CyrusThePersian

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Posts by CyrusThePersian

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  23

  Sorry to be so negative.....

  by ctrwtf in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  today, and just today i've decided to go over to the dark side.

  be forewarned this is an intenesely negative thread.

  maybe i had a bad day.

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  CyrusThePersian

  "All the while, they choose the homes of the dead families that they will reside in when god vindicates their quest for superiority. They do so in the name of true christianity. How utterly vomit inducing."

  This reminded me of an incident when I was a little boy, probably eight or nine years old. I was in service with an older sister. We came up to this really nice home and there were children about my age playing on the lawn. She said, "Just think, when Jehovah destroys this old system at Armageddon, I will be able to move into that house."

  I asked, "What about the family that lives there now?"

  "Oh," she replied, "They'll all be dead!"

  I remember vividly those kids playing in that yard and thinking that it seemed kind of cruel. What did they do to deserve to die? What did she do to deserve living in their house?

  Thankfully, her prediction did not come true and (it's my hope anyway) those kids on the lawn grew up to be happy adults. But really, just how ghastly is this religion anyway?

  ...and really, in all bitter honesty, what took me so long to get out?

  CyrusThePersian
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  8

  My witnessing to an atheist was my last witnessing!

  by abiather in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the field service, during my preaching to a householder, she interrupted me and said: i would ask something, after getting answer you can continue!

  i said ok. she said: i was not believing in the existence of a god until recently.

  last month, in the middle of the night, i got an emergency call from my hospital to attend to a complicated caesarean case.

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  CyrusThePersian

  I know this is a tired old question, but it still needs to be asked. If God, in his omnipotent glory, reached out His Mighty Hand and helped this physician, why didn't he do it for the six million Jews who perished in Nazi concentation camps in World War II or the 2300 people who died in the World Trade Center tragedy on 9/11 or the tens of thousands who die each year in fires, earthquakes, floods, famines, random acts of violence, domestic violence, the list just goes on and on and on...

  Why?

  Because there is no God thats why.

  This lady was helped by compassionate and caring people who saw that she was in trouble--even though she wouldn't admit it--and stayed to make sure that no harm would come to her until help arrived. Simple human compassion, that's all--no Gods or Goddesses necessary....
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  1

  Just wondering

  by Hortensia in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  do you suppose amazon or ebay will buy up ups or fedex one of these days?.

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  CyrusThePersian

  Highly doubtful. It's unlikely that ebay or Amazon has the billions of dollars necessary to buy a controlling interest in either of these shipping giants.

  It would be roughly equivalent to the Family Dollar store buying out Walmart.
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  8

  Their New Grey Bible- Why the change?

  by Shanagirl in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it's been awhile since i've been here, but i just checked in the other day and have kind of been lurking and reading.

  so, what's the purpose of the change in the jw nwt?

  are they re-writing everything to go along with their new light?

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  CyrusThePersian

  I think that the overarching reason for the new Bible and the public invitation to the Annual Meeting was to inject a little excitement into the rank and file. Too long have they been enduring bland conventions and lackluster new releases so they needed something "new" and "special" to liven things up.

  Not to mention that Armageddon still hasn't happened...
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  10

  5go's AGM summary and review

  by 5go in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am writing this from memory i didn't ake notes so forgive me if it is out of order.. sumary.

  it started off with the annoucement of a bible display (mueseum) being built that focuses on jehovah's name in the bible.

  (i found it funny that few if any bible predate the 12th century because that's when the word jehovah was created bet that get's left out) the speaker went into the work done searching for various and the miracles donations and loans that happened to bring this about.

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  CyrusThePersian

  Thanks! Back in the old days it was just called the "Annual Meeting." There was no "General" part in it, at least not that I remember.
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  10

  5go's AGM summary and review

  by 5go in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am writing this from memory i didn't ake notes so forgive me if it is out of order.. sumary.

  it started off with the annoucement of a bible display (mueseum) being built that focuses on jehovah's name in the bible.

  (i found it funny that few if any bible predate the 12th century because that's when the word jehovah was created bet that get's left out) the speaker went into the work done searching for various and the miracles donations and loans that happened to bring this about.

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  CyrusThePersian

  OK, please forgive me for sounding like a rube, but what the heck does "AGM" stand for?

  CyrusThePersian
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  62

  Discussion w/ Wife: I Welcome Your Suggestions

  by breakfast of champions in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  so these last few wts have definitely eroded my wife's faith in the org.

  she is definitely seeing the bs, and i even overheard her talking openly about it to a family member.

  good for her!.

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  CyrusThePersian

  Along with what everyone else said, you could also point out that evidence indicates that first century Christians didn't all participate in evangelizing or preaching work, only certain ones did.

  Ephesians 4:11 says that Christ only gave "some" as evangelizers, not all. Also in 1st Timothy 3 the qualifications for elder and deacon (ministerial servant) are outlined, but if you read them over carefully you will not see any requirement whatsoever for doing any preaching work. (The notion that elders and ministerial servants must get at least 10 hours of preaching in a month is arbitrary and unscriptural.)

  Similarly, in Titus chapter 2 insructions are given on how old men, old women, young women, young men and slaves ought to behave and the things they should do in the congregation, but NOWHERE in all these exhortations is there any mention of engaging in preaching work!

  So there is nothing in the scripture that supports the idea that everyone in the congregation engaging in proselytizing activity would be a hallmark of true Christianity.
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  28

  who is greg stafford? under whose authority does.he.work?

  by friendaroonie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was jjzt watchkng his.debate with.dr.james.white.

  as dr.white noted he.gives.answers you wkll not.hear frlm jws.at hour.door.

  this is.be ause jws.as re.told the opposite.of.wbat stafford.says.on.many points.

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  CyrusThePersian

  Hi AuntConnie

  I don't even pretend to understand that "overlapping generation", "new light on the Rapture", "annointed in charge of the Sheep now, but Jesus has not authorized them until his Second Coming" garbage. I'll leave that to others to debate!

  I haven't read Ehrman's latest book, I believe it covers the topic of the historicity of Jesus as a person (something that Ehrman believes is true). I understand that it's only available in ebook form.

  As far as Metzger and Wallace are concerned you have to remember that both men are/were believers so their opinions about the veracity of the scripture is necessarily colored by their religious beliefs. (BTW Daniel Wallace didn't write "Misquoting Jesus", Ehrman did, although Wallace did write a scathing review of it.)

  My own opinion (notice I said opinion) is that there is pretty good evidence that what we have today in the way of manuscripts is fairly close to what was available at the end of the third century. However, as slimboyfat pointed out above, the likelyhood that these texts accurately reflect what actually took place in the first century ranges from 'doubtful' to 'No way in hell', nor do we have any way of knowing how many changes were wrought in the first three centuries. One only has to examine the Synoptics vs. John or Acts vs. Paul vs. Deutero-Pauline to see that the contradictions between them render the narrative as a whole to be dubious.

  As slimboyfat pointed out too, there are passages in the scripture that simply are highly unlikely to have happened like Matt 21:5. Another one that really gets me is John chapter 3 where Jesus uses the words 'born again' where in Greek the word 'again' (ανωθεν) has two meanings: 'again' or 'from above'. Nicodemus gets confused as to which meaning Jesus is implying. The problem being that only if Jesus and Nicodemus were speaking to each other in Greek would this have been a problem. It's highly unlikely that this would be the case, they would have spoken to each other in Aramaic, their native tongue.

  CyrusThePersian
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  15

  A conversation between Jesus and an JW Elder

  by suavojr in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  and behold, an elder stood up to put him to the test, saying, teacher, what shall i do to inherit eternal life?.

  he said to him, what is written in the bible?

  how do you read?.

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  CyrusThePersian

  Nice thoughts Suavojr, but unfortunately for many elders the conversation would go like this:

  "Which of these three, do you think, proved to be the neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”

  He said, "Why the JW of course. He was going door to door telling all the neighbors the Good News™ about Gawd killing all the wicked people like that Ex-JW apostate at Armageddon™!"

  Sad but true

  CyrusThePersian
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  28

  who is greg stafford? under whose authority does.he.work?

  by friendaroonie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was jjzt watchkng his.debate with.dr.james.white.

  as dr.white noted he.gives.answers you wkll not.hear frlm jws.at hour.door.

  this is.be ause jws.as re.told the opposite.of.wbat stafford.says.on.many points.

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  CyrusThePersian

  @ AuntConnie

  At the risk of derailing the topic, Bart Ehrman never claimed to be writing anything new and in fact stated repeatedly in his works that what he wrote has been mainstream scholarship for decades. It's absolutely true that Ehrman borrowed heavily from Bruce Metzger and other liberal scholars but for the most part he gives credit where it's due.

  I think Ehrman should be given at least a little credit for popularizing the dry, dusty world of New Testament scholarship and bringing it to the attention of the "too stupid" public.

  CyrusThePersian