in ezekiel the 4th chapter one of the most ludicrous passages in the bible tells us god commanded his prophet ezekiel to lie on his left side in a mock seige against a.....brick!
for how long?
390 days!.
If this account is to be believed at all, it can't be taken literally. As Mad Sweeney pointed out, it would seem that Ezekiel would have to be free to move around at some times during each day. As other comments mentioned, acts such as using the potty would become problematic.
The 'ropes' verse is troubling. It does seem to imply that the prophet would indeed be confined to this position. Maybe it should be taken literally after all - which makes it one very goofy account.
god may as well forgive short people for a lack of height as to forgive them for their sin!.
god's "superior" standards are merely the difference between his nature and how he made humans!.
deliberately creating inferior creatures and then burdening them with infinitely superior standards of thought and conduct.
The post-Flood scenario was largely the same, with one glaring exception: the earth was now to be populated by imperfect humans. I'm not sure what God's thought process was. He knew things would decay again.
So in essence, it may be that God made the same 'mistake' not once, but twice, if the Bible is to be believed.
Actually, one reason I have trouble accepting the Genesis account of creation and the fall, and then the Flood, is because it seems to defy logic. It's also too simple, too convenient. It seems awfully convenient that the first man and woman sinned. By convenient, I mean from the story-telling standpoint. In other words, it would seem more realistic if Adam and Eve would have first had a few children, and one of them would then sin.
But here we have the first couple, supposedly perfect and full of procreative power. And yet strangely, she does not get pregnant until after they sin. Just seems too convenient.
was there an official or unofficial reason that anyone knows of?.
it seems to me that pretty much every publication was studied at the book study, but we never did that one..
I don't recall the book being studied, at least not during the period from its release to 1993, after which I stopped attending meetings. But as Blondie posted, if it was WTS-sanctioned bookstudy material, they would have posted a study schedule.
I think we should just agree that, though may have been studied by some bookstudy groups at some times, it was never a Society-sanctioned study publication (how those bookstudy groups would get away with studying a book that they, not the WTS, selected is an interesting question. But so far all we have to establish that is the memory of some members of this board, whose memory may or may not be faulty on this topic).
That said, I do recall a time during the 1970s when bookstudy groups did determine how much material they would cover each week. Later, the WTS dictated that too by means of the schedule in the KM. But like Blondie, I cannot recall any time when a group was permitted to select which publication they studied.
But it is interesting in any case to ponder the Society's attitude toward their own publication. After all, it has questions printed at the bottom of each page. It clearly was designed with eventual study in mind. After release, did the Society indeed see some 'danger' in their own book? Did they simply think the 'friends' would not be interested in studying other faiths? The former seems more likely (lack of interesting material never stopped the Society from assigning such for study, to my knowledge). My guess is that, after releasing this book and having it in circulation for awhile, they perceived some kind of threat from it - which, if true, is laughable, considering the fact that it's their book!
jesus!.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dunning%e2%80%93kruger_effect.
And definitely is spelled definitely NOT definately, which is my little online spelling pet peeve.
holy shit!!!!!
ray franz predicted the new generation teaching as early as 1991!!
now this is taken from the 2007 edition, but that is still three years prior to it happening.
Good find, elderelite, good find. Interesting indeed.
working in a bookstore i notice the thousands and thousands of books "explaining" what the bible really "means.".
those are what people read.. when people say they read the bible they are really saying they "try".
but, it is like reading chinese.. so, what they end up doing is reading opinions.. opinions, conjectures, hypothesis, fantasy, imaginative ruminations, fanciful concoctions......other people's ideas presented as documentary fact.. .
A slightly different angle on this:
This is one reason that the jws are by no means the only ones 'declaring the good news' as they so often claim. Bible societies, various religions, etc have been circulating Bibles for many years. The Bible is where the "good news" is supposedly found. If that's the case - if it's ONLY the Bible that holds the key to finding Jesus, etc, - then the good news has indeed been preached throughout the earth.
every time i hear the following song by elton john, i have to pull over and shed a tear or two or twenty and think of all the other people like me who lost a brother whose name was daniel.... my brother daniel would have turned 40 today august 6 (southern hemisphere time).. i sadly lost daniel when i was 5 and he was 4 .... i still have vivid memories and photographs, yet sadly due to the religion that is called the jehovahs witnesses have not yet fully grieved or coped with my younger brothers death in a road accident.
i have never spoken to anyone outside my family about daniels death as i was raised up with the view that as a young person i would witness any day now the resurrection of my dear little brother.
not a week goes by when i do not visit his gravesite at fawkner cemetary looking for closure or the fact that i may never see him in the new system.
Mattieu, I've heard that song a million times, and now it takes on more meaning. Very touching story, and I am sorry about the loss of your brother!
flipper again.
personally my all time favorite song?
stairway to heaven by led zeppelin.one of my top favorite groups ,too.
I'll return to the original purpose of this thread - songs I like, that are well-known:
Don't Worry Baby - The Beach Boys
Rocket Man - Elton John (big surprise there, huh?)
Tears Of A Clown - Smoky Robinson
Higher - Jackie Wilson
Ball Of Confusion - The Temptations
Kentucky Rain - Elvis Presley
flipper again.
personally my all time favorite song?
stairway to heaven by led zeppelin.one of my top favorite groups ,too.
It's actually easier for me to name songs I can't stand:
Love Shack - B52s
Killing Me Softly - The Fugees (The Roberta Flack version is tolerable)
Paradise By The Dashboard Lights - Meat Loaf
Picture - Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow
Crazy - Patsy Cline
so, went to the dc 2 days this weekend.
still have lots of family in and had to put in a cameo for family who had parts on the program and drama.
i left after the drama today and just spoke with my dad who is inactive and supposedly enlightened about all things jw.
So, is Fred Franz some kind of modern-day Jesus, that it's his life span with which the generation is being referenced? Are they going to come out with a new calendar with designations B.F.F. and A.F.F.?
