Posts by Half banana

62

For God/Truth Seekers Only!

jw
friends

for the past three years, my husband and i have been watching these sermons by remarkable worldwide speakers.

the biblical truths we have learnt from their presentations, in such a short period of time most definitely tip the scales compared to the truth the jw.org led me to believe i had for over 20 plus years of my life.

thanks to these videos, we have now found the truth and the truth is jesus christ (john 14:6).

Half banana

TTWSF, The Bible is an old collection of texts. First collated in the fourth century CE and therefore it might be said to be “historical” in its appearance in time. This does not make it historical in the sense that it is a ”history”, far from it! It is a collection of texts much doctored and edited to suit the propaganda of the users of the books even before their inclusion into the Bible by the Catholic Church. The source documents and stories for the Bible are mainly pagan and do not qualify to make a historian’s account of what is a proper historical record. This is because they are derivative and are not first-hand records by reliable witnesses. Much of the OT Bible content is ancient folk myth dressed up in Jewish costume to make it appear historical.

There is no uncontested evidence that Jesus existed as a historical figure. The most compelling is the mention of Jesus by Josephus which a long time ago was discredited as a later Christian forgery. There is evidence that Adam is a myth. Firstly that the story in Genesis reads precisely as a creation myth would read. Secondly that archaeology has indeed a record of the evolution of Homo sapiens embedded in the datable geological column. I have hands on experience of this and might add that genetics only confirms our close kinship with the earlier hominins such as Neanderthals. As Cofty says most of us (outside of Africa) have a small component of Neanderthal genes. New light is genuinely possible in science when a new species and new evidence is discovered and time will no doubt refine the understanding of the human pedigree.

Adam however remains in the myth category. How on earth could Jesus buy back the "perfect life" which Adam lost? Christianity is pointless if perfect Adam did not exist and yet evidential science precludes the possibility of Homo sapiens being descendents of one such man. If you then say that there was such a man because the Bible says so, what about all the unredeemable men and women who we know lived before “Adam’s time”? At what moment in humanity’s evolutionary chain of life does the ransom sacrifice begin to work?

If no first Adam then certainly no second. The first perfect paradise was a myth and so is the foretold one.

62

For God/Truth Seekers Only!

by Nicola.threeangelsmessage in

jw
friends

for the past three years, my husband and i have been watching these sermons by remarkable worldwide speakers.

the biblical truths we have learnt from their presentations, in such a short period of time most definitely tip the scales compared to the truth the jw.org led me to believe i had for over 20 plus years of my life.

thanks to these videos, we have now found the truth and the truth is jesus christ (john 14:6).

Half banana

Nicola I feel so sad that you wasted so much time like many of us did as a JW... and then go on to waste your time in another similar unprovable delusion.

Where is the evidence that Jesus ever existed? How could he be the second Adam when Adam never lived? It's a story not a historical truth...it's a fantasy.

16

Interesting point about elders appointment by holy spirit (apostacy case)

by joe134cd in

i was just listening to a jc for apostasy on jwstruggle.

the issue was raised if elders are appointed by holy spirit, then why is there such an issue with sex abuse.

the answer was given (and i thought it was quite true) well jesus was the son of god and he appointed judas under holy spirit, just to have him turn on him.

Half banana

I have to hold my ground here; most of you are talking as if these people were real. Judas didn’t go bad after he was selected, only his fictional character did because he probably did not exist. He is a made up person. At the time when Paul wrote, Judas had not been thought of yet (like in the oldest stories of Robin Hood, Maid Marion had not yet been invented). This is the nature of folk tales, they gain in intrigue and padding the more they are told and copied. The name Judas Iscariot is a literary invention not an historical person. Probably since the name Judas meant Jew, it was to load the blame for the Jesus-hero’s death on the Jewish nation...a political ploy for the Christ cult to remove themselves from their former connection to Judaism around the end of the first century and gain Roman favour.

The first writings of the death of Jesus were between thirty and seventy years after the supposed events took place. Can anyone remember the talk, words and fine details of ancient events for which they were not even eyewitnesses? As for all those details of Jesus’ death, they so closely resemble the narrative of a play that in fact they were the narrative of a play...A play seen and written down afterwards. All events are so compressed together in a seamless theatrical way. None of these events are historical; they are early Christian cult literature with magical holy spirit thrown in to bolster the credibility. They are no more or less truthful than any fictional tale is.

By believing that these things were true, we are deceiving ourselves and become embroiled in unending and pointless doctrinal squabbles. Logically how could these stories have any imperative meaning today?

The most interesting use of the Bible now is in uncovering the social and political history which forced the propaganda to be written down in the first place.

16

Interesting point about elders appointment by holy spirit (apostacy case)

by joe134cd in

i was just listening to a jc for apostasy on jwstruggle.

the issue was raised if elders are appointed by holy spirit, then why is there such an issue with sex abuse.

the answer was given (and i thought it was quite true) well jesus was the son of god and he appointed judas under holy spirit, just to have him turn on him.

Half banana

Prologos, I understand the need to reference the Bible to speak to ‘insiders’ but to quote things found there often implies they exist if the wording is not clear. Holy Spirit is qualitatively no truer than Tinkerbelle is in Barry’s famous play. It’s just that HS is sprinkled with holy stardust and takes on a life in the imagination of religious people.

My point is that so much harm comes from living a life dependant on these total fictions... people wasting their precious lives.

If one knew the Bible well enough, and most of us did, then we might recall in the Book of Samuel that Ahitophel the royal adviser betrayed King David for thirty pieces of silver and hung himself. David here seen as the archetype saviour- king, not prophetic of Jesus but a stock mythical character from paganism of which Jesus became the name pinned to the second century Christian copy of this story. The fact that the Judas tale is second hand and literary (not factual) in style; disqualifies venerable talk of “decisions of holy spirit”. This demonstrates the nature of the Bible’s contents; not only self referencing stories but a vast borrowing from paganism which religious people are disinclined to consider or investigate since they prefer to believe in magic before reality.

15

Faithful and Discrete Slave Apostate Stew – BQA, Watchtower May 2015 (Part I)

by Nicola.threeangelsmessage in

i was curious to know what stew was brewing in the faithful and discrete slaves apostate kitchen.

where better to find out than the watchtower scullery.

i opened the watchtower, may 2015 pot, and was immediately hit with the stench of deception and false-doctrine which almost completely knocked me out.

Half banana

Doc, you should get more sleep or respond with an argument...”boring” is not an argument.

16

Interesting point about elders appointment by holy spirit (apostacy case)

by joe134cd in

i was just listening to a jc for apostasy on jwstruggle.

the issue was raised if elders are appointed by holy spirit, then why is there such an issue with sex abuse.

the answer was given (and i thought it was quite true) well jesus was the son of god and he appointed judas under holy spirit, just to have him turn on him.

Half banana

In a way I'm rather surprised that so many here who have left the Borg even for many years are still troubled by what the Bible says.

Holy spirit indeed...no such thing! Judas appointed by Jesus by holy spirit...just a story line and not an original one at that. It is a human document and has no evidence of supreme impeccable wisdom and its interpreters never get things right. The whole caboodle is to marshal submissive idiots who believe magic tales of gods and demons.The moral of this is not to be led by religious “Bible based” leaders...they only have authority over you if you want to believe it be so.

My response is that the Watchtower religion is just as fraudulent in its claim to authority as the Jesus story was in the fourth century. It is all irrelevant to the needs of thinking people. Non thinking accepters of religious hearsay have used these stories as a foundation for directing their lives; they miss out on the joys of making their own determinations in a free society.

18

Summarize every the meeting in 20 seconds

by Sour Grapes in

jw
friends

the world is full of wickedness.. the end is very near.. we must do more.. how thankful we are for the governing body.

.

Half banana

God so loved the world he created the governing body, worship them and give us your money. (4 seconds)

33

Thank God For Disfellowshipping!

by Nicola.threeangelsmessage in

i had the misfortune of being born into the jw faith.

however, i thank god every day that i was disfellowshipped otherwise i would never have found the truth.

good riddance to the watchtower bible track societys false publications, especially that book they claim contains the holy scriptures it is deceitful and full of darkness, and gets darker with every revision!

Half banana

Hi Nicola, it's good that you escaped the Watchtower stranglehold but by golly! you are still in there believing unsupportable fairy tale teachings and wrangling with the devil. I’m glad that you at least feel good about this! (Be prepared to find out the TTATBible as well).

1

Dream agenda

by Half banana in

we have probably all made comparisons of the theocracies of islam and jehovahs witnesses.

they both have a dream agenda; the former has an islamic world caliphate and jws the earthly paradise.

the distinction between the two is that paradise for jws is an idea which permanently remains in the future and moves forward like the proverbial donkeys dangling carrot does, being attached to the animal, which is a most apt metaphor for the way the jw org functions.

Half banana

We have probably all made comparisons of the theocracies of Islam and Jehovah’s Witnesses. They both have a dream agenda; the former has an Islamic world caliphate and JWs the earthly paradise.

The distinction between the two is that paradise for JWs is an idea which permanently remains in the future and moves forward like the proverbial donkey’s dangling carrot does, being attached to the animal, which is a most apt metaphor for the way the JW org functions. The caliphate on the other hand is of this world and of human making.

Both ideas oppress the human spirit and as evidence of this the destruction of the archaeological site of Nimrud in Syria by explosives and the looting of museums all in the name of Allah, is sickening to anyone with the slightest sensitivity to the whole picture of human needs, culture and creativity.

Fundamentalist Islam tells the world that all who do not sympathise with them will be killed just as JWs foolishly teach.

What is the best way to counter this grotesque streak in human nature?

56

Who REALLY believed in the idea of living forever on earth??

by stuckinarut2 in

seriously.....even when you were 100% in "the truth", did you really believe in living forever?

?

Half banana

That was the lure: not dying. It was unrealistic, as was the idea of resurrecting masses of the dead. Yet I believed it.

It suddenly struck me... how could I live forever under the thumb of the WTBTS? It could not be paradise with these guys in the role of ‘princes’ forever breathing down your neck. That was the clincher for me.