Posts by Apognophos

I appreciate your thoughts, Joe. I am still fading myself, so I can't yet speak against JWs to their face even if I want to, but I know I will have a hard time with that in the future because I'm a timid person and it's hard to hurt someone's feelings who is just being sincere. But I agree that, having the knowledge we do, it's something of a responsibility to speak against ignorance and oppression. It's actually a positive way to contribute to society. I do wonder, though, if it's effective to speak directly to JWs, or if the most effect we can have is speaking to ones who don't know them and might one day get hooked if they don't know better. To let people know about the end-times craziness and half-baked doctrines and what happens when they turn against one of their own.

35

who has actually read the entire Bible?

by losingit in

no matter how many times i've tried, i just couldn't get through the whole thing.

you know, there were always those reminders to read the bible, have a personal study, go out in service, and.... the other two of the five things we were supposed to do i already forgot.

so, i constantly felt guilty that i just had no interest.

Apognophos

and the second time 3 years ago and realised the little flock was Jews and the great crowd gentiles.

Isn't that a kicker? Reading with an open mind, without the WT providing a framework and guidelines for how to interpret what we're reading, it's suddenly so obvious that Jesus (or more likely, a later writer legitimizing the ministry to the Gentiles) was referring to Jews and Gentiles. How could anything else have been intended?

I am a bit embarrassed to say that I never came close to reading the whole Bible. I don't think I ever did a single day of Bible reading. I liked the ideas in the Bible but I suppose I was too selfish with my free time to spend any of it actually reading the Bible.

16

Jesus and the universal sovereignty issue

by Laika in

compare: (http://m.wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1102005142 - emphases mine).

... satan charged god with lying and implied that jehovah was unfair in not letting adam and eve decide for themselves what was right and what was wrong.

after adam and eve sinned and as the earth began to be filled with their offspring, satan questioned the motive of all humans.

Apognophos

Some posters are tone-deaf

I appreciated your point, Laika. Paul did not believe that God could be challenged by anyone. It's amazing how, the more I get out from under the WT's mental control, the more I see that the Bible fails to spell out many of the things that we were taught constituted the message of the Bible, such as the issue of universal sovereignty.

14

A really great video on the original pronunciation of Shakespeare (only about 10 1/2 min.)

by MeanMrMustard in

this is a really great video about how the original pronunciation of a language, during the time a play was written and performed, can affect the feeling and meaning.

i thought it was interesting.

enjoy!.

Apognophos

I was tempted to post something like this in response to cofty's (joking?) remark about Americans not knowing how to pronounce things. British English, especially RP, is further removed from the English of Shakespeare's time than our colonial English (especially in the exurban areas of the Northeast, in the Midwest, and on the West Coast). Of course some things have shifted away from proper pronunciation, too, like "fertile" becoming "fertle", and some changes took place on both sides of the pond, like "proved" being "pruvd" in Shakespeare's OP and now being "prooved" in both the U.S. and England.

16

Jesus and the universal sovereignty issue

by Laika in

compare: (http://m.wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1102005142 - emphases mine).

... satan charged god with lying and implied that jehovah was unfair in not letting adam and eve decide for themselves what was right and what was wrong.

after adam and eve sinned and as the earth began to be filled with their offspring, satan questioned the motive of all humans.

Apognophos

It would seem like Jesus, at the latest, solved the issue by living a perfectly faithful life. At the earliest, Abel or Seth should have proven it as soon as they finished their life as faithful servants of God. Not really sure why millions of people have to be faithful to answer for two people who screwed up.

66

Personality of "Anointed" JWs

by Smiles in

did you notice any similarities in the personalities of "anointed" jws?.

did they use their anointed status for personal advantage?.

were they the most loving person you ever met?.

Apognophos

I've only gotten to know one anointed brother well. He is considered a likeable and jolly chap, but most definitely eccentric and always slightly politically incorrect in a mischievous way. One thing I can say about him is that he puts on zero airs, drawing no attention to himself. He spent his youth pioneering and is now serving the Society in a high capacity, so I imagine at some point he had an experience (maybe a vivid dream) that genuinely led him to believe he had been chosen. I've never actually seen him partake because he is always getting invited to other congregations to give the Memorial talk.

74

Are JWs more negative than normal people?

by Julia Orwell in

jw
friends

compare a typical conversation with a jw to one with a random non-jw:.

run into jw in the shops.. .

jw:[surprised] julia!

Apognophos

Nah, God's going to clean that up with birds, remember? Or antimatter. Probably antimatter.

22

Apostate article in new December 15, 2013 Watchtower lead article major contradiction of featured scripture 2 Thess. 2:1,2

by Poindexter Lionel Humperdique in

the below is the title and theme scripture of the lead article in the latest watchtower about apostates.

notice that the watchtower is unknowingly labeling themselves as an apostate, as the man of lawlessness, as we briefly review the context of its own theme scripture.. .

avoid being quickly shaken from your reason!.

Apognophos

I might agree with you that the WT has missed the meaning of the scripture or is misusing it, but a quick check of BibleHub's interlinear shows the word in question to be "kyrios": http://biblehub.com/interlinear/2_thessalonians/2-2.htm

However, I agree that "kyrios" is supposed to be Christ, not Jehovah.

19

Rutherford banned singing at the meetings in 1938 - Knorr reintroduced it in 1944

by slimboyfat in

...which is just one of the interesting facts discussed in this essay on the history of singing in the jw religion.

.

http://www.cesnur.org/2013/swe-chryssides.pdf.

Apognophos

God didn't like music from 1938-1944.

When he changed his mind and decided he liked music again, he let WT know.

That's because he got a headache in 1938. Being a godly headache, it was infinitely strong, thus he needed a few years to develop infinitely strong aspirin to counteract it.