djeggnog is quite the scholarfly type, and posts here from time to time. His posts are long winded, but he's pretty good at presenting the Watchtower point of view. Would be very interesting to see him and the scholars exchange ideas.
ScenicViewer
JoinedPosts by ScenicViewer
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Blog - Jehovah's Witnesses and (Academic) Dialogue with Non-Members at the Society of Biblical Literature?
by Mickey mouse inhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-gilmour/jehovahs-witnesses-and-ac_b_987545.html.
excerpt (bold added):.
intrigued by this gap in the scholarly conversation about contemporary uses of the bible, i recently proposed an sbl session examining the watch tower bible and tract society's use of scripture.
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ScenicViewer
*Still Wondering*, you have written a tremendous essay. The points you made about the Society's ever changing policies on the blood issue while claiming to have been consistent, reminded me of a remark an elder made from the platform a short time before I decided to stop attending meetings. He said...
"The Society's position on blood has never changed."
And he said it in the most innocent and sweetest sounding voice you can imagine. At the time I heard it, I thought it wasn't quite right, but as I have learned more about the blood issue, and the dozens of changes that have taken place, I now realize it was an outright lie, and that the Society is extremely dishonest about it's history on blood.
Your observations about wrongful disfellowshippings, then those who were disfellowshipped never being apologized to or invited back, are very powerful. To me this shows that the true nature of the Society is to be heavy-handed, legalistic, controlling, manipulative. It sets itself up to be worshipped and obeyed regardless of the outcome to innocent followers. The Watchtower attitude is completely contrary to that of Jesus Christ, who showed love, mercy, tenderness, and a caring attitued toward people.
The cover on the 5-22-94 Awake magazine that you referenced, which was comprised of photographs of young people who had died over the blood issue, amounts to the Society proudly advertising the death of it's own people, including children, over it's man made rules on blood. While blood itself becomes idolized as the symbol of life when these artificial rules are followed, as you so carefully pointed out, the thing that really becomes the object of worship, and idolized in a big way, is the Society itself. It has elevated itself to the position of a false god, and it dictates life and death in areas where no humans should ever go.
It's sad that your sister has been lost. You can be assured that the words you posted here, making complete sense and exposing the Society's contradictory thinking on this issue, will have the positive effect of saving lives in the future. People will read this post, and be educated and enlightened by it.
I offer you a heart felt 'Thank You' for what you have written, and I hope you realize that the loss of your sister, while tragic and hurtful, will have a positive outcome for others. Best wishes to you, and you have my deepest sympathies.
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Why have there been changes over the years in the teachings of Jehovahs Witnesses?
by mankkeli inthe bible shows that jehovah enables his servants to understand his purpose in a progressive manner.
(prov.
4:18; john 16:12) thus, the prophets who were divinely inspired to write portions of the bible did not understand the meaning of everything that they wrote.
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ScenicViewer
The way the 'light' of new understanding works today among JWs makes little sense, and has really become a loaded expression. The explanation of 'new light' from decades ago was more logical.
The Watchtower once explained by an illustration that it was like lighting up a building, that if there were 7 lights that it took to light a building, when the first light came on you could see so much of the bldg. When the second light came on, you could see more, and so on until all 7 lights lit the entire bldg.
The point was that 'new light' should always add to the light you had before, not abolish it. If you turned on a new light, but turned off a previous light at the same time, what have you gained? You still have the same amount of light as before, and have simply changed your beliefs.
Today we can see many beliefs that have been abandoned by the Watchtower in the name of gaining 'new light'. A good example is the ever-changing explanation of the 'generation that will not pass away.' Each new explanation effectively abolishes the previous one, rather than adding to it.
(Interesting, even the explanation of how 'new light' works has been changed. In todays Watchtower, claiming 'new light' is simply a way to avoid saying, 'We were wrong before.' It's loaded, loaded, loaded.)
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It's official, the internet IS the Watchtower's nemesis!
by cedars ini have been inspired recently by some of the comments on this forum regarding the society having reached a "tipping point".
it's been observed that, despite the overwhelming weight of evidence that the society is nothing more than a damaging cult, the number of witnesses continues to increase, albeit gradually.
the latest figures i have available are those in the 2011 yearbook, showing a global 2.5% increase between 2009 and 2010.. as we all know, the internet is steadily rising in accessibility (or "penetration") around the world, and it provides a wonderful resource for those who are curious about joining the faith, helping such ones to quickly identify precisely how warped the teachings of the watch tower society really are.
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ScenicViewer
It appears that the countries yielding the greatest growth, and who have the least internet access, are primarily poor countries. This will have a negative effect on contributions to the Society, since poor people are not able to contribute much.
Could this be one of the reasons the Society is selling the Brooklyn properties (which will add hundreds of millions of dollars to WTS bank accounts), and is pushing the credit card machines at assembly sites?
As internet access becomes cheaper and more widespread, what will be the situation in 20 years? 50 years? It seems it can only get worse for the Society.
An organization that was once so successful at controlling information is now fighting an information giant, and as the true history of the organization, the contradictions in it's beliefs, the extent of it's dishonesty, and other issues become more widely known, where will the increase come from?
I think the organization will have a rocky road ahead. Thank goodness for the internet!
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what do jws have to say when getting baptised ? do they dedicate to god and jesus or the watchtower ?
by looloo in -
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ScenicViewer
Why aren't they baptising in the 'name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit'?
The Holy Spirit is reduced to nothing more than an adjective describing the organization (God's spirit-directed organization), according to Cedars post from Organized to do Jehovah's Will, but are 'the name of Jehovah' and the 'name of Jesus Christ' not even mentioned in the formal baptism wording?
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The Walrus Was Paul
by MoneurMallard inmany new testament biblical students today of both messianic jewish and christian backgrounds, are finding out that paul of tarsus simply doesn't fit with the remainder of new testament theology.
there is an article i've recently read, from the judaism vs. christianity dot com website that deals explicitly with this topic.... well, now i cannot seem to access it, but here is the link:.
http://www.judaismvschristianity.com/paulthe.htm.
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ScenicViewer
Paul was the walrus? John was the walrus? And Tarsus....weren't they from Liverpool?
Now I don't know what to believe!
Sigh. Religion is hard.
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Some JWs are exhibiting signs of violence because of WT hate speech. Read the threat to me and others posted at Topix yesterday
by AndersonsInfo inyesterday, i opened a topix account so i could post the information about watch tower representatives attending the political ocse meeting in poland for two weeks and the proof that they are an ngo.
one of the posters responded with these words: .
"barbs-info," eh?
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ScenicViewer
That remark, "the messenger deserves to be shot" brings to mind the 'hate' remarks the Society has used in the past, without hesitation. For example,
"...in order to hate what is bad a Christian must hate the person with whom the badness is inseparably linked." (W 7-15-61- p420)
-- And --
"...a Christian must hate (in the Biblical sense of the word) those who have inseparably attached themselves to the badness." (W 10-1-93 p19)
The real problem with these remarks is that the WTS considers anyone who has left the organization, even for good reasons, or who disagrees with any Watchtower teaching, to be "inseparably linked to badness", and must therefore be "hated".
Even though such strong language isn't always used, the seitiment of 'hating the person' is clearly there, as recent 'mentally diseased' articles show.
Sadly, this rubs off on Jehovah's Witnesses who are constantly subjected to this kind of rhetoric. The result is that otherwise good people end up making viscous, hateful, remarks like those Barbara received.
Being away from the Watchtower is sooo refreshing!
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Post your 'favorite' WTBTS illustrations/photos from any of their literature here! Please!
by Chemical Emotions inscary ones, stupid ones, funny ones, even good ones, anything.. .
if anyone can find a lot of the scary ones, that would be great, but that's just for me.
i want to show them to someone.. .
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ScenicViewer
This cover photo, showing the 'generation that will notd pass away' is good. This one is complete with names and date of death of each.
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I wish...
by C.O.B.E.Beef in...i wish this was a religion.. i like the possibility of a paradise earth.. i dont believe in hellfire.. i like reading about jesus and trying to imitate him.. i think love of neighbor is important.. i like the concept of being identified by love.. i enjoy daily bible reading.. i pray to jehovah through jesus name.. i feel comfortable teaching my children these things.
i hope they listen but learn to make decisions for themselves and live a good honest , happy life.. but someone wont allow that, and that is the bride of christ.. this bridezilla has made it clear who wears the pants and has rendered her fiance a lame duck.
it seems like she would want to help me teach my kids to be christ-like.
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ScenicViewer
'Christian' is a legal term used to dress up her maiden name....that's great.
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Has Gambling Become A Conscience Issue Among JWs?
by FreeAtLast1914 inthe reason i ask is that i have a coupe of cousins who are still jws who have gone gambling in casinos with us.
i have a brother-in-law who openly brags about his "perfect" blackjack strategy he employs in vegas when he's in town.. i know that growing up as a jw, gambling of any kind was a dfing offense.. is my jw family simply more liberal than most, or has there been a subtle shift in this area since i've been out?.
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ScenicViewer
Here is another, more lenient point of view, from.... the 2010 Elder's manual!
(Shepherd the Flock of God, p70) (Note, that's page 70 of the book, not of the PDF download, which includes the cover and more as pages.)
“The elders do well not to involve themselves in what individuals do with regard to petty gambling solely for entertainment. They may need to give counsel if this becomes a cause of stumbling for others or affects the spirituality of the individual or the congregation.”
So, isn't the acceptance of "petty gambling solely for entertainment" a new point of view? I remember when penny ante games were taboo.
Then comes the problem of drawing a line between what is petty gambling and what isn't.
