Like Simon said, "Listen, Obey, and be blessed" or get the f**k out!
just saying!
does anybody know how jehovah's witnesses reconcile the contradictions between the stories of jesus' birth as found in matthew and luke?
when i was a jehovah's witness, i wasn't even aware of this contradiction; i simply thought that all of it happen—namely that there was a census (luke 2) and the slaughter of the innocents (matthew 2) simultaneously.
but at the time i didn't know that the census took place in 6 ce and that herod the great died in 4 bce, thus placing those birth stories 10 years apart in time.
Like Simon said, "Listen, Obey, and be blessed" or get the f**k out!
just saying!
in the time since i've left the borg behind i've had a few things hit me as to how words were used.
i'm wondering if anyone else has some similar examples, but here are some things that have made me think:.
watchtower - my whole life i saw this as a thing of protection from outside evil forces, and then when i left someone pointed out "isn't that what they used to keep people in prison".
soon to a normal person means--well soon, To a jw it means never!
evidently to a normal person that means facts, evidence to back it up. To a jw it means conjure up some random events and give them meaning!
jehovah to a normal person means the war god of the nomadic ancient hebrews. To a jw it means everything.
jesus to a normal person means a person who lived a peaceful, inspiring life and encouraged others to do the same. To a jw it means nothing!
just saying!
a couple of examples of scriptures hardly ever quoted is 1 tim.
2:12- "i do not permit a woman to teach, or to exercise authority over a man, but to be in silence".
or verse 11- "let a woman learn in silence with full submissiveness.".
Once,a long time ago, while in fs, I met a Mormon man at the door. We had a nice talk about what was wrong with each other's religion. lol
In our discussion he pointed out to me that jw's claim to 'know the bible' but in reality only use about 50-75 scriptures from the bible in their core teachings. Of course, I disagreed then but he was correct. JW's don''t know the bible, they know 50-75 scriptures. Wash, rinse, repeat.
just saying!
i've heard all my cognizant life that angels from heaven looked upon the daughters of men, took wives, and their wives bore giants called nephilim.. i've heard all my adult life about the book of enoch and why it's apocryphal and to be avoided.. so tonight i was curious enough to download an e-book and have a look, since dothemath had the thread about rarely used scriptures and the book of jude directly quotes from the book of enoch.. if jude quotes from enoch, shouldn't both or neither of them be canonical?
if you consider jude canonical, then enoch should be too.. hey, how many fallen angels were there again?
two thirds of heaven, right?
Enoch was apparently in mortal danger when “God took him.” (Genesis 5:24)
This reasoning always seemed phony to me even as a kid. WTF! couldn't the "creator of heaven and earth" protect just one old man who was in danger? No, so he killed him and put him in storage till then new system! Yea right!
Yep it just confirms in my mind that the entire Bible is based entirely on Hebrew mythology. And to think that we at one time really belived some of that crap!
just saying!
exjw's of a certain age will remember randy's site well.
freeminds was instrumental in waking me up along with ray franz's books.
if net soup and armageddon okies mean nothing to you you're probably under 30.. whatever caused randy to post what he did recently is something i can only guess at but it won't be what i remember him for.. randy, i wish you well and thank you for all you've done over the years .
Randy was very instrumental in helping me 'see the truth about the troof' for the first time. I really enjoyed his commentaries and posts.
Anyone know where Randy is these days? Last I heard he was in Manhattan Beach, CA. I'm in the Downey, CA area which is very close. I'd like to stop by and pay my respects to Randy one day.
just saying!
some years back alltimejeff reported on what gilead's curriculum was like from a guy who had gone thru it.
it was detailed and enlightening for those of us in the dark.
(hey, atj, are you still checking in here?).
I believe that the new curriculum could well be training talented 'brothers' how to scout out new real estate opportunities! Money is the new "field that is rich for harvesting" for the wt borg!
just saying!
i looked at the 2017 yearbook figures this morning, and it reminded me of something which happened in my former congregation 2 years ago.
it was a tiny foreign language congregation with at most 25-30 publishers.
comes and splits a 30 member congregation into....three.
Yep the wtbts uses mathmagic to spin their "increases"! Man do they love to brag about numbers!
just saying!
so... one of my employees is a miserable servant and was giving the pt and invited me to come knowing full well i was faded out, i go along cos i respect him and thought why not, i must admit i was a little nervous headed back there (a neighboring hall not my old one) i saw alot of familiar faces and some old friends who were aware of my fade, all so pleased to see me at a meeting again and i can sum up how i felt about the experience like this.. .
have you ever been to a party and been the only sober person there and are totally aware of the ridiculous things said and going on?
that's what it felt like except the party would have been more fun of course,... all these good people, drunk off their heads on wt propaganda and false hopes, the irony was the talk was titled "does your life have meaning?".
Very nice post! Nice to be sober after all these years! Sad to see so many life-long friends still drunk on the wt wine!
just saying!
the issue of whether beards are acceptable or not is addressed in the september 2016 watchtower - well sort of.
it is as clear as mud as to whether they are allowed in places like australia, usa and britain.. 17. what are some factors that may affect whether a brother wears a beard?17 what about the propriety of brothers wearing a beard?
the mosaic law required men to wear a beard.
I began my Van Dyke type goatee the very same day as this article was studied at the kh. a month or so later I began some feedback from several in the congo, none negative!
A month later I started to hear some rumblings from some elders, though not directly. A week ago an elder asked me why I was growing a goatee and I told him that the wt article seemed to open the door for those with a desire o look a bit more modern. Then I told him to just think of it as an "overlapping" mustache!
He didn't reply!
just saying!
in case you were wondering if the governing body we're going to become kinder and gentler, the answer is a big "no!!!
in the current study edition of the wt magazine, the sheeple are reminded of some very important key points.
1) god has an organization ( corporation ) that you must respect.. 2) only the gb/faithful slave can dispense spiritual food and only the gb/faithful slave can interpret the bible.. 3) individual dubs absolutely cannot learn "truth" on their own.. 4) god requires "unity of doctrine.
Mark Twain once said something like;
"It ain't what ya' don't know that can harm ya', it's what ya' know for sure--- that just ain't true!"
just saying!