the source material for this talk is taken from the reasoning book under the heading "life".. .
in a nutshell, here are the points this material makes:.
1. that it is essential to recognize divine authority and that we have a creator.
The purpose of life ? Dunno, but Douglas Adams showed that the meaning of life is 42, isn't that right ?
Actually, I am surprised the WT goes in to this area of thought, once you analyse it , the JW's do not have a purpose that can satisfy them (or me).
I have decided, I reallydo not want to live in a "New System" run by the W.T !
so we have only been fading for the past few months but already made up our minds that we are completely out.
we never managed to make any friends in our cong but we befriended our neighbours.. so our neighbour invited us to her b-day party in a few weeks time.
she knows that we are/were witnesses and that we are fading.. i don't see a b-day celebration as being wrong anymore.
It seems to me, because I am in the same position, that one(or in your case, two) has to decide pretty quick what you want to achieve.
Do you mind if you are DF'd or forcibly DA'd ? If you don't want to, then as LWT rightly says, for goodness sake tow the line and don't do anything thay can get you for.
If you really don't care, then take your chances, I think it must be great to say "F*** em" I'll live my life without looking over my shoulder, they can do what they like."
The choice is for you, as a couple to make, just be aware, if you get it wrong, there is no going back, once you are DF'd or DA'd, you are dead to your family and former "friends" in the religion.
I think the JW's may be a cult ! (said with tongue firmly in cheek)
does it concern vampires in the church?.
well, it does concern vampires........but....not yet in the church.. .
thus......like jesus.....vampires in the church.. .
A good read as usual Terry. I must read more about the Maccabees. One thing that stands out to me is that true worship (from a JW point of view) was established, and a King was on the throne in Jerusalem.
All this during the time that JW's say the crown was lifted off, until Messiah came. I know he wasn't a King in David's line, but the events make their interpretation of the prophecies look a bit silly, in MHO.
can you personally think of any pros of being a jws?
anything that you have experienced that was and still is beneficial to you now from when u were a jw?.
The JW's always said that we were a worldwide brotherhood, and it didn't matter what the origin and background of our brothers and sisters was, we were all one family.
That attitude is still part of me, I now extend it to the whole human race, I don't care what a persons origins or background are, we are all part of the human family.
Apart from that attitude of having no predjudice, the only other Pro I can think of is, I don't mind looking a fool, you have to be one as a JW, from the world's point of view, so I am used to it.
perhaps this is a common topic for newbies on the site, but i have browsed for a while and not seen this exactly answered.. as an active jw who understands the flaws in wts doctrine, but believes in the bible, how do i identify a form of worship that meets all the criterea:.
1) by this all will know you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves (john 13:35).
sure i know that not all jws do this, and that people from other religions or non-religious people do this also, but as an official doctrine jws will not kill one another in war, and in general there is a genuine effort to exercise "agape" love not widely found in the world at large.. 2) preach the good news.
Flamegrilled, (mmmm I smell it)
You said you "accept the whole of the N.T" , I wonder what you mean by that ? as a guide to life in principle ? or as the word of God?
My position is constantly in a state of flux, the more I learn, on here and elsewhere I don't know what to think in fixed way, but could you please explain what you mean exactly, and why you feel what believe is worth hanging on to, even if perhaps it is not correct ?
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Here in the U.K , despite what our Prime Minister may say, we are a majority "secular" society, more people say they are not religious (51% I think, so only just !)
I like your last sentence, Fernando, religion is the biggest restraint on progress, people of faith and spirituality are often the prime movers of progress, by progress I mean a more compassionate society that gives a better life to everyone.
first of all , may i wish you all a happy new year.. in response to obaracs earlier thread, i think it would be amusing to list all the dc themes that we can remember.. it would be interesting to compile them in excel and amusing to see the irony in them over the decades.. so what themes do you recall, and from what year?.
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"What has Jesus been up to ?" 2014
the 2012 yearbook has released the publisher statistics for the 2011 service year.
a scan of the report can be found at http://www.jwfacts.com/images/2011-publisher-report.pdf and i have started updating the graphs at http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php.
as expected, it is following on from similar trends to the last 15 years.
Slimboy, I am currently agnostic on the issue of inclusion of the Name, would you be kind enough to post who the scholars are, and if poss. where they discuss their support ?
(If you think this is side-tracking this thread then PM me, if you can, thanks)
i'm kinda late but i didnt know i could get on here from my phone.
my labtop screen went out.
have to get it fixed sometime so i can post on here more.
Yay ! Happy 2012 everyone !
i am reading colossians 1:15-18, and understand it to mean that jehovah created jesus who then created all other things in the world, thus jesus crall things except for god who created him.
is this correct?
thanks in advance!.
I have recently been looking in to the whole issue of translation, early manuscripts, and the difficulty of interpretation.
I have come to the conclusion that the NWT is a very poor rendition of most of scripture, though it occasionally shines ! and in places it is down-right dishonest, as in the Colossians scripture. ( "other" , you could not get a more blatant example of the translators beliefs dictating the rendering.)
If you wish to understand what the Bible actually says then get some good Bible translations, or use the on-line sites that compare many translations.
There are only a few early manuscripts, a complete one earlier than the 3rd Century does not exist, so all we have are copies of copies of even more copies which are then translated. We cannot know what was originally written. There are no manuscripts that the WT has looked at that are special to them.
With the NWT they did not really translate it seems to me, they did not have anyone capable. They consulted other translations and used the published works of selected scholars to make their own version.
To argue for a doctrine or belief from just one scripture is silly, to base that belief on a rendering by the NWT is even more silly, in my humble opinion.
