Posts by Euphemism

17

What was an Episkope in the 1st century Christian Congregation

by rassillon in

one that held that position, what were they responsible for?.

i understand that congregations were communal and shared resources.. was an episkope an overseer of spiritual matters or physical needs such as food and money, political structure?.

i guess i am asking an "overseer" of "what"?.

Euphemism

That makes perfect sense, Narkissos; thanks.

17

What was an Episkope in the 1st century Christian Congregation

by rassillon in

one that held that position, what were they responsible for?.

i understand that congregations were communal and shared resources.. was an episkope an overseer of spiritual matters or physical needs such as food and money, political structure?.

i guess i am asking an "overseer" of "what"?.

Narkissos... I'm sure this has been addressed before, but my memory is failing me. What do you think was the intended meaning in Acts 20:17,28? I thought that Acts is roughly contemporaneous with the pastorals, but the same group of people are referred to as 'elders' and overseers'. Was 'overseers' simply a generic, non-titular use of the term?

36

Rolf Furuli

by Alleymom in

the following message posted on the b-hebrew discussion list may be of interest to jwd members.. http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-hebrew/2007-march/031707.html.

.

Euphemism

Man, I've got to figure the feces will hit the fan on that one.

Falsifying data is a pretty serious claim to make in academic circles, and I'd be more comfortable seeing it made with some actual evidence (as opposed to evidence that Rolf lied about his publisher, which is certainly bad, but not an academic felony). Still, given the intellectually deceptive crusade that he's on--and of course, the Witnesses' hitory of deception, intellectual and otherwise--I certainly couldn't put it past him.

16

Jesus

by alotlikemay in

i'm going to put my head on the block here... and possibly alienate some of you in doing so.

i'm new to the forum.

forgive me, i don't have time to read up the whole history of threads here, much as i'd love to, so if this subject has been discussed already (as i'm sure it must have) then apologies .

Euphemism

No roasting from me... you're entitled to believe whatever you want to believe. Question, though:

Now, I am not talking about any religion's conception of Christ! I am talking about Christ himself - the one who died for us, who created us, who will judge us....

How is that not "any religion's conception" of Christ? That's the traditional Christian conception of Christ, isn't it? The Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet, but not any of those things you listed. The Jews believe he was ether a popular rabbi, or an impostor. Even within Christianity, various groups--such as the Gnostics--have had ideas of Jesus that don't fit with that list. (E.g. that he wasn't the creator; rather, the creator was the God of the Old Testament, who had evilly imprisoned spirits in flesh.)

Again, not knocking your faith... just wondering if you're not taking a lot for granted.

27

How Long Did It Take You To Snap Out Of Watchtower Think?

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

how long did it take you to snap out of watchtower think?it took me better than a year to let go of watchtower think.

the teachings held on to me.

more so than the emotions and i did not have family in the organization to tie me down.. disconnecting yourself from watchtower thinkwhen you first discovered what the society was behind the scenes how long did it.

Euphemism

Interesting point, jgnat. Another important difference is that most of those who leave have to gradually figure out the 'truth about the truth' for themselves; I don't know if Hassan's figures were for people who leave cults on their own, or for people who have an expert like Hassan leading them.

Typical cults are also more immersive than the Witnesses, and I would guess that a lot of the mindset is keyed to that immersion. Whereas the Witnesses are accustomed to being 'in the world but not of it', so they can go about their normal lives--even no longer having any contact with the Witnesses--and still maintain a lot of the thinking.

And of course, I'm sure Hassan would say that the process is much more difficult for people who were raised in the group, which is the case for most people on this board.

Personally, I did have a Damascus moment; it just took me ten months to get to it. The stuff afterwards was a matter of figuring out what I believed, but the guilt and fear were all gone the day I decided to leave.

6

Taxes explained

by startingover in

jw
friends

for those of you that don't understand tax issues, please read this it is really a good explanation of our government.

taxes explained...read it all!

tax system explained in simple terms.

Euphemism

Actually, in the United States, the poorest pay less than 0% income tax, at least if they have kids; it's called EITC. OTOH, the analogy is wrong in claiming that 4 out of 10 people pay no income tax at all. Based on this government report, in 2000 45% of tax returns reported an income below $30,000, but 31% of the filers in that range owed income tax. So, roughly speaking, the number that pay no tax is closer to 3 out of 10.

Of course the flip side of the data is that the top 3% of the population made over 20% of the income, and the next 11% of population made the next 20% of the income.

If you want a dining analogy for that, let's say that you have five pieces of pie to split among twenty people:
- One guy gets a whole piece to himself.
- Two guys get to split one piece between them
- The other seventeen people have to split the remaining three pieces of pie
That's our American income distribution.

Now clearly, capitalism (with some government intervention to soften the edges) is the best economic system yet discovered, and I'm not arguing against it. (It also happens to be serving me well, personally.) But if we're going to have folksy analogies about the distribution of taxes, we should look at the other side of the coin as well.

And BTW, Dr. Kamerschen's web page says:

Contrary to Internet folklore, Dr. Kamerschen is NOT the author of "Tax Cuts: A Simple Lesson in Economics." Additionally, he does NOT know who wrote it.

4

I did some translating of my own ...

by Frequent_Fader_Miles in

branch organization manual.

chapter 25/ page 150. .

23. the translator's responsibility: serious responsibility rests upon a translator, who must see that what is published in the english is translated clearly and exactly for the non-english edition.

Euphemism

Actually, Virgo, 'sisters' are translators as well. The sentence was phrased that way because a sister could never be a ministerial servant. Which is funny, because the only ministerial servant explicitly named in the Bible is a woman, Phoebe.

27

How Long Did It Take You To Snap Out Of Watchtower Think?

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

how long did it take you to snap out of watchtower think?it took me better than a year to let go of watchtower think.

the teachings held on to me.

more so than the emotions and i did not have family in the organization to tie me down.. disconnecting yourself from watchtower thinkwhen you first discovered what the society was behind the scenes how long did it.

Euphemism

Intellectually... it took 10 months from the time I started questioning major doctrines, until I decided to leave. It took another 3-4 months for me to completely put aside the Bible and Christianity, and it wasn't until I read The Moral Animal the following year that I became firmly atheist.

Psychologically... the effects stay around much longer, I think.

21

Is the WT lack of funds showing in the Wardrobe room (scans)

by kwintestal in

are these ladies wearing the same shirts?

these scans are from the feb. 1 2007 watchtower.. .

page numbers were left on the scan for those who have the articles to have a closer look.

Euphemism

Not a hundred percent certain, but I believe that the clothes the Bethelites wear in WT photo shoots are actually their own. At least, I know that one former friend of mine was in a shoot for a photo in the YPA article "What's wrong with hanging out?", and he was told to come already dressed as the photo required. He was the only guy in the photo who looked plausibly 'worldly'.

288

Did the heavenly calling cease in 1935? Not anymore!

by AnnOMaly in

watch out for the questions from readers in the may 1st 2007 watchtower.

"when does the calling of christians to a heavenly hope cease?

" it's a good'un.. included are the statements:.

Euphemism

Narkissos wrote:

I don't know why I singled Lösch... I have no other information about it, but hopefully others may have.

I've mentioned this in a couple of other places, but Tony Morris (old friend of my dad's) has been partaking since the late 70's.