Posts by uncle

My current position is ...is that I just dont know! My wife however has started attending a church and is really enjoying it. Well yesterday she came home and could not wait to tell me something. She was talking to one of the women there and my wife said that she can not feel the holy spirit so the woman asked her if she wanted her to pray over her and my wife agreed. The woman started praying and she started talking in tongues! When she had finished my wife told her that she still did not feel anything. My wife then left the church. As she got to the car, she stopped. She has been complanining of an acute pain in her heel for about two weeks and suddenly that pain had gone.When she told me I said that it was Psychological but she replied that it was not as she was not expecting it and she had not asked to be healed. I have just telephoned her and she said that the pain is still not there. Any answers?

UO

29

New Insights on History of Jesus

by Amazing in

jw
friends

last year on h20 much was discussed about whether jesus was a historical person.

it was brought out that no mention of jesus is ever made outside the works of christians (presuming that all christian historians are biased) except for the the writings of roman historian, flavius josephus.

and, even the brief mentioin of jesus in josephus works are challenged by some as being spurious addtions to some manuscripts.

uncle_onion

I have been reading a book called " A case for Christ" by Len Strobel.He say this on pages 119 and 120. He is "talking" to Gregory Boyd. Where I stand on this subject....I still have not decided. Here is the quote:
~

I wasn't going to let Boyd's debating skills intimidate me. I decided to raise a more difficult issue: the seemingly stronger parallels between Jesus and a historical figure named Apollonius of Tyana.
"You know the evidence as well as I do," I said to Boyd. "Here's someone from the first century who was said to have healed people and to have exorcised demons; who may have raised a young girl from the dead; and who appeared to some of his followers after he died. People point to that and say, 'Aha! If you're going to admit that the Apolionius story is legendary, why not say the same thing about the Jesus story.
Boyd was nodding to indicate he was tracking with me. "I'll admit that initially this sounds impressive." he said. "When 1 first heard about Apollonius as a college student, 1 was really taken aback. But if you do the historical work calmly and objectively, you find that the alleged parallels just don't stand up."

I needed specifies, not generalities. "Go ahead," I said. "Do your best to shoot it down." "OK. Well, firsts his biographer, Philostratus. was writing a cen- tury and a half after Apollonius lived, whereas the gospels were writ- ten within a generation of Jesus. The closer the proximity to the event, the less chance there is for legendary development, for error, or for memories to get confused.

"Another thing is that we have four gospels, corroborated with Paul, that can be cross-checked to some degree with nonbiblical authors, like Josephus and others. With Apollonius we're dealing with one source. Plus the gospels pass the standard tests used to assess his- torical reliability, but we can't say that about the stories of Apollonius.

"On top of that, Philostratus was commissioned by an empress to write a biography in order to dedicate a temple to Apolionius. She was a follower of Apollonius, so Philostratus would have had a financial motive to embellish the story and give the empress what she wanted. On the other hand, the writers of the gospel had nothing to gain-and much to lose-by writing Jesus' story, and they didn't have ulterior motives such as financial gain.

"Also, the way Philostratus writes is very different than the gospels. The gospels have a very confident eyewitness perspective, as if they had a camera there. But Philostratus includes a lot of tentative statements, like 'It is reported that or 'Some say this young girl had died; others say she was just ill.' To his credit, he backs off and treats stories like stories.

"And here's a biggie: Philostratus was writing in the early third century in Cappadocia, where Christianity had already been present for quite a while. So any borrowing would have been done by him, not by Christians. You can imagine the followers of Apollonius see- ing Christianity as competition and saying, 'Oh, yeah? Well, Apollo- nius did the same things Jesus did!' Sort of like, 'My dad can beat up your dad!'

"One final point. I'm willing to admit that Apollonius may have done some amazing things or at least tricked people into thinking he did. But that doesn't in any way compromise the evidence for Jesus. Even if you grant the evidence for Apollonius, you're still left with having to deal with the evidence for Christ."
had died; others say she was just ill.' To his credit, he backs treats stories like stories.

"And here's a biggie: Philostratus was writing in the early third century in Cappadocia, where Christianity had already been present for quite a while. So any borrowing would have been done by him and not by Christians. You can imagine the followers of Apollonius seeing Christianity as competition and saying, 'Oh, yeah? Well, Apollonius did the same things Jesus did!' Sort of like, 'My dad can beat up your dad!'

"One final point. I'm willing to admit that Apollonius may done some amazing things or at least tricked people into thinking he did. But that doesn't in any way compromise the evidence for Jesus. Even if you grant the evidence for Apollonius, you're still'. having to deal with the evidence for Christ."

11

The city of Dan?

by uncle_onion in

jw
friends

i have another question for you xtians.

please read this verse from the bible as taken from the nwt:.

*** rbi8 genesis 14:14 ***.

uncle_onion

Ros

I am interested. These are genuine questions. I am not doing this to take the micheal or to become a jedi member :-) I want the truth. I want a belief system that I am prepared to stake my life on so I have to ask these questions. Can you elaborate please on your answer?

UO

29

New Insights on History of Jesus

by Amazing in

jw
friends

last year on h20 much was discussed about whether jesus was a historical person.

it was brought out that no mention of jesus is ever made outside the works of christians (presuming that all christian historians are biased) except for the the writings of roman historian, flavius josephus.

and, even the brief mentioin of jesus in josephus works are challenged by some as being spurious addtions to some manuscripts.

uncle_onion

Hi Amazing

Thanks for the info.

So again I ask.....if Jesus is a real historical person, does this make him the son of God or was he just a clever man?

UO

PS still awaiting your e mail:-)

135

The Watchtower and the Masons

by ozziepost in

jw
friends

the latest edition of the free in christ ministries journal contains a very interesting article entitled the watchtower and masons.. drawing upon material from the book the watchtower & the masons by fritz springmeier, it gives the following parallels between the things that c t russell believed and those taught by the masons:.

* both believe jehovah is the most important word being the basis of their dogma, and the name of their god.

* both believe god yielded power to a lesser god.

uncle_onion

Ozziepost

I dont want to get into an arguement about this. If you read the book you will see that FS has an idea in his head and he clutches at straws to try and "prove" it. I think the WTS has a lot to answer for and I personally can not wait to see their downfall but I am only interested in facts and I am 100% convinced that CTR was not a mason.You may feel different but we all have choices. There may be similiarities but that is what they are...similarities. How about reading the book and checking the info in it and THEN make a decision for yourself?

Danny bear

You obviously have a problem when people disagree with you.

I would be interested as to when I have said that I am a self proclaimed scholar? Perhaps you can remind me.

UO

135

The Watchtower and the Masons

by ozziepost in

jw
friends

the latest edition of the free in christ ministries journal contains a very interesting article entitled the watchtower and masons.. drawing upon material from the book the watchtower & the masons by fritz springmeier, it gives the following parallels between the things that c t russell believed and those taught by the masons:.

* both believe jehovah is the most important word being the basis of their dogma, and the name of their god.

* both believe god yielded power to a lesser god.

uncle_onion

Danny bear

If you read my post again, I am not talking about what Ozzie said but I am talking about the book that he is quoting from.

Take some of your own advice and "read before you critique".

BTW have you or Ozzie read the book in question?

UO

135

The Watchtower and the Masons

by ozziepost in

jw
friends

the latest edition of the free in christ ministries journal contains a very interesting article entitled the watchtower and masons.. drawing upon material from the book the watchtower & the masons by fritz springmeier, it gives the following parallels between the things that c t russell believed and those taught by the masons:.

* both believe jehovah is the most important word being the basis of their dogma, and the name of their god.

* both believe god yielded power to a lesser god.

uncle_onion

I have read that book and 99% of it is "well we can suppose" and "therefore we can presume"... It is all based on presumptions. He makes the point that most Masons have been catologued but CTR has never been listed as a Mason. It did not convince me.It was a good theory but did not hold any weight when the "evidence" is scrutinised.we should be interested in facts not fiction.

UO

11

The city of Dan?

by uncle_onion in

jw
friends

i have another question for you xtians.

please read this verse from the bible as taken from the nwt:.

*** rbi8 genesis 14:14 ***.

uncle_onion

Ros

Thanks for the input.

But this reasoning causes you problems. Christ has quoted from the Pentateuch and acknowledged them as being written by Moses(1 John 5:46 plus other scriptures). So did Moses write them or not or was Christ misinformed? :-)

UO

11

The city of Dan?

by uncle_onion in

jw
friends

i have another question for you xtians.

please read this verse from the bible as taken from the nwt:.

*** rbi8 genesis 14:14 ***.

uncle_onion

I have another question for you Xtians. Please read this verse from the Bible as taken from the NWT:

*** Rbi8 Genesis 14:14 ***
Thus A'bram got to hear that his brother had been taken captive. With that he mustered his trained men, three hundred and eighteen slaves born in his household, and went in pursuit up to Dan.

Nothing untoward in that scripture?WRONG! What about the city of Dan? That city did not even exist in Abrahams time! Read what the INSIGHT book says about it:

*** it-1 573-4 Dan ***
3. A city in the extreme N of Palestine. Prior to its capture by the tribe of Dan, it was called Leshem or Laish by the pagan inhabitants. (Jos 19:47; Jg 18:7, 27) The Danites rebuilt the destroyed city and called it “Dan by the name of their father, Dan.” (Jg 18:28, 29) However, the city is mentioned some four centuries earlier by the name of Dan in the account of Abraham’s pursuit of Chedorlaomer and his allies all the way “up to Dan.” (Ge 14:14) There is nothing to argue against the existence of this name, Dan, as applying to the indicated area in the time of Abraham. The correspondence of this early name to that of the forefather of the tribe of Dan may have been coincidental or even divinely directed.

"Divinely directed"? I can think of a better one than that!

Umm

UO

uncle_onion

Posts by uncle_onion