Posts by OHappyDay

21

New BOE Letter Arrives

by Farkel in

this is a typed copy of a new boe letter i recently received from one of my sources: .

dear brothers, .

you will soon make several changes to our current literature arrangement.

OHappyDay

April Fool!!!

Real BOE letters are never signed "The Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses."

They also contain address and phone number.

32

JW's hold Caucus on Sex Abuse

by DevonMcBride in

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,115410,00.html

jehovah's witnesses hold caucus on sex abuse

saturday, march 27, 2004

There was an attempt to discuss the news article on a "loyal" Witness website that was quickly shut down. Even though millions of other people who read newspapers could talk about it, "loyal" Witnesses could not!

More hiding of heads in the sand. More refusing to look at our problems. More imposed silence.

Isn't that what got us in this mess in the first place???

38

Comments You Will Not Hear at the 3-21-04 WT Study

by blondie in

comments you will not hear at the 3-21-04 wt study

review comments will be in black and parentheses ().

1 corinthians 7:29 (nwt) moreover, this i say, brothers, the time left is reduced.

OHappyDay

I come here because when I study the WT now, I find myself arguing with it more than studying it. Some things just don't make sense.

I followed the Society's suggestion last year and read the whole Bible through from Genesis to Revelation. Rather than convincing me that the Society is right, I became more and more aware of ways in which we deviate from what the Bible says. That is quite disturbing.

I came from "the world" many years ago and nothing there compels me to return. But the "spiritual paradise" isn't looking so great either.

Why can't we Witnesses just accept the Bible for what it says, if we claim to be Christians? Organization-worship is getting on my nerves. One Trinity (Jehovah-Jesus-the Organization) is no better than the other (Father, Son, Holy Ghost).

41

Comments You Won't Hear at the 3-28-04 WT Study

by blondie in

comments you will not hear at the 03-28-04 wt study

review comments will be in black and parentheses ().

wt quotes will be in red and quotes "".

OHappyDay

Blondie, your research is incomparable!

As I indicated in the thread I started while awaiting your excellent post ("Beware the Pornographic WT Study"), I thought this WT study lesson was unncessarily graphic in places, given the audiences at our meetings.

And I continue to wonder about the emphasis of late on masturbation, something the Bible does not mention at all. Surely it was known from ancient times. Maybe it is a problem at Bethel?

Once not broad enough in its definition of porneia, I think the Society has overdone it in the other direction, wanting to make everything sexual without marriage "porneia." Though the word originally was tied to houses of prostitution, words change over time in all languages. Defining it in relation to what may occur in a "house of prostitution" (Where? Among the Greeks? Among the Jews? Among the Romans?) is just too elastic.

20

The king of eternity and the eternal house

by Leolaia in

in jeremiah 10:10, yahweh bears two titles that are placed in parallelism: mlk 'wlm "eternal king" and hw'-'lhym chyym "the living god".

in canaanite literature, 'llm or olam is an epithet that the aged father god el specifically bears, in addition to ab-shanem "father of years," elyon "most high", shaddai "mountain-dweller," and others.

however the rephaim, the dead ancestor kings in the netherworld, may also lay claim to 'llm in their kingship.

OHappyDay

I'm really not interested in the comparative religion thing. Too many holes in it, in my opinion. But I wonder if in your researches in ANE literature or archaeology has turned up anything in answer to what I am interested in: the derivation, meaning, and correct pronunciation of YHWH in the Hebrew Bible?

You use "Yahweh," yet you must surely know that "Yahweh" is but a scholarly conjecture. Does anything more concrete exist, from your research?

Thanks.

20

JW perception of Armageddon's Iminence

by FirstInLine in

i am wondering how iminent did armageddon seem when you were jws?

how iminent does the wts feel it is today?.

i recall that for me it seemed that it could happen at any moment.

OHappyDay

In fairness, it should be said that this is not just a problem or failing of Jehovah's Witnesses. The New Testament makes it clear that Christians have expected the return of Christ almost from the moment he went away, and that they expected the End in their days...and almost every era since the First Century. They were all disappointed.

Somewhere along the way, Christians decided, perhaps to keep their sanity, to just live the best life they could, and to leave the End in God's hands.

Jehovah's Witnesses have not yet appreciated the wisdom of this. But how long can the boy cry "Wolf!" and no wolf appears, before people just lose interest and stop listening?

168

The UN Posts Their Letter!

by jgnat in

did our letter-writing campaign work?

http://www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/watchtower.pdf.

here are some lovely instructions drafted by syn, and hosted by valis, on how to navigate to the site yourself.. http://www.sassquatch.com/syn/un_ngo_letter/.

OHappyDay

FWIW, I saw this link first on a "loyal" Witness site. I assume we still do not see the "scandal" of it all.

Maybe some of us even secretly see a UN-Watchtower alliance as a good thing, despite the official policy.

UN secretary-general Kofi Annan looks proudly from page 7 of the March 22, 2004 Awake! magazine, right beside a quote of his words that would appear to be giving a heads-up to God's Kingdom.

Maybe the left hand just doesn't know what the right hand is doing. (Matthew 6:3)

35

Is Jehovah an invention of Jewish imagination??? The fact seem obvious!

by frankiespeakin in

yes, if we think of god as a "transcendant" above everything and then when we think of the biblical jehovah, we come up short 51 cards of a deck of 52.

he is so human,,,, come on,,,,, that to me is proof enough of the preposition that he is just the:

"figment of the jewish imagination"

OHappyDay

I strongly disagree. Why would the Jews create a god who would give them so much grief? Destructions, exiling, annihilations, plagues, pestilences, frequent punishments, even Holocausts?

One could just as easily read the Old Testament to say that Jehovah didn't like the Jews very much. Or rather than God being in man's image, man is in God's image.

3

A Great Scripture!

by Beans in

what if every jehovah's witness could apply this scripture when pondering questions?.

1st thessalonians 5:21. prove all things; hold fast that which is good.. beans.

http://quotes.watchtower.ca

OHappyDay

We are taught to apply those scriptures to only to what other people say while accepting without question what our own leaders teach.

Nice little arrangement, eh?

37

Are JW's embarrassed by faith in Jesus?

by eyeslice in

i think i posted the fact that i suddenly stopped attending all the meetings, field service and all, very suddenly.

not a single meeting this year.

i guess i would describe myself now as a sort of little toe guy, a liberal christian.. of course, i have had all the elder visits asking me how i am doing etc.

OHappyDay

It's hard to have two Saviors. Christendom opts for the one, Jesus, while we opt for the other, Jehovah. I remember that when I first saw the illustration of the shepherd on the back of the Draw Close to Jehovah book, I thought it was an illustration of Jesus. But no, the book relates it to Jehovah. (In the Bible, both Jehovah and Jesus are called "shepherds.")

So, since it's hard to love two, there is gravitation toward either Jehovah or Jesus. Or, in the case of many sects, to make the two one, Jehovah of the OT = Jesus of the NT.

In our case, I blame Joseph Rutherford. He's the one who named us Jehovah's Witnesses, whereas the New Testament says we should be Jesus' Witnesses. (Acts 1:8) From that point on, our focus has been on Jehovah, with Jesus running a poor second.