this is one of 2 bible passages that have always bothered me.. its from judges 19: (the entire chapter, so i will paraphrase.).
a levite marries himself a concubine.
she's unfaithful and goes back home.
It is a troubling account (whether one considers it as actual history or not). It should be noted that the actions of the offending men were not taken lightly. Verse 3 of CH 20 calls it an "awful thing". In verse 7 it's called a "lewd and disgraceful act". Verse 30 of CH 19 says that 'such a thing has not been seen or done since Israel came out of Egypt'.
It certainly is not a sugar-coated story. A lot of people end up looking really bad, and one does wonder how God could look down upon it all.
in today's study watchtower there was, yet again, more demonization of the internet.
although the paragraph purported to be about guarding against pornography, it struck me that they are attempting to kill two birds with one stone here, without mentioning one of the birds by name.
here's a scan, check out paragraph 15:.
Many religions, not just the WT, strongly condemn pornography. And this is just one example of a "brother" who saw fit to have his wife on hand to be sure he didn't feed his little addiction.
Yes, it's one more example of control, but I'm not inclined to make too big a deal about it. And let's face it, a lot of women, religious or not, do not want their significant other to be checking out porn.
i have noticed this a lot in attitudes of witness relatives i've talked with over the last few years , as well as other former witness friends i have talked to.
many witnesses feel bad about themselves due to having it drilled into them that we are all " sinners " who allegedly inherited " sin and imperfection " from adam and eve .
that essentially humans are " born dead " or in a " dying " condition due to alleged " inherited sin " .
JWs are conditioned to believe that they need to be at meetings and in field service consistently and constantly so as to avoid falling into sinful conduct. They believe that, on their own, they are capable of little - especially in terms of understanding the Bible. They depend on the Organization for most, if not all, of their self-worth. They depend on the favorable opinion of elders. If the elders think they're doing well, then by george, they are. If the elders think they are lacking, they must be lacking.
" acts 22 : 16. what are you waiting for.........?
the ethiopian eunuch had this attitude when peter preached jesus to him.
he immediately requested and received baptism.
There are likely legal reasons why they take such a cautious approach. Once you're baptized, you can be df'd. They don't want disfellowshiped people pleading ignorance and/or possibly suing.
Also, they don't want people bearing the name of "Jehovah's Witness" while still steeped in some practices that are going to bring "reproach" upon the Organization.
Their approach is overly-cautious and tedious, but just going ahead and baptizing people would be a major headache for them, even if it's more in tune with what the 1st Century Christians did.
do you agree that if there was no global flood, then the bible is not inspired?
here are my thoughts.. it is pretty obvious that there was no global flood 4,000 years ago.
) that there were one or more large local floods in mesopotamia around the time of noah.
Could the story of the global flood be, well, nothing more but a story, told to drive home a point, much like Jesus' story of the Good Smaritan? If Jesus repeatedly used parables to teach, would God have used them to teach as well?
tend to put their lives on hold when they are with a new man.
they tend to make this new guy their all.
they leave their girlfriends in the dust and spend every waking minute with him and when he is with his friends they still sit at home and wait.
As much as men need women, women do seem to have a certain "need" for a man that sometimes goes beyond reason or at least beyond what might be considered practical in terms of what the man actually gives back. I think that contributes to the appearance that some women are dropping all else to focus on this guy.
I think also that women are under more societal and perhaps family pressure to land a steady man. The independent woman who stands on her own and is her own person is a notion that is gaining ground, but I think a lot of people still buy into the notion that she's not "complete" without a guy.
has there been a letter read at the meetings?.
.
maybe this has been discussed?.
This might be the new logo.
i know in 2002 i posted the fact that someone called me & told me that the wt was saying god had a body.
if you read that site ,you will see i had to apologise,it was a faullty read.. well today i have recieved a call from an ex curcuit servants wife informing me that the feb 1st wt 2009 page 5 .
seems to be indicating it .god has a body,,,.
OOps,
Anyway, using 1 Cor 15:44 seems incorrect to me. It says that 'if there is a physical body, there is a spiritual one. God has no physical body.
i know in 2002 i posted the fact that someone called me & told me that the wt was saying god had a body.
if you read that site ,you will see i had to apologise,it was a faullty read.. well today i have recieved a call from an ex curcuit servants wife informing me that the feb 1st wt 2009 page 5 .
seems to be indicating it .god has a body,,,.
Back in the 70s, I thought Disco was a sad ending to an otherwise pretty darned good decade of music. However, looking back, some disco songs have aged pretty well and I've reconsidered my negative view of at least some of it. That said, there are quite a few examples of Disco songs that are terribly repetitive and so bland that I'm glad the era is gone.
