JWoods

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Topics Started by JWoods

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  12

  Going on Vacation in about an hour!

  by JWoods in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we are going up to the cabin in colorado at noon today - first time we have gone in the fall.. will be back in two weeks - see you then.. james and mai.

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  What happened with the so-called "Suicidal Cult" over the weekend?

  by JWoods in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  did anybody else see this?

  apparantly this is a small pseudo-christian (and apocalyptic) group under the leadership of a woman.. relatives found eerie left-behind notes that looked suspiciously like suicide notes when they went off for a retreat over the weekend - so the police were called and put on a full-press search in case they were about to do a jamestown.. they were found safe, praying in some wildlife park a few miles away.

  their story was that they left the notes "in case the rapture came while they were gone, so their friends and family would know where they were".. does anyone know anything more about them?.

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  9

  Thank heaven - Obama appoints 44th czar - to control Asian Carp -

  by JWoods in

  1. social
  2. current

  http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/09/us-names-asian-carp-czar.html.

  my question is a simple one - what is this guy actually going to do about the carp?.

  (other than administrate an expensive government-funded study program).

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  6

  Science Channel had very interesting program on the Star of Bethlehem last night -

  by JWoods in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is apparantly still a great theological/archeological/astronomical mystery (at least for those who insist on the literal truth of the story).

  this show did not try to deny the legend - rather, it brought up several theories by modern historical astronomers as to what this "star" might actually have been -.

  of the several theories, these seemed to be the main candidates:.

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  18

  Which non-JWs exactly get resurructed into the new system?

  by JWoods in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there seems to be a lot of speculative jw confusion on this.

  several jw "rules of thumb" seem to apply -.

  1) - if you die "during a judgement period" - i.e., you died post 1914 after hearing the jw message, and did not accept it - you do not get a resurrection.... << but, i believe they qualified this to say that 20th century people (like in red china) that did not hear the jw message might come back >>.

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  39

  What percentage of JWs have been disfellowshipped?

  by JWoods in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was just thinking about people i knew - and i come up with around 15% who were disfellowshipped.

  some got re-instated, some left for good, i even know a few who were disfellowshipped more than once.

  it may be even higher than that - certainly it is pretty common in jwland.. i know that other religions have a theoretical state of disfellowshipping - the catholics have excommunication, for example.

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  23

  Science Channel program on "Lost Gospels" - did anyone else see it?

  by JWoods in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i watched an interesting program last night on science channel called mysteries of the bible - this episode was about the lost gospels.. they include one by peter, another by mary magdelene, and one by judas.

  the most interesting part of the show, to me, was how they debunked the notion (shared by the wtbts) that constantine's council was somehow inspired and picked out the correct four gospels by divine means.. the pictured constantine as a practically non-religious person except in the sense that he saw a centrally organized system of christianity as a source of political power for himself.

  much was made of how he disliked the independent spirit of the gnostics, and therefore viewed mathew, mark, luke, and john as the least politically dangerous of the numerous gospel writings available in his time.. and, of course, again i was reminded of just how uncertain we really are about the writings preserved in the present-day new testament: they were written at least decades after their events took place, and were the result of verbal traditions told from one person to another.

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  14

  Thinking about the "two witnesses" rule for disfellowshipping -

  by JWoods in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  it just occurred to me that very possibly the jws are violating their own rule of "two witnesses" to convict a member of sin.. they have also long held the rule that if a man and a woman spend the night alone, this is evidence of adultery - but are there really two witnesses to adultery?

  at the most, it would mean that there could have been two witnesses that they stayed under one roof for the night - not necessarily that they did the deed.

  i personally know of certain cases where people have been dfd on this kind of "evidence" even when they protested that no sex took place.. what it made me think about is the greatly restrictive rule on proof of child molestation - here it is practically impossible to obtain their standard of "two witnesses" - in this case, the witnesses have to effectively observe the actual act of molestation.. is this a double standard?

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  11

  Roy Rogers stuffed horse Trigger sold for $266,000 -

  by JWoods in

  1. social
  2. family

  http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38252122/ns/today-entertainment/?gt1=43001.

  just when i thought that the mel gibson rants had the crazy train full speed on the mainline -.

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  12

  Montana man claims Yahweh sold him a house -

  by JWoods in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38242178/from/toolbar?gt1=43001.

  probably not a witness - didn't see where it said - but he just took the for sale signs out of the yard, moved in, and filed strange paperwork with the county.. charged with theft of property - house was worth $380,000.. interesting, i thought, in view of the threads we had about beth sarim today..

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