Posts by rocketman

105

Does the name Jehovah actually exist in the original Hebrew language?

by Yizuman in

source: http://www.familybible.org/articles/messianic/jehovah.htm.

well, then, where did the word jehovah come from?.

thus the artificial name jehovah came into being.. (yahweh, the new encyclopedia britannica, vol.

rocketman

If you're a JW, try using the term Yahweh in talks and/or everyday speech, and see how quickly you are counseled by elders not to do so.

24

The WTS & The Sound of Music

by Farkel in

jw
friends

i recently watched the classic 1965 film "the sound of music" for the umteenth time.

it was the winner of 5 academy awards, including best picture.

i originally saw it on the big screen when it first aired and loved every minute of it.

rocketman

First the Borg, and now von Trapp!* And I agree with both analogies...

* von Trapp was played by Christopher Plummer, who also played Klingon General Chang in Star Trek VI. No Borg in Trek VI, so I'm stretching the connection a bit.

63

I can't help that I think less of poor spellers

by gubberningbody in

jw
friends

i just do.. if a thread title has misspelled words or someone's rant has misspelled words, all i see are those ragged, misplaced letters all akimbo.. it's like watching early morning tv and i can't notice anything said by the fat woman who doesn't know how to dress for her figure.. i just think silently ... "you're fat and you dress poorly.

how can you stand it?".

.

rocketman

What bugs me (doesn't happen here often, if at all, but I've seen it at other web boards) is when people post in Text Message-ese.

One very commonly misspelled (did I just mis-spell misspelled?) word that I often see, here and elsewhere:

Definitely (often spelled "definately").

48

Oct.15th WT GB Tells JW Rank & File-You are Our Belongings Stay Humble

by flipper in

jw
friends

the mind control in this latest oct.15th is amazing.

our lurking jw friend sent us this and it basically tellls witnesses that their opinions don't matter and only god is good .

it belittles independent thinking and explains that each rank and file jw is owned by the alleged " faithful and discreet slave " .

rocketman

On the "not our own competence" point:

Essentially, a rock could show up at a person's door, and if God is moving them, they will accept the message.

It gets the individual jw off the hook in terms of trying to be etremely proficient at delivering the door-door message. The jws are being told that the credit does not belong to them, but to God. In itself, that's not so bad. But....Kind of makes one wonder why they spend so much time rehearsing presentations.

51

Do YOU Consider Persons Who Fornicate As Being "Immoral"?

by minimus in

jw
friends

if we were to accept the bible's view, anyone having sex with someone other than their spouse would be considered "immoral".

do you still accept that point of view?.

rocketman

I generally don't consider persons who fornicate to be immoral because society (much of it anyway) seems to have evolved in that direction. No one is really shocked any more that umarried people sleep together. It's become the norm.

That said, if one wants to be strict or technical about it and bring the Bible into it, then sex outside of marriage does fall short of the Biblical ideal. Then again, we fall short of that ideal in many ways.

I think a happy compromise would be to replace "marriage" with "committed relationship", which is pretty much what many religions have done.

32

Dating in the Real World...

by darkl1ght3r in

...or, love stinks.

i am so unprepared for this.

i feel like a kid just walking into willy wonka's chocolate factory.

rocketman

Obviously, a 20 year-old was not the best measuring-stick in terms of what real-world dating is like. If you get out, and maybe use an online dating service, you should begin to meet more mature women.

As far as the JW dating experience goes, your post was actually very close to the truth. You also allude to what I consider to be the greatest Catch-22 that JW life has to offer: What to do with those biological urges in light of the fact that getting married when young is generally a very bad idea.

Of course, what to do is the JW version of Don't Ask Don't Tell - everybody knows that jw youth are sexually active, but as long as it doesn't 'come to light', nobody really asks said youth what they're up to.

66

This Bible passage has always bothered me.......

by palmtree67 in

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.

rocketman

Cameo asked "If sending the pieces of her body out to the 12 tribes was meant to be a message....what exactly was the message supposed to be?"

The message was that free shipping was available during the time of the Judges.

66

This Bible passage has always bothered me.......

by palmtree67 in

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.

rocketman

Farkel mentioned Numbers 31 and wrote:

"What possible reason would Moses (through the wishes of Jehovah) want to do this? So the Israelite men could have tiny little sex slaves in their possession, that's why. Otherwise, Moses wouldn't have been so crystal clear just what kind of little girls to save and what kind to slaughter."

The reasoning (not that I agree) was that, since it was Midianite women who played the major role in seducing Israelite men, they were to be killed, along with men (who would of course be engaged in battle) and boys (who might eventually want to avenge the loss of their parents).

Moses was ticked off because, initially, the Israelite men spared the Midianite women, who were considered as much a future danger (through seduction of apparently spirtually spineless Israelite men) as Midianite men (via war) would be. The younger virgin women, on the other hand, were evidently more malleable and easily subjugated.

66

This Bible passage has always bothered me.......

by palmtree67 in

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.

rocketman

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.

73

Clever ploy to get sisters to monitor husband's internet use in today's WT

by Mickey mouse in

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:.

rocketman

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.