Posts by robhic

58

Did Satan lie?

by moomanchu in

god said ,.

you shall not eat from it or touch it,.

the serpent said to the woman,.

"The book of Enoch indicates that Satan was not the serpent, it was another angel."

See? Just like present days, someone --ANYone -- can do bad or wrong stuff and blame it on SATAN! He's been the ultimate scape goat for thousands of years.

And satan didn't lie because A&E didn't die the day of eating the fruit -- as GOD said they would. God's the liar but satan gets all the blame AND it looks like he wasn't even there!

23

Is Jehovah a God of love?

by SickofLies in

"o you lovers of jehovah, hate what is bad.

"if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own soul, he cannot be my disciple.

(luke 14:26)

robhic

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own soul, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26)

The question "In this case, who would want to be his disciple?" seems to be more relevant.

When Jesus said one must hate his family and himself he meant that one had to focus everything on entering into the kingdom of God all earthly goods were to be ignored so as not to make one fail in the truly important heavenly goals.

Well, if this is what he meant then he coulda made it a little easier to understand! A person reading this (myself) would be repulsed at this thought the way it is written.

13

Did you ever feel in danger due to extreme weather?

by greendawn in

did you ever find yourself in extreme weather conditions extreme cold, heat, winds, rain etc .

.

i was once caught out driving during a hurricane, some things were flying around but fortunately i survived.

robhic

Well, I live on the outskirts of New Orleans and dodging the bullet that was Hurricane Katrina does make one respect the weather. I sustained no real damage but I've lived in and around this area all my life and have been thru some others in the "tropical weather" department over the years that were considerably worse.

Yep, heavy weather (no, not the album by the band Weather Report... ) does tend to make one do some thinking and introspection.

Robert

20

Should we evaluate satan's thoughts, to see if we agree or not?

by DavidChristopher in

should we just take others word, and blame everything on him, without seaching and trying to see if there was a reason for what he did?.

is there a chance, he could have been doing what jehovah wanted him to do?

or was he meant to be a "fall guy" for us?

robhic

David, think on this. It's from a thread I started some time ago but it made me re-think some things. Maybe it will you, too.

Why is satan supposed to be so bad? What did he actually do? He gets the blame, sure, but what does he explicitly do? Can’t explain why you did something bad? Blame the devil! An excuse.
He tempted Adam & Eve by telling them the truth! If they ate from the tree they would be the equal of god. Is this true? They ate from the tree. God got pissed and threw them out ....
... And the bit about tempting jesus. So what? He tempted him, jesus declined the offer, no-harm-no foul as far as I can see. What does satan actually do that makes him so bad?
Tell folks to slaughter women and children (but keeping the more attractive women for wives)? Destroy whole towns or civilizations? Kill 70,000 people because some guy took a census and a myriad of other nasty things? No, it was god (the one who supposedly loves everyone) doing this! Not satan...

Exactly why is satan supposed to be so horribly bad? Read the examples above but there are many, many more. Satan did some tempting (big deal!) but gets the blame for a host of other things. It's only the bible writers' word. Satan makes a good universal scape goat. It keeps folks from accepting responsibility, something that humans don't readily accept.

Plus, all jehovah and his armies are going to be packing are some swords and chariots. I'd take my chances against that with a couple AR-15s, some dynamite and rocket-propelled grenades. Ever see a knife at a gun fight? I thought so.

Just some things to think about.

Robert

25

New System Questions

by sandy in

ok, so the new system is just around the corner, right?

if you mary your deceased best friend's fiance what happens when the three of you meet up again in the new system?

i mean i know the reasoning that the dead will be resurrected to perfection and will feel no more physical pain but what about the emotional pain?

robhic

This is what an ex-JW wrote on another forum:

Married people who survive armageddon remain married. Single people who survive armageddon could be married in paradise (imagine getting all perfect gifts!). Resurrected people would not marry...and here's the scripture they used to support it...

Matthew 22:29-30 (new world translation):
"In reply Jesus said to them: "You are mistaken, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God; for in the resurrection neither do men marry nor are women given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven." (But didn't some angels mate with earthly women and spawn giants -- the Nephilim and Rephaim like Goliath? 1Sa 17:4, Gen 6:4 see also Num 13:33)

Hope this adds something you can use.

2

New Orleans hurricane

by osmosis in

one of the things i keep hearing about by the jws, is just how organised, efficient and selfless the borg and its flock were in immediately swooping down to no after the hurricane and doing everything possible to help the afflicted, believers and non-believers alike, without stopping for photo shoots or any such propoganda campaign.. it seems to me they want to avoid issues such as their cult-like nature, by painting themselves as saints who give their all for their fellow human -- "they're good people so don't question their faith, because that is what makes them good people".. and i've wondered, really wondered, what really happened down there... i don't believe their version of it for a minute, and figure there had to be something in it for them... maybe they only helped other witnesses or something... it just can't be the way it's being sold to me... anyone know what really happened?

this seems like an internal propoganda campaign to further convince the faithful witness that s/he is doing god's work.

a little too good to be true.

robhic

I live outside of N.O. and was one of the lucky ones who didn't get storm damage (other than some loose siding and 3 roof shingles...). I also am not a JW but have a friend who is.

I never heard of one, single instance where members from her congregation drove the 10 miles or so to the city or parts outside of N.O. I didn't hear any stories of ANY JWs from anywhere going to do anything to help anyone.

I am not saying they didn't, just that if they did it was kept a pretty good secret from a lot of members in out-lying areas and definitely from any news media -- TV, radio or print. IMO, it isn't like them to be so quiet and not "blow their own horn" when giving even the most minute assistance.

Robert

12

A letter to a JW friend regarding Jehovah in the NT

by vbMark in

i think that those here might find this interesting.

i wrote this letter to a jw friend regarding the word jehovah in the new testament.

it is a summary of information that i've collected and some original information.

robhic

Very well written and very in-depth. I would just have to wonder if a JW will read this entire work? Seems they don't like their foundations shaken and as such will not read anything that makes a vibration! (haha)

Good letter, anyway. I hope it has the result you desire.

32

The Bible - God's Word or Man's?

by SickofLies in

i guess my basic goal here is to express to others and hopefully get more support in my efforts to tear down the two worst and most inaccurate books the society has published.

those being: life: how did it get here?

and the bible - god's word or man's?

robhic

Your arguement is flawed because Vietnam created the politcal sitution that led to their victory.

What if United States didn't break Japanese naval codes or what if Germany was not decieved into believing the Allied landing would take place for from normandy beach? The allieds use dirty tactics to win World War 2. The viet Cong knew their military was outclassed so they resulted to a guerilla and propaganda style of warfare which led to them achieving victory.

Not quite. The Vietcong created the situation which the US and their fear of not following the rules of war allowed, to their detriment, to continue. In other words -- we played by the rules and they didn't. The VC only created what we allowed. And we learned a hard lesson...

No because your argument does not match dates of the 3 wars in which I mentioned occured. Do you believe Israel had superior military technology PRIOR to the 3 wars it had with its neighbors or afterward?. Today Israel could easily mop the floor with any middle eastern nation that comes against it but that was not the case 50 years ago. America had its hands full with trying to stop the spread communism to have help Israel survive its rocky start as a new nation.

Well, Rocky Balboa wasn't supposed to beat Drago the Russian boxer ... but he did. Israel's possession of any modern weaponry along with their zeal and ability to use what they had, even against better (only in part) technology poorly applied made the difference. The Jews were more motivated than their opponents and deployed technology they had in a more efficient way. Having the US watching their back in any way was a big factor, regardless of other events. And all of this still doesn't advance in any way that the bible is a letter written by god and not the creation of primitive, late Bronze Age goat farmers later shaped and re-shaped by a bunch of people with their own agenda and the benefit of hindsight.

32

The Bible - God's Word or Man's?

by SickofLies in

i guess my basic goal here is to express to others and hopefully get more support in my efforts to tear down the two worst and most inaccurate books the society has published.

those being: life: how did it get here?

and the bible - god's word or man's?

robhic

American with all it's great power was not able to spread democracy to vietnam, but some how that little democratic new born jewish nation manage to defend itself successively even though odds were stacked heavily against them.

First, America was hamstrung by political and other reasons which did not allow them to bring our full might to bear against the Republic of Vietnam. If the US Army had been allowed to just "go for it" and blast the Viet cong with our full capacity, political correctness and all that bunk be damned, then the outcome of the Vietnam conflict would have been substantially different. Your premise is flawed.

In the case of Israel, they have the full backing of the US and all its military power. Israel also has much more modern weapons and defense capabilities than most of the other nations allied against them. Do you see the problem with your statement?

IMO, it doesn't in the least way prove, or even show, the bible as anything other than a book of man-made fables and laws written by men.

32

The Bible - God's Word or Man's?

by SickofLies in

i guess my basic goal here is to express to others and hopefully get more support in my efforts to tear down the two worst and most inaccurate books the society has published.

those being: life: how did it get here?

and the bible - god's word or man's?

robhic

Very interesting and well-written. I agree wholeheartedly with you. You wrote many things which I have been thinking for a long time. And you made a couple more points that were interesting, too.

For me, one simple thing is just how conveniently the bible and all things in it mirror the lives and beliefs of the late Bronze Age and later periods. Why does the creator of the entire universe seem to only utilize the logic and technology of primitive goat-herders? Seems the "master builder" would be able to operate in a better way. Why all the references to a "sword" or a "chariot" etc.? Because that's all these people understood.

They would have had problems understanding the concept of armegeddon as nuclear holocaust. So how is this book written with an eye to "all times?" It was all they knew! And the they here are the ancient, primitive people who wrote this book to make themselves feel better about themselves (like a pep-talk), instill some fear in the masses for control purposes, establish some rules (not all bad) and try to elevate themselves in the eyes of the masses. IMO, of course, but the bible was written and conceived by MAN.