Posts by JosephAlward

25

Creation Stories

by JosephAlward in

.

where do the bible-believers in this forum stand on the genesis creation?

is it one story told by one author, the same story told twice with different emphasis by the same author, the same story told twice with different emphasis by two different authors, or two different stories told by two different authors, or two different--and conflicting--stories told by two different authors?

JosephAlward

Where do the Bible-believers in this forum stand on the Genesis creation? Is it one story told by one author, the same story told twice with different emphasis by the same author, the same story told twice with different emphasis by two different authors, or two different stories told by two different authors, or two different--and conflicting--stories told by two different authors?

8

Jehovah's Witnesses at My Door

by JosephAlward in

joe alward.

i recall last year someone cited a particular passage in the new world translation that showed that jesus was jehovah.

can anyone recall which one that was?

JosephAlward

JOE ALWARD

You nailed it, BlueBlades. Those are the passages I was looking for.

Thanks.

8

Jehovah's Witnesses at My Door

by JosephAlward in

joe alward.

i recall last year someone cited a particular passage in the new world translation that showed that jesus was jehovah.

can anyone recall which one that was?

JosephAlward

JOE ALWARD

I recall last year someone cited a particular passage in the New World Translation that showed that Jesus was Jehovah. Can anyone recall which one that was?

5

Bible Error: The Hour of Jesus' Crucifixion

by JosephAlward in

joe alward

john's account of the time of jesus' crucifixion apparently contradicts mark's account.

here is the evidence:.

JosephAlward

Thanks, Gopher. I've been spending time lately on The Theology Web at http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/, which opened in January, 2003. It has about 650 members, mostly Christians, but quite a few atheists and agnostics. It has about a dozen forums, much like this site. The forum there which is the parallel to the "Bible Research" forum here is called "Religion 101," and is the forum where I've spent most of my time.

5

Bible Error: The Hour of Jesus' Crucifixion

by JosephAlward in

joe alward

john's account of the time of jesus' crucifixion apparently contradicts mark's account.

here is the evidence:.

JosephAlward

JOE ALWARD

No One, I agree with your comments about the actual times. According to Mark, Jesus could have been crucified any time between 8:00 AM and 8:59 AM, according to Mark, and sentenced between 11:00 AM and 11:59 AM, according to John. Even if Jesus was crucified immediately after sentencing, there is a discrepancy of at least about two hours and one minute, and as much as three hours and 59 minutes.

Seedy, I agree that there is a problem with the number of days Jesus was allegedly in the tomb. Matthew said that Jesus would be in the belly of the earth for three days and three nights, and that obviously did not happen if Jesus was put in the tomb Friday evening, and left the tomb Sunday morning. He would have been in the tomb for only two nights--all of Friday and Saturday nights, and three days--part of Friday, all of Saturday, and part of Sunday.

5

Bible Error: The Hour of Jesus' Crucifixion

by JosephAlward in

joe alward

john's account of the time of jesus' crucifixion apparently contradicts mark's account.

here is the evidence:.

JosephAlward

JOE ALWARD

John's account of the time of Jesus' crucifixion apparently contradicts Mark's account. Here is the evidence:

Jesus Is Crucified at 9:00 AM:

In the Jewish system of marking time in the first century, hours were measured relative to sunrise. Thus, in the passage below, the author of Mark's gospel tells his readers that Jesus was crucified in the third hour past sunrise, or at about 9:00 AM: And it was the third hour when they crucified Him. ( Mark 15:25 ) Jesus Wasn't Even Sentenced Until 12:00 PM:

The author of John's gospel says that Jesus was not even sentenced to crucifixion until the sixth hour, or about 12:00 PM noon, which means that Jesus could not have been put on the cross until sometime after 12:00 PM, at least three hours after the time of crucifixion claimed by Mark:

About the sixth hour (hektos hora)...they shouted..."Crucify him!" ( John 19:14-15 NIV)

The translators of at least seven different Bible version all agree that [ i]hektos hora[/i] means six hours past sunrise, or about noontime. Here is how they translated the relevant verse:

1. The hour was noon. (The Message)

2. About twelve o'clock noon. (Amplified Bible)

3. It was now about noon of the day (New Living Translation)

4. It was about noon (Contemporary English Version)

5. It was about the middle of the day (Worldwide English)
6. It was about noon. (New English Translation)

7. It was about noon. (New American Bible)[/i]

I won't display the ten other versions on Bible Gateway (http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible) which just show "the sixth hour" without clarification, but not one of them contradicts the conclusions of the other seven translators who say it was "noon" when Jesus was sentenced to be crucified.

Thus, out of eighteen Bible translations, seven of them have Jesus being sentenced at the noon hour, while the other ten have the sentencing being given at "the sixth hour," which according to the Jewish system of reckoning hours, is six hours past sunrise, or about noon.

Unless someone can show why the opinions of the seven different translators should be rejected, it would seem that John's account of the crucifixion clearly contradicts Mark's account.

Was John Counting Hours Relative to Midnight?Some apologists argue that the translations listed above are all wrong, and that John really was measuring time relative to midnight. This would make "the sixth hour" 6:00 AM, and a sentencing time of 6:00 AM would easily leave enough time for the 9:00 AM crucifixion alleged in Mark's gospel. However, where is the evidence that John ever used the midnight reference?

Further Evidence That John Counted Hours from Sunrise

To those who would attempt to translate "the sixth hour (hektos hora)" as "sunrise," I offer additional evidence below which shows that when John uses the phrase, "the sixth hour," he does not mean sunrise—he means noon.

The evidence is found in the story in John 4:5-7 of a travel-weary Jesus arriving at "the sixth hour" at Jacob's well.

So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour (hektos hora). (John 4:5-7 NIV)

What did John mean by "the sixth hour (hektos hora)"? Does it mean "sunrise," as some apologists believe, or does it mean "noon"? Readers can decide for themselves whether it makes more sense for Jesus to be arriving tired at the well at 6:00 AM following an apparently long nighttime journey, or for Jesus to be arriving at the well at noon following a long daylight journey. Does not common sense point to a daylight journey? The translators of at least six Bible versions think so. Here they are:

1. It was then about the sixth hour (about noon). (Amplified Bible)
2. Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. (New Living Testament)
3. It was noon (Contemporary English Version)
4. It was about midday. (Worldwide English New Testament)
5. It was about noon. (New English Translation)
6. It was about noon. (New American Bible) Twelve other translations translate hektos hora only as "the sixth hour," without clarifying information. Thus, out of eighteen different translations of hektos hora in John 4:5-7, six of them have noon, noontime, or midday, while not one of the remaining twelve contradicts this translation.

Common sense shows that the translators are probably correct. Does it not seem eminently sensible that Jesus would not take a long and tiring journey at night and end up at the well at six o'clock in the morning, but rather he would take the journey in the daytime and arrive at the well at noon?

Thus, in the face of so many translations, as well as common sense, which support the view that John reported the Jesus had not even been sentenced until noon, we must conclude that John contradicts Mark, and the Bible is in error.

14

Cults and the Narcissistic Personality Disorder

by JosephAlward in

jw
friends

cults and the narcissistic personality disorder .

excerpted from the following site:

http://samvak.tripod.com/journal45.html

JosephAlward

Cults and the Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Excerpted from the following site: http://samvak.tripod.com/journal45.html "But often, even when disillusionment and iconoclastic despair have set
in - the narcissist continues to pretend to love God and follow Him. The
narcissist maintains this deception because his continued proximity to
God confers on him authority. Priests, leaders of the congregation,
preachers, evangelists, cultists, politicians, intellectuals - all
derive authority from their allegedly privileged relationship with God.

Religious authority allows the narcissist to indulge his sadistic urges
and to exercise his misogynism freely and openly. Such a narcissist is
likely to taunt and torment his followers, hector and chastise them,
humiliate and berate them, abuse them spiritually, or even sexually. The
narcissist whose source of authority is religious is looking for
obedient and unquestioning slaves upon whom to exercise his capricious
and wicked mastery. The narcissist transforms even the most innocuous
and pure religious sentiments into a cultish ritual and a virulent
hierarchy. He prays on the gullible. His flock become his hostages.

Religious authority also secures the narcissist's narcissistic supply.
His coreligionists, members of his congregation, his parish, his
constituency, his audience - are transformed into loyal and stable
sources of narcissistic supply. They obey his commands, heed his
admonitions, follow his creed, admire his personality, applaud his
personal traits, satisfy his needs (sometimes even his carnal desires),
revere and idolize him.

Moreover, being a part of a "bigger thing" is very gratifying
narcissistically. Being a particle of God, being immersed in His
grandeur, experiencing His power and blessings first hand, communing
with him - are all sources of unending narcissistic supply. The
narcissist becomes God by observing His commandments, following His
instructions, loving Him, obeying Him, succumbing to Him, merging with
Him, communicating with Him - or even by defying him (the bigger the
narcissist's enemy - the more grandiosely important the narcissist
feels).

Like everything else in the narcissist's life, he mutates God into a
kind of Inverted Narcissist. God becomes his dominant source of supply.
He forms a personal relationship with this overwhelming and overpowering
entity - in order to overwhelm and overpower others. He becomes God
vicariously, by the proxy of his relationship with Him. He idealizes
God, then devalues Him, then abuses him. This is the classic
narcissistic pattern and even God himself cannot escape it.

40

HELP!!! Hubby turning home into 'Book Study'

by Skeptically Yours in

jw
friends

my husband, who's a ministerial servant, was approached by an elder and asked if he'd offer our home to become a 'book study' meeting place.. i'm a bit of a loner, and need lots of peace, quiet, privacy, and solitude; plus to boot you all know i'm living this sort of double life, you know, just doing the very minimum to remain a witness.. this is awful!!!!!!!!!!

i can't deal with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

take care!

JosephAlward

You could try writing a letter disassociating yourself, addressed to the elders, then show your husband what you plan to do because you can't stand the loss of privacy. Perhaps he would rather suffer the embarrassment of having to abandon the home study than having everyone know his wife disassociated herself.

27

If this happened, what would you do?

by whyhideit in

jw
friends

you have been following the news for weeks on iraq and wonder, "when will we attack and get this thing done?

" finally we invade and the war is in full swing.

the economy, which has been struggling for months now, finally caves in and major retailers fold as of the results of an extremely poor holiday shopping season.

JosephAlward

"Is it possible to put an atomic bomb with enough material in it to level a city as big as Los Angeles and kill of approximately half of it's inhabitants in a truck?"

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, killed 75,000 initially, with many more dying later. The bomb was about twice the size of a washing machine, so an atomic bomb with ten times the destructive power of the Hiroshima bomb of would fit inside a medium size U-Haul truck. I would guess that this truck bomb would destroy most of Los Angeles and vaporize one million residents.

Of course, the power of such a bomb pales in comparison to that of the hydrogen bomb, which is hundreds of times more lethal. These bombs are much smaller, and up to a dozen of them are put in the nosecones of Russian ICBM's. Each bomb is independently targetable, so just one of these rockets can vaporize San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Jose, San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle. Russia has hundreds of these rockets, and so does the United States. Soon, China and perhaps Korea and Iran will have them, too. I think the odds are not small that most of us will live to see the day (some of us just a fraction of a second) when our major cities are obliterated in a holocaust of unimaginable horror. Not sooner than a year or more, but maybe much longer.

Oh, by the way...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Edited by - JosephAlward on 29 December 2002 20:2:23

19

Favorite Bible passage?

by Happy in

jw
friends

i was just wondering what some people's favorite scriptures are.

one of my favorites is .

matthew 7:1-5 .

JosephAlward

One of my favorite passages is the following:

"Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

"All share a common destiny--the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good man, so with the sinner; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them. This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all.

"For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.

"Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do...Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun-- all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

"I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all." (Ecclesiastes 9:1-11NIV)