Posts by cattails

33

I and the Father are one. John 10:30.

by dgp in

i'm not that good at quoting the bible.

i see no value in learning verses by heart, sorry.

however, i just learned that in the new world translation (the organization's bible), john 10:30, jesus is said to say "i and the father are one".

cattails

Poor Cofty is being attacked and he's been made to be the bad guy...

anyway that's how I see it.

Also "Hebrews 1:8-9." There's no "O" in Hebrew, there's no commas in the original line in Hebrew. The word God could be referring to it being the throne, the seat of power for you is God, since the next line says, "your God", how can he be the same? That's the problem with the Trinity it isn't logical that two are differentiated and yet they are the same.

When Jesus said that "the Father is greater than I" it makes it unambiguously clear that there was a time when the persons of the Father and the Son were not equal but one was higher, if this is the case the Trinity couldn't be in force since it calls for all three to be equal and eternally the same.

We humans can't really fathom the singularity of God to the extent required to know how exactly the Father and the only begotten Son are united. It's like trying to produce an Einstein condensate, you have to go where no human has gone before. But only by explanation from the Son we come to understand the Father as Jesus said.

If the word isn't in the Bible how is it Christians need to follow this teaching blindly? If it was so important to belief and salvation it would have been treated with more importance in the Scriptures, instead the Scriptures don't mention the word at all. Isn't that the problem some have with the name Jehovah not being used in the Greek Scriptures, and yet we know that the Greek Scriptures quote from the Hebrew/Aramaic Scriptures where the name is present.

Jesus Christ and him crucified and resurrected, that's the foundation of Christian faith and the promise of salvation. The Trinity belief isn't necessary for salvation then, according to Scripture.

BTW the whole thread so far has only been dealing with TWO persons not THREE, so where's the Holy Spirit in the proof texts that don't prove much about the Trinity above?

20

V And Watchtower Comments

by KingDavidwasframed in

jw
friends

has any one heard what happened or if there will be more?.

cattails

V just up and disappeared.

Could there have been some nefarious goings on?

Does anyone know if he's ok?

28

For how long can they massage the figures ?

by leo999 in

jw
friends

so looking at the worldwide report , the baptisms are down , many countries are 0 growth ,publishers, hours , and studies up because of changes in reporting methods .

but just how long can the propping up of numbers happen for , before the real downward slide starts ?

a year or two tops , which will be real close to 2014 .

cattails

Hey Leo, and welcome to JWN btw.

I think the numbers are important to the JW psyche.

If they go down dramatically it will motivate a questioning attitude and more will fall out.

There will be articles trying to explain away the 'sifting'.

They'll concentrate on countries where the growth is still going on and put pressure on the R&F left in developed countries to contribute more money.

Those are some things I see them doing in order to stay afloat. But the WT has a high sustainability rate despite all its failed prophecies.

The circle of their rounding up the wagons is getting tighter and tighter maybe it will it end up suffocating them.

23

JW responses on Facebook rules from CO

by purplesofa in

jw
friends

i know there has been threads on jw's using facebook, i thought i would post some responses from jw community i got in an email.. .

this was presented for discussion.. .

a co in our area (rochester) said that there would be no one being.

cattails

I love my facebook and I ain't gettion off it!

And the ingrates from NY can go lick cattails!

35

A question about marriage in the organization

by dgp in

jw
friends

this post was motivated by another thread, namely.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/188552/1/onereason-for-a-gentleman-fader-to-stay-reasonably-associated.

this thread makes reference to the fact that a 40 something brother has a real chance with twenty-something and less sisters.

cattails

Some of the posts on this thread smart of age discrimination.

I see nothing wrong for a man and woman, May-to-December or

December-to-May for that matter, to get hitched if they are

attracted to each other. There are lots of men in their 40's

and 50's that I think would make any gal blush if they were

asked out and were JWs. There are some who would look

down on these relationships only because of some strange

thought that marriage mates should be close in age. Should

they also be of the same race? Should they also be of the

same ethnic background? Give me a break!

If there's love in a marriage let them be happy

together and damn the torpedo headed nay-sayers!

24

Don't ask questions

by linp24 in

several weeks ago, a witness poster said that the rank and file at his cong were told by elders not to ask questions.

i may have misunderstood what the poster was saying.

has anyone on the forum heard anything like this?

cattails

This is something that did happen in a bookstudy I attended for years, my father was

the M.S. assistant back then.

There was this bookstudy conductor who was in his late 30's early 40's, and was a

school teacher by trade. He did encourage questions from the friends at the bookstudy.

And he'd have the other people in the bookstudy take shots at answering the extra

question presented, when it was something totally unrelated to the paragraphs, just

something that came to mind, he'd write down the question and bring it up at the end

of the study for the friends to take shots at answering. People loved the study, they'd

show up from other bookstudies, there were only 16 regularly assigned and the number

went to 27, 32 depending on the week.

Sometimes this conductor would say aloud he didn't quite understand something himself and had

to do extra research--he was very fond of bringing printouts from older publications that touched

on the subject. I remember going through the 2 volume Isaiah series, and Daniel, and then

too the Revelation book, the newly revised edition. He had a sister who only had an old copy

and didn't want to use a new one read the part that had been changed fro the original reading

for comparison.

I think he got in trouble with the neo-Nazi Service Overseer who came over to inspect the

bookstudy. He got demoted as Bookstudy Conductor/Overseer and another brother was

brought in who was a born-in, son of the oldest pioneer alive in the region, a person who

just read the questions from the book and wouldn't even acknowledge you gave an answer,

just called on the next hand. Everything was so boring after that. At first people in the bookstudy

would still ask the older elder questions about the study material, but he started referring us

to the new conductor. It wasn't the same bookstudy anymore, and the number went to about

11 to 14 most weeks.

31

SAINTS WIN SuperBowl XLIV (44) Yaaaaaaayyyyyyy!

by cattails in

jw
friends

saints win.

cattails

SAINTS WIN

Yaaaaaayyyyyyy!

They were daring and on the ball the whole way there!

Yaaaaaaayyyyy!

310

Mill Hill Disfellowshippings

by BorgHater in

jw
friends

a few months ago there was a thread about a couple of elders at the mill hill bethel being disfellowshipped because they disagreed with some wt doctrine (i can't recall exactly what it was) and that several other betheliteswere under 'investigation'.

i haven't heard anything since, does anyone know anything more about this?.

borghater xx.

cattails

Hey Paulapollos, I much appreciate your time and your information. I'd like to ask about statements you made in an earlier post:

2 elders and the servant involved in what the Society laughably refers to as "confidential" work.

Could you give us some examples of this "confidential" work you and the others were involved in, like a specific reference, please don't misunderstand my intentions I'm not questioning the work, just have no idea what's involved from further descriptions and details will perhaps give me an "aha" moment on this point. Thanks.

All 4 were disfellowshipped for apostasy - the MS went first, then the three elders in due time, one of whom was a partaker of the emblems.

Could you tell us if the work involved lead this brother to partake of the emblems. Like for example did the things he learned from reading the Scriptures develop in him the want to partake. Sort of like what Ed Dunlap realized (which I read in CoC). Of course if you aren't the brother involved you may only be able to give an approximation of what he had in mind if anything. But you must have spoken with one another, if not before the DF'ing then perhaps afterwards.

I'd love to be able to hear more from you and the other brothers involved if you can encourage them to take part in this forum.

Again, I much appreciate your time and your willingness to share your thoughts and experience here.

--Cattails

310

Mill Hill Disfellowshippings

by BorgHater in

jw
friends

a few months ago there was a thread about a couple of elders at the mill hill bethel being disfellowshipped because they disagreed with some wt doctrine (i can't recall exactly what it was) and that several other betheliteswere under 'investigation'.

i haven't heard anything since, does anyone know anything more about this?.

borghater xx.

cattails

Hi P(aula)P(ollos), I'd like to ask about statements you made in an earlier post and made a request up a few posts in this thread if you have time could you take a look and answer. Thanks so much for being here, and answering so many questions.

310

Mill Hill Disfellowshippings

by BorgHater in

jw
friends

a few months ago there was a thread about a couple of elders at the mill hill bethel being disfellowshipped because they disagreed with some wt doctrine (i can't recall exactly what it was) and that several other betheliteswere under 'investigation'.

i haven't heard anything since, does anyone know anything more about this?.

borghater xx.

cattails

btt