door giving out witness statements. These chapters say that even though they had witnessed YHWH, they had not called on Him (Isa 43:20-24). For that reason, God had brought them to the low state they were experiencing (Isa 43:26-28, Israel's destruction and Judah's captivity in Babylon).

It is interesting that Isa 43:10 says that his "witnesses" were his "servant" ("slave class"???).

Rutherford shackled the organisation with his "Jehovah's witness" legacy. Not only did he use a verse that is completely irrelevant and damaging, but he has prevented the JWs being able to break free from this word "Jehovah", which was invented by the Catholic Church in the 13th century.

Doug