Posts by TerryWalstrom

9

EXISTENTIAL topic: Why is Paradise or Heaven the solution to anything?

by TerryWalstrom in

gather around the campfire, boys and girls.. i have a little journey for us all to take together.. long, long ago in this universe not so far away .

.we were told a story.______________once in timeless nothingness, there existed a timeless being we now call god.whatever "perfection" is or was--god was.

god was perfect.. but wait--that's not all!and here is where the story begins!.

TerryWalstrom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBH0ywUUx5k

Amazing, I just watched this video when I woke up this morning.

I was knocked backwards on my heels. I had no idea these things happened to the Dali Lama or the things he caused to happen.

13

Jehovah's Terrorist?

by TerryWalstrom in

jehovah’s terrorist?.

(a personal memoir).

john f. kennedy's brother, robert (bobby) was assassinated in 1968 shortly after he won the california democratic presidential primary.

I remember after the meeting a while after the RFK assassination, during the closing comments they mentioned if anyone knew that Sirhan Sirhan was a JW to contact Bethel, or however it was worded, but I definitely remember them making that announcement.

_________________________

I guess the cold sweat running down the back of the GB's neck was pure fear.

That's interesting because this sort of announcement would surely spread the rumor like wildfire. Nobody spreads rumors faster than Jehovah's Witnesess.

2

HYPOCRISY is ?

by TerryWalstrom in

hypocrisy is a kind of acting career.

trace the word origin:from greek, hupokrisis-- ‘acting of a theatrical part'.. what do we mean when we accuse somebody of being a hypocrite if not acting one way while essentially being a different sort of person inside?.

well, follow along with me and decide.________.

TerryWalstrom

HYPOCRISY is a kind of acting career. Trace the word origin:
from Greek, hupokrisis-- ‘acting of a theatrical part'.

What do we mean when we accuse somebody of being a hypocrite if not acting one way while essentially being a different sort of person inside?

Why do I ask? Well, follow along with me and decide.
________

The father of Islam was the prophet, Muhammed, who led his army in a war for 10 years.
This army was very successful.
At what, you ask?

Muhammed called it "defensive" actions against aggressors.
Really?
Raiding caravans is defensive? Okaaaay.
Conquering Mecca under the guise of a pilgrimage along with 700 men? Okaaaaay.
According to Muhammed, there were certain directives against Divinely specified peoples of his times (the polytheists and the Israelites and Nazarites of Arabia and some other Jews, Christians, et al.) as a form of Divine punishment.
Allah told him to do it. Okaaaay.

What does all of this have to do with hypocrisy?
Calling war defensive and striking first is "acting".
Calling your religion PEACE while using armies to destroy people who don't believe the way you believe is "acting."

Just saying the word PEACE doesn't make you peaceful unless you are an actor reciting your lines.

_____________

St. Augustine invented a very popular phrase which pervaded Christianity for fifteen hundred years: A JUST WAR.

What is a Just War?

Six conditions must be satisfied for a war to be considered just:

The war must be for a just cause.
The war must be lawfully declared by a lawful authority.
The intention behind the war must be good.
All other ways of resolving the problem should have been tried first.
There must be a reasonable chance of success.
The means used must be in proportion to the end that the war seeks to achieve.
___________
Is there any essential difference between WAR in which innocent people die and a JUST WAR in which innocent people die?

Is this more "ACTING"?

But wait--there's more!
How should a Just War be fought?

A war that starts as a Just War may stop being a Just War if the means used to wage it are inappropriate.

Innocent people and non-combatants should not be harmed.
Only appropriate force should be used.
This applies to both the sort of force, and how much force is used.
Internationally agreed conventions regulating war must be obeyed.

_____

Sounds fair, doesn't it? Except--can anybody give an example of such a war ever being fought?

I ASSERT, cannot prove, all of this posturing is hypocrisy disguised as a moralizing excuse to become an aggressor while considering yourself PEACEFUL.
Why else call it "war" at all, if it is simply Self-Defense?

9

EXISTENTIAL topic: Why is Paradise or Heaven the solution to anything?

by TerryWalstrom in

gather around the campfire, boys and girls.. i have a little journey for us all to take together.. long, long ago in this universe not so far away .

.we were told a story.______________once in timeless nothingness, there existed a timeless being we now call god.whatever "perfection" is or was--god was.

god was perfect.. but wait--that's not all!and here is where the story begins!.

TerryWalstrom

Gather around the campfire, boys and girls.

I have a little journey for us all to take together.

Long, long ago in this Universe not so far away . . .
WE WERE TOLD A STORY.
______________

Once in timeless nothingness, there existed a timeless Being we now call GOD.
Whatever "perfection" is or was--God was. God was perfect.

But wait--that's not all!

And here is where the story begins!

__________________

If perfect and timeless God had been content being perfect and timeless, existing in perfection and timelessness---WHY did the next thing happen?

God changed!

________________

Floating. . . Alone. . . in Darkness. . . just being perfect. . . was something God wouldn't endure any longer! Perfection and Existence were not ideal.

God decided to become a CREATOR.

RECAP: Not a creator became CREATOR. Alone became not alone.
That is a change.
An existential change signals a NEED.
Contentment is not troubled by need.
_______________

Buddhists might describe the ultimate state of existence as NIRVANA.
Nirvana means that the candle has been blown out.

It describes the darkness and peace God was in BEFORE he decided to change.

Nirvana is the liberation from the need for change = contentment.
So, can we say our lonely, floating, eternal God was NOT content in Nirvana? Yes.

If Nirvana (or Heaven itself) was not enough for God---why is it the solution for man?
_________________

Humans exist in Nature.

Humans begin as single cells inside a male and female.

Those two cells combine and transform over and over and over.

We are the product of millions, billions of cell divisions. We are cyclical.

A butterfly is not all at once a butterfly.

A butterfly is first an egg, then a caterpillar, and finally a bag of goo which becomes

a butterfly.
If the butterfly is the BEST of those states of being---why is there a need for the egg and cocoon?
Nature is whispering in our ear, "Start, Change, Stop"

__________________

Well now, my fellow campfire companions, are you still with me?
The question is not too difficult, is it?

Why is man's idea of Paradise or Heaven a solution to anything?

If God could not / would not be content--why would we expect to become content?

Aren't we fooling ourselves?

49

Bethel "Vow of Poverty" documents scanned.

by What-A-Coincidence in

jw
friends

vow of poverty scanned from 2002 documents.

i believe these are the latest ones unless someone has a newer one.

i posted these in another thread but i thought it deserved its own.. ocrd with 98% accuracy.... initial cover page 1 of 4. vow of obedience and povertyto the.

TerryWalstrom

Catholic Vow of Poverty

externalfile:drive-3e65282231ebe507f8152f3896594c993048742f/root/A NEW DOWNLOAD folder June 17/09sme_and_vows_poverty_red.pdf

13

Jehovah's Terrorist?

by TerryWalstrom in

jehovah’s terrorist?.

(a personal memoir).

john f. kennedy's brother, robert (bobby) was assassinated in 1968 shortly after he won the california democratic presidential primary.

TerryWalstrom

Kennedy is facing in a direction at an angle to Sirhan. The first bullet misses.
RFK turns his head the opposite direction and takes a bullet from behind.
The kitchen's acoustics was confusing to the ear.

The same sort of thing accounts for the various reports of JFK's shooter. Depending on where the onlooker was standing, more than three shots were heard.

Acoustic analysis, decades later, correlated the echoes with the shots (3).

11

The Bunker

by TimeBandit in

jw
friends

i ran across this cool video.

i think it's a parody on some recent jw video series or something.

i'm not up to date on jw news and such.

TerryWalstrom

NewYork44Man hour ago

I'll never understood why they didn't turn off the lights.

______________

No infrared cameras on hand.

24

A MODERN FICTION: the lie which became a GOVERNING BODY

by TerryWalstrom in

safe to say, if you walked up to any of the 8 million jehovah's witnesses on earth today and told them the.

governing body was a fiction, not only would they refuse to believe you--they'd consider you their immediate enemy!.

what if i told you jw's embrace a mental construct which is at odds with history?.

TerryWalstrom

biblexaminer

There was indeed a governing body in the first century.
____________________________________________

Let's take the Bible we have --and just for the sake of argument-- stipulate it says what it means. ( I don't personally think the latest scholarship verifies such a stipulation, but there are too many side roads to tempt us into an eternal loop.)

If Jesus' death did indeed bridge the gap between man and God, what need have any of us for a "Governing Body"?
We have the Bible. We have God's Holy Spirit. We have prayer.
We can have fellowship (where two or more are gathered in my name. . . ) but we ALREADY have leadership: King Jesus.

In fact, when the universal Christian Church (Catholic) fell in the 16th century, (human Magisterium and tradition, bound Heaven to its rule) it was because it governed-- and by means of said governance, did so corruptly.

A pause in Governance ensued.

The Protestant Reformation was a scrambling around among the intelligentsia eager to lay down Governing rules and principles. (Out of the Catholic frying pan into the Protestant fire.)

The result was, among other denominational manifestations, the Thirty Years War.
Sola Scriptura has given us--not unity under a governing body--but dissonance and 40-thousand denominations as variations on a theme.

What would a "restored" Governing Body give us that the Advent of Christ and the resurrection of kings and judges at his side- not give us?

Show me the necessity of a GB and we have a platform for discussion.

The obsession to go back to the 1st century and duplicate primitive Christianity makes about as much sense as deciding to drive Model T Fords rather than modern automobiles.

It is some sort of Luddite compulsion isn't it?

Why isn't Jesus enough of a governing body? He is the only Mediator between God and man. Only seems to mean. . . .well. . . nobody else.

36

DOOM and LUXURY : the Watchtower Elite prepares for the GREAT TRIBULATION

by TerryWalstrom in

boondoggles and preppers watchtower style!

a religion of doom and luxury!.

in 1866, the times of london wrote:.

TerryWalstrom

Pastor Russell's little world in which he was the one-eyed king among the blind, vanished in 1916.

There was a cloud of confusion and out stepped a magician.

The Judge waved his iron wand and a new order appeared. It was Warcraft.

He made all the rules. It was a "My way or the Highway" religion.

In 1942, his rectum killed him and another a**hole took over, Knorr.

Knorr was an odd mixture of Luddite and Labor leader. He invented a school for salesman: Gilead and parlayed rules and regulations into a control mechanism of carrots and sticks.

Each change of regime is a new solar system the previous cosmos would not recognize or accept as true.

like the horrid parasitic ALIEN in Ridley Scott's film, the Watchtower is capable of becoming anything it needs to be to survive.

If you dare injure the Organization the corrosive acid spews all over you.
It seeks to multiply its numbers, creating armies of new parasites now numbering 8 million.
They are coming for us.

They are coming for all of us.

The only remedy is preparedness--turning the spotlight on their collateral damage and demonstrating the plague in its true magnitude and virulence.

Activate!

6

A STAKE in the HEART of Watchtower TRUTH (A Thought Experiment)

by TerryWalstrom in

is this the same religion?.

a whim isn’t falsifiable.. .

answer: is it testable?

TerryWalstrom

The Jewel in the Bully's Crown: knocking all the pieces off the board and declaring victory!

Richard Nixon did it. It was his secret plan to end the war in Vietnam. He pulled out and declared victory.

George Bush tried it by landing a jet on an aircraft carrier with a giant banner reading: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. What he failed to do was pull out of Iraq!

The Governing Body has junked everything but 1914 (lynchpin) and declared: 'Finnegan begin again!"
The "overlapping" solution to the "Generation" noose around their collective necks was an intellectual mush bowl suicide.

Vagueness, thy name is Watchtower!