Posts by donuthole

1

"Bearing Thorough Witness", page 115, paragraph 19

by sd-7 in

"bearing thorough witness about god's kingdom", page 115, paragraph 19:.

"that peace and unity now existed in the antioch congregation was clearly evident.

rather than contending with the brothers from jerusalem, the brothers in antioch treasured the visit of judas and silas, for it was only after "they had passed some time, they were let go in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them out," that is, back to jerusalem.

donuthole

Good catch.

Acts 13:1-3 - Under the direction of the Holy Spirit Antioch sends out Paul and Barnabus as apostles. Acts 15 takes place after this missionary journey by Paul and again it the congregation of Antioch that sends Paul and Barnabus to deal with a problem stemming from Jerusalem. After the problem is dealt with at Jerusalem Paul and Barnabus return to Antioch. Jerusalem sends two prophets of their local congregation, Judas and Silas to accompany Paul and Barnabus to Antioch. Vs 33 reports that after they had spent some time there, the Antioch congregation sent "them", apparently Judas and Silas, back to their home congregation of Jerusalem. The difficulty is that vs 40 has Paul departing from Antioch with Silas for another missionary journey. The alternate wording of Vs 34 has Silas remaining behind.

If you look at these scriptures Antioch does not really appear as a subordinate church to Jerusalem. Under the direction of the Holy Spirit they had authority to send Paul out as an apostle and later dispatch him to sort out a problem caused by some from the Jerusalem church. Antioch received emissaries Jerusalem, Judas and Silas, and also dispatched at least one of them back.

From the New Testament writings it doesn't appear that Paul returned to Jerusalem again until just before his arrest. This would mean that either Silas elected to stay behind or returned to Antioch some time later. I would go with the first.

8

First Thessalonians - some thoughts to share

by sd-7 in

in just this one letter, i found some very interesting thoughts.

in the context of those who are jehovah's witnesses and claim that their religion is modeled after first-century christianity, i think we are faced with a few questions and some real food for thought.

let's get right into it.. the first thing i notice, in having read all 5 chapters, is the significant near-absence of the name jehovah.

donuthole

SD-7 -

It stands to reason that congregations would support the needs of extralocal workers. As Jesus and his disciples traveled there was a company of women that provided for his needs. When he visited Judea he stayed in the home of Simon the Leper in Bethany. When Jesus sent the twelve out as apostles (itenerant ministers) he said that they would be able to depend on the hospitality and lodging of those they were proclaiming the good news to support their needs. I think his later instruction to take a purse has to do with changing attitudes and hostility to the good news that later times would bring.

There is an early instructional document called the Didache which is dated late first/early second century that contains these instructions for itenerant ministers.

"And let the apostle when departing take nothing but bread until he arrive at his resting-place; but if he ask for money, he is a false prophet."

Again there was no salaried local senior pastor as we have today. Even the support that was given to extralocal workers was along the lines of basic food/shelter. Note what Paul wrote in his letter to his co-worker Timothy "But having sustenance and covering, we will be content with these."

32

Nine year old baptized

by EmptyInside in

this weekend at the circuit assembly, (i stayed home, thank goodness), i heard a nine year -old girl was baptized.

and she seems a bit mature for her age, but hardly mature enough,in my opinion, to make such a choice on her own.

it seems to be a trend in our circuit right now.

donuthole

At around age 30 when I was going through a JC for a charge of apostasy it was suggested that I was going against my childhood baptism. When I got baptised at age 12 it was after some of my peers had already been baptised and there was a congregation bus trip to Bethel that I wanted to join them on but was restricted to baptised brothers and sisters. Thus I expressed interest in getting baptised. I thought it was the right thing to do and it was done out of a certain love for God. However as an adult I saw things very differently. Yet in the eyes of those men once I had committed myself, even as a child, I was bound to it for life.

At any rate, it is wrong for JW's to be critical for denominations that practice infant baptism because the baptism of children likewise has no basis in the Scriptures. In 2006 when I was learning these thing I wrote up some questions based on my personal research.

http://www.anthonymathenia.com/bible-study/is-the-baptism-of-children-scriptural/

8

First Thessalonians - some thoughts to share

by sd-7 in

in just this one letter, i found some very interesting thoughts.

in the context of those who are jehovah's witnesses and claim that their religion is modeled after first-century christianity, i think we are faced with a few questions and some real food for thought.

let's get right into it.. the first thing i notice, in having read all 5 chapters, is the significant near-absence of the name jehovah.

donuthole

Certain congregations provided for Paul's traveling expenses, a consideration he called robbery. He suggests that extralocal workers have a right for support but he refused such to set an example. Thus, whenever he settled in an area for an extended time he worked to support himself and his ministry. A salaried clergy as we have today was unknown at the time. This practice started with the Roman Empire paying a salary to the Christian bishops in the same manner they had provided for the pagan priests.

47

HUGE, Faithful and discreet slave SEPARATED from other annointed now!!

by EndofMysteries in

i almost missed this in my last post, but i just realized how important and must list it.

paragraph 14 from jan 15, 2010 wt last article entitled "jehovah's way of ruling vindicated".

"a few anointed members of "the israel of god" still remain, and as jesus' brothers, they continue to act as "ambassadors substituting for christ (2 cor 5:20) they have been appointed as a faithful and discreet slave class to care for and provide spiritual food for annointed ones and a growing crowd of christians, who now include millions having the hope of living on earth forever.

donuthole

The dividing line is still murky but coming into focus. There was the recent WT where it talked about how only a subset of the anointed were entrusted with providing spiritual food in the 1st century, such as authoring the Bible books, and thus today not all anointed would be involved in this work. If current trends continue and the amount of partakers increase I expect that FDS will become synonymous with the Governing Body and the domestics will be the anointed and perhaps the other sheep if they aren't pushed down to be the master's "belongings".

6

"By this ALL will know that you are my disciples..."

by Mad Sweeney in

"...if you have love among yourselves.

" john 13:35. question: is there any religion out there of which all people in the world looks at and says, "wow, that religion clearly follows jesus because of the love they have among themselves?".

the jws claim this distinction for themselves, but what part of "all will know" is unambiguous?

donuthole

However when he says "among yourselves" it implies an interaction between disciples.

11

The Beardless Jesus - Source?

by donny in

during the 1950's and some of the 1960s jesus was portayed as clean shaven.

what was the society's logic for this representation and why the change back to a bearded one?.

donny .

donuthole

As mentioned this goes back to Rutherford. I don't have the reference in front of me but the WTS pointed to some early Christian depictions of Jesus as clean shaven as proof. Over history the appearance of Jesus has become pretty standardized but in early Christian art there was variety and he was often depicted in a way that imitated the culture of the artist, such as the having a clean-shave and a Roman haircut. The early extra-Biblical Christian writings make little comment about the personal apperance of Jesus other to suggest he was not attractive per Isaiah 53:3.

In the WTS literature, I'm personally unaware of any other than Jesus and Adam that the were drawn in such a manner. Why Adam? It is a guess but perhaps beardless is closer to perfection like Adam and Jesus - at least in Rutherford's mind. :-)

Rutherford's distaste for beards seems to stem from his movement away from the promimence of Russell. (I believe beards were banned in all the bethel homes. Reference?) In 1920 in the US beards had fallen out of fashion anyway and remained out of style until the mid late 1960's. At this time the Society asserted that growing a beard might link a Christian minister with a youth counter-culture movement and shunned them. The informal shunning of beards continues to this day.

6

Calling All PS3 Owners!!

by DubR in

jw
friends

im still a newbie here and i haven't seen a post dedicated to young and ole gamers!

so anyone out there who is a casual or hardcore gamer and loves to play online on your ps3 or other gaming systems, share your psn id or pm me!!

also it would be cool if you list the online multiplayer games you currently are playin or lovin!

donuthole

Sending a private message.

30

Did any of you ever feel so sad a depressed in field service

by life is to short in

i used to go out in service and i always felt not wanted.

i would meet for service and if they could they would send me home, no one wanted me with them in their car groups.

and yes i did shower before going.

donuthole

I didn't care for the actual door to door part of it - that was a drudgery. I did enjoy being out with my friends, talking, getting SEB's from Hardee's, etc.

21

10/05/09 Morning Worship David Splane of the Governing Body conducted.

by whereami in

jw
friends

amazing story!

you can really see jehovah's hand in all the activities below... .

10/05/09 morning worship david splane of the governing body conducted.. .

donuthole

Praise God that his written word goes out in spite of these false religions!!