Posts by aristeas

72

The Ancient Jewish CROSS and the ancient Hebrew letter Taw

by brit-93108 in

the ancient jewish cross by al garza phd is a groundbreaking book just published by createspace (isbn-13: 978-1461133896; april 27, 2011).. i'm about to order this book because it means a lot to me personally.

i was completely unaware of the history or meaning of ancient hebrew letter taw.

shaped like a cross and avoided by various jewish rabbi today due to its ties to jesus christ's death since his execution, taw is a pictorgraph used prior to babylonian captivity meaning "mark," "sign," "covenant," "seal," or more specifically, "sign, covenant, and seal of yhwh god" -- and fulfilled when jesus the messiah finalized the covenant on it through his blood so that we could have eternal life.. is the cross jewish or pagan?

aristeas

THX, LEOLAIA FOR THAT '58 WT QUOTATION

PRECIOUS!

61

What made you leave "The Truth"?

by Chemical Emotions in

for me it was many things.

most concerned certain teachings that invloved genders, children, sex, sexuality and sexual orientations, disfellowshipping, apostates, blood, rape, and few other things, as well as the jw's unloving attitude toward so many people..

aristeas

CE:

I couldn't agree more with willyloman's observation — how right on he is — this is INDEED an excellent thread!

cantleave, designs, Franklin Massey, stuckinamovement, MrDarkKnight, and others who made similar comments:

To be sure the higher up one goes, the more hypocrisy one sees. For me it was not just seeing how unspiritual many leading bros. were or how they they lied and expected others to do so too, but I could not go on teaching the doctrines that I knew other responsible brothers knew were not truthful. I have never come to terms with that.
What does "love rejoices with the truth" mean if the concept of truth becomes so plastic or elastic that it can be bent in any direction to suit the current practical needs? How can the churches be wrong b/c of their hypocrisy and that within the organization be OK to Jehovah? It was Pilate who took a skeptical view of truth, while Jesus seemed to have the opposite view, taking it seriously.

maksym: where did you go?

Quendi: you have a PM.

In general this has been a highly revealing thread for a relative newbie like me, very, VERY insightful.

Thanks so much...

21

I have question about the new light on the statues toes

by Igot2bme in

my son went to the dc this past weekend and we visited on the phone for a bit about what he picked up there.

he of course was sad and worried for us because we no longer have anything to do with the org.

we covered alot of issues that had to do with why i felt that the org did not have gods holy spirit.

aristeas

THANK YOU, ThomasCovenant! That was valuable.

4

Julia Sweeney

by dogisgod in

jw
friends

i just watched julia sweeney on her "god" info.

brilliant and funny.

gotta see her in person.

aristeas

How disappointing... I was hoping that you had news that she had started a bible study has now converted!

7

Biblical expertise of the GB and WT writing committees?

by IsaacJ22 in

i was just wondering if i'm correct about something; namely, that the society's leaders don't appear to know much about the bible from a secular, scholarly, or historical perspective.. i've seen quotes posted here where they claim you don't need to be an expert to interpret the bible's true meaning.

that's not exactly encouraging.

but does anyone know much about their real world, practical knowledge of the bible from a non-religious perspective?.

aristeas

They probably feel that they are like the fishermen of Galilee, uneducated and all that (John's gospel, Acts—sorry don't have chapter and verse handy) but nonetheless chosen by God. After all, it WAS the Jewish intelligentsia of the first century who opposed Jesus and the earliest Christians. The former WERE the biblical scholars of the day. It seems the stress the GB and writing department members put on things is moral more than mental, whereas the (often) secular scholarly element who controls biblical scholarship today emphasizes critical thinking, a long-term academic education, and so on. Unless they're Evangelicals or of similar stripe (and these don't number many in real scholarship), they don't really care much for the Bible's morality.

My two cents for what they're worth...

20

Whatever happened to Narkissos?

by tenyearsafter in

i just happened upon one of his posts, and i realized i hadn't seen him post in over a year.

i really enjoyed his insightful comments and scholarly knowledge.

he and leolaia could always contribute to those difficult biblical questions that really required a knowledge of the languages and history of biblical times.

aristeas

I joined after he left but his old posts have been very enlightening. Let me too join in the others' wish to send him a hearty thank you, JWF, if you still email him!

28

European Court to favor the WT and condemns the French goverment

by Nick! in

jw
friends

this news was announced today on the journal "le monde": http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2011/06/30/temoins-de-jehovah-la-cour-europeenne-des-droits-de-l-homme-condamne-la-france_1543102_3224.html#xtor=rss-3208.

unfortunately, the european court of human rights has just condemned the french government against jehovahs witnesses.

if you recall, the french state was claiming 23 million euro (abt 33 million us dollars) taxes on contributions received by the french watchtower during the years 1993-96, which, by now, had climbed to about 58 million euro (abt 83 million us dollars) counting interests and charges.. it is not easy to size the wt.

aristeas

Thx for the English translation.

33

How many times was Christ begotten?

by GOrwell in

in light of all the recent trinity threads, how many times do you think christ was begotten?.

aristeas

GO,

Are you hinting at the doctrine of being born of the spirit?

140

The effect we are having on the Watchtower is HUGE

by jwfacts in

i was inspired by a recent thread i know i aint gunna crumble the wt, but a girl can dream to look at the effect we as individuals are having on the watchtower society.. 3dogs1husband quoted a story to show that even helping only one person is worth it.. it is encouraging to note that the one person you may have helped has lead to millions being helped, due to the power of compounding growth.. compounding growth is well illustrated by the rice on a chessboard problem.

if you start with 1 grain of rice on square one, and double it to 2 on the second, 4 on the third, 8 on the fourth, by the last (64th) square there would be 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of rice.. likewise, if you help one person out of the grip of the watchtower this year, then next year you help one more and they help one, in a few years that is going to have a formidable result on the number of jehovahs witnesses.

look at the following statistics.

aristeas

MdSw,

Thanks very much for the post. I always had problems wih the 'old understanding' b/c the sheep were just as surprised that they had done good to Christ's brothers as the goats were, and that didn't fit the 'old understanding' at all. But, of course, I could never speak out about this, and on a multitude of other things either. Well, at least they admitted that they were wrong — albeit in a subdued way. Do you think they'll follow suit in other areas? They ARE v-e-r-y s-l-o-w to change though, even with mountains of evidence staring them in the face! Some day they will have to jettison that absurd 607 thing.

So are some the paragraphs of the WT study article really so small now? That must have happened after I left too. Much of it really is written on a simple level (the into. paragraphs). I wonder if the translators like it more that way now...

How does one get this CD-ROM?

NO BITES in the 120 year (Genesis generation) thing from anyone?

Thx again, MS.

140

The effect we are having on the Watchtower is HUGE

by jwfacts in

i was inspired by a recent thread i know i aint gunna crumble the wt, but a girl can dream to look at the effect we as individuals are having on the watchtower society.. 3dogs1husband quoted a story to show that even helping only one person is worth it.. it is encouraging to note that the one person you may have helped has lead to millions being helped, due to the power of compounding growth.. compounding growth is well illustrated by the rice on a chessboard problem.

if you start with 1 grain of rice on square one, and double it to 2 on the second, 4 on the third, 8 on the fourth, by the last (64th) square there would be 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of rice.. likewise, if you help one person out of the grip of the watchtower this year, then next year you help one more and they help one, in a few years that is going to have a formidable result on the number of jehovahs witnesses.

look at the following statistics.

aristeas

jwfacts,

WOW, what a great post! You are really onto something. All their entrenching re: the net — well, it doesn't seem to be working.

sir82,

PLEASE give me the ref. to the change in the sheep and goats of Mt. 25. I've been out a long time and was unaware of this. I think that's a rather biggie.

'What's the point of collecting all this detail if they don't pore over graphs like the one above?'

From what I remember, sir82, they DO pore over graphs just like this one. Their main belief is that Jehovah's blessing on their work comes via growth. They are probably REAL concerned over this, but won't show that to the publishers.

Old Goat,

your input is appreciated!

MS,

'They will create a "new" meeting earlier in the week so that no JW has to go more than 3 days without indoctrination reinforcement anymore. '

FUNNNNYYYY b/c it's so true!

Also has anyone heard anything definite re: using the 120 years from Gen. (Noah/flood) to put off Armg. till 2034? I saw this recently in ano. post here. It sounds plausible that they might do something like that...

The number of replies here just confirm WHAT A GREAT POST THIS ONE IS!!!