Interesting theory about the origin of the divine name Yah-weh.
God is repeatedly linked with breath, wind, air in the OT. Breath in and out deeply through your mouth and you say Yah-weh with every breath.
Posts by cofty
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43Why Is YHWH Used Regularly In OT and NEVER in NT?
by minimus inand if the name jehovah is that important why is it that jesus christ never use that name in a record of scriptures?.
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203
My Explanation of Why They Got it Wrong About Blood Using Only the NWT
by cofty in10 " any israelite or any alien living among them who eats any bloodi will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people.
12 therefore i say to the israelites, "none of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood.
15 'anyone, whether native-born or alien, who eats anything found dead or torn by wild animals must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be ceremonially unclean till evening; then he will be clean.
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cofty
Thank you Cobweb. I genuinely believe this line of reasoning is unassailable. A more succinct version is here...
Imagine if the GB published something like this as "new light".
If it wasn't for the possible legal consequences....
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Elders/Ex-Elders: Question about Blood
by JWdaughter inafter many years of objecting to the wt teachings on many levels, blood being one of them, i recently started to wonder (ok, i am slow!
) : what exactly does the wt think that the early non jewish christians were abstaining from in the blood abstention bit.
while i understand the context of the request that the apostle sent to the brothers, i do not understand what jws think they were abstaining from.. meat slaughtered improperly?.
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cofty
if i serve blood sausage (black pudding) according to 1st cor' 10:27 would they be ok to eat - Fairlane
No they wouldn't. Since they would know that the meat was made with blood they could not eat it knowingly.
If you think my explanation is bizzare can you explain why the council in Jerusalem had needed to explain to gentile converts to keep their pants on? Are gentile converts allowed to murder, steal etc? Contex - Steel
I explained it some detail in the link I provided for you...
A more succinct version here does not discuss Acts 15...
You obviously didn't bother to read them. Here is an extract of the section on Acts 15...
By the way it's "Cofty".
Only by properly understanding this Old Testament background of the laws concerning blood can the key text at Acts 15 in the New Testament and its significance for Christians be properly understood.
A fact often overlooked by modern Christians is that they’re religion began as a Jewish sect. The burning issue in the early church, that almost divided it in its infancy, was whether gentile believers could be acceptable without complying with the full requirements of the law.
In Galatians 2 Paul recounts how tension between Jewish and gentile believers led him to go up to the apostles in Jerusalem to settle the matter. In Acts 15 we appear to have a historical account of what Paul is referring to in this letter. A summit meeting is held involving a large number of believers including some of the elders and apostles as well as Paul and Barnabus.
Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the Law of Moses." Acts 15:2
So here is the problem; it is offensive to Jewish Christians that some of their brothers are ignoring the basic requirements of the law including circumcision. This did not just have theological implications; it was an obstacle to the unity and fellowship of the early church. A Jewish Christian could not, in good conscience, have fellowship with an uncircumcised person.
The solution that was finally adopted was a stroke of genius.
It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell. Acts 15:28,29
So where did the meeting come up with this particular set of requirements for gentile believers? Why no injunction against murder? What about theft, drunkenness and lying? This verse is not a new set of commandments for Christians; it is a restatement of those things that had always been required to maintain fellowship between Jews and gentiles.
The question of how Jews and gentiles could live together peacefully and what was required of non-Jewish residents in Israel was already established in the Law. In Leviticus 17 and 18 these very same prohibitions which could neatly be summarized as idolatry, blood and fornication, are set out as being those things that a foreigner must adhere to while living amongst the Israelites. They were not required to be circumcised, and to stipulate they were to abstain from murder or theft would have been to state the obvious. The crimes that a foreigner were likely to commit, perhaps without even understanding their offensiveness to their Jewish hosts, were these three things, idolatry, fornication and eating blood.
The words of James who proposed the content of the letter sent out to the congregations leaves us in no doubt about the reason for its contents.
"It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath." Acts 15:19-21
How can there be any room for doubt that these things are not about fundamental laws but about how to maintain unity under the specific circumstances of the early congregation?
Finally, the letter requires Christians “abstain from food sacrificed to idols” but in 1Cor 8 Paul explains clearly that a brother who eats food sacrificed to idols commits no sin but does risk stumbling his brother. The language Paul uses there is identical to the wording of the Acts 15 letter. -
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Elders/Ex-Elders: Question about Blood
by JWdaughter inafter many years of objecting to the wt teachings on many levels, blood being one of them, i recently started to wonder (ok, i am slow!
) : what exactly does the wt think that the early non jewish christians were abstaining from in the blood abstention bit.
while i understand the context of the request that the apostle sent to the brothers, i do not understand what jws think they were abstaining from.. meat slaughtered improperly?.
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Your work is not in vain! Thank You!
by de-opresso-liber inbeen lurking since early this year.
there are many of us out there (at least in this area, central u.s.) who are waking up and crossing the line to talk to each other about it.
in our area, several elders, ministerial servants and pioneers are actively and openly sharing info with each other daily.
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cofty
Welcome to the forum de-opresso-liber. It's great to hear you and your wife have both made your escape.
In our area, several elders, ministerial servants and pioneers are actively and openly sharing info with each other daily.
That is really encouraging to hear. Best wishes.
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103
Sam Harris on Trump - The Most Powerful Clown
by cofty inharris is at his incisive best in his latest podcast.. he likens the situation to being on an aeroplane where the pilot has died and somebody with no experience of flying has grabbed the controls.
we should all be committed to his success.
prize for the best line goes to - "caligula with a iphone".. even if you love trump and despise harris you should appreciate his clarity.. waking up with sam harris....
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cofty
Sam Harris has denounced Trump over and over again in recent months. His criticism of Trump has been devastating and unrelenting. But on the one single issue of an awareness of the existential threat posed by Islam he has credited Trump for being more alert and honest than Clinton.
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103
Sam Harris on Trump - The Most Powerful Clown
by cofty inharris is at his incisive best in his latest podcast.. he likens the situation to being on an aeroplane where the pilot has died and somebody with no experience of flying has grabbed the controls.
we should all be committed to his success.
prize for the best line goes to - "caligula with a iphone".. even if you love trump and despise harris you should appreciate his clarity.. waking up with sam harris....
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cofty
The trouble with Harris is when he attempts to extend and smear Muslims in general and paint the whole religion as essentially evil
This from a man who claims to have read a great deal of Harris' work. Did you entirely miss the book he co-authored with Maajid Nawaz?
Islam is essentially evil. Individual Muslims who accept the humanist principles of freedom and democracy do so despite their religion.
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103
Sam Harris on Trump - The Most Powerful Clown
by cofty inharris is at his incisive best in his latest podcast.. he likens the situation to being on an aeroplane where the pilot has died and somebody with no experience of flying has grabbed the controls.
we should all be committed to his success.
prize for the best line goes to - "caligula with a iphone".. even if you love trump and despise harris you should appreciate his clarity.. waking up with sam harris....
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cofty
it is simply saying that Trump supporters act in the same way as those they criticize...
Indeed.
Authoritarianism on the right and the left.
If I am not mistaken Orwell's 1984 was a warning about the leftist version.
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New Religion where to look?
by Alostpuppydog inhas anyone found any religion that makes more sense than the watchtower organization?
obviously catholics make even less sense than them so don't say that.... the reason i ask is because i still believe the bible is the word of god, but just that the jw's have twisted it for their own benefit, as most religions seem to do....
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cofty
The reason I ask is because I still believe the bible is the Word of God
Why?
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103
Sam Harris on Trump - The Most Powerful Clown
by cofty inharris is at his incisive best in his latest podcast.. he likens the situation to being on an aeroplane where the pilot has died and somebody with no experience of flying has grabbed the controls.
we should all be committed to his success.
prize for the best line goes to - "caligula with a iphone".. even if you love trump and despise harris you should appreciate his clarity.. waking up with sam harris....
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cofty
Fuck you regressives. You got greedy. You messed it all up. Trump, and everything he does, is all your fault - Simon
I think there is a basic problem of supply and demand.
A whole generation of young liberals have grown up learning about the evils of racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia etc. Excellent! However the victories of the previous generation seem to have escaped their attention. There is a dearth of genuine social justice battles to be fought so they invent new ones. "Micro-aggressions" have been elevated to a level of moral atrocity equivalent to Jim Crow Laws of the '50s. Social Justice is the new secular religion with all of the irrational ideologies of a cult.
The Regressive Left have been indoctrinated with the ideology of moral relativism and equality: not equality of opportunity but equality of outcome. The algorithm is simple.
1 - Identify a field of human activity
2 - Observe that some people are doing better than others in this specific area
3 - Identify those doing less well as victims
4 - Label those doing better as over-privileged perpetratorsThe majority have had enough of the whining. Some cultures are superior: vastly superior. There are significant biological differences between the sexes. Some belief systems are incompatible with human progress. Mass immigration is damaging to society.
Trump is what you get when you try to force the majority to suppress their common sense and believe impossible things.