Posts by cobweb

35

Jehovah's Witnesses worship a pagan god derived from the ancient Canaanite civilization

by Finkelstein in

historians of ancient history along with bible scholars have found from where the ancient hebrews acquired their god yhwh .. el was the all powerful god of the canaanites which the hebrews converted mostly to a monotheist style of worship for themselves.. apparently their were ancient civilizations that predated the canaanites as well .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnpaoappiqm.

cobweb

It is eye opening stuff alright. I was fascinated when I read about the Ugaritic discoveries and how Yahweh evolved to take on attributes of El and Baal. Once you see how the Israelite God evolved, it really is the death knell of any belief in it. It is so foundational.

With a name like Finklestein it is obvious that this was key to you too. I don't normally buy physical books but two I did buy that I'd already read in electronic form were Who wrote the Bible by R.E. Friedman and The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finkelstein. I read that William Dever has some issues with Finkelstein on dating and I don't know the right or wrong of that but its a fascinating book nonetheless. Mark Smith is great on the Ugaritic stuff.

35

Jehovah's Witnesses worship a pagan god derived from the ancient Canaanite civilization

by Finkelstein in

historians of ancient history along with bible scholars have found from where the ancient hebrews acquired their god yhwh .. el was the all powerful god of the canaanites which the hebrews converted mostly to a monotheist style of worship for themselves.. apparently their were ancient civilizations that predated the canaanites as well .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnpaoappiqm.

cobweb

Excellent info! Who is the woman giving the lecture? I would like to read more about this.

The woman's name is Christine Hayes an accomplished scholar at Yale Divinity school. I recommend the entire lecture series which is available on youtube. Its a valuable recourse.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfbxB0kKayCQ2Hf6JlCCDN6z47ySYxsCW

8

Wouldn't be great if it was trump that convinced Russia to stop persecuting the JW's

by nowwhat? in

after all those prayers and letters that didn't do squat.

and it was trump that helped the russian brothers.

then what would the jdub's say?

cobweb

JW's don't vote so I can't see he'd care.

29

Book of Revelation

by Whynot in

one of the things that really bothered me is how most of the book of revelation isn't understood by most jws.

most of the trumpets were already sounded many decades ago, is that still right?

it seems like most jws just look the other way.

cobweb

Its interesting to look into Apocalyptic literature of the time. I just googled it and came up with this for example

https://bit.ly/2tzZXAt

As Phizzy says, once you see Revelation as just part of a Apocalyptic genre with similar tropes and imagery it stops being that special.

It is like in an old cowboy movie, the man in black hat and shirt is the baddie and the man in white hat and shirt is the goodie. You can guess this straight away if you have seen enough of them.

14

what will be the next thing

by pepperheart in

hi what will be the next thing that watchtower will cut,if you say the leaked video that fay put up the finance guy from the watchtower was saying that they had spent $26 million in about 6 months.

so if they are getting through money that fast then they are going to have problems.

cobweb

I definitely agree about the songbooks, particularly with them publishing new songs on an ad hoc basis now, it'll be hopelessly outdated.

19

Diminishing glory of JWs, confusions are at the root

by Ireneus in

when the world shuns jws because of difference of opinion, it is described as the action of satan.. when jws shun others because of difference of opinion, it is described as theocratic action.. such confused mind is at the root of getting wrong teachings.

jws shun anything what anyone would rate as the best of the bible or christian traditions:.

1)cross (with a longer descending arm) is the symbol of controlling the less powerful (“acts of the flesh”) with the more powerful (“spirit” within)—galatians 5:17, 19, 25.

cobweb

John 8:1-11 is a powerful story. Unfortunately, from what i understand, it isn't in the earliest manuscripts and most scholars believe it to be a later addition.

Whilst the original gospels included made up stories by people who never knew Jesus a generation after he died, this made up story seems to have been put in at a later stage, thereby somehow making it dubious.

Personally i think it is a highly resonant passage with positive implications and deserves to be followed more than much of the so called original material.

51

Drop Off in Mentioning 1914

by steve2 in

videos from the summer jw conventions ("be courageous) show the "urgency" about the end racheted up several notches.

paranoia rules supreme!.

curiously, though, very few, if any, statements in the convention program about 1914 and the overlapping generations.

cobweb

Jookbeard:

Apostates have access to Russell and Rutherford too, for all the good it does.

The religion is nearly self supporting. Noone researches anymore. Doing it too well gets you in trouble. Nobody cares about doctrine. People know the overlapping generation is nonsense and don't care. The belief system is rotted away but the mental construction stays up. It is suspended by a central pole and that is this: The unquestioning acceptance of the authority of the GB in determining what is true.

51

Drop Off in Mentioning 1914

by steve2 in

videos from the summer jw conventions ("be courageous) show the "urgency" about the end racheted up several notches.

paranoia rules supreme!.

curiously, though, very few, if any, statements in the convention program about 1914 and the overlapping generations.

cobweb

1914 used to be a load bearing wall. It couldn't have been taken away without everything else falling down. It is still their most significant date in the sense of JW history so they can't admit to being wrong about it - not for a long time yet. But I don't think its holding the building up in the same way anymore. If 1914 was taken away, people would be unhappy but I think the structure of belief would still mostly keep standing.

The reason they don't mention 1914 is because it is connected to the new overlapping generation doctrine which is just so ridiculous, embarrassing and confusing that nobody wants to talk about it. So it exists but is ignored. More and more it'll become a doctrinal vestigial organ, like an human appendix, that people know they have in their body academically, but never need to think about. It need not be taken out as long as it does no harm.

25

Medical marijuana

by Mikethegreek in

hey everyone.... i'm new to this but i would like to run my experience with medical marijuana past you.

i'm 48 years of age and have been in the truth for my whole life.. i suffer from ankylosing spondilitis and have for many many years.

it's a debilitating form of spinal arthritis and the symptoms of this auto-immune disorder affect more than my spine.

cobweb

The org has never explicitly ruled on it as far as I know. Obviously smoking it is a no no & they have had a negative view toward recreational drug use in general including cannabis. I have a feeling they probably don't want to say it is acceptable explicitly because its a rather conflicted position to take after demonising cannabis as opening the door to spiritualism etc for so long.

You are eating it for a medical condition. If the elders have an issue you could try to try to get them to clarify why it is different from other forms of pain relief that witnesses are able to accept. You were taking opiates - as u say, it just makes no logical sense why this if fine yet cannabis eating is not. There is no real justification for ruling this one plant out and others in, as its not mentioned in the bible. You could try writing to the society but in the post below someone rang them and was simply told to ask the elders. This makes me think they just don't want to create a policy at the moment and it could go either way depending on your elders. If you push it and they aren't having it, id say just take it quietly. Until the org is willing to publish an article definitively stating their position they are deliberately creating a 'Don't ask, don't tell' scenario.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/4771737730285568/jehovah-witnesses-view-on-medical-marijuana

80

Are we losing our way a bit at JWN?

by nicolaou in

firstly, i want to be crystal clear how grateful i am for jwn.

it's been my place of support for over seventeen years and it's the first online space i direct anyone to if they are taking steps out of the cult.

i am not bashing jwn - i love this place and appreciate the hard work and expense simon puts in to keep it going.

cobweb

When i come to this forum i select hottest and latest to structure what i see. This means that Politics gets included and tends to dominate which i don't like. I don't know if there is anything i can do about that - maybe someone could make a suggestion.

On reddit i don't have this issue because subjects have their own discrete forum and so the xjw forum is used for xjw issues and if someone wants to talk about American politics then people will go to a more appropriate reddit.

I certainly don't think there is any lack of jw news, a lot of it just never makes it here.