Half banana

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Posts by Half banana

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  23

  Logical Problem with WT Anointed

  by Vanderhoven7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the watchtower september 1, 1951, in a wonderful article entitled “hated for his name”(pp518,519) describes the persecution and martyrdom of steadfast christians in the first 3 centuries ad.. by the year (a.d.) 64 christianity was.

  prominent throughout much of the roman.

  empire, including the capital city.

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  Half banana

  I agree with the point you are making Vanderhoven, there are far more candidates for heaven than the literal figure of 144k.

  However I would firstly caution the literal truth in the application of the word "Christian" to followers of Jesus in the year 64 and second, the reliability of church propaganda on the persecution of christians.

  For the first point the "Christ cult" predated Jesus by centuries. There is no historical evidence of followers of Jesus amounting to any numerical force by 64 CE.

  For the second, see: The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom 2013 by Candida Moss, a professor of New Testament and Early Christianity. The Idea of persecution began as did most of Jesus Christianity with the Catholic Church in the third and fourth centuries.
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  12

  Self-righteous Watchtower vs the pagan-inspired New Testament.

  by Island Man in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  watchtower refuses to translate stauros as cross despite having no evidence to refute the long-standing ancient belief that jesus died on a cross; and in spite of evidence that the romans were in fact using crosses in executions by jesus' day.

  they shun the word simply because of the use of crosses in ancient pagan religions.. watchtower refuses to refer to their places of worship with the word church because of the word's supposed pagan origin or past usage to refer to pagan places of worship.. now contrast watchtower's self-righteous attitude of avoiding the use of all words having pagan religious usages, with the new testament verse of 2 peter 2:4:.

  certainly god did not refrain from punishing the angels who sinned, but threw them into tarʹta·rus, putting them in chains of dense darkness to be reserved for judgment.. tartarus is a word that had rich pagan mythological meaning when it was written in the nt.

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  Half banana

  Spot on Island Man! The NT, like the OT for that matter, is drawn solidly from paganism, that means the folk beliefs of the common people.

  Paul talks of being in the third heaven, he couldn't remember "whether in the body or not" so he said. What he was doing was referencing current pagan beliefs of levels of heaven to gain the confidence of those pagan believers to get them into his cult. After all they had similar goals of heavenly life, a ransom sacrifice through a god man saviour whether it was Dionysus (who was crucified for believing mankind) or Mithra who instigated the Lord's Evening Meal hundreds of years before Jesus did; they all believed in heavenly gods.

  An intriguing link with all God-men including Jesus was that they were born of a virgin and the were the son of a powerful God (the Sun God). This links strongly with the very source of these folk stories: they were traditional and near-universal tales woven into the constellations of stars, the Sun and the Moon. "Born of a virgin" was reference to the part of the sky even today still labelled Virgo.This related to the ancient calendar when the saviour was born in mid winter... and died the sacrificial lamb in (Aries) at the spring equinox.The NT dresses up these familiar accounts and brings to the mythology an account of flesh and blood as if they were real people.

  To take the paganism out of the Bible would completely take all the stuffing out of it because at its heart, it encapsulates the essential stories of paganism.

  So: long life the Bible...but don't believe a word of it!

  It's much better to know why it was written.
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  8

  Looking at this video with Dr. Angel Fierro and I'm cringing.

  by Island Man in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i'm cringing because the video is very empty in the way of presenting any credible evidence or logical reasoning for rejecting evolution in preference for creationism.

  but it's not the only reason.the video wreaks of propagandistic manipulation.

  first, angel gives very stereotypic reasons for why he accepted evolution in the past.

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  Half banana

  Empty, unchallenging and misleading information for those who yearn to be slaves under the delusion of Watchtower propaganda.

  Wakey wakey people! videos like this will wither your brain cells.
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  21

  The elusive song 151 makes an appearance.

  by SadElder in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the missing song 151 now titled "the revealing of god's sons" shows up with the september edition of tv.jw.

  no words or score on the jw page yet.

  can't say that it sounds any different than any of the other songs they produce now.

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  Half banana

  @ Anders, it seems that there is a whole Freudian world lurking under the skin of JW orgasm.
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  18

  JWs accused of pressuring Syrian refugees in Northern Greece to convert - so far, 40 have converted

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just received the following link to a video where some claim that jws are pressuring syrian refugees in northern greece to convert.

  fyi, i tried to locate the date of the video, but couldn't, so don't know if it is recent or not.

  https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/vb.407570359384477/791011651040344/?type=2&theater.

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  Half banana

  A religion of desperation, designed to appeal to the desperate.
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  23

  Heaven is ready and prepared for Armageddon - Talk A Morris III

  by Listener in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  and why he doesn't go to the gym, jog or workout!

  also no survivalist mentality is required.deciphering warship has posted a youtube of part of the speech given by the one and only, anthony morris the iii at last years imitate jesus convention.deciphering warship makes this comment.

  governing body member anthony morris demonized preparing for this disaster by building such a bunker or (bomb shelter)going so far, as to warn even against stocking up food.

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  Half banana

  The words of a deranged visionary such as Isaiah might have had topical relevancy to the community of his day. How can those writings have any connection to a word wide Watchtower event in the twenty first century, two thousand seven hundred years later?

  JW s are an ignorant Bible quoting religion who are brainwashed to believe fantasy messages from the scriptures over and above common sense and factual evidence.

  What is it about TM3's delivery? He's like a very boring headmaster in a failing school telling the pupils to do what he says or there'll be trouble!

  The Watchtower's survival instructions are not life-saving at all, they're just life- wasting garbage........................I despair!
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  13

  Shepherding Visit Riposte

  by Nicholaus Kopernicus in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if an elder approaches you and wants to arrange a shepherding call one possible response is..... "well thankyou brother, but jehovah is my shepherd.

  i shall lack nothing.

  (ps 23:1) but thanks again anyway".

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  Half banana

  "Imparting spiritual gifts" translates: beat the wayward into line.
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  7

  It's all about the publisher card

  by Chook in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i got thinking ,which at times can seem erratic , it's the publisher cards that should of rung the loudest bell !

  i still can't believe i fell for believing early christianity had some writing reports to the apostles.

  wt legalisms are their foundation of the church..

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  Half banana

  Early Christianity wasn't all it was imagined to be either Chook. Early Christianity as Jesus believers think of it today, only began as a story after the establishment of the RC Church in the fourth century. The name "Jesus" wasn't dominant in christian teaching until the third quarter of the second century for example. Christianity was a continuation of traditional folk religions which preceded the Jesus cult.
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  3

  A lie and contradiction in the Sophia Anti-Gay Cartoon

  by Listener in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i've been noticing a big problem with their basic teaching lately.in the sophia anti-gay video, sophia says"but i want everyone to get to paradise"her mother's reply is"so does jehovah"they used to say that one of their most important commissions was the gathering of the anointed ones.

  however, this was no longer necessary with their teaching that the anointed had been sealed by the 1930s and from that time there would only be replacements (taken from the other sheep).. w85 7/1a most important development on earth during these last days has been the gathering and sealing of anointed ones.

  (revelation 7:3) while seeing that this is done, however, jehovah has brought the other sheep into association with them in a restored spiritual land.

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  Half banana

  There is no evidence for Jehovah but there is for the GB...and they make me very sad.

  It used to be gathering the anointed which was important, then vindicating Big J's name...tomorrow it will be "how you view the GB is how you view JC and Jehovah". (vomit!)

  All of it utter life-wasting tripe.
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  52

  how can navigate if our desire is for absolute truth...

  by Ruby456 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  or do we give in to social constructivism?

  to relativity?

  or is there a way to be real and then to say whats real that everyone agrees to?.

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  Half banana

  But back to you worries about the deterministic nature of existence.

  First, social constructivism is a psychological explanation for human assessment of reality based on a broad and catholic discourse creating an intellectual frame for the ‘real’ world. The obvious weakness is that historically is did not find solid evidence for its discourse. It can only keep pace with the evolving scientific revelations of the cosmos and its interpretation... think Thomas Kuhn and his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The roots of this concept (SC) are found in the child’s development and its private need to understand its world...and so it is with the world itself as humanity ‘grows up’. (I am especially interested in this connection).

  Since, I’m sure we agree that truly nothing is absolute, this is probably the best we can hope for; a perception of reality based not only on our best interpretation of the material universe but one backed up by scientific rigour and sceptical thought...and understanding our place on the continuum of intellectual progress.

  Second, why should we find this mechanistic label untoward? Surely if it is comfort we want in our fleeting lives we have at our disposal the profound beauty of art in its many forms which we can share with those closest to us. Yet isn’t it also true that the progressive understanding of both the cosmos and the human psyche are in themselves a source of endless fascination and satisfaction?

  Perhaps Ruby, buried in the subconscious is an Aristotelian hierarchy which places conditions of human life ranging from “dire” to “perfection” and we can imagine an ideal world and therefore we do. In line with this, what distinguishes humanity from other mammals is a quest or longing for betterment, this emotive drive carries a largesse of hope, a thing which is completely absent in the analysis of the goings on in the material universe.