Posts by brit-93108

72

The Ancient Jewish CROSS and the ancient Hebrew letter Taw

by brit-93108 in

the ancient jewish cross by al garza phd is a groundbreaking book just published by createspace (isbn-13: 978-1461133896; april 27, 2011).. i'm about to order this book because it means a lot to me personally.

i was completely unaware of the history or meaning of ancient hebrew letter taw.

shaped like a cross and avoided by various jewish rabbi today due to its ties to jesus christ's death since his execution, taw is a pictorgraph used prior to babylonian captivity meaning "mark," "sign," "covenant," "seal," or more specifically, "sign, covenant, and seal of yhwh god" -- and fulfilled when jesus the messiah finalized the covenant on it through his blood so that we could have eternal life.. is the cross jewish or pagan?

brit-93108

I just wanted to follow-up on Leolaia's comments by saying your knowledge of this subject is very impressive. Thanks for contributing to this thread. I hated it when people pretend to be in the know, and I certainly don't claim to know a lot about this subject, which is why one might say I decided to float a "trial balloon" on this site. It's interesting and thought provoking to see it dodged stray bullets until you, Leolaia, it a bullseye, and I tip my hat to you.

Although I have a good BS detector and can often spot what is patently wrong (the stake teaching, which I'm sure would cause Russell to turn in his grave) I lack the scholarly background to know why it's wrong. Is the founder of a religion that claims to be "the one true religion" that emerged after a dark age -- yet has no inspiration on its so-called "faithful slave" roots or lineage through that dark age -- be "inspired" by God to glorify the Cross on its Zion's Watch Tower cover and then mysteriously discover "whoops, big mistake... but don't get us wrong, doesn't mean we're not still the true religion, and to prove it we won't even posthumously disfellowship our founder for apostasy but acknowledge his place with the 144,000 in Heaven instead"? I dunno.

72

The Ancient Jewish CROSS and the ancient Hebrew letter Taw

by brit-93108 in

the ancient jewish cross by al garza phd is a groundbreaking book just published by createspace (isbn-13: 978-1461133896; april 27, 2011).. i'm about to order this book because it means a lot to me personally.

i was completely unaware of the history or meaning of ancient hebrew letter taw.

shaped like a cross and avoided by various jewish rabbi today due to its ties to jesus christ's death since his execution, taw is a pictorgraph used prior to babylonian captivity meaning "mark," "sign," "covenant," "seal," or more specifically, "sign, covenant, and seal of yhwh god" -- and fulfilled when jesus the messiah finalized the covenant on it through his blood so that we could have eternal life.. is the cross jewish or pagan?

brit-93108

"as if the claim that Jesus died on a cross means that Jesus would have been executed on a "pagan symbol.""

Going back a few, that was my thought, but that a symbol meant to bastardize a whorous union between Sanhedrin and Roman government to dishonor the body of a murdered man claimed by the Sanhedrin as masquerading as a Messiah, through Jesus's resurrection transformed into a glorious symbol of defeat of Satan. Thereby extending the metaphor of the cross's appearance to be an extended middle finger to God that His son Jesus was murdered on, turned around and used to humiliate the original Humiliator. Just extending the metphor....

"As you can see, therefore, the above discussion bears out the fact that the torture stake or tree upon which Jesus was impaled was not a cross, or a log with a crossbeam, as Christendom teaches, but was a straight, erect pole or log or stick and did not correspond with the phallic symbol of the cross."

Yes, your amusement doesn't escape reason; the stake does look like an erect phalus (since God didn't create human male anatomy with extensions, i.e. the crossbeams). Why is it their metaphors always blow up in their faces do you suppose?

72

The Ancient Jewish CROSS and the ancient Hebrew letter Taw

by brit-93108 in

the ancient jewish cross by al garza phd is a groundbreaking book just published by createspace (isbn-13: 978-1461133896; april 27, 2011).. i'm about to order this book because it means a lot to me personally.

i was completely unaware of the history or meaning of ancient hebrew letter taw.

shaped like a cross and avoided by various jewish rabbi today due to its ties to jesus christ's death since his execution, taw is a pictorgraph used prior to babylonian captivity meaning "mark," "sign," "covenant," "seal," or more specifically, "sign, covenant, and seal of yhwh god" -- and fulfilled when jesus the messiah finalized the covenant on it through his blood so that we could have eternal life.. is the cross jewish or pagan?

brit-93108

Also if you take the Devil thing seriously there are lots of aspects I've mentioned where scholars simply would not want to go. In an intellectual world people do tend to shy away from the discussion of fallen angels and many mainstream churches write off that whole area as metaphorical in the Bible, if nothing else to avoid losing credibility amongst their higher educated church members. You can't venture into occultic motivations in religious history without losing half your audience, so we lose that dimension of thought and discussion altogether.

72

The Ancient Jewish CROSS and the ancient Hebrew letter Taw

by brit-93108 in

the ancient jewish cross by al garza phd is a groundbreaking book just published by createspace (isbn-13: 978-1461133896; april 27, 2011).. i'm about to order this book because it means a lot to me personally.

i was completely unaware of the history or meaning of ancient hebrew letter taw.

shaped like a cross and avoided by various jewish rabbi today due to its ties to jesus christ's death since his execution, taw is a pictorgraph used prior to babylonian captivity meaning "mark," "sign," "covenant," "seal," or more specifically, "sign, covenant, and seal of yhwh god" -- and fulfilled when jesus the messiah finalized the covenant on it through his blood so that we could have eternal life.. is the cross jewish or pagan?

brit-93108

"Why should Jewish influence be so far reaching compared to Egyptian influence or Phyrgian, or Syrian, or Parthian, or Cypriote, or Cretan, etc., not to mention Etruscan and Greek influence?"

Well, my guess is the Sanhedrin controlled the religion's purse strings and took in a huge amount of money, and a corupt leadership could use $$$ to control the government. That's how the Catholic Church ruled Europe with terror during the dark ages. My arguments are based on the notion the Sanhedrin was in bed with the Roman government (perhaps figuratively and otherwise). That's why Jesus hated them and spoke in the most vile defamations that today would have been like calling a dictator the "F" word and spitting in his face, definitely triggering petty vengeance in puny vengeful minds. Yes, I have my own notions from my Bible reading over the years and studying various historical sources along the way, but it's pure speculation hoping for validation of rebuttal.

72

The Ancient Jewish CROSS and the ancient Hebrew letter Taw

by brit-93108 in

the ancient jewish cross by al garza phd is a groundbreaking book just published by createspace (isbn-13: 978-1461133896; april 27, 2011).. i'm about to order this book because it means a lot to me personally.

i was completely unaware of the history or meaning of ancient hebrew letter taw.

shaped like a cross and avoided by various jewish rabbi today due to its ties to jesus christ's death since his execution, taw is a pictorgraph used prior to babylonian captivity meaning "mark," "sign," "covenant," "seal," or more specifically, "sign, covenant, and seal of yhwh god" -- and fulfilled when jesus the messiah finalized the covenant on it through his blood so that we could have eternal life.. is the cross jewish or pagan?

brit-93108

There is no evidence at all, Leolaia, that may have influenced the Roman method of execution? How far before Jesus's execution was the Sanhedrin in bed with the Roman government, and what subtle influence did these rabbis have on every facet of Roman culture? I'm fascinated to hear the ancient alphabet was found in the Dead Sea scrolls. Makes me wonder if there are more scrolls are to be opened that will reveal the scope and grandeur of outright selling out of the Jewish faith to the Roman Empire by its corrupt religious leaders to benefit their worldly treasures, an act of betrayal on an order of magnitude greater than Judas, betrayal of God, the Jews, everything good and righteous? I digress.

As an after thought, would not displaying a symbol of a cross deeply offend Satan, i.e. the finger is getting flipped back in his face? Now I really digress.

72

The Ancient Jewish CROSS and the ancient Hebrew letter Taw

by brit-93108 in

the ancient jewish cross by al garza phd is a groundbreaking book just published by createspace (isbn-13: 978-1461133896; april 27, 2011).. i'm about to order this book because it means a lot to me personally.

i was completely unaware of the history or meaning of ancient hebrew letter taw.

shaped like a cross and avoided by various jewish rabbi today due to its ties to jesus christ's death since his execution, taw is a pictorgraph used prior to babylonian captivity meaning "mark," "sign," "covenant," "seal," or more specifically, "sign, covenant, and seal of yhwh god" -- and fulfilled when jesus the messiah finalized the covenant on it through his blood so that we could have eternal life.. is the cross jewish or pagan?

brit-93108

You raised an interesting point, james_woods, leading me to further posit that perhaps the Sanhedrin was so economically powerful it was one of the biggest taxpayers in the kingdom. Keep manipulating the Jewish people into tithing, and we will fund your empire. I can imagine the choice of a cross, besides being a common method of execution, was a symbolic show of political solidarity between the Sanhedrin Roman benefactors and the Romans, morphing the t and T. Although pure speculation, actually a leap of logical argumentation, to me it's a far more eloquent argument than the Watchtower's methods of going from A to B through a twisted jumble of syllogisms? I mean, given they have no idea whether it's a cross or stake, they could have figured "we'll default with cross because of (similar arguments to Dr. Garza) and honor our founder who was inspired by the Holy Spirit to establish 'the one true religion' in this 'time of the end'!"

Yet no, they want to go contrary to historical facts, argue against historians just to create separateness perhaps at the expense of truth. Like the baptism questions in 1985 that subtly redirect one's dedication from Jesus Christ's to "God's earthly organization" (been a while, can't recite the change word for word), one could almost suspect they are determined to weed out those who want to stick strictly to scriptures at all costs and rather favor those adherents who will accept leaps of logical argumentation to get from A to anywhere "they" want to go.

If the cross was part of prophecy as the book suggests in the Amazon preview (where you may be able to read it all, for all I know, I didn't get that far yet), it is not an idol but a prophecy build by YHWH into the ancient and original Hebrew alphabet (which is a short alphabet). It proves that Jesus was executed, not by the Romans, but by Satan himself who bastardised the Sanhedrin and used them as puppets on a string in an attempt to destroy his perceived obstacle to God himself. The cross in that sense was intended as an ugly middle finger at God but was transformed by Christ into Satan's eternal tombstone. That is my candid observation here.

72

The Ancient Jewish CROSS and the ancient Hebrew letter Taw

by brit-93108 in

the ancient jewish cross by al garza phd is a groundbreaking book just published by createspace (isbn-13: 978-1461133896; april 27, 2011).. i'm about to order this book because it means a lot to me personally.

i was completely unaware of the history or meaning of ancient hebrew letter taw.

shaped like a cross and avoided by various jewish rabbi today due to its ties to jesus christ's death since his execution, taw is a pictorgraph used prior to babylonian captivity meaning "mark," "sign," "covenant," "seal," or more specifically, "sign, covenant, and seal of yhwh god" -- and fulfilled when jesus the messiah finalized the covenant on it through his blood so that we could have eternal life.. is the cross jewish or pagan?

brit-93108

I see a connection in retrospect because there is some historical controversy as to whether it was in fact the Sanhedrin that influenced Roman law and implementations of execution. The Jewish Sanhedrin of the time as even Jesus acknowledged were a corrupt duplicitious gang.

72

The Ancient Jewish CROSS and the ancient Hebrew letter Taw

by brit-93108 in

the ancient jewish cross by al garza phd is a groundbreaking book just published by createspace (isbn-13: 978-1461133896; april 27, 2011).. i'm about to order this book because it means a lot to me personally.

i was completely unaware of the history or meaning of ancient hebrew letter taw.

shaped like a cross and avoided by various jewish rabbi today due to its ties to jesus christ's death since his execution, taw is a pictorgraph used prior to babylonian captivity meaning "mark," "sign," "covenant," "seal," or more specifically, "sign, covenant, and seal of yhwh god" -- and fulfilled when jesus the messiah finalized the covenant on it through his blood so that we could have eternal life.. is the cross jewish or pagan?

brit-93108

Thank you, botchtowersociety, your reply came in over the transom whilst I was whittling away at an admittedly feeble attempt of one skeptic to satiate other skeptics.

Your screen name is well conceived considering the seemingly botched nature of this one stubborn anti-cross teaching (which seems so unnecessary because, like the change in baptism questions and other dogmatic nits, seems to screen out anyone who would consider these changes as anything but "minor" in scope).

72

The Ancient Jewish CROSS and the ancient Hebrew letter Taw

by brit-93108 in

the ancient jewish cross by al garza phd is a groundbreaking book just published by createspace (isbn-13: 978-1461133896; april 27, 2011).. i'm about to order this book because it means a lot to me personally.

i was completely unaware of the history or meaning of ancient hebrew letter taw.

shaped like a cross and avoided by various jewish rabbi today due to its ties to jesus christ's death since his execution, taw is a pictorgraph used prior to babylonian captivity meaning "mark," "sign," "covenant," "seal," or more specifically, "sign, covenant, and seal of yhwh god" -- and fulfilled when jesus the messiah finalized the covenant on it through his blood so that we could have eternal life.. is the cross jewish or pagan?

brit-93108

I completely understand the controversial nature of this post in context with this forum. Rest assured I'm not the author of the book and have never met the man. In fact, as a skeptic and agnostic who wants to believe that Jesus Christ existed and did fulfill a mission from God to save mankind, I too question Dr. Garza.

Perhaps this article can clear up any concern about the appearance of the Hebrew letter at stake (no pun intended, alright, yes pun intended).

The article 'Taw, Not Tav' (http://grigaitis.net/weekly/2005/2005-07-08.html) which in blogger's tradition has no author cited but I suspect it is Dr. Garza himself due to writing style. (I have assumed authorship of blogs before and turned out wrong wrong wrong as writing style analysis is a slippery slope, like reading tea leaves!) I cannot find a good fair use snippet that would do the article justice; it must be read in its entirety but thankfully is short and sweet. The argument lends merit to Dr. Garza's but having not yet purchased the book, I shall not surmise further.

Cheers.

72

The Ancient Jewish CROSS and the ancient Hebrew letter Taw

by brit-93108 in

the ancient jewish cross by al garza phd is a groundbreaking book just published by createspace (isbn-13: 978-1461133896; april 27, 2011).. i'm about to order this book because it means a lot to me personally.

i was completely unaware of the history or meaning of ancient hebrew letter taw.

shaped like a cross and avoided by various jewish rabbi today due to its ties to jesus christ's death since his execution, taw is a pictorgraph used prior to babylonian captivity meaning "mark," "sign," "covenant," "seal," or more specifically, "sign, covenant, and seal of yhwh god" -- and fulfilled when jesus the messiah finalized the covenant on it through his blood so that we could have eternal life.. is the cross jewish or pagan?

brit-93108

The Ancient Jewish CROSS by Al Garza PhD is a groundbreaking book just published by CreateSpace (ISBN-13: 978-1461133896; April 27, 2011).

I'm about to order this book because it means a lot to me personally. I was completely unaware of the history or meaning of ancient Hebrew letter Taw. Shaped like a cross and avoided by various Jewish Rabbi today due to its ties to Jesus Christ's death since his execution, Taw is a pictorgraph used prior to Babylonian captivity meaning "mark," "sign," "covenant," "seal," or more specifically, "sign, covenant, and seal of YHWH God" -- and fulfilled when Jesus the Messiah finalized the covenant on it through his blood so that we could have eternal life.

Is the cross Jewish or pagan? Learn the true historical meaning behind the ancient Hebrew letter Taw and how it is in the shape of the cross. Learn how the ancient cross is part of the fulfillment of the Jewish covenant through Jesus our Messiah.

Fellow baptized Jehovah's Witnesses, you know the anointed founding father of our faith in the late 19th century, Charles Taze Russell, is still considered one of the anointed remnant by the governing body today. Brother Russell believed in the cross on the Watchtower publications because he understood its historical origins. An apostate did not found our faith, and the Watchtower still believes Pastor Russell is one of the 144,000 anointed remnant in Heaven today, looking down the the affairs of mankind as you read these words.

You are not blind; but through a scriptural and historical disconnect in our faith you shielded your eyes from a truth I too resisted for decades. Even Satan the devil himself might tell you, like Darth Vader told a horrified Luke who had been smothered from the truth for so long, "Search your feelings. You know it to be true."