THE GLADIATOR

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Posts by THE GLADIATOR

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  37

  When "The Persecution" Comes - What a Let Down that turned out to be!

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  when i was young there was endless speculation about "the persecution".

  i have very clear memories as a child sitting in the old kingdom hall in coatbridge hearing it talked about from the platform.

  it was a frequent topic at home.. sometimes there was lurid detail about what sort of torture "they" might use against us to make us betray others.

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  THE GLADIATOR

  From my memoirs:

  Now brother Game was on the platform demonstrating how to use a reversible jacket. This was one of several things we could use to disguise ourselves and escape our pursuers when ‘under persecution.’ Apparently we were on the brink of the great tribulation, which would lead to the battle of Armageddon. Satan and his demons, knowing they were about to be taken prisoner by our God Jehovah, would cause terrible things to happen on earth. They would cause jealous people on earth to persecute us - the chosen ones.

  Now brother Game had produced a pair of glasses and a false beard. The audience was laughing, bemused by the entertainment, which was an improvement on the normal repetitious lectures. Despite the humour, I was concerned about the coming tribulation and needed to know more about what was going to happen. I decided to question father about it when we got home.

  As I drank tea, I asked. ‘At the Hall this evening, brother Game said we were soon going to be persecuted for our religion. What will Satan’s people do to us?’

  Father looked at me gravely and went on to explain. ‘You must be prepared for the worst. Many of us will be tortured and some killed. If you are captured and break down under torture, you might be tempted to give away the whereabouts of our brothers and sisters. You must be prepared to endure pain. Getting cold and tired going from door-to-door will help you to develop endurance, which will put you in good stead for the great tribulation . Holding out under torture will please Jehovah. If you pray hard enough and do as we tell you, he will protect you.’

  Scary stuff! It was all a bit like The French Resistance but we were to be fighting invisible forces.

  ‘But what if I do break down under torture?’ I asked fearfully.

  Father opened his Bible and read to me from two different passages. ‘You will not be tested beyond what you can bear.’ and ‘He that endures to the end is the one that will be saved.’ He showed me other verses confirming that the great tribulation was definitely on its way. It was all in the Bible so it must be true. I felt disturbed and fearful about what lay ahead. I was worried about my brothers and sister and my parents. The idea of them being tortured upset me and I was frightened myself. We had been waiting for some time for the great tribulation and Armageddon, when we were to be saved, but it was always a day away and we were beginning to wonder how long we would have to wait.
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  37

  When "The Persecution" Comes - What a Let Down that turned out to be!

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  when i was young there was endless speculation about "the persecution".

  i have very clear memories as a child sitting in the old kingdom hall in coatbridge hearing it talked about from the platform.

  it was a frequent topic at home.. sometimes there was lurid detail about what sort of torture "they" might use against us to make us betray others.

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  THE GLADIATOR
• 
  69

  Atheism and the delusion of meaning

  by Laika in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the movie annie hall, written by woody allen, as a young boy, alvy's mother, takes him to see a doctor as he appears to be dealing with some kind of depression.

  when the doctor asks alvy what's up, alvy explains that he just found out the universe is expanding, everything will spread out and go cold and die, therefore nothing he does matters, so he is not going to do anything anymore.

  most people might see this as a joke, but i think woody is trying to make a serious point.. the point here is about meaning.

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  THE GLADIATOR

  Laika For most of human history, humans have been too busy surviving to analyze the purpose of the universe. The problem began when humans developed an ego that could not accept its own demise and was unable to accept that life is not all about ourself.

  Life is the present moment. The present moment is all there is and all there ever will be until the end of time in this universe. Perhaps there are other universes that are just starting. We enjoy our moment in the sun along with some suffering and then we die of old age, like every other living thing in the world. Eventually even the stars will burn out.

  Accept what IS and cherish the fact that, at almost impossible odds, you made it on to planet earth, if only for a brief moment. In truth, who really wants to live forever?
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  261

  Evolution is Crap, there I said it!

  by Crazyguy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ok i started another thread and every one jumped on me because i was trying to take the theory of evolution out of the mix and most here seem to believe in it so i will just say it.

  the theory of major evolution is crap!

  the theory is falling apart.

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  THE GLADIATOR

  For a basic, non-pretentious explanation of how evolution works, you won’t do better than Richard Dawkins - The Magic of Reality. It contains is an uplifting an entertaining look at the natural world and shows how mankind has been influenced by endless myths and magical thinking while missing the beauty and wonder of reality.

  The bad news is that we do not individually live forever but return to dust. To live with the hope of eternity you will need to find a religion or become a gladiator.
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  22

  What is faith?

  by Seraphim23 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  [if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng /> </o:officedocumentsettings> </xml><![endif].

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  [endif][if gte mso 10]> <mce:style><!

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  THE GLADIATOR

  Faith usually starts out as excited expectation. People tend to have faith in things they want to happen or be. They want and need until their desire becomes expectation and then they have ‘something,’ an abstract noun called faith.

  In time faith becomes belief, ‘something’ to value. What we value we attach emotion to and protect with all our heart. We then love our faith and others that share it. Now our faith is our reality, purpose in life and reason for living. We become suspicious of those that do not see or hear what we do. They are not our brothers and sisters, comrades, fellow believers.

  Ah the great divide!
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  15

  When the Anointed Die which part of them goes to heaven?

  by WildeLover in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  according to the wt the 144000 have to die to obtain their heavenly reward?

  but which part of them goes to heaven?.

  their body can't and doesn't.

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  THE GLADIATOR

  Back at home father was questioning me closely. He was concerned about my ‘spirituality.’ I gave him the answers he needed to hear and he relaxed a little. I had been thinking about death a lot recently and there was one thing on my mind at the time that bothered me. As father was an Elder, I felt I could confide in him and clarify the situation. He was sitting with mother when I broached the subject.

  ‘I am having difficulty with something you may be able to help me with. According to the Society our body is our soul. We don’t have a soul that can be separated from our body at death. Therefore, when we die nothing of us is left. If we die under persecution, we will be dead until we are resurrected into the new world. But if there is nothing of us left to resurrect, how can we be resurrected from the dead?’

  ‘Jehovah keeps a memory of us, and he can recreate us just as we were but as perfect humans,’ he explained.

  ‘But if nothing original remains, that would not be us. We would just be a replica of who we were. That is not really what resurrection means.’

  Father went off and found a suitable Watchtower publication and read out a passage that confirmed what he had said. I took a Bible and read passages that claimed souls do survive death; that resurrection involves raising up souls that have been asleep in death. Father read more passages from the publication.

  ‘I know that is what the Society books say but don’t you see the problem? It contradicts what the Bible says!’

  Now father was getting peeved. ‘This is how the Society has explained it and this is what we believe. I don’t want to hear any more of your strange ideas.’

  ‘These strange ideas are not mine. All I have done is read to you from the Bible, something you have made me spend my whole life doing. Now you are saying that what is written in the Watchtower Society’s books is more important than what the Bible plainly states,’ I said defensively.

  Father’s eyes were now watering and I realised we were not going to resolve the matter. So, I decided to try to calm things down.

  ‘Look, I am not trying to be awkward or argue with you. I just need to be clear in my mind what will happen to us if we die before we get into the new world. You believe that when the ‘anointed class’ with a heavenly hope die; they will immediately be changed into spirit beings’

  ‘The Bible makes it clear that they will be,’ he confirmed.

  ‘If their body is their soul, what is it of them that is changed into a spirit?’

  Father looked angry. ‘You ask too many questions, you always have. Why don’t you just accept what the Society says? We have ‘the truth’ and we can leave the details to them.’

  ‘You have told me that you joined our religion all those years ago because you were impressed by the way the brothers that called on you took the time to sit down and answer all your questions from the Bible. Now when I ask you to be as reasonable with me as they were with you, you tell me not to ask questions. It is by questioning that we get to ‘the truth.’ I can’t believe something until I am clear in my mind what it is I actually believe.’

  Father had heard enough. He stood up. ‘You can believe whatever you like, but if you want to stay in ‘the truth’, you had better stop asking so many questions.’ He disappeared into his bedroom.

  I turned to mother. ‘What do you make of all this?’ I asked.

  I just believe whatever the latest publications say,’ she answered.

  ‘Even if it contradicts the Bible?’ I asked.

  ‘There are things we are not meant to fully understand yet.’

  ‘But doesn’t it trouble you to not know what would happen to you if you were to die?

  ‘I can’t discuss this with you,’ she said firmly.

  Taken from: There's Something Wrong With THAT BOY! By Trevor Willis
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  66

  He Is Risen, the axial component of christianity

  by designs in

  1. social
  2. current

  sunday hundreds of millions and possibly up to two billion people will join in some service in observance of the resurrection of jesus.

  it is the central issue which takes the teachings of jesus from the philosophy of doing good to others to the ultimate truth which it claims.

  it was the axial argument of the apostle paul in 1 cor.

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  THE GLADIATOR

  Rattigan350 As I understand it, Christians are refering to Christ in the present tense.

  His is risen in as much as - he is here.
• 
  69

  Funny things to not do at the Memorial

  by rebel8 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  pull out a can of cheese whiz, top the bread with it, and take a nibble.. .

  say really loud...."oh, wow!

  jesus' body is really tasty this year!".

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  THE GLADIATOR

  The last time I went to a memorial as an apostate in an over crowded hall, it was expected that all women and visitors sat down in the available seats. Only elders and minis would stand, lining the walls the walls as they stood and asserted their seniority by standing throughout the ceremony. Finding the whole experience rather claustrophobic I stood along with my wife.

  We were initially asked to sit down. After much whispering three elders came up and insisted we sit in two seats at the back they had saved for us. I pointed out that politeness dictated that the seats should be used by older people, which included some of the elders. We refused to yield and stood amongst the elders near the front.

  Cat among the pigeons and all that.
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  24

  ALL you ever need to know to understand NEW LIGHT (for what it really is)

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  here is what i'm thinking; see if you don't agree.... .

  jehovah's witnesses are divided into three distinct tiers of membership.. 1.governing body anointed.

  4.the rank and file jw & non-gb anointed are told what the shape is and what it means and what to do about it.. .

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  THE GLADIATOR

  Waiting on Jehovah to get his act together and shine some new light down on us is a mug’s game.

  Jehovah has forever, whereas those of us who are mortal feel a sense of urgency as our impeding death gets closer.

   “And this I know: whether the one True Light,

   Kindle to Love, or Wrath consume me quite,

   One Glimpse of It within the Tavern caught

   Better than in the  Temple  lost outright.”

  (Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam - Edward FitzGerald's Translation)
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  8

  anyone handsome?

  by bigmac in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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  THE GLADIATOR

  Someone will have to help me with this one - I can't get there on my own.