from the july 15th 2012 wt, page 26:.
ask himself, do i immediately apply.
everything i read in the bible and in the.
bennyk: "They are effectively equating themselves with Jesus Christ."
Of course they think they're equal to Christ; they consider themselves co-rulers, not under, but alongside. As someone else pointed out on another thread, the literal meaning of Christ is "anointed", which they apply to themselves as a "class." The Christ class, in other words.
wt out on jw.org now,,shows front page laptop being used on field service call along with sign language.. will jws soon be bringing a laptop for all door to door presentations in the future?
.
I guess they're going back to the days of pre-recorded phonograph machines for service... that way the GB can speak directly with the householder without the publisher diluting their glorious insight.
this is a long rant.
hope this is of interest to someone... .
question 22: cosmology: a circle or sphere?
I was just looking into this topic of Jewish cosmology. Far from advanced understanding, the circle of the earth was a flat disk that sat on water (thus phrases like "in the midst of the waters" and "waters under the Earth") while the sky (firmament) was a solid metal-like dome that the stars hung from (being "lesser" luminaries, they were nowhere near as large as the Sun). Every reference to the Earth in the Bible bears this out.
Interesting stuff, but so very far removed from any claim of God-inspired scientific knowledge.
the bible teach book uses the example of a math teacher who is challenged by a student who disagrees on how to resolve a math problem.
the teacher then lets him attempt to prove his point knowing that he can only fail.
the object of the exercise is to show the rest of the students that the teacher is right - that there is only one way to resolve the math problem....this is likened to jehovah letting satan exercise his power over the world so that the entire universe can witness his failure and that only jehovah's ways lead to happiness.... instead of maths, what if the teacher taught chemistry and a student would want to prove that the teacher is wrong when he says that certains chemicals can't be mixed without causing an explosion that would wipeout the school...would any sane, responsible, loving teacher allow such a student to experiment and wipeout the whole class just so the teacher can prove he was right?
Here's a big problem with that illustration: Jehovah hasn't allowed Satan to run the world. He's constantly interferring, had His people commit genocide on Satan's, refuses to let people use magic or any demonic influence (even though He constantly employed miracles and angelic influence), tower of Babel, etc.
It's like the teacher starts erasing the chalkboard anytime the student starts being creative. He's not letting the student fail, He's making him fail.
i had an idea the other day while seeing someone reading a watchtower magazine on the bus, why can't we make a magazine similar to the watchtower in size, font, and format?.
even a one time 16-page brochure would be great.. basically even if many jws are stubborn it would help at least some who are on the fence.... why can't we?
we don't even have to make it say jehovah's witnesses on the cover.. just call it.... the truth (where the watchtower header line would go in the same font).
If anyone goes forward with this, I have graphic layout experience (3 years at my university newspaper) and own the same professional software used by the city paper (InDesign).
paul seemed to be a real hard ass whereas jesus preached love, not judging people, patience..... could it be that paul was a fraud?.
" Luke records the affection which the Ephesians had for him, if that is true, he cannot have been the total, prickly. mysogynistic martinet that some paint him to be."
Really? So if I show how much some people love Don Imus, or Rush Limbaugh than they can't be as bad as others think?
Again, why can't both be true? Paul was a loveable, traditional mysogynist who taught his own version of Christ and some loved him for it while others didn't. Isn't that reasonable?
I went for my wife but brought my red (ESV) Bible and silently mouthed alternate words to the songs. I was happy to see that the Branch library had hardbound Golden Age and Watchtowers back to 1928, and the first five volumes of Studies in the Scriptures. Now I know where to go if I ever need hard proof.
dear 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.
So say we all.
paul seemed to be a real hard ass whereas jesus preached love, not judging people, patience..... could it be that paul was a fraud?.
I had some thoughts about Paul here (My critical thoughts about Paul), and I think a lot of the confusion, sectarianism, and contradictions in the NT is because people try so hard to reconcile the different Bible writers instead of accepting that they each wrote from their own viewpoint. Having this "There is only one way of thinking" mindset discounts that Paul thought differently from other apostles because of his background, and feeds the conformist structure of JWs and other fundamentalists.
Sorry, I went into college thesis mode there for a second, but the bottom line is: Yes, Paul did have a different way of looking at things, and his way of interpreting Christ formed it's own Pauline sect, which, by Paul's sheer force of zeal, became the default sect of Christianity that went mainstream.
so im at the memorial talk, this year though im reading above and below all scriptures.
anyway the speaker uses revelation 14, and i find a new scripture ive never seen used before by the brothers.
they always use v1-4, referring to the anointed.
Most translations say "no lie was found in their mouths," not that everything they say is perfect, to which JWs simply say the GB doesn't lie... they just tell current truth, which may not be correct.
