Despite predictions by calamity-howling religious leaders, pseudoscientists, and any other prognosticators, earth will be in existence for a long time...when will this occur?
Thats the line that cracked me up
Me too ROFL
Bella15
JoinedPosts by Bella15
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Watchtower Dec 2011 Makes fun of fools who think the end is 2012. Ironic??
by Witness 007 inwachtower dec 1 2011 p.10 "french village faces influx of apocalypse believers...they believe the world will end 21 december 2012 when the end of....ancient maya calander...despite predictions by calamity-howling religious leaders, pseudoscientists, and any other prognosticators, earth will be in existence for a long time...when will this occur?
no human knows.
jehovah's witnesses do not try to predict when god will destroy the wicked...{really?
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Movies that resonate with you as an ex-JW or awake JW
by RayPublisher inthe matrix - "do you want the blue pill or the red pill?
", "all i offer you is the truth", "ignorance is bliss", "the matrix is all around us".
shutter island - creepy, is it real or isn't it, it turns out the whole thing is a dream.
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Bella15
NOthing to do with it but for me Night at the Roxbury does it ... people have dreams, as silly as they may be or sound, people has dreams :(
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My son was murdered today
by truman ini have been on this site daily, almost from its beginning, since i left the jws in 2001, but i have been more of a reader than a poster, as you can see from my post count.
i know few here know me, although i know many of you through reading your posts.
maybe it is not right to ask for support, when i generally stay quietly in the background of this forum, but i want only to speak a human misery of the deepest kind.
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Bella15
So sorry about your loss.
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How do you study the Bible? (for those that do)
by Silent_Scream inwhat have you found is a productive way for you to study the bible?
do you have a group?
or a solitary preference?.
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Bella15
I think that the phrase "study the bible" is a trademark of the Watchtower CORPORATION ... they have trademarked this BIG phrase to make people believe they are into something SO BIG AND SPECIAL when in fact they are not (we were not) ... now that I am a Christian I know that if you want to "study the bible", you either do it on your own as LouBelle said before and if you really really want to study the bible you go to a college where you can get even doctorates on bible studies and let me tell you this people know everything about it ... culture, languages (hebrew, greek, aramaic), peoples, geography, archeology, early christians by name, genealogy, awesome knowlege of the bible BUT even they have to personally "READ the bible" Medidate on in apart from their "study" of the bible ... I hope I am making sense ... (I am embarred now to think that I used to say that I was "studying the bible" what a joke !!!)
I am not into "studying" the bible, I read it and I do research subjects of interest. During my personal reading of the bible, I keep a notebook next to me where I write my thoughts about it, how can I apply it on my own life, sometimes I write prayers based on what I am reading, I make notes of God's qualities, thoughts, commands, likes, dislikes, I note how my feelings are same as God's. I also make notes of words that I want to research, towns, people, stories, for example right now I am going to research Job 14:14, I heard that in Hebrew Job question is: If a man dies will he live? Not will he live AGAIN? and how this question posed by Job through the ages is answered by Jesus ... do I think I have to make a big effort to do this research, NO, I wait for God to lead me to the right sources and then the answer will be in my heart, in my Spirit.
I don't know if you consider yourself someone that has a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father through Jesus, because if you believe then you will know that we have a helper that helps us to understand the living message of the bible when we read it.
You can read the bible along with a group or a partner, but everybody is different, your life (heart mind soul) has been shaped by what you have personally experienced, seen, read, heard, studied, been told by parents, friends, siblings, environment, geography, race, color, hundreds of factors, for the message of the bible to be a double sword: (Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.) you have to personally read it and medidate on it and BELIEVE, trust what your spirit is telling you, that still small voice that yet JOLTS inside you. Believe in personal revelation because that's one of the things the HOly Spirit through the bible does for you. It is a double sword. JWs believe that the bible the book itself is the "double sword" and will quote anything from it to make you comform BUT as a Christian I now know that it is the Holy Spirit that will make that message of the bible match (so to say) your own Spirit (so billions of people will be affected different by that message - this has nothing to do with doctrines but renewal of the heart and mind).
I enjoy reading the bible now, with prayers it is the first place I go when I have problems and there is always an answer or promise ... I love to go through my notes and prayers ... I cry reading my own notes, everything in them have come to pass ... God has been so faithful... I didn't know what it was before but now I know that the bible has a living message for each of us individually, with the right heart and attitude, humility, repentance and total surrender to Almighty God through Jesus as Lord and Saviour, the Holy Spirit makes it comes alive for each one of us that seeks ...I know some peole don't believe but I believe and have faith.
Gosh, this became a long note, so going back to your question ... LOL!!!... the most productive way for me is: solitary (I like to go straight to the Holy of Holies)
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End of the Preaching Work?
by Slidin Fast inthere is a rumour (from someone who should know better) that members of the gb are going round saying that the preaching work is accomplished.
this comes from a seniour elder and i therefore take it a bit more seriously than some sources.. if this is true then it kinda links in with the reduction of the half awake and the watch slightly-higher-mound-look-out magazines.. has any one else heard anything?.
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Bella15
You know, I am a Christian now, and part of my new beliefs is that I have a personal relationship with God, I believe in personal revelation and everything that God impressed in my heart it is happening ... Watchtower Corp is coming down, down, down, down ... The Watchtower CORPORATION will try to continue making money (although they already have more than enough) and will start steering the group towards more accepted Christian beliefs, they will start blending in ... all things are in motion now, not just for that CORPORATION the whole world is entering into a different era thanks to the Internet, knowledge is everything and amazes me how rural communities all over the world are getting connected - they didn't have to go like many of us upgrading from b/w TV, to color, to HD, cable, satelite ... they get Satelite/HD/3-D technology, they get state of the art cell phones, iphones, they don't have to use huge computers as the ones I used back in school or desktops, they getting laptops, tablets, ipads, my family who live among mountains in Honduras have better technology that me and I live in the USA ... no kidding. People in India, Africa have satelite tv on their huts, etc etc. The world is CONNECTED ...and yes, this will allow for the universal preaching of the Gospel too, but NOT the Watchtower gospel.
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The Watchtower is trying bring back Ancient Israel
by sabastious inthink about the conventions of old.
they were long, brutal and completely dominated by men who considered themselves good speakers.
why did they feel they had a right to command everyone to gather to these conventions?
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Bella15
Exactly ... they played music, they danced, they eat, they rejoiced as part of the worship ... being happy and loud was worship ...
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A Prayer
by Greybeard indear heavenly father above heaven and earth it is through your son christ jesus/yeshua we pray.
thank you for the hope you have given us through the life of your son.
please strengthen us and help us to do your will.
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Bella15
Amen
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The Family of Jesus .. an interesting reading ...
by Bella15 inthe family of jesus.
in first century jerusalem, jesus of nazareth was crucified as a heretic.. .
he had no wife and no children, but he did leave behind a family one that can be traced for more than a century after his death.. .
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Bella15
The Family of Jesus
In first century Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified as a heretic.
He had no wife and no children, but he did leave behind a family – one that can be traced for more than a century after his death.
“It's possible to actually do something of a primitive family tree of Jesus,” says Dr. Paul Maier, the author of The Constantine Codex. “[Many of his family members] became known as leaders of the church, no question about that.”
During Jesus' ministry in Galilee, both Jews and Gentiles accepted him as the Jewish Messiah, but some of the hardest people to convince were his own brothers.
“Now imagine one day, your older brother comes home and says, ‘Family, I've got some wonderful news,’” says Maier. “’I'm the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ What would you do? Reach for the phone book under ‘P’ for psychiatrist, right? He's deluded, unless he dies and then he comes back to life as he said he would three days later. Then you put the phone directory away and you believe, and this is exactly what happened to the brothers.”
Maier believes that one of the greatest proofs of the resurrection of Jesus is the conversion of his brother James.
“James, of course, did not believe his sibling during his lifetime, but hold it -- after the resurrection, Jesus appears to him, that’s the end of any doubts, he becomes a leader in the church, and writes one of the books in the New Testament.”
James was a devout man who was well known in the Jewish temple.
“As a matter of fact, he was called James the Just,” says Maier. “He was a beautiful bridge between Judaism and Christianity, and he was known as ‘old camel knees,’ because he knelt so much that his knees became gnarled like those of a camel.”
After Jesus' death, the disciples appointed James the first bishop of Jerusalem. He led the first church council in history, where he made the historic decision that gentile Christians should not be forced to convert to Judaism.
“If that council had not made the decision that it did, says Maier, “I'm not sure the Christian church would have survived.”
The church in Jerusalem survived, but James, like his brother before him, died a violent death.
“Because James had entre with the priests as well as the Christians, they thought they could use him to discredit Christianity,” says Maier. “And so they brought him to the temple, and they asked him to denounce Jesus. Instead, he defended Jesus and looked forward to his coming spiritual rule. So they threw him down off the temple mount, but he was still alive, and it was a laundryman came along, and he had a club they used for beating laundry, and he clubbed [James] over the head, and that's what finally killed him.”
When James fell to his death, he left the church in Jerusalem without a leader. The local believers got together to elect a new bishop and once again, they decided to keep it in the family.
“The second bishop of the church was Simeon, who was Jesus' first cousin,” says Maier. “Let me explain that. Joseph (Jesus’ earthly father) had a brother named Clopas. Clopas had a son named Simeon, and so this was Jesus’ first cousin and the second bishop of the church.”
In Luke's gospel, Clopas is named as one of the disciples who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection. Early church writers say this man was the brother of Joseph the carpenter, which means that he was also Jesus’ uncle.
Clopas’ son Simeon became the bishop of Jerusalem at a dangerous time. In A.D. 66, the Jewish War with Rome had just begun, and the city was under siege, just as Jesus had prophesied three decades earlier:
"When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that the time of its destruction has arrived.
Then those in Judea must flee to the hills.
Let those in Jerusalem escape." (Luke 21:20-21)Simeon remembered the words of his cousin and waited for the right moment to leave the city.
In November, the Roman army inexplicably retreated from Jerusalem for a few weeks, a military blunder historians would later call “disastrous.” But to Simeon, this so-called “blunder” was a miracle. He persuaded his congregation to flee Jerusalem, and they escaped with just the clothes on their backs. Simeon led them to safety in a gentile city called Pella in the hills of modern-day Jordan.
“We don't know why Pella specifically was chosen, except for the fact that it's across the Jordan River,” says Maier. “It was primarily peopled by gentiles in the area, and therefore it was quite a logical place of refuge if you want to get away from anything controlled by Jerusalem.”
Simeon and his congregation spent the next four years safely in Pella, while back in Jerusalem, the Romans murdered more than a million Jews and took another 97 thousand as slaves.
When the war was over, many of the believers returned to Jerusalem and settled on Mount Zion, near the upper room where they had first received the Holy Spirit and where Jesus had celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples. They built a new Judeo-Christian synagogue on the site where the upper room had once stood.
Simeon served as the bishop of Jerusalem until A.D. 106, when he was arrested and tortured by the Romans. Then, like his cousin, Simeon was crucified. He was 120 years old.
A few decades earlier, two more of Jesus’ relatives had caught the attention of the Roman emperor Domitian, who carried out one of the greatest Christian persecutions in history.
“The last record we have of any of Jesus' family would, I think, be the grandsons of Jude,” says Maier. “Now Jude had a son, and we don't know his name, and he had sons-- Jesus' grand nephews. The grandsons of Jude were arrested and brought before the emperor Domitian in Rome because they were of the house of David, therefore the royal dynasty, therefore they might be pretenders to the Jewish throne.”
Decades earlier, Jesus had predicted the persecution of his followers.
"You will be accused before governors and kings.
This will be your opportunity to tell them about me." (Luke 21:12-13 NLT)With this prophecy in mind, the grand nephews of Jesus went boldly to Rome.
They were taken to the palace of Domitian, where the emperor asked them a series of questions. First, he asked them about the kingdom of Jesus and when it would be established. They replied that it was a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly one.
“When the brothers appeared before Domitian, he asked them about their background,” says Maier. “They were rustic sorts who were used to agricultural toil, and they had only about 80 acres between them, and they showed him their hands, which were gnarled from farm labor. Domitian decided these don't look like royal types to me, and so at that point, he let them go, and he stopped the persecution of the church. They returned then to the Holy Land, and they were tremendously appreciated for the public testimony they had made before the emperor of Rome. The family of Jesus became known as the desposyni, which means “Belonging to the Lord” in Greek. These people were very big in the church after that.”
Several years later, the two brothers were martyred under a different Roman emperor, Trajan.
For the next few decades, members of Jesus' family continued to lead the church in Jerusalem. Nothing is known of them, except their names, which were preserved in early church records.
The last known relative of Jesus was Judah Kyriakos, a Greek name that means "Judah of the Christ."
He was the great grandson of Jesus' brother Jude, and the last Jewish bishop of Jerusalem.
In A.D. 130, the Roman emperor Hadrian leveled the city of Jerusalem. On its ruins, he built a new city dedicated to the Roman god Jupiter. The records of Jesus' family disappeared, along with the old city of Jerusalem.
“After that, we lose track,” says Maier. “Not that there might not have been generations that were related to Jesus, more of the desposyni, the famous family members of Jesus. We have no more record of them.”
The legacy of Jesus' family lives on today.
Two of his brothers wrote books of the Bible, and at least five of his relatives were martyred. They served as the first Christian bishops in history and kept the early church alive in Jerusalem. From there, the message of Jesus- their brother, cousin, and uncle- spread to the ends of the earth.
“We have 2,250,000,000 Christians in the world today,” says Maier. “It’s the largest and most successful single phenomenon that has ever hit this planet.” -
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To all christians...
by wolfman85 in...should we celebrate the memorial in our homes?
will you do it?
any ideas.
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Bella15
Actually, what a beautiful occasion that is for us Believers... remembering Jesus that way at your own homes ... I do it alone, with my children at home or at Church ... many times a year ...
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Animal sin?
by jambon1 inthe doctrine of sin = death.. .
if it is the case that the reason people die is due to the original sin of the man adam (romans 5:12) then why do animals also get sick and die of the same illnesses as humans?
did an animal transgress in a similar manner?.
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Bella15
Here's a link to an article I read the other day ...
www.ankerberg.com/Articles/science/SC0707W2B.htm
It is a good subject to keep researching ...