Posts by TonusOH

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

LMsA: But he had to pontificate about never giving his children false information

I'll bet his explanation to them about how he spent last Christmas must have been fascinating.

5

The MODERN DAY tourist guide shooting themselves in the foot.

by Longlivetherenegades in

the tourist guide as obtained from the kingdom rule book chapter 5 paragraphs 1-6. the book states..... the spirit of the truth .

will guide you into all the truth.”.

the spirit is jesus’ means of teaching his followers whatever they need to know about god’s kingdom—right when they need to know it.. me: who are your tourist guide today?.

TonusOH

BluesBrother: it seems that they themselves don’t know when the Spirit is on them or it isn’t,

Indeed. I wonder how many of their doctrinal changes were the result of indigestion that they mistook for divine intervention.

28

Was Jesus the Messiah circumcised ?

by smiddy3 in

has this question ever been raised before by jehovah`s witnesses?

and what`s the significance, if any ?.

TonusOH

Hmmm... if Jesus was God incarnate, I'm not sure I'd want to be known as the guy who snipped the tip of His dick off. Maybe the foreskin shriveled and dropped off eight days after He was born.

34

“Heaven and Earth will pass away but my words will by no means pass away.”

by Fisherman in

“this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.

heaven and earth will pass away but my words will by no means pass away.”.

the destruction of jerusalem is insignificant in the large scheme of things.

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

It's possible that Lot's daughters had a conversation like this:

First Daughter: Goodness, I can't believe that dad almost handed us over to that rabid crowd! I shudder at the thought of what they would have done to us. What do you think?

Second Daughter: I think dad betrayed us! He's awful! SCREW HIM!!!

First Daughter: Well, uh, okay I guess. But we'll have to get him drunk, first...

18

No funeral

by road to nowhere in

jw
friends

i have run across another jw death where the final wishes are for no service.

3rd or 4th instance.

another wanted a celebration of life which the elders squelched as far as i know.

TonusOH

They use the wake as an opportunity to deliver a sermon. And yes, it's very classless.

37

114,000, Literal, or Symbolic?

by Wonderment in

a poster wrote to me privately, and brought to my attention the following comment below i made a while back in regards to the 144,00 number of revelation.

i had casually conjectured that this number was likely symbolic in line with the book of revelation being mostly symbolic in kind.

he brought up this juicy source:.

I would ask if there is a way to determine the meaning of the number, if it is symbolic. If I am remembering correctly, there is a reference to 12,000 who are chosen from each of the twelve tribes, and 12,000 x 12 = 144,000. We know the reference to the twelve tribes of Israel. What is the symbolic meaning of the number 12,000?

Lacking that, his point has some weight to it. Granted, I would think that the number must have some meaning. Why pull it out of thin air and then use it in a formula to get the 144,000 number? That doesn't seem sensible to me.

27

News story claims: "Jehovah’s Witnesses" are QAnon believers"

by Balaamsass2 in

i was googling the subject and came across this story.

i just had an incredible phone conversation with a long-time jw who has strong "q-anon" "sovereign citizen" beliefs.

the wife(first gen) says she is not surprised.

TonusOH

jhine: A rough outline of it's policies seem to be Republican heroes battling the Democrat satan worshipping, paedophile , cannibals .

That doesn't sound far from my understanding of it. I think it's partially a mash-up of several conspiracy theories. Get enough conspiracy nuts in one place, and they start bouncing ideas off of one another and before long, you've got threads connecting everything that ever happened in human history and laying it at the feet of some powerful group or other. I had a friend who followed that stuff (still does, to some degree) and it's impossible to figure out.

One story was that a local pizza shop in Washington DC had a basement dungeon where kidnapped children were tortured and sacrificed to Satan so that the liberal elites could... extend their lives? Make more money? I'm not quite sure what the goal was. Slight problem with the whole idea-- the pizza shop in question doesn't have a basement. This doesn't slow the nuts down: they just claim that the denials are proof of the existence of the basement and of its use for devil-worship.

Another story was that President Trump was working with the US Marines to unravel this demonic cabal and issue mass arrest orders for a large number of politicians and congress people. When Hillary Clinton was seen wearing a small cast on her foot, they claimed that this was actually a new form of electronic monitor and that it showed that she had already been quietly arraigned. When Arizona senator John McCain passed away, it was supposed to have been a hit designed to remove him, apparently at Trump's orders.

How did my friend know all of this? Some fellow named "Q" was posting these messages to an internet message board. The inference was that he was very close to the President and seeing all of this firsthand. "Q" would post confusing and (supposedly) coded messages that would be 'deciphered' after any notable event occurred, making it seem as if he'd known what was happening all along. It was sort of like Nostradamus's work: you could interpret the rambling however you needed to, in order to reinforce the idea that he was an insider, sharing critical information with 'real patriots.'

It died down a bit when a few of the expected outcomes (including the mass arrests of Hillary and pals) never materialized. But enough nuts are still working to interpret the signs and figure out what those devil-loving child killers are going to do next. I no longer get updates from that fellow, and its just as well. I think even he felt betrayed after being led to expect something big over and over and having nothing come of it. Kind of like being a JW during the Rutherford years.

21

Ministry in John 3:16

by JW Answers in

a lot of false teaching darkens our doors today, especially with watchtower teachings, calvinism and lordship salvation.. latest video below explores the verse john 3:16 and shows forth the truths which christ preached to nicodemus.

the jws also spread fear amongst their followers stating that if the leave the org, then jehovah will strike them down at armageddon.

this video covers this same fear.. feel free to watch below..

TonusOH

I have no issue with the idea that God, as creator of the universe and giver of life, has the authority to take it back as He pleases. I take no account of any bugs I might step on when I am walking outside, and we are far less than that to a being capable of creating a universe that is farther across than we can comprehend. And as an all-present and all-knowing being, He also does not suffer from the flaw of human-imposed punishment: He always knows for certain that someone is guilty of an act or not.

Thus, I interpret His actions in that context. And it makes God unpredictable. I cannot imagine that every single human person (with the exception of Noah and his family) in the world at that time was so wicked and so depraved as to deserve death. And it seems unnecessarily excessive to also destroy so many animals as a form of collateral damage. Based on my explanation above, God is within His rights to do so. But that doesn't strike me as just or merciful. It seems more rash and cruel. This is the same God who wishes for all people to attain salvation, but at one time he wiped out almost everyone and everything.

Now, this could be wrong. If every person had fallen to such a degree that all of humanity (minus eight people) were irredeemable, we can say that God was being just. But that means that not only had mankind fallen from perfection right from the start, but that their condition deteriorated so completely within a few (hundred? thousand?) years that God had to effectively start over. And the reset did not work very well, either. Noah got drunk, his son was cursed for looking upon his nudity, and before long humanity seemed no better off and required yet another intervention (this time it was language, and that change did not seem to help either).

Genesis sometimes seems like a record of God's plans that went poorly. The notion that He did so from incompetence is not reasonable, in my mind. Thus, this must be deliberate. That is the sort of God that would make me very scared if I believed He were real.

28

Poor metabolic health increases your risk for heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.

by was a new boy in

it’s all a big fat lie.

more precisely a big low-fat, high-carbohydrate lie.. 'it took dr. paul marik 12 weeks to prove that conventional wisdom about dieting is a lie, and that was just to himself.

he lost 35 pounds, and cured himself of type 2 diabetes.

TonusOH

Is it true that the conventional wisdom is that type-2 diabetes is not curable? I've never gotten that impression. Type-1 is not curable, at least unless we can figure out how to get the pancreas to begin producing it again in those individuals where it stops doing so. But type-2 is insulin resistance, and it's considered to be reversible with proper changes to diet, isn't it? My doctor recommended a low-carb diet (just one reason I like him) because I'm right on the edge of type-2 diabetes.

As for diet, I don't think there's one single perfect diet for humans. But if you listen to the various types of diets on offer, you can find some things that they agree on. Usually, there is an emphasis on natural over processed food and on avoiding or reducing foods with high sugar/salt content. Prepare and cook your own when you can, and use fresh ingredients whenever possible. Find a level of exercise and diet that keep you where you want to be, and stick with it. Avoid short-term fixes, which only last for that short-term and often leave you worse off afterwards.

As the saying goes, it isn't always easy, but it is quite simple.