i have been studing it for years looking for answers....yet for every answer i find there is a counter to it.
the words themselves are twisted by leaders/teachers to fit their personal opinions and adgendas, as well as twisted by trying to rely on our own reasoning to understand them.. a good example would be the way our current system of laws work.. if the supreme court writes a law into the book..say for example.."evil" is anyone who does this....... it is then turned over to a bunch of undereducated enforcers to interpert and judge others they feel are "evil".
they are allowed to accuse and shoot first asking questions later.
One, it was written by men. Two, it was written over many centuries and opinions and beliefs change. Just look at the western Europe and / or the U.S. just a hundred years ago and it's views on homosexuality, marriage, religion, crime & punishment, etc.
IMO it should come as no surprise that something Moses wrote in 1500 B.C.E. would have a differnt spin then something Mark wrote in first century C.E.
i enjoyed this article about how the state of israel came to be and the history behind some of the present day conflict.. full article here:.
http://www.zmag.org/shalom-meqa.htm.
teaser below:background to the israel-palestine crisisby stephen r. shalom.
Here's an even shorter history...
1982 - Israel invades southern Lebanon to secure it's boarder.
2000 - Israeli PM gets elected with the promise to pull the Israeli army out of southern Lebanon and they do...quickly.
2000 to 2006 - Oh my...big surprise. Hezbollah, with the help of Syria and Iran, take over southern Lebanon and have years to dig in. They pick a fight and now have, as they put it, a big surprise for when the Israeli army begins it's ground assault.
Absolutely insane what the civilians on both sides have to put up with.
just finished watching the world cup.
was a darned good game.
anyone else see it??
Didn't see but I was wondering if the players from England are still crying.
for me, i think it's their hypocrisy.
they lead (the vast majority) a double life.
and ultimately they look down on anyone not a jw yet they won't even wn up to it.
Just the utter waste of time and energy.....all for nothing. If the millions of hours spent going door to door were spent, say, on helping the homeless, the elderly or troubled youths, the wonderful things they could accomplish. WHat a dam shame, millions of people spending millions of hours doing something that most of them don't enjoy but feel forced into doing.
european natural gas supplies; the next, gazprom .
in moscow that something must be done if russia .
strategy, but modern russian history offers no .
I think there are more worrying international concerns than Russia.
BINGO!
.
that is, if you are able to without the prospect of facing a three-man kangaroo court appointed by jerhover to keep the congregation clean from apostate influences.. i'll go first: .
Wait a minute Diamond, do you folks in the UK actually try and catch carp????
...that it hurts the most.
today, when i was walking into the grocery store entrance an old jw friend of mine was walking out.
it was one of those face to face akward moments where there's no way you can pretend the other person isn't there.
Yeah, and it never ends. I've been out for over six years now and still get "the look," As a matter of fact, last weekend I was riding my bike when I noticed someone in a mini-van was following me. Out of the corner of my eye I could see it was this old, pioneer woman from the local Jdub hall. Someone I've known for years, someone who's house and yard I took care of for years (cue the sad music please).
Anyway, I hear this "excuse me...excuse me.." I just keep riding, knowing that she must not recognize my fat ass. Finally she pulls ahead of me and literally cuts me off, sticks her head out the window and starts again "excuse me but do you know where beach number....AAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!". The look on her face when she finally recognized me...lol...priceless.
It is funny how ones feelings change over the years. First it's hurt, then anger, then sadness. After a while you just feel sorry for them. Now, I just laugh at the funny faces they make.
i know this is a forum about jehovahs witnesses, but with so many intelligent people with varying ideas to solutions on problems, thought i would post my problem here.
my daughter's father is $35,000 behind on child support.
i have always tried to be suportive of their relationship and made sure they could see each other on his weekends.
Dam, how and why do guys get away with this???!!!! I'm divorced over 6 years now and haven't missed one child support payment - I can't imagine not paying my share. I even get static from some of my friends because I end up paying for most of the kid's bills (glasses, dental, sports camps, etc.). I just don't understand guys who think they're getting "back" at their ex by not paying child support. Unbelieveble.
Call your lawyer and take the bum to court.
with all those nukes out there, and all the countries that have them or are making them.
do you think it is something we should expect, that in our lifetime a nuclear weapon will be used in war or an act of terrorism?
i personally think it is possible, and i think it would be the middle east that would see this happening.
Some aspects of nuclear terrorism are vastly exaggerated. The further that the Soviet Union recedes into history, the less likely it is that theirweapons will be used by terrorists. I am unaware of any hard proof that "suitcase bombs" ever really existed. Plutonium gets physically hot
enough to degrade any weapon it is made into, so there is a shelf life factor here and it's long past, as the Russians admit.
North Korea is all bluff and hot air. They know quite well that a missile launched at the US would be national suicide.
Israel isn't worried about the Arabs. Syria is the only remaining opponent on their borders - and the Syrians aren't even close to matching
them. Besides, Syria must worry about Turkey - who made them back down in quiet humiliation some years ago over Kurdish terrorism.
Pakistan IS a problem - but keep in mind that they must contend with India and its nukes as well.
Excellent post. Pakistan is the one that worries me. I don't believe as a nation they would act against the U.S. but all it would take would be a rogue general and / or army unit. Then again, maybe I've been watching too much 24.
i am going to make the prediction, here and now in mid 2006, that there will be a significant drop in the number of jehovah's witnesses in the year 2014, the one hundredth anniversary of 1914.. the only way this drop in numbers might be avoided is if the watchtower society can think up some way to stir up the rank and file and get them motivated to do more, like they did with the 1975 fiasco.. .
i doubt very much that the watchtower magazine is going to proclaim loudly in the year 2014 anything about the "generation of 1914" not passing away.. --vm44
The drop has already happened. Like someone else posted, if it weren't for the Spanish speaking congregations in the U.S. and their growth, there would have been a significant drop.
The question is, how long can the WT exploit a new group of people in the U.S.? With all the information on the internet, I don't think very long.
