a little backstory.
please comment, is the just childish imagination or something unexplainable.. when i was nine we lived in modbury, it’s a small town, in devon the southwest of britain.
we lived in a very hold house, several hundred years old and down the way was 2 battle sites of the english civil war (one a minor battle won by the royalist and a larger battle won by the parliamentarians which ultimately lifted the siege of plymouth).
Not really, that Wiki states that the ORIGINS, not the act of saluting, is the raising of the visor, which is exactly what i mentioned, but it does not state that any soldiers in the English civil war used the salute.
In fact ALL the examples given in the Wiki of history of soldiers using it, are of a much later time. The earliest example used is 1745, much later than the English Civil war.
a little backstory.
please comment, is the just childish imagination or something unexplainable.. when i was nine we lived in modbury, it’s a small town, in devon the southwest of britain.
we lived in a very hold house, several hundred years old and down the way was 2 battle sites of the english civil war (one a minor battle won by the royalist and a larger battle won by the parliamentarians which ultimately lifted the siege of plymouth).
I hate to put a "hole" in your story, my friend Moley, but i must indeed question the validity of your "vision".
Now, i believe you believe you saw this soldier, and it was and still is vivid in your MIND. With that being said, i can PROVE that it was NOT a ghost of a soldier in the English civil war.
One simple statement that you mentioned, disproves the validity of the person being a true ghost of an English soldier in your whole story. You see, saluting was NOT a practice of soldiers during the English Civil war. That practice did not start until the colonial era of wartime. It was adopted by that era of soldiers, especially during the American revolution, to mimic the old knights who would have to "raise" their visor on their metal helmets, in order to look into each others eyes.
This action of putting the hand to the forehead and saluting was adopted in the 1700s, as a throw back to chivalry on the battle field, and was purely symbolic as no colonial soldiers wore knights helmets.
During the English civil war, the action of saluting, as you say the "ghost" you saw did right before he "disappeared", was not, or ever done, by any soldier involved on both sides of the English civil war.
We must only conclude that this was a ghost of a colonial soldier, pretending to be a soldier of the English civil war, OR a figment of your 9 year old imagination. Or perhaps this ghost had quite a sense of humor, and we are all the butt of his joke. . . .
And to that, i must salute him . . . .
recent archeological discoveries have found that the ancient israelites were not exactly monotheistic to yahweh, apparently the israelites also worshiped a god which was seen as yahweh's wife asherah.
small carved sculptures have been found in places of worship and homesteads to support these findings.asherah's connection to yahweh, according to francesca stavrakopoulou, is spelled out in the bible and an 8th-century b.c.
inscription on pottery found in the sinai desert at a site called kuntillet ajrud.
See, it all makes sense now. Good ole Jah had a wife too. No wonder he needed to rest on that seventh day, Asherah had him doing chores NON STOP for 6 days straight.
"Build me a bigger universe, this one isnt big enough". "We need more light in here Jehovah, MAKE ME A BIGGER SUN". "Baals wife has her own serving Seraph nanny to take care of the Cherubs, why cant i have that"!!!
Poor guy just wanted to chill, and have a few beers on the seventh day. No wonder he was pissed off all the time, causing great floods, and making Fathers almost sacrifice their sons. He had a nagging wife at home!!!!
You dont make a bunch of humans sacrifice thousands of heads of sheep and cattle, cause you are living a nice chill bachelor life. Nope, he was fighting with the old lady Asherah that day.
It ALL makes sense now.
a thought occurred to me about the perpetuation of jw abusive culture.. (i do not mean sexual abuse - i am referring to emotional, or behavioural abuses).
most jws are raised in the oppressive and abusive culture of jw life.
they have been raised with low self esteem.
Very true. You almost get the impression too that some of the "hard ass" Elders almost want to instill their will upon the teenagers.
In other words, they feel like they had to follow all the strict rules and regulations growing, and so must everybody else.
Hence, their abnormal fascination with sexual details during JCs, and their heavy handed punishments.
They dont realize that its more of the same abuse, and they are just pushing the youth out the front door, never to return. No wonder they are failing.
so this morning i'm walking to my office and there's the jws on their carts outside as usual.
and old sister, a brother in his 20s and an elder i instantly recognized from my jw days.
one of my best friends of about 20 years.. i genuinely just wanted to say hi as i havent seen him in 3 years.
Its the same no matter where, or when. I have experienced the same exact "one liners" that they ALWAYS throw out to ya.
"You know its the truth". "Come back to Jehovah". "We miss you, blah blah blah blah"
There is NO true substance, or empathy, or heartfelt compassion, from them. Its just robotic, canned, pre rehearsed nonsense.
P.E. YOU showed a REAL expression of friendship. YOU reached out, both literally with your hand, and kindly with your heart. YOU were the better person, but its not even about being "better", its about being HUMAN, and loving.
They always throw "words and expressions" around, like "natural affection", and "brotherly love", and "true Christian brotherhood", and "love among themselves".
Meanwhile, we know, it really is all BULLS$%T. Its just nonsense, Cult, "buzz words", that makes them think they have the "truth". Its shamefull really, and if they truly did express and feel, and have LOVE, they would have HUGGED you, and embraced you, and looked in your eyes and said, "I MISS YOU", "HOW ARE YOU".
THATS love, and thats what YOU tried to show him. Your sentence of "whos being Christlike here", was brilliant, and TRUE, and i hope it sticks in his head for as long as it can.
does anyone else remember a brochure/ magazine from the early 80s with stories of demon possessed individuals and spiritism ?
i dont think i saw it around very long.
it had a story about some lady having her head snapped around by a demon.
I remember hearing about a "demonic episode" when i was a kid, from an old family JW friend. She said that her and her sister came home to their apartment one night from being out, and all the furniture in their home was turned upside down.
She said it was the couch, the TV, the table and chairs, the end tables, coffee table, and other odds and ends. Coincidentally, no very heavy, or semi permanent items were turned upside down. Like the refrigerator, the stove, etc.
My fairly astute Mother at the time, who coincidentally is NO longer really a practicing JW, said to the friend, "how do you know it was demons that did that to the furniture, and not some pranking teenagers or something"?
To which her friend angrily replied, " IT WAS DEMONS, I HEARD WEIRD SOUNDS COMING FROM THE LIGHT BULBS TOO". As if THAT somehow makes it have to be demons.
Its weird how the naive JW mind is so simple sometimes. Its first "go to thought" is demons, or Satan, when most of the time, there usually is a logical explanation. Unfortunately, JW "theology" is not based in logic, its based in NONSENSE.
good evening all, this is my first time posting.. been reading and following for two years.
my story will come soon.... but i want to say to all, thanks for all the meaningful, intellectual, honest, and insightful words!!
it’s been an interesting 48 years of service to an organization!
Its better late than never, my friend. I was a "born in", as my parents came in the "truth" 2 years before i was born. Did the too young 13 yr old baptism thing, but by 16 years old was out, and back n forth, till my very early 20s when i was lastly DFd.
That was over 20 years ago, and i have never looked back. I only learned TTATT about 10 years ago, so for the first 10 to 15 years, i was always racked with guilt, and inner turmoil, but i never went back, as i always felt "something was wrong" with the BORG.
Now i KNOW my instincts from my youth were correct, and i am glad i did not waste many more years in the BORG, that i could have.
I have been out of the BORG for 25 years, but truly free from it, the last 10 years, since i learned TTATT.
in the genocidal instructions supposedly given by god we find this interesting command: “now kill all the boys.
and kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.” (numbers 31:17, 18).
in the midst of killing and plundering, how were the israelites to determine whether each girl “has slept with a man” or not?.
While all of these "Divine" commandments are truly disgusting, and appalling in nature, the answer to the OPs question is simple.
The younger woman of that day, and in that part of the world, were known to be virgins by 2 simple "facts". One, they wore special robes/clothing that once they began menstruation, tradition compelled them to wear. This denoted that they were now ready for child bearing, and untouched sexually.
The second thing, was that they were simply unmarried. Any girl, within the usual early child bearing age, who was unmarried, and wore the robes/garments that identified them as able to bare child, were the virgins we are speaking of.
As the enemy nation was conquered, all were put to the sword, and all these young girls wearing these robes/garments, would have been rounded up, and held in captivity, until the conquering was done. At this point they were divided up, and chosen/picked, with the officers and higher ups in the military given first "pick", and then each lower ranking soldier picking until none were left.
Basically treated as cattle, or slaves, with no rights or say. Their duty was now to their new "husband". What a "loving" arrangement by Jah. Sounds like a bunch of Bulls#$t to me. All it was, was a listing of the "rules of war", for the nation of Israel, who pretended, in their writings, that they were some powerful all conquering military power. When in reality, they were a nomadic tribe, that occasionally defeated and plundered some even smaller nomadic groups they encountered.
On another note, it used to drive me crazy, back when i was younger, and i would question the barbarity of MANY of the acts in the bible, especially the Old testament, and i would be told that it was warranted back then because of the time period. That never made sense to me, though. Why would the chosen nation of the Almighty, One true God, need to have HIS nation lower themselves to the "barbaric" gentile nations around them, instead of leading by example, and ushering in a new way of doing things peacefully and amicably with all those around them.
Doesnt make sense, it just made Jah another pagan God, acting like every other God around him.
i was thinking of how little i know about my father’s side of the family.
i recently inquired about ancestry.com and i’ve come to the realization that even the closest sides of my family via my father, are unknown to me .
what a shame that jehovah’s witnesses kept us apart.
Its funny because i was just thinking along these same lines, the other day. My sister and i were raised in the "truth", so naturally, our close "family" became the friends at the congregation, NOT our real blood family.
My Father and Mother were the only ones who became JWs, and in turn raised us, but nobody else on my Mother or Fathers side, were JWs. My Father became an Elder when i was very young, so he jumped in head first.
Mind you, on both sides, my Mom and Dad, both came from large Italian American families. While my Father was an only child, he had tons of Aunts and Uncles, and cousins, and my Mom was one of 3, plus Aunts, Uncles, cousins. In theory, my sister and i should have had a HUGE extended family, from both sides. Instead, we were very rarely involved with our "worldly" family.
They were looked at, and thought of as being in the world, with nothing to offer us, and we were most likely looked at as the weird religious family of 4. Yes, over the years we saw certain family members here and there. We would visit my Aunt and first cousins in Florida during the summers here and there. My Grandmother would have her get togethers with family and we would be there.
That being said, there was always an unspoken wedge, of "Us and Them". We were the ones who didnt exchange presents. WE were the ones who didnt celebrate birthdays, and holidays. Looking back, you realize that all the extended family members probably didnt completely understand why, and different opinions could, and did form. Some might have thought my Father was cheap, for not buying his kids gifts, some that we were rude, some might have thought we were in a Cult, some might have thought my sister and I were being deprived, who knows, really.
I look back now and think, maybe these family members, that we were not allowed to get close to, because of the Cult, could have directed or impacted my life in ways i will now never know. Most of the family are older now, and have passed away. We just buried my Fathers last Aunt, which was the last sibling of my Grandmother, that was alive.
My Father, also, getting up there in age, has really seen the Borg for what it is, a CULT, and i think even now he realizes that years and moments were lost with family that WAS blood, and instead those years were given to a CULT ,and to people that PRETENDED to be family, but instead were conditionally there, as long as you looked the part, no true love.
Its a shame.
jehovah's witnesses,is jesus christ, jehovah god?
(not the father, but equal to the father)what if the watchtower told you about god in a false way, and yet the bible taught you about god in his true character, how would you respond?could it be true, that the watchtower have been leading you up the garden path, describing god in a way that the bible does not describe?
please watch my latest video to help you to see how the bible describes the lord jesus christ, and also within my video, i explain from the new world translation how the bible which the jws use, also describes jesus as jehovah god.
This is like saying that Gandalf and Saruman are the same person. I mean come on guys, really?
You see Saruman was known as Saruman the white, but Gandalf was known as Gandalf the Grey. Saruman the White was the top of the Wizardly order, with white being purer and higher than Grey.
Now, i know there is some confusion, since Gandalf the Grey does eventually become Gandalf the White, but thats not till after Gandalf kills the Balrog at Kazad Dum.
So yes, we do have a Saruman the White, AND a Gandalf the White, but they cannot be the same person, as Gandalf was Gandalf the Grey BEFORE he became Gandalf the White. BTW, there is another Wizard named Radagast the Brown, but we wouldnt want to confuse things, so i will leave him out.
So guys, please dont get hung up on "specific words", and "phrases". This stuff is easy to see and clear as can be. The Father/Saruman the White, cannot be the Son/Gandalf the Grey/White, and leave the Holy Spirit/Radagast the Brown outta this, ok.
Simple enough.
