Sulla

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Posts by Sulla

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  32

  The bible Cannon great article I found

  by nugget in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  http://www.thebroadroad.com/m/articles/view/bible-canon-and-the-new-world-translation.

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  not sure how to make this clickable but it is well worth a read and is nice and short..

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  Sulla

  The rationale, such as it is, is similar to that offered my other fundamentalist Protestant groups. To over-simplify: The councils that established the works of the NT did not actually DO anything at all. They merely accepted what the church (defined as the loose group of people calling themselves Christians) always understood to be the inspired word of God. Basically, everybody already knew the four gospels were inspired and the Cathoics simply accepted what everybody already knew about which works were inspired or not.

  Of course, this is simply wrong. There almost certainly was a core set of writings that most churches read as part of the liturgy. However, there was some regional variation: lots of places read from the Shepard of Hermas on a regular basis, for example. There were considerable disagreements about the book of Revelation that have not been completely satisfied even today. In some places, gnostic or otherwise exotic texts were used: Protoevangelium of James or Acts of Peter or various gnostic works.
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  41

  Latest Study Article: Was Jephthah surprised at his daughter coming out?

  by garbonzo in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  paragraph 15: "he vowed that if god gave ammon into jephthah's hand, the first one to come out of the door when he returned home would be jehovah's.

  as jephthah returned home from subduing ammon, his daughter came running to meet him.

  (judg.

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  Sulla

  It is clasic JW reasoning. It is important to them that this story NOT be about human sacrifice, even though this story is about human sacrifice.

  So, the typical reading is that Jeptha made the vow, thinking that, in a household as large as his, the probability that he would have to pay up with one of his own was pretty small. Bad luck ensues, thus the, "Oh shit!"

  The JW thinking is that everybody knows that he would have expected -- or held out the strong possibility -- that it would not be a servant who came out first. Therefore, he wouldn't have made a vow so dangerous to his personal family.
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  32

  The bible Cannon great article I found

  by nugget in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  http://www.thebroadroad.com/m/articles/view/bible-canon-and-the-new-world-translation.

  .

  not sure how to make this clickable but it is well worth a read and is nice and short..

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  Sulla

  I don't know your opinion, can'tleave. Why do you say so?
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  27

  What makes JW's think all is "Truth" now ?

  by Phizzy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  c.t russell was, they admit 90% wrong.. ditto for rutherford.. ditto for a lot in the intervening years, wrong and wrong again, so the need for "new light".. what makes them think that the 2012 version is any more right than the previous tripe ?.

  how can they know it won't all be dross tomorrow ?.

  "good morning i have come to bring you the truth from god's word that may not be the truth at all when the next wt comes out" would be a more honest presentation..

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  Sulla

  ^ Perfect example of perfect JW circular thinking.
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  32

  The bible Cannon great article I found

  by nugget in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  http://www.thebroadroad.com/m/articles/view/bible-canon-and-the-new-world-translation.

  .

  not sure how to make this clickable but it is well worth a read and is nice and short..

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  Sulla

  The gnostic gospels were suppressed well before Constantine, mostly by fellows like Irenaeus of Lyon who understood that those works were spitting on the victims of the fierce persecutions of Christians by Rome. The JWs, of course, already are dismissed by the larger Christian community; had they been thinking, they would have considered adopting the gnostic gospels, in general, since those works are far more consistent with the JW approach.
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  27

  What makes JW's think all is "Truth" now ?

  by Phizzy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  c.t russell was, they admit 90% wrong.. ditto for rutherford.. ditto for a lot in the intervening years, wrong and wrong again, so the need for "new light".. what makes them think that the 2012 version is any more right than the previous tripe ?.

  how can they know it won't all be dross tomorrow ?.

  "good morning i have come to bring you the truth from god's word that may not be the truth at all when the next wt comes out" would be a more honest presentation..

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  Sulla

  I would suggest it works something like this: It feels true. It feels true the way all conspiracy theories feel true; if you've ever bought in to one, you know what I mean. In very general terms, it fits and expands on some attitudes or suspicions you already have and it connects several strands of this thought together in one, sorta coherent, whole. It's lunacy: everything proves everything else. But that's the mechanism.
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  20

  God –v– religionists –v– atheists/agnostics –v– believers

  by Fernando in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  an effort at a summary... still learning about atheists/agnostics and what they believe at this point on the journey.... .

  religionistsatheists/agnosticsbelieversthe "god of religion"embracerejectrejectsupremacist, sectarianembracerejectrejectself-righteousness via:.

  embracerejectreject- legalism (rules).

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  Sulla

  NC: I am an atheist that is way different from my brother. I might even be seen doing things that one would not expect from an atheist (attending a Unitarian Universalist Church)

  Actually, I have always assumed the UUs were a church for atheists who like church.

  By the way, the OP is pretty silly.
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  32

  Awake! April 2012 - cover

  by processor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the cover is showing a happy family on a weekend trip.

  i corrected the title according to the watchtower doctrine.. .

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  Sulla

  Also, I think they should have chosen a better tree to have branches in the foreground. Sweet Gum trees suck. Weeds, really.
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  2

  To Whom It May Concern: Avoid The Spirit Of Rehoboam

  by JWB in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  "however, he [king rehoboam] left the counsel of the older men with which they had advised him, and he began to take counsel with the young men that had grown up with him, who were the ones attending upon him.

  9 and he went on to say to them: 'what is it that you are offering in counsel that we may reply to this people who have spoken to me, saying, "make the yoke that your father put upon us lighter"?

  ' 10 in turn the young men that had grown up with him spoke to him, saying: 'this is what you should say to this people who have spoken to you, saying, "your father, for his part, made our yoke heavy, but, as for you, make it lighter upon us"; this is what you should speak to them, "my little finger itself will certainly be thicker than my father's hips.

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  Sulla

  I suspect the GB are correct on this, JWB. That is, the toughness of rules like shunning are probably more effective at retaining JWs than a softer rule. There are more people who have a weak desire to leave the JWs than there are who have a very strong desire to leave the JWs. Therefore, by cranking down on the shunning rule, you are more likely to keep those who are on the fence. Probably every one of the significant number of "faders" would leave the JWs entirely if this rule were weakened.

  A second-order positive effect is that it forces JWs who have family who have left to make a very hard choice. Either they disregard the shumming rule, or else they make a difficult sacrifice and follow the rule. If they disregard the rule, then the GB are just where they would be if they softened the rule for everybody. But if they follow the rule, they are psychologically pushed closer to the JWs.

  So, the rule is probably working the way it is supposed to work. In this, it it probably similar to the rules regarding education: the tough rules are optimal from the viewpoint of the GB and aren't likely to change.
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  27

  Failed Marriages..."Born ins"

  by xelder in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  it is impossible to unweave the complex cobweb of a failed marriage and totally understand it, let alone to generalize the occurance for many other couples.

  but, let's assume the case of a marriage of two typical jw born-ins.

  as far as jw's go, they grew up without major disfunction, still talk to their parents, etc.. in cases like this, how many of these couples are still together?

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  Sulla

  Well, there is a sense in which the focus on religious compatibility is a good idea. Especially for JWs, religious differences create significant stress in a marriage. My experience was that marriages between families with significant history in the JWs stayed together with pretty high probability. There are lots of reasons why these sorts of marriages are more durable than average, even measured against other JW marriages.