NCC-1701

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Posts by NCC-1701

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  19

  Mystery of the ' Strange Couple '

  by Esse quam videri in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this strange couple was seen on main st. in vancouver, b.c.

  a casual observer would be hard pressed to figure out their relationship.

  the man seems a little young for the woman.

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  NCC-1701

  I think I've seen the male at that location before. It's interesting to see how many more of these "info booths" have popped up at the Skytrain stations this year.
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  8

  Religious explanation for suffering vs church shootings

  by Simon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  whenever there is a discussion about the "godness" of god and whether he can be described as both "good" and "all powerful" given that he could avoid untold suffering and death for millions of people in earthquakes, floods, tidal waves and other disasters we are often given the same answer:.

  "you don't know why he lets it happen but he has a plan".. bleh.

  often they throw in some snippets that suggest the people may actually deserve it for not praying to the right god or not praying hard enough.. of course it's easy to dismiss the death of all those faceless unknown people.. so, i present to you a new thought experiment for the righteous to grapple with.. i dare you to use the same arguments to explain the deaths of the people in the recent church shooting.. were they not praying hard enough?

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  NCC-1701

  Simon wrote

  Were they not praying hard enough? Were they praying to the wrong god? Surely it's simply part of gods plan and who are we to question it and wonder why?

  I read your opening post and it made me think of some things. I am a christian, never having been a Witness, and I realize that some may have concerns about my participation in this forum. But, may I share some thoughts?

  Fist off, what happened in North Carolina is a complete tragedy. The victims being Christian and involved in "Christian activities" at the time does not make it any more or less tragic than if it had happened to any other group of people anywhere or at anytime in history in my view.

  However, I struggle with it. I want to know why such things happen. At times, I have demanded to know. And, to be honest, I do want to believe that there is a higher purpose behind these events. A higher purpose behind them or an outpouring of grace as a result of them. But they do look so random.

  I also find that when these things happen to Christians, they do seem to get more of my attention. And given what I wrote above, that should not be the case.

  Second thing, I shouldn't be so surprised when these things happen to Christians. I can find no supporting teaching in the bible saying that Christians are automatically excluded from such things. Jesus said that in this life, there will be trouble for his followers. And there are many examples of Christians being killed while doing "God approved" activities. Christians, and others alike, will sometimes suffer the consequences of someone else's heinous actions. And, shamefully, the heinous actions of some who claim to have Christ's approval.

  But I still feel like I've been blindsided sometimes.

  Do I see a plan behind every instance of tragedy that happens to Christians? Can tragedy be used by God to bring about something good? Tough questions. They all look so random.

  But I do believe that there was and is a purpose behind Christ's sufferings. I also believe that if there were any other way to achieve what God wanted, He would have used it. God has felt pain, too.

  At such time that I do have all the answers, I promise to post them.

  Thank you for the opportunity.

  
  
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  5

  WT answer to the question: Who made Jehovah's dwelling place?

  by NCC-1701 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  before i pose my question, please correct me if my understanding on any of these points on wt beliefs are incorrect.. 1. jehovah god alone has existed from eternity.

  he used no pre-existent material to form anything.. 2. jehovah has a literal dwelling place, albeit not made from anything from,and not contained within, creation itself.

  3. jehovah god, alone, created jesus at some point before the creation of everything else.

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  NCC-1701

  
  Who created God's dwelling place according to WT theology? I gots to know. What can I say, I'm a punk. (Hope this image comes out ok)
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  5

  WT answer to the question: Who made Jehovah's dwelling place?

  by NCC-1701 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  before i pose my question, please correct me if my understanding on any of these points on wt beliefs are incorrect.. 1. jehovah god alone has existed from eternity.

  he used no pre-existent material to form anything.. 2. jehovah has a literal dwelling place, albeit not made from anything from,and not contained within, creation itself.

  3. jehovah god, alone, created jesus at some point before the creation of everything else.

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  NCC-1701

  Before I pose my question, please correct me if my understanding on any of these points on WT beliefs are incorrect.

  1. Jehovah God alone has existed from eternity. He used no pre-existent material to form anything.

  2. Jehovah has a literal dwelling place, albeit not made from anything from,and not contained within, creation itself.

  3. Jehovah God, alone, created Jesus at some point before the creation of everything else. Jesus is the only direct creation of Jehovah.

  4. Everything in all of creation was made through Jesus.

  It would seem logical that any dwelling place for Jehovah would have to be as eternal as he is. So can it be said that Jehovah alone is eternal?

  Who made Jehovah's dwelling place? Thanks.

  NCC-1701
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  13

  587 vs 607: JW sources only

  by wifibandit in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the latest jw podcast has inspired me to update the copypasta comment that i post anytime this topic comes up.. i have formatted it to more closely follow the wonderful www.jwfacts.com table.

  i have also added a few more links directly to the jw online library.

  "evil-merodach reigned two years" w65 1/1 p. 29.

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  NCC-1701

  Looks good and thorough to me. I presented the same information to a Witness last December. He replied that he would not be speaking with me any longer because "something is blocking your mind to understand the matter"

  I don't know if he has ever read what I presented to him.

  NCC-1701
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  March JW Broadcast - Mark Sanderson and Translations

  by NCC-1701 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i was listening to the march jw broadcast today and found this interesting.. at about the 42:25 mark, mark sanderson says, "in the early 16th century many people had a strong desire to know more about the bible.

  by that time the latin vulgate had been the common bible for more than 1,000 years.

  but, sadly, most people could not read latin.

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  NCC-1701

  I was listening to the March JW Broadcast today and found this interesting.

  At about the 42:25 mark, Mark Sanderson says, "In the early 16th century many people had a strong desire to know more about the bible. By that time the Latin Vulgate had been the common bible for more than 1,000 years. But, sadly, most people could not read Latin. Adding to the problem, many errors had crept into the Vulgate as it was copied over the centuries.

  Translators and scholars realized that they needed to go back to the original languages if they were to produce accurate bible translations that would satisfy the growing thirst for scriptural knowledge."

  That sounds like excellent methodology.

  Hmmm.

  J1 Matthew, Hebrew - 1555

  J7 Christian Greek Scriptures in 12 languages including Hebrew - 1599

  J9 Gospels, Hebrew and Latin - 1668

  J17 Christian Greek Scriptures, Hebrew - 1981

  etc.
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  102

  Should I attend Kingdom Hall meetings to discreetly "preach"?

  by CrytoJesus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  christians, should i attend kingdom hall meetings to discreetly "preach" to jws about the real jesus and the lies of the watchtower?.

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  i plan to go undercover and plant seeds into them.. .

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  NCC-1701

  CrytoJesus

  You seem to have a heart for Jehovah's Witnesses that I can identify with.

  Just a word of caution. I have been dialoguing with some Witnesses from different halls in my city off and on for a few years. Last summer I started speaking to a fellow who shares the same hall with a few others that I had previously been talking with. He found out that I had been talking with them. He sent me a note asking what was up and let me know that he didn't want to meet with me anymore.

  In addition to that, it seems the people from that hall contacted other halls in the area about my case. Though I do not have definitive proof of this, I suspect this is so because another fellow from another hall whom I have been talking to for the past couple of months did not respond to a note I sent to him. He as never failed to respond to my notes. We were set to meet last Thursday. The note I sent was to say that I would no longer be able to continue. If he was in the dark, I would have thought he would have asked why or at least say adios.

  As it is, I fear I may have undone any good (though it could be argued that there wasn't any) that may have resulted.

  Just a heads up.

  NCC-1701
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  4

  "Son of God", "Son of Man"

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  fulltimestudent,.

  boyarins book the jewish gospels: the story of the jewish christ poses challenges and each needs to be tested.. his dominant themes, as far as i can make out, are that the term son of god comes from the anointing (messiah/christ) of king david, whereas the term son of man derives from the divine figure at daniel 7. for boyarin, therefore, son of god refers to jesus humanity whereas son of man refers to his perceived divinity.. he correctly writes: oceans of ink and forests of trees have given their substance so that humans could continue to argue about where the term son of man came from and what it means.

  and boyarins is an added voice.. i am not saying whether i am necessarily in agreement with him or not; i need to examine every instance where these expressions are employed by nt writers and come to my own conclusion.

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  NCC-1701

  Hi Doug

  A couple of years back I did a little research on "Son of God, Son of Man" as used in the NT. I listed all the occurrences and color coded them as to who was using the term.

  I can forward it to you if you would like. It's not an in depth study, it was a preliminary look and something I could refer to.

  PM me if you want and I can send it to your email address.

  PS. I have read much of your research papers and I have found them all to be excellent and informative.

  NCC-1701
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  19

  Thank You From Captives of a Concept

  by Cameron_Don in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i wanted to thank so many who have taken the time and effort to read and recommend captives of a concept over the past decade.. for those who have not seen it, there is an interview on youtube that may have helped some witnesses begin the process of getting the sense of the way the watchtower religion actually works.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5trkrpia-3q.

  don cameron.

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  NCC-1701

  I just ordered it. Looking forward to reading it
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  28

  WT Library

  by MsTruthSeeker2014 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  does anyone have the link to dl the wt library?

  i was looking for some mag from the 1900s and see that the jw org site only goes back to 2000.

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  NCC-1701

  An incredible collection.