Vanderhoven7

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Posts by Vanderhoven7

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  121

  Babylon the Great

  by Godlyman in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  do jw's still believe that babylon the great is the empire of false religion?

  inquiring minds want to know .

  estephan.

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  Vanderhoven7

  From

  AN EXEGETICAL BASIS FOR A PRETERIST-IDEALIST UNDERSTANDING OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

  “Scripture interpret Scripture” and can be aptly demonstrated with four simple syllogisms:

  Major premise#1: Three times this Babylon is called “O great city” (Rev 18:9, 16, 19) Minor premise #1: “The great city” is “where also their Lord was crucified” (Rev 11:8) Conclusion: Jerusalem is Revelation’s Babylon

  Major premise #2: Babylon was guilty of “the blood of the prophets” (Rev 17:6; 18:24) Minor premise #2: According to Jesus and Paul, only Jerusalem killed the prophets (Matt 23:34–35; Luke 13:33; 1 Thess 2:15–16) Conclusion: Jerusalem is Revelation’s Babylon Major

  premise #3: John’s people are commanded, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues” (Rev 18:4) Minor premise #3: The only city Jesus ever commanded his followers to flee from is Jerusalem—when they saw two specific signs (Matt 24:15– 16; Luke 21:20–21). Eusebius recorded that this departure happened and no Christians were trapped and destroyed in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in ad 707 Conclusion: Jerusalem is Revelation’s Babylon

  Major premise #4: This Babylon would be destroyed (Rev 18:2, 8, 10, 11, 17, 19–23) Minor premise #4: The only city Jesus said would be destroyed was Jerusalem—it would be “left to you desolate” (Matt 23:38) with “not one stone . . . left on another” (Matt 24:2) Conclusion: Jerusalem is Revelation’s Babylon
  
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  349

  Who really is the Faithful and Discreet Slave?

  by Godlyman in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  if anyone were to come up to you claiming that they are the faithful and discreet slave, how would you go about proving them to be false, based upon scripture?.

  estephan.

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  Vanderhoven7

  @Scholar,

  The said scholar has nicely termed the three most significant prophetic dates in the Bible: 1914, 1918, and 1919 as an eschatological triennium.

  Can a person be a Christian if he or she doesn't believe that the events purported by Watchtower to have taken place on these three dates actually happened?

  In other words does one have to believe in 1914, 1918, and 1919 to be a Christian?
  
  
  
• 
  121

  Babylon the Great

  by Godlyman in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  do jw's still believe that babylon the great is the empire of false religion?

  inquiring minds want to know .

  estephan.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Vanderhoven7

  Shortly, within our twentieth century, the "battle in the day of Jehovah" will begin against the modern antitype of Jerusalem, Christendom." The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah p. 216

  "Some of that "generation" could survive until the end of the century. But there are many indications that "the end" is much closer than that!" Watchtower 1984 Mar 1 pp.18-19

  "He was laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our 20th century". Watchtower 1989 Jan 1 p.12.
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  38

  Struggling to find a purpose

  by My Name is of No Consequence in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i spent most of my life in the org.

  we were taught that our purpose in life was to serve jehovah.

  that never really made sense to me, but it was still a purpose to keep going.

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  Vanderhoven7

  I agree that there is no self evident meaning or purpose in life. However, Jesus said, "I have come that you may have life and that you might have it more abundantly. That sounds to me like a relationship overflowing with meaning and purpose.

  I see you did find meaning and purpose in your marriage. As a believer, I see sacrificial love in marriage as a picture of ultimate meaning and purpose.
  
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  349

  Who really is the Faithful and Discreet Slave?

  by Godlyman in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  if anyone were to come up to you claiming that they are the faithful and discreet slave, how would you go about proving them to be false, based upon scripture?.

  estephan.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  Vanderhoven7

  I could accept your first paragraph with the following correction

  "The 'faithful and discreet slave' or steward described in Matthew 24:45-46 and Luke 12: 41-48 are both parables which describe not only Christians as individuals being faithful to the Master's commands in being diligent in carrying responsibilities of discipleship and to heed the exhortation to 'Keep on the Watch!' but also as a collective - the true Church of anointed Christians. The context of these parables is eschatological which pertains to events beginning in 1914 CE with the birth of God's Kingdom and the Parousia. that will transpire when Christ returns, i.e., at the parousia of the Lord Jesus Christ.

  1914, 1918, 1919 1922, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1928, 1929, 1975 all mythologically manufactured bogus dates with no evident biblical significance..
  
  
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  349

  Who really is the Faithful and Discreet Slave?

  by Godlyman in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  if anyone were to come up to you claiming that they are the faithful and discreet slave, how would you go about proving them to be false, based upon scripture?.

  estephan.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  Vanderhoven7

  Every faithful anointed follower of Jesus Christ from the first to the twenty-first century.
• 
  121

  Babylon the Great

  by Godlyman in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  do jw's still believe that babylon the great is the empire of false religion?

  inquiring minds want to know .

  estephan.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  Vanderhoven7

  Well said TD.

  And for example, i see almosr all of Matthew 24 applying to Christ's generation, not the 1914 or the 1934 or the 21st century generation.
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  39

  Red Flags identifying Jehovah's Witnesses as a Cult

  by Vanderhoven7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what are some of the red flags that should alert people to the fact that jehovah's witnesses are a high control and damaging religion?.

  one that comes to mind is.

  1. one cannot leave jehovah's witnesses with one's reputation intact.

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  Vanderhoven7

  Ratigan,

  Are not simple leavers who leave a note behind as to why they are leaving classified as apostates who are hated by Witnesses. Or have you forhotten that Morris said "I hate them!" while declaring they will soon be snuffed out as he blew out a match for illustration.
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  39

  Red Flags identifying Jehovah's Witnesses as a Cult

  by Vanderhoven7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what are some of the red flags that should alert people to the fact that jehovah's witnesses are a high control and damaging religion?.

  one that comes to mind is.

  1. one cannot leave jehovah's witnesses with one's reputation intact.

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  Vanderhoven7

  Fisherman

  This is not about me.

  You say that many are justifiably good weaklings but these weak ones should be strong enough to bear the shame of unjust defamation ...as well as the rejection of family and friends. Sorry, you can't have it both ways.
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  121

  Babylon the Great

  by Godlyman in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  do jw's still believe that babylon the great is the empire of false religion?

  inquiring minds want to know .

  estephan.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Vanderhoven7

  
  

  From O Bible.org

  "THE GREAT CITY”

  One of the simplest, yet strongest clues that Jerusalem is to be understood as the harlot of Babylon is that John seems to give the answer away directly to the observant reader in a couple of key places in Revelation. At the end of chapter 17, the interpreting angel tells John the identity of the adulterous woman explicitly: “The woman whom you saw is the great city which has dominion over the kings of the earth” (hJ gunh h}n eide" e[stin hJ povli" hJ megavlh hJ e[cousa basileivan ejpi tw'n basilevwn th'" gh'"). This phrase “the great city” seems to be set forth with the assumption that the reader knows what city that would be, and the phrase is tossed around several more times in this passage.47 Moreover, the phrase appears to be used quite exclusively in the book of Revelation. Outside of this passage, in which it occurs many times, all of which clearly refer to Babylon, the phrase only appears twice in the rest of this twenty-two-chapter book. The first, and most important occurrence of the designation “the great city” is in 11:8, which reads, “And [the two witnesses’] bodies will lie in the street of the great city which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified” (to ptw'ma aujtw'n ejpi th'" plateiva" th'" povlew" th'" megavlh" h{ti" kalei'tai pneumatikw'" Sovdoma kai Ai[gupto" o{pou kai oJ kuvrio" aujtw'n ejstaurwvqh).48