Flowerpetal

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Posts by Flowerpetal

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  86

  What Do You Think About The "Faithful&Discreet Slave Class"?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there are so many new posters here now, i think this topic should be revisited.

  i believe the most ridiculous belief that witnesses have is a "slave class" made up of 144,000 give spiritual "food at the proper time".

  why can't jws see thru this??

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  Flowerpetal

  OOPS! I meant to add to my comments, that the NWT shows two slaves, the faithful one and the evil one. Of course, the society identifies with the faithful one never even considering the possibility that they could become the evil slave. But as you said, it's a parable anyway, and we have all realized that it's the governing body who is running the show--not the remaning ones who claim to be the 144,000.
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  15

  Can someone recommend a good 'Christian' forum?

  by AK - Jeff in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i still consider myself a christian, and would like to find a forum where good discussions about faith and christianity are featured.

  i love the give and take here - and will not be abandoning this forum - i just want to add a dimension to my spiritual thinking that seems missing at the moment.

  i do not attend church.

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  Flowerpetal

  You might like this one:

  http://www.christian-discussions.com/discussion/

  The administrator has been disfellowshipped from JWs, but he is more interested in going to the Bible for real discussions. As of Monday, he was fine-tuning the site, so I'm not sure if it's ready to receive any posts, but you can at least register, and look around at the different sections and topics,
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  86

  What Do You Think About The "Faithful&Discreet Slave Class"?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there are so many new posters here now, i think this topic should be revisited.

  i believe the most ridiculous belief that witnesses have is a "slave class" made up of 144,000 give spiritual "food at the proper time".

  why can't jws see thru this??

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  Flowerpetal

  There are some translations/versions of the Bible including the Emphatic Diaglott, which show the possibility of the faithful slave becoming evil, and getting impatient with the master's return, and begins to beat his fellow slaves. Does that sound familiar--as in the WTS calling the Bible Students (i.e. Russell's followers) the "evil slave" class? ...and still considers them that way.
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  121

  What is your purpose here?

  by The Scotsman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it is interesting to read the posts here.

  people desperately trying to convince themselves that they were right to give up!.

  is this your purpose in coming here????.

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  Flowerpetal

  My purpose here is to become a more informed person. You know that slogan, "Knowledge is power?" When one starts to gather knowledge which isn't slanted to an organization's beliefs, and I mean any organization, religious or otherwise, one starts to see a bigger picture, a much bigger picture.

  Also when the Isaiah book was studied in the book study groups, a few years ago, I just got very tired of another comparison of apostate Jerusalem to Christendom and the bashing which followed . Christendom may not be the best of all worlds, but it sure does a whole lot more in at least attempting to help those in 3rd world countries with food and medicines, etc. I don't see the WT society doing things like that.

  Scotsman, I think you should look at Blondie's postings every week in the "Bible Research and Study Articles" section of this forum. She does an excellent job of covering and examining the current, main WT study articles once a week, and she includes WT quotes from past articles in past years, and she also raises pertinent questions to think about.

  BTW, I was raised as a JW and was baptized at the age of 11 1/2 yrs. old in 1959. Over the last few years I have come to realize that a child has no business getting baptized especially before puberty and a teenager definitely has no business getting baptized either. If JWs preach that we are to bet footstep followers of Jesus, I ask you to think about the age Jesus was when he got baptized. He was about 30 yrs. old, right? Shouldn't that example be followed as well?
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  73

  THE END IS NEAR

  by Mary in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  with all the ridiculous hype amongst the dubs about how this new tract is going to help bring about "the end", i thought it would be beneficial to highlight how often they've been crying that the sky is falling in the last 1/2 century:.

  ***w50 2/15 p. 54" stick to your work"*** now is the time to live and work as christians, especially now, for the final end is near.

  *** the time of the end is near!

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  Flowerpetal

  Just something to be aware of, the extreme Islamists (of which the president of Iran is a member of)also want the end to come so their 12th mullah will appear and bring peace, but before that violence:

  http://cosmicvariance.com/2006/04/12/how-quickly-can-iran-get-the-bomb/#comments

  This comment is about the 3rd one down:

  1. I think one has to assume that a lot of the engineering one typically needs has been supplied to them via Pakistani scientists and engineers. If not the Russians. (Not a lot of pay for physics in Russia) I’m sure both Pakistan and the US is trying to prevent this. But there’s only so much one can do.

     So it’s all about the processing. And a small bomb is still a significant weapon. Especially when the President of Iran apparently really likes the idea of bringing back the 12th Mullah in an Islamic version of the apocalypse. I only know about him what I’ve read in Time, Newsweek and so forth. But it’s pretty scary. I’ve met some fundamentalist Christians who get excited by the notion of the apocalypse. It’s a mindset I just can’t fathom. But from that mindset, I’m tremendously scared that its in their best interest to use such a weapon (or at least supply those who would). Especially if Bush or Israel launches, as expected, some kind of attack the next few months.
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  41

  Is it possible for someone to "Love being a JW"?

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a few days ago, i met an old lady that has a jw as neighbour.

  she knows that jw couple since years, although she isn't a jw.

  so, i asked that old lady, "do you still see that jw couple once in a while", hoping for some kind of juicy news..... so, my question is, "how can a person love to be a jw" when so many others just "hate" being in that religion?.

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  Flowerpetal

  Some people need structure and the society provides that in one way by suggesting everybody making a schedule and sticking to it. Those who are successful at it, thrive and might think they love being a JW.

  Then there are those whose lives spill out over the edges of a schedule (you can call it dysfunction or maybe they are just bohemian types at heart) and end up becoming unhappy. The bohemian types are unhappy because they don't have time to express themselves, maybe thru writing or art, or something like that.
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  19

  Who is God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit?

  by sanjanicole in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am studying about jw, and as i understand it you do not believe in the trinity, how can you not belive in something that the bible says is real, i understand that the word trinity itself is not in the bible, but that does not mean that it does not exist especially since the triune god is talked about in the bible...

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  Flowerpetal

  You can find just as many arguments in the Bible to prove the trinity doctrine as you can to disprove it--so I have to agree with Honesty in asking the question,

  Is belief in the Trinity necessary for salvation? If it is, then I guess I;m doomed as I never believed in it.
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  13

  Comments You Will Not Hear at the10-1-06 WT Study (Job Endurance)

  by blondie in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  comments you will not hear at the 10-01-06 wt study (august 15, 2006, pages 25-29)(job endurance).

  review comments will be in red.

  wt material from today's wt will be in black.

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  Flowerpetal

  Hi Blondie!

  Very interesting esp. the comments from Robert Sutherland's book regarding Elihu. I have ALWAYS had a difficult time trying to understand the WT explanations and/or interpretations in connection with the book of Job and finally came to the conclusion on my own (right before stopping my association with the WT) that it is an allegory for the human condition.

  Just have a few remarks:

  From WT article:

  3) Suffering evil is by no means easy, as many Witnesses can testify. For this reason, the Bible counsels all Christians: "Take as a pattern of the suffering of evil and the exercising of patience the prophets, who spoke in the name of Jehovah." (James 5:10) Over the centuries, many servants of God were persecuted without cause. The examples provided by this great "cloud of witnesses" can encourage us to keep running with endurance our Christian race.-Hebrews 11: 32-38; 12:1.

  Since the WTS claims to be speaking in the name of Jehovah might they view people who are speaking against it (i.e. evil apostates, etc.) to be persecuting them without cause? And perhaps the more they are being exposed the more they might be viewing themselves as suffering evil.

  Your concluding comments:

  Pumpkins, indian corn, mums, asters, concord grapes, canning. The trees are turning very early this fall. Maybe it’s a sign of the end, haha.

  Well the society does teach that a lot of serious stuff happens in October!
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  36

  Big Announcementitis - JWs and 'Postates

  by slimboyfat in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what is it with jehovah's witnesses and apostates and "big announcements" - they are as bad as each other.

  witnesses are always on about big announcements in the pipeline - just to end up being disappointed.

  like the time they reduced the pioneers hours - big wow.

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  Flowerpetal

  SirNose:

  Yeah, ok, maybe I'm impatiently waiting on something that might never materialize. I just want something...interesting....to happen every so often. I've already figured out that I probably won't be able to "exit stage left" until something polarizing comes along.

  Nothing even interesting isn't going to happen because when Fred Franz died, the WTS lost their "visionary." I think that's why The Revelation book is being studied again.....there is just nobody up there in Bethel who can come up with anything better or even more exciting....
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  87

  How many 'real" friends did you ever really have in ther "truth'

  by The Lone Ranger in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  sure we got to know a lot of people, we knew a lot more people then the average person, but how many real friends did we ever have?

  a friend that we could trust, that we could confine in.

  i can say i had just one, bro x and even then i still had to be careful, bro x is an elder now and he tells me that im the only real friend hes ever had, he cant freely talk to anyone.

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  Flowerpetal

  I thought I had at least one, but now I know I had NONE.....