Posts by Cadellin

364

New DVD "Become Jehovah's Friend"

by treadnh2o in

hey peeps,.

it's been a long while since i've posted (i am completely out - wife and kids still in) but thought you might this interesting.. they came home from the district convention yesterday with the new dvd intended for kids.

they popped it in right away and this is what happens:.

Cadellin

Alas, most JWs will take this vid as "food at the proper time" and swallow it hook line and sinker, without expending one iota of critical thinking about it. What posters on this thread have been doing is subjecting this horrible vid to analysis. Most JWs do not analyze anything published by the WT.

I feel so sorry for Caleb--he seems like a great little kid. But he's got creepy parents, even if his dad has a sexy Antonio Banderas accent. This vid only reinforces the WT's ridiculous opposition to creative imagination, equating any flights of fantasy with the occult. They take the OT prohibition against divination and grotesquely extend it to cover literally anything that isn't of the immediate, leaden reality. And yet, in a paradoxical twist, they reject measurable evidence for such things as evolution, even though it's rooted in the same naturalistic, quantifiable reality that they are supposedly so affixed to. They're so paranoid about the occult that they lump all fantastic play and literature together, making such awesome works as The Lord of the Rings, fairies, elves and unicorns equivalent to clearly occultic productions such as The Exorcist. Why the hell do they think God created imagination anyway????

49

Baptisms decreased critical 26.9% in Mexico

by Gayle in

jw
friends

for 2011, jws in mexico had the lowest baptism number in years, a critical 26.9% decrease from 2010. something is going there!?.

.

Cadellin

While we're talking about Mexico, I've heard about a weird phenomenon. It's become quite the thing for Canadian JWs to spend time in Mexico as "need-greaters" in the English congs, esp. in resort areas--but in other less-touristy areas as well. From what I've heard from family members who have done this, they comb a neighborhood for anyone who speaks English, even if it's a native Mexican who can barely utter a few words. The Hall is filled with either Canadian ex-pats or locals who speak anywhere from badly broken to manageable English.

Seems to me like a colossal waste of time (even more so than regular field service). In their home cong., these same JWs would be encouraging non-native English speakers to attend a cong or group in their mother tongue, would pass the call on to someone fluent in that lang., etc. Down there, by contrast, they waste hours and hours of time trying to find ANYONE who can speak Engl and then get them to come to an English KH where they might understand a tiny fraction of what is said. Is it just me or is that plain weird? Then, in the summer, the snowbirds go home and the cong. shrinks to a quarter of the size.

And yes, there doesn't seem to be the ban on higher ed down there either--my family member was bragging that there are teachers and attorneys in the cong who are also pioneers!!!

36

Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the 05-13-2012 WT Study (URGENCY)

by blondie in

jw
friends

maintain your sense of.

how can we maintain our sense.

urgent now than ever?.

Cadellin

Popcorn eater hit it on the head. That's exactly the message this latest stupid article contained, and it's not even exaggerated.

As evidence that the end is SOON, the WT used two points: First, that nuclear warheads exist, nuclear material has gone missing and MIGHT BE in the hands of terrorists. Second, that the world is facing devestation as a result of climate change. What do those two things have to do w/Jesus' prophecy of the last days in Matthew 24? Let's see...oh, yeah--NOTHING!!

First, the Vancouver Sun recently had a fantastic piece on the history of nuclear weapons since the fall of the iron curtain and how the West had done a superlative job (not perfect, but amazingly damn good) of keeping the stuff away from terrorists. Basically, if any had fallen into the hands of terrorists, we'd know about it by now. Moreover, the mere existence of such weapons is NOT a fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy of widespread warfare. In fact, the existence of these weapons has actually prevented any major warfare, ie armed conflict b/w major powers, for the last 70 years or so.

Second, where the hell does the NT even vaguely contemplate environmental disaster? Rev. 11:18, which is the ONLY scrip the WT trots out, refers to "ruining the earth" with violence, ie, human conflict.

It is telling that the only specific evidence that they can muster isn't even on point.

Lastly, the stupid, stupid comment about evolution made me want to barf. Right, it's just a "teaching," a "popular idea," and a secular "religion." And the only reason all those pitiful ejukated people believe it is so they can go and do all the nasties they want and no one will call them on it. Even if you don't believe in evolution and do believe in creation, that should be enough to make you blanche. How about the notion that evolution is a science, not because it's presented in scientific-sounding language, but because its claims are falsifiable?? That it explains a range of natural phenomenon? That it's been demonstrated repeatedly in the lab AND under natural conditions? That it's used to predict natural events?

Ech.

76

Horrid Time for Me

by Band on the Run in

jw
friends

my pain has been in remission.

i have a morphine pump.

pain broke through toward the end of the medication.

Cadellin

Band, I'm so sorry. Pain by itself is tremendously debilitating. I don't pray but my thoughts and positive energy are with you. Please keep us informed as how things are going!

27

2012 July Kingdom Ministry!

by Atlantis in

.

2012 july kingdom ministry*click the link below and when the next page appears scroll down and click the link in the long blue box that says: (click here to start download from sendspace).

ignore all the other buttons and symbols.

Cadellin

73

Bethel - the house of the canaanite god El

by mP in

how ironic, that in hebrew the word for god is actually the name of a canaanite god el.

ive recently been facinated by the etymology of word, particularly those in the bible.

anyone can change the meanings or definition of words like we have witnessed with the generation, but the word itself cannot be changed.

Cadellin

El was the chief god of the Canaanite pantheon; YHWH emerges as a son/challenger in Hebrew mythology of the Late Bronze Age so, yes, originally they were separate gods entirely. Remnants of these roles can still be identified in certain parts of the OT, and I should be able to point you to a few verses but I don't have a Bible with me at the moment.

Much of the storm god imagery used of El was gradually subsumed into the image of YHWH as Israelite monoltry progressed until finally the two entities were absorbed into YHWH alone, around the time of the monarchy (though I may be off on the timing there). Richard Friedman in The Hidden Book in the Bible aptly demonstrates the two separate lines of OT narration, complete with parallel creation, flood and Abrahamic stories, one of which used the name of YHWH ("J") and one that used simply El or Adonai ("P"). In the "P" version, YHWH does not emerge as a fully-recognized entity until his name is revealed to Moses at the occasion of the burning bush and only then and thereafter is it uttered by Biblical characters.

7

Ephraim Stern in the previous edition. Now Abba Hillel Silver - July 2012 Awake!

by AnnOMaly in

p.24.. prophecy 3: "from the going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild jerusalem until messiah the leader, there will be seven weeks, also sixty-two weeks.

"-daniel 9:25.. fulfillment: the period of time specified in daniel's prophecy amounts to 69 units of 7 years each, or 483 years.

the rebuilding of jerusalem began in 455 b.c.e.

Cadellin

Well anyway, thanks, AnnOMaly for posting that--very interesting. Looks like the boys in Brooklyn are still up to their old unethical tricks when it comes to using sources.

A bigger problem, IMHO, is how they arrive at the year 29 CE for the arrival of Christ. It requires quite a bit of chronological tapdancing in order to rationalize an earlier date for Artaxerxes' reign and to make everything else seem to work. The Daniel book has a few pages on the WT's unique brand of Persian chronology; even when I was active and studying it in the bookstudy, I thought it sounded a stretch!

7

Ephraim Stern in the previous edition. Now Abba Hillel Silver - July 2012 Awake!

by AnnOMaly in

p.24.. prophecy 3: "from the going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild jerusalem until messiah the leader, there will be seven weeks, also sixty-two weeks.

"-daniel 9:25.. fulfillment: the period of time specified in daniel's prophecy amounts to 69 units of 7 years each, or 483 years.

the rebuilding of jerusalem began in 455 b.c.e.

Cadellin

7

Ephraim Stern in the previous edition. Now Abba Hillel Silver - July 2012 Awake!

by AnnOMaly in

p.24.. prophecy 3: "from the going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild jerusalem until messiah the leader, there will be seven weeks, also sixty-two weeks.

"-daniel 9:25.. fulfillment: the period of time specified in daniel's prophecy amounts to 69 units of 7 years each, or 483 years.

the rebuilding of jerusalem began in 455 b.c.e.

Cadellin

Geez--I thought I was using Firefox!!

Okay, so where's my previous post??? AAGH. And it was a good one too!

47

'Dinah Gets Into Trouble' - Does Story 20 Mean Rape = Fornication?

by sd-7 in

jw
friends

i was listening, albeit unwittingly, to a 'my book of bible stories' tape and this statement caught me by surprise.

it's found in story 20:.

"one day when dinah came to visit, shechem took dinah and forced her to lie down with him.