singles fellowship to meet friday.
christian singles fellowship will meet at 6:30 p.m. friday, june 24, for the "witness of jehovah.
" the meeting will be take place at 1401 berlin road, huron.
Singles fellowship to meet Friday
Christian Singles Fellowship will meet at 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 24, for the "Witness of Jehovah." The meeting will be take place at 1401 Berlin Road, Huron.Those attending should take money for pizza, pop and munchies.
For more information, contact Chairman Karson at 419-433-0085.
MAY NEED TO CUT AND PASTE INTO BROWSER!
http://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050618/NEWS01/506180316/1002
you disassociated or got disfellowshipped and the jws were shunning you.
but then some of them went down the same road as you later.
did they then approach you as ex-jws and apologise for the way they had treated you, and what exactly did they have to say?
Me too! I would like to apologize to (anyone) that I judged or shunned, or (anyone) at all that I did (not) treat with the respect and love they deserved! I am very sorry!
any who have checked out snopes.com, know that it is a very effective baloney detection device.
it is amazing how many phoney stories end up coming some so many credible sources.
for the dubs, the urban legend serves an important function of protecting and bolstering their faith.
How about the one where the Rock Band goes to the Kingdom Hall (on drugs) and can actually (remember) the experience to the degree of (becoming) dubs!
The story was either (made up) by the Watchtower writing staff, -- or--it is a real (admission) that in order to really (enjoy) the Kingdom Hall, you better be on drugs!
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"Awake"/1973/Feb/8th/page-15/
Some months back three members of a rock ’n’ roll band in Sonora, California, called the "Yowls" walked into a Kingdom Hall. They had long hair, beards, saggy clothing and were under the influence of drugs. One of them writes regarding the experience:
"Our first visit to a Kingdom Hall convinced us that this was a place where love was not just a word to use. There was real friendship shown and God’s Word was relied on. We agreed to have a Bible study, and shortly were keenly interested in sharing in the field ministry. However, we soon realized that our appearance was not correct or appropriate for ministers. So within just two weeks we cut our hair, shaved our beards and made a complete wardrobe change. My new course cost me my mother, who used to accompany me on ‘trips’ with drugs. But in her place I have many new ‘relatives’ to share my newfound joy.
a dub i know found some info about the christadelphians.
it was quite remarekable to her that there was a group with so many ideas, so similar to the dubs.
such a reailzation is a bit of a challenge to a dub, since they spend so much time fancying how unique they are.
MIRROR IMAGES!
The following quotes were so
much (alike), that I had to use
an identifying letter at the end
of each quote, so that I could
tell the difference, from which
(cult) the quotes came from.
1. Those who wanted to be aboard the heavenly
("space ship") would need to devote more time to
disciplined training. Learning to serve was the
("path") to ridding oneself of the ways of this world
and one's earthly body. (O).
2. Guidance also is needed by man's ( "spaceships").
In many of these vehicles, this need is met by a
guidance system consisting of a computer, observation
transducers, an inertial navigator and steering actuators.
In fact, these very things may be used to illustrate
mankind's need for divine guidance. (E).
3. The ( "spaceship's "brain") is the computer. Into it a
programmer feeds a mathematical trajectory, or
reference ("path"). (E).
4. The Heavenly Kingdom to tell of was not simply
spiritual, but literal. The method of transportation to
this Kingdom was a ("spacecraft"). (O).
5. This connects the starting position with the destination.
The reference ("path") may also take into account obstacles
and forbidden regions to be avoided. (E).
6. Those who wanted to be aboard the heavenly
("space ship") would need to devote more time to
disciplined training. Learning to serve was the
("path") to ridding oneself of the ways of this
world and one's earthly body. (O).
7. For example, one way that position is determined
is by a star tracker that makes use of stars and planets
to fix the ("ship's position") in space. (E).
8. After 1,260 days of bearing witness to the truth,
their enemies would kill them. This event would be
followed by their ascension to heaven in a cloud.
The cloud, he believed, was a ("spacecraft"). (O).
9. Then the computer uses this information to estimate
the ("spaceship's") present position and velocity, compares
this with the reference ("path") originally programmed into
it to reach its destination, and determines the corrections
necessary to put itself back on this course. (E).
10. . After launching, the ("spaceship") strays from its
course frequently and is corrected many times. (E).
11. Despite the fact that it often strays off course, the
("ship") finally reaches its destination because it is always
correcting itself while progressing toward its target. (E).
12. It might be said that, when he accepts God's way, in
his mind the Christian programs a ("reference path") `that
has baptism as its starting point and eternal life as its final
destination. (E).
13.The Christian must constantly refer to this Biblical
("pathway") to check whether he is keeping "on course"
or not. (E).
14. Just as the ("spacecraft") computer has
programmed into it the avoidance of obstacles and
forbidden regions, so Christians must have in mind
dangers to be shunned. (E).
15. As the ("spaceship's") observation transducers
take sightings on stars and planets to tell where the
craft is, so Christians must look to inspired,
unchanging texts in the Bible to see whether they
are "on course." (E).
16. To have bias against a race or prejudice
against a nationality, to show favoritism to some
because they are rich, or to look down on others
because they are poor—such things must be
guarded against, just as a ("spaceship") computer
has to make corrections for the distortions sometimes
present in the signals it receives from the observation
transducers. (E).
17. Sometimes Christians are confronted with issues
not covered by specific scriptures. This might be
compared with the circumstances of the ("spaceship")
when the observational transducers have no star
sighting to offer. (E).
18. " Indeed, the religious leaders studied the Scriptures,
which revealed the ("pathway") to eternal life, but they
did not follow them. (E).
19. True Christians strive to follow that ("pathway")
because they do love God. (E).
20. Not only do they study God's Word, learn of the
("pathway") to life, compare their conduct with that
course outlined in the Bible and see what corrections
they need to make. (E).
21. Compare this with our ("spaceship") illustration.
The computer not only becomes aware of the
corrections needed, but also sets the steering
actuators into motion to make them. (E).
22. Remember that after the ("spaceship") is
launched it frequently strays from its course.
Through its guidance system, however, the
craft constantly is correcting itself. (E).
23. Following a righteous ("pathway") will be
difficult at times. But do not become discouraged.
(E).
24. At times, some feel beyond the reach of God's
mercy. Like the ("spaceship"), they stray off course
so often. (E).
25. The Christian must constantly refer to this
Biblical ("pathway") to check whether he is keeping
`on course' or not." (E).
26. He left his body behind, transported to Earth
in a ("space-ship"), and incarnated (moved into)
a human body, that of Jesus Christ. (O).
*********************************************************************
QUOTES WITH THE LETTER (O) LISTED
AT THE END CAME FROM HEAVENS GATE.
QUOTES WITH THE LETTER (E) LISTED
AT THE END CAME FROM THE WATCH-
TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY.
Watchtower (Spaceship) references:
Good News To Make You Happy/
Chapter/8/page-66/
Good News To Make You Happy/
Chapter/21/page-187/
Awake/1971/Nov/22nd/page-6/
Awake/1989/Aug/8th/page-6/
Awake/1990/Nov/8th/page-5/
Awake/1990/April/8th/page-6/
Awake/1984/March/22nd/page-18/
Awake/1984/Feb/22nd/page-20/
Awake/1983/Aug/8th/page-28/
Awake/1983/June/22nd/page-8/
Awake/1981/June/22nd/page-24/
Awake/1979/April/8th/page-21/
Awake/1979/Feb/8th/page-18/
Awake/1971/Jan/8th/page-5/
Awake/1973/Oct/8th/page-16/
Awake/1973/May/22nd/page-15/
Awake/1971/Jan/8th/page-9/
Awake/1970/Aug/8th/page-30/
Awake/1970/Feb/8th/page-7/
Awake/1974/Aug/22nd/pages 15-16/
Awake/1976/Sept/22nd/page-16/
Awake/1983/Aug/8th/page-4/
Watchtower/1976/April/15th/page-232/
Watchtower/1963/Sept/15th/page-556/
Watchtower/1974/May/1st/page-273/
Watchtower/1976/Nov/15th/page-681/
Watchtower/1971/Sept/15th/page-555/
Watchtower/1971/June/1st/page-350/
Watchtower/1976/June/15th/page-360/
Watchtower/1975/April/15th/page-233/
Preservation/Section 2/page-8/
Mankind's Search For God/Chapter/6/
page-151/
Reasoning From The Scriptures/page-84/
Life Does Have A Purpose/Chapter 7/page-77/
Your Youth Getting The Best Out Of It/Chapter 2/page-12/
HEAVEN'S GATE
Investigators believe the 21 women and 18 men
drank a lethal mixture of phenobarbital and vodka
and then settled back to die at the cult's palatial
home near San Diego.
Alcohol and San Diego played a role in the death
of Joseph Rutherford the 2nd President of the
Watchtower Bible And Tract Society!
HERE IS ANOTHER GROUP CLAIMING
"NEW WORLD TEACHING"
Center For The New World Teaching
to understand so that's why the wts published the new book being released at this year's district conventions.. the new book gets "straight to the point".
according to her "and many others", the knowledge book was too difficult for those just beginning a bible study.
i said, "you're kidding!
EvilForce:
Your quite welcome! That wouldn't happen to be Heinekin, would it? If so, you can pass one my way!
Take care!
to understand so that's why the wts published the new book being released at this year's district conventions.. the new book gets "straight to the point".
according to her "and many others", the knowledge book was too difficult for those just beginning a bible study.
i said, "you're kidding!
"Awake"/2004/June/22nd/page-21/
"Serving in the bush, or country areas, was especially challenging because usually few people there could read or write. In one congregation, only one person could read, and he had a speech impediment. The lesson in the "Watchtower" was unusually difficult, but it was faith strengthening to see the congregation making a sincere effort to grasp the points under consideration."
may need to cut and paste into browser!.
http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0%2c1703%2ca%253d160162%2526m%253d200167%2c00.html .
http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0%2c1703%2ca%253d160162%2526m%253d200167%2c00.html .
MAY NEED TO CUT AND PASTE INTO BROWSER!
http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0%2C1703%2CA%253D160162%2526M%253D200167%2C00.html
http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0%2C1703%2CA%253D160162%2526M%253D200167%2C00.html
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In the end, the church must bear considerable responsibility for the theological confusion of our age--and for the proliferation of cults and new religious movements. We are now reaping the results of theological irresponsibility.
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In Van Baalen's analysis, orthodox Christianity had opened the door for the cults to emerge and to proliferate throughout the culture. Sidelined by pragmatism, distracted by divisions, and committed to a "smallest common-denominator faith," the orthodox churches had left the larger culture, and even some of their own members, unprepared to meet the challenge of the cults.
If anything, the problem is more acute in our own day. The seductions of postmodernism and the complexities of a pluralistic culture compound the difficulty involved in engaging, understanding, and confronting the cults.
In one sense, the rise of religious cults is nothing new. The religious pluralism confronted by the apostle Paul at Mars Hill must have represented something like a foreshadowing of postmodern America. This nation's experiment in religious liberty provided cults with a safe environment for growth even as the spent emotionalism of American revivalism left a vacuum the cults were only too willing to fill. New York's legendary "burned-over district" is but the most well-known of those regions that soon gave birth to various cults and emergent religious groups. Writing in the 1920s, Charles W. Ferguson described the United States as "overrun with messiahs." As he argued: "I refer not to those political quacks, who promise in one election to rid the land of evil, but rather to those inspired fakirs who promise to reduce the diaphragm, or orient the soul through the machinery of a cult religion. Each of these has made himself the center of a new theophany, has surrounded himself with a band of zealous apostles, has hired a hall for a shrine and then set about busily to rescue truth from the scaffold and put it on the throne."
These new religious movements attracted both sociological and political attention. Walter R. Martin, whose book, The Kingdom of the Cults, became an evangelical classic, resisted the temptation to reduce the challenge of the cults to sociology. His particular concern was with those cults that, while deviating from historic Christianity, nonetheless insisted "that they are entitled to be classified as Christians." Martin would cite Professor Lee Belford of New York University as stating, "The problem is essentially theological where the cults are concerned. The answer of the Church must be theological and doctrinal. No sociological or cultural evaluation will do. Such works may be helpful, but they will not answer the Jehovah's Witness or Mormon, who is seeking Biblical authority for either the acceptance or rejection of his beliefs."
More recently, some Christian scholars have been giving careful attention to the apologetic root of the cults that have claimed some Christian connection. The best work to emerge from this approach has focused on Mormonism as a distinct challenge to Christian orthodoxy. In an important new work, The New Mormon Challenge, a group of skilled evangelical scholars consider not only the scope of Mormon teachings, but the root impulse behind Mormonism as a movement.
In a fascinating chapter, Craig J. Hazen, Professor of Comparative Religion and Apologetics at Biola University, argues that Mormonism sought to "solve" many of the intellectual problems orthodox Christianity faced in 19th-century America. Confronted by the challenges of the Enlightenment and its aftermath, many Christian denominations appeared confused and defensive about Christianity's most crucial truth claims. In particular, Hazen points to issues of theodicy as important catalysts for the emergence of Mormonism and its distinctive theology.
Troubled by questions such as the faith of the unevangelized, the doctrine of predestination, and the anticipation of hell, many Christian churches appeared to lack confidence in biblical doctrines or the ability to provide coherent answers to the questions of the day. Beyond this, the existence of rival Christian denominations, focused on debates over what some consider to be secondary issues, left the ground open for movements such as Mormonism to step in and to claim to resolve those vexing difficulties.
Inevitably, any Christian defense of poor doctrines had to be rooted in the apostolic witness and authorized by biblical authority. The distinctive Christian revelation claim required orthodox believers to look backward into a distant past in order to define and defend Christianity. As a Restoration movement, Joseph Smith and the Mormons claimed to speak with the authority of living apostolic witnesses whose experience was presumably far closer to that of contemporary Americans.
Against the Christian doctrine of salvation through faith in Christ alone, Mormonism promoted a form of universalism. According to Joseph Smith and later Mormon teachers, hell would be inhabited only by a few "sons of perdition" who had obstinately rejected the light of Mormon doctrine. While orthodox Christians face the difficult question of unevangelized persons, Mormonism assured the public that almost all persons, without regard to conscious adherence to Mormonism, would find some place in paradise. Similarly, the Mormon reconfiguration of the sacraments offered the opportunity for previous generations to be evangelized through the baptism of the dead.
In other words, the Mormons capitalized on perceived doctrinal difficulties even as many Christian churches appeared to be befuddled, confused, or unwilling to confront the challenges. Confused by the emotional excesses of revivalism, many Americans saw Mormonism as an intellectually satisfying alternative to orthodox Christianity. Through what Hazen identifies as a literalistic and highly selective approach to Scripture, the Mormons were able to promote their system as an updating of Christianity for a new age--complete with a new book and new ecclesiastical authorities.
As Professor Hazen acknowledges, "One cannot make full sense of the initial rise of Mormonism without recognizing that there were strong elements in it that resonated with thoughtful people on the frontier." Like the late Walter R. Martin, Hazen recognizes that Mormons, along with other cults, were often driven by explicitly theological motivations. All this serves to remind contemporary Christians that J. K. Van Baalen was right--the cults are "the unpaid bills of the church."
Churches that surrender in the face of philosophical challenges, that reduce their doctrinal substance to minimal doctrines, and that fail to offer substantial theological arguments grounded in Scripture, leave their own members in a state of vulnerability to the cults and their arguments. Theological immaturity and doctrinal ambiguity represent an open invitation for cults old and new to proliferate. Beyond this, when Christians appear to be befuddled, embarrassed, or inept in the defense of the faith, the Church's witness is inevitably weakened.
A lack of theological maturity and doctrinal confidence leaves a legacy of missed opportunities. These "unpaid bills" demand to be paid.
R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. This commentary is reprinted with permission. For more articles and resources from Dr. Mohler go to www.AlbertMohler.com.
Related Articles:
the year 2034 has been mentioned in some posts here as the new date the watchtower is suggesting for armaggedon.
has the watchtower officially stated this?
has it appeared in any articles?
http://www.jwfiles.com/2034.htm
http://www.jwfiles.com/2034.htm
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Is the Watchtower Predicting The Please be patient while the web page loads page scans of the Watchtower article Noah preached 120 years until the time of the flood, which was the time of the end to Noah and his generation . The December 15, 2003 Watchtower article is paralleling Noah's day to our present day. The Society is adding a 120 years to the 1914 date to come up with the hinted date of 2034. Words such as "Similar, Similarly, Similarity, Similarities, Parallel, Corresponds, Characteristic, Compare, Arklike and more are all through the article to back up their subtle and hinted claims.
The blue underling in the article is of importance.
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finally, i will look at biblical and patristic evidence bearing on the crucifixion of jesus in particular.
we need to examine the earliest known descriptions of the kind of crucifixion adopted by the romans and the specific terms they used to refer to it.
apparently the society believes that crux still meant "stake" in the second century a.d., when tacitus composed his annals.
Leolaia:
I hope this doesn't sound to crazy, but I think if the above information could be condensed into a (brochure) to send out to JWs, I think some of them just might have their eyes opened up to Watchtower deception! Just a thought!
Thanks!
finally, i will look at biblical and patristic evidence bearing on the crucifixion of jesus in particular.
we need to examine the earliest known descriptions of the kind of crucifixion adopted by the romans and the specific terms they used to refer to it.
apparently the society believes that crux still meant "stake" in the second century a.d., when tacitus composed his annals.
Leolaia:
This article is absolutely without a doubt the (very best) published works I have ever read concerning the Cross or Stake in connection to the twisted and false conclusions of the Watchtower Society. Leolaia you deserve an Oscar for this work you have done!
My many thanks to you for doing such a great job!
Thanks!
