TD

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Posts by TD

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  29

  The Great Crowd

  by buffalosrfree in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  was talking with wife a day or so ago and she asked me a question on the w.t.

  for sunday, it had to do with the annointed and malachi 3:17 being applicable in a modern day fulfillment and also for the great crowd, the question went something liek this "in principal, how is the great crowd part of the prophecy of malachi 3:17?

  well when opportunity knocks you had better open the door, so i says well turn here to rev 7:14 she of course had to read it too, so i told her there is no great crowd, has the great tribulation happened?

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  TD

  A little JW history....

  When the doctrine was first introduced in 1935, it was thought that the "great tribulation" had already started with WWI and that they were in the "eye of the tornado" as it were. (This is how they understood the days being "cut short")

  They really, truly thought at the time that the "Jonadabs" had "come out" of the "great tribulation."

  When this was changed, many years later, (early 70's) and the "great tribulation" became entirely a future event, all that could truly be said was that persons with the "earthly hope" were prospective members of the "great crowd" (As Onacruse points out.)

  However this inseparably tied the "great crowd" doctrine to the old understanding of the "generation" like siamese twins. What had made the identification of these prospective members of the "great crowd" possible in 1935 was the proximity of the end.

  To even be a prospective member of the "great crowd" you have to at least live to see it. --Else there is not and never was an "prospect" of surviving it. In other words, if a final generation before the end cannot be identified, then neither can the "great crowd" be identified.
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  15

  1914 Has Been Strongly Re-emphasized ( Oct 1 WT)

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  to all you people who naively think that the geezers at watchtower central are slacking off.

  from 1914, i've got bad news:.

  they are emphasizing it strongly, as if to quell any thoughts about its abandonment.. the oct 1 watchtower with the cover "do you recognize the sign?

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  TD

  For my money, the bigger problem facing the WT is the 1935 date. Assuming that someone would need to be near-adult to be eligible for "anointing", the youngest of the "truly anointed, not replacements" would be 85 years old this year.

  I think this is a huge problem with several facets.

  Besides the age of the so-called "truly anointed" today, another aspect of this problem is the gradual emergence of a third "class" of Christians that JW theology does not account for as more and more of those that were supposedly members of the "great crowd" die off.

  I don't imagine this is causing the leadership a huge problem yet, because the average, brain-dead JW does not understand the concept of Christian salvation, and therefore doesn't grasp the problem with a whole class of Christians that don't directly benefit from the Ransom at all.

  Eventually though, even the rank and file will start to wonder exactly what the "benefit" in being a JW really is. For example, what is the difference today between a non-anointed JW who died in a concentration camp and a guard in the same concentration camp now that they are both dead? JW's teach a two-class system of salvation. However this JW attained neither. He did not set aside his earthly body for the crown of heavenly life and he did not survive the "great tribulation." He's no better off than those in pre-Christian times. In fact, he's no better off than the man who kept him imprisoned.
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  349

  The 1914 Doctrine and The Threat of the Egibi Business Tablets

  by VM44 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  could the watchtower and the jehovah's witnesses survive the discarding of their 1914 doctrine?

  the doctrine that in 1914 the end of the gentile times took place, jesus took up rule in heaven.

  for some reason the jws think the outbreak of world war i in 1914 is proof their prophetic calculations were correct.

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  TD

  Could The Watchtower and the Jehovah's Witnesses survive the discarding of their 1914 doctrine?

  Contrary to much popular opinion, my answer is an emphatic YES!

  Yes. In fact "this generation" will see it.
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  10

  Parousia

  by TheListener in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  .

  has anyone done an exhausive research paper on parousia?

  anything like what leolaia did for the words stauros and xulon.. any information would be useful.

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  TD

  Here's a link to a conversation on B-Greek some time ago:

  http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/test-archives/html4/1995-08/10312.html
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  23

  Why Do We Enjoy Being Baited By Pro-Watchtowerites?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are we sick or what?

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  TD

  ...Because it's about the closest thing there is to going back in time and talking to an earlier version of yourself.
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  151

  Questions for Jgnat

  by Shining One in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jgnat, .

  you had some points that i missed in a previous thread.

  here are my answers to your charges.

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  TD

  I ask anyone here: How can one claim to be a Christian yet reject key portions of scripture which have been interpreted properly?

  Rex,

  I think you're allowing too much of the argument to manifest itself in your questions

  What scriptures? What key portions? What interpretation? Proper according to whom?
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  151

  Questions for Jgnat

  by Shining One in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jgnat, .

  you had some points that i missed in a previous thread.

  here are my answers to your charges.

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  TD
• 
  151

  Questions for Jgnat

  by Shining One in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jgnat, .

  you had some points that i missed in a previous thread.

  here are my answers to your charges.

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  TD

  What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?
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  20

  How Does The Watchtower "Dumb Down" Jehovah's Witnesses?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  .

  do you see how they take away individuality and the allowance of personal comments from the group?

  what other ways do you see that they keep the witnesses "dumb"?

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  TD

  Things that have changed for the dumber in Dubdumb over the years:

  1. The "Reading Assignment"

  2. Reading the paragraph BEFORE the questions are asked

  3. Grading your own Written Review

  4. Forbidding outside information in assignments and comments

  5. Progressively more pictures & less text with each passing year

  6. Progressive vocabulary reduction year after year (Ostensibly for "ease" of translation.)

  7. Less and less adaptation in doctrine. Constant regurgitation of old material
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  26

  QUOTES and "Breach of contract"

  by hamsterbait in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  in the writ just served on quotes, one item seems to stand out.. if they claim that as a baptized dub, when he left he was in breach by quoting their literature, does this tell us that the new baptism vows mean that the candidate has entered into a contract in association with the organization?

  after all contractual partners in business are referred to as "associates".

  if this is the case the legal ramifications are interesting.. .

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  TD

  It may be like many of the copyrighted maps. With Rand McNally there are built in errors in streets that "only" they know about, unless you happen accross the error in using the map. So if the map is replicated they can prove it was originally theirs and hence copyright infringement.

  Yes, that's a "canary trap." They're commonly used in reference works that could easily be plagiarized. (e.g. Encyclopedias) --Some obscure little entry that is deliberately wrong or fictitious. If a competitor includes it in their product, it proves beyond doubt that they were copying instead of doing their own research. It's also a handy tool for tracing the source of a "leak" in situations where secrecy is required. (e.g. Everyone in the boardroom is given a slightly different version of the same basic information.) Deliberate deviations in text on the WTLIB CD could be made to serve a similar purpose, proving that the disputed material comes from the CD and not the original.