I was honored being called apostate by an elder last WE because I had publicly said the week before that in the mature-grain-being-harvested parable in Mark 4 :26 the sower must be Jesus and not the JW publisher. Very convenient term when they want to stigmatized someone.
aligot ripounsous
JoinedPosts by aligot ripounsous
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Apostasy from JWs? That's not what the Bible says...hmmmm
by Awakened at Gilead ini have been called an apostate in the past week by my sil, my stepdad, and my soon to be ex-wife.
it didn't help that apostasy was featured in this past weeks wt study, a point my ex was quick to remind me.... .
i have done a quick search in the wt cd rom to see how many times the word apostate or derivatives appear (i searched "aposta*").. .
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aligot ripounsous
Don't worry, Warren Buffett is going to fix it up soon, he's taken stakes in electric companies lately, at a very good price at that, which btw should drive him to be twice as much the richest man on earth.
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Is it the JW's or the God of the bible you no longer believe?
by reniaa ini have a question for the ex-jw's on this forum after months of reading the forum..... many say how good it is to be free of the oppressiveness of the jw's that they can now enjoy the freedom to... have sex, celebrate christmas, gamble, embrace politics etc.
there are still biblical scriptures and principles in place that if you still followed the bible would mean you avoid these things and yet these are now embraced as one of the perks of no longer being a jw so in my confusion i ask.... if these are what you want, isn't it more correct to say you no longer follow the bible as apposed to just the jw's?.
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aligot ripounsous
Reniaa,
I'm not sure this answers your question but I think that an exJW's attitude toward the former rules he chooses to break will really depend on how he understands the Bible teaching, how he has personally made it his own, and what "perks" we are talking about. Among the perks you cited, it seems to me that there are some which clearly involve Bible principles, such as out of marriage sex and to some extent, gambling (let the one who doesn't work not eat). The ExJW who indulges in them will certainly think that in doing so he breaks free from too limiting WT regulations but, if he is honest, he will also acknowledge that he is acting contrary to Bible rules.
Now, IMO, Xmas, birthdays and politics are to be considered differently. They are viewed as non biblical by JWs out of a sheer will to singularize that religion, so that JWs can easily be identified by "worldly" onlookers and they give JWs a sense of exclusiveness, but one hardly finds any biblical basis to the JW stand. Objectively, the ExJW who gets involved in these practices won't break any Bible rules, but he may feel that he does so because of all that he has been taught and repeated again and again over the years by the WTS and that is now stuck to his mind. So, in the end, in celebrating Xmas, may be out of a desire of self assertion vis-à-vis the WTS, he may still feel bad conscience as regards "true" christian principles when in fact there is no ground for guilt if those practices are carried out with genuineness .
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Polygamy in Canada: Our dirty little secret?
by happysunshine ini thought this was interesting.. .
polygamy in canada: our dirty little secret?.
if there are thousands of people illegally practising polygamy in canada and the united states, why is our biggest battle for human rights happening overseas?.
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aligot ripounsous
Polygamy is rife, though unofficial, in France, within the west african community. When questioned on the radio about those 10 children families in Paris suburbs, an immigrant association representative replied : who we call our wives you call your mistresses.
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The sower can't be Jesus
by Bonnie_Clyde in14. who is this sower?
some in christendom believe that this refers to jesus himself.
but how could it be said that jesus sleeps and does not know how the seed grows?
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aligot ripounsous
Sir82
I think that the 2 narratives in Mark 4 : 26 and Mat. 13 : 36 are referring to the same parable about the wheat and the weeds. In both gospels, the account is situated between the parable about the sowing in the rocky soil, etc. and the parable about the mustard grain.
Part of de discrepancies can be explained by the fact that Mark's narrative is more concise. For example, it says that the sower sleeps, when Matthew reads "while the men were sleeping". You may remember that the society teaches that Solomon building the temple means in fact that he got the temple built by his workers. The same reasoning could be used here but the WTS just forgets to apply it because differenciating the 2 accounts suits their purpose, which is assimilation of the sowers in the first and the second parable in Mark's, and only Mark's account, the one where we don't read that the sower is the son of man, and leaving aside Matthew's parallel account. dishonest approach, we'll all agree.
Now, trying to answer Bonnie's question, we notice that in 21 and 28 sept study articles, they apply right now events which the Bible says will occur at the conclusion of the system of things, namely, harvesting in the wheat/weeds parable (which they say represents those who study with the JWs coming to chistian maturity) and the sorting out of fish, which they say is operated now, whereas Matthew says that it is performed by angels who throw the wicked in the fiery furnace.
My assumption is that the WTS holds that view for the reason that they want to get JWs accustomed to the idea that Armaggedon is not for tomorrow morning and not even for the day after tomorrow, and the society gradually adopts a long term perpective which will justify her being still around in 50 years from now, as a mainstream religion. In addition, this stand allows R&F JWs to have the satisfaction of seing right here and now the result of their preaching work : harvesting and selection of fish. Did anyone say manipulation ?
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The French Connection continues...
by THE GLADIATOR injust returned from a 3 day sojourn to france with my older abrother.
the overnight ferry pushed on through a sea of snoring to arrive on time in le havre.
i drove as my stoic brother examined his seat belt and air bag and quietly contemplated the possibility of an afterlife.
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aligot ripounsous
I ordered escargots but instead they bought snails
were you expecting slugs ?
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aligot ripounsous
Thanks, StAnn, corrected
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aligot ripounsous
I must admit that elders have not dared (or bothered) having a conversation with me for more than one year by now, about the fact that I haven't reported any preaching nor attended BS and midweek meetings. They just seeem to be happy to see me turning up at sunday meeting. Even last sunday, after I publicly commented at the WT study that we can readily understand that the society would until now hold the view that the sower is Jesus, because that's what the gospels plainly read, not even one of them did say to me at the end of the meeting that this view is now apostate. I gather that, either they apply Jude's word "while you hate even the inner garment that has been stained by the flesh" or, more probably, they just couldn't care less.
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Where have WTS clamed to NEVER have spoken in Jehovahs name?
by still_in74 inso i pulled this article from cd rom as this was pdf'd on another thread by atlantis.
*** w79 9/1 pp.
29-30 pars.
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aligot ripounsous
TheWatchtower,
the official journal of Jehovah’s Witnesses, has said: "We have not the gift of prophecy." (January 1883, page 425).Now, the WTS has taught us at length that a prophet doesn't have to utter prophecies, he is God's representative, as it was repeated in last week WT study article :
" Jehovah assured Ezekiel that when the judgments he proclaimed came true, the rebellious house of Israel would" certainly know also that a prophet himself happened to be in the midst of them." (Ezek. 2:5) Similarly, when God carries out his judgments against the present system of things, people will be forced to recognize that the message Jehovah's Witnesses preached in public places and from house to house actually originated with the one true God, Jehovah, and that the Witnesses really did serve as his representatives"
Like the bat saying Look at my head I'm a mouse, look at my wings I'm a bird.
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I am loosing interest in most things JW or XJW!
by AK - Jeff ini think that simon's announcement that this venue was closing was the catalyst.
i looked around the other forums and realized i just don't need them anymore.
i have logged in here probably 10% of my former time since the announcement, first to do the 'admin' stuff that was happening immediately following - but now usually only once a day, maybe 10 minutes, and can't even find much of interest while i do that.
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aligot ripounsous
Not that I've been such an important poster on JWD but I feel I've said about all that I had to say and I believe I'm fading from XJWs apace with from JWs.