Posts by thomas15

8

The Way of the Kick and the Punch

by ColdRedRain in

jw
friends

i just got my blackbelt in tkd!

after 5 years, 9 girlfriends, 5 jobs, 2 presidents, i finally got my bb.

now, it's on to another martial art.....

thomas15

Congrats ColdRedRain. I received my BB in TKD in Dec. 2003 age 40 something. I was trying to keep up with my kids. It also took me 5 years and lots of hard knocks. In one incident while sparring, I slipped on the mat and broke 4 bones in my right foot. Funny (or foolish) thing, I took and actually passed my 3rd Gup test 5 weeks later. I have a picture of myself at the ceremony getting my BB, my right eye is totally black (to match the belt). Our BB test lasted a full week. I hit the dojang every night for the year before I tested BB. Nothing in this MA came natural to me.

Getting my rank in TKD was one of the fun things and major acomplishments of my life. You should be very pleased and proud, it is no little thing. Sorry to say I have been out of it for a number or years but still I think about it...

Any idea which MA you are going to try next?

22

Jack Van Impe Ministries

by truthlover in

jw
friends

does anyone know anything about this gent?

see his program on tv with his wife and he can expound on over 14,000 scriptures.. he also speaks of the nearness of the "lords day" of armageddon, of a final destruction.... is he in line with your thinking??.

.

thomas15

While I'm not in any way trying to defend anyone other than myself, a brief critical analysis of the chart and comments of The Mighty Homer has to be made.

First of all, myself and the lovely Mrs. thomas15 both work, both have college degrees and have been in the work force for many years, thomas15 (BS Degree) having been with the same company for 25 years and is the sales manager. Mrs. thomas15 has a Masters degree in education and is a teacher. While we likewise drive a Mercedes, our household income is higher than some of those in the informative chart provided by The Mighty Homer and Mercedes aside, we struggle just like everyone else to pay our bills and educate our kids. We are not living high on the hog , that's for sure.

The last I heard about Billy Graham, he received a salary much lower than the chart shows and he is personally separated by a BOD from any money that comes into the ministry.

Dr. Charles Stanley (In Touch) has written many books that sell well (in the millions of copies) and pastor of a church that has over 10,000 members, so 300K is probably way less than what he could probably receive. Dr. Stanley is past president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Dr. David P. Jeremiah- (Turning Point) same as Dr. Charles Stanley in almost every detail and is paid $126K, slightly more than thomas15 and Mrs. thomas15 make per year.

Dr. Woodrow Kroll (Back to the Bible) same as Dr. Charles Stanley in almost every detail and is paid $90K, less than what thomas15 and Mrs. thomas15 make per year. Dr. Kroll was a professor of Theology at Liberty University.

Dr. John MacArthur (Grace to You) same as Dr. Charles Stanely in almost every detail, has written hundreds of books, many million sellers, and is president of the Masters Seminary and is paid $150K

Dr. Chuck Swindoll (Cynthia Swindall) (Insight for Living) same as Dr. Charles Stanley in almost every detail and is paid $131K, slightly more than thomas15 and Mrs. thomas15 make per year. Dr. Swindoll is past President of Dallas Theological Seminary.

Dr. James Dobson (Focus on the Family) same as Dr. Stanley except he is not a seminary graduate, rather he is a child psychologist is paid $0.K

The above are highly distinguished, well spoken and hard working, well respected. Many of them are legitimate theologians and have multiple advanced degrees from respected Universities. I think it is unfair to say or infer that that they are over compensated. The charge that they are getting rich selling and exploiting end times via books and other media is easy to make, difficult to show.

Please note I'm not definding anyone on the chart and I'm not commenting on some of those in the chart because I suspect there is some truth in The Mighty Homers charge against them.

Submitted in the spirit of fairness,

thomas15

56

Relapse: I'm considering returning to the Kingdom Hall.

by Blue Grass in

i'm a long time lurking of this site(2 years) and a first time poster.

to provide a little background of myself i was not raised as a witness but started studying when i was 19 and got baptized at age 21. a few months after i was baptized i left due to the constant worship of the faithful and discreet slave and the lack of emphasis on christ.

for reasons i'm not sure about yet i decided to attend the district convention last week.

thomas15

OK, Blue Grass, I'm going to weigh in on this one. Of course I'm not you, but if I were single and looking for a social life that included singles in a conservative setting I would be looking at some of the larger Evangelical church groups locally. The larger ones should have a singles ministry which is a great place to make friends with people who are not into non-stop parties. Of course there are no guarantees but you should be able to find one (or several) churches that would welcome you to join such a ministry without becoming a member or making a commitment to the group.

When I say "Evangelical" I mean a conservative church that holds the Bible as the word of God and Jesus as the way of salvation. There are churches that have the name Evangelical in them that are not Evangelical. But anyway, look around and see what is available. It cannot hurt and you should not have the problem removing yourself from the group if you decide that it isn't for you, unlike the WT which as you know will make your life miserable if you re-join them.

By the way, I consider myself to be Baptist, but I attend an Evangelical Free church. I have been going there for a few years, play in the praise band, help with the food pantry. My wife is involved with Vacation Bible school this week and we are not members of this church. Granted, we face some limits to what we can do but this is a conservative/fundamental Bible church, not a liberal feel good church. If there is a Calvary Chapel in your area, you might give them a try. Also, some "community" churches are Evangelical so they too attract the kinds of people I think you are interested in meeting.

Have fun Blue Grass,

Tom

10

would you want to be part of any religion that changes the bible on purpose?...

by oompa in

...and makes it say what they want it to in order to fit their doctrines???

nearly every jw and non would answer no!

i wish i had started off my last elder visit with that question.

thomas15

DONUTHOLE SAID: "Pro-Trinitarians though have resorted to similar creative translating just a few verses down. Whereas the text says that Jesus was “the only-begotten Son” this presents some difficulty for a Trinitarian theology where Jesus is said to be co-eternal with the father. "

As a non-JW or non-ex-JW I don't like to get involved in trying to justify certain doctrines as I don't want to wear out my welcome on this board. But let me say this, the doctrine of the trinity does not fall because of the translation "only-begotten son" or the removal of 1 John 5:7 from non- KJV Bibles. Rather than me tell you what "only begotten" means I would humbly ask that you take a look into the phrase and see if maybe you are not understanding it correctly. I don't think you are, for what it is worth.

If you take the first part of John 1:1 "In the beginning, was the word..." The word was in the beginning. What comes before the beginning? If something already existed "in the beginning", then it must be eternal.

There are three articles in the English language, a, an and the. "a" and "an" are called indefinate articles, "the" is called a definate article. The use of the indefinate article "a" in John 1:1 in the NWT "and the word was a god" means that the word is one of several or many gods. If the WT wanted to render this verse to indicate Jesus is a lesser god than Jehovah, they should have translated the verse in English "and the word was the god". By replacing the indefinate article "a" with the definate article "the" solves the problem of the indefinate article referring to one of many or several "gods" but then showcases the folly of the concept as the Bible teaches that there is only one true God. In other words, the rendering in the NWT "and the word was a god" only works for people what want, by force of will, to believe that Jesus is not God, or one with the Father.

111

The Watchtower Didn't Make Me An Atheist

by B_Deserter in

ive posted on this before, but i figured i should lay my thoughts out again on the subject.

there are some in the ex-jw community who are saddened because the watchtower organization has turned me and others like me off to god.

the watchtower attacks and debunks other religions on a regular basis, often giving us the sense that if the watchtower is wrong, then there cant be a god.

thomas15

B_D,

A couple of thoughts. As an Evangelical, I define an atheists as a person who has proof that God does not exist. Is this accurate and if yes, what proof was the clincher for you?

I'm personally amazed that anyone who comes out of the WT would have any belief in the God of the Bible or not be bitter towards anyone, especally a person who claims to be a Christian. Freedom of religion is actually very important to me.

In the case of Raymond Franz, from my reading of C of C and In Search of..., Ray left the WT because he started on his own to develop a real interest in the Bible, studied it and then compared WT teaching to the Bible, finding that the WT had strayed a considerable distance from the baseline of the Bible. For me it is somewhat of a paradox, the WT and JWs state that the Bible is God's word and the basis for the faith but when you show a JW where the WT teaches contrary to the Bible they side with the WT. But one of the teachings of the New Testament is that when a man comes to God in true faith and places his or her trust in Jesus and His work on the cross for salvation, this action is all of God. In other words, I cannot beat you into submission to a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus, that is God's job.

103

Further Punishements

by passwordprotected in

praise gathering 2009 is taking place in glasgow this weekend.

we've been given tickets to tonight's concert as a gift.

to explain, praise gathering is a concert with a full orchestra and 400 singers.

thomas15

PP said:

"All has ended well, as I've already stated; my son got to go to the concert and he loved it. My wife got to go to the concert this evening. I'm told that the Sunday evening event is the best of the three nights. We were winners on all counts. The only losers were the Jehovah's Witnesses. And yes, that's sad as I know my parents love babysitting our children. But, they made their choice".

See, the Lord provided the way. Sometimes simple is better.

It is a shame Mark that your parents did this. I appreciate the gracefull way that you handled it. My kids are now 15 and 18 years old but when they were small we didn't have grandparents to babysit (but not because of religious reasons) so we always had to pay for a babysitter with only a few exceptions. We understand that it isn't just the cost of the babysitter, it's the stress of having a non-family member in charge of the little ones. I'm glad that you stood up for your faith as this is a two way street you are on. And the beauty of it is yours is right out of the Bible, plain and simple.

Tom

47

Hello everyone

by Wordlygirl in

jw
friends

i have been lurking on here for some time and i finally decided to join the fray.

i am 25 years old and was raised in the society.

fortunately when i was 8, my father left the organization and this allowed me to see the wrold from both angles, the jw (mom) and not (dad).. at first, i was strongly on the side of the witnesses and i even allowed myself to be convinced that getting baptised at 11 was a good idea.

thomas15

Sorry for your loss. Welcome to the forum.

Tom

25

Got stopped by the Mormons today, very annoyed

by callitquits76 in

jw
friends

hi.. i got caught offguard by the mormons today whilst out walking my dogs.

there were two of them and one called out to me and mentioned something about talking to other people about christ, so i immediately told them i did not agree with them at all and didn't trust any group who suggest theyy are 'the one'.. i spoke for around 20 minutes because i didnt want them to think i was running away through lack of education, and i went over things like how much you can trust joseph smith since he was a raving mason etc and how i thought it was a religion by men for men, but this mormon guy was really smug and basically just answered with a smug nod of his head and replied 'we've prayed to god and he's told us the way to live is the mormon church'.

this was really a cop out and he couldn't answer much, particularly concerning the need for the book of mormon and he knew very little scripture indeed.. the other mormon seemed much nicer and was from germany - a lot more respectful.. but what really got me annoyed was my inability to argue decent points and found myself nodding along trying desperately to think of a counter argument but none came.

thomas15

I'm a volunteer firefighter in my semi-rural town. This last weekend, I took our fire safety trailer and an engine to the Mormon church for their emergency prepardness day. They invite various public and private emergency responder groups to this event every year and open it to the public. The idea is to get the public to the church for a non-religious reason (outreach) and then impress them with their community awareness. Many of you know that I'm an Evangelical Born again, I'm also the fire safety coordinator and fire company chaplain as well as an active firefighter. My fire company dress uniform has the Christian chaplain pin for all the world to see. I am thought, respectful of others beliefs but will defend mine if called upon (in a friendly manner).

Anyway, there were two Mormon Elders there. I couldn't believe how young they were (I would say 20-22 years old if that ) and they lacked discpline in their public behavior. I'm 51 years old and a Christian for 35 years and don't consider myself mature enough to be an Elder. This really made a negative impression on me. I could not take them seriously no matter what kind of head knowledge they might have, they just acted silly.

11

Paul Did Not Accept Jesus as Sacrifice of Salvation

by cameo-d in

he still continued to offer animal sacrifices after jesus was murdered.. wouldn't this indicate that he did not believe the death of jesus accomplished the "ultimate sacrifice" for mankind?.

acts 21:18-27 the apostle paul willingly joined four other men (believers in yahshua) and offered animal sacrifices.

this was in the year of c.e.

thomas15

cameo-d,

There are plenty of verses in the Bible that indicate that Paul accepted Jesus sacrifice on the cross as not only the "ultimate" sacrifice, but rather the only sacrifice that leads to salvation. Jesus paid for our sin debt, a debt we cannot pay ourselves. The innocent made restitution for the guilty.

Nowhere does the Bible teach that man can be saved by animal or any other sacrifice, either in the OT or the NT except by faith in Jesus and his work on the cross.

Tom

19

So I am writing my letter...

by vikesgirl101 in

i thought i was done with the jw's.

i knew they made an announcement last year about me.

i assumed by the avoidance of so many, and my lack of enthusiasm for "the truth", as well as i have slammed the door on the elders many times now, exiled me.

thomas15

I cannot comment on the wisedom of your request, I'm sure others will though. However, in the business world, when your write a letter, it is best to write a short concise letter that is specific, to the point. Tell them what you want exactly. Give them instruction. Leave no room for opinion.

Remember, you are not asking them for a favor, you are telling them what you want them to do. Of course, politeness is assumed.

Again, I have no idea if it is a good idea to write them but if you do, be specific.

Tom