Why listen to seven clowns moralizing on the subject of modesty when they have never got anything right. . . yet presumptuously claim a hot line to the almighty and award themselves immortal life in heaven?
It is a fantastic hypocrisy!
Half banana
JoinedPosts by Half banana
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Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the March 19, 2017 WT Study (JANUARY 2017)
by blondie inblondie’s comments you will not hear at the march 19, 2017 wt study (january 2017).
excellent general website: www.jwfacts.com .
bible translations www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible .
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77
Interpret John 1:1 by John 1:1.
by towerwatchman ininterpret john 1:1 by john 1:1. .
the greek language has the definite article which has approximately thirty variations, is translated into english as “the”, and points to an identifiable personality, someone we have prior knowledge of.
but the greek language has no indefinite article corresponding to the english “a”, or “an”.
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Half banana
I needn’t remind you that the gospel of John abounds with references to overcoming death i.e. eternal life through JC. Why do you want to prevaricate on this?
The first thing to realize when dealing with handwritten texts is that the human impulse to edit at each re-writing was almost irresistible. To imagine a divinely guided and protected sacred scripture is a religious fantasy.
You can see the process at work in the Gospels to which Doug Mason refers. As he said, Mark’s writings are the earliest and over time and with geographical distance between them, they were elaborated on. Note how the story of three wise men with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh were added to the later gospels. This colourful and clearly exotic tale was part of the Mithraic cult which came from Persia and more significantly applied to the virgin birth of the saviour Mithra (or Mithras as the Romans called him) about three or four centuries before the Gospels were written.
The saviour story had been knocking around for millennia before the first century CE. Variations on the same theme of a miracle god-man saviour with twelve disciples curing the sick and raising the dead and dying at Easter was a religious trope from ancient Egypt and dispersed throughout the near east including India.
It was expedient for the Christ cults of Judea and other Roman territories to capitalize on the myth and put a name on the hero which matched people’s expectations. Iasus was a name taken by initiates in the Dionysian cult who also believed their saviour was born of a virgin and died sacrificially on a cross at Easter (spring equinox). Iesus was also (I believe) a name of a messianic rabbi from Hellenised Judaism about a hundred years BCE.
I must contradict your assumption that Jesus actually lived and died. Outside of the highly biased gospels there is no incontrovertible secular corroboration that the saviour god-man Jesus ever breathed.
Such ignorant stories as a theatrical persona coming to life; a man from a story taking on a human body. . . exasperated the Roman authorities and as the Bible (this time accurately) records, “there are many Christs and many Lords”. Nevertheless, the poor peasants believed the rumour and became followers of the cult leaders, especially those with good food supplied foc.
Any man in the civilized Roman world who really could resurrect the dead would be an international celebrity overnight and would surely have been noted by the commentators of the day. Instead there is a deafening silence in the copious records of first century Rome.
Set these things in this context that virtually all forms of Christianity doctrinally speaking, have passed through the bottleneck of Roman Imperial sanctioning. That means that Emperor Constantine used the traditional Roman ‘piety’ or reverence for the gods to assimilate all prevailing significant beliefs and fused them into one imperial ‘catholic’, all embracing church as a means of political control. There is little mention of this 'catholicisation' of Christianity because it would have been counter- productive to show what trick was being played on the populace. The bishops were being paid handsomely to compromise. All pagan source material texts were destroyed as well by Imperial decree. All religions other than the Catholic faith were eventually banned and as Rome declined, Church authority rose under the papacy controlling doctrine with an iron fist.
No wonder the belief in the Bible as God’s holy word and the story of Jesus; the hero saviour of mankind took root in people’s imagination. Sixteen hundred years of indoctrination is a powerful persuader.
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What We Truly Deserve Is...Death, Really WT?
by JW_Rogue ini have seen this statement or similar ones popping up in the study edition of the wt lately.
whenever they talk about undeserved kindness or jesus ransom they add this little gem to get the point across.
this is sick, why do they feel the need to tear down people's self esteem?
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Half banana
The leaders of the Watchtower cult have elevated themselves to immortal life alongside Jesus and Big J (at least they imagine they have!) while at the same time they beat the followers into pathetic dependency on their every word. They load on the guilt as a motivator.
Destroy a person's self esteem and they will be easily manipulated. If an 'authority' claims to be from God, the person with low self worth will more easily be taken in by it.
Where is the sense in choosing to become a "good-for-nothing slave"?
Isn't the answer: only if you already have low self esteem.
It will confirm your identity as inadequate and try and make a virtue of it. Like the masochist you are you give your life to "The Organisation"!
But everyone who does never achieves or receives anything in return and dies disappointed.
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Interpret John 1:1 by John 1:1.
by towerwatchman ininterpret john 1:1 by john 1:1. .
the greek language has the definite article which has approximately thirty variations, is translated into english as “the”, and points to an identifiable personality, someone we have prior knowledge of.
but the greek language has no indefinite article corresponding to the english “a”, or “an”.
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Half banana
Towerwatchman, I do not have Adamic sin or any other defects curable by holy beliefs. I have no need for fairy tales to give me existential hope. You make a grave error in believing that the scriptures are something which we should respond to.
I greatly resent the idea that I should be grateful to an unknowable god for allowing me to live! Listen to yourself and realize that you are thoughtlessly repeating tired old religious spin, something which can never be proved and therefore of no use except in religious jingoism.
Paul's words were useful in recruiting for the early Christ cult and therefore selected for duty in the Roman Bible to rouse followers to action. It is only the the poor peasants who were led to believe this foundationless nonsense. They ditched reason for an impossible hope in a saviour figure who was renamed Jesus around 175 CE. We have moved away from peasantry.
Name me one person who has actually overcome death as promised in the Bible. Two thousand years, countless billions of people born and still no results yet!
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Interpret John 1:1 by John 1:1.
by towerwatchman ininterpret john 1:1 by john 1:1. .
the greek language has the definite article which has approximately thirty variations, is translated into english as “the”, and points to an identifiable personality, someone we have prior knowledge of.
but the greek language has no indefinite article corresponding to the english “a”, or “an”.
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Half banana
Only those exposed to the doctrine of the trinity would come up with a belief in a triune god.
However the real issue raised by discussing John 1:1 is the fundamental ambiguity of the nature of the the NT God.
The Hebrew myth shows an evolving god as the culture absorbed the ideas of its neighbours over time. Moving from a god who was someone you could talk to and argue with, to the rabid despotic deity who heartlessly would to kill all who didn't worship him. Simple reflections of a primitive society trying to raise the status of their fighting prowess. The OT god was the creator of good things and the bringer of evil as well. But although a son of El and having sixty nine brothers, Yahweh was always singular in nature.
So we might usefully ask why the NT god is so different? Surely God doesn't change?
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Interpret John 1:1 by John 1:1.
by towerwatchman ininterpret john 1:1 by john 1:1. .
the greek language has the definite article which has approximately thirty variations, is translated into english as “the”, and points to an identifiable personality, someone we have prior knowledge of.
but the greek language has no indefinite article corresponding to the english “a”, or “an”.
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Half banana
Only those exposed to it!
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77
Interpret John 1:1 by John 1:1.
by towerwatchman ininterpret john 1:1 by john 1:1. .
the greek language has the definite article which has approximately thirty variations, is translated into english as “the”, and points to an identifiable personality, someone we have prior knowledge of.
but the greek language has no indefinite article corresponding to the english “a”, or “an”.
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Half banana
Whatever the grammar and hence the meaning intended, it might be more important to understand why the church leaders wanted to include this text which stands outside of the normal run of NT scripture.
It is borrowed from contemporary Gnostic and Greek philosophy and would be useful in imparting some apparent gravitas to the usual rigmarole of cultic instructions and moral tales. Look it worked, we are still considering it today!
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It seems that many witnesses simply dont care about facts?
by stuckinarut2 ini often wonder if the current crop of witnesses, especially the youth and younger ones simply don't care about facts?.
i mean for some, even with knowledge of the past scandals, misleading teachings, mistruths, etc etc, they simply don't care.
"it is the truth after all".. they are so intertwined in the operations and activities of the society, that they cant see anything outside of it.
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Half banana
The purpose of religion is always political. Its function is to pacify the masses.
Why should anything be believed if it has no factual evidence?
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It seems that many witnesses simply dont care about facts?
by stuckinarut2 ini often wonder if the current crop of witnesses, especially the youth and younger ones simply don't care about facts?.
i mean for some, even with knowledge of the past scandals, misleading teachings, mistruths, etc etc, they simply don't care.
"it is the truth after all".. they are so intertwined in the operations and activities of the society, that they cant see anything outside of it.
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Half banana
Some JW 'facts':
Jehovah created everything
The Bible was written under inspiration of Jehovah
The JW org leadership is the mediator between humans and Jehovah
If you believe and do what the GB tell you; you will live forever in paradise
Note that the above beliefs have no chance of being proved and this is why religious doctrine is of no scientific or practical value. How can anyone seriously say "God is love" when there is no God willing to show itself in the first place? God only exists in the collective imagination of believers, and most of them were taught to believe so from infancy.
Religious belief only has value for the individuals who require hope beyond hope that a magic world exists somewhere. You cannot make any further developments from such elusive and slippery dogma.
By contrast a good example of the thoroughness required by scientific progress is seen in medical practice. Here exhaustive and critically appraised test evidence, including blind trials, is vital before we start using new medicines.
Why not use the same rigorous and factual "evidence based testing" for religion?
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Part of Growing Up - Saying Goodbye to Invisible Friends?
by doubtfull1799 ini don’t remember having any invisible friends when i was a really little boy, i don’t know if such a thing actually exists, i’ve only ever seen it in movies?
of course it might have looked to others like i was talking to someone on occasions, but i’m sure it would have just been me talking to myself.
the thing is though, i got introduced to an invisible friend in my pre-teens, and i kept the relationship going well into adulthood.
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Half banana
Good point Xanthippe, people who don't reply are not worth talking to again but with prayer to God there comes a time when you realize was no one there in the first place.
When I was young I had a bible study trying to recruit a school friend and he said that prayer is like talking to yourself, it doesn't go above your head. I really understood that he was right but stubbornly persisted in trying to be a good JW. Stupid or what?