Hi Gang:
A friend of mine just sent me a link to a very interesting article on December 25th and Christmas.
Here is the Link:
http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-10-012-v
Jeff S.
i thought you guys might find the following interesting:.
what about the "shepherds abiding in the fields"?.
were shepherds in fields (luke 2:8) near bethlehem in december?.
Hi Gang:
A friend of mine just sent me a link to a very interesting article on December 25th and Christmas.
Here is the Link:
http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-10-012-v
Jeff S.
i thought you guys might find the following interesting:.
what about the "shepherds abiding in the fields"?.
were shepherds in fields (luke 2:8) near bethlehem in december?.
"So, is this just an interesting note? Or are you saying that you think Jesus really was born on Dec 25?"
I just think this is an interesting note. I am not really sure when the exact date of Jesus' birth is. I think it could be December 25th but even if it is not, I am not sure it matters that much.
I think what is more interesting is how black and white the Society tries to make these things appear. And, they will even use information that is demonstrably false to give us this false appearance.
Many of us former JWs used this argument to say that Dec. 25th could not be the day because the Shepherds would not be out in the fields on this day. Well, this information shows this to be false. Another example of a very weak card in a very weak house of cards.
Jeff S.
i thought you guys might find the following interesting:.
what about the "shepherds abiding in the fields"?.
were shepherds in fields (luke 2:8) near bethlehem in december?.
I thought you guys might find the following interesting:
What about the "Shepherds abiding in the fields"?
Were shepherds in fields (Luke 2:8) near Bethlehem in December?
Luke 2:8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
It is likely that the climate in Judea then was colder then than now. In recent years there have been photographs of Israelis sun-bathing on December 25th!
According to the Talmud:
i)Shepherds brought sheep in "from the wilderness" for winter.
ii)But shepherds supervised the birth of the lambs in the Temple-owned fields [situated between Jerusalem and Bethlehem] in February.
Luke 2:8-14. The Angelic Proclamation to the Shepherds.
It was in these pastures that David spent his youth and fought the lion and the bear (1 Sam. xvii. 34, 35). A passage in the Mishnah (Shek. vii. 4; comp. Baba K. vii. 7, 80 a) leads to the conclusion that the flocks which pastured there were destined for Temple-sacrifices, and accordingly, that the shepherds who watched over them were not ordinary shepherds. The latter were under the ban of Rabbinism on account of their necessary isolation from religious ordinances and their manner of life, which rendered strict religious observance unlikely, if not absolutely impossible. The same Mischnic passage also leads us to infer that these flocks lay out all the year round [their italics], since they are spoken of as in the fields thirty days before the Passover - that is, in the month of February, when in Palestine the average rainfall is nearly greatest. (Edersheim. Life and Times. i. pp. 186, 187).
v. 8. This statement is by no means conclusive against December as the time of the year. The season may have been a mild one; it is not certain that all sheep were brought under cover at night during the winter months.
It is of the flocks in the wilderness, far from towns or villages, that the often quoted saying was true, that they were taken out in March and brought home in November. These shepherds may have returned from the wilderness, and if so, the time would be between November and March.
From "International Critical Commentary", 1922, "Luke"
Jeff S.
"And all this time I thought it was October THIRTY first." Actually, that is MY birthday. But Jesus can share it with me if He wants to. Jeff Schwehm www.catholicxjw.com
hi gang:.
i thought you guys would find this article interesting:.
http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=6&art_id=31266.
"Would you celebrate your birthday on the wrong day?????????????" Actually....yes. There are times that it is not convenient to celebrate my birthday on the exact day. So, sometimes my wife takes me out for a birthday dinner the week before or the day after. It depends. Another thing to remember is that in the Catholic/Christian Tradition Jesus is a conquering King. What Jesus did was to take a pagan holiday, a day devoted to a false Roman god and to make that day a day for Him. It would be the equivalent of a conquering king taking the day that was once made to honor his enemy and turn that day into a day to honor himself. What a great way to sort spit in the face of your enemy, in my opinion. So, the Christians took the good things such as gift giving and the pretty things such as greenery and incorporated those things which once brought to mind the pagan Roman god and now bring to mind Jesus Christ. There really is nothing wrong with that. In a very real way, Christianity did what no temporal power could do and that was conquer the culture of the Roman Empire. Jeff S. www.catholicxjw.com
hi gang:.
i thought you guys would find this article interesting:.
http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=6&art_id=31266.
Hi Gang:
I thought you guys would find this article interesting:
http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=6&art_id=31266
Jeff S.
hi gang:.
you might want to watch the journey home on monday december 12th at 8pm eastern time.. carlos caso-rosendi will be on to tell of his conversion story from the jehovah's witnesses to the catholic faith.. if you want more information you can visit my website at www.catholicxjw.com or www.ewtn.com.
jeff schwehm
hi gang:.
you might want to watch the journey home on monday december 12th at 8pm eastern time.. carlos caso-rosendi will be on to tell of his conversion story from the jehovah's witnesses to the catholic faith.. if you want more information you can visit my website at www.catholicxjw.com or www.ewtn.com.
jeff schwehm
Hi Gang:
You might want to watch The Journey Home on Monday December 12th at 8pm Eastern Time.
Carlos Caso-Rosendi will be on to tell of his conversion story from the Jehovah's Witnesses to the Catholic faith.
If you want more information you can visit my website at www.catholicxjw.com or www.ewtn.com
Jeff Schwehm
so thats what it feels like.. i am not df'ed or da'ed, ... i have just stopped going to meetings.
my wife is trying to be as active as she can.. so all morning i am out of my regular routine.
late getting out of bed and late about everything today.. so i leave the house, and before getting to the office, i decide to stop at the mall for a quick, maybe 15 min, walk.. as soon as i get inside, taking my coat off, here is the elder who did everything he could in his power to get me out...and lied...and added to gossip that ran me outta there.. he and his wife spot me .. and turn there heads away and continue on their walk, .. eyes fixed on some thing away from me.. so thats what it feels like.........now i know.
A JW lady from my hometown area in Louisiana found some of my comments about the JWs on the internet.
She wrote me an email and chastized me for my comments and even said that I was dumb.
I wrote her back and said that her email was very unloving and unchristian. She apologized and then pleaded with me to come back to the JWs.
I wrote her back a fairly long email explaining to her the reasons why I could no longer be a JW. There was lots of info in that letter and I gave her ways to document the information.
She wrote me back and said that I was to never contact her again and that I was not to SELL her email address to my apostate disciples. (Not sure where that came from.)
I heard from my sister that this lady took my long email and shared it with a bunch of JWs in her own congregation...LOL
I told my sister that I could not have done a better job distributing that information among so many JWs than she did. I even thought about sending this JW lady an award letter for being my number one distributor of information on the JWs that year--LOL
Jeff Schwehm
i thought you guys might like to see these.. jeff s.. http://www.cafepress.com/catholicxjw.25478092.
http://www.cafepress.com/catholicxjw.25453733.
http://www.cafepress.com/catholicxjw.25477569.
Hi Aniron:
If you it makes you feel any better the word Catholic just means Universal. While I do belong to the Catholic Church....you could just consider it to mean that you are a Universal Ex-Jehovah's Witness--LOL.
Jeff Schwehm