why do some people who were trapped in the wt and wake up after much frustration and anger that they were lied to, still believe in the bible god who allowed them and their families to be deceived and trapped for years.
i have an acquaintance who is a lot older than me and for the past 30 years he has been out of the watchtower religion and is sola scriptura.
sola scriptura is a theological doctrine that posits the christian scriptures as the sole infallible source of authority for christian faith and practice.
pistolpete, very interesting OP.
HowTheBibleWasCreated, you wrote:
"As a desert God of the Shashu people. In fact the archaic Jah or YHW is a throwback. The israelites only pickled up worship of YHWH very late likely after 900 bce judging by the name of Ahab's children."
Do you have any recommendations for books on that subject and similar subjects?
gen 1: 11 says: .
11 then god said, “let the earth sprout [j]vegetation, [k]plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit according to [l]their kind [m]with seed in them”; and it was so.
12 the earth produced [n]vegetation, [o]plants yielding seed according to [p]their kind, and trees bearing fruit [q]with seed in them, according to [r]their kind; and god saw that it was good.
I had that question decades ago, when I was in my late teens / early twenties. Wasn't baptized yet, and an older female JW was studying with me. She was probably 60 at the time. I asked her about that, and she said that the sun had already been created, but that the light from it couldn't reach the earth yet. I said, well, how then could plants survive without sunlight? They need it for photosynthesis. She said that the heat from the sun could have driven photosynthesis.
so many changes in the 2013 nwt seem needless and spoil familiar phrases.
take isaiah 41:10 in the nwt classic rendering:.
do not be afraid, for i am with you.
The change that I really don't like is their removal of "sheol" and "hades" and use of "grave" and whatever else they might have used. I liked the transliterations of "sheol" and "hades", and I think it was educational and enlightening to see and learn those original language words in their contexts. I think because of my exposure to the older NWT, I have a far greater grasp of the Biblical concept of what happens after death than newer JWs and most churchgoers. I've been talking with a few churchgoers lately and have found that they are clueless as to the original language words for "hell", etc., and can't defend their views with any authority at all.
i think it should simply be there to help us citizens.
and besides giving money to other countries, stop giving money to the arts and entertainment..... give money to help taxpayers struggling with debt .
period!!!
No. It seems to me that the U.S. has sent a lot of aid to other countries that didn't aid anybody but rich crooks. The U.S. needs to focus on itself. I am all for helping others, but in an appropriate way. In order for the U.S. to be in a position to help others, it has to take care of itself first. If a hole is blown in a plane with ten infants, one pilot, and only one oxygen mask, it would be better for the pilot to get the mask so he can land the plane; otherwise, nobody survives. If the U.S. sinks and/or becomes more of a third-world country, it won't be able to help anybody. It has to take care of itself. It needs to improve, yeah, but it is a light to the world - with freedom of speech, etc. That light needs to keep shining.
do you see a man with a backpack running into the woods?.
do you see a dog running out of the woods?.
i saw the man running first .... .
Man first; then dog.
when the “year book” is published online next year, and the number of new baptisms is roughly the same as it always is, how are they going to deny that their new “converts” are nothing more than born-in kids of witnesses or already “captive” family and friends?.
the “billions” of hours of service are at best pointless and ineffective and at worse often fabricated.. what say you?.
how are they going to deny that their new “converts” are nothing more than born-in kids of witnesses or already “captive” family and friends?
Good point. Hadn't thought about that. Will be interesting to see what the numbers turn out to be.
not a new subject, i think i have posted on this before, as well as others.
but, i came across a british museum video (on youtube) in which a bm curator tells of his discovery of a cuneiform tablet outlining the assyrian story of the flood and the (round) ark.. the bm curator was dr irving finkel, deputy keeper of middle east at the british museum, he explains that one day a member of the public brought in an old family heirloom.
it all started with a fairly normal event for a museum: a member of the public bringing in an old family heirloom - a cuneiform tablet from around 1750 bc which proved to be one in a million.. finkel proceeded to decipher this tablet.
amazing insights into wts doctrine and practice from a former bethelite who worked with ray franz on the aid book.. https://youtu.be/mz6mjycc7ag.
Thanks. Just downloaded to watch later. I'm really interested in that time period in JW history and the events at headquarters. I think that period sort of set the tone and changed the rules for a lot that followed.
so i received an email from one of the used-to-be jw friends that now pretty much ignore me.
it was haranguing me about "getting right with gee-ho'-vuh", and how imperative it was to "return to the organization".
it continued on with the worn out argument that "the faithful and discreet slave know what we must do in order to be safe and to live, as gee-ho'-vuh brightens the light to them.
trump has his supporters.
https://youtube.com/shorts/uflc5szrrgo.
revdip2000, I think I agree with you. I think if he had been more self-controlled or forced by others to be more controlled, he would have won.
I wouldn't have wanted him to be so controlled, though, that he ended up being a smooth-talking, phony, baby-kisser like most politicians (like Biden & Obama). I found a lot of his candor to be refreshing, and I think it appealed to many. I loved when he pointed to cameras of certain networks and said "see, there they are - fake news" - right to their faces. I loved the names he had for people like "Crooked Hillary", "Sleepy Joe", "Pocahontas".
Biden, for example, to me, is phony and corrupt, but he tries to be smooth and polished. Trump was just out with it, and, again, I found that to be refreshing.
It's kind of like the situation I saw with elders in JW congregations. There were many who tried to be polished, smooth company men, but, every once in a blue moon, I'd run across one who was honest and would candidly say something negative about the org or a publication or a CO, etc. I found that to be refreshing.
However, back to what you wrote, I see your point and at this point, tend to agree with you.
