I remember from past college courses that in the old Testament the Isrealites were not allowed to say God's name YHWY because it was too sacred, so they could only write it; therefore, they used El when saying god's name....correct?.....The JWs seem to claim that they are the only religion to know god's name, but where do they get the right to say Jehovah. Are there any scriptures that would confirm the change from only writing god's name to saying it? I was just wondering about this questions because the JWs have an answer for everthing....maybe I should ask one.
wab07
JoinedPosts by wab07
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What allows JWs to use Jehovah (YHWY)
by wab07 ini remember from past college courses that in the old testament the isrealites were not allowed to say god's name yhwy because it was too sacred, so they could only write it; therefore, they used el when saying god's name....correct?.....the jws seem to claim that they are the only religion to know god's name, but where do they get the right to say jehovah.
are there any scriptures that would confirm the change from only writing god's name to saying it?
i was just wondering about this questions because the jws have an answer for everthing....maybe i should ask one.
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Origins of the stake instead of the Cross
by wab07 ini have been a member on this site for a few months now and this is my first post.
anyways, my mother is a loyal jw and i often email her asking questions hoping to give rise to contradictions in the her beliefs.
i recently asked her when and why the cross was replaced with the stake.
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wab07
Thanks for all the comment and links....very helpful.
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Origins of the stake instead of the Cross
by wab07 ini have been a member on this site for a few months now and this is my first post.
anyways, my mother is a loyal jw and i often email her asking questions hoping to give rise to contradictions in the her beliefs.
i recently asked her when and why the cross was replaced with the stake.
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wab07
I have been a member on this site for a few months now and this is my first post. Anyways, my mother is a loyal JW and I often email her asking questions hoping to give rise to contradictions in the her beliefs. I recently asked her when and why the Cross was replaced with the stake. I am posting this for any comments or knowlegdge that I could preach to her with. Thanks.
Her response: Jehovah's Witnesses stopped using the cross in 1936 when they discovered by intense study of Greek root words and historians that
the evidence pointed to Jesus dying on an upright beam rather than a two-beamed cross. Here is a quote from The Imperial Bible Dictionary
(Not a publication of the Witnesses) "The Greek work for cross, stauros, properly signified stake, an upright pole, or piece of
paling, on which anything might be hung, or which might be used in impaling fencing in a piece of ground. . . Even amongst the Romans the
crux (from which our cross is derived appears to have been originally an upright pole." --Edited by P. Fairbairn (London, 1974), Vol. I, p.
376.
The Bible also uses the word xylon to identify the device used to execute Jesus. Greek-English Lexicon, by Liddell and Scott, defines
this as meaning: "Wood cut and ready for use, firewood, timber, etc....piece of wood, log beam, post, cudgel, club, stake on which
criminals were impaled." It cites Acts 5:30 and 10:30 as examples.
(Oxford, 1968, pp. 1191, 1192)
The book The Non-Christian Cross by J. D. Parsons (London, 1986), says, "There is not a single sentence in any of the numerous writings
forming the New Testament, which, in the original Greek, bears even indirect evidence to the effect that the stauros used in the case of
Jesus was other than an ordinary stauros; much less to the effect that it consisted, not of one peice of timber, but of two pieces nailed
together in the form of a cross....It is not a little misleading upon the part of our teachers to translate the word stauros as 'cross' when
rendering the Greek documents of the Church into our native tongue, and to support that action by putting 'cross' in our lexicons as the
meaning of stauros without carefully explaining that that was at any rate not the primary meaning of the word in the days of the Apostles,
did not become its primary signification till long afterwards, and became so then, if at all, only because, despite the absence of
corroborative evidence, it was for some reason or other assumed that the particular stauros upon which Jesus was executed had that
particular shape." Pp. 23, 24;see also The Companion Bible (London, 1885), Appendix No. 162.
Then Jared, if you consider the origin of the cross, it is reasonable
to believe that Jehovah would never be pleased that we take something
from false pagan religions that he condemned and fuse it into his pure
worship? I can't quote all of the information so I am going to give
you references and then maybe you can look up some of this in your
library at school. These all speak of the origin of the cross and what
gods they represented.
Encyclopoedia Britannica,(1946) Vol. 6,p.753
An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (London, 1962), W.E.
Vine, p. 256
The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art (London, 1900) G. S. Tyack,
P.1
The Worship of the Dead ( London, 1904) Colonel J. Garnier, P. 226
A Short History of Sex-Worship (London, 1940), H. Cutner, pp. 16,17;
see also The Non-Christian Cross, p. 183
Scriptural References:
1 Cor. 10:14
Ex. 20: 4, 5
The cross was used in Babylon, the cross was used to symbolize the false god
Tammuz. In Ezekiel 8:13, 14 the unfaithful Israelites cried over Tammuz and
Jehovah said that was detestable.
The New Catholic Encyclopedia - "The representation of Christ's redemptive death
on Golgotha does not occur in the symbolic art of the first Christian centuries.
The early Christians, influenced by the Old Testament prohibition of graven images,
were reluctant to depict even the instrument of the Lord's Passion." (1967) Vol. IV,
p. 486
History of the Christian Church says: "There was no use of the crucifix and no materiel
representation of the cross.: (New York,1897) J.F. Hurst, Vol I, p. 366