Apparently the dubs are getting worked up in an email frenzy over Avatar; I don't get many JW emails anymore, but on Friday/Saturday I got the following two, from separate people.
Email 1
This was forwarded to me:
- Family Worship Research (AVATAR)
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- After discussing with our family and several friends about the popular movie Avatar, and the prevalence of "avatars" on the Internet, we thought that others might be interested in what we found in our family worship research, tell us what you think:
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- Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
- av·a·tar: the incarnation of a Hindu deity (as Vishnu)
- Mankind's Search for God p. 106:
- avatar-a manifestation or an incarnation of a Hindu deity
- Mankind's Search for God p.116
- Buddha – Gautama, founder of Buddhism; Hinndus view him as an incarnation (avatar) of Vishnu
- Wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar
- In Hinduism, Avatar or Avatra (Devanagari अवतार , Sanskrit for "descent" [viz., from heaven to earth]) refers to a deliberate descent of a deity from heaven to earth
- Sound familiar?!?
- "And the angels that did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling place he has reserved with eternal bonds under dense darkness for the judgment of the great day" Jude 6
- Similarities between the Hindu goddess Kali(left) and a character from the movie (right).
- Another interesting point…the race of blue humanoids in the movie are called Navi'; on researching that look what we found on Wikipedia:
- Navi - (singular, Hebrew, plural: Nevi'im) refers to a (or the) prophet in the Hebrew Bible.
- We hope you all found this as interesting as we did.
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- This is very interesting information to know especially since "Avatar" is one of the most popular movies in the world right now.
Its good to keep well informed...(2 Corinthians 2:11) . . . that we may not be overreached by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs." We thought this was very interesting and researched it ourselves too. We put the word "avatar" & "Incarnation" into our Watchtower Library search engine and it brings up a whole lot more interesting points from other publications. Agape,
Email 2:
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 9:31 PM Subject: A well-written article (by a brother) who lives in Arkansas and is an elder in a Spanish congregation there. Dear friends: How can you have escaped the advertising promoting a new movie--that has made more money than any movie ever made. That is the publicity I have seen in the news this past week. I could only wonder about the name of it for it was a word I had never used, or that I could remember. Tonight I pulled out my dictionary after reading the article below, an article writen by a brother in Arkansas, and which appeared in a newspaper in Brinkley, Arkansas. You can see how he touches something many of us may not have known. It seems that 'avatar' comes from a Sanskrit root of two words, "down" and "(he) crosses over." The first definition then is: "Hinduism--a god's coming down in bodily form to the earth; incarnation of a god." So when did any god or gods (angels) come down to the earth that you have learned about from the Bible? Could this whole expensive production be something that should be repulsive to a Christian--even dressed up in blue/green? Your Christian brother, -------------- BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WATCH! WORDS OF FAITH
Central Delta Argus-Sun by Jack Repass I’m always amazed at the amount of money some movies make in the first couple of weeks of their opening. It seems as though each new
presentation of sex and /or violence tops the last one. I was curious about this “Avatar” phenomenon, as it seems to be the latest rage. Here’s what I learned: according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary av·a·tar: the incarnation of a Hindu deity (as Vishnu). According the book Mankind’s Search for God Avatar is a manifestation or an incarnation of a Hindu deity. The same book a few pages further explains that Buddha-Gautama, the founder of Buddhism was viewed as an incarnation or avatar of Vishnu.
Wikipedia.org explains that in Hinduism “Avatar” is Sanskrit for a being or deity that descended from heaven to earth. We now can open our Bible’s to the 6th chapter of Genesis. The Bible in Modern English translates the first two verses this way: “When mankind had spread all over the world and girls were being born some of the supernatural beings saw these girls were beautiful, so they took the ones they liked.” The footnote acknowledges that these supernatural beings were “sons of God” or angels. One can only guess as to their motive in taking fleshly bodies and trying to produce offspring. Regardless, the result of these angels and humans reproducing was giants, freaks, and genetic misfits. They apparently were all males; some translations call them “fellers” as they took pleasure in violence, or knocking people down, as one would fell a tree. Genesis chapter six continues with Jehovah’s expression in verse 6 that he was sorry he’d made man and that he purposed to wipe out these
wicked inhabitants of the earth. Fortunately for us, Noah was a God-fearing man who served him faithfully. Due to his obedience, along
with his sons and daughters-in-law, the ark was constructed, representatives of animal kinds were collected, and when the flood came the human family survived. All humans on earth now can trace their heritage back to one of the three sons of Noah. Back to our original thought, these Avatars gave up their earthly forms when the flood came. Jude verse 6 tells us that these angels had abandoned their proper dwelling place, that is to say heaven, and as a result, now are no longer part of God’s heavenly kingdom. Revelation chapter 12 speaks of a war in heaven when Satan and his angels (former avatars) were cast out of heaven and confined to the vicinity of the earth. The increase in violence, immorality, and obsession with the occult and spiritistic practices can be attributed to these fallen angels and the influence they exert over mankind. We would be wise to apply the principle of Psalm 101:3, according to the Living Bible states: ”Help me to refuse the low and vulgar things; help me abhor all crooked deals of every kind, to have no part in them.” Would it be pleasing to our Creator to glorify the actions of angels that have rebelled against Him?
From Central Delta Argus-Sun newspaper, Brinkley, Arkansas, USA
I think the original poster on this thread is right; JW's are just afraid of Smurfs, and the Navi remind them too much of giant ones. Besides, that 3D technology is just unnatural, making images "float" off the screen like that; Satan and the demons MUST be involved, levitating images like they do off a 2D screen. (rolls eyes)
