documents produced during the second temple period included writings such as 1 enoch, jubilees, and sirach.
apostle paul lived during the very late stage of that period.the first century jews, including those who accepted jesus as the promised messiah, regarded these writings very highly.this list provides the locations in the new testament documents that either cite or allude to these second temple writings.. http://www.jwstudies.com/nt_citation_and_allusions_to_apocrypha.pdf .
And it was humans and not any God that decided what was Inspired Scripture and what was Apocrypha .
The JW Org stance, illogical as usual, is where such works are quoted from, those words are "inspired" but not the whole work that is the source !
So very true Phizzy
since leaving the jw's after over 4 decades, i can see exactly what it is and hate everything it stands for.
however, there are still some jw habits and traits that i can't get rid of:.
1. i can't swear in general conversation (i'd have to be really angry).
I think I have thrown them all on the scrap heap and discarded them all.
Their is no God
No devil
No God`s people on earth ( J.W.`s )
and no big "A" coming
So what is their to fear ?
The only thing I do agree with is the principle of Romans 13 : 1-7 but just leaving God out of the equation .
many people over many centuries have been involved in deciding which documents were scripture.
there has never been unanimous agreement, including today.
only the church of rome took a vote on the canon.
When I look back on it , imperfect human beings are the one`s that determine what is inspired and true scripture and the Almighty God Jehovah has no say in it ,he is mute.
How crazy is that ?
And what is more crazy is that the Jehovah`s Witnesses / WTB&TS accept the books that the Catholic Church deemed as inspired Scriptures. ? And aligned themselves up with the Protestant religions who also accepted the Catholic books with a few exceptions ?
And in all of that Jehovah God never uttered a word.
i.b.s.a.
were all about witnessing to, for ,and about jesus christ and not jehovah.
, c.t russell started the magazine titled " zions watchtower and herald of christs presence" in the late 1870`s .. stating that jesus christ had appeared invisibly on his return in 1874 and was now present in the heavens.so according to them at the time they could rightly say as the wt pronounced they were heralding jesus christs presence then.. charles taze russell and his followers were witnesses of jesus christ and not witnesses of jehovah.. the christian greek scriptures /new testament are full of the prime purpose of christians is to witness about ,too, and for the person/ name jesus , that has been given above any other name either in heaven ,on earth ,or under the earth phil.2:10. it was only the usurper of c.t.russell joseph rutherford who hijacked the religion and made it a jehovian/old testament religion shifting the emphasis away from jesus christ and putting it on a catholic name of the "old testament god jehovah" invented by a 13th century monk using the four letters of the tetragrammaton into latin and adding some vowels to come up with the name jehovah.. no where in the christian greek scriptures the new testament are followers of jesus christ told to be witnesses of jehovah ,however countless times at least (20+) they are told to be witnesses of jesus christ..
A P.O./ Elder I was witnessing with some 50 years ago told me that the Berean Bible Institute was an off-shoot of C.T.Russell`s I.B.S.A. this was in Melb. Aust. in the 1960`s
And that they still clung to Russell`s teachings .
I believe they are still based in Rosanna an outer suburb of Melbourne Australia.
Do you know anything about that Giordano ?
i.b.s.a.
were all about witnessing to, for ,and about jesus christ and not jehovah.
, c.t russell started the magazine titled " zions watchtower and herald of christs presence" in the late 1870`s .. stating that jesus christ had appeared invisibly on his return in 1874 and was now present in the heavens.so according to them at the time they could rightly say as the wt pronounced they were heralding jesus christs presence then.. charles taze russell and his followers were witnesses of jesus christ and not witnesses of jehovah.. the christian greek scriptures /new testament are full of the prime purpose of christians is to witness about ,too, and for the person/ name jesus , that has been given above any other name either in heaven ,on earth ,or under the earth phil.2:10. it was only the usurper of c.t.russell joseph rutherford who hijacked the religion and made it a jehovian/old testament religion shifting the emphasis away from jesus christ and putting it on a catholic name of the "old testament god jehovah" invented by a 13th century monk using the four letters of the tetragrammaton into latin and adding some vowels to come up with the name jehovah.. no where in the christian greek scriptures the new testament are followers of jesus christ told to be witnesses of jehovah ,however countless times at least (20+) they are told to be witnesses of jesus christ..
I.B.S.A. were all about witnessing to, for ,and about Jesus Christ and not Jehovah. , C.T Russell started the magazine titled " Zions WatchTower and Herald of Christs Presence" in the late 1870`s .
Stating that Jesus Christ had appeared invisibly on his return in 1874 and was now present in the heavens.so according to them at the time they could rightly say as the WT pronounced they were heralding Jesus Christs presence then.
Charles Taze Russell and his followers were witnesses of Jesus Christ and not witnesses of Jehovah.
The Christian Greek Scriptures /New Testament are full of the prime purpose of Christians is to witness about ,too, and for the person/ name Jesus , that has been given above any other name either in heaven ,on earth ,or under the earth Phil.2:10
It was only the usurper of C.T.Russell Joseph Rutherford who hijacked the religion and made it a Jehovian/Old Testament religion shifting the emphasis away from Jesus Christ and putting it on a catholic name of the "Old Testament God Jehovah" invented by a 13th century monk using the four letters of the Tetragrammaton into Latin and adding some vowels to come up with the name Jehovah.
No where in the Christian Greek Scriptures the New Testament are followers of Jesus Christ told to be witnesses of Jehovah ,however countless times at least (20+) they are told to be witnesses of Jesus Christ.
check out the oct 2018 wt study on 100 years since 1918. .
"at this meeting, held on january 5, 1918, several prominent men who had been dismissed from bethel attempted to gain control of the organization.
richard h. barber, a faithful traveling overseer, opened the meeting with prayer.
Any organization that is so embarrassed about its past and seeks to cover it over, is not an honest one.
Ain`t that the truth.
It is indeed yet another example of "white washing" and "re-writing" of JW history!
They have no shame lying bastards that they are.
this is my 192nd post, so i thought it'd be fitting to ask a somewhat banal question which i've occasionally pondered over the years.
does anyone know what's behind the wt's penchant for 192-page books?
is there some kind of logistical reason for this?
guilt is such a wonderful tool used by the jehovah’s witnesses.
one of the terms they love to use is the term “blood guilty.” they have actually used this term to guilt their members into doing more and more “house to house activity” yes, they have said on numerous occasions at their kingdom halls and other major gathering that a person “could be blood guilty” for not going out in the field service activity enough.
the reason is simple.
If anyone is to be accountable for being "blood guilty" its none other than Jehovah God and his worshipers Jehovah`s Witnesses /Governing Body.
Jehovah God : Just a casual look at the "Old Testament" and the "New Testament" shows how much blood was shed and will be shed by Jehovah God himself and Christ Jesus.
Of both man and beast :
The millions of people man woman and child that was destroyed in the flood of Noah`s day.
All of the animal/bird sacrifices that were offered up to Jehovah in the New testament , as an example of one incident in 1 Kings 8: 63-64 , "twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep were slaughtered" as burnt sacrifices to Jehovah.
a bit over the top dont you think ?
Jehovah`s Witnesses /governing body :
They are blood guilty for their bad medical advice from early on : advice against vaccinations of deadly diseases ,against organ transplants ,and especially against blood transfusions and blood products which they have now partly accepted highlighting their hypocrisy .
How can the G.B. accept blood fractions as approved when such fractions are derived from blood donated by non witnesses then stored in a blood bank and then processed in a laboratory into fractions and that is then acceptable for Jehovah`s witnesses to take.?
I have had J.W`s say to me "I would never take it " but they miss the point their Governing Body says its O.K.
one of the recent threads on the talk about the hailstone message got me to thinking.
the problem with putting out a message like that is what to do when nothing happens.
i have to think that somebody will be asking that question.
The Governing Body will not actually instruct the "Witnesses" to preach a message of doom ,it is one of those things that is going to happen in the "near future" keeping the flock in expectation of what`s going to occur .
However it will never happen for the very reason doing so puts an end time line on their religion .
But then again having said that they did publish in the 1970`s ? "Babylon The Great has Fallen Gods Kingdom Rules " and saying that false religion, Christendom and non Christian religions , has had its day and was being abandoned by the masses since 1919 ?
Yet their is no evidence of that today in 2018 is there.
Muslims have over 1 Billion members and still growing
Catholics are over 1 Billion members
Protestants are over 1 Billion members
Non Christian religions would have to be in the Billions ? surely
So even if they did start preaching a message of doom it would go the same way of all of their other many failed predictions they have made in their 100+ history
the leaders of the witnesses are preparing their flock for the day when they will have to give that last message of damnation.
they will soon be announcing how their loving god jehovah will soon becoming to kill off the vast majority of mankind.
billions of men women and children,.
When you put it like that Jan I guess your right.:Not only did they come away unscathed about 1975 ,they also got away with 1914, The end of this system of things, 1925 ,The resurrection of the faithful men such as Abraham ,Isaac , and Jacob all to be housed and living in the Mansion Beth- Sarim that of course was where "Judge" Rutherford lived ,and then there was the expectation that the "New System" would be here by the end of the 20th Century , none of which ever eventuated .
