Posts by recovering

20

what is the sales technique here?

by Kevin McFree in

jw's will never knock on your door and say, "hi, we are here to convert you".

speaking to a reporter recently a jw media rep at hq said " our main purpose going door to door is not to convert but to share bible truths with people".

does anyone know the sales techniques involved here?

new light a tenent of Branch Davidians

by recovering in

wow i came across this recently.

the branch davidians are/where a cult lead by david koresh.

they believed themselves to be living in a time when biblical prophecies of a final divine judgment were coming to pass as a prelude to christ's second coming.

recovering

Never heard of the zealot podcast. What is it?

I stumbled across this information when I was watching a tv show about David Koresh and how he justified sleeping with his 12 yr old sister in law. He referred to new light on his excuse for his behavior. I then just did a Google search and got more information.

10

new light a tenent of Branch Davidians

by recovering in

wow i came across this recently.

the branch davidians are/where a cult lead by david koresh.

they believed themselves to be living in a time when biblical prophecies of a final divine judgment were coming to pass as a prelude to christ's second coming.

recovering

Wow I came across this recently. The branch Davidians are/where a cult lead by David Koresh. . They believed themselves to be living in a time when Biblical prophecies of a final divine judgment were coming to pass as a prelude to Christ's Second Coming. In 1993 the ATF, FBI, and Texas National Guard raided one of their properties for suspected weapons violations, as well as child molestation by their leader. Once the Branch Davidians met the raid with gunfire they were laid siege for 51 days. The siege ended with a raid which resulted in the deaths of the Branch Davidians' leader, David Koresh, as well as 82 other Branch Davidian men, women, and children, and four ATF agents.

I find it very interesting that they used the concept of receiving new light from god to justify their misdeads.

I have pasted there beliefs down below. It is scary how much some of their beliefs mirror JW beliefs.

Outline of Branch Davidian Teachings

Prophecy

Branch Davidians believe they are God's chosen people for the Last Days prior to the end of the world. Because of this they believe that God will always send a prophet to guide them. In this sense they keep to the original spirit of Seventh-day Adventism, where for the first 70 years of its history God was believed to send messages to the Church instructing it and guiding it. Branch Davidians have had five prophets: Ellen White, Victor Houteff, Ben Roden, Lois Roden and David Koresh (although not all of these were Branch Davidians, see the History of Branch Davidians). Currently the group still believe they are being sent messages from God.

Branch Davidians believe God is guiding his Church into more and more truth. They trace this back to the Reformation, with Martin Luther beginning this journey: he was succeeded by Knox, Wesley, Campbell, Miller, then the Seventh-day Adventists, then the Davidian Adventists and finally the Branch Davidians. The Branch Davidian view of Doctrine is therefore very dynamic and evolutionary - they are constantly expecting "New Light" to be shown by God to his/her people. The prophets are the means by which God reveals New Light, but this is always by drawing out the real meaning of texts from the Bible. Hence a prophet does not simply announce a new teaching, it always has to be shown to be what the Bible has taught all along, but people have been "blinded" to.

True Believers are not therefore those who are morally good - Branch Davidians believe that the Bible teaches that no one can be perfect - but those who believe "Present Truth" (the latest teachings from God). It is by constantly following the new teachings from God that the believer will be saved.

The Last Days

But why does God keep revealing New Light? Why didn't He just reveal himself in Jesus - as his Final Revelation to the world? The answer to this lies in prophecy in the Bible.

The Bible is full of prophecy. Right at creation God prophecies what will happen if Adam or Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge (Gen 2:17), at the Fall he prophecies again (Gen 3:14-19), and this continues throughout the Old Testament - in the Law, in the Psalms and of course particularly in the Prophets. In the New Testament we constantly hear that Jesus acts "that it might be fulfilled" (e.g. Matt 2:17) - does this mean that all Old Testament prophecy is fulfilled in Jesus? No, because the New Testament also speaks of prophecy being fulfilled at the end of time - prior to the Second Coming (e.g. Matt 24, 2 Thess 2:3), and itself contains a complete book of prophecy - the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the last book of the Bible. Branch Davidians believe the Bible teaches that these prophecies referring to the Second Coming have been "sealed" or locked up, until the end time. It is because we are now in the end time that Branch Davidians believe God is now revealing him/her self again, and the mark of God's chosen people is that they have this new revelation from God. Thus the New Light is being given because we are in the end time, the New Light is God's final revelation to humanity.

27

Governing Body Members Autographing Bibles

by HereIgo in

i have an online ex jw friend who pointed out to me that she stumbled upon a may 15, 1999 watchtower that had pictures of governing body members autographing bibles for people.

i have no bound volumes or cd rom copies anymore so i can verify.

two things came to mind, if this is true:.

recovering

I still have a Babylon book that was signed by Fred Franz and given to my father. I do not believe my father was ever a personal friend of Franz. He was however a very large contributor financially to the organization.

22

More Brooklyn properties sold

by recovering in

and the money keeps rolling in.

http://nypost.com/2017/08/16/jehovahs-witnesses-sale-of-brooklyn-buildings-nets-millions/.

recovering

And the money keeps rolling in

http://nypost.com/2017/08/16/jehovahs-witnesses-sale-of-brooklyn-buildings-nets-millions/

31

Is there any humor in the bible?

by Normalfulla in

humor plays a big part in a lot of humanity and we all like a good laugh but as far as i'm aware god's supposed word has no actual humor ,of course apart from being a joke itself ,why wasn't there a passage or something like "jesus farted and giggles broke out among them " or something, is anyone aware of any notations of humor ?

all to.serious really.

recovering

It seems the bible is against humor. Look at the following passages.

Ecclesiastes 2:2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”

Ephesians 5:

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving

1

Desperate to leave cult

by recovering in

a man was so desperate to leave a cult that he had his girlfriend kill him.. http://nypost.com/2017/07/16/woman-shot-boyfriend-dead-because-he-wanted-out-of-cult-cops/.

recovering

A man was so desperate to leave a cult that he had his girlfriend kill him.

http://nypost.com/2017/07/16/woman-shot-boyfriend-dead-because-he-wanted-out-of-cult-cops/

95

Evolution is a Fact #31 - Ten Questions for Creationists

by cofty in

i thought this would be a good time to pose some questions based on the series so far.. if creationism is true these should be easy.

answers that don't involve copy-paste would be really interesting to read.. ... .

1. since some proteins can be assembled in more ways than there are atoms in the universe why do the sequences of amino acids and bases vary between species in exactly the way evolution predicts?

recovering

Hooberus please post a citation from a peer reviewed scientific publication to support your position on evolution. Please note that creationist or religious publications are not accepted by the scientific community.

If you can find one i will indeed possibly change my outlook.

95

Evolution is a Fact #31 - Ten Questions for Creationists

by cofty in

i thought this would be a good time to pose some questions based on the series so far.. if creationism is true these should be easy.

answers that don't involve copy-paste would be really interesting to read.. ... .

1. since some proteins can be assembled in more ways than there are atoms in the universe why do the sequences of amino acids and bases vary between species in exactly the way evolution predicts?

recovering

Don't take my word for it . Read the citations everyone has provided for you. I want you to think for yourself.

95

Evolution is a Fact #31 - Ten Questions for Creationists

by cofty in

i thought this would be a good time to pose some questions based on the series so far.. if creationism is true these should be easy.

answers that don't involve copy-paste would be really interesting to read.. ... .

1. since some proteins can be assembled in more ways than there are atoms in the universe why do the sequences of amino acids and bases vary between species in exactly the way evolution predicts?

recovering

Hooberus

You refuse to see that your experts conclusions are flawed . What if I showed you that even your so called experts admitted that they where incorrect with regards radiometric dating? Would that be enough to persuade you?

A small group of YECs with legitimate Ph.D.s (including D. Russell Humphreys and John R. Baumgardner) have formed the RATE (Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth) committee to attack the validity of radiometric dating. Rather than embracing the embarrassing distortions and nonsensical accusations of Woodmorappe or John and Henry Morris, Humphreys and Baumgardner have finally realized that geology and geochemistry are not going to give them the answers that they want. In an Answers in Genesis (AiG) article Carl Wieland had this to say:

When physicist Dr Russell Humphreys was still at Sandia National Laboratories (he now works full-time for ICR), he and Dr John Baumgardner (still with Los Alamos National Laboratory) were both convinced that they knew the direction in which to look for the definitive answer to the radiometric dating puzzle. [new paragraph] Others had tried—and for some, the search went on for a while in the early RATE days—to find the answer in geological processes. But Drs Humphreys and Baumgardner realized that there were too many independent lines of evidence (the variety of elements used in "standard" radioisotope dating, mature uranium radiohalos, fission track dating and more) that indicated that huge amounts of radioactive decay had actually taken place. It would be hard to imagine that geologic processes could explain all these. Rather, there was likely to be a single, unifying answer that concerned the nuclear decay processes themselves.

Btw the above quote was from a creationist site called Old Earth Ministries