Laika

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Posts by Laika

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  51

  What are your beliefs now, religious/non religious?

  by Jules Saturn in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  what are your convictions now that you are no longer one of jehovah's witnesses?

  are you a born again christian?

  have you joined another denomination of christianity?

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  Laika

  Didn't Portuguese police speak to psychics about Madeleine Mccann?
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  332

  The most successful teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses and an amazing new book on the divine name

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jehovah's witnesses have had to revise their chronology and various doctrinal interpretations due to events and scholarly corrections.

  but the one teaching where they have been consistently ahead of the curve is the importance of jehovah's name.. .

  i'm going to run through a (necessarily selective) timeline of jw events and scholarly publications that demonstrate the phenomenal success of this teaching in the last days.

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  Laika

  Hi Slim, interesting (and provocative!) thread.

  I am going to somewhat disagree, I have long thought that the Watchtower insistence on the use of the divine name is one of their weakest arguments, and I am surprised that it doesn't cause them bigger problems. This is because it creates a contradiction with another important Watchtower doctrine, one that they share with most evangelicals, that the bible is inerrant and the NT manuscripts are a reliable copy of the original writings of the apostles and other NT writers. Take as an example appendix A3 of the revised new world translation:

  https://www.jw.org/en/publications/bible/nwt/appendix-a/how-the-bible-came-to-us/

  The Author and Originator of the Bible is also its Preserver. He is the One who caused this statement to be recorded:
  “The word of our God endures forever.”—Isaiah 40:8.
  That statement is true, even though no original Bible manuscript of the Hebrew and Aramaic Scriptures * or of the Christian Greek Scriptures has survived to our day.
  ...
  How confident can we be that the thoughts contained in the original Bible texts have been accurately transmitted to us?...
  Regarding the Christian Greek Scriptures, or so-called New Testament, Bible scholar F. F. Bruce wrote: “The evidence for our New Testament writings is ever so much greater than the evidence for many writings of classical authors, the authenticity of which no one dreams of questioning.” He also said: “If the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt.”

  However in appendix A5 they are forced to take the argument that the manuscripts are not as reliable as they have just claimed they are in order to defend their insertion of Jehovah into the NT of the NWT:

  https://www.jw.org/en/publications/bible/nwt/appendix-a/divine-name-christian-greek-scriptures/

  Bible scholars acknowledge that God’s personal name, as represented by the Tetragrammaton (יהוה), appears almost 7,000 times in the original text of the Hebrew Scriptures. However, many feel that it did not appear in the original text of the Christian Greek Scriptures. For this reason, most modern English Bibles do not use the name Jehovah when translating the so-called New Testament. Even when translating quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures in which the Tetragrammaton appears, most translators use “Lord” rather than God’s personal name.
  The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures does not follow this common practice. It uses the name Jehovah a total of 237 times in the Christian Greek Scriptures. In deciding to do this, the translators took into consideration two important factors: (1) The Greek manuscripts we possess today are not the originals. Of the thousands of copies in existence today, most were made at least two centuries after the originals were composed. (2) By that time, those copying the manuscripts either replaced the Tetragrammaton with Kyʹri·os, the Greek word for “Lord,” or they copied from manuscripts where this had already been done.

  I am struggling to think how one can reconcile these two competing positions, and I wonder if you are aware that the Watchtower Society has ever made an attempt to do so? You ask:

  However, for those who maintain the holy scriptures, it poses a number of deeper questions.

  If evidence that the divine name was used in the original NT writings grows to become impossible to deny, this should raise deeper questions for both the JW and evangelical view of 'inerrancy' I.e what else in the manuscripts are incorrect, and on what basis can we claim nothing else has been copied incorrectly/changed from the originals. Though, given that the inconsistent JW position should already raise questions for them I don't suppose this will become much of an issue.

  Edit: or, I suppose, what JeffT (more succinctly) said
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  78

  White clean shaven man runs over muslims

  by silentbuddha in

  1. social
  2. current

  so in england they report a "white clean-shaven man" mowed down worshippers at a mosque.

  why do they never make such detailed descriptions when muslims do the same?.

  i hope this event isn't a bad turning point.

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  Laika

  The implication is that if Simon (or anyone else, for that matter) were among your community, lost his mind and said something that your community finds offensive, then there would be no guarantee that his head would remain on his shoulders.

  Goodness! That wasn't the implication at all!!
  
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  24

  Brussels Central station was evacuated Tuesday amid reports of an explosion and at least one man shot who shouted "Allahu Akbar,"

  by freemindfade in

  1. social
  2. current

  it looks like these attacks in europe are going from weekly, to daily, it literally gives me chills to think about traveling to europe with my family.

  that is very unfortunate.

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  Laika

  If the ww2 generation had the same attitude of this modern day SJW idiot-fest, we'd all be speaking German, and some of us wouldn't be here.

  Says the guy who is too scared to visit Europe...
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  70

  What made you stay "in" even when you knew it wasn't the "truth"?

  by mentalclarity in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so i've been thinking a lot about why i stayed a jw for so long even though i had always had doubts about the doctrines.

  i was born into the religion, left and came back as an adult for another decade.

  some of the things that come to mind (besides the threat of shunning-and this isn't to minimize that very real threat) was:.

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  Laika

  Hi Luhe, thanks for sharing, your story sounds similar to mine, my Dad has faded too but never fully got to grips with it all, I don't want him to feel too much guilt about bringing his family in so I tend to let things be. It's annoying though, I get it.

  I knew Michael Porter, we were in the same congregation in Wimbledon (this was after his prison time) His wife and in laws stood by him too, all very disturbing. Jookbeard also knows him. Some JWs thought he stumbled me and was why I left but the truth is that I was on the way out anyway.
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  70

  What made you stay "in" even when you knew it wasn't the "truth"?

  by mentalclarity in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so i've been thinking a lot about why i stayed a jw for so long even though i had always had doubts about the doctrines.

  i was born into the religion, left and came back as an adult for another decade.

  some of the things that come to mind (besides the threat of shunning-and this isn't to minimize that very real threat) was:.

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  Laika

  Fear that I would lose all my friends.
  Fear that I would disappoint my dad.

  Same Luhe, I grow very attached to people. How was your dad? Mine was definitely disappointed but I don't think he's too bothered now.
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  116

  What is behind your choice of forum user name?

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just curious how we all think.. what prompted or influenced your choice of username for this forum?.

  there are some really amazing names, and it would be great to hear the stories behind them.... mine was nothing fancy.

  i just felt "stuck in a rut too" along with so many others.

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  Laika

  I like dogs and confusing people about my gender.
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  78

  White clean shaven man runs over muslims

  by silentbuddha in

  1. social
  2. current

  so in england they report a "white clean-shaven man" mowed down worshippers at a mosque.

  why do they never make such detailed descriptions when muslims do the same?.

  i hope this event isn't a bad turning point.

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  Laika

  Well you should all spend more time with muslims, you will find they are not usually so scary, even when you disagree.
• 
  78

  White clean shaven man runs over muslims

  by silentbuddha in

  1. social
  2. current

  so in england they report a "white clean-shaven man" mowed down worshippers at a mosque.

  why do they never make such detailed descriptions when muslims do the same?.

  i hope this event isn't a bad turning point.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Laika

  I have never met a scientologist (that I know of) I reckon Tom Cruise would be good company.
• 
  78

  White clean shaven man runs over muslims

  by silentbuddha in

  1. social
  2. current

  so in england they report a "white clean-shaven man" mowed down worshippers at a mosque.

  why do they never make such detailed descriptions when muslims do the same?.

  i hope this event isn't a bad turning point.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Laika

  I have sympathy for their anger about the attack (first half of my sentence - I know I need to work on my clarity) though I was told the BBC was slow to fully report it, I don't know if this is true because I was in bed and didn't hear about it until this morning. I did point out that the reporting was a little different because reporters don't want to prejudice the trial, as some reporters explained on Twitter (this terrorist is still alive whereas the recent islamist terrorists aren't)

  Simon, do you know any actual Muslims? I mean, really know, not just as casual acquaintances. If you don't you should get to know some, maybe invite a few round to dinner? You might have a good time.