What a fine privilege it is to use our money wisely and instead of letting our families use it let us send it to the JW org to further the worldly ambitions of the governing body.
Half banana
JoinedPosts by Half banana
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18
We can now donate by credit card in canada on jw.org
by hoser inwhat a fine privelege to support jehovah with our valuable things.
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We can now donate by credit card in canada on jw.org
by hoser inwhat a fine privelege to support jehovah with our valuable things.
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Half banana
Russell at least saw the possibility of ending the religion he started.
Why don't the GB take the hint that the time is now to close its doors and re-distribute its assets?
It is after all like early Christianity, a completely failed doomsday cult.
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Is this a site controlled by atheists?
by The Rebel inunder the exterior of being an ex- witness site, is this site simply converting atheism?.
i pose the question, because many come here in distress and insecurity with the realization that the w.t is wrong but still retain a belief in god.
my personal opinion is the threads on god are not challenged by an atheists personal animosity to believers, they are challenged and become confrontational because the atheist wants an elaboration and factual proof to a believers faith.. is this unreasonable?
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Half banana
The normal route an ex-JW takes is to wake up to TTATT; that the org is deficient and wrong and just another religion.
The idea that “Jehovah is God” nevertheless remains a while for probably the majority of us. Those needy of supernatural help remain believers and about one third of ex-JWs, so I understand, keep a faith in the regular Christian doctrines outside of Witnessdom.
After a while of having left the JW community and indoctrination and having seen the cultic nature and mental slavery to naive ideas, many of us also have come to realize that the focus of Jehovah and Jesus are also lacking a solid basis outside of the mind.
I imagine this is the norm (corrections and refinements welcome) and personally I warmly welcome all ex-JWs irrespective of my own present thinking. We were all damaged by this cult and many need a refuge like this site with helpful words from our fellow escapees.
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Evolution of theology
by elbib inwhen jerusalem was captured and its temple was burned by pagan king in 586 bce (or 607?
), it was a theological crisis for the jews.
then a concept of messiah (king-priest) who will restore everything was evolved.
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Half banana
I agree strongly with the idea that religious belief evolves according to events. It might be true to say that all things change over time.
Some things in real life do not change or change at a rate too slow to observe such as the sequence and structure of geological formations. Gemstones must be an exception to the rule of all things changing. Contrast this with the ever changing nature of ideas and beliefs.
Most certainly Jewish defeats galvanized the desire for a heroic redeemer especially in the book Isaiah, where driven by loss and impotence, the writer imagines the arrival of a glorious all conquering saviour.
The Bible from start to finish is a reflection of the thinking and beliefs of people at all the evolving stages of their cultures and ideas over time. Starting with offering the gods blood sacrifice and developing from polytheism through henolatry (worshipping one particular god) finishing in Revelation in a riot of visionary monotheism jam packed with Greek and not so philosophical mumbo-jumbo.
So we need to be mindful of language too and note that it also evolves, such as seen in the contempt put into the word pagan by the Roman church to distance itself from the true folk origins of Christianity. (Pagan simply meaning "of the village people" in Latin and by inference "the uneducated").
A significant mistake would be to imagine that the career of the Jews has any special meaning to it. The Bible is just their dreams writ large.
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My Personal Invitation to the Celebration of the Lord's Evening Meal
by TMS inby no means is this a heartwarming "experience" illustrating how an ex-jw skillfully "reached the heart" of a current jw, moving them to re-examine their belief system.
that won't be my take on my half hour visit with an elder's wife last sunday.
no one scored points here as is almost always the case in these interactions.. we live at the extreme southern tip of texas, on the u.s.-mexico border in a city of about 200,000. twenty years ago there were 20 spanish language congregations, 2 english.
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Half banana
TMS, as Freddo has just said, I think your neutrally delivered account of the gross injustice with God's favouritism of David in the Bathsheba affair, could well have pierced her JW "force field".
These Bible stories create the mind set for the GB... it seems that God does not care about children all that much, they are like non-believers: expendable.
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Why dont you go to the memorial?
by atomant inl guess we all have our own reasons and thought it would give insight to others considering going to reconsider and not go.
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Half banana
Although this information had been systematically hidden by the Roman Church for obvious reasons, Jesus was simply the name applied to long succession of half-human half-god saviour figures or "christs" who would save people from death by their own sacrificial death.
These primitive god-man cults should have been consigned to history where they belong.
In the second century these words were attributed to the "christ" called Jesus:
"There are some of those standing here who will not taste death before they have seen the kingdom of God already come in power." Mark 9;1 NEB
Jesus got it wrong. No subsequent events could ever make the statement true. Christianity and all religion is a misdirection and a colossal waste of time.
The memorial supper at the spring equinox with symbols of blood and flesh of the saviour was copied by Jesus christianity from the cult of Mithra (the "good shepherd") where it had been a principal ritual since about 390BCE.
And anyway, human sacrifice is not my cup of tea.
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Do you still believe in God?
by FormerlySandL ini never thought i would admit it, but i don't.
i might superstitiously have some kind of doubt but digging a bit deeper in my heart i really don't believe in god.
as a human i could never just sit and watch people be tortured, live years of abuse, suffer from illness and disabilities and all the other awful things people have to endure day after day without doing something about it.
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Half banana
I can hardly imagine any greater tyranny than the existence of an effectual God. -
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On the Fundamentalist Notion of Babylon Destroyed - Forgot to Tell Ancient World
by kepler inamong puzzlements of sitting down with jw reps with "what the bible really teaches", was the assertion that babylon was destroyed - forever - just like it says in these here chapters and verses.
then the nwt claims that peter i & ii were written from babylon.
but beside that, ancient greek, hebrew and roman writings are full of reference to babylon as an important center.
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Half banana
Kepler thanks for bringing the Babylon history to the surface. JWs are so gullible they cannot even imagine that a factual, coherent understanding of history exists... just their own narrow viewpoint.
The painting of Alexander’s entry to Babylon by Charles Le Brun (from which a copy was made for a grand tapestry) is a stonking example of Baroque art, it focuses on the unbridled and worshipful homage to a classical leader hero and by deliberate implication; to the “Sun King” Louis. No wonder Le Brun became Louis XIV’s favourite painter. Baroque art in this painting is serving the interests of total political power. (If you like paintings; look her up and enjoy being charmed by Le Brun’s great-great nephew’s wife Louise Vigee Le Brun).
Getting back to your main point; the JW trolley men ask, ”What does the Bible really mean?” This question is loaded! It implies that the Bible has a meaning but is a puzzle which requires explaining.
Put this in context: with what; thirty or forty thousand sects each claiming that their particular interpretation is the only one which presses God’s button. What a mess, what a disaster!
The Bible HAS NO MEANING! It was second hand to start with... Its eclectic nature precludes it having a meaning since it is drawn from the established literature of most of the significant powers of the Middle East where Israel was and ever remained a pip-squeak tribal non-entity. It is full of nationalistic romance and dreams and is far from factual... it contradicts itself...it is not divine.
The Bible has every semblance of pathetic human weaknesses such as misogyny, hate, retribution, homophobia, xenophobia and an insistent streak of masochism and it majors in genocide. Even psychopaths tend not to be so comprehensive in their hate for their fellowmen compared to the leading characters in the Bible and especially Jehovah!
But JWs don’t think for themselves. They don’t generally realise that the most compelling Biblical commentary on the downfall of Babylon was written not long before the Christian era in the book called Daniel.By using historical precedents it made portentous prophecies written four centuries after the events had already occurred! Some prophecy! Like the destruction of Babylon, prophecy is a delusion and the Bible is a fraudulent.
This is the meaning of the Bible: A book written for the gullible who do not think for themselves and who cannot live without a fantasy hope to maintain their grip on life.
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The Kingdom Message
by truth doubter inregarding the unique preaching of the kingdom by wt (new creation, heavenly kings, priests and judges, restoration of paradise on earth etc.).
the scriptures seem to back up wts interpretation.
so, although there are a million reasons to become inactive, how can our conscience allow us not to become active in the work described at matt.
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Half banana
Truth doubter I was a pioneer, I had many Bible studies, I believed the Bible was God’s word and that the JW org was the channel which God was using.
Then I thought: where is the evidence that this stuff is true? None of it can be proved!
It’s all propaganda...the Bible is just human in origin I realized, man is hundreds of thousands of years old, Adam and Eve and the flood are obviously myth, there is no concrete evidence that Jesus ever existed, Jehovah began life as an ox-headed idol, religion is all spin, Jehovah’s Witnesses have never got anything of use correct, the JW org is a self interested and lying cult which keeps its followers in ignorance and in a state of humiliating dependency.
I still go out in the field service... but only in my nightmares.
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Governing Body went from anonymous secret group to T.V Stars??? How?
by Witness 007 inwhen i grew up in the 1980's -90's it was rare to see a faithful slaves picture in 10 years of watchtowers.
everything was anonymous.
no one really knew there names except for the "holy oricle" fred franz.. now they are full on t.v stars with there own show.
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Half banana
If Trump gets in, the GB will be lobbying to make the JWs the official American religion.
Good point Birdie but this is just the GB's wet dream because, sad for them, the WT is avowedly unpatriotic.
I suppose they could suddenly find some miraculous "New Light" which allows them to join the UN again and go mainstream? But then again little cargo cults like JWs are forever condemned to waiting with only a crumb of hope to live on.