Posts by TheWonderofYou

8

Can any deity be used in manipulation?

by schnell in

pale.emperor made an interesting observation in another thread:.

the "blocking an expression of gods love" crap is a sneaky tactic to make the shunner not feel like they're doing something evil.

cults do that.

TheWonderofYou

Indeed the notion of a monarchian God reigning over us leads to monarchic type of rules. The monotheisitic and monarchic god needs earthly mediators, representatives e.g. a king or a monarch who performs and reflects the reign of the god. Absolutism was such a type of rulership, where the monotheistic prinicple of Allmightiness shaped the rulership. And man-ipulation (when man take something in its hands) lead to abuse of power. The roman empire got a monarchy. Throught the

Monotheisums leads to Monarchy

Polytheisum leads to Polyarchy

Trinity then to Triarchy?

34

Why didn't God also reveal himself to the Canaanites just as he did to Moses in the burning bush?

by deegee in

why didn't god also reveal himself to the canaanites just as he did to moses in the burning bush so that the massacre/genocide of the canaanites could have been avoided?.

why didn't god also invite the native palestinians into his covenant, giving them the same laws he gave the israelites, and establish an egalitarian society where people of all races could live together in harmony?.

instead, he ordered his people to invade and slaughter the natives, killing them to the last man, woman and child, specifically instructing them to show no mercy to anyone under any circumstances.

TheWonderofYou

Moabite queen

38

Blood Ban Not Going Away Anytime Soon

by baldeagle in

at the recent circuit assembly in our area (nov 19/2016) a talk was given in the afternoon entitled “jehovah will resurrect the dead” it’s clear that the prohibition on blood is not going away anytime soon.

many of us here have expressed the hope that this death dealing policy would be softened or become a complete conscience matter.

not the case, jw’s are urged to not give in and to focus on the resurrection hope.

TheWonderofYou

Hence, for Christians, shunning (e.m) blood included not taking it in for “medical” reasons. They maintained that stand even if it put their life at risk.
http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2004445#h=12

"Shunning Blood ", "Blood ban", "Avoided Blood" "Abstain from Blood", "sacrality of Blood", "life-sustaining-Role of blood" "nourishes the body"."is dangerous", "not healthy" , "makes someone animalistic", "eating life of another being not allowed" "only Jesus' blood is lifesafing".. some reasons for abstaining from blood.....the terminology issue.

Blood is to avoid and to shun like those who dont apostates or doubters who dont go to the meetings anylonger or are disfellowshipped. Contact with both only under risk of loosing eternal life.

34

Why didn't God also reveal himself to the Canaanites just as he did to Moses in the burning bush?

by deegee in

why didn't god also reveal himself to the canaanites just as he did to moses in the burning bush so that the massacre/genocide of the canaanites could have been avoided?.

why didn't god also invite the native palestinians into his covenant, giving them the same laws he gave the israelites, and establish an egalitarian society where people of all races could live together in harmony?.

instead, he ordered his people to invade and slaughter the natives, killing them to the last man, woman and child, specifically instructing them to show no mercy to anyone under any circumstances.

TheWonderofYou

The jewish bible (called in hebrew "Tanach") has another order as christian bibles.

The Tanach is divided into three parts called in hebrew

5 Books of Moses called Chumash (=fifth) [five fifths] also known as Pentateuch ( 5 books) or often referred to as the "Torah" (= Mosaic Law in JW-language),[[but Torah doesnt mean law in the sense of an federal state laws but rather "basic guidance".
8 Books of the prophets called Nevi'im (hebrew Prophet) including the 12 minor prophets
11 Books of the writings called Kesu'vim (hebrew Writing)

This was the bible as known to Jesus Christ and the apostels in the first century.

As you see the books follow a different order than in christian bibles of today.

---

>>>Now my question for all knowers of jewish liturgy.
In the jewish liturgy the torah is read weekly in the synagogues.
Are the other parts of the bible the prophets and writings also part of the weekly liturgical readings at the synagogue? Was it always so and how was it in former times?

If a jew visits regularly the synagogue would he ever hear a portion of the prophets or scriptures or only the laws/Torah portions.

5

Interfaith marriage

by TheWonderofYou in

5.mos “if you go to war against your enemies and jehovah your god defeats them for you and you take them captive,+ 11 and you see among the captives a beautiful woman and you are attracted to her and you want to take her as your wife, 12 you may bring her into your house.

she should then shave her head, attend to her nails, 13 and remove the clothing of her captivity, and dwell in your house.

she will weep for her father and her mother a whole month,+ and afterward you may have relations with her; you will become her husband and she will become your wife.

TheWonderofYou

5.Mos “If you go to war against your enemies and Jehovah your God defeats them for you and you take them captive,+ 11 and you see among the captives a beautiful woman and you are attracted to her and you want to take her as your wife, 12 you may bring her into your house. She should then shave her head, attend to her nails, 13 and remove the clothing of her captivity, and dwell in your house. She will weep for her father and her mother a whole month,+ and afterward you may have relations with her; you will become her husband and she will become your wife. 14 But if you are not pleased with her, you should then let her go+ wherever she wishes.* But you may not sell her for money or treat her harshly, since you have humiliated her.

Until the Babylonian Exil it was usual to have an interfaith-marriages with Canaanites and other peoples in the holy land. The woman (not the man) according to the Mosaic Law went through some rituals. The law was respectful with the pagan parents and allowed the girl to mourn them.

It is very interesting that it was not mentioned in the law that the girl had to change her religion and to believe in Jehovah but she should only cut her nails. If the change of religion would have been necessary the laws would have mentioned it here.

Rahel also took along the idols of her father and the women of the kings since king Salomo all remained in their religion and celebrated the pagan rituals.

Moses gave the example and married a foreign woman. His wife Zippora was the daughter of a midian priest! Later he married an Ethiopian woman. Aaaron and his wife disagreed with that marriage. But Jehovah showed that he blessed this interfaith-marriage and punished Miriam. Moses obviouslly was never married to a "hebrew" woman from his people but only to foreign women.

4.Mo 12, 1 Now Mirʹi·am and Aaron began to speak against Moses because of the Cushʹite wife he had married, for he had taken a Cushʹite wife. So Jehovah’s anger burned against them, and he departed from them.....10. The cloud moved away from over the tent, and look! Mirʹi·am was struck with leprosy as white as snow.

As Moses himself was married to foreign women he could not make a Law against interfaith marriage. This would have been implausible.

Moses was not urged to marry daughters of idolworshippers but he did from his own effort..

Later under the Judges the custom of interreligious marriage was commonplace

So the Israelites lived among the Caʹnaan·ites,+ the Hitʹtites, the Amʹor·ites, the Perʹiz·zites, the Hiʹvites, and the Jebʹu·sites. 6 They would take their daughters as wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they began serving their gods Judges 3,5

Note: Only after the Exile a marriage to canaanite and other people was forbidden. There was no "wonderful old glorious time of old Israel", where such a marriage was forbidden and "jehovahs witnesses" married only hebrew men and women, who believed in Jehovah..

Nobody was punished , stoned or excommunicated for such a marriage to idol-worshippers, it was perhaps not ideal, but it was normal.

----

Simson also married a foreigner, sorry more than one, he was anointed by God and he married a Philistine girl. Read Judges 13,3 and 14,4. You will see that Jehovah wanted that marriage with the foreign woman because he had an agenda with the Philistine.

___

I read an old book and found these arguments which I find interesting. It is a book from the year 1842 about sacrifices in Israel.

7

Removed from JW.org: Interview w/Jared Kushner

by wifibandit in

in an earlier reddit post we discussed the possible role that watchtower business associate and trump son-in-law may play in a trump white house; and if that meant that wt may have a friend with the president-elect's ear.. now, thanks to a tip from /u/jpentrak, i've been alerted to the fact that watchtower has removed the video news update: jehovah’s witnesses moving forward.

this video featured jared kushner speaking in glowing terms about wt personnel and how well maintained the buildings were by the organisation.. despite claims in this same video that "we're not trapped in time" by watchtower spokesman david a. semonian, clearly they don't know that the internet never forgets.. here is the url of the removed page:.

https://www.jw.org/en/news/releases/by-region/united-states/video-jehovahs-witnesses-sale-brooklyn-move/ .

TheWonderofYou

The question was asked 7 days ago, when this video would disappear, So thats the answer, wow.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5654347138465792/how-long-before-this-video-disappears

19

Jesus in the old testament

by Steel in

about two years ago i was challenged by a householder to do the research on the subject.

of course thinking it was all bunk i decided to take a look off the reservation.

much to my surprise a lot of started to make sense and i started to understand the connections between the old and new testament .

TheWonderofYou

The figure of speach "seated at the right hand of God" appears elsewhere also as "seated at the right hand of the father". In jewish ears this was the most possible and imaginable and coralgem immediate form of nearness to God. Early christian found as reported in Acts 2:32-36 that Psalm 110,1 where God allows a lord to be seated next to him had been fulfilled in Jesus.
Therefore the bible writes that Jesus confessed before the highest jewish court, that he was the Son of man who would be seated at the right hand of God. That confession brought him the allgegation of blasphemie. Cause who sits right to God participates in his kingdom and might. Like an ancient grand vizier took place at the right side of a great king and was introduced to the practise of government affairs. It turns around enthronement and godlike authority, whereby it cannot be used to count the numbers of the heads of the Godhead.

Example: Trump is seated at the right side of Obama (when he gives an interviews e.g.)

9

"Are Jehovah’s Witnesses free to make informed decisions about blood transfusions?" - Canadian article

by OrphanCrow in

this is an excellent article written by 3 faculty members in the cumming school of medicine, university of calgary - juliet guichon, ian mitchell and christopher doig.. http://healthydebate.ca/opinions/blood-transfusions-jehovahs-witnesses#comment-2866324.

it is encouraging to know that the voices that have been raised against the blood ban are being heard.

the work that so many people have done is now bearing fruit.. in 20th century canada, jehovah’s witnesses were persecuted for their proselytizing and wartime pacifism.

TheWonderofYou

I think a free decision under supervision of a watchdog is not possible.

A "blood education" should happen under an "neutral", "uninfluenced" environment.

Such an uninfluenced counsel could be legally stipulated. So the "patient" could come to a broader understanding and find a more moderate view of the matter.

Certainly its not a inicidentally that the latest November 2016 broadcast of j w t v features Canadas famous legal victories with the trial of Bucher. (charge of seditious libel for distributing pamphlets) (starts with 46:00) This is certainly because of the large publicity in Canada about people dying avoiding blood transfusions

12

The moon

by zeb in

jw
friends

yes take a look at the moon after 1930h 14th nov. it is the closest the moon is to earth in many years.

wont be this close for many years more.. use any telescope or binoculars.. wowee..

TheWonderofYou

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-K1FEkqn8RUOEFndGl3bXdpZU0/view?usp=sharing

Taken some minutes ago without professional objective.

9

Why blame the Watchtower?

by deegee in

if god has a relationship with every christian and every christian is praying to him then wouldn't he tell every christian the same thing so that christians would agree on matters of doctrine and practice?.

it is certainly puzzling why sincere and devout people equally seek god's will and pray to him yet they all come up with different answers so that there are approximately 40,000 different christian denominations (center for the study of global christianity (csgc) at gordon-conwell theological seminary).. before his death, jesus called for agreement among his followers rather than division (john 17:20-21).

he declared that he would send the holy spirit to guide persons into all the truth (john 14:16 - 17, 26, john 15:26, john 16:7,13 - 15).. so shouldn't anyone who has a relationship with jesus, reads the bible, and listens to the holy spirit come to the same conclusions as others who are doing the same thing?.

TheWonderofYou

Cos I am only human after all

dont put your blame on me... may be Im blind .... look in your mirror ... to see it clearer

___

I blame the watchtower ONLY for INHUMAN practices of a cult not for human errors.

If a group of christians seperates itself by saying we have only the truth and resigns to speak with all other who call themselves christians this group is establishing a sect. The sect gives up the community, the Eucharist community, or doesnt celebrate the Lord supper togehter with other christians. Thats a cult.

If Jesus meant with unity the Eucharist unity or an organisational unity or a more philosophical unity can be subject of further discussion. But the most imortant for unity is talking with others.

Only by talking, debating, dicsussing with friends you can "separate the spirits", (what is from god and what no) find out wether your argmuments or thoughs are reasonable. If the watchtower talked with other christians they would find out e.g. how a modern church discipline looks like, but they avoid education.

There are today many religious orders within the christian faith, they have different programmes, life styles,e.g. the cistercian. JWs could be an religious order in unity with the global church, whether orthodox or protestant or something else wouldnot matter, but they are excommunicating themselves from the unity.

Despite that sectiarian attitude the christians dont hate JWs and the members of the JWs, they are "only one face" of the christian faith for us. JW wear the face or mask of zealous fighters who avoid company with the world. Arianism was one face of christians, in the early church, christian belief had many faces and so it is today. Diversity can even make sensible for new more facetes of christian faith and the necessity of loving each other.

Unity of faith doesnt exclude variety. Even variety of interpretation. The christian faith is the result of debating in rabbinic style about the bible. Even in the 1st century there was everything open and ready for change and debate .

For the modern church the JW are also christians, although outsiders of own decision.

It doenst turn about giving up culture, customs in any case. What did jesus mean really about unity, a unity of all mankind not only the group of preachers, that was already the spirit of the gospels?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpimiNvcRC4