Apognophos

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Posts by Apognophos

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  69

  Do You Believe In ANYTHING That The Witnesses Taught At This Point In Your Life?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for example, they pride themselves in what they don't believe such as immortal souls, the trinity, hellfire, etc.. some exjws still believe it is the "truth" and support the basics.. .

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  Apognophos

  @TMS: I actually LOLed at that, thanks.
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  13

  mass apostasy among anointed ones... ???

  by Albert Einstein in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the number of partaking at the memorial is increasiong.

  the usual explanaition is, that the new partaking anointed ones are replacements for the "unfaithfull" previous anionted.. what is confusing me, ... looking at the numbers of newly partaking each year .... , to see how many former anointed ones must have proved uinfaithful .... over 10% each year????

  what did they commit?

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  Apognophos

  Well, Judas Iscariot was picked by Jesus himself and look how that turned out ;)
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  61

  2013 District Convention Program: ‘God’s Word is Truth!’

  by bats in the belfry in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

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  unlike god's word, that jws believe to be absolute truth, any one of their directives given at the 2013 district convention could be subject to misinterpretation.. .

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  Apognophos

  @whatthehadas: Amen!
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  43

  "They went out from us, but they were not of our sort..." - worst ever scripture to lead an anti-apostate talk?

  by cedars in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the program for the 2013 convention series has been drawn to my attention.

  here is a link to it.... http://www.jw.org/download/?fileformat=pdf&output=html&pub=co-pgm13&langwritten=e&option=trgchlzrqvnyvrxf&txtcmslang=e.

  there is a saturday morning symposium on "apostates.

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  Apognophos

  Is anyone else seeing in the forum index that the last post in this thread was by cedars five hours ago? Well, I guess you won't now that I posted. Just wondering why I don't see a post by him.

  Edit: Oh, wow, that must have been a forum bug. There was no third page to this thread until I posted and saw cedars' post above mine. I had specifically thought of this possibility, that there was a missing page, and tested the Next button before making my post, and it simply brought up page 2 again. Weeeeird.
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  66

  If 1914 is wrong then how is it that it was such a landmark year?

  by awakening in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is the question that came up in my mind.

  now dont get me wrong i know the dates from 607 - 1914 are rubbish, but how would you explain to a witness when they will automatically say, look at the momentus year 1914 was.

  that is evidence enough that 607 is correct!.

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  Apognophos

  The explanation for the mismatch between WWI's start and Oct. 1914 that I was familiar with was that the Devil had simply started trouble before getting cast down to Earth, possibly as a side effect of the heavenly war, or possibly to distract from Christ's coming (because goodness knows, how could we have missed his invisible coming otherwise...). But of course since Satan would have had control over Earth already before being cast down, this seemed like a plausible suggestion that couldn't really be disproven, like specific dating (607-1914) can be.
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  16

  Cyrus: Yahweh's anointed pagan and conquering ruler

  by M.J. in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i wonder about the wts's strict view of all worldly governments as ultimately under satan's rulership.

  in practice jws are led to take on an uncomprimising attitude of resentment and hostility toward "satanic" world governments, not mere neutrality, as they claim.

  i wonder about this in light of romans 13, where world governments are said to be appointed by god, a "minister of god to you for good.

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  Apognophos

  Yahweh was seen by Cyrus as a useful deity to recast in Mazda's image. There was already a sect in Judah that had unsuccessfully attempted to elevate Yahweh above the other gods. The reformer Nehemiah that returned to Judah was a Zoroastrian member of Cyrus's court entrusted with this project. Ezra likewise has a Zoroastrian theology simply replacing the name of the local deity Yahweh. The defete of Judah was attributed to the neglect of Yahweh and wayward kingship. Yahwehist priests like first Isaiah became hailed as true prophets for having warned that Yahweh was angry. From then on Yahweh slowly became the God par excellance in Judah.

  This is a fascinating suggestion, are there some reliable sources to back any of this?
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  80

  new member- my story

  by AndDontCallMeShirley in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  "that which can be asserted without evidence, can.

  be dismissed without evidence.

  " - christopher hitchens.

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  Apognophos

  Welcome, glad to have you here. Like you (but to a lesser extent), I was raised close to the core of the organization, and I think it is a curse and a blessing. The curse is that we tend to be held in longer; in my case, I only had doctrinal issues to cause me to doubt, not the actions of any brothers or sisters, because I either didn't see the problems or it was a "strong" congregation (probably more the former). So it took me a long time to be willing to read apostate sites (again, it was largely JWfacts for me too! We really need to buy Paul Grundy something to show our gratitude!). And the momentum that comes with being the latest in a long line of Witnesses also holds one captive longer.

  But the blessing is that we have a clearer view of what we are leaving in the rear-view mirror and don't need to rely as much on others' accounts of what the Society is like at its core or what the flaws are in the doctrines. If we didn't have that firsthand experience, we might fade away but still think in some corner of our hearts that "maybe it's the truth"; in other words, perhaps being so close is what forces us to free ourselves so thoroughly from the control they had over us. Objects in the mirror are not closer than they appear -- they're right where they belong!
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  49

  More decption in Feb 1 WT

  by why144000 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  how is this for deceptive writing.

  in the feb 1 2004 watchtower under the title 'how can you satisfy your spiritual needs' the artice gives three examples of professional people who have become witnesses, a doctor, a lawyer and an architect.

  all come complete with two pictures each.

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  Apognophos

  Did we ever get confirmation that this is really Vincent Toole and not one of 10,000 other lawyers named Vincent? Okay, fair enough, how many Witnesses named Vincent are lawyers, but still.
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  68

  Raphael Aron in The Age newspaper: Jehovah's Witnesses 'a cruel cult'

  by WinstonSmith in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this popped up on the age website today, might have to buy the paper tomorrow..... http://www.theage.com.au/national/jehovahs-witnesses-a-cruel-cult-20130315-2g5x3.html.

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  Apognophos

  I've been thinking the same as Aussie Oz, that the "myth" quote may be taken out of context. For instance, the original statement may have been that a specific aspect of shunning was a myth. Ask yourselves, is it logical that a lawyer would say something so obviously false, when there's plenty of literature lying around to disprove him? I'm waiting to see if the Society makes a response or tries to clarify what Toole was saying, before coming to any conclusions.
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  18

  Why Is This Video By Jehovah's Witnesses Sign Language Dept. So Wrong

  by BlindersOff1 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  sorry could not resist.

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  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2gsvcfrmjq&feature=youtu.be.

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  Apognophos

  I still can't believe this even happened. Why in heaven's name did anyone associated with that video think it was a good idea to sign that way?