i am cornfused by this news release.
since 1926, the watch tower bible and tract society of pennsylvania has published more than 153 million copies of the bible in 67 languages.
the watchtower has an average printing of 37 million, giving it the largest circulation of any religious magazine in the world.
What's confusing about it? They cite the statistics of their "Bible" and then as a separate statement, of their magazine. Two different items, two different sentences. It doesn't say the Bible is a magazine.
If you want the Bible in magazine form, check out:
i got the chance to rake through the bound volumes and noted that in witchtowers from 1981 onwards, the masthead does not say "the creators promise of etc before the generation that saw the events of 1914 passes away.".
is this the wtbts already protecting itself, or did i just not find the relevant volumes?.
incidentally, one of the witlesses claimed that they were thinking years ago "this can't be right" about the 1914 generation, when we chatted about the "noolite" in this weeks witchtower study.. talk about false memory syndrome!!.
It was in the Awakes, not the Watchtowers. My bound volumes contain the infamous wording.
anyone have any pictures of themselves with someone famous (singer, actor, author, etc.)?.
i got a chance to meet paul williams (singer/actor) of "phantom of the paradise" and composer of great many songs like.
"just an old fashioned love song", "the rainbow connection", "you and me against the world", "we've only just begun", etc .... .
Me with Janis Ian a few years ago after one of her concerts (you old people may remember her song, "At Seventeen"):
...to only being called to heaven as part of the 144k?
god is not partial, and does not predestine people, so why could first century christians not have had an option for paradise on earth?
i got to thinking about this since last year wt opened the doors to heaven again for the masses for the first time since 1935. .
TD, my understanding of the "great crowd" doctrine is that the GC is made up ONLY of those who actually survive Armageddon. Any non-anointed faithful JW who dies before Armageddon is simply one of the "other sheep," but is not part of the great crowd. That person's status is comparable to that of pre-Christian faithful ones. This doctrine becomes more significant now that we are getting into the third and fourth generations of non-anointed JW's.
...to only being called to heaven as part of the 144k?
god is not partial, and does not predestine people, so why could first century christians not have had an option for paradise on earth?
i got to thinking about this since last year wt opened the doors to heaven again for the masses for the first time since 1935. .
TD, I'm not sure that the issues you raise would be anything new if the organization made the doctrinal changes I suggested. The "third class" already exists, since many members of the other sheep have died during the Christian era, even if we accept the old position that the heavenly calling ended in 1935 or the newer understanding that the date is indeterminate. Many JW's who died in the concentration camps did in fact profess to be of the other sheep, so the conundrum you suggest already exists, regardless of any future change in understanding - how were those faithful JW's any better off than non-JW's?
The answer from the JW's, as I understand it, is that even though both groups will be raised to earthly life, the faithful JW will have a big head start over the non-believer in having already accepted the "truth" and will therefore be raised much further along the road to eternal life. The unbeliever has a far greater chance of rejecting the "truth" and ultimately being consigned to the second death.
I might point out that nothing here is being said about his reading the Bible to the class, asking them to receive Jesus into their hearts, preaching sermons or, for that matter, requiring the students in any way to even acknowledge the existence of the Bible in the room. The teacher merely has it on his desk. Nothing else. Presumably he might read it during free periods or on his lunch hour.
I'll stand by my original statement: if this was a Koran, or a manual on witchcraft or the Satanic Bible, I'm betting nobody would raise an eyebrow. But certain elements have an interest in eliminating any public expression of Christianity, which they mask as an elimination of religion in general - except that the only religion they ever seem to object to or be "offended" by is Christianity.
...to only being called to heaven as part of the 144k?
god is not partial, and does not predestine people, so why could first century christians not have had an option for paradise on earth?
i got to thinking about this since last year wt opened the doors to heaven again for the masses for the first time since 1935. .
I'm betting this will be the next "new light." With the anointed now being an ongoing calling, the numbers will look more and more ridiculous. Deciding that the other sheep have been being called right alongside the anointed since the first century would relieve them of a lot of doctrinal problems centered around the concept that there could have been less than 144,000 faithful Christians between the first and 20th centuries. It would free them to admit that the thousands of Christians who died in the Roman arenas and in many other persecutions were, in fact, true Christians and not phonies.
I'll bet if he was keeping a Koran on his desk the issue wouldn't even be raised.
why did god use one shepherd armed only with a slingshot to take down the powerful giant?.
what kind of message was he trying to send by doing that?.
.
I think the point of the story is that God can accomplish His purpose through anyone He wants to, no matter how steep the odds. If an army of angels had vanquished Goliath, what's the big deal? It would have been expected by anyone that an army of angels could beat a giant. But a seemingly helpless shepherd boy with a slingshot? Now that's impressive!
seems this woman is always, and i mean always, absent from topics related to religious conflicts.. again, today, when cultic behavior [ lds raid in texas] is discussed as a hot topic, she's not there.. a few weeks ago, there was the topic of the child that died due to the parents thinking god would heal her.
sheri was not there.. it's really starting to piss me off.. there have also been ample opportunities for her to speak out about abuse that goes on in jw religion.
she never takes it.. yesterday she reveals that when she had an opportunity to look at princes credit info, she took it.. i'm about to fire off an email and ask point blank, why she keeps avoiding (by being absent) these topics.. anyone else notice this about her?.
She is an ex-JW? She probably left because "My Book of Bible Stories" was too complicated for her...
