imagine yourself still sitting at a kingdom hall meeting and turn to the book of mark 7: 21-23. the sayings of jesus are really profound.
the scripture makes you think, reflect, enters your heart and produces results.. today, you have your modern day governing body ( who supposedly are the mouthpiece for jesus and jehovah and provide spiritual food for the 8 million followers).
if jehovah really sends his holy spirit upon these seven men, is this silly and petty message they can come up with?
This is typical of all religions. People go to religions to be more confused. If asked what is the meaning of Mathew 7:21-23 where prayer, preaching, and miracle performance are discouraged and disapproved, no religious leader would give correct explanation.
If simple, self-explanatory things such as this cannot correctly explained, How will they explain things such as purpose of life, nature of God ...etc
what are everyone's thoughts on this, how his legs weren't broken, he was pierced with a spear and he wore a thorny crown?.
i'm pimo and very much not wanting to believe, but like the daniel statue prophecies, these ones about jesus stick in my mind and give me "hmmm, maybe" moments..
This so-called prophecy is found in Psalm 34 which was written by David when he pretended to be insane before Abimelek, who drove him away, and he left. The very first verse says: “ I will extol the Lord at all times” which he himself did not fulfill.
Verses 6, and 7 say: “This poor man called, and
the Lord heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and he delivers them.” [This too did not happen in the case of
Jesus who prayed to God to save him from his troubles]
Verse 20 says: “he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.”
If this is a prophecy, what is next verse: “Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned” (Ps 34:21)
dr margaret t singer, a professor of psychology at berkeley university california has studied the experiences of 700 cult members.
''consciously and manipulatively, leaders and their trainers exert a systematic social influence that can produce great behavioral changes,'' said dr. singer.. .
one of the ways the jw organisation exerts so much influence over its members is because it has created a culture sustained by constant propaganda, which polices itself according to how the leadership has moulded it.
The Watchtower, October 15, 1969, pages 622-3 declared: "More recently earnest researchers of the Holy Bible have made a recheck of its chronology. According to their calculations the six millenniums of mankind's life on earth would end in the mid-seventies.”
If people were associating with religions because of some beliefs or doctrine, all JWs would have abandoned their faith in 1975.
People choose religious mostly for social reason, just like they choose various types of social clubs depending upon each one’s taste.
what single big change do you think could back fire and bring the cult down ?.
me: tithing..
The Watchtower, October 15, 1969, pages 622-3 declared: "More recently earnest researchers of the Holy Bible have made a recheck of its chronology. According to their calculations the six millenniums of mankind's life on earth would end in the mid-seventies.”
If people were associating with religions because of some beliefs or doctrine, all JWs would have abandoned their faith in 1975.
People choose religious mostly for social reason, just like they choose various types of social clubs depending upon each one’s taste.
terry walstrom posted this exceptional link on another thread.
i think it so amazing that it should have a thread of its own so everyone can have clear and easy access to the document.
terry wrote:.
My goodness--changes that are made in the teachings would dwarf even ocean!
What a disservice to the one who testifies "I have not changed" my teachings.--Malachi 3:6
i was talking to someone a few years ago and he said in his congregation they have a rail of white shirts prepared in the cloakroom for if a speaker doesn't have a white shirt on.
it was a rule in their hall that all brothers in the platform must wear white shirts when going talks and if the speaker won't comply when asked to change into the shirt they provide an elder in the congregation will do the talk instead.
i have never known any other halls do it so it must be a rule the elders have made up without gb input.
Caught up in the rules and
doctrinal falsification the forgotten fact is that our humane core is lost. The end product is persons who see everyone's faults except own ones.
i was talking to someone a few years ago and he said in his congregation they have a rail of white shirts prepared in the cloakroom for if a speaker doesn't have a white shirt on.
it was a rule in their hall that all brothers in the platform must wear white shirts when going talks and if the speaker won't comply when asked to change into the shirt they provide an elder in the congregation will do the talk instead.
i have never known any other halls do it so it must be a rule the elders have made up without gb input.
God cannot receive anything from humans because everything belongs to Him.
Yet humans began offering sacrifices, which later became a rule.
Sacrifice can be offered from anywhere, yet someone felt an altar would be a good idea, which again became a rule.
Original Passover celebration did not involve wine, but Jesus (purportedly) included wine, which again became a rule.
In the first century, going house-to-house was the practical option to advertise some news, which again became a rule—which some people even today hold dearly as a rule—even though far better advertising modes are available today.
That means anyone can make any rule.
last year i had a brother tell me that one proof evolution is false is that he doesn't see it happening today... i was going to bring of viruses evolving so fast that new vaccines must be developed each year but felt he was too closed minded to receive it.
today i was listening to the audio book of 'an ancestors tale- richard dawkins' and noted oe point that shined through.. here is evolution happening>>>.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/05/2/l_052_05.html.
After my sleep I find our subject is not yet ended. Hence I will end it.
Certain truths are eternal. From childhood we are told: “Look both ways before you cross the street.”
Certain things are true some times and yet are false other times. From childhood we are told: “Don’t trust strangers.” But later we experience some of our own relatives/friends cheating us and some of the strangers behaving better than even our close relatives/friends.
Similarly, you can believe everything is matter and every phenomenon can be explained through materialism. But this belief will soon or later change as happened to some hard-core and prominent materialists. ‘Later’ can mean anywhere in the future. Even if it happens after a trillion births it doesn’t matter in view of the eternity.
last year i had a brother tell me that one proof evolution is false is that he doesn't see it happening today... i was going to bring of viruses evolving so fast that new vaccines must be developed each year but felt he was too closed minded to receive it.
today i was listening to the audio book of 'an ancestors tale- richard dawkins' and noted oe point that shined through.. here is evolution happening>>>.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/05/2/l_052_05.html.
last year i had a brother tell me that one proof evolution is false is that he doesn't see it happening today... i was going to bring of viruses evolving so fast that new vaccines must be developed each year but felt he was too closed minded to receive it.
today i was listening to the audio book of 'an ancestors tale- richard dawkins' and noted oe point that shined through.. here is evolution happening>>>.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/05/2/l_052_05.html.
Here the question is not about what is material and what is immaterial? Question is dependency. When I know my core existence is immaterial, why should I depend on Scientists for explaining to me that it is immaterial. Science does not invent self, it is the other way around. My self with its mind is immaterial on its own merit and it is self-evident and too obvious. You may be aware that some eminent scientists like Einstein who went on record saying they arrived at some of their theories first through intuition and later they verified them through scientific means. Intuition is obviously from an immaterial source.
You can also google "atheists who unexpectedly underwent NDEs changed their view that everything can be explained through matter." You will be surprised to know there are some very prominent former atheists among them. They were very sincere in their former atheistic beliefs. You can also continue to be sincerely materialistic till you have an experience to the contrary.
