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.
I seriously came here for David_Jay's comment, and to recommend The Bible Unearthed if you haven't read it.
But yeah. Even in the JW or Christian fundamentalist understanding of the Hebrew scriptures, you raise great questions about God's character. Keep doing that.
what was it in the evolution of religion that got them so hung up about what people do with their genitalia?.
i mean, the (mis)use of genitalia is up there with murdering another human being in terms of badness.. and in the 21st century, we have a situation where in the jw religion, it's deemed as acceptable for three middle aged/old men to sit a teenage girl down and ask her the details of her use of her genitals.
to any normal person this is intrusive, completely inappropriate and bordering on deviancy.. why they so obsessed?.
Paul spoke about singleness a lot (and that's why the Pastoral letters where he endorses men getting married is a sign that the letters are fake). Many gospels that didn't make the canon talked about abstinence even in marriage.
Seeing as believers tend to believe in God wherever they see it, in "a God of the gaps" in their knowledge, it might be too easy to say these people saw things like syphilis as a sign that God hates sex.
Or perhaps they were trying to show the Romans that they weren't into orgies as they were so accused. Whichever.
what was it in the evolution of religion that got them so hung up about what people do with their genitalia?.
i mean, the (mis)use of genitalia is up there with murdering another human being in terms of badness.. and in the 21st century, we have a situation where in the jw religion, it's deemed as acceptable for three middle aged/old men to sit a teenage girl down and ask her the details of her use of her genitals.
to any normal person this is intrusive, completely inappropriate and bordering on deviancy.. why they so obsessed?.
One thing I heard but never understood while I was in was that young newlyweds who have sex before marriage feel regret on their wedding night.
That's obviously not necessarily true. I'm not saying they can't, but they may not feel guilt at all, and they probably wouldn't if they didn't have this religious idea rammed down their throats.
But regardless, my wife and I remained abstinent while we dated. Then the Monday after our wedding, the brother called me to say that I'd messed up the court documents, and irony of ironies, we weren't legally married yet... But we were in Jehovah's eyes!
No guilt here, and our marriage license hangs in our living room with a date different from our anniversary. It's almost like if we were cool with it, even if we simply thought we were married (more generically, that we thought it was okay and we were consenting to this), then there was no argument to be made for wedding night guilt.
so witnesses reject many practices or holidays due to their "unscriptural or pagan" origins.. for example, birthday celebrations, mothers or father's day, christmas etc..... most people in the world will say "but the origin doesn't matter anymore, we follow this custom now because it's a joyful occasion that creates happy times and brings the family together".
it is still firmly rejected.. so, if the wrong origin is so important, and should result in rejecting something, why isn't the same principle applied to the actual jehovah's witness faith itself!?.
after all, the very foundation of the organisation was based on wrong understandings of the bible, far fetched teachings and doctrines, links to false religious backgrounds, pyramidology, false predictions, inaccurate beliefs etc...... using their reasoning, it doesn't matter how good something is now, if the origin was faulty to begin with?
Absalom was the original piñata, right?
not playing their game, as i've learned here.
they came to my door to find me with a full beard and a nightmare before christmas hoody, playing a video game where the characters "do not act according to bible principles", and i happily answered the door.
i simply smiled and told them no when they asked if i have a minute.
I was polite enough. But if you give them an inch, they'll take a mile, and they've taken enough miles off of my life already. So they asked if I had a minute and I answered the question.
Edit: Oh. Cool. A known pedophile just came to my door. Sent him home too. What's going on today?
don't they have editors?.
why can’t they get it through their heads that they aren’t under the mosaic law.. look at the “imperfect food” that was served up at the nov 14 watchtower study.. "3. what can we learn about clothing from god’s law to the israelites?.
3 for example, in god’s law to the israelites there were rules that protected them against the.
They like it both ways.
*shrug*
not playing their game, as i've learned here.
they came to my door to find me with a full beard and a nightmare before christmas hoody, playing a video game where the characters "do not act according to bible principles", and i happily answered the door.
i simply smiled and told them no when they asked if i have a minute.
Cool. I respect them just fine. And they respected me enough to leave.
i was trying to find that scripture that talks about recognizing a false prophet.
in the watchtower online website, i did a search for the words false prophet and filtered it for scriptures only from the bible which brought up zilch in the way of results.
i did a google advanced search for the same thing and it brought up the scripture i needed which happens to be deuteronomy chapter 18:20-22 which reads... 20 “‘if any prophet presumptuously speaks a word in my name that i did not command him to speak or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.+ 21 however, you may say in your heart: “how will we know that jehovah has not spoken the word?” 22 when the prophet speaks in the name of jehovah and the word is not fulfilled or does not come true, then jehovah did not speak that word.
@darkspilver, you are correct and I stand corrected as well.
disclaimer: while this may be a sensitive topic to some, i don't wish to offend anyone.
please don't turn this into a political discussion with name calling and yelling.
i can see why the borg hates higher education.
No no no, it's just employment. Slavery in the Bible is loving and the most stable form of employment.
Gimme the awl, boss, I'm stickin around.
i was trying to find that scripture that talks about recognizing a false prophet.
in the watchtower online website, i did a search for the words false prophet and filtered it for scriptures only from the bible which brought up zilch in the way of results.
i did a google advanced search for the same thing and it brought up the scripture i needed which happens to be deuteronomy chapter 18:20-22 which reads... 20 “‘if any prophet presumptuously speaks a word in my name that i did not command him to speak or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.+ 21 however, you may say in your heart: “how will we know that jehovah has not spoken the word?” 22 when the prophet speaks in the name of jehovah and the word is not fulfilled or does not come true, then jehovah did not speak that word.
Oh that's interesting. Yep, I get the same results as you. It brings up Revelation's use of "false prophet" but not Deuteronomy's. That is indirectly shown in an Insight article on the book of Deuteronomy.
That's pretty crafty, JW.org. It doesn't look good for you, but it's crafty.
Just for posterity in case anyone is still unaware, you can type "site:jw.org" or "site:wol.jw.org" on Google and search for terms on those specific sites.
