Posts by 88JM

38

Jeptha's Daughter- what actuallyt happened??

by Kudra in

hi all, especially the scholars amongst you ;)a .

i was listening to richard dawkin's talk at lynchburg va and he was tlaking about how horrible the god of the old testament was- and he mentioned this: .

that when jeptha's daughter came out (and jeptha had promised god he'd sacrifice the first thing out of his house) that he had to sacrifice her as a burnt offering.

88JM

what if a dog had come out to meet him? To offer up an unclean animal would be an affront to God, so Japtha most likely dedicated her to service to the Lord

It seems there's a couple of flaws in that reasoning.

I haven't read the LDS source (I'm on a bad connection right now) but what justification does it have for suggesting that the Jews at that time would be keeping unclean animals in their houses? Even many muslims today do not keep dogs in their home for similar reasons. Would Jephtha really be expecting an unclean animal to come running out of his house to greet him? I know there is reason to believe he was the son of a prostitute, but still? Even in the account of Jezebel, she had to be thrown outside before the dogs could get to her - they were not invited into the house to kill her (yes I know it was supposedly a "prophecy" so it had to happen that way but...).

Assuming that Jephtha could have expected and conceivably there had been a dog running out of his house and such an animal would not have been an appropriate burnt sacrifice, are you then saying the same dog, still an unclean animal, would instead be an appropriate servant around the tabernacle?

Judges 11:31 in the Jephtha account (apologies that it's the NWT) says: "whoever comes out of the door of my house" - I can't look up a Strong's Dictionary right now, but it seems apparent that he was limiting it to a person ("whoever") and it was not something running down the garden path, but definitely 'out of the door of his house'.

48

Posters do you know of any cases where a devout JW was DF'd for Lesbianism?

by booker-t in

i think this is a hush hush topic among jws but i remember years ago at an assembly i saw two sisters(i am only assuming they were jws they could have been studies or relatives of jws) walking arm and arm like a married couple.

some of the jws looked at them like they had horns.

some of the jws moms were covering their small children's eyes and those two women were stared at like they had the plague.

88JM

The judicial commitee meetings in these cases must be even more bizzare than usual. I know with male-female "fornication" they interrogate and pry into every detail to determine whether they think "porneia" was committed (and even then it's still mostly arbitrary), but with female-female... how do they... umm... draw the line? When does a Victoria's Secret party become "porneia" to them?

"Hey some Gay guys got promoted to the governing body."

I could be wrong, but I think Balaamsass2 is perhaps referring to Ewart Chitty and Leo Greenlees - one an alleged child abuser, and one reportedly homosexual or at least bisexual. And it's been said before, but I do agree it's important to draw a distinction between the two cases, but I don't want to start an argument about sexual orientation and child abuse - that's for another thread, and perhaps even another forum, considering rule #2 on this particular forum.

13

NEW LEVY FORCED ON WITNESSES?

by The Searcher in

have i missed a previous posting on this?

sorry if this is old news.. just heard from someone whose meeting is on a tuesday evening; basically, 3 per publisher is to be levied to "replace" the kh insurance payment.

the money will be used for damage, vandalism, & disasters, but also to protect any of the societies' entities.. .

88JM

Yeah this happens every year - nothing new here. Can't remember how much it has been in previous years though - I seem to recall it being only £2 not long ago...

36

Pope says Big bang and Evolution are correct !

by Phizzy in

from the u.k independent newspaper :.

" the theories of evolution and the big bang are real and god is not a magician with a magic wand, pope francis has declared.. speaking at the pontifical academy of sciences, the pope made comments which experts said put an end to the pseudo theories of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, benedict xvi.. francis explained that both scientific theories were not incompatible with the existence of a creator arguing instead that they require it.. when we read about creation in genesis, we run the risk of imagining god was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything.

but that is not so, francis said.. he added: he created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfilment.. the big bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it.. evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.. the catholic church has long had a reputation for being anti-science most famously when galileo faced the inquisition and was forced to retract his heretic theory that the earth revolved around the sun.. but pope franciss comments were more in keeping with the progressive work of pope pius xii, who opened the door to the idea of evolution and actively welcomed the big bang theory.

88JM

If evolution is real, in what sense could it be said that we were "made in god's image?"

Maybe God is evolving too?

I'm sorry - I'll get my hat...

27

WT Study 26th Oct. '14

by BluesBrother in

i could find another thread so i thought i might add a few comments here - not a full critique though.

"hear jehovah's voice wherever you are".

http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/w20140815/hear-jehovahs-voice/.

88JM

I'm sure you'll forgive my taking a bit of poetic licence. He obviously hasn't progressed to a double-skinned instrument just yet.

Of course I should have mentioned the girl next to him has a lovely set of bongos, and the chap on the right is checking his g-string.

27

WT Study 26th Oct. '14

by BluesBrother in

i could find another thread so i thought i might add a few comments here - not a full critique though.

"hear jehovah's voice wherever you are".

http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/w20140815/hear-jehovahs-voice/.

88JM

Yes - because a night at home spent beating your bongos is so much better than a nice evening out with a good looking workmate who actually might be interested to get to know you personally.

9

Studying for the meetings vs. going on Facebook

by Coded Logic in

most people on this thread seem to agree that the internet is having a harmful effect on the wtbts ability to gain new recruits and retain jw children.

my question is do you think this has to do with the fact that those who leave are learning ttatt?

or is it that people are just spending more time of fb and instagram and don't really care much about studying and fs all the time?.

88JM

Apathy probably does kill more meeting attendances, but it's TTATT which stops people from going back.

13

Does ANYONE use RSS anymore?

by nicolaou in

.

just wondering .

.

88JM

I know as a web developer its a useful way of consuming feeds between and from other websites to use. It's often what's driving that sort of thing behind the scenes, even if end-users aren't directly consuming it. Agreed standards in markup languages are always a useful thing, and there are few as simple and universal as RSS.

48

Service meeting video....what a non-event

by sir82 in

jw
friends

at our service meeting we saw the video of a jw explaining his beliefs about 1914.. it was.....well, "underwhelming" does not do it justice.

what is below "underwhelming"?

"boringly tepid"?.

88JM

It seems like they are subsconsciously saying: "don't bother trying to explain 1914, because we know you won't be able to - even we can't really."

10

Watchtower Library CDROM That Goes Back The Furthest?

by lambsbottom in

hi y'all,.

.

can anyone give me the download for the wtcdrom that goes back the furthest (i think i heard it was 1993)?.

88JM

I'm told the older versions don't work unless you are on a pre Windows 2000 system - I don't know if they tried compatability mode. Maybe there's virtual machines you can run as well, but it's a lot of effort to go to just for the few years extra info it will give you.