How ironic that conservative religious moralism fuels (rather than abates) immorality...
Fernando
JoinedPosts by Fernando
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SEVEN Types Of Women Pastors Should Watch Out For In Ministry!
by darth frosty ini found this to be interesting especially #6. seven types of women pastors should watch out for in ministry!.
january 19, 2016 26 comments.
“for the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and smoother than oil is her speech.” (proverbs 4:3).
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Need help compiling a list of the latest changes in doctrine and practices
by jwfacts ini have former jws looking at jwfacts.com in order to update themselves with what is happening with the religion, so that they can better understand their jw family.
it thought it would help if there was a page devoted to what has changed since 2000. .
2012 oct release of jw.org - jws encouraged to download their own publications and use ipads at meetings and field service.
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Fernando
The Watchtower has deprecated the "good news about Jesus Christ" and hidden it behind the "good news about the Kingdom" for many decades, with few able to call them out on it (Acts 8:12).
It is really quite odd that they were able to pull this off for so long since more than half the bible's roughly 152 references to "good news" are by Paul and yet he never once uses the word "kingdom" in the same sentence!
This deceptive slight of hand was exposed forcing a surreptitious but major turnaround in 2011:
*** w11 6/15 p. 7 par. 3 There Is Good News That All Need ***
Could it be, though, that we might give little attention to a key aspect of the good news that people need? In the letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul used the word “kingdom” only once, but he used the expression “good news” 12 times. (Read Romans 14:17.) What aspect of the good news did Paul refer to so often in that book? Why is that particular good news vital? And why should we keep it in mind as we preach “the good news of God” to people in our territory?*** w11 6/15 p. 11 par. 21 There Is Good News That All Need ***
How rewarding it is to help honesthearted ones to understand the good news mentioned repeatedly in the book of Romans, the good news that “is, in fact, God’s power for salvation to everyone having faith.” -
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$1.2 billion coming, still 12 properties to go
by the girl next door inbut still, they ask for more at every opportunity.
send in that ice cream money kids!.
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/2015/12/4/sales-watchtower-headquarters-and-two-other-jehovah%e2%80%99s-witnesses-properties-could.
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Fernando
Maybe a little harder to plead poverty to the Watchtower's many Candace Contis... -
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Do not Disassociate, Anull your baptism
by jwfacts ini am now a jedi, so trust me on this.. .
why dis-associate, you are just playing by the wts rules?
how can you dis-associate anyway, you never thought you were baptised as a watchtower society member, you thought your dedication was to god, so why formally disassociate from something you did not formally join?
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Fernando
Great suggestion.
And still very relevant after 10 years!
Personally I would reduce it to one page at most.
Even one sentence.
Less wiggle room.
Harder to dismiss as an apostate rant.
Easier for them to remember till the day they die.
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12 signs you are a modern day Pharisee
by Zoos ini was reading through this list and was struck by how accurately it describes the watchtower royalty class.
not exactly a professional doing the writing but i think he captures it pretty well.. http://frankpowell.me/12-signs-you-are-modern-day-pharisee.
for those who cannot access the link:.
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Fernando
In his book/s Ray Franz discussed the body of legal precedents HQ has proudly developed and collected in responding to requests of the "ruling religious clergy class" for directives from the council of popes (GB or Sanhedrin). -
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12 signs you are a modern day Pharisee
by Zoos ini was reading through this list and was struck by how accurately it describes the watchtower royalty class.
not exactly a professional doing the writing but i think he captures it pretty well.. http://frankpowell.me/12-signs-you-are-modern-day-pharisee.
for those who cannot access the link:.
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Fernando
Some excerpts from:
*** w80 5/1 p. 5 Learning from an Experiment That Failed ***
Learning from an Experiment That FailedTHROUGHOUT history there have been numerous attempts to influence people toward a more righteous way of life. One such experiment was made by the Pharisees, a group that receives considerable attention in the inspired Christian Greek Scriptures. Their experiment failed.
Determination to avoid transgressing God’s law, even in minute details, caused the Pharisees to go yet farther. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus writes: “The Pharisees had passed on to the people certain regulations handed down by former generations and not recorded in the Laws of Moses.”
What was the purpose of so many rules of conduct? Some insight on this matter can be gained from a statement uttered by Jewish religious leaders before the Common Era: “Be deliberate in judgement, raise up many disciples, and make a fence around the Law.” The “fence” means traditions that supposedly would restrain persons from transgressing the written law of God. According to theory, if a person did not cross the fence, he would never be guilty of violating an actual Biblical decree.
Did that experiment succeed? Did the massive body of oral traditions make better people out of the Israelites and the Pharisees in particular?
Seeking God’s Favor Through Deeds
Excessive attention to minute regulations had a harmful effect. It led to the belief that becoming righteous in God’s eyes was merely a matter of carrying out prescribed religious and charitable deeds. Each good deed was believed to earn “merit” with God, whereas every bad act would incur “debt.” Supposedly, God would one day make a tally of the record of merits and debts to determine whether a person was righteous or wicked.
The teaching about earning merit and favor with God by good deeds caused many Pharisees to become self-righteous and condemnatory of others.
By the time the Son of God began his earthly ministry, the Pharisees had been around for about two centuries. That was plenty of time to see whether their experiment at promoting righteousness through good works would succeed. It did not. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared: “If your righteousness does not abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens.”
No amount of ritual washings or other pious deeds can cleanse away defilement due to sin. Only repentance and the putting of faith in God’s arrangement for canceling sins through Jesus Christ can achieve forgiveness and salvation. (Acts 4:12) That is why Zechariah, father of John the Baptizer, prophesied that God was about to “give knowledge of salvation to his people,” not by freeing them from an enemy nation but “by forgiveness of their sins.”—Luke 1:77.
The Pharisees did not like that message, since they ‘trusted in themselves that they were righteous and considered the rest as nothing.’ (Luke 18:9, 10) But theirs was merely an external, superficial piety. It did not root out inward filthiness
Historical facts are plentiful to show that the Pharisees’ experiment to promote righteousness by their way of observing religious precepts and performing charitable deeds was a failure. It neither influenced the majority toward godliness nor helped the Pharisees themselves to become better people. Instead, it influenced them to commit the worst crime in all history, the murder of the Son of God.
However, the experiment was not altogether without usefulness. It set the stage for Jesus before his death to give the powerful message concerning human sinfulness and the need to seek salvation, not through works but as a free gift on the basis of repentance and faith in the sin-atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
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12 signs you are a modern day Pharisee
by Zoos ini was reading through this list and was struck by how accurately it describes the watchtower royalty class.
not exactly a professional doing the writing but i think he captures it pretty well.. http://frankpowell.me/12-signs-you-are-modern-day-pharisee.
for those who cannot access the link:.
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Fernando
*** w96 1/15 p. 29 Light Ends an Age of Darkness ***
The Pharisees originated during the Grecian period as a vigorous reaction to anti-Jewish Hellenism. By Jesus’ day, however, they were rigid, tradition-bound, legalistic, proud, self-righteous proselytizers and teachers who sought to control the nation through synagogue instruction. They came mainly from the middle class and disdained the common people. Jesus viewed most Pharisees as self-seeking, merciless money lovers who oozed hypocrisy. (Matthew, chapter 23) They accepted the entire Hebrew Scriptures in the light of their own explanations but attached equal or greater weight to their oral traditions. They said that their traditions were “a fence around the Law.” Far from being a fence, however, their traditions invalidated the Word of God and perplexed the public. -
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12 signs you are a modern day Pharisee
by Zoos ini was reading through this list and was struck by how accurately it describes the watchtower royalty class.
not exactly a professional doing the writing but i think he captures it pretty well.. http://frankpowell.me/12-signs-you-are-modern-day-pharisee.
for those who cannot access the link:.
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Fernando
Legalistic and moralistic Pharisaism is the reason for the existence of "Judging Committees" and the absence of "Spiritual Healing Committees". -
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12 signs you are a modern day Pharisee
by Zoos ini was reading through this list and was struck by how accurately it describes the watchtower royalty class.
not exactly a professional doing the writing but i think he captures it pretty well.. http://frankpowell.me/12-signs-you-are-modern-day-pharisee.
for those who cannot access the link:.
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Fernando
Oh the irony...
*** g79 6/8 p. 28 Why the Emphasis on Christian Freedom? ***
Persons who insisted on Law observance denied the value of all-essential faith and continued to look to works as the means for making themselves righteous.*** g79 6/8 p. 28 Why the Emphasis on Christian Freedom? ***
A perfect code of laws cannot make any person righteous.*** w82 7/15 pp. 17-18 par. 9 How Do You Guide Your Life? ***
The Jewish Pharisees zealously advocated rules. Not content with the Mosaic law, they developed numerous rules or “commands of men” that invalidated God’s commands. Besides developing these rules that went beyond what God asked, their legalistic outlook encouraged the view that righteousness could result from knowing and keeping these human regulations.*** w96 3/15 p. 21 Jehovah—A Lover of Righteousness and Justice ***
However, the Jewish scribes and Pharisees sought to attain righteousness by following a rigid code of laws—most of their own making. Their legalistic justice usually eliminated mercy. -
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Finding love as a witness
by RawrSaysTheLion inhi i'm new.. i'm going on 2yrs as a baptized witness although i've just received a reproval on the grounds of living with a wordly man unmarried for 6 months.
long story short it ended messy and i ran straight back to the witnesses because i do love jehovah and i missed my family.
my issues were only with the actual organization.. i desperately want to find someone to share my world with but i feel like i'm too tainted to be loved by anyone worthy in the truth and my morals are to high to love another boy from the world.
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Fernando
Welcome RawrSaysTheLion.
There are some wonderful folk here on JWC and I'm sure you'll feel a lot better after reading what they have to say.
We are wired for relationships both intimate and otherwise.
It is natural. You are normal.
All religion is however obsessed with controlling humans and human sexuality. This is neither normal nor right.
Membership of the Watchtower is a no-win situation because the Watchtower ruling religious clergy class are always right no matter how wrong they are.
As a believer I too love Jehovah and know that he loves me.
His love as our heavenly father is unconditional.
It is not based on what I do or do not do.
That is why, the "good news" (especially according to Paul) makes it clear that a clean and right standing with God is imputed as a "free gift" based on what God has already done to redeem us his children. This is not something we can earn, deserve or pay for. Paul is very clear on this - over and over. To check just search for and mark the words righteous/ness in Paul's letters.
Religionists do not like this message since it sets us free from their illegitimate power, control and authority.
May you make many great friends here.
Greetings
Fernando