Posts by Anony Mous

9

Jesus and Thomas twin theory?

by Anony Mous in

in light of the recent attack on indian jws i did some research about christianity in india and found out that india has a long history of christian influence, and not, like many of us probably believed, brought by the british, rather india has had christians for 2000 years.. matter of fact, they may be similar length and claim to the ‘original’ christians only equal by the roman (european), syrian (middle eastern) and ethiopian (african) christians.

the story goes that judas thomas (aka doubting thomas or dydimus) (literally translated: dydimus = twin (greek) and tomas = twin (aramaic)), the twin brother of jesus travelled to india and did some miracles along the way, started the church there, hence deification of thomas is common there.. i found some articles written by eg.

bart ehrman supporting this theory, personally not that much of a fan, but i know many interested in jw exegesis as he supports various fringe theories including wtbts claim to the name jehovah.. the claims of jesus’ twin brother seem to be supported by the original writings, including the gospel as we know it in the west (almost every canonical gospel writer alludes to the twin), but also various other non-canonical writings and at least 3 complete gospels claimed to be by thomas himself (although the oldest writings stem from the first, second and third century respectively).

Anony Mous

@ray: what you say is only true for Roman Catholic Christian theology, there are many other churches that even Paul alludes to and at least another New Testament worth of books that were rejected by the Nicene council in the West. Gnostic means proto-orthodox, so coming before the current orthodox.

We’re talking about a sect of Christianity that split before the Pauline letters were even written and travelled up to India and developed in their own independent version of Christianity surrounding ‘the twinship’ of Jesus.

As far as our Roman Catholic interpretation of it, they don’t seem to conflict as Thomas, Judas, Joses, James, Jude and Simon are named as being Jesus’ brothers.

This isn’t Gnosticism, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John lists Thomas ‘the twin’ on several occasions, so it was quite important to know he was a ‘twin’. The twin of who exactly and why make such a big deal out of his name, well if you don’t define it as being someone else’s twin, that leaves it to the main character in their story.

In Greek mythology twins caused ambivalent reactions and were believed to have ambivalent feelings for each other. Very often, they were viewed as the representatives of the dualistic nature of the universe. And doesn’t that represent ‘doubting Thomas’. Ambivalent about the resurrection of Jesus. And Jesus himself, dualistic, both divine and human at the same time which is what all Christians believe, that the duality of humans (the divine and the earthly form) can be unified in Christ.

There is a very similar story to the Jesus story in Greek mythology, where Zeus comes down and impregnates a woman after already been impregnated (we know Mary was engaged) by a human, resulting in a twin birth, one divine. It’s not hard to see the similarities.

9

Jesus and Thomas twin theory?

by Anony Mous in

in light of the recent attack on indian jws i did some research about christianity in india and found out that india has a long history of christian influence, and not, like many of us probably believed, brought by the british, rather india has had christians for 2000 years.. matter of fact, they may be similar length and claim to the ‘original’ christians only equal by the roman (european), syrian (middle eastern) and ethiopian (african) christians.

the story goes that judas thomas (aka doubting thomas or dydimus) (literally translated: dydimus = twin (greek) and tomas = twin (aramaic)), the twin brother of jesus travelled to india and did some miracles along the way, started the church there, hence deification of thomas is common there.. i found some articles written by eg.

bart ehrman supporting this theory, personally not that much of a fan, but i know many interested in jw exegesis as he supports various fringe theories including wtbts claim to the name jehovah.. the claims of jesus’ twin brother seem to be supported by the original writings, including the gospel as we know it in the west (almost every canonical gospel writer alludes to the twin), but also various other non-canonical writings and at least 3 complete gospels claimed to be by thomas himself (although the oldest writings stem from the first, second and third century respectively).

Anony Mous

In light of the recent attack on Indian JWs I did some research about Christianity in India and found out that India has a long history of Christian influence, and not, like many of us probably believed, brought by the British, rather India has had Christians for 2000 years.

Matter of fact, they may be similar length and claim to the ‘original’ Christians only equal by the Roman (European), Syrian (Middle Eastern) and Ethiopian (African) Christians. The story goes that Judas Thomas (aka doubting Thomas or Dydimus) (literally translated: Dydimus = Twin (Greek) and Tomas = Twin (Aramaic)), the twin brother of Jesus travelled to India and did some miracles along the way, started the church there, hence deification of Thomas is common there.

I found some articles written by eg. Bart Ehrman supporting this theory, personally not that much of a fan, but I know many interested in JW exegesis as he supports various fringe theories including WTBTS claim to the name Jehovah.

The claims of Jesus’ twin brother seem to be supported by the original writings, including the Gospel as we know it in the West (almost every canonical gospel writer alludes to the twin), but also various other non-canonical writings and at least 3 complete gospels claimed to be by Thomas himself (although the oldest writings stem from the first, second and third century respectively)

I just find it very interesting that in all my readings, and ‘studying the Bible’ with the JWs for over 20 years, we never heard of it, neither as a thing that other (esp. Indian) Christians may believe, nor how to retort it. From a pure interlinear reading of the scripture, this idea seems to be supported across the gospels.

77

What's next?

by lastmanstanding in

what's next for the world?

a year ago i edited a map of the world to include some big arrows to tell the story of what is to come.

and i shared that map with various friends.

Anony Mous

@Duran: This declaration of war against Israel is not by the internationally recognized government of Yemen, but the Houthi rebels.

Basically it is Iranian proxies declaring war on Israel, which they did decades ago by their establishment documents and again 3 weeks ago when they invaded unoccupied Israeli land. Remember when Trump shoved a rocket up that Iranian general’s rear end, they got real quiet after that culminating in the Abraham accords. That is the only way these things will end, remove the theocratic government in Iran and end the occupation of portions of Israel, Yemen and the UAE by Iran.

77

What's next?

by lastmanstanding in

what's next for the world?

a year ago i edited a map of the world to include some big arrows to tell the story of what is to come.

and i shared that map with various friends.

Anony Mous

@lastman: read the rest of my thread. The things you ‘predicted’ were predicted years ago in much greater detail than an arrow on a map.

There will always be a need for the US to supply Israel and Taiwan, so simply drawing an arrow and ‘predicting’ what was already an ongoing situation isn’t exactly rocket science. In that sense, it is self fulfilling, people will always hate Jews, China has been expansionist since before ALL of us were born, there will always be people that are against Muslim theocracy and against Asian expansionism.

Read a book, Reagan predicted some of this as did anyone in the 20th century with strong sense of (good) foreign policy.

16

Current light on will die at Armageddon?

by Teddnzo in

my wife zoe and i often talk about her grandmother who has never been a jw but is an excellent christian by other opinions.

she has led such a good life always kind and tried to follow jesus example.

before the agm new light my wife often thought according to current light is that as long as she dies before armageddon she will be resurrected.

Anony Mous

From what I understand the current doctrine is that if someone intentionally rejected the FDS (aka anyone disfellowshipped and PIMO/POMO/inactive) or had sufficient chances to get to know the FDS (repeatedly preached to door-to-door or by family) then they wouldn’t qualify for resurrection. It’s the FDS (the people in New York) that do the judgment both now and they believe in heaven as well (this isn’t exactly new, this was introduced during the Live Forever book).

27

Pornography in the Marriage

by LostintheFog1999 in

the magazine that they are studying in the congregation this month has an article at the back about how pornography in a marriage could damage the relationship.. there's one piece of advice that sounds rather scary, the wt suggests that the couple should "consider asking an elder with whom you are both comfortable to sit in and guide your discussions for a time.".

how many of you would want an elder present in your home while you and your partner discussed your personal sexual cravings and the type of porn videos being watched?.

Anony Mous

@Bandicoot: WTBTS has equity holdings in Disney which, amongst other things, owns Viewers Choice through its holdings in ESPN which is a company that provides quite a few adult PPV channels you may find on cable, satellite and hotel rooms.

Per their own tax returns, they also own direct stock in various weapons manufacturers like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, tech companies like Apple and Amazon, Monsanto, left-wing investment groups like Blackrock, ever wonder why they promoted the COVID shots - yeah, guess who they own shares in.

77

What's next?

by lastmanstanding in

what's next for the world?

a year ago i edited a map of the world to include some big arrows to tell the story of what is to come.

and i shared that map with various friends.

Anony Mous

Your predictions were pretty vague and self-fulfilling. If you draw a big arrow over 1/3 of the world, you can make pretty much any claim when ‘something’ happens.

As far as Iranian and Chinese aggression in the Middle East and the South China Sea, journalists from the Daily Wire, Heritage Foundation, Ted Cruz and various other politicians, economists and historians have predicted this much more precisely… before Biden was elected what would happen when Biden got elected over Trump, as soon as Biden came out of the Democrat primaries many predicted accurately that all these world events would happen. Hell, Obama predicted it during his own presidency - he is the one that said: never underestimate Joe Biden’s ability to f-ck things up. They also predicted what would happen to the economy.

Anyone with half a brain could’ve predicted these things were going to happen, exactly when that something would happen is anyone’s guess. China invading Taiwan would be noticeable to the West, you can see at least a 2-6 month lead time on that as China will need to mobilize a massive invasion force, bigger than the Allies invading Normandy. The Germans knew that Normandy was getting invaded, they knew when and where, they had underestimated the cost of war with the Soviets however and thus had no supplies to continue defending.

The question is whether Joe Biden will be able to mobilize a big enough force to defend Taiwan, again, don’t underestimate his ability to f*ck things up. It’s very likely that if Biden gets re-elected that Taiwan will be invaded. Biden won’t allow it to happen during his first term, China knows that, but as Obama told Putin about invading Crimea “just wait until after the election, then I’ll have more flexibility”, Biden has begged China for this same flexibility, pretty openly with Biden’s admin having some detailed conversations recently. But if Biden gets re-elected, I’ll give it 6 months before China starts mobilizing, simply because Biden doesn’t need to get re-elected, he will turn on everyone in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Russia may even get bold enough to nuke Ukraine and invade Finland, all Putin needs is time, once the election is over, Biden will go to sleep like he was for the first 2 years of his Presidency, and would still be if Trump hadn’t kickstarted the Republican primary about a year early than usual.

30

Jehovah's Witness' bid to be excluded from abuse inquiry dismissed

by Tahoe in

link to article.

a legal bid by the jehovah's witness church to get out of being part of the royal commission of inquiry into abuse in care has been dismissed by the high court in wellington.. after nearly three years of behind-the-scenes legal wrangling to avoid scrutiny from the inquiry, the church applied for a judicial review in june.. at a hearing, held earlier this month it argued it was beyond the inquiry's scope because it did not operate institutions that cared for children or vulnerable people and the inquiry had uncovered no evidence of abuse in that context.. lawyers representing the inquiry argued that jehovah's witness elders - equivalent to ministers or pastors - exercised a level of control over the congregation that allowed them access to children.. the inquiry informed abuse survivors who gave evidence to the inquiry in relation to the jehovah's witnesses of the news this afternoon.. "we have received advice from the high court that none of the causes of action brought by the jehovah's witnesses has succeeded and the application for judicial review has been dismissed.

the judge's reasons are not yet available, but are expected in the near future," the email to survivors, seen by rnz, said.. the church was the only faith-based institution in the country to legally challenge its involvement in the inquiry, although it had attempted to challenge its status in other countries where similar inquiries have also been carried out.. the inquiry said, in a statement, that the dismissal "means the royal commission can continue to investigate the jehovah's witnesses, and all other faiths, in accordance with the pastoral care approach we have been applying since 2019".. "reasons for the high court's judgment are not yet available but are expected in the near future.

Anony Mous

In the end what really happened with the Australian investigation? Besides some bad news that JWs won’t believe anyway, not much, they moved the money out of the the international branches, did they even pay a fine or have anyone arrested? No, they got a few angry letters from some bureaucrat and that was that.

5

Interesting story in todays New York Times that gives some insight into the religious soup of the 1800s that Watchtower arose from.

by Balaamsass2 in

todays nyt.

fascinating read and background of new york state in the 1800s.

this community welcomes mediums, but first you have to prove yourself.

Anony Mous

@ray as far as I can see the only connection is that the same geographic region also kickstarted Mormonism and Millerism, Miller’s Great Disappointment being the influence for Russell and his swindle operation and the calculations of 1914. To that effect, many of the calculations both Miller and Russell and others used to calculate the end of the world have their roots or at least carry great resemblance to certain beliefs within the Spiritism movements. The idea within Mormonism of many levels of hell and heaven likely comes from Mesmer (a Spiritist). So they all kind of influenced each other.

40

Steve Lett doesn’t look well

by Teddnzo in

jw
friends

as soon as you see steve letts talk at the agm you think to yourself “oh my, what’s happened to him?.

his hand has plasters and his skin doesn’t look healthy, like he has inflammation or something serious going on.. he had put on weight and is all bloated and puffy .

his skin really doesn’t look good, the kind of inflammation many people notice after the experimental covid vaccines.. there have been very high numbers of people reported inflammation after the experimental covid vaccines.

Anony Mous

Warning, pictures of medical issues: https://dermnetnz.org/topics/cutaneous-adverse-effects-of-alcohol