As a follow-up, try Friedman's The Bible with Sources Revealed, where he uses different fonts for different sources within his own translation. It's very illuminating when you can literally see the variances. I highly recommend it.
Cadellin
JoinedPosts by Cadellin
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11
Do JW's believe that Moses wrote the 1st five books?
by homeschool inwell, i'm a few chapters into who wrote the bible, by richard elliot friedman (thanks, primate, for the suggestion!
)...there's no way i could explain the book to you, but i can see exactly what it's saying.
the author really puts it in layman's terms to show how many people/men wrote the bible.
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What will the JW religion be like in 2015?
by JimmyPage inover 100 years into the reign of christ and six more years of damage from the internet.
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what do you envision?.
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Cadellin
My money's on donuthole's analysis...Donuthole, do you have an inside track?
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New here
by Heartbreaker ini have no idea what i want to convey in words here on this site, and have surprised myself by even joining at all.
i intended just to read, and get a few pieces of information, and now am a member, and spend many hours looking through posts old and new alike.
i am a current jw, born into it, and lets just say i'm in my thirties, female, and a mom of more than your average kids.
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Cadellin
Heartbreaker: Welcome to reality. You are not alone, nor are you crazy. In fact, you are probably more right than you know. But it's super scary when everyone in your fam is super theocratic. I'm in the same boat, and you'll find lots of others here who can share your whole range of feelings and experiences in one way or another.
I find that question, "Well, who are his real people then?" kind of odd, because it implies that if you eliminate every other religion, JWs win by default. But a default win is no win at all and it certainly isn't how an almighty God would go about his business, IMHO. And once you scratch the surface of the WT organization, there are many many discomfiting things to discover. Besides, who's to say that God has to have "one people"? This is a JW perspective firmly based on organizationally bureaucratic underpinnings.
You sound like you are in incredible pain. Have you considered finding a (good) therapist? Chemical/alcoholic painblotting is only going to do you harm, as you are probably aware, and professional counselling may be a good first step to dealing with what you are going through right now, as well as a help toward controlling what sounds like a damaging habit. You have kids, yes? They need you, the real you... And, being here is going to help. This is a good community. Welcome.
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Cadellin
Interestingly, the problems the world faces today are absolutely nothing like what the Bible supposedly predicts for the last days. The biggest problems have to do with looming water shortages, rising population, climate change and loss of biodiversity (all extremely serious, by the way). So for Witnesses to use any of those problems as evidence of the last days is dishonest, since the Bible is silent on those things. (Side: Rev. 11:18 which speaks of bringing to ruin those ruining the earth does NOT mean environmentally but ruining the earth with violence, as in Noah's day, which is what the marginal reference points to. Current Witness useage is eisegesis, plain and simple, and thank you again to Leolaia for a great word that sums up Witness biblical interpretation).
The old problems of apocalyptic scripture are famines, war and pestilence. With respect to famine, consider that the U.N. reports that there are more people obese (1,000,000,000+) right now than malnourished (800,000,000). With respect to war, we live in a time of unprecedented peace, relatively speaking. And the diseases that cut down populations a few hundred years ago are all but silenced today. Sure, swine flu approaches but there'll be a hundred million or more doses of vaccine available in a month or two, and more following. Can you imagine that happening at the first appearance of the Justinian plague? Further, it's also inaccurate to point to heart disease and cancer as a fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy regarding pestilences,since they do not fit the original Greek word used to describe communicable diseases (b/c they're not)
Last summer, I read Fareed Zakaria's The Post American World, about how the world is actually a much more prosperous place than even a generation ago. In fact, it is the rising prosperity of countries like India and China, where people are eating better, living longer and healthier than ever before, that are causing many of the looming problems like carbon emissions and empty aquifers and ocean degradation.
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I am having some reservations about Barbara Anderson
by JWoods inrecently, there was a very nice thread in which one of our posters apologized for having the temerity to challenge barbara anderson.. i thought it was very nice to see that they made up and put the personal stuff aside.. however, i felt the need to call it like i really feel it - i was very put off by the barbara anderson reply in which she plugged her new promotional meeting.
it brought back memories of that horrid little affair from a couple of years back when she kept posting up "the greatest new thing about blood which will bring down the watchtower society is just around the corner -- and i could tell you but then i would have to kill you, etc."..
just like another jehovah's witnesses prophecy about the coming of the lord in our time.. i am beginning to wonder if perhaps the siren song of self-promotion is getting a little too strong for real life.. ok. i said it.. james - and saying it was not the easiest thing that i have ever done.
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Cadellin
Barb, please don't go anywhere...You are SO needed!!!! Thank you for having more balls than a whole MTS graduating class.
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Small Steps
by cantleave injust to let you all know how my extremely gradual fade is going.
you have to remember that i have spent all my life right in the centre of the congregation, i never missed meetings, except when necessary.
my service average has been between 10 -15 hrs per month and i would spend vacations auxillary pioneering.
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Cadellin
I remember another poster a while back said, "There is no wrong way to leave a cult." I think you are doing great. Heaven knows, you seem to be moving faster than moi. But everyone is in a different situation. The most important part is having your mind free...
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Tightening of the Cult Handcuffs.
by passwordprotected ini've been saying for almost a year that the wts can only go one way, and that's to be come more hardline and more cultish by tightening their grip on the r&f.. if the recent rumours seen here (and one of them was actually banded about last year) are going to pan out, then the wts is well on it's way to become more cult-ish.. changes to the disfellowshipping arrangement.
moving away from judicial action, leaning more towards the person disassociating themselves due to their actions, either of commission or ommission.
or, and i think this is less likely, they have a stand-alone study edition meeting, perhaps later on a sunday?
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Cadellin
Jimmy: Highly unlikely they'd ever be able to successfully drag the freed masses back to the KH for another night, but watch for the material to be presented as fodder for Family Night at home--maybe the WT study, maybe something else, maybe a combo...
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The Gnostic Gospel of Bartholomew
by VM44 inhttp://www.amazon.com/gnostic-gospel-bartholomew-robert-hitchcock/dp/1430302992.
the gnostic gospel of bartholomew (paperback).
by rev.
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Cadellin
Thank you, Leo, for once more flourishing your intellectual whip and slashing away the goatgrass of pseudo-pseudepigraphy! I agree with Nark--the publisher's notes ain't doing Hitchcock any favors.
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Tightening of the Cult Handcuffs.
by passwordprotected ini've been saying for almost a year that the wts can only go one way, and that's to be come more hardline and more cultish by tightening their grip on the r&f.. if the recent rumours seen here (and one of them was actually banded about last year) are going to pan out, then the wts is well on it's way to become more cult-ish.. changes to the disfellowshipping arrangement.
moving away from judicial action, leaning more towards the person disassociating themselves due to their actions, either of commission or ommission.
or, and i think this is less likely, they have a stand-alone study edition meeting, perhaps later on a sunday?
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Cadellin
I agree--watch for a set (read: mandatory) program for FWN, presented of course, as a Loving Spiritual Provisions Just When We Need It!
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Unusual "Experience" at the DC yesterday - Apostasy & Honor Killing
by Ultimate Reality induring the concluding part on sunday's dc at the stanley theater, a missionary was interviewed and asked to give an encouraging experience from his assignment in an african country.. he started off by saying his "experience was bitter-sweet".
it was about a woman in her mid-20's that became a witness.
but she was a muslim and her mother had her hunted down and murdered as an honor-killing.
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Cadellin
Villa: Yikes! How's that for making you want to stay with such a warm, loving organization????