Personally, the realization of the very belief of Jehovah's Witnesses that Jesus died on a tortuke stake, rather than on a cross, (in February 1, 1991, issue of the Watchtower magazine, the article "Agony on the Stake", part of the Greatest Man book) rang the bell that there might be something strange with the Witnesses. I was around 11 years old back then and it was, as far as I remember, my second personal encounter with a Witness publisher.
Caminante
JoinedPosts by Caminante
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33
What is it with JW's and the Cross?
by FloridaPerry inhistory shows people were hung on stakes and crosses, why do the jw's make a big deal about the cross?
isn't jesus dying for the sins of man the issue?
the cross was a part of the jw's early on.
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What is it with JW's and the Cross?
by FloridaPerry inhistory shows people were hung on stakes and crosses, why do the jw's make a big deal about the cross?
isn't jesus dying for the sins of man the issue?
the cross was a part of the jw's early on.
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Caminante
JunkYardDog: the only placeswhere Let God Be True says that Jesus died on a cross are quotations from the Scripture, that are taken out from the American Standard Version (in the 1946 edition). On pages 42 and 43, in paragraph 13 it says about the "Jewish rabbis, priests and sectarian leaders" to have stirred up "the misguided Jewish people to cry for Jesus to be impaled on a tree." So before they released the New World Translation they used "tree" instead of "torture stake." The 1952 edition quotes the Emphatic Diaglott when citing Philippians 2:8 in one place, but in the body text it consistently uses the word "stake" or "torture stake" when referring to the instrument of Jesus' execution.
As far as I know the cross has been replaced with the crux simplex to substantiate the fact that the cross, as a religious symbol, is of a pagan origin. Since most of the people believe that the cross as the symbol of Christendom was first chosen because of the fact that Jesus died on a cross, this was a pretty easy strategy to have a backing to their statement that Christendom is an apostate form of religion and to enforce future ex-Catholics to give up praying in front of a crucifix.
So, as it is the case with many of the changes, this too was made to help gather converts to the organization and to reach growing numbers more efficiently.
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1958 New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures-PDF-Vol.4
by Atlantis inbookmarked and searchable.
1958 new world translation of the hebrew scriptures-pdf-vol.4.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/dxadmv atlantis!
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Caminante
Thanks, Atlantis! That's a brilliant job you're doing with these early NW releases!
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1958 New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures-PDF-Vol.4
by Atlantis inbookmarked and searchable.
1958 new world translation of the hebrew scriptures-pdf-vol.4.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/dxadmv atlantis!
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Caminante
Thanks, Atlantis! That's a brilliant job you're doing with these early NW releases!
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Does the Watchtower contain photo's of the Devil
by jwfacts ini have not been able to find any photo's of satan the devil in the watchtower.
there are photo's of the serpent with eve, satan's hand offering kingdoms to jesus and a shadowy cloaked figure speaking to jesus on the mountain.
apart from that i cannot locate any of a proper looking devil.
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Caminante
Lol, Mary. Indeed, that's one creepy and devilish photo of Judge Rutherford!
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Does the Watchtower contain photo's of the Devil
by jwfacts ini have not been able to find any photo's of satan the devil in the watchtower.
there are photo's of the serpent with eve, satan's hand offering kingdoms to jesus and a shadowy cloaked figure speaking to jesus on the mountain.
apart from that i cannot locate any of a proper looking devil.
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Caminante
InquiryMan, that's it: page 51 in True Peace and Security—How Can You Find It? Here's a scan too (from the Hungarian edition of the book):
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Does the Watchtower contain photo's of the Devil
by jwfacts ini have not been able to find any photo's of satan the devil in the watchtower.
there are photo's of the serpent with eve, satan's hand offering kingdoms to jesus and a shadowy cloaked figure speaking to jesus on the mountain.
apart from that i cannot locate any of a proper looking devil.
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Caminante
The fastest I recall of is on page 29 of the Trinity brochure, but it's black and white. That illustration is reproduced in color in another publication, and you can clearly see Satan as a beardless, angry, blonde angel.
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Are Sisters Allowed to Typeset The Watchtower?
by VM44 indoes anyone know if sisters are allowed to typset (or today's electronic equivalent) the watchtower magazine in order to compose articles for the printing presses?.
i have heard of sisters typesetting the awake magazine, but i would like to know if they are permitted to perform the same work for the watchtower magazine.. this question comes from the letter sent to elders forbidding sisters from spiral binding the new elder's manual, while it is ok for a brother to do so.. .
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Caminante
The Branch Organization manual says that only in writing the articles should be kept in mind that it's not proper for sister to write material that involves certain spiritual things. But typesetting is not a problem I guess. It's just importing some marked up text in Word documents into MEPS Composition, that renders .ps files that are sent to printing branches to be transfered to film, plates and then paper.
Sisters *do* write articles for Awake. It's nothing appropriate about that.
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Should it be BC or BCE ?
by james_woods inan interesting topic came up on my ferrari board today: bc or bce - which is right (or more right)?.
interesting debate running in world archeology magazine the last 2 issues - all over.
we's editorial stance is to always use bc/ad when.
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Caminante
BCE and CE are also religion-independent terms for expressing dates. That's the main reason WTS publications use them, to not discriminate against non-Christian religions, i.e. against people professing not to be Christians.
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Another 144,000 Question
by Cold Steel inokay, based on my reading, you're clearly better off being one of the 144,000. first, you get to reside in heaven, while everyone else is consigned to living on earth.
second, a spirit (in wts eschatology) is much better than being a flesh and bone human.
they can fly, read in a darkened room and they get to be with god for eternity.. but what of everyone else?
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Caminante
Black Sheep: They evidently came to earth because they couldn't satisfy their unnatural sexual desires in heaven. Angels weren't created with the capability to reproduce, so I imagine they can't have sex either. They must have found out that married mates experience a special kind of pleasure while engaging into sexual relations and expressed a selfish desire to taste that one too.
Cold Steel: Fly, read in a darkened room? I'm not sure that applies to heaven. Note that form of existence in heaven is completely different than in our material universe (if it were, it could physically interact by a way or another with it). As to the annoiting, I'm not even sure that one professing to be an anointed can tell for sure whether the thing they feel is genuinely the impact of the Holy Spirit, or it's a purely human emotional sensation (since emotions are also expressed by the spirit component of the self). As to skills gained after reaching perfection in Paradise earth, I agree with DanaBug's statement: "[They leave ] a lot of possibilities. Who knows what the mind is capable of when it can be used at full capacity?"