Posts by glenster

13

Watchtower and the occult?-outrageous accusations

by cameo-d in

thank you for this great opportunity to plug some of my threads.. folks...you read it here, first!!!.

in the aug. 15 2009 watchtower, the rag shows photos of john milton and isacc newton with the caption {they} "knew about the hope of everlasting life on earth.".

both of these people were involved in....well, don't let me spoil the surprise.

glenster

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amillennialism

21

The Problem I have with 'Christians', 'Muslims',and 'Jews'. Of ALL varieties.

by ThomasCovenant in

abraham was prepared to cut the throat of his son because 'god' told him to.. once you accept that as perfectly natural and normal you can accept anything.

absolutely anything.

no questions asked.. some accuse witnesses of being sneaky and underhanded.

The original post indicates a view that all Abrahamic religious people are
unethical immoral people, like JWs leaders' efforts to feign distinction not
caring who is hurt or killed. That's not true, and, ironically, the best thing
to criticize is when believers or non-believers are too 'centric, and it's too
'centric.

It reminds me of the end of "Religulous," in which the host characterizes
Armageddon as humans warring against humans instead of it being a hope for the
end of that with rule by God. And if there's something for the host to
criticize, it's when people get too 'centric, unwilling to be friendly with
anyone but their own and creating unneccesary division and worse between people,
and, ironically, the host is too 'centric. Basically, the host claims the world
would be good if everyone different than him were abolished. It sounds like an
atheist Armageddon. The world won't be better if everyone is as 'centric as the
host--that's one of the worst things about it. We already have too much of
that, and it's caused the worst believer and non-believer behavior.

21

The Problem I have with 'Christians', 'Muslims',and 'Jews'. Of ALL varieties.

by ThomasCovenant in

abraham was prepared to cut the throat of his son because 'god' told him to.. once you accept that as perfectly natural and normal you can accept anything.

absolutely anything.

no questions asked.. some accuse witnesses of being sneaky and underhanded.

glenster

The Philistines took over Palestine for 40 years (Judges 13:1-5, even taking
the Ark of the Covenant, I Kings 4), with Samson given as working for freedom
from them, not as a violent effort at religious conversion. The US wants to
minimize threat but isn't trying to make Iraq the 51st state and take the Kaaba
from Mecca or dictate what others' religion has to be. Islamic extremist
suicide bombers kill anyone who isn't one of them, where ever they are, even
other Islamic people who aren't extremists, intending the rest of us see the
need to convert to their belief. Thankfully, it usually has the opposite effect.

21

The Problem I have with 'Christians', 'Muslims',and 'Jews'. Of ALL varieties.

by ThomasCovenant in

abraham was prepared to cut the throat of his son because 'god' told him to.. once you accept that as perfectly natural and normal you can accept anything.

absolutely anything.

no questions asked.. some accuse witnesses of being sneaky and underhanded.

glenster

The "God is just" idea falls under the category of God's prerogative. As
creator, sustainer, whatever, of it all, it's all His to do with however He
wants--not that He has everyone live forever in heavenly circumstances, which
wouldn't be credible as noticed by one look around.

Any God concept, to be credible, of a God beyond the seeable, touchable world,
has to be reconciled with the real world, such as the 3rd world problems, ill-
nesses, and that we all die, etc. God can't be all-benificent, which is dealt
with in one of the earliest books of the Bible. Job can be glad for what good
he found in life, anyway, the same as a non-believer might look at life that way
(or not).

The Abraham story, whether a Christian takes it literally or figuratively
for theological teaching, has God tell Abrahm to sacrifice his son (and stopped
him once Abrahm passed the test). Abrahm didn't just have a speculation about a
possible interpretation that it might be something God wanted him to do or such.

Some people say nothing has killed more people than belief in God. But Jesus
and Paul didn't teach followers to look for others and beat them up (1 Cor.
10:32,33).I say a wiser and bigger overview is that nothing has killed more
people than when people get too 'centric. That's when people take it on their
own to fly jets into buildings, burn people at stakes, or Hitlers or Stalins
have people persecuted and killed, etc. That covers the religious examples,
doesn't mischaracterize (in a 'centric way) the rest of the believers or non-
believers who are nice people, and covers all the other examples, too.

If an extremist with a debatable and dangerous interpretation wants to kill
someone because their belief is different in the name of God, while they could
evoke the idea of God's prerogative, I'd like to see a sign of God like Abrahm
is given as getting in behalf of their interpretation--see some clouds part and
hear Charleton Heston or something--or they should shut up. They have no show
of that with anything about Abrahm let alone in the precedent of any misguided
Christian who got too 'centric and burned someone at a stake because their
belief was different.

There is a wealth of evidence that the JWs leaders have mischaracterized
research books, etc., to support the 'centric claim of being the only leading
spokemen for a literal 144,000. The rules meant to establish that distinction
have divided people unnecessarily (shunning) and led to deaths in hospital rooms
and Germany and Malawi.
http://www.freewebs.com/glenster1/gtjbrooklynindex.htm

13

Watchtower and the occult?-outrageous accusations

by cameo-d in

thank you for this great opportunity to plug some of my threads.. folks...you read it here, first!!!.

in the aug. 15 2009 watchtower, the rag shows photos of john milton and isacc newton with the caption {they} "knew about the hope of everlasting life on earth.".

both of these people were involved in....well, don't let me spoil the surprise.

glenster

Milton and Newton were among the early Protestants that were non-Trinitarians.
Newton didn't have any better ability to show it was the originally intended
view than the JWs leaders, though. Newton, one of our most renowned scientists,
proposed his own version of the scientifically useless "pyramid inch" (a bit
shorter than John Taylor's), too, which used to be of some use to JWs leaders.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_inch

"LOL...It always used to puzzle me why the WTS could use the Catholic
Encyclopedia to back up their views, but the rank and file were discouraged from
reading non-WTS literature."

That's standard JWs leader's use of research material when claiming to prove
any of the distinctive stances meant to substantiate that they are the exclusive
spokesmen of a literal 144,000. Their notably strong shunning rules are applied
to those who persistantly disagree with any of those rules, too, so they won't
be around to alert the other victims very long.
http://www.freewebs.com/glenster1/gtjbrooklynindex.htm

168

Supreme Court Blood Case - WTS LOSES

by skeeter1 in

http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/2009/2009scc30/2009scc30.html.

supreme court of canada.

wts loses!.

glenster

Wikipedia > "Controversies regarding Jehovah's Witnesses" is looking a little healthier since the last time I looked at it, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_regarding_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses

30

Michael Jackson - Teenage Superstar Jehovah's Witness!!?...that's what killed him!

by Witness 007 in

imagine being a teenage superstar....and a jehovah's witness???

poor guy must have suffered a worst mind f#ck then any of us.

teenage girls worshiped him, but i doubt he ever had one.

glenster

It's like asking what killed Lenny Bruce. Certain legal things kicked his
butt but nobody kicked Lenny's butt harder than Lenny himself with his heroin,
paying organized crime for the privilege to screw himself up till he died too
young on the cra**er.

Elvis took too many under-the-counter pharmaceuticals. He had certain
physical problems, but he wasn't on a responsible program regarding amounts and
mixtures of pharmaceuticals till he died too young a similar way.

"In January 2007, Jackson had settled with a Beverly Hills pharmacy that sued him for more than $100,000 in unpaid bills."

http://www.examiner.com/x-8543-SF-Health-News-Examiner~y2009m6d26-Deepak-Chopra-Jackson-doctors-fed-Oxycontin-Demerol-addiction
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b131365_tour_promoter_hired_michael_jacksons.html

It was probably something similar.

I was still waiting for something new about the Jerry Lewis/Suzan Minoret
(aka Lewis) controversy....
http://www.bittenandbound.com/2009/03/18/suzan-lewis-is-jerry-lewis-daughter-photos-and-video/
http://www.mahalo.com/suzan-lewis

7

Spiritual Food from Christ since October 1874 proves Russell's Chronology!

by Ultimate Reality in

in the october 1, 1904 watchtower, page 298, the 587 bce chronology issue is raised by a reader.

below are the final comments of a lengthy defense.

i thought it worth sharing.... .

glenster

Kind understanding for "inferiors" part one--darker skinned people 1902 Russell seemed to dislike certain racist outlooks. But at one point he
wrote: "The secret of the greater intelligence and aptitude of the Caucasian un-
doubtedly in great measure is to be attributed to the commingling of blood
amongst its various branches; and this was evidently forced in large measure by
circumstances under divine control. It remains to be proven that the similar
commingling of the various tribes of Chinese for several centuries would not
equally brighten their intellects; and the same with the peoples of India and
Africa." ("Zion's Watch Tower," July 15, 1902, p.216)

1904 "CAN THE ETHIOPIAN CHANGE HIS SKIN?"

"We answer, No. But all will admit that what the Ethiopian cannot do for him-
self God could readily do for him. The difference between the races of men and
the differences between their languages have long been arguments against the
solidarity of the human family. The doctrine of restitution has also raised the
question, How could all men be brought to perfection and which color of skin was
the original? The answer is now provided.

"God can change the Ethiopian's skin in his own due time. Prof. H. A. Ed-
wards, Supt. of Schools in Slater, Mo., has written for the public press an
elaborate description of how Julius Jackson, of New Frankfort, Mo., a negro boy
of nine years, began to grow white in September, 1901, and is now fully nine-
tenths white. He assures us that this is no whitish skin disease; but that the
new white skin is as healthy as that of any white boy, and that the changed boy
has never been sick and never has taken medicines." ("Watchtowers Reprints,"
Feb.15, 1904, pp.3319,3320)

Russell taught that the skin color of Adam and Eve, originally perfect, was
Caucasian.

1904 Russell continued teaching there would be 144,000 (Rev.14:1-5 taken lit-
erally), including him, in heaven. ("The New Creation," 1904, p.179)
http://www.premier1.net/~raines/theistic.html
http://www.freeminds.org/history/dates.htm
http://www.freeminds.org/history/part1.htm

1904 In a paragraph headed "SCIENCE FALSELY SO CALLED," Russell taught that

"Our wise men, anxious to disprove the Bible record of the Creation, 'prove'
much by the stone formations of the earth's crust; and freely talk about mil-
lions of years being necessary to produce the stone conditions which are every-
where apparent. Their long arguments and wise conclusions were made to look
very silly recently by an accident near East St. Louis. A car of lime and a car
of potatoes were partly submerged together in the river. The slacking lime
fired the car and the astonishing result was that every potato was turned to
flinty stone in less than twenty-four hours. The Lord's people have no need to
feel ashamed of the old Book."

The old crook was at least useful in showing that the JWs leaders' efforts at
a cooked-up claim to exclusive Godly wisdom were already well underway with him.

6

Welcome to North Korea

by glenster in

it takes a little creative interpretation, but some aspects of north korea.

remind me of what it would be like if the jws leaders ran a country.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj6e3cshcvu.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3742145385913859804&ei=ef1dsqbsb4ewqaoysvcxcg&q=welcome+to+north+korea&hl=en.

glenster

I know you're kidding. But actually, he shares a look with Chairman Mao--see Wikipedia > Great Leap Forward. Not so cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong

35

Sabellianism/Trinity

by JWdaughter in

has anyone studied the heresy that led to the teaching of arianism?

it was an opposite heresy called sabellianism.

it is exactly what the wt has been saying is "the trinity", but which was thoroughly discounted and rejected by early christians.

glenster

P.S.: they didn't stone you to death because you thought you'd seen an angel.
They might believe you, think you were nuts, or talk with you, but they didn't
stone you to death. Jesus and Stephen could have avoided some life-threatening
troubles by saying they meant Jesus is an angel, but never make the point.