ha i love it when they come to the door.
two dub females came to the door.
one of them seemed pretty intelligent and down to the earth.
To which I said, "excuse me you came to my door. I didn't come to yours. You came here trying to convince me that YOU are right and I am wrong. So by default you did come here to argue". Again that kind of stopped her in her tracks and she had to go on to another point.
/applaud!!!!!!!!!!!
-Sab
there have been a number of posts made about the watchtower society closing or downsizing branch offices and i think the hard consequences of this desperate move have not been fully appreciated.. ok, so you have c.o.
's all over the place and who do they report to exactly?
i believe various brothers (and lawyers) have pointed out the danger of having a catholic style chain of command and centralized leadership.
I have always felt that the Society is an Organization built for a 10 year push stretched out over 120 years. I believe the founding fathers of the Society didn't care about the 'future' when they were creating their doctrine and policy because that wasn't the point. The POINT was that they were all going to be in Paradise very soon, but the "very soon" has been stretched out beyond what any of the old timers in the Org have ever imagined.
-Sab
i am not mocking a thread with the same words in the title.
i liked that thread question and am imitating it.. anyway, some people on jwn have decided that words have absolute definitions and others recognize common usage.. some have decided that everyone must have "beliefs" that go beyond "i don't know.
" others feel that it is okay to not know.. some feel that beliefs fall into generalities such as "atheists believe in evolution and the big bang" or "believers in the [god of the] bible believe in the literal history of the bible.
Is it okay to post skepticism and disbelief in what people post (without violating posting rules)?
Is it okay to expect only warm, positive, supportive replies to comments on JWN?
Isn't the above statement this websites directive?
-Sab
pondering over this dilemma:.
lets just say, for arguments sake, the report in genesis about the first humans is not an allegory, but a true event:.
watchtower teaches, that adam sinned, because he used his free will to disobey.. god grants free will to his human creation, because he wants them to serve him out of love.. ok, good, but i give an example: i meet a girl, tell her, she is free to love me, but if not, i kill her.. would you call this free will ?.
Of course we COULD mince words and say that our "makeup" is predisposed nullifying any TRUE free will but I think that is a poppycock argument and a copout.
If you want to get technical I would use the word sentience.
Humans have the highest form of sentience on the planet compared with all other Earthly life. This is our "x-factor" so-to-speak. High capacity for sentience is a major step in psychological and sociological evolution.
We have to FEEL our surroundings in a sentient way before free will becomes even in the realm of possibility.
-Sab
pondering over this dilemma:.
lets just say, for arguments sake, the report in genesis about the first humans is not an allegory, but a true event:.
watchtower teaches, that adam sinned, because he used his free will to disobey.. god grants free will to his human creation, because he wants them to serve him out of love.. ok, good, but i give an example: i meet a girl, tell her, she is free to love me, but if not, i kill her.. would you call this free will ?.
As I recall - Terry does not believe in free will.
Free will exists and is the sole determining factor of human psychological and sociological evolution.
-Sab
pondering over this dilemma:.
lets just say, for arguments sake, the report in genesis about the first humans is not an allegory, but a true event:.
watchtower teaches, that adam sinned, because he used his free will to disobey.. god grants free will to his human creation, because he wants them to serve him out of love.. ok, good, but i give an example: i meet a girl, tell her, she is free to love me, but if not, i kill her.. would you call this free will ?.
BTW - the JW view of earthly paradise pretty much reduces all humans left on earth back to the robotic state of Adam and Eve had they not sinned - thus, to my viewpoint - pretty much without free will again.
This is exactly true. Yet most JWs will speculate that the "new scrolls" are much more exciting then just the life that Adam and Eve had.
-Sab
pondering over this dilemma:.
lets just say, for arguments sake, the report in genesis about the first humans is not an allegory, but a true event:.
watchtower teaches, that adam sinned, because he used his free will to disobey.. god grants free will to his human creation, because he wants them to serve him out of love.. ok, good, but i give an example: i meet a girl, tell her, she is free to love me, but if not, i kill her.. would you call this free will ?.
I believe that what you said is actually what is happening. God created us with free will and everything in this world is a product of our decisions as a race wholly because of the free will given to us by our Creator, who or whatever that may be.
-Sab
are demons big or little?
do they take up space?.
do they infest our cells and peer out like they are trapped inside a jelly bean?.
I'm not sure why you think anyone is going to take this topic seriously... You are only gonna get the "it's in the Bible so it happened" response. Sometimes that response can be imparted with many words or fewer words, it depends on the person.
-Sab
luke 21:8. .
american standard version (asv).
he said, watch out that you dont get led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, i am he , and, the time is at hand.
Here is the ONLY reference that came up in the WT Library 2009 CD when I typed in Luke 21:8:
November 1st 1964 Watchtower
Wolves in Sheep’s Covering
Can you detect them? How can you avoid becoming their prey?
DECEPTION caused Eve to become prey to the great Devourer, Satan the Devil. Thereafter her husband and children fell into the clutches of a wolfish god who has robbed them of everything in life that is worthwhile—fear of God, self-respect, genuine love for neighbor and love of the truth. Today, therefore, hypocrisy and treachery are rife. Each worshiper of the true God is required to be wide-awake, alert to the numerous deceptions that continually beset his path.
To his first-century disciples Jesus sounded a warning that applies to us today with even greater force: “Look out that you are not misled; for many will come on the basis of my name, saying, ‘I am he [Christ],’ and, ‘The due time has approached.’ Do not go after them.” (Luke 21:8) He also admonished: “Be on the watch for the false prophets that come to you in sheep’s covering, but inside they are ravenous wolves.” (Matt. 7:15) Watchfulness and caution are therefore essential to avoid becoming prey to greedy, wolfish men.
Just as wolves will cut off their intended victims from the main flock before attacking and devouring, so it might be expected that human wolves would act. So the apostle Paul under inspiration declared: “I know that after my going away oppressive wolves will enter in among you and will not treat the flock with tenderness, and from among you yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.” And Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, also spoke of this peril: “There will also be false teachers among you. These very ones will quietly bring in destructive sects and will disown even the owner that bought them . . . Also, with covetousness they will exploit you with counterfeit words.” Jesus’ brother and disciple Jude, in turn, wrote that “certain men have slipped in who have long ago been appointed by the Scriptures to this judgment, ungodly men, turning the undeserved kindness of our God into an excuse for loose conduct and proving false to our only Owner and Lord, Jesus Christ.” The apostle John adds his testimony: “Young children, it is the last hour, and, just as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now [about the year 98 C.E.] there have come to be many antichrists; from which fact we gain the knowledge that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of our sort.”—Acts 20:29, 30; 2 Pet. 2:1-3; Jude 4; 1 John 2:18, 19.
The combined testimony of these faithful witnesses pointed to danger from within the ranks of professed Christians. The peril would be not so much from the openly avowed opponents of Christ as from those who would rise up claiming to be Christ or claiming to exercise the rights and prerogatives of Christ as his empowered representatives. Disarmed by an outward show of godliness and by “smooth talk and complimentary speech,” many unwary Christians would be seduced into following ‘wolves in sheep’s covering’ and eventually becoming prey to such selfish deceivers.—Rom. 16:18.
Not a very quoted scripture in the Dub theology!
-Sab
Alice, kindly stfu.
-Sab
