Posts by DeWandelaar

268

After 2000 years since JC was executed ,why have we heard not a whisper from GOD ALMIGHTY ?

by smiddy in

he/she had no problem talking to adam and eve ,though they were sinners in his/her sight .throughout the hebrew sriptures, ot, he /she had no problem communicating with fallen man ,imperfect humans , to dictate his will to his subjects by means of prophets , male and female ,according to the bible , the old testament ,the hebrew scriptures , god communicated not once ,not twice ,not even thrice ,but dozens of times during the first 4000 years of human history according to the bible.. why has this god been so silent these past 2000 years ,when their have been atrocities above the scale of anything that has ever been seen these past 6000 years of human existence .. oh you may say that the atrocities were not committed by god they were committed by man.

fair enough .but god intervened in human affairs in such smaller infringements.

with prophets or so the bible says.. the so called apostacy after the last of the apostles , the influence of satan in the world ,( or was that after 1914 ,) and the 2000 year gap when christ was supposed to return ,never mind about all the crap that went before it .. the fact remains we have never heard from god ,any god, or even" a " god, with either his/her approval or disapproval of events good or bad these past 2000 years... smiddy.

DeWandelaar

@Cold Steel: have you personally seen him do the miracles? Have you seen him waking the dead? No... it is "history" according to you but "history" is written by people with an agenda. We all know the "history" of the JW as given by the JW's and as we are (fully) aware it is subject to heavy editing (and therefore flawed to say the least). Also the historybooks of all countries are subject to propaganda and do not always state the truth (they are actually filled with lies a lot of times). Is it so strange for us all to demand proof of truth? Truth can withstand everything remember?

The funny thing is that the Bible itself mocks with prophets: "acting like a prophet" was seen as "acting insane"! Now... funny thing is this: how many "insane" people that you know would tell you something and you would blindly trust their guidance? I mean: of all people in the world do you really think that God would give his word to "insane" people? The bible itself states it that way... not me!

Now a lot of people have called me insane... I think I actually might be a prophet then... and if I am: why are you trying to tell me I am wrong?

20

The Paradox of Using Miracles to Explain the Bible Accounts

by Comatose in

i've been thinking about this for a week or so.

ill try to lay it out as clearly as possible without getting to long winded and id like to hear your thoughts.. .

i know the biblical account of the flood has been discussed ad nauseum.

DeWandelaar

I God let Noah make a vessel to survive then his intentions were not to use a miracle... I mean... it does not make sense at all... What is actually more important to mention is the fact that the whole Genesis account has probably been written 600 BC. If it is written at that time then it is no wonder that you find a story about a tree with a serpent, a godlike (made in image of god) man and women, Nephilim and a flood since these stories can be found in other tales which we see as Myths.

Also the inconsistency of the Nephilim has always troubled me: the genesis account says this: The Nephilim 2 were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them.

So... the writer of the story gives us at least one reason why the flood was not at all that effective: the nephilim live after the floods as well. Also it states that the sons of God came in to the daughters of man (after the flood)! The whole reason for destroying the earth then is gone because of that sentence. "Proof (or at least the Biblical proof)" can be found later on AFTER the exodus: the Nephilim were still there and needed to be destroyed and even until the days of David there were still Nephilim. So: the flood IF it happened at a scale we read about, was not as effective as it should have been!

Now coming back to the paradox: God can do miracles and he could have easily killed the wicked persons by for example let their heart stop bleeding. He could have killed men without killing the animals etc etc etc. There is absolutely no reason why he would have used a flood for it.

268

After 2000 years since JC was executed ,why have we heard not a whisper from GOD ALMIGHTY ?

by smiddy in

he/she had no problem talking to adam and eve ,though they were sinners in his/her sight .throughout the hebrew sriptures, ot, he /she had no problem communicating with fallen man ,imperfect humans , to dictate his will to his subjects by means of prophets , male and female ,according to the bible , the old testament ,the hebrew scriptures , god communicated not once ,not twice ,not even thrice ,but dozens of times during the first 4000 years of human history according to the bible.. why has this god been so silent these past 2000 years ,when their have been atrocities above the scale of anything that has ever been seen these past 6000 years of human existence .. oh you may say that the atrocities were not committed by god they were committed by man.

fair enough .but god intervened in human affairs in such smaller infringements.

with prophets or so the bible says.. the so called apostacy after the last of the apostles , the influence of satan in the world ,( or was that after 1914 ,) and the 2000 year gap when christ was supposed to return ,never mind about all the crap that went before it .. the fact remains we have never heard from god ,any god, or even" a " god, with either his/her approval or disapproval of events good or bad these past 2000 years... smiddy.

DeWandelaar

@Adamah: I started the sentence with "in the Bible" ... that alone is already suggesting what you improved in my further writing. This due to the fact that English is not my native language. It means that I make mistakes in the texts. I am glad though that you still understood the point I was saying ;)

By the way: I DID see the Gorilla :P

22

A judge bans a child being called Messiah

by usualusername in

jw
friends

bbc news - us judge changes baby's name from messiah to martin.

what right does this judge have to change a babies name?

jerk.

DeWandelaar

You can always call your kid "North" (with last name: West) ... just like the Kardashian/West mixture

Funny about that one: she did not want to give him a name starting with a K because the kid might be bullied!

Shit for brains!

268

After 2000 years since JC was executed ,why have we heard not a whisper from GOD ALMIGHTY ?

by smiddy in

he/she had no problem talking to adam and eve ,though they were sinners in his/her sight .throughout the hebrew sriptures, ot, he /she had no problem communicating with fallen man ,imperfect humans , to dictate his will to his subjects by means of prophets , male and female ,according to the bible , the old testament ,the hebrew scriptures , god communicated not once ,not twice ,not even thrice ,but dozens of times during the first 4000 years of human history according to the bible.. why has this god been so silent these past 2000 years ,when their have been atrocities above the scale of anything that has ever been seen these past 6000 years of human existence .. oh you may say that the atrocities were not committed by god they were committed by man.

fair enough .but god intervened in human affairs in such smaller infringements.

with prophets or so the bible says.. the so called apostacy after the last of the apostles , the influence of satan in the world ,( or was that after 1914 ,) and the 2000 year gap when christ was supposed to return ,never mind about all the crap that went before it .. the fact remains we have never heard from god ,any god, or even" a " god, with either his/her approval or disapproval of events good or bad these past 2000 years... smiddy.

DeWandelaar

Let me say this:

In the bible God revealed himself to (a portion of) mankind ALL the time! The prophets he used backed their claim up with miracles etc. Even Jesus stated that his miracles where proof of his origin. In our time (for more then 2000 years mind!) we do not get proof of anything that helps us get faith. In order to have faith we need to be witnesses of something happening/occuring, right?

Now... in ALL generations that you see in the bible you see they wanted something of proof! Gideon got proof, Mozes got proof, John the Baptist got proof etc etc etc... Is it blasphemous to ask for proof then? Does it mean I do not believe or try to counterattack Holy Spirit? No... that is absolutely not the case! Why? According to the accounts in the Bible it isn't because asking for proof is no sin!!

I am not saying there is no God... I am just saying I would like to see proof so that I can follow his commands and will... I am willing and God knows I am willing!

Thing is also that people want to believe. The story of the priest that was praying for a girl after a carcrash was NOT seen by 69 persons and also not on any of the photo's... people believed it was an angel! ... 2 or 3 days later a bisshop claimed he was there and he did the prayers. So evidently 69 persons were fooled ALTHOUGH they had faith in something! Why? Because they saw NO evidence there was a human being around and saw it as evidence of the contrary. Now that is the big flaw of a lot of religious people: they think that if the answer to a question is NOT A then it MUST be answer B! Black and white thinking... cult-thinking.

I have heared more of these stories (a kid that almost fell from rolling stairs in a mall... a guy catched her and when the father wanted to thank him he was nowhere to be seen). Does it mean there was an angel? Well... the carcrash incident shows that if 69 persons can be fooled in believing something which isn't 1 man definitely could have a mental blind spot at that moment.

Do the above things mean I am mocking people? Absolutely not! I am not trying to let other people look like a fool ... there are a lot of reasons why these things can occur. In the situation of the car attack everyone is focussed on helping the girl! There is emotional stress... and when emotionally stressed people are in a "survival"-condition... they have a narrow focus. They could not have seen the guy even if he was using a megaphone of some sort because they were busy helping the girl.

Am I a non-believer all of a sudden? No... I am not... I just want to see some legitimate proof!

24

researching polytheism of the Jews

by DeWandelaar in

i was researching the history of the jews and in wikipedia it is said that in origin the jews were polytheists by default and became monotheist in a later period of time.

i was not aware of this (neither do many others) and am therefore putting some of my findings here:.

first of all the obvious things.

DeWandelaar

What is especially interesting is the fact that the bull was symbolic to El and his son Ba?al Hadad... It therefore makes a lot of sense why, of all animals, the animal that was made by Aaron (and Rehobeam later on) was actually a calf... it also shows that for some reason they took it from the Egyptians(?)... who probably took it from the Canaanites... And to what country was Israel going to? Canaan... and the circle is round again (at least in my mind :))

I must say that researching the hebrew texts make some things confusing. "El" is translated by "God" all the time and sometimes they do not use "El" but Elohim or the-Elohim... what I DO know is that the Hebrews actually copied a lot of things from other cultures...

I mean: if you look at the time of Jesus people where familiar with "Hades" and "Tartarus" while these things had not particurly to do with the Hebrew religion but have their roots from Greek Mythology (or even before that).

24

researching polytheism of the Jews

by DeWandelaar in

i was researching the history of the jews and in wikipedia it is said that in origin the jews were polytheists by default and became monotheist in a later period of time.

i was not aware of this (neither do many others) and am therefore putting some of my findings here:.

first of all the obvious things.

DeWandelaar

I was researching the history of the Jews and in wikipedia it is said that in origin the Jews were Polytheists by default and became monotheist in a later period of time. I was not aware of this (neither do many others) and am therefore putting some of my findings here:

First of all the obvious things. We read in the first book of the Bible that God is talking a lot in the Plural... like he is talking to himself...

Genesis 1:26 for example says: Then God said, o “Let us make man 8 in our image, p af after our likeness. And q let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Genesis 3:22 says “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

We continually see that God is talking in the plural... you also see this happening in the acts after the flood.

Now... who are the other gods? Who did the people believe in?

The less obvious things can be read in the following texts:

Genesis 33:20... Jakob makes an altar... 20 There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel. 6 (so who was Jakob making an altar for: JHWH? Or "El"?

Also read Genesis 35:7 and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, 1 because k there God (Elohim) had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.

Now the next text is even more interesting: Genesis 14:18

18 And tMelchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was upriest of vGod Most High.)

Now check this in the Interlinear translation:

I do see to-El ...

Have we ever looked closer to names like Israël? Daniel? ... They all have the deity-name "El" in their names.

Interesting isn't it?

268

After 2000 years since JC was executed ,why have we heard not a whisper from GOD ALMIGHTY ?

by smiddy in

he/she had no problem talking to adam and eve ,though they were sinners in his/her sight .throughout the hebrew sriptures, ot, he /she had no problem communicating with fallen man ,imperfect humans , to dictate his will to his subjects by means of prophets , male and female ,according to the bible , the old testament ,the hebrew scriptures , god communicated not once ,not twice ,not even thrice ,but dozens of times during the first 4000 years of human history according to the bible.. why has this god been so silent these past 2000 years ,when their have been atrocities above the scale of anything that has ever been seen these past 6000 years of human existence .. oh you may say that the atrocities were not committed by god they were committed by man.

fair enough .but god intervened in human affairs in such smaller infringements.

with prophets or so the bible says.. the so called apostacy after the last of the apostles , the influence of satan in the world ,( or was that after 1914 ,) and the 2000 year gap when christ was supposed to return ,never mind about all the crap that went before it .. the fact remains we have never heard from god ,any god, or even" a " god, with either his/her approval or disapproval of events good or bad these past 2000 years... smiddy.

DeWandelaar

I think that we as humans can be excused purely because of this fact alone: We do not have a single basis to purely trust something as true. I mean: the bible? The Qu'ran? All books/translations etc etc are flawed while for truth we need 100% proof.

We have no eyewitnessess these days of any Godlike events... I mean... how can I believe in someone or even be a friend of someone if he does not show himself to us? :( I WANT to... but it does not happen!

54

my first post and some questions

by wallievase in

this is my first post after deciding to finally open an account here after months of 'lurking'.. a couple of issues i want to address-.

i have issues with people who go from being a witness to losing all faith in god or the bible which seems to be the case with some members of this site.

i just don't think you can let any religion change how you view god or the bible.. second-i don't feel the gb are bad people, i think most witnesses including them are misguided by something that has been drilled into their heads since they were little and are actually sincere people.

DeWandelaar

Well... I want to hint at the process that is occuring to some (including me) after leaving the WT:

I was and still am a believer... however... There is coming more and more and more evidence that shows the flaws of books like the bible, the quran and other holy books. As they are written by men who made claims without wanting the burden of proof it simply can not be perfect. If something is NOT perfect it can NEVER contain 100% (or absolute) truth.

I am NOT saying there is no God and no hope for mankind... I am just saying that finding a loving God by reading the bible is actually very hard since a lot of actions that occur in the Bible are immoral according to normal human standards (raping women, killing children, genocide, punishing people severely for small and minor mistakes, the domination of women in general (saying that as a heterosexual male being), the contradictions in teaching etc etc. It is a whole bucketlist of flaws and immoral behaviour which we would not tolerate in our world today now would we?

Now... when first coming from the truth I was critical and knew that something was utterly wrong... but studying where it all started for Christians (the Bible) helped me to read the Bible without a voice of humans behind me saying how I should read it... without a voice saying it is perfect. I started to read this book critically and the history of different books. Therefore you start to see that some stories have a total different context... a whole different timeframe and in a lot of situations you might ask yourself who wrote the stories in the first place.

A good place to start such a study is by reading the Genesis account and to start studying the backgrounds... it may be an eyeopener that may lead to a better study of the scriptures in general.

22

A judge bans a child being called Messiah

by usualusername in

jw
friends

bbc news - us judge changes baby's name from messiah to martin.

what right does this judge have to change a babies name?

jerk.

DeWandelaar

I am not saying the reasoning is correct of the Judge. His beliefs should not matter... A am just saying he is doing the kid a favor! Even if parents rights are paramount in these matters they should have more sense then naming a kid that way.

What does strikes me that he gives a name instead of the "name" messiah. Now that is a line he should not have crossed. He could have said: you are not allowed to use the name "messiah" and let the people chose another name.

Sometimes you are not allowed to give kids certain names in a country. In the Netherlands for example it is forbidden to call your kid Hitler... well... we understand why don't we? Even if I had the right I would not name the child Hitler. Why the hell would I call my kid Messiah? "S