To get the Jesus cult going with the largest number of (paying) members, it had to be rationalized for acceptability to the Jews and then the Romans, Greeks and others in western Asia and the Levant. That is why Paul and other writers used different premises for belief for each of the believing groups and skillfully harmonised their often incompatible dogma. Christianity was not a new religion so much as a fusion of all contemporary temple and Mithraic beliefs in the second, third and fourth centuries.
Half banana
JoinedPosts by Half banana
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16
God never knew Jesus would be killed?
by venus injesus gave an illustration with a landowner being the central character:.
“there was a landowner who planted a vineyard.
he put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower.
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Another recorded Judicial Meeting...
by NikL ini've listened to quite a few but for some reason, this one has me really angry.. my heart goes out to the young family dealing with this bull shite.. give a listen.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifkpiqigq9c.
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Half banana
It seems that the org is moving toward the idea that it does not need facts at any stage of being a believing JW.
What now counts for membership (as the clip shows) is just total conformity with the culture of JWs as espoused by its governing body. You can be df'd for holding opinions which differ from the prevailing orthodoxy of the organisation.
Thou shalt not think for thyself!
The next stage in this increasingly despotic cultic regime is to demand that the GB are "God's Anointed" and that to disagree with them is to touch God's anointed (Psa.105:15). Watch this space. . .
This brainless bunch of desperadoes is using every method of cultic reinforcement possible to fend off reality.
Every means of aggrandising their own unjustified power over their flock is used: through dishonesty, alarmist distortion of evidence, through daily enforced exposing them to false propaganda and through powerful threats of social severance from family and friends if you do not conform to their will.
And to what end: that more and dumber, subservient JWs are in thrall to stratospherically elevated GB members.
Spare us!
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When did the Iron Age start according to the Bible? You'll be surprised!
by Crazyguy inread this over at reddit so the credit goes to the person over there but in genesis 4:22 it's say one of the offspring of adam knew how to work with iron roughly 130 years after the creation of man.
now historians and scientists say man didn't figure out how to use iron until about 1100 bc, man we're we wrong!
it's also interesting that cain is building a city when there like 10 people on the planet and nimrod goes on to build the tower of babel only about 100 year after the flood.
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Half banana
The Bible is (after the Watchtower Society) the last place to go for facts.
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UK Memorial attendances up this year?!
by Isambard Crater inmy congregation had around 25 more people at the memorial last night than last year, and the two other congregations i have family in all experienced a similar increase in about 25 more people present.
umm, i'm surprised, having thought this year would see a memorial decline again.
and i'm kind of disappointed..
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Half banana
I do fear that we apostates are not doing our job well.
We have not got over the message that human sacrifice is a somewhat outdated method of restoring equilibrium in society. Then to symbolically drink blood and eat the flesh, well quite honestly, it's not in very good taste!
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Does God really care about mankind?
by Sour Grapes ini am dying of cancer.
yesterday i asked my full blown jw wife if she could snap her fingers and make me well would she do so?.
she replied, "yes.
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Half banana
The fact that mankind is never cared for by an invisible paternalistic agency, demonstrates that there is no loving Heavenly Father.
The Bible God is a frightening parent who demands abject love and fearful obedience at the same time.
He never changes (Mal 3:6, Jas1:17) or so it was written after his devotees decided to update their grubby idol to conform to the prevailing views of their political masters the Egyptians, namely that God was to be worshipped as an invisible deity. He dashes the children of unbelievers on the rocks (Isa13:16) and has planned to murder 99% of his earthly 'grandchildren'. This loving father is not content with a clinical death but will let the mountains of dead putrefy, feeding the maggots and allowing the birds to peck out the eyes of his victims. Seven billion corpses: a sweet smell to Jehovah's nostrils.
Sounds to me but I could be wrong, that this is wish fulfillment in an Iron Age morality, where the sweetest thing ever was to revenge your enemies.
Grow up religious people! the world outside of religious bigotry, otherwise called humanity or the secular world, has largely moved forward towards a much more compassionate view of mankind.
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Potential New Article for JWFacts: Iglesia Ni Cristo
by ILoveTTATT2 inpaul has allowed me to write up two articles for jwfacts: iglesia ni cristo, and why russell was not a mason.here is my iglesia ni cristo article.
“we believe that there is only one true god, the father, and no one else besides him”.
thus, faith alone is not enough.. about baptism.
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Half banana
Very interesting ILT2, just goes to show how the evolution of religious ideas happens faster than in biology. The reason being that we are dealing with fictions which have no provable basis.
I guess that the formula used by INC has a similar success rate for attracting punters?
It must be intriguing for JWs to meet them in the d2d work, like preaching to the converted!.
All in all both cults are delusional and aided and abetted by the falsehood of belief in holy things such as the Bible.
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You will be with me in Paradise
by AmyWatson916 ini'm reading a book called, "what to do when they knock".
it points out that on page 36 of the 2014 "what does the bible really teach?
" book jesus promises the criminal, "you will be with me in paradise.
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Half banana
and Crazyguy; you're dead right!
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You will be with me in Paradise
by AmyWatson916 ini'm reading a book called, "what to do when they knock".
it points out that on page 36 of the 2014 "what does the bible really teach?
" book jesus promises the criminal, "you will be with me in paradise.
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Half banana
VI, I love the complicated diagram attempting to reconcile the Bible's convoluted vision of what happens at death.
The reality is that a person stops breathing at death and that is the end of the matter.
If anyone wants to contradict; surely one person of the one hundred billion who have ever lived could come up with evidence to the contrary? Of course there is no evidence possible. It just shows that religion thrives on people's sentiment summarised by the expression "Surely there is more to life?
The point is that life really is precious and not to be wasted on futile dreams of paradise supplied by wealthy religious teachers.
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God never knew Jesus would be killed?
by venus injesus gave an illustration with a landowner being the central character:.
“there was a landowner who planted a vineyard.
he put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower.
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Half banana
In the forerunner of the Bible, namely the heavenly movements of Sun Moon and stars:-- the son of the Sun God had to die every year at the Spring equinox.
It wasn't a matter of whether the Sun God father knew his son (also a Sun God) was going to die, that sort of humanising of the tale was quite irrelevant. The fact was a celestial certainty that the Son was to die sacrificially and go to heaven at Easter to rule there with his father.
Willy nilly; the son has to die.
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"Abuse of free will" - an Oxymoron?
by doubtfull1799 inthe society loves to talk about how adam and eve abused their gift of free will.
doesn't free will mean the freedom to choose?
how can exercising that freedom to choose then be classed as abusing the gift?
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Half banana
Yes Doubtfull1799, everything about this is wrong! It exemplifies the ability of a religious cult to manipulate its followers on the basis of fairy tales not on real life.
Adam and Eve are clearly characters in a creation myth when everything in the garden was lovely! There was no Eden, no talking snake and most importantly there was no fall into imperfection through "abusing free-will" requiring a later human/demigod sacrifice. Also there is no evidence for an invisible deity who never has been detected by anyone's five senses and never could be.
Indeed what sort of “gift” would free will be if you couldn’t exercise it freely without punishment?
The Watchtower is using the fable in an attempt to modify the minds of believers to conform to a mindset which denies a personal responsibility in life and demands abject submission to cult leadership.
The JW cult depends on one false principle: the notion that the Bible (as interpreted by its governing body) is the inerrant word of God and therefore has superior information for mankind. This fiction is the driving force for religious power over people.
Becoming mature and free human beings requires making life decisions without persuasions from magic sources such as the Bible and its “divinely appointed” interpreters.