jude 1:9 (kjv) yet michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, the lord rebuke thee.. matthew 4:10 (kjv) then saith jesus unto him, get thee hence, satan: for it is written, thou shalt worship the lord thy god, and him only shalt thou serve.
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.....my understanding is that you all believe jesus is michael the archangel....... the two verses above describe two different personalities..... the archangel in jude rebuked satan in the name of the father, because he knew it was not his place to rebuke him, he knew that he didn't have the authority to do so, that the only person who possesses this authority is god himself.... while jesus, in matthew 4:10, does not need to invoke the name of the father to rebuke satan, because the father and jesus are one, not michael and jesus..... .... because michael the archangel is not jesus christ our savior.....
3 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan[a] standing at his right side to accuse him. 2 The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! ...
This 'angel' (conflated with Yahweh) speaks rebuke in the name of Yahweh.
Confusing? It all returns to the second power/great angel concept that evolved into the Christ of Christianity.
think about it: they had to go out and buy halloween paraphernalia, then apply makeup & costumes to dress the 'brothers & sisters' up as vampires, witches, mummies etc.
and you know they were probably joking around the whole time.
what a bunch of hypocrites, the last gen gb would be turning in their graves to see such a photoshoot at the 'house of god' 😆.
Desirous...add, Nebuchadnezzar the man with eagle feathers, claws and heart of a beast, Giants with 6 fingers, flying serpents/dragons, (seraphim), and 4 headed winged chimeras, the dead en mass walking out of the cemeteries and entering towns (with rotten clothes or nude I suppose), the witch of Endor and the ghost of Samual, demon possession with superhuman strength to break chains, a blood covered samson with a jawbone in his hand.....the Bible is filled with good Halloween costume ideas.
for jws who believe that jehovah had a hand in reviving the truth in the nineteenth century this is enough explanation for how jws managed to achieve a closer approximation to early christian beliefs and practices than other groups.
but is there an explanation for this phenomenon that doesn’t rely on supernatural intervention?
new testament scholar james dunn explains the difficulty of interpreting the biblical texts in this way:.
When we speak of 'canon' we must ask who's canon? Surely everyone knows each branch of Christianity had its own collection of writings and this in a diminished way continues today. All of the discussion above is focused upon a Proto-orthodox branch that dominated in later centuries. The Nag Hamadi library should illustrate that point. Christianity went through a bottleneck; all earlier forms of Christianity were lost under the domination of the 'Catholic' form. All branches today spring from it.
Many have elevated the Muratorian list as just the proof they needed to suppose an early consensus. It's not sober objectivity that leads to that conclusion. The Muratorian fragment list was redacted in the 8th century, when previous version/s were written is unknown. Some speculate the late second while others see very good reasons (it's use as a prologue, it's Latin reflects an earlier Latin vorlage not Greek, it's lack of mention by earlier heresiologists and writers, etc.) to date it to the 4th.
see: The Muratorian Fragment: Text, Translation and Commentary” (Mohr Siebeck: 2022)
The fragment itself demonstrates that hundreds of years later than the supposed date of Jesus, even the proto-orthodox branches of the faith had not yet agreed upon what writings were approved.
https://youtu.be/hwzly3fnpdo?si=0p8zd0_9a-lwtb_9.
the study article 2 from the january 2025 watchtower study edition titled “husbands, honor your wife” represents a marked shift from the earlier, stricter watchtower stance on marital intimacy among jehovah’s witnesses.
this article’s language feels more relaxed, with paragraph 17 and its footnote stating, “the bible does not provide details as to what sexual practices between a husband and a wife should be considered clean or unclean.
All of us need to be aware of the human tendency to want to impose our personal views upon others. It becomes harder when entrusted with power.
https://youtu.be/ocufvpm3t04?si=75zmussxknhlsrs7.
the first watchtower for 2025 is out, and immediately, articles 4 and 5 drew my attention.
these will be studied near the memorial season, a time the witnesses prepare for their yearly commemoration of jesus’ death, i will be returning on this articles near at the time.
You gotta admit, that is a much simpler explanation.
It used to appear that way to me too, but now I see it as the more difficult model. Why did historians of the day never hear of him and why did his followers take so long to create a story about him but when they did, they made many, different contradictory versions. Why did early branches of the "Christian" tree not have a biography/narrative of an extended earthly sojourn at all but feature a mystic revealer/Logos. The more you learn about the broad acceptance of a second power/personified emanation of God concept the less the alternative appears surprising.
Of course, some historical person such as John the Baptist or the Jesus ben Ananias in Josephus that declares woes on Jerusalem just before the war might have provided some elements of the stories.
with the jw connection to the great pyramid, i thought this audience might find this video interesting.
i find it very reasonable in presenting a new (at least to me) theory that the pyramid was designed as a place of pharoah-worship and the seemingly convoluted design of the passages, with granite blockes, etc, was mainly to prevent looting of the pharoah's tomb.. interestingly, there are several photos (32:36 and elsewhere) presented which were sourced from john and morton edgars' 1909 pyramid passages book, which authors were bible students from scotland who wrote and lectured about the pyramid and the early bible student beliefs on the pyramid.
i think they left the wt after rutherford ditched the pyramid beliefs, but maybe someone can fill in the blanks on that.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itaqsrlg9wq&t=1s.
Sorry to have contributed to that 'going off the rails'. The idea that the design enabled visitation for some years after is fascinating.
with the jw connection to the great pyramid, i thought this audience might find this video interesting.
i find it very reasonable in presenting a new (at least to me) theory that the pyramid was designed as a place of pharoah-worship and the seemingly convoluted design of the passages, with granite blockes, etc, was mainly to prevent looting of the pharoah's tomb.. interestingly, there are several photos (32:36 and elsewhere) presented which were sourced from john and morton edgars' 1909 pyramid passages book, which authors were bible students from scotland who wrote and lectured about the pyramid and the early bible student beliefs on the pyramid.
i think they left the wt after rutherford ditched the pyramid beliefs, but maybe someone can fill in the blanks on that.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itaqsrlg9wq&t=1s.
with the jw connection to the great pyramid, i thought this audience might find this video interesting.
i find it very reasonable in presenting a new (at least to me) theory that the pyramid was designed as a place of pharoah-worship and the seemingly convoluted design of the passages, with granite blockes, etc, was mainly to prevent looting of the pharoah's tomb.. interestingly, there are several photos (32:36 and elsewhere) presented which were sourced from john and morton edgars' 1909 pyramid passages book, which authors were bible students from scotland who wrote and lectured about the pyramid and the early bible student beliefs on the pyramid.
i think they left the wt after rutherford ditched the pyramid beliefs, but maybe someone can fill in the blanks on that.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itaqsrlg9wq&t=1s.
It came up in a program the other day, so I did a little reading.
Isaac Newton (and many before him) was deluded/obsessed with the Pyramids 150 years earlier. He too imagined the secrets to the apocalypse were hidden in the measurements. (Again, not defending Russell but putting it in context.) Roman writers understood them to be tombs but centuries later Christians in Europe came to believe they were 'granaries' of Joseph. By the 19th century however, Egyptology was an established science, and the real purpose of the pyramids was well published.
I should add that while the imaginary connections to the story in Genesis was not unique to Russell, his deceptive pretend measurements and fudging of dates was all him.
now they can mingle inconspicuously with the 'other sheep' without being 'made an example of' (for better or worse)..
Seems like they left it wide open for Satan to run things
Deluded old men have always been in charge. No need to conjure up boogiemen to explain anything.
according to boots the chemist, their £20 flu jab (free for over 65's) will stop infection and transmission!
"whilst no vaccine is 100% effective, having a flu jab will help protect you from catching flu and passing it on to others.
https://www.boots.com/online/pharmacy-services/winter-flu-jab-services?srsltid=afmboorkiz37qybkdbbyfij7_ii1zytwkffhgagpllu7jxzg_maqdbqd.
Exposure involves introduction of the virus into your system. An active infection (disease) is defined by the proliferation of that virus within your system, and it's affects. Some vaccines in some immune systems are sufficiently effective so to prevent proliferation of the virus. The person will never know they had the virus in them and so did not have the disease and are very unlikely to be shedding the virus to others.
That would be the ideal outcome.
However, in many cases the vaccine primes the immune system to recognize a novel virus and respond more quickly. It gives the body a head start in the race by already having matching or nearly matching immune response cells in the blood stream.
