why are you guys so obsessed with organizations?
there has to be order in the world and organised people!
Within JW Org can anyone remain without being punished if he finds it difficult to subscribe to one of their belief. When I said: "i dont' think 144000 is literal number" I had to face the iron-bar beating.
They are "organized" for what? To distort the truth
i was 11 years old and i was sitting at my desk in homeroom class when the student on my left, gregory, tapped me on my shoulder.. he held a folded note in his hand and was gesturing for me to take it.
he leaned toward my desk and whispered barely loud enough for me to hear,“pass this note to robbie.” robbie was the girl sitting on my right.. i took the note, unfolded it and read it just as gregory punched my arm.
a shout-whisper came along with the fist, “don’t read it, you moron!”i picked up my pencil and scribbled one word of my own and passed the note to robbie.. i had a crush on robbie and so did gregory bunn.
Terry,
You made the point. It is true even in its opposite sense. A comparison of the "faithful and discreet slave" in Mathew 24 and Luke 12 would show that it is the same "faithful and discreet slave" that later becomes "wicked" or abusers or exploiters. Yet they have not conveyed it, but conveyed exactly the opposite--just as happened in your school experience.
many who have watched the gb know that they seem to be desperate to be admired, to be looked up to…….
now the question arises—do they really enjoy their lives?
does their superiority complex make them feel good?.
Many who have watched the GB know that they seem to be desperate to be admired, to be looked up to……. Now the question arises—do they really enjoy their lives? Does their superiority complex make them feel good?
A recent study published in the Journal of Social Cognitive and Affective
Neuroscience tries to find an answer to this perplexing question by
looking at two brain regions: medial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum.
While the medial prefrontal cortex is associated with self-referential thinking,
the ventral striatum region is associated with feeling good. It was found that people
who are in love with themselves have poor connectivity between both regions
which means that although they are obsessed with themselves, internally they
don't feel good and that is why they seek external admiration.
That means they are actually experiencing “weeping and gnashing” deep within themselves. (Mathew 24:48-51)
not alot of love or respect for jesus, his apostles or his church from the jws.
.
did he build his church on sand or have fools in charge that couldn't get out of their own way?.
one is religion of terror (in its gross and subtle sense) which can be identified by their divisiveness which is actually violence.
all those religions which divide people into chosen ones and pagans come under this category.
those who teach eternal destruction or eternal hell for those who do not support a certain belief-system also depend upon terrorizing people.
One is religion of terror (in its gross and subtle sense) which can be identified by their divisiveness which is actually violence. All those religions which divide people into chosen ones and pagans come under this category. Those who teach eternal destruction or eternal hell for those who do not support a certain belief-system also depend upon terrorizing people.
The other is the true religion of self-transformation and compassion, and is without any name. It helps people evolve as better human beings with values of love, compassion and non-violence. They may or may not believe in any ideology, or God or not, but their behavior pattern will have a nourishing effect on the rest of the world.
l can understand why he did it because the money changers were charging high rates to trade their money for acceptable temple money.what a fine example in self control that sets.with respect to the money issue sounds a bit like the gb and their money grab (even childrens pocket money).
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This explains why Mark 12:43 (‘Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others’) is one of the most often quoted scriptures.
warning for those that are still believers... this train of thought will not be faith strengthening.... i have come a long way since first stumbling on crumbs of ttatt in 2012.
(i have not come nearly as far with the wife unfortunately, but such is life.
) my critical thinking ability, thankfully, is in another stratosphere since figuring out i was a jw lab rat.
Interesting part is that there are two contradictory accounts of creation one in Genesis chapter one, and other from Chapter 2 and 3 where we find the cooked up story of Adam and Eve. “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And 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.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26, 27) According to first creation account, male and female groups were simultaneously created. And also, the first meaning of the word Adam is mankind, not just a single man.
If we take second account of creation seriously, then there are many difficulties:
1. God, the source of all wisdom, will not act in dishonor of Himself. If God does not want them to eat from that particular tree, simple option is that such a tree should not be created in the first place! (It is like digging a big pit in the middle of an Express-Highway and asking the road-users to avoid falling into it.) Account does not glorify God in any way, because what God said (“in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”) did not take place. Bible says Adam lived for 930 years. (Genesis 5:3) And following the disobedience, in the affirmation of the punishment too God stresses harsher living, rather than the originally-decreed death. (Genesis 3:8-19) Story dishonors God in that He punished MORE severely the children of the violator, rather than the violator. For example, increasing of labour-pain given to Eve as punishment spread to all of her innocent children throughout the history. Some of them had to die in labour-room prematurely due to more pain than Eve experienced, thus delivering children with no mother to care for!
2. “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil” planted by God did not live up to its name. Because account says “when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat.” Sense of good or bad would have arisen in Eve only after eating the fruit of that tree, but here she got that sense even before eating it. Hence the question arises: Was it a literal tree?
3. If Satan is so smart as to scheme against God and his children, he would definitely choose some smart method, not a sub-standard temptation as in this case. It is too obvious that Adam and Eve who had already experienced God as their unlimited benefactor would never believe God as withholding something good from them, nor He is a liar, especially when such a malicious suggestion originated from a stranger—with a strange phenomenon—a snake with speaking ability! Also Satan contradicted only the effects of their disobedience, which of course further weakens his position, because prima facie, it is the Law-giver that knows the effects of disobedience, not the spectators who have never seen a violation before.
4. A) It is
unlikely that Adam and Eve would respond to such a lie the way they did. If
they wanted to know whether they would die without eating from the tree, it is
common sense that they should wait for sufficient time. For need of eating from that tree arises only when they are going
to die. Hence no one would choose to eat from that tree before such a need
arises. Waiting was safer option. While waiting, either of the two situations
will arise—they will continue to live on and on (in this case, they don’t have
to eat from that tree), or they will gradually sense that their body is moving
towards death (in this case, they can try that particular tree to avert death).
On the contrary, if they go ahead and eat from the tree, and thereafter find
that they are going to die, what will they do? They have no other option left
to try!
B) Adam and Eve who were perfect in their intelligence and
reason will not act so rashly with such a life-and-death matter. They will
definitely weigh the matter and see all the pros and cons of it. If they really
believed what Satan said, they still had another safer option. In their natural
wisdom, they would decide that one of them will try first, and after seeing the
result, would decide the course of action for the other. Suppose Eve ate first,
and then was going to succumb to death, Adam can avoid further testing, and
approach God and say what had really happened and request God to take action
against Satan, the liar, and deal with Eve mercifully as this was a matter of
curiosity and first instance. [Suppose! Your loving Father says there is a lion
in a nearby cave, and you and your wife should avoid going into
its vicinity Later a stranger contradicts your father. Will you and
your wife TOGETHER go straight into the cave to verify the presence of a lion
inside the cave? You have so many other options like the medical scientists who
try their newly-invented medicines on other species before they try on
themselves] Look at the imperfect, distant offspring of Adam and Eve—for
example Bank officials—how much checking and documentation they do before
sanctioning a loan to an applicant, before parting with the money entrusted to
them by others. In case of any doubt, they simply refuse to proceed!
when jerusalem was captured and its temple was burned by pagan king in 586 bce (or 607?
), it was a theological crisis for the jews.
then a concept of messiah (king-priest) who will restore everything was evolved.
Half banana,
Nicely expanded.
I liked your phrase: "a riot of visionary monotheism jam packed with Greek and not so philosophical mumbo-jumbo."
when jerusalem was captured and its temple was burned by pagan king in 586 bce (or 607?
), it was a theological crisis for the jews.
then a concept of messiah (king-priest) who will restore everything was evolved.
When Jerusalem was captured and its temple was burned by pagan king in 586 BCE (or 607?), it was a theological crisis for the Jews. Then a concept of Messiah (King-Priest) who will restore everything was evolved. When the messiah was murdered, it was further evolved into a teaching of ransom (as a sacrifice arranged by the “loving” Heavenly Father for the atonement of sins of mankind).
when fr.
tom for next day’s special dinner with pope and asked fr.
now, please sit for confession.” and pope had his confession with this instantly-reinstated priest fr.
When Fr. Paul (from US), a special invitee for a high-profile Vatican seminar, met Pope, after the function he asked: “How was the seminar?” Fr. Paul told Pope: “I have to talk to you about something else that disturbs my mind.” Yesterday I visited a small church near to my accommodation. In the vicinity of the church, I identified one of the beggars as ex-Fr. Tom who received Ordination along with me years back. He too identified me and remembered the good old days, but asked me to keep away from me “as I am a sinner.”
Pope instantly made a special note inviting ex-Fr. Tom for next day’s special dinner with Pope and asked Fr. Paul to hand-over the invitation (personally signed by Pope) to ex-Fr. Tom and ensure that he attends the dinner next day. Fr. Paul brought him to his room, gave him new dress and brought with him next day for the dinner with Pope. After the dinner, Pope took ex-Fr. Tom to his room and asked him: “I want to do Confession.” This was unbelievable for ex-Fr. Tom that Pope wants “me to sit for confession, that too of Pope.” He told Pope: “Never, I am a sinner, and I am no longer a priest.”
Pope said: “Using my authority, I am restoring you as priest and everything you lost. Now, please sit for confession.” And Pope had his confession with this instantly-reinstated priest Fr. Tom.
This incident was narrated to me by another Seminar delegate who is one of my fleshly relatives. When I heard about this, I was thinking—how much JWs denounce Catholic Church. In the 1990’s they had even a Watchtower cover page portraying Catholic Church as a prostitute. Yet see the difference in the response of Pope the head of the Catholic Church to an ex-priest and JWs response to ex-JW or an ex-Elder!
