Joseph used to keep a special cup for the purpose of "divination" (Genesis 44:5). This is something that was later evolved into a means to communicate with Satan. Bible writers do not share a common source of inspiration; each of them acted on his own: "For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.”" (1 Samuel 15:23)
Posts by venus
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5Daniel 10:13 and 20 speak of demons governing their respective nations?
by I_love_Jeff interritorial spirits-.
daniel 10:13,20 prince of persia.
deut: 32:9 “when the most high divided the nations, when he separated the sons of adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of god.
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Mathew 12:35—a verse of paramount importance
by Ireneus injesus taught he would not use an organization on earth once he leaves the stage (mathew 7:12, 21-23; luke 6:38 …etc) this is because god respects the free-will of everyone and would not force anyone to follow certain path, which means system of things would climax in the situation described in 2tim 3:1-5.. yet those who want to lead a life of ease are not left in the lurch.
there is a verse of paramount importance that jesus spoke of: ‘everyone acts/reacts according to his passion—beneficial or wasteful’ (mathew 12:35) which means there is no basis for certain expected response, towards your action, from others.
this is interesting, because we often get disappointed when others do not appreciate the good we do or are not grateful to us.
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venus
Interestingly, Lao Tzu had already written this long back: “Act without expectation.” Seers are so because of their observation. We can also observe and arrive at such lessons. Here are some:
Life teaches LET GO:
When we let go thoughts—sleep enters
When we let go breath—next breath enters
When we let go past memories—Kingdom of God resurfaces within. (Luke 17:21)
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Shunning: Reasoning With JW's
by The Fall Guy inperhaps this line of questioning could agitate a jw's thinking.
it can't hurt.. you: is shunning a biblical teaching?.
jw: yes.. you: so it must be god's law?.
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venus
Hi The Fall Guy
Very sound logic and reasoning.
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Daniel 10:13 and 20 speak of demons governing their respective nations?
by I_love_Jeff interritorial spirits-.
daniel 10:13,20 prince of persia.
deut: 32:9 “when the most high divided the nations, when he separated the sons of adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of god.
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venus
However, behind all the details what is absolutely clear is that Daniel was not aware of the JW teaching that the the 'Satan is the ruler of this world."
The Greek word used for wicked one originally means wastefulness which was later personified as wicked one or Satan.
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Are there close parallels between Deuteronomy 32:8, Genesis 10 and the Ugaritic tablets?
by I_love_Jeff inaccording to these sources (city of ancient ugaritic tablets found in 1928) , elyon divided up all the nations into seventy nations, one for each of his sons (elim) .
sons of god makes the most sense than the sons of israel-deut.
32:8 especially since there was no nation of israel listed in the table of nations.
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venus
Book of Deuteronomy is bound to carry wrong notions. Look at its very essence—it presents God as a Law Giver which is unlikely to be true. God would not make Laws for humans because He knows that it is the intention behind the action that makes an action right or wrong (not the action itself which is often neutral in nature). Only the doer knows his intention behind his action; hence knows which action to be performed and which action not to be performed.
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End of biblical generation.
by asp59 inthis organization use god's name.
when puting god's name they accepted some things.
to complete the preaching work.
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venus
Psalm 90:10 had a literal fulfillment on them: "Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures" which means there is nothing divine about the organization. What applies to the physical man applies to the organization too (individuals collective)
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Why are Humans so Obsessed with trying to find Meaning in Ancient Writings that they waste their life on and are willing to die for ?
by smiddy3 inwhen you stop and think about it , isn`t it just plain crazy ?
ludicrous even ?
to live your life on texts centuries old and are willing to die upholding those beliefs ?.
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venus
I agree with Not_Culty
If people are willing to reason they would know that Scriptures are not God’s way of communication. For example, God did not safeguard Bible from being interpolated [see the reference editions which put things in brackets such as portions after Mark 16:8 ....etc] which He would definitely do if He is its author and owner. And even more important evidence that it is not God’s communication is that Bible is the basis for all conflicted sects which run into over 41000! This is the pattern we have observed in people as Ekhart Tolle rightly puts it: “If the structures of the human mind remain unchanged, we will always end up re-creating the same world, the same evils, the same dysfunction.”
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God seems to have alot of failures?
by purrpurr infor an all powerful, all knowing god it seems most of his plans go awry, so why assume that armageddon/ new system will work?
look at the track record.
... adam and eve... went wrong.
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venus
Yes, tor1500
It is true that “we kill just because we can...sometimes for no reason at all..animals kill for survival...Humans have too much brains and time on their hands...”
It shows our education system (not God) is a failure as it did not teach its students all over the world to respect all life which is the very core of all knowledge. It also failed to teach another basic truth that one should not plan his affairs in such a way that he becomes too poor or too rich because the former creates slavery for himself and the latter creates slavery of others. Make a visit to any large industry—you will find humans are treated like worse than a machine. If you go back into history, you will find the link between the both. “The slave issue was a moral issue exploited by large industry.” (Abraham Lincoln) (https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/01/0131_030203_jubilee2_2.html)
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God seems to have alot of failures?
by purrpurr infor an all powerful, all knowing god it seems most of his plans go awry, so why assume that armageddon/ new system will work?
look at the track record.
... adam and eve... went wrong.
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venus
Hi Half banana
You say “God is unknowable, untestable and unprovable.” This is your thinking; and thinking is just the chattering of your mind which can make either sense or no sense just like chattering of your tongue produces both sensible and non-sensible sounds. “True intelligence is to rise above thinking as the source of all intelligence.” (Ekhart Tolle) Listening to thinking is like cluttering your lives. Such cluttering is what the history of humanity is like, which Winston Churchill defined as “one damn thing after another.” Their minds are filled up with the clutter of thoughts, one thought after another.” “Whenever an answer, a solution, or a creative idea is needed, stop thinking for a moment by focusing attention on your inner energy field. … When you resume thinking, it will be fresh and creative. What a liberation to realize that the “voice in my head” is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that. We have forgotten how to be – to be still, to be ourselves, to be where life is, Here and Now.” (Ekhart Tolle)
Like Jesus who used to go into stillness early in the morning, going to the top of a mountain (Mark 1:35; John 8:1, 2) I too practice going into such stillness, absolute silence of the soul where it gets linked to the silence of The Ultimate Soul who rules over all the cycles of the nature; and I see all answers as though written in the Book of Nature. That is what I wrote. My reference to Neitzsche's "Eternal Recurrence" was just a supplementary proof just to show that there are people who discern things transcending the convention.
You say “the modern understanding of time is that it has a beginning.” This too is a thought. Truth is that something always precedes something which means everything is a chain infinite into the past and infinite into the future. This is too obvious from the eternal cycles we find in the nature.
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God seems to have alot of failures?
by purrpurr infor an all powerful, all knowing god it seems most of his plans go awry, so why assume that armageddon/ new system will work?
look at the track record.
... adam and eve... went wrong.
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venus
Hi purrpurr,
God is in very much control as testified by His feeding mechanism (the eternal tree-seed-tree mechanism) through which we all find our enjoyable sustenance. It means maintenance is still in His hand whereas He has given only the management to humans. Hence whatever humans perform here on earth is their responsibility—whether it is success or failure, it is theirs (not Gods).
You have taken instances of apparent failures of God from the Scriptures. However, scriptures do not belong to God as proved by the internal evidence and external evidence. Internal evidence that Bible is not God’s word is its main theme itself—through one man all became sinners (which means we sin by being alive), for which God is depicted as coming out with a senseless solution—asking His innocent son to be killed by the sinners ‘to take away the sins of the world’ which means God is fighting the sin with greater sin—something that ‘would never occur in the mind of God’ (as people of reason feel--Jeremiah 7:31). External evidence that Bible is not God’s word is that God did not safeguard it from being interpolated [see the reference editions which put things in brackets such as portions after Mark 16:8 ....etc] which He would definitely do if He is the author and owner of Bible; and more important external evidence that it is not God’s communication is that Bible is the basis for all conflicted sects which run into over 41000!
God has left His unmistakable message in the Book of Nature characterized by various cycles that repeat such as tree-seed cycle; water cycle, carbon cycle, day and night, seasons … which show any system (including system of things on earth) would go through cycle of a new beginning-growth-end--something which even Nietzsche discerned. (Eternal Recurrence, written by Nietzsche). As the great Designer of various cycles God majestically rules the whole universe for whom failure is impossible. Even the very design of earth being filled with various life forms and the rest of the universe looking barren give the proof that it takes a Cultivator to plant life on earth, which means not only the earth but also the rest of the barren universe too glorifies God by absence of life forms therein highlighting the too obvious conclusion that the rest of the barren universe would have been blessed with lifeforms only if God wills. This too shows He is in control!
No failure for God.
He is synonym of success.