Posts by Apognophos

35

Be Honest About This Doctrinal Matter

by lambsbottom in

wife says she always thought the wt said that anyone alive at armageddon that did not get a chance to hear kingdom message may survive?

true?

references?.

Apognophos

Yes, things do not look good for anyone who doesn't receive a witness before the end comes. As blondie's quotes illustrate, if a person does not hear the word then they are not going to have a chance to survive Armageddon. I think the reason why it is not considered a requirement for all to hear the word is the concept of "community responsibility", where a group that has shown a general ungodly attitude is judged as a group. This is the same rationale that made it okay for children to be killed along with their wicked parents during the Flood.

This is written from the WT perspective, of course you understand, not my personal beliefs.

73

Pedophilia: A Disorder, Not a Crime (NYTimes)

by NewYork44M in

Apognophos

DogGone: Heh, yes, it's a pet peeve of mine too when people misunderstand life expectancy. Reading a little history goes a long way. When reading about Alexander the Great in the 300s B.C., you encounter plenty of people who lived into their 80s, including one of Alexander's generals who fought on the front lines, and Isocrates the writer, who is documented to have lived to around 98.

It seems to me that some people have slippery-slope-a-phobia, which is the fear that a small bit of wiggle room will lead to something catastrophic. Somehow acknowledging that pedophiles were born that way will lead to a society where pedophiles are allowed to freely roam the land, abusing children as they go. In reality the main difference that it makes, if society accepts this fact, is that there will be more focus on treatment, and less violent loathing, of people who are cursed with genes that are out of their proper place and time.

Edit: That's not to say that loathing is an inappropriate response to an unrepentant abuser (like Jerry Sandusky). I'm referring to having pity for people who fight against those urges. I suggested earlier that pedophiles who do act regularly on those feelings may be at least somewhat sociopathic in addition to being pedophiles, a sort of "double whammy" if you will.

4

Another Christian Post Article: JW's Child Sex Abuse Cases Bring Religion's Practices Into Question

by AndersonsInfo in

http://www.christianpost.com/news/jehovahs-witnesses-child-sex-abuse-cases-bring-religions-practices-into-question-127738/jehovah's witnesses' child sex abuse cases bring religion's practices into questionchristian post.

by sami k. martin, christian post reporter october 8, 2014|1:43 pm.

the jehovah's witnesses have a silent epidemic of child abuse that was recently brought to public attention again after four alleged victims filed lawsuits against the organization.. there are over 7 million jehovah's witnesses across the globe, according to the group's website.

Apognophos

Holy crap.

35

Is This ALL the Society Meant By Big Stuff Coming?

by millie210 in

ok, internet tv, some new songs and updates on a couple obscure prophecies no one cares about.... .

i for one was so disappointed at the smallness of it.

i guess i bought the hype that when they said "big", they meant it.. .

Apognophos

It wasn't an invention. He owned a company that installs dark fiber, used for wiring local networks, and the Society bought it, apparently to use it to hook up Warwick.

It is probably all related, though. The Society is going digital because print is too expensive. Having a heavy-duty network at Warwick will allow them to push video around faster between buildings/departments, and maybe to stream events live from the HQ like the AGM in 2013 was streamed from the Stanley.

23

NWT departure from greek meaning

by aintenoughwiskey in

the new jw library app includes the kingdom interlinear.

just by looking up the scriptures at the meeting when i went, revealed the following "departures" from the other translations:.

rev 5:10 "over the earth" vs "upon the earth".

Apognophos

I see, those are some alternate possibilities. I believe that they're less likely than the odds that the writer of 2 Peter was simply lumping together the related concepts of 'witnessing about Jesus' and 'speaking the word of God', but I'm not inclined to argue about this at length.

I disagree that it's wrong to lengthen phrases that are terse in the original text when translating. This is a basic part of translation, all the time, everywhere. Some languages are simply naturally terse in comparison to others, as I was saying here recently. At any rate, the translator should see it as his duty to render a phrase clearly. Clarity is the number one goal, not strict literal accuracy. If you want a literal rendering, then you should read Young's Literal or an Interlinear. But that's not how translators are taught to do their job normally.

73

Pedophilia: A Disorder, Not a Crime (NYTimes)

by NewYork44M in

Apognophos

There's no hard line between attraction to pubescent children and attraction to adults. We know that in ancient cultures, "women" were often married off at 16, 14 or 12. People saw nothing wrong with it at the time, perhaps partly due to shorter life expectancies (though they weren't as short as most people think these days). Nowadays, if someone is born with an interest in that same age group, they are branded as the worst kind of filth. Isn't that interesting?

90

Killing In Self Defense

by Cold Steel in

the man was moving around in the darkness of j's home with a gun.

he was certain j. and his family weren't there, but he was wrong.

when a door suddenly opened and a dark figure fumbled for the hallway light, he had only a moment to act.

Apognophos

I see. I took "civiized" in the other sense of the word -- as you said, "high minded", or "enlightened". It didn't seem relevant to say that more of the U.K. is urban than the U.S. because, if anything, crime rates are higher in cities. The urban environment is fundamentally toxic to humans, and people turn to crime as a result of the formation of pockets of poverty in cities.

23

NWT departure from greek meaning

by aintenoughwiskey in

the new jw library app includes the kingdom interlinear.

just by looking up the scriptures at the meeting when i went, revealed the following "departures" from the other translations:.

rev 5:10 "over the earth" vs "upon the earth".

Apognophos

Just some quick notes about your post, Island Man:

1. There's nothing inherently wrong with translating a given phrase in different ways according to context in order to render something clearly. Even the old NWT is not a literal rendering. I think the reason Rev. 20:4 is rendered that way is that most Bibles express it as the KJV does:

and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God,

which leaves the question of why the word of God got these Christians executed. It can only be because they were speaking about it, can't it? That's probably why Darby renders it "on account of the testimony of Jesus, and on account of the word of God". What the Society did here was turn a noun into a verb; this is a common practice in English, often called verbifying. What matters is whether the message of the verse was changed. Do you think that it was?

2. Wow, this is new to me. Very interesting! I will have to file this away in my memory in case I talk about it with a JW some day.

3. Actually, it's the phrase "not doing so out of respect for" which is unusual here, though it's not entirely an "addition"; it's a longer rendition of the phrase that most Bibles render as "before God". I think the Society was simply trying to clarify that when angels do not rebuke glorious ones "before God" it means that they are avoiding rebuking them because they are conscious that they are in view of God.

However, if you were to say this is a strange translation choice, I would agree, because I'm not sure the verse meant that. Do you see a doctrinal bias here? I don't understand the reason for this change. It seems to me that probably the writer meant that angels, when giving an account before God (a report to him), do not speak badly of "glorious ones". If so, then the Society has definitely changed the sense of the passage.

4. Totally agree with you here. 14:8 is a good verse to show to JWs that it does matter when "lord" is replaced with "Jehovah".

11

How many of the GB helpers are "anointed"?

by Nostromo in

jw
friends

according to this list there are 29 helpers at the moment: https://jwleaks.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/jehovahs-witnesses-governing-body-committees.jpg.

i wonder how many of these are "anointed"?

all the current seven gb members were helpers first and then appointed to be gb members.

Apognophos

What you have just written isn't taught by any religion, let alone JW's!

Oh really?

*** w92 3/1 pp. 20-21 par. 17 The Day to Remember ***

What if some anointed ones fail to be integrity keepers? At this late hour, the number of such disloyal ones will no doubt be few. Reasonably, any replacement would come, not from among newly baptized ones, but from among those who have stuck with Jesus in his trials through many years of faithful service. The brilliant flashes of spiritual light that came through The Watchtower in the 1920’s and 1930’s indicate that the gathering of the remnant of anointed ones was practically completed during that period. Those ‘washing their robes and making them white in the blood of the Lamb’ since then have a different joyful hope. Through Christ, Jehovah’s spirit guides them to “fountains of waters of life” in the Paradise earth.

You have also given "generation" yet another new and twisted definition.

People on this board have as much of a problem with understanding the word "generation" as the Society does. Don't get me started on this. My usage of the word was perfectly acceptable.

11

How many of the GB helpers are "anointed"?

by Nostromo in

jw
friends

according to this list there are 29 helpers at the moment: https://jwleaks.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/jehovahs-witnesses-governing-body-committees.jpg.

i wonder how many of these are "anointed"?

all the current seven gb members were helpers first and then appointed to be gb members.

Apognophos

I didn't mean generation as in "a descendant of a previous anointed one", I was just referring to the fact that an anointed one would probably be replaced by someone from a younger generation because they likely "strayed" after some years, probably not after 2 or 3 years.

So if you imagine that the 1st century Christians populated the 1st generation of 144,000, and maybe the 2nd as well, and then things got corrupted and there were no anointed until Russell's time, you have about four generations of "true worshippers" up until now from which to keep picking replacements as a previous anointed one loses his appointment before "finishing his earthly course".

I wasn't aware that this explanation was ever formally rejected by the Society. As far as your assertion that the numbers would have to remain level or drop in order to support this theory, that would only be true if all rejected-and-replaced anointed ones ceased partaking.