EdenOne

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Posts by EdenOne

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  18

  "Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant...?" - NEW ARTICLE

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  just wanting to let you know that i've published a new article on my website.. it's called "who, then, is the faithful and wise servant...?".

  given the recent controversy about the "new light" of the wts / jw's about the subject, i decided to look deeper into it and came up with a surprising (even for me) conclusion.. i hope you enjoy.. eden.

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  EdenOne

  Searcher,

  You have to understand the overall tone of the letter of Paul to the Galatians. Paul was making his defense that his apostleship was in no way inferior to that of the original twelve apostles. It is rather clear that there was a sentiment in the congregations that the original twelve, being Jews that walked with Jesus during his eartlhy ministry, were more "genuine" apostles, whereas Paul was appointed in a supernatural way that many (possibly including some of the original apostles) looked down on it. It took years before the other twelve regarded Paul as one of their "peers". Paul obviously felt some disgrunt about that.

  Especially where congregations with many Jews existed had a tendency to resist the apostolic authority of Paul - no doubt because Paul was radical in the rejection of the Jewish habits - while some of the apostles, namely James and the "older men" of the congregation of Jerusalem, were in favor of a form of Christianity closer to judaism. Hence the letter that Paul wrote to the Hebrews.

  I disagree that Paul had a revelation regarding the rejection of circumcision; He simply understood it with the help of the Holy Spirit. Notice that Peter was among those who issued the letter from the "apostles and older men" in Jerusalem that stated that circumcision wasn't a requirement for Christians. He clearly felt that was the direction of the Holy Spirit.

  The episode reported by Paul in Antioch hasn't got to do with circumcision or resistence to the Holy Spirit. It has to do with a personal weakness of Peter, who sometimes gave in to fear of men - remember the episode where he denied Christ three times for the same fear of men. He wasn't perfect. Yet, Christ loved him and chose him.

  Also, you equate the amount of letters written with amount of "spiritual food" produced. If that was the measure, then Jesus wouldn't have produced ANY spiritual food, for he has not written anything. That's not a fair acessment.

  Finally, regarding the use of "a slave" versus "the slave", I looked it up in the original Greek before i wrote the article. It's the definite article used, therefore "the slave".

  Eden
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  18

  "Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant...?" - NEW ARTICLE

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  just wanting to let you know that i've published a new article on my website.. it's called "who, then, is the faithful and wise servant...?".

  given the recent controversy about the "new light" of the wts / jw's about the subject, i decided to look deeper into it and came up with a surprising (even for me) conclusion.. i hope you enjoy.. eden.

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  EdenOne

  Please accept my apology.

  It's all good. Had a good laugh.

  Eden
• 
  18

  "Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant...?" - NEW ARTICLE

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  just wanting to let you know that i've published a new article on my website.. it's called "who, then, is the faithful and wise servant...?".

  given the recent controversy about the "new light" of the wts / jw's about the subject, i decided to look deeper into it and came up with a surprising (even for me) conclusion.. i hope you enjoy.. eden.

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  EdenOne

  Where is she going with this?

  Irondork,

  Where do you get the idea that I'm a "she" ??

  Eden
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  18

  "Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant...?" - NEW ARTICLE

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  just wanting to let you know that i've published a new article on my website.. it's called "who, then, is the faithful and wise servant...?".

  given the recent controversy about the "new light" of the wts / jw's about the subject, i decided to look deeper into it and came up with a surprising (even for me) conclusion.. i hope you enjoy.. eden.

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  EdenOne

  I've added your website to my links page.

  Cedars, thank you for the kind introducton to your links page. However, the way you describe my site isn't accurate. I'm not an ex-JW, I'm an active one.Time will tell for how long, but for the time being I'm active and the website isn't an "ex-JW" site. The purpose of the "Christian Fraternity of God's People" is to provide a safe haven for those who, being active, inactive, fading, ex-witnesses, or even people who never had anything to do with the Witnesses, may find an outlet to study the Bible and reach to some conclusions outside of the box of the WTS. The website doesn't actively attempt to withraw people from being Jehovah's Witnesses nor from any other christian denomination. However isn't shy to publish conclusions that may contradict the official teachings of the Watchtower Society and its Governing Body. We do not advocate the reform of the Watchtower Society (while I personally think it would be desireable), nor its dissolving. It's simply not our business.

  As far as we're concerned, the Jehovah's Witnesses are simply yet another group of Christians working in the "household or the Lord". It is up to the Master to judge each servant in the household - the global Christianity - in an individual basis. Because of this JW heritage, we tend to focus on subjects that are of interest to the Jehovah's Witnesses, but we don't want to be limited by it. Our interest is Christianism.

  I hope this helps you in re-defining the placement of the link on your website.

  Thank you

  Eden
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  18

  "Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant...?" - NEW ARTICLE

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  just wanting to let you know that i've published a new article on my website.. it's called "who, then, is the faithful and wise servant...?".

  given the recent controversy about the "new light" of the wts / jw's about the subject, i decided to look deeper into it and came up with a surprising (even for me) conclusion.. i hope you enjoy.. eden.

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  EdenOne

  NN,

  I haven't, but in my article I point out that " Joseph, son of Jacob, was the biblical archetype of the “faithful and wise slave” that was “put in charge of all his Master’s possessions”.

  Thanks for the link. I've always found Leolaia's articles excellent. I'll read it later.

  Eden
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  18

  "Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant...?" - NEW ARTICLE

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  just wanting to let you know that i've published a new article on my website.. it's called "who, then, is the faithful and wise servant...?".

  given the recent controversy about the "new light" of the wts / jw's about the subject, i decided to look deeper into it and came up with a surprising (even for me) conclusion.. i hope you enjoy.. eden.

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• 

  EdenOne

  Just wanting to let you know that I've published a new article on my website.

  It's called "Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant...?"

  Given the recent controversy about the "new light" of the WTS / JW's about the subject, I decided to look deeper into it and came up with a surprising (even for me) conclusion.

  I hope you enjoy.

  Eden
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  68

  I just want a divorce!

  by bornfree123 in

  1. social
  2. relationships

  hi there, this is my first post, but i've been buzzing around this site for years.. i got married at 18, hubby was 20, i was a regular pioneer and we were talking about serving in bethel.

  fast forward - i left in 2004 after a 5 year battle with my conscience, family and friends who kept insisting that i was just "weak and needed to have another bible study".

  however hubby and i stayed together although it was kinda on the understanding that we would just not talk about it.

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  EdenOne

  i've also written to the society who have written back asking for permission for the letter to be sent to the elders for further information/discussion

  Since when the Society asks for "permission" to forward an information to the local elders of a congregation? This is new ...

  Eden
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  108

  Infinity and god - why wait to create the universe?

  by Simon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  here's the problem with infinity ... we can't comprehend it.. it's bad enough when it's space, but when it's time as well and then we throw in some all powerful creature supposedly existing forever ... well, it just doesn't make sense and raises questions.. such as why wait?

  why didn't god create the universe the day before he did?

  or the day before that?

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  EdenOne

  You cannot extrapolate what pre-BigBang conditions were based on post-BigBang conditions

  You cannot extrapolate that an environment outside of our spacetime.

  We can't tell what is outside of our existing spacetime, what the conditions are, the physical rules.

  you can assert that, but you have not provided any proof, either logical, mathematical or physical.

  EP,

  then we must agree that, since you don't have any empirical knowledge of the conditions before (or outside) the Big Bang, your speculation is as good as mine. But at least I can speculate based on empirical rules observed on the present time-space. To deny infinity based on time and space rules that are yet to be observed is ultra-speculative.

  But hey ... that's just ole me saying ....

  Eden
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  108

  Infinity and god - why wait to create the universe?

  by Simon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  here's the problem with infinity ... we can't comprehend it.. it's bad enough when it's space, but when it's time as well and then we throw in some all powerful creature supposedly existing forever ... well, it just doesn't make sense and raises questions.. such as why wait?

  why didn't god create the universe the day before he did?

  or the day before that?

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  EdenOne

  Phizzy,

  I thought many times that would be the answer ... a never ending cycle of creation / destruction of physical universes.

  Eden
• 
  108

  Infinity and god - why wait to create the universe?

  by Simon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  here's the problem with infinity ... we can't comprehend it.. it's bad enough when it's space, but when it's time as well and then we throw in some all powerful creature supposedly existing forever ... well, it just doesn't make sense and raises questions.. such as why wait?

  why didn't god create the universe the day before he did?

  or the day before that?

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  EdenOne

  EP, the problem remains.

  If you unchange X, it will remain X ad eternum. But if X changed, you must conclude by deduction or observation that something caused it to change. That's the principle of causality. The absence of a cause is an impossibility in physics. The fact that presently you may be unable to identify the cause of the change in status quo of gravity that brought about the universe, doesn't render it an impossibility. There is inevitably a timelike interval between an effect and its cause, and the effect inevitably belongs to the future of its cause. Therefore, the gravitational conditions that determined the emergence of the universe necessarily had an a priori cause, and there was a time interval between the two. Therefore, time precedes the beginning of the universe. Infinity does exist. We just cannot comprehend it. And that's ok.

  "The chaos is an order yet to be deciphered" - José Saramago.

  Eden