I think a far more significant contradiction is the four accounts of Mary Magdalene's visit to the tomb of Jesus after he was killed. The four accounts disagree on who went to the tomb, what happened when they got there, and what they did afterwards. JW's "harmonize" these accounts by jumbling all the bits and pieces together and introducing an entirely fabricated detail that the women split up at some point despite it being strongly implied that they remain together through the whole episode.
Saethydd
JoinedPosts by Saethydd
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22
How Do JWs Reconcile Contradictions Between Mt. and Lk. and Their Birth Stories?
by Saename indoes anybody know how jehovah's witnesses reconcile the contradictions between the stories of jesus' birth as found in matthew and luke?
when i was a jehovah's witness, i wasn't even aware of this contradiction; i simply thought that all of it happen—namely that there was a census (luke 2) and the slaughter of the innocents (matthew 2) simultaneously.
but at the time i didn't know that the census took place in 6 ce and that herod the great died in 4 bce, thus placing those birth stories 10 years apart in time.
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All About The Words We Used
by dubstepped inin the time since i've left the borg behind i've had a few things hit me as to how words were used.
i'm wondering if anyone else has some similar examples, but here are some things that have made me think:.
watchtower - my whole life i saw this as a thing of protection from outside evil forces, and then when i left someone pointed out "isn't that what they used to keep people in prison".
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Saethydd
They would proudly call it the "language of the Truth"
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One Big Family... Except For When You Need Them
by pale.emperor inwhen i was in, we all used to claim us jw's were "one big family" all around the world, and how we're the happiest people on the earth.
except that isnt true is it?
i knew that when i was in, but i've just had some news which shows me how unloving, uncaring and un-family like they really are.. my ex-best friend (he has to shun me doesn't he?
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Saethydd
What if you just went over to their home and offered your help anyway? After all it's not as if you're under any obligation ignore them, you could even argue that it's not a social call, it's helping a friend in need. If that's too confrontational you could just try sending a letter (without writing your name on the return address), perhaps if they saw true unconditional love from an "apostate" it would help to wake them up.
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Lies, and more lies.
by biblexaminer ini have seen some discussions related to the "kingdom" book, and the recent studies, but, i didn't see the one pertaining to the second chapter of the "kingdom" book.
i may have missed it.
if i have ...mea culpa.. chapter 2, paragraph 29 & 33.
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Saethydd
slimboy. I imagine that if WW1 didn't break out in 1914, Jehovah's Witnesses would not exist.
No, I'm afraid they still would be, because you see they don't really care about examining the evidence. For example, the failed dates (that none of them will acknowledge) that were predicted before 1914 and were declared after the fact (after they passed and nothing happened) to have been Jesus taking the throne invisibly, which is what they now say happened in 1914. If nothing significant had happened that year I imagine they would have simply moved the goalpost again and again until they finally scored and 1914 would just be another date that they pretend never happened.
In fact, the method they use to "prove" 1914 as being predicted in the Bible only works because Russell was off on the destruction of Jerusalem by 20 years.
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32
Beardless Jesus. Why?
by UnshackleTheChains inbeardless jesus in watchtower publications between 1930s and 1960s.
a simple detail 'deliberately' left out.
the question is why?.
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Saethydd
As far as I can tell Rutherford had a vendetta against beards
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Prayer vs. Meditation
by schnell inwhenever i prayed, it was always done consciously and ostensibly to another person -- a higher, spirit person -- called jehovah.
the subject was always something about me, even if it was for someone else.
if i prayed to thank jehovah for my meal, it was about me.
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Saethydd
I appreciate your insight on this subject, I think I shall try meditation to help fill the... I don't like to say "spiritual" because of the connotation it carries, so instead I will use the word "immaterial" hole I feel in my routine.
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the Book of Enoch and the Nephilim
by schnell ini've heard all my cognizant life that angels from heaven looked upon the daughters of men, took wives, and their wives bore giants called nephilim.. i've heard all my adult life about the book of enoch and why it's apocryphal and to be avoided.. so tonight i was curious enough to download an e-book and have a look, since dothemath had the thread about rarely used scriptures and the book of jude directly quotes from the book of enoch.. if jude quotes from enoch, shouldn't both or neither of them be canonical?
if you consider jude canonical, then enoch should be too.. hey, how many fallen angels were there again?
two thirds of heaven, right?
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Saethydd
Jude also mentions some dispute between the archangel Micheal and Satan over Moses' body, which not something that happens in any of the books of the Bible I have read. Does it also come from an apocryphal writing? -
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Is this a normal JW practice? Warning, this will be a bit graphic.
by Sequoia inthis post may be disturbing and i apologize, but i'm just trying to find out if this is a practice the jw teaches.
i was taken advantage of by a guy claiming to be a jw preacher.
he took me to his house supposedly so i could give his daughter piano lessons, and then he basically forced himself on me while telling me he was in love with me and wanted to marry me.
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Saethydd
I'm a bit baffled by an individual who would think that you will be destroyed for being an "unbeliever" but that he's going to be okay even though he is committing sexual assault, and even if you were willing to sleep with him it would still be a sexual relationship with someone he's not married to, not only that according to his beliefs you wouldn't even be a good candidate for marriage on account of your being an "unbeliever." It's just wrong on so many levels.
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JW.org as a Prank Tool
by schnell inthe moment i saw the "request a study" form on the site, i thought, "umm, that could be a bad thing.".
but to date, i have heard of only one case where it was used for less than genuine purposes.
that was in the case of a "game developer" who was selling crappy asset-flips on steam.
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Saethydd
I'm studying to become a white-hat hacker, and one subject I'm examining at the moment is the history of the of the collective known as Anonymous. One of the things they are most well known for is defacing the websites of the Church of Scientology back in 2011. Among the reasons listed for taking on such an endeavor is the fact that they were revealed to be highly controlling which didn't sit well with anarchists. Heh, I bet it wouldn't have taken much for them to shift their focus to websites of the Jehovah's Witnesses, though I doubt it would have been any more effective at stopping them than it was at stopping Scientology.
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Why do some Jehovah's Witnesses choose to be atheist or agnostic?
by Cassaruby in"traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .
.. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .
from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.
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Saethydd
I too have found that the belief system which most resonates with me is that of secular humanism. After years of trying to ignore my sense of reason to accept some piece of theology or another, I do not relish the thought of going through the whole process once again with another religion.
Therefore until God communicates with me directly, I shall remain an agnostic at best. As for whether or not I would worship God after that, all I can say is that it would depend on his answers to certain questions I have about his decision-making process.