Posts by Bobcat

7

Prayerfully Considering or Seeing What Sticks

by scotoma in

jw
friends

tony says the magical words “prayerfully considering”.

presumably, this has been done many times even when they have gotten things wrong.

have a urim and thummim method of knowing the correct interpretations?

Bobcat

Hi scotoma,

One of the things that has helped me was ditching the WT's interpretive rendering and take on Rev 1:10. The rendering that you quoted moves the verb from its original position in the greek text. If you look in an interlinear you will see that what John "came to be" was "inspired" (literally, "in the spirit"). It was "on the Lord's day" when this took place. Rev 4:2 has a structure very similar to Rev 1:10. The NWT renders Rev 4:2 as the greek text has it. But they alter Rev 1:10 to fit their theological understanding, which is based on their 1914 chronology.

The effect of the WT's rendering is to compress all of the prophecy in Revelation into a much smaller time frame. Imagine taking a digital picture and resizing the width only to a much smaller size. It would create a very distorted image. We had a poster named ex-gilead-missionary (not sure if I got that exactly right) who posted about this a few years ago.

At any rate, here is a little gift for you for your years of effort.

12

Scriptural Understanding

by ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara in

can all explain what you understand from this verse/how it does or does not connect with the ministry that jdubs do?.

"let us hold fast the public declaration" - hebrews 10:23a nwt.

means "go door to door".

Bobcat

The word in question ("public declaration" - Greek homologia; Strong's 3671) occurs with the same inflection in the NT only at 1Ti 6:12-13. But the word also occurs at: 2Co 9:13; Heb 3:1, 4:14.

The NWT renders it thusly:

2Co 9:13; 1Ti 6:12-13; Heb 4:14; 10:23 = "public declaration"; Heb 3:1 = "acknowledge." You can use this link and just change the translation in the upper right to see how other translations render it in all these verses.

Based on the context of these 6 verses the "confession" appears to be to both insiders and outsiders of the community of believers. I don't see anything that would require it to be only in a door-to-door ministry. Nor anything that would rule it out either as one way to give a 'confession.' (Footnote #17 in the NET speaks of 1Ti 6:12 happening at Timothy's baptism or ordination as a minister. - See here.)

7

"Romans" added to NWT Study Bible, and one omission.

by Wonderment in

rom.

14:1 says: "welcome the man having weaknesses in his faith, but do not pass judgment on differing opinions.

" (italics added.).

Bobcat

This passage reminded me of an experience.

A few years ago, one of the elders in our KH gave a Sunday talk and in it he was discussing how in the churches Christmas and Easter are held as the most important days of the year. He said, 'in contrast, "we" (meaning JWs) hold Nisan 14 as the most important day of the year.' Of course, his point was that JWs have it right.

After the talk, I approached him and brought up that part of the talk and told him that he only presented two sides of the argument. That there was a third viewpoint he did not mention. When he looked at me wondering what I was referring to, I told him he would find the third view in Romans 14:5 (which is part of the same context with Rom 14:1).

I never got a reply from him, but several other standing around promptly opened their Bibles to see what I was referring to. None of them ever said anything to me about it afterward either.

55

2019 Elders Manual and a Whole Lot More!

by Atlantis in

single zipped folderhttps://we.tl/t-uiqj87wimd.

2019-02-02-musical preludeshttps://we.tl/t-zyfpnodizd.

s-21-e congregation's publisher record (2018-12).pdfhttps://we.tl/t-i9qamx3s0q.

Bobcat

Thank you Atlantis!

35

Evidence of a form of telepathy, science and personal experiences.

by Bad_Wolf in

i believe in rational explanations for everything, whether they are understood yet or not.

medication used to be considered 'magic' until understood how it worked.

on the subject of telepathy, for me it's very subtle but has happened many times.

Bobcat

Well, WYDFme, "To each his own." I remain open to the possibilities.

16

Anyone every heard anything about your own blood?

by Tobyjones262 in

i was wondering if there was any policy from the cult about your own blood in you cut your finger and put it in your mouth out of reflex ect.

what if any is the position of this?

i always thought the amount of blood is not the real issue, even a drop would be a sin?.

Bobcat

The ARJWB website has a copy of a DPA that was briefly handed out that allowed autologous blood transfusions. JWFacts might have a copy of this also. The few forms that were handed out were quickly recalled. I'm thinking this happened around the time of the 911 incident in New York.

They might also have WT references to one's own blood.

35

Evidence of a form of telepathy, science and personal experiences.

by Bad_Wolf in

i believe in rational explanations for everything, whether they are understood yet or not.

medication used to be considered 'magic' until understood how it worked.

on the subject of telepathy, for me it's very subtle but has happened many times.

Bobcat

Here is a fascinating article on QM being used intentionally for communication in the real world. "There is nothing new under the sun." And, "Have you seen something and said, 'See, this is new.' It has already had existence for time indefinite." (Qoheleth)

35

Evidence of a form of telepathy, science and personal experiences.

by Bad_Wolf in

i believe in rational explanations for everything, whether they are understood yet or not.

medication used to be considered 'magic' until understood how it worked.

on the subject of telepathy, for me it's very subtle but has happened many times.

Bobcat

IT ONLY IS RELATIVE AND HAS MEANING IN THE QUANTUM WORLD!!!!!

There is a saying among quantum physicists that anyone who claims to understand quantum physics doesn't fully understand it yet.

As I pointed out in my post above, I was simply wondering if "some of these things" might, in fact, have some basis in quantum entanglement. The idea of quantum effects in the macro world is a topic of study by some physicists: Here, for example.

Having said that, I certainly don't rule out coincidence in many cases. Nor am I saying quantum physics explains everything (although, QM did lead to the 'theory of everything' ).

Incidentally, here was an interesting thread from some years ago.

35

Evidence of a form of telepathy, science and personal experiences.

by Bad_Wolf in

i believe in rational explanations for everything, whether they are understood yet or not.

medication used to be considered 'magic' until understood how it worked.

on the subject of telepathy, for me it's very subtle but has happened many times.

Bobcat

I wonder if some of these things can be attributed to quantum entanglement. It would put a plausible 'scientific' explanation on it, even if not fully understood. Just hypothesizing, but at the quantum level the entanglement could be between both non-living things and living persons.

Perhaps some are more attuned to or sensitive to its effects than others, just like sometimes blind persons are more attuned to sound and other things than seeing persons are.

14

Since when does a slave appoint itself over anything???

by Roger Kirkpatrick in

at matthew 24:45, where jesus discussed the faithful and discreet slave, he gave only two identifying features of that slave.

(1) providing the master’s domestics food at the proper time; and, (2) after having done so, being appointed by the master himself over all the master’s belongings.. since current watchtower teaching is that the appointment over all the master’s belongings is yet future and that such appointment is to be made by the master himself, how does the governing body of jehovah’s witnesses account for the fact that it has preemptively identified itself as that faithful and discreet slave?.

surely there remains among believing jws some who can discern the problem with this teaching!

Bobcat

Maybe Eccl 10:5-7