Posts by Bobcat

Does anyone have access to any references that would show how early Christians (2-4th century or there abouts) viewed the parable of the faithful slave? It would be interesting to see those viewpoints.

Take Care

46

2012 Annual Meeting: MORE notes...

by Ultimate Reality in

jw
friends

from a reliable source...provides further confirmation on the gb's new status.

these are from the symposium part on the new light.. .

jeoff jackson - how is spiritual food prepared?.

Bobcat

UR:

Thanks very much for the notes. Thats alot of typing.

Talk about Amateur Hour at the Apollo! There is so mush disjointed logic to all of that.

Of course, some of that could be from the note taker trying to catch points with little time to write.

And, the "Greek word is composite singular"? What in hell's name . . .??? Sounds like a high-tech home built airplane from Macedonia.

10

WTB&TS Memorial , April 14th, 2013

by itsibitsybrainbutbigenoughtosmellarat in

this is posted because several threads have been posted disputing the day chosen by wtb&ts.

so this gives a heads up for those interested in this topic for 2013, or otherwise.

.

Bobcat

QC:

I read the article in the link you posted. Very interesting. It contains many thoughts that I have slowly been arriving at. But I doubt I could put it all together into an article like that.

Did I read correctly that you (if you're the author) take the "other sheep" of John 10 to be the same as the "Great Crowd" of Rev. 7?

Take Care

75

The Society debunked the rumored new light on the F&DS in 1973

by Leolaia in

this is the summary of the rumored new light from the 2012 annual meeting, as posted by cedars.. the faithful and discreet slave was not appointed at pentecost 33ce, meaning that there has not been a continuous line of members of the slave class on the earth down through the ages.

the slave class was only appointed for the first time by christ in 1919.the faithful and discreet slave is a small group of anointed brothers during jesus presence serving at watchtower headquarters who are directly involved in the preparing and dispensing of spiritual food.

the individual members of the governing body are not the faithful and discreet slave.

Bobcat

This totally ignores Peter's question in Luke 12:41 which leads up to the first telling of the 'faithful slave' parable:

Then Peter said: "Lord, are you saying this illustration to us or also to all?"

Also note all the direct address in the Matt 24 discourse, "you," leading up to the parable in (Mt 24:42-44) Then suddenly verses 45-47 have absolutely nothing to do with "you" (the four listening to Jesus speaking, if not all the disciples of that time. Verses 43 and 44 are all about 'you being ready.'

The Society's explanation of the parable is far removed from any realistic reading. It ignores the context and makes reality out of the details of the parable that were meant for illustrating the point about kepping ready.

31

New Red Dawn movie- do you think it could happen?

by moshe in

coming to theaters at thanksgiving- the premise is a new class of emp weapons paralyzes our military and allows a foreign power to invade the usa.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngoe7bdgdlg&noredirect=1.

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Bobcat

EMP attacks were an important part of Soviet war plans in the event of nuclear war. If Able Archer had went the wrong way the first thing that probably would have happened would be extremely high altitude airbursts of the big Sov warheads. Probably would have made a nice glow over the US.

There was some thought that several of the SS-18 ICBMs carried single warheads (rather than the 8-12 otherwise) with a 25-50 MT yield just for high altitude bursts and attacks on places like Cheyenne mountain. And I beleive the SS-9(?) FOBS was thought to carry 10-20 MT yield warheads. Some of the current Chinese ICBMs are thought to carry 3-5 MT yields. Even though they have relatively few, several of these at high altitude would probably create more havoc than if set off over a city.

The movies "The Day After" and "Threads" both portrayed the start of the war high altitude bursts. As you said, it was part of the thinking of the time.

Incidentally, in the movie "Broken Arrow" they portray an EMP burst from an underground detonation(!?) Anything can happen in the movies!

31

New Red Dawn movie- do you think it could happen?

by moshe in

coming to theaters at thanksgiving- the premise is a new class of emp weapons paralyzes our military and allows a foreign power to invade the usa.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngoe7bdgdlg&noredirect=1.

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Bobcat

And, no-one should sell the NK Army short. As far as outsiders can tell it is a well disciplined force. You laugh at it at your own peril.

I agree - but only in Korea. There is no way they could undertake a North American invasion.

46

The New World Translation is not a translation,

by Jaime l de Aragon in

the new world translation is not a translation, is mere adaptation, to avoid paying royalties to biblical issues as, king james and other.

beware the glare of lights.

the translation they call "new world translation ... blah blah blah" is not a translation is an adaptation that have been made, it is not a translation, so we say it is anonymous, you can not know their authors and a thousand stories more, would not pay royalties for use other translations like the kjv, and other.

Bobcat

I personally would say that the NWT IS definitely a translation.

I've spent many hours pouring over Bible commentaries, many of which are NIV based, and some that have translations of the author of the commentary. What I have consistantly seen is this:

Whenever the commentary offers a literal rendering of a text or phrase, the NWT almost invariably reads like (or similar to) the literal rendering.

Of course, not in EVERY case, but by and large.

What I have also seen is that the NWT is excessively wordy. This comes from two things:

A slavery to literalness at the expense of understanding.

Inexperience on the part of the translators. (The same 'wordiness' happens when inexperinced people write computer programming.)

Part of that inexperience comes from holding to translational ideas that are questionable.

I don't doubt that other renderings/translations were consulted.

With the plethora of Hebrew/Greek reference material, and available master texts, almost anyone could undertake a translation project. It wouldn't be professional, but it would still be a translation or a translation attempt.

If the NWT would have stuck strictly to literalness it would fill a niche among translations. It wouldn't be the end-all of translations. But it would be useful paired with a (or several) good professional translation(s). You would use one to get the point and the NWT to see the actual literal rendering of the text. Paired together like this would make for some useful study.

Unfortunately, the NWT departs from literalness just enough to require consulting other references to be sure.

31

New Red Dawn movie- do you think it could happen?

by moshe in

coming to theaters at thanksgiving- the premise is a new class of emp weapons paralyzes our military and allows a foreign power to invade the usa.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngoe7bdgdlg&noredirect=1.

.

Bobcat

I can see the North Korean reaction to the movie now:

"The war-mongering Americans attempt to create hostility towards the peace-loving DPRK so as to facilitae an American invasion of Korea."

The Chinese reaction:

"Movies like this aren't very helpful."

The Russian reaction:

None. They've seen stuff like this before (Firefox, Red Dawn, Amerika) and know that Americans are hopelessly caught up in their entertainment.

31

New Red Dawn movie- do you think it could happen?

by moshe in

coming to theaters at thanksgiving- the premise is a new class of emp weapons paralyzes our military and allows a foreign power to invade the usa.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngoe7bdgdlg&noredirect=1.

.

Bobcat

At the moment, no nation (besides the US) has the airlift or sealift capability to carry out a large scale invasion of the US.

They would first have to set up large operating bases in North America or Latin America. These would broadcast their intentions long before anything happened. And they would be vulnerable to interdiction. The Pacific and Atlantic and the US naval/aviation strengths are the very reason the US is still unconquerable physically. It could be destroyed (by nuclear weapons) or badly damaged (such as by EMP), but not invaded. Not on any sizable scale.

The premise of the movie - Sudden EMP disaster, followed by equally sudden invasion - is untenable - at this time. Even for Russia and/or China. Even if they were to try an airborne invasion, they don't have the capability to resupply at such long ranges, not for any sizable invasion

Also, US seabased forces would exact a heavy nuclear toll on any nation that would try. I believe land-based nuclear forces (and the Presidential chain of command authority) are also hardened against EMP.

Also, I don't know what the movie means by "a new type of EMP weapon." There is no "new EMP." Electro-magnatism doesn't change. There are new ways of creating an EM pulse.

All-in-all, as someone above said, it is an American movie, perhaps driven by American fears, but not foreign realities. But I will say that the idea of the US losing its world power status (because of its own self-inflicted weaknesses) may be bihind the movie idea.