BackseatDevil

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Posts by BackseatDevil

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  16

  What year is a SAFE YEAR for the Watchtower Organization as far as having only produced NON-CHANGING doctrine during that entire year which will not become extinct in subsequent years?

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is a damning question to be asked of any loyal, active, devout jehovah's witness.. can you choose any year in the entire history of the org and say it is "safe from error"?.

  if there is no single year ever free from error--in what reasonable way can jehovah being "guiding" the only "true" religion?.

  what does it mean to be the only true religion if--at no time in your history--was what you were teaching actually true?.

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  BackseatDevil

  Everything about the core of Jehovah's Witnesses lends itself to inaccuracy. From a bible with truncated passages and altered translation, to the name “Jehovah,” to the Egyptology spawning dates like 1914, everything about them is riddled with patchwork Band Aids to problems of their own creation.

  Plus, as copy-cat religion, they fall victim to very basic, post-Reformation mentalities such as the way they view Paul, the books they assign to his authorship, the way they view the literalism of the Hebrew Scriptures, the way they take Jewish lessons out of context, the way they view the “inspired” collection of the bible books, and the extremely simple way they use the bible to separate themselves from everyone else... even condemning reading newspapers as it is “Satan's Media.”

  And where they are most wrong? They demand allegiance to an organization without question instead of teaching bible education, bible history, or a personal relationship with God.

  They have not been correct for a single day since their conception. And preaching such isn't really blasphemy... it's just easily provable lies – and that sounds more like a crime against humanity.
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  88

  Why Are People Anti-Semitic?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i seriously don't get it.. some people truly hate`jews.. and it's not just jews.... gays, christians, blacks, mexicans, etc.

  are on the list.. intolerance is a terrible thing..

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  BackseatDevil

  @apostatethunder Christians didn't start prosecuting jews, it was the other way around.

  That is not completely accurate. Remember that most of the “Christians” in the first and second centuries were Jews who kept the Law. For many of them, Jesus extension or an expansion to the law. Paul was basically the only person preaching to the Gentiles.

  It is because of conflicting styles of Christianities that division arose and in the third century when one form of Christianity was sanctioned (the one stating that Jesus was divine, was made flesh, and returned to being divine) and all other forms were considered heretical.

  So in this conflict of who is persecuting who, it was mostly Christ-believers against OTHER Christ-believers. This changed during the Crusades when, in Crusade 1 over 5 million Jews were killed specifically.

  And @factfinder, if you're a Jew with relatives from Poland and you didn't get the scope of that joke, I'm fairly certain racism isn't the biggist issue in your life.
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  28

  What's The Basic Vibe of Jehovah's Witnesses These Days?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  do you think they are zealous?.

  happy, joyful?.

  pessimistic, depressed?.

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  BackseatDevil

  They don't have vibes. They have HOLY SPIRIT.

  (Whatever the f**k that means.)
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  31

  why Jehovah's witnesses? not yaweh witnesses?

  by purrpurr in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this i never understood, the publications say that gods name translated from hebrew is yaweh.

  why add a whole bunch of letters and vowels that change the sound of the name completely?

  i've often thought surely we would gain greater respect on the ministry if we used a name that is historically and verbally accurate?.

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  BackseatDevil

  Please understand that this concept answers about 90% of questions regarding Jehovah's Witnesses:

  With all sectarian religions with Protestant heritage it is more important to be DIFFERENT than it is to be CORRECT. Their view of success is how many steps away from Catholicism they are and NOT in accuracy of biblical interpretation.

  The word “Jehovah” is a very literal (letter-for-letter) translation of a Latinized version of one possibility of the tetragrammaton and has been called many things, including “grammatically impossible.” What it has not been called is accurate.

  The word “Jehovah” was found in the Protestant bible well before the JWs but was not widely used. So, finding a niche in which to be different, stand out, and evangelize something no one has really heard before, this pre-existing unknown (considered an accurate “translation” AT THE TIME) became re-branded into something new and DIFFERENT for the modern age...

  … although not quite CORRECT.

  THAT is why they are Jehovah's Witnesses and not Yahweh Witnesses.
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  88

  Why Are People Anti-Semitic?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i seriously don't get it.. some people truly hate`jews.. and it's not just jews.... gays, christians, blacks, mexicans, etc.

  are on the list.. intolerance is a terrible thing..

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  BackseatDevil

  Penthouse... the ITALIANS of porn.

  LOL!
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  88

  Why Are People Anti-Semitic?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i seriously don't get it.. some people truly hate`jews.. and it's not just jews.... gays, christians, blacks, mexicans, etc.

  are on the list.. intolerance is a terrible thing..

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  BackseatDevil

  Are you kidding? There are TONS of reasons to hate Jews. There are even MORE reasons to hate gays. Blacks and Mexicans? Geez, don't get me started. Of these four groups, I happen to be TWO of them and I can list a multitude of reasons why someone has, does, and will hate me. SOME of it is even my fault, I'm sure (I can be sort of an ass sometimes... LOL).

  The reasons behind such are ALWAYS there because groups of like-minded people always get annoyed at other groups of like-minded people... whites against blacks, Catholics against Protestants, wealthy against poor, jocks against nerds, Hustler against Playboy, there is no end.

  The more distinction a people place on each other, the more everyone is defined by their differences. It's always easy to start from the safe place of homogeneous comfort and mentally work your way out. But it's a LOT easier to just stay stagnate in that comfort.

  Now, once interaction is at play, then that “safe place” is compromised and... if almost 80% of American made movies are correct... two people learn that they are not so different after all and become better people for it.

  But in that is the key... education. The more you understand other people that walk the globe, the less the complaints about whatever group seems as important because the benefit of having said group far outweighs their absence of the face of the planet... and the more it makes sense to avoid the path of least resistance. It's harder, but it gives you access to other cultures and insight.

  And let's face it, the Jews are bad... but they're not like the POLISH... you know?

  Perspective.
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  10

  Leviticus 20:27 ....Why does it say to stone a medium or spiritist?

  by opusdei1972 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  a man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death.

  you are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.

  (leviticus 20:27).

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  BackseatDevil

  How is stoning ever evidence of a loving god??

  Well, it's not. But people back then didn't want a loving god... they wanted a POWERFUL god. All the nations that were occupying their territory all had gods of war and glory that were OBVIOUSLY working for them (or else the nation wouldn't have been conquered). So a powerful god who demanded reverence would have been more comforting for the Israelites so that they could have a quiet, subtle "our god is going to kick your god's ass one day..." loyalty. And this included stoning people who get in contact with other spirits (or maybe had epilepsy... who knows).

  A LOVING god wasn't invented until recently when people started getting all soft and mushy about religion and faith. Then suddenly GOD IS LOVE... and I'm sure some Jews somewhere are thinking "well what good is THAT going to get you?" LOL.
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  48

  Can anyone give me any advice on how to get rid of cockroaches?

  by Jeannette in

  1. social
  2. humour

  i have sprayed, i have bug bombed, i have sprayed some more.

  i threw things out i thought that they might have a nest in.

  i soaked some things in hot water all day.

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  BackseatDevil

  Hot-Shot Ant, Roach and Germ Killer (it's the GREEN can). It says that it is unscented and last 12 weeks. Both of these are lies.

  HOWEVER hide your food and take the can and start from the inner most room and, working your way to the front door (have an exit strategy), spray all your baseboards, corners, cracks and around each window and door opening (anywhere there is an hole in a wall or molding). Leave the house and go have an ice cream. Get sprinkles.

  SPRINKLES ARE IMPORTANT.

  When you get back to your apartment, the place will be fine for human breathing (it's not a high I would recommend, honestly). You may find dead roaches about in the coming days and because it's also a germ killer, anything tracked in will be killed as well. This joyous feeling will last about two months and about halfway through the third month it will be time to get another ice cream. It ALMOST lasts 3 months... or it might last and I just got paranoid.

  I lived in an old apartment complex for over four years and only saw 2 roaches. One about my second month in (and I found this... HEAVENLY POTION) and another when I forgot and tried to make it to 14 weeks somewhere in my 3rd year there. The apartment had pest control, but everyone else around me still had problems, especially the people behind me as they would cook never clean, leaving food out for days. I didn't know ANY of this until years later when I was about to move out and the apartment manager asked my why I never called about the roaches. LOL.
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  33

  What Would It Take To Prove......

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a hypothetical question.. at a minimum, what evidence would it take to prove that the society is trying to quietly shed publishers?.

  now, i don't think we have evidence of this yet but that doesn't mean it could never happen.

  we must consider where the trends of magazine/literature cuts, branch office sales, coerced contributions, bethel/do layoffs, and emphasis on jw.org lead us.. otoh, you might argue that there would never be a deliberate move to get rid of them, just moves that discreetly abandon them.

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  BackseatDevil

  You might take into account the modus operandi of the organization up until this point. Something happens. After it happens, the organization assigns some importance to this.

  Here are two things to consider:

  ONE:

  It has been a LONG standing problem of keeping people IN the organization. This was a problem 20 years ago. If you ever wandered how they can boast so many millions of new baptisms, but only increase in size by 4-600,000? That's because so many publishers fade, leave, or get disfellowshipped (numbers NOT included in the yearbook... ever).

  To counteract this trend, there were a series of talks about 'half the JWs are in the organization to test the other half' and 'those inactive will not survive armageddon' etc., etc. Of course this didn't work.

  So, you might be SOMEWHAT right, but I don't think it's a purposeful shift. I think it's one they are forced to make, but they are going back and making it LOOK as if it's a purposeful shift.

  TWO:

  The WTBTS is a PUBLISHING company. So think of the recent trends in publishing companies, newspapers, etc. Printing has never been faster, easier, or cheaper. Print on Demand books are made for cents a copy and they flood sites like Amazon.com. Everyone (including myself) gets their news from online, New York Times App, CNN.com, or if I'm on my period The Huffington Post. NOTHING is printed anymore.

  So if one is predominately a printing company, of course you're going to invenst in machines that can spit out several million copies of a book and deliver them in under a week. Fact is, it doesn't take 8 people on three machines to print a book anymore... it takes 3 people and 1 machine. BUT, no one is reading print anymore. I'm sure if the JWs hadn't developed this sick form of literature dependency, they probably would have downsized with everyone else after the economy crashed.
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  10

  Leviticus 20:27 ....Why does it say to stone a medium or spiritist?

  by opusdei1972 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  a man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death.

  you are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.

  (leviticus 20:27).

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• 

  BackseatDevil

  While under “enemy” rule (be it Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, or Persia) the same events would come to pass on repeat. Assimilation into each nation's rule would take place as the Israelites were pretty much a perpetually conquered people. In this, SOMETIMES idols, gods, and other forms of worship would make their way into the Hebrew life. It was actually pretty normal and it went something like this:

  “Oh, you want us to acknowledge _____? Fine, whatever... I've go things to do.”

  And the Israelite went about their business because after a while they were used to it. With it came greetings and salutations (apparently) as noted by a letter written written from Jerusalem to the Jewish colony in Egypt called Elephantine, the Jewish priests wrote blessings to the Assyrian god as that was their ruler and... by law they probably had to do that.

  Realize that none of the time they were captured provinces (at the time of the bible's writing) were they made to abolish their native form of worship. On the contrary it was customary at the time during peaceful conquests for the conquering nation to pay some acknowledgment to the god of their new captive area. Jewish people still worshiped their god YHWH, but they also believed OTHER gods and spirits existed. So they had a belief in many gods and spirits... but only worshiped one god (YHWH). They also believed that angels had certain domain over certain natural things (like land and air) and they could inhabit things like statues and people. This concept would be a problem later when (maybe) Paul wrote in Colossian 2:18 not to worship angels.

  So there was an influence of worship from other nations and their gods and spirits... and there was a possibility of individual Jews to take concepts of angels too far. If you had a different version of the bible, it would imply more of a spirit IN her or her being “familiar” with the spirit. This is more along the lines of the concept being discussed and this is where stoning would occur. It's not necessarily a spirit medium – it's just “spirit medium” is the easiest way to translate that.

  It's basically saying if you fraternize with other spirits and one gets into you... you die. And fraternizing with other spirits was not only pretty easy, belief in the dangers of other gods was a very real fear.

  Although there is no real evidence that the Israelites followed this law to it's strictest sense at the time... LOL.