by Simon 80 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Comatose said-
The angel killed 185k enemy soldiers ONE time
Well, sure, but that's because the angel was acting under orders of a bronze-age God. Apparently said bronze-age God had a bit more of a problem overcoming those using iron-age technology:
Judges 1:19
And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.
Adam
new hope and happiness.... not sure what you mean. No witness I know thinks the earth is 6,000 yrs old. And no witness I know says the stories are not literal.
lol Adamah!!! thats a great example. Could it be that back then EVERYTHING was attributed to god? You had a kid? God had remembered your wife and opened her loins. You won a battle? God went to war for Israel. Nevermind that 20k men died in that battle...
No witness I know thinks the earth is 6,000 yrs old.
You may personally not know any yourself but there are many JWS who do, particularly in 3rd. world
countries where education is formatively weak.
Well, the WT publications very clearly admit that the earth is much older than 6,000 years and they try to offer an explanation of why.
So, I really hate to stick up for the WT, but lets be clear. The dumbies who think that the earth is 6,000 years old, are also apostate according to current WT doctrine. lol
It was two foxes and the rest is hyperbole.
The Sikhs to this day do not cut their hair as a covenant to God. They are vegetarians, too. They started in the 15th century, BC, as a reaction to oppressive Muslim rule.
Comatose said-
Could it be that back then EVERYTHING was attributed to god? You had a kid? God had remembered your wife and opened her loins. You won a battle? God went to war for Israel. Nevermind that 20k men died in that battle...
What I find funny is how the Bible still contains many "tells" that are HINTS that it's written long ago and NOT inspired by an "Intelligent Designer" but by clever men who held some really goofy ancient beliefs, eg, even in the scripture cited on the 1st page:
Ex 1:1-7
Now these are the names of Israel’s sons who came into Egypt with Jacob; each man and his household came: 2 Reu′ben, Sim′e·on, Le′vi and Judah, 3 Is′sa·char, Zeb′u·lun and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naph′ta·li, Gad and Ash′er. 5 And all the souls who issued out of Jacob’s upper thigh came to be seventy souls, but Joseph was already in Egypt.
The phrase "issued out of Jacob's thigh" comes from the ancient Jewish belief that while the semen was derived from the blood (and considered as a clarified form of blood, and mistakenly believed to be formed in the spinal cord), this clear fluid was stored in the knees: they confused the clear synovial fluid (found in the knee) for semen.
This concept is even revealed in modern language, where the Latin root 'gen-' (as in 'generation', or 'genetics') is also found in the name given to the act of bowing down on one's knee, 'genuflect'.
It's also the same reason why some translations say that Hagar bore her son Ishmael onto Sarah's knee; the idea was that a surrogate's maternal rights could be transferred to another woman, if the child was born onto her knee (of course, Sarah and Abraham threw the handmaiden and Abraham's son out like yesterday's trash, once they had a natural child of their own, Isaac).
All of these ancient long-disproven superstitions are there for anyone who has eyes to see....
Adam
jgnat said-
The Sikhs to this day do not cut their hair as a covenant to God. They are vegetarians, too. They started in the 15th century, BC, as a reaction to oppressive Muslim rule.
The story of Samson likely tells of the practices of the Nazirites, a Hebrew sect that took a vow (agreeing not to cut their hair, not drink alcohol, etc) in return for blessing with special powers from Jehovah.
Comatose - "Well, the WT publications very clearly admit that the earth is much older than 6,000 years..."
Sure they do...
...long after the point where it's such a foregone conclusion that they know they'd look foolish to claim otherwise (getting a die-hard JW to acknowledge that the "Creative Days" may have been longer than 7000 years each, however, is like pulling teeth - too close to evolutionary theory for their comfort).
It's yet another aspect of the Information Age that I suspect will prove increasingly awkward for the WTS.
In the past, most "New Light" that was generated specifically in response to the discoveries of science and history more-or-less kept pace with the rest of the world (give or take a decade). These days, however, the expansion rate of human knowledge is so rapid (compared to the WT's 20th Century "Golden Age") that trying to keep up with it and still maintain some semblance of theological continuity cannot help but become more and more difficult.
The typical response of similar authoritarian fundamentalist groups in the past? Sooner or later a line is drawn in the sand, and the decision is made to no longer budge, come hell or high water.
The decline/collapse of said group often follows.
And the JW answer is
"walk by faith and not by sight"
