Island Man

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Posts by Island Man

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  13

  Debating JW's

  by will brooks in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  hi,.

  i'm new in this forum and it seems from a quick recce that jw's give this site a miss?

  is there a site that jw's use - other than their official one which is restricted to active jw's?.

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  Island Man

  There are lots of JWs and JW-directed questions in the Religion and Spirituality section of Yahoo Answers.
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  32

  What is the wackiest or strangest teaching that Witnesses adhere to?

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i guess there are many, but what would be the strangest teaching, or "wackiest" ?.

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  Island Man

  The teaching that man has been around for just over 6000 years. To me that's just as stupid as Young Earth Creationism. There's plenty of hard evidence that man has been around for more than 10,000 years.
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  20

  I need some help

  by RedRightHand in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for purely informational purposes, i am planning a visit to a local kingdom hall.

  it has been years since i've set foot in one and i need to know what the current terminology is so i don't stick out like a sore thumb.

  what are the studying?

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  Island Man

  This is what I can remember from the top of my head:

  The Faithful And Discreet Slave now refers only to the governing body as a collective group. The faithful and discreet slave was appointed in 1919. And the term is now just the Faithful and Discreet Slave - not the Faithful and Discreet Slave Class.

  "This generation" that will not pass away before the end comes, now refers to 2 overlapping groups of anointed christians. The first group consists of anointed christians who were anointed on or before 1914. The second group consists of anointed christians who were anointed during the lifetime of any of the anointed members of the first group. The great tribulation is supposed to come before the last member of the second overlapping group dies.

  The Presiding Overseer is now called the Coordinator of the Body of Elders (CoBE for short).

  The appointment of Elders and Ministerial Servants are now rubber stamped by the Circuit Overseer - not the branch.

  The Bood Study is no longer held in private homes. It is now a 30-minute complete congregation meeting called the Congregation Bible Study.

  The meaning of the Name Jehovah is no longer limited to God causing himself to become whatever is necessary in any given situation. "He causes to become" has a much broarder application, including him causing to happen, whatever event or circumstances needed to fulfill his purpose. It includes his role as creator, fulfiller of prophecies, etc. Jehovah is the great "All-causer", if you will, causing to happen whatever is necessary to fulfil his purpose.
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  16

  Discussion with 2 Elders about IS

  by Da.Furious in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  some will notice i was really busy during the weekend, thats true as some jws will say i was in a spiritual paradise surrounded by brothers.. my view of a paradise is everybody living in harmony and happy, my weekend experience was more like unhappy people and complaining about almost everything, not to mentioned the quite discussion in the corners (i.e.

  gossips).. anyway, during on the discussions, the is (islamic state) topic was started.

  it all started when on the elders said that he prefers to talk to muslims in the ministry since they are more open minded and accept our teaching.. i dont come from a muslim background but lived among them enough to understand what they believe.

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  Island Man

  Are you sure that elder isn't awake to TTATT and was actually trying to expose the similarities between JWs and IS on the sly, by means of a kind of subtle, hidden sarcasm?
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  24

  The sick account of Abraham and Isaac!

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  this has to be watched!!!

  so thought provoking!.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyvcc8ui3cm&list=pl7420408e36541da4&index=2.

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  Island Man

  Cold Steel: " Not knowing all the details in a story would tend to cause confusion, so unless one knows, and I don't, it's difficult to reach some of the conclusions many of you are making."

  Why would any God of wisdom inspire men to record such a narrative without providing the necessary details to avoid confusion and people coming to the conclusion that he's evil? I find the whole "not knowing all the details" excuse to be rather weak and serving only to show up the Author of the bible as being not very wise at all due to him shooting himself in the foot by not providing all the details necessary to portray himself fairly as a wholly loving and just God.
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  12

  David and Abishag

  by opusdei1972 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  1 king david was now very old, and no matter how many blankets covered him, he could not keep warm.2 so his advisers told him, let us find a young virgin to wait on you and look after you, my lord.

  she will lie in your arms and keep you warm.

  3 so they searched throughout the land of israel for a beautiful girl, and they found abishag from shunem and brought her to the king.4 the girl was very beautiful, and she looked after the king and took care of him.

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  Island Man

  Abishag? Abi-shag? As in "Ah be shagging that chick every day if I were David"? LOL.
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  29

  It's my birthday today

  by Bruja-del-Sol in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ... but most of my new (post jw) friends either don't know my birth date (if people don't specifically ask i won't tell them), or they are 2500 kilometers away in the netherlands... so all that's left to celebrate with me are my hubby, the two doggies, cat and my two rabbits... mixed feelings, i miss my friends and family around and haven't found friends in spain yet.

  luckily our daughter will visit us the end of the month... and yesterday we've found a new rental house and we're moving into it next month already!

  i'm thrilled and really looking forward to it, then we will finally be able to let all the rest of our belongings come to spain (2/3 of our stuff is stored in the netherlands).. so with this in mind, i'll just say 'happy birthday to me' and will enjoy my third birthday in espana .

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  Island Man

  Happy . . . I can't believe I'm actually writing this . . . happy . . . it feels so weird and sinful . . . happy . . . Happy Birthday!!
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  45

  A rose by any other name..............

  by sparrowdown in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm curious, why and how did you choose your username?.

  does it hold any special significance for you, is there a share-able back story?.

  for me sparrowdown is a playful reference to matt 10:29 and the title of the movie black hawk down.. matt 10:29 was my go-to scrip to "prove" that god cares about us as individuals.

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  Island Man

  I'm a man who lives on a small Caribbean island.
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  50

  Question for the nonbelievers and atheists

  by nykid in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  what specifically made you stop believing in god and the bible?

  was it a steady road of doubts or it was reading one book or one major event that made you realize the bible was not what it's claimed to be?.

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  Island Man

  The thing that caused me to wake up from Watchtower indoctrination was realizing how Watchtower literature distorted the facts about evolution and how they used fallacious reasoning in their arguments.

  I researched the subject of evolution from scientific sources and discovered that, contrary to the claims of Watchtower and other creationist sources, there is an abundance of evidence supporting evolution. Once I realized that evolution is true (the evidence is just too much and too compelling to deny it), I realized that the book of Genesis cannot be trusted as a source of accurate information on the origin of all living species and man. Genesis speaks about special creation of each kind from the dust. Evolution proves descent of all species from a common ancestor. Genesis is clearly wrong. That got me to thinking what else in the bible is wrong.

  Other research on early caananite religious writings showed me the remarkable similairites between OT judaism and the religions of the early caananites. It seems like Jehovah is nothing more than a copying and reworking of older caananite gods like el and baal. The bible isn't this unique one of a kind book inspired by a real God. It's just a plagiarism and modification of caananite and surrounding religions. Further research showed me that many NT books are actually pseudonymous writings created by forgers falsely claiming to be Paul. Then there are the obvious discrepancies between the gospels. There is much about the bible that is very flawed. But religious people just turn a blind eye or come up with very creative rationalizations and excuses to hide from accepting it.

  Coupled with this there was an awareness in me about the need to think critically and avoid fallacies. I began to see that the arguments for theism are pretty much all grounded in fallacious and emotional thinking and not logic. I don't say this with any disrespect intended but beleivers are by and large, irrational, emotional (ever wonder why women outnumber men by far in most churches?) and fallacious thinkers. They have lost the ability to reason soundly (at least on the subject of the existence of God) because of the effects of religious indoctrination.

  I'm now convinced that religion is all bogus. I now see the whole concept of enobling credulity with the word faith, as being nothing more than a devious psychological manipulation aimed at suspending rational thinking and getting people to accept extraordinary unproven claims. Faith is nothing more that a con tool devised by early religionists. There is no way that an intelligent and all-wise God would value faith as a virtue. Only religous con-men intent on having others accept their wild and unproven claims would value faith. They devised it as a powerful tool to quash the critical, rational thinking that leads one to escape being conned.
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  250

  Biblical Prohecies That Came True?

  by Viviane in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  recently there have been several claims made regarding prophecies that came true.

  i've not personally seen a prophecy that i would consider as having come true.

  i would consider the following as the requirements to say something is a prophecy and evaluate whether or not it came true:.

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  Island Man

  Some of the prophecy fulfillments are actually bogus interpretations of scripture to match later events. A glaring example is Watchtower's twisted interpretation of the 7 times of Daniel 4 to make it a prophecy predicting 1914 as the end of the gentile times.

  There are also glaring examples, in the NT itself, of twisting OT scriptures out of context to make them seem like a prophecy about Jesus. As an example, consider the prophesy in Isaiah about the maiden giving birth to a child. When you examine that original text in Isaiah, with an open mind, it is clear that there is no hint of it being a messianic prophecy. People only assume it is because the gospels quote it as one. But if you look at it honestly without unquestioning acceptance of the NT, you'd be hard pressed not to admit that the NT writer was reaching.

  I have a strong suspicion that the gospel writers twisted OT texts out of context to make it seem like they were prophecies pointing to Jesus.