Posts by venus

11

Isn’t concept of sinner itself faulty?

by venus in

a person may sometimes get swelling on his leg and may have limped a few times—but he is never called lame.

similarly, sometimes a person may slip into selfishness and use his free-will to his own harm or to the harm of others—but this does not make him a sinner because the ability to do the contrary (ability choose to commit virtuous act to any extent) too exists in him.

if one’s occasional sinning does not make him a sinner, sin of another person (such as first human couple) can never make others sinners.

venus

Drearyweather,

Psalm 51:5 is known to any average Bible reader. But this particular thought is not shared by other OT writers, hence it is like an isolated thought. In OT we find many references to sinless persons (Gen 5:24; Ezekiel 14:14 and compare Habakkuk 2:4) Interestingly, even God does not think humans are sinful from birth. (Job 1:8) What was an isolated thought was launched as main subject by Paul, thus Paul became the Father of this school of thought that says we are all sinners by birth. Because people like the idea that we are sinners by birth because of which we are not responsible for the sins we commit, nobody bothered to think that this is actually Paul’s experience not of mine, and experiment to the contrary.

11

Big events/developments which Bible failed to foresee!

by venus in

though bible made prophecies about “wars and rumors of war, famines and earthquakes, and persecution, hatred …” as signs of “last days” (mathew 24:6-11) which are neither specific nor extra-ordinary given the history of such events, it failed to foresee the positive development such as communication revolution (e.g.

tv, internet, mobile phone …) which is also favorable to preaching activity—the whole world can be preached to within a matter of hours.

[bible writers thought it would take at least 21 centuries for the whole world to be preached to.—mathew 24:14].

venus

interestingly, there is something that happened more than what it predicted: appearance of christian sects. It simple predicted many sects would come, but it may not have thought it would be more than 40,000

14

How Long it will take to the GB change the interpretation of the Beast as the UN?

by Ray Frankz in

i just realized now, (ironically by checking on jw.org) that the echr (european court of human rights), the government agency that has been literally saving the jws to be banned in so many countries - and they are very thankful for that, as they say in their recent purple history book - is an agency of the un!.

as it is well known, the gb consider the un as a high-class enemy of god's kingdom, believing it is the beast mentioned in revelation.

this interpretation was totally from f. franz and n. knorr, this last one still being reagarded every now and then as the one who gave the speech with this "new light".

venus

At the end of the day, its all a matter of convenience

8

The New System... really... An expanding universe

by HowTheBibleWasCreated in

well jesus has handed the kingdom back to jehovah and satan and his demons are dead forever... peace on earth.. great... a million years go by...the human brain would not hold even 1000 years of memories accurately... indeed the former things would not be called to mind but... 2 billion years... oh i's damn hot the sun is running out of hydrogen.... 5 billion years jehovah sit back laughing... we are all dead... unless we move away from earth... not only is the sun a red giant but andromeda has collided with the milky way and rendered our galaxy no longer a spiral galaxy.. navigation is impossible out there.. 2 trillion years.

oh ... if we existed.. we would have no idea theven is a universe.. the expansion is so far that we can't see beyond our own galaxy ... the heaven declare jehovah diminising glory.. 100 trillion years... the galaxy is gone... stars are burning out... in fact atoms are destabilizing... jehovah will need to remake us... likely in to positronium.... dark energy is so powerful we can feel it... assuming we have bodies anymore.... 100 to the 100 power years.... black holes evaporate away,...we have an almost 0 energy universe .. well except for dark energy which is now so powerful matter cannot exists.. 100 to the 200 power years... well there is no mater or energy except for the energy of the vacuum (quantum fluctuations) dark energy had literally torn this universe apart and assuming m theory... that it... jehovah and jesus laugh hysterically..

venus

Not having answers for everything is the charm of life. I admire God for the situation that both the group feel comfortable--atheists and theists have got proofs to their satisfaction--which means there is harmony in disharmony.

If I were to know answers to all the questions, I will have no interest to live--it would be like watching an old recorded cricket match the result of which you already knew.

13

Philosophical implications of Genetic 1:26 and the personality of the Judeo-Christian God.

by doubtfull1799 in

while visiting a still in friend last week we had an interesting discussion on narcissism.

he made a very interesting comment that got me thinking about the above.

we were discussing the nature of celebrity and fame and he mentioned that he would find it very difficult to cope with constant adulation and praise.

venus

I disagree with you doubtfull1799

The idea that “He deserves constant praise and worship because he is the creator” is of human imagination, and such human thinking crept into the Bible writing because writers were inducting their own thinking (1Cor 7:10, 40).

However, God’s attitude must be discerned from the action and inaction of God. For example, He knows the existence of conflicted religions and their scriptures, also knows existence of order and disorder in the world—and HE does nothing to straighten it out. This shows He doesn’t want our praise. This has been hinted at in the famous comparison Jesus made God with sun in Mathew 5:44-48. Sun is a giver (of light and energy), it never receives anything from us. This is a repeat of what has already been declared in the Old Testament. (Psalm 84:11)

11

Big events/developments which Bible failed to foresee!

by venus in

though bible made prophecies about “wars and rumors of war, famines and earthquakes, and persecution, hatred …” as signs of “last days” (mathew 24:6-11) which are neither specific nor extra-ordinary given the history of such events, it failed to foresee the positive development such as communication revolution (e.g.

tv, internet, mobile phone …) which is also favorable to preaching activity—the whole world can be preached to within a matter of hours.

[bible writers thought it would take at least 21 centuries for the whole world to be preached to.—mathew 24:14].

venus

confusedalot,

I admire your deep sense of humor. Looking forward to more of it.

7

judgement and resurrection

by inbetween09 in

another inconsistency in wt theology:.

jw believe, when armegeddon comes, only jw will survive.

good news was preached in most areas and people could decide for or against god.

venus

inbetween09,

Yes, it is really an inconsistency which I never thought of.

11

Big events/developments which Bible failed to foresee!

by venus in

though bible made prophecies about “wars and rumors of war, famines and earthquakes, and persecution, hatred …” as signs of “last days” (mathew 24:6-11) which are neither specific nor extra-ordinary given the history of such events, it failed to foresee the positive development such as communication revolution (e.g.

tv, internet, mobile phone …) which is also favorable to preaching activity—the whole world can be preached to within a matter of hours.

[bible writers thought it would take at least 21 centuries for the whole world to be preached to.—mathew 24:14].

venus

Though Bible made prophecies about “wars and rumors of war, famines and earthquakes, and persecution, hatred …” as signs of “Last Days” (Mathew 24:6-11) which are neither specific nor extra-ordinary given the history of such events, it failed to foresee the positive development such as communication revolution (e.g. TV, Internet, mobile phone …) which is also favorable to preaching activity—the whole world can be preached to within a matter of hours. [Bible writers thought it would take at least 21 centuries for the whole world to be preached to.—Mathew 24:14]

Even though global warming and subsequent sea-level rise are extremely favorable to eschatology which is one of the key subjects of Bible, still they find no mention in the Bible. Interestingly, more details are coming up with regard to this subject such as danger to the fishes in the sea: “Warmer waters increase fish's need for oxygen but climate change will result in less oxygen in the oceans. This means that gills have less oxygen to supply to a body that already grows faster than them. The researchers say this forces fish to stop growing at a smaller size to be able to fulfill their needs with the little oxygen available to them. Some species may be more affected by this combination of factors. Tuna, which are fast moving and require more energy and oxygen, may shrink even more when temperatures increase.”

http://www.sciencenewsline.com/news/2017082117580076.html

7

Miracles and responses—both are not explicable

by venus in

a miracle is an event not explicable by natural or scientific laws.

bible reports many such miracles.

interestingly, responses to these reported miracles could be even labeled as a greater miracle which cannot be explained by any known law, logic or experience.

venus

Drearyweather,

People who were really witnesses of miracles such as resurrection cannot be influenced against the performer of those miracles by things such as indoctrination, money, or threat ...

If people were indoctrinated against Jesus, then it would mean such great miracles have never taken place.

14

New book on early Christianity

by careful in

i'm not quite sure that this post fits under jws/wts since they do not keep up with real biblical scholarship, but i don't know where else to post it.. thomas a. robinson (university of lethbridge) has just published a book through oxford university press on the earliest christians, entitled who were the first christians?

: dismantling the urban thesis.

for some years the idea has dominated scholarship that christianity grew strongly at first in ancient cities like rome, alexandria, and corinth; the notion has been largely influenced by wayne meeks' (of yale) thinking in his book the first urban christians (1986).. i once saw a member here cite meeks' idea of how many christians existed in the roman empire.

venus

Rome was the world power at that time, hence was in a position to influence history and even Bible writing. For example, The Greeks had named the days week after the sun, the moon and the five known planets, which were in turn named after the gods Ares, Hermes, Zeus, Aphrodite, and Cronus, and had called the days of the week the Theon hemerai "days of the Gods". But Romans substituted their equivalent gods for the Greek gods, Mars, Mercury, Jove (Jupiter), Venus, and Saturn. (The two pantheons are very similar.)

Rome wanted a Christianity that should be submissive to it, hence used name of Jesus (who could have been known as a great teacher by then) to their advantage. Hence they ensured a Bible writing in which Jesus is seen as giving pro-Roman commands such as:

* “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you” (Mathew 5:11)

* “do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also; if anyone wants to … take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles (Mathew 5:39-41) …

Hence actual history of early Christianity may never be known!