Posts by freeman

26

Jw's go to the door of a biblical scholar to preach the Bible.

by paradisebeauty in

this is interesting, jw's go to the door of a biblical scholar, a professor in theology i believe, and he invites them in and records the whole conversation.

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xpo43bgdbm.

freeman

I love this video.

Sir Anthony Buzzard is indeed the real thing, that is to say a genuine scholar. By all measures he appears to be the the real thing in his life, a caring person trying to do good, walking the walk as they say.

That said, he is also a man that is gravely ill, he was infected with a dreadful disease some time ago and it plagues him to this very day. The disease he suffers from is Adventist syndrome.

Yes he is steeped in the very same traditions and thought patterns of Charles Taz Russel. If I remember correctly he is a product of Adventist offshoot Herbert W. Armstrong. As an aside, Armstrong is so similar to the jws on a number of issues that many JWs mistakenly think he was a JW at one time, he wasn't but has his roots in the same Adventist / Christadelphian (sp) movement as Russel.

I myself was a zealous anti Trinitarian at one time, I would hunt down born-again type people and pride myself in being able to twist them into pretzels.

However, I am not now in that camp, and for the simple reason that in trying to disprove the trinity from a Biblical Greek-centric basis I remarkably discovered the enemy was correct. The Bible does in fact teach all if not most the elements supporting for lack of a better phrase, the trinity.

Greek is a precise language, unlike English there is no ambiguity. It took me 4 and ½ years to learn the rudiments of Koine Greek which NT scripture and the OT (Lxx) is written in and I was forced to completely do an about face and admit I was completely wrong. When you read it in the Greek, and you are willing to let the language speak for itself without injecting your own leanings and prejudices such as Anthony Buzzard does, you come away with a number of interesting things that bolster the trinitarian position.

Here are just 2 of the gems you uncover when you look at it with fresh eyes as I did for the first time:

There are at least two persons that existed before time even began. John 1:1

In the beginning the Word was. In the Greek en arche en ho logos it is saying that before time began, already existing was the Word. Never mind the God, “a god” nonsense of the witnesses, the Word who they openly acknowledge is the pre-human Jesus, has no beginning, lives in eternity, before time even began. So much for Michael the archangel a creation with a beginning.

Another gem is found in Titus 2:13 where Jesus is called our great God and Savior. Again the Greek is very clear Jesus is call our Great God “megalou theou” and it also says he is our Savior.

Once again in 2 Peter 1:1 it is even stronger support of the so-called trinitarian position. It says: God of us and Saviour of us Jesus Christ ( theou hemon kai soteros hemon iesou christou ) Again the Greek language is very precise, the construct of the two nouns, the first which has a form of the definite article with the copulative kai between them and then the lack of the definite article before the second noun in question and all sharing the same case ( genitive / masculine ) and being singular all point to the to the same referent, namely that Jesus is the God of us and the Savior of us.

Again I'm not saying you have to believe in God or Jesus, that is up to you.

I know for many the bible is nothing more then fairy-tales, and that's fine, but regardless of your beliefs or lack of in the bible, this is linguistic science we are dealing with, and this is precisely what the Greek says, of this I am absolutely sure.

Much to my amazement, my former foes had at least this correct according to what is written in scripture, and yes even the dreaded Catholic theologians got this right too, wow can't believe I just said that.

All that said, Anthony Buzzard is so invested in a Unitarian viewpoint at all costs that this sincere, bright and genuinely good man is incapable of letting his vastly superior training (compared to me for example) in Koine Greek override his cognitive dissonance and infection of Adventist syndrome.

But it can be done. I was able to shed myself of this affliction but I am so very very sad for him that despite he superior acumen in Greek, he is unable to let his training override his investment in a strongly held belief as I did.

Freeman

157

What Was The Silliest "Offense" That You Were Counseled For?

by minimus in

jw
friends

when i was a teenager, i was told by an elder that because i smiled a lot and was known for my good sense of humor, that i should come across as "more serious".

so before i was appointed a ms, while in my late teens, i transformed myself into a much more "serious" brother.. were you ever told that you needed to work on something that you knew was stoopid?.

freeman

I think I have posted my story before, but here it goes again as it seems to fit what you are asking for.

The Silliest offense that I committed and was counseled for was working too hard to provide for my family. Yes I missed some meetings and my field circus slacked off because I was busy taking care of my family, that was my high crime.

It was on the 4th of July weekend almost 30 years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday, because it literally became my Independence Day, the day I got off the WatchTower,Treadmill.

Long story short: out of the blue I was chosen by NASA to test and validate the security systems that protect what would become NASA's most valuable and high profile asset, the Hubble Space Telescope. At the time of my selection, my occupation was as a lowly TV / VCR repairman. I was in debt, and struggling to make a living.

Literally overnight I went from barely making a living to earning $50.00US per hr. plus all expenses paid. I should also note this is before I earned even my first college degree. In fact I had to be granted wavers because I did not even minimally qualify for this position academically.

I can't over emphasize how life-changing this was for me and my family or how much faith NASA put into my assessment of their systems. NASA could not launch the Hubble until the security shortfalls I uncovered were fully resolved, and my testimony before the Inspector General became part of the Congressional Record. It really was a big deal! Incredible is it not?

But I digress, I am forever greatly indebted to my (catholic) parents who so strongly instilled in me by their wonderful example that family comes first and foremost and that anyone or anything that prevents you from taking care of your family is not good, is not to be followed, and is certainly not from God.

I am also indebted to a lesser extent to those two elders that pulled me aside in the back room of the Kingdom Hall at 1647 Heckscher Ave. Bay Shore NY 11950 on Sunday July 5th 1987 and said in no uncertain terms “Kenneth, you have to make a choice between NASA and Jehovah's Kingdom”.

Well Kenneth made his choice that very day, and continued to work for NASA for some years on many projects. In reality, It wasn't a choice between NASA or Jehovah, that's a false dichotomy, but it was a choice to continue to do the will of an evil cult and neglect my families needs or do the correct thing and care for my family.

To my atheists and agnostic friends, and they are many, while I respect your views having my own serious bouts of doubt along the way, it is because of what happened to me, first hand, directly, and not something I read in a book written by nomadic sheep herders and tent makers, but was something that to this day I am at a loss for words to explain. All I can say is that tt shook me to my very core, and I believe I experienced the very thing that the character Dr. Arroway (played by Jodie Foster) experienced in the movie Contact. But this was not a movie, this was real.

Yes even now at 60 years of age, being a trained scientist and engineer, convinced beyond all doubt of the fact of biological evolution, the great age of the universe and the earth, and the plethora of seemingly contradictory things that should logically put me in the atheist or at least agnostic camp. I however can never truly join your ranks, for I have had the red sea parted before me, I experienced something that just does not happen, and it can't be explained logically, but it was real. It was life-changing to say the least.

I absolutely believe that I was rescued by nothing less then the hand of God from this cult.

Freeman

8

Will Vincent Toole speak the truth to the Royal commission?

by Splash in

vincent toole has a history of stating blatant untruths in order to protect the wt.. he is recorded as once saying that shunning was "a myth".. i wonder how linguistically pedantic will he get, and how much double-speak will he employ in order to defend the current wt policies.

my guess is he will try to twist the senior counsel in knots with wordy responses, in the hope they will simply run out of time.. if this fails then i'm expecting some howlers of deception..

freeman

Vincent Toole is a Tool of the watchtower. He is a lawyer (solicitor) working for the Watch Tower, in fact your donations helped pay for his law degree, thank you very much. He was an elder / overseer and very loyal to the governing body and then they decided to make him a lawyer (solicitor) and use him to defend the Watchtower. He is featured in the In the Feb 1 2004 Watchtower article “ How You Can Satisfy Your Spiritual Needs” as supposedly some worldly lawyer “Vincent” who was unsatisfied with life, just going through the motions until one day a knock on the door, and magically his life now has meaning because he found the truth he was searching for, God sent the witnesses to his door.

Not So Fast. Learn more about Vinny Toole and the Watchtoer Here

The Watchtower article is lying, he wasn't a worldly lawyer and Jehovah's Witnesses did not one day knock on his door, the truth is he was well established in the cult long before he ever became a lawyer (solicitor). He allowed the Watchtower to lie about him in an article, about the circumstances of how he became a JW, he lied as the Towers spokesmen when he told a reporter that “Jehovah's Witness don't shun, it's just a myth”.

SO Will Vincent Toole speak the truth to the Royal commission?

NO!
freeman

91

ABC's report on child abuse

by Joyzabel in

nice job!

freeman

She was just 9 years old, and they did nothing to protect her.

He was a known child molester and they did nothing, did not report him to the police, and did not warn anyone in the congregation. He molested his step daughter, then Candice, then his granddaughter.

A child was molested in my wife's congregation, it happened in an Elders house on Long Island NY. New York is supposed to be a mandatory reporting state. It was never reported, I asked an elder why, he said it was confidential and couldn't talk about it. The molester remains in my wife's congregation in good standing. It's disgusting! I have the show recorded on our dvr. I'm trying to get my wife to watch it.

What a brave woman she has become. What a wonderful thing she has done for so many others!

Freeman

36

AUGUST 1, 2007 - "If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will." - Barack Obama

by SixofNine in

august 1, 2007 - "if we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and president musharraf won't act, we will.

" - barack obamaremember how much flack he got for saying that?.

freeman

36

AUGUST 1, 2007 - "If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will." - Barack Obama

by SixofNine in

august 1, 2007 - "if we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and president musharraf won't act, we will.

" - barack obamaremember how much flack he got for saying that?.

freeman

11

house to house vs. in private homes

by DesirousOfChange in

does not matt 10 suggest that the household would not be those already in the faith?

"not deserving" or "does not take you in or listen".

matt 10:12-14 -- 12 when you are entering into the house, greet the household; 13 and if the house is deserving, let the peace you wish it come upon it; but if it is not deserving, let the peace from you return upon you.

freeman

Just to add my two cents:

You will note the demarcation within the sentence in verse 20 i.e.

Publicly AND from House to House. The word AND in this sentence is the line of demarcation.

Within this structure, “publicly” is being contrasted, separated, or distinguished from House to House.

The JW’s define their door-to-door work as their PUBLIC ministry. Within the context of Acts: 20:20, House to House is not PUBLIC, hence it is private and quite different then the door-to-door preaching.

From the Bible in Basic English translation:

“And how I kept back nothing which might be of profit to you, teaching you publicly and privately,”

Freeman

26

LIBYAN CIVILIANS BEING KILLED BY US AIRSTRIKES

by NeckBeard in

jw
friends

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/03/20/libyan-tv-claims-48-killed-us-european-attacks.html.

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/number-of-libyans-killed-by-western-air-strikes-rises-to-64-afte/.

should obama be tried as a war criminal for crimes against humanity?.

freeman

I don’t see how anyone could possibly entertain the idea that president Obama should be tried for war crimes when what he is doing is not considered warfare. How do we know, because he said so. Good enough for me.

Further, did you not hear what team Obama member deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said while aboard Air Force One, the US is not engaged in war but simply “kinetic military action”. Now y ou have to love Ben, not just a looker but one hell of a tap-dancer.

So what is “kinetic military action”, it is simply military movement, albeit quite violent. It is the military doing what they do best; blowing stuff up and killing people, but remember it’s not war it’s a police action err I mean kinetic military action, kind of a reflex action from the very bowels of the military.

Yes that’s it; it’s BULLSHIT err a military bowel movement!

But what about all the dead innocent civilians? Well, during any bowel movement, shit just happens.

So there you have it folks. Obama did not get us into a third war, no no, the military is not involved in warfare on his orders, no no, the military is involved in “kinetic military action”, a bowel movement; albeit an expensive bowel movement with very deadly results, but at least it's not war.

So Please stop picking on our president, you hate mongering raciest neocons.

“ words and meaning have almost parted company” - George Orwell

Freeman

10

Fox News Using Electronic Brain Washing? Hidden Hypnotic Signal Found

by freeman in

jw
friends

fox news is clearly identified with the republican / conservative camp.

recently i came across a thread where some of our more passionate posters were discussing the latest fox transgression.

it was being alleged that fox was overtly lying about protests occurring in wisconsin while the infamous palm tree smoking-gun video clearly showed otherwise.

freeman

Dr. Nick Begich does indeed present some interesting material. I wonder if using ELF is a new and improved version of something that supposedly was done years ago. I seem to remember something about advertisers clandestinely placing a few frames of a product like a coca-cola bottle and the words “your thirsty” in films playing in theaters to increase sales. This was a long time ago, 50’s or 60’s. You couldn’t spot it because it just flashed by to quickly, but supposedly it was picked up subconsciously. Supposedly this really worked and was ruled illegal and is no longer practiced. Maybe this is the new high tech version of that??? Spooky stuff.

Mad Swenny / RubaDub you may have nailed it, hot chicks have that effect on me too

Freeman

10

Fox News Using Electronic Brain Washing? Hidden Hypnotic Signal Found

by freeman in

jw
friends

fox news is clearly identified with the republican / conservative camp.

recently i came across a thread where some of our more passionate posters were discussing the latest fox transgression.

it was being alleged that fox was overtly lying about protests occurring in wisconsin while the infamous palm tree smoking-gun video clearly showed otherwise.

freeman

Fox News is clearly identified with the Republican / Conservative camp. Recently I came across a thread where some of our more passionate posters were discussing the latest Fox transgression. It was being alleged that Fox was overtly lying about protests occurring in Wisconsin while the infamous “palm tree smoking-gun video” clearly showed otherwise. I clicked on the little YouTube video, and it at first blush it sure looked damming to me. Then I remembered how easy it is to get the wrong impression without the right context. So I did a little research on my own, including watching the entire video, not just the edited clip and came to the independent conclusion that Fox was not lying as was being alleged. I made some posts on the thread suggesting that IMHO Fox should be let off the hook on this one.

Well it seems I did a bad thing. If you voice such a tone of moderation here on this politically charged board, you are besmirched by all sides, particularly the folks on the left who are very passionate in their views and tend to categorize people very quickly; reminds me of my MIL J or perhaps even myself before I matured.

Because I suggested Fox is in the clear on this one, now I’m called ignorant, a fool, or as one posters suggested under authoritative control. Well, I flipped him the bird via my LCD screen as is my custom J , but I don’t believe I even responded with any further comment.

However, his comment stuck with me. Authoritative control. That got me thinking. Fox does so well in the ratings, statistically better then all of their competition combined. How is that even possible? Is their writing and presentation any better or more polished then other broadcasters? I think an objective person would say hell no. So what is the magic of Fox News, why do they attract such a large audience? It’s almost as if the audience is being compelled to watch. Do they have authoritative control?

Just think about some of the personalities at Fox News. Hannity and O’Reilly, not exactly warm and fuzzy lovable guys are they? They often are down right abrasive IMHO. And then there is Glenn Beck. Granted he brings out some interesting points, but when I see him doing his thing with the black boards, flailing his arms about, my eyes just roll in embarrassment. He reminds me of some of the guys I used to work with at NASA before I retired. We called such ones “Space Cadets”.

The Fox news Video Feed has an Unexplained Anomaly

Fox News has a bit of a signal glitch in that when I land on that channel, I noticed that it was taking just a fraction of a second longer for that channel to lock in compared to every other channel on my cable system. Hardly noticeable to most people, but I noticed it happening on one of my older TV’s which seems to have more susceptibly to small signal imperfections.

It didn’t matter if I was watching via the set-top cable box, or using the TV’s own internal tuner. All of this told me that the anomaly, whatever it’s cause, was common to the composite video signal and not the carrier wave. Simply put, this transmission glitch is in fact related to the Fox News video feed itself, and not the cable system.

I had to see for myself what was going on so I pulled the back cover off of the small TV we have in the kitchen and connected an electronic signal monitoring and test instrument called an oscilloscope to a part of the TV’s circuitry called the video detector. The oscilloscope allowed me to see the raw and unprocessed video, revealing precisely what was being broadcast by Fox News.

The Hidden Hypnotic Signal?

Looking at the signal on the scope showed it to be a normal signal, no different then any other TV signal. But it wasn’t the same. Upon further detailed inspection I noticed the trailing edge of the composite video shifting and drifting to the right of the oscilloscope screen. When I switched to any other station, there was no such drifting, only when tuned to Fox News did it shift to the right. When the image drifted over to the hard edge of the scope display, it started to bounce in and out of synchronous lock at a rate varying from about 8hz – 12hz.

This low rate signal was being imposed on top of the normal video signal and as it turns out, it was in fact this small subtle signal that was causing the delay in picture lock-in that I first noticed on one of my older TVs.

Alpha Brain Waves 8hz – 12hz

Now I’m not a big fan of all that conspiracy stuff and I don’t see the boogie man everywhere I look but here is the rub:

FOX NEWS video is being modulated by a very low frequency subcarrier and the frequency range of that subcarrier exactly matches that of Alpha Brain Waves (8hz -12hz)!

Alpha brainwave generation normally occurs in people just before they fall asleep. There are just tons and tons of research showing that people are most susceptible to outside or auto suggestion during this stage of consciousness, the alpha stage just before sleep. This is how hypnotic therapy / weight loss tapes work. You listen to messages just before you fall asleep and your mind is more receptive to the message. Here is some supporting info:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/247802/your_brain_waves_change_when_you_watch.html?cat=5 .

The question is this: has Fox uncovered a way to manipulate people, making their show and its content more believable and desirable to impressionable minds? Could this be the real reason Fox News is so successful?

I don’t know the answers; I’m a retired engineer and an expert in a couple of different technical fields, but I have no expertise whatsoever in the possible effects of imposing alpha wave modulation of visual images feed to the brain and I don’t pretend too.

But WTF is Fox News doing?

Anyone with a technical background in electronics can duplicate my findings for themselves, and I suggest they do. Just remember to pluck of the video feed off before any de-emphasis filtering. *note this is hard to do on the newer TV’s, so it is best to use an older TV to obtain the signal. You can measure the alpha waves for yourself without the need of a scope by just using a good quality frequency counter with an appropriate low-pass filter, but it better to also see it on the scope as well. In my test set-up I used both.

I leave the task for others to follow-up on, I just found the anomaly or hidden signal or whatever the hell it is. I don’t know what it is or why it is there but it is truly creepy that it matches the same frequency range as Alpha waves. If it turns out that nothing nefarious is going on, fine, but I will tell you this. It will be a cold day in hell before I ever give Fox News the benefit of the doubt again on anything, not when I see something this fishy with my very own eyes. My thanks to the posters that inspired me to take a closer look at Fox News, this was a real wakeup call for me.

Freeman