by stuckinarut2 45 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
So as to the wedding ring/birthday comparison....
Im trying to think why that is...could it be that the wedding ring serves the JW purpose of "hands off - they are married" whereas the birthday idea serves no JW ideology?
Its more cherry picking if so. The goal then should be to find a way to make the birthday celebration "work" within the JW construct.
Then it would become a conscience matter and finallly accepted.
Birthdays for all!
A great post which has double bubble bonus points for a fantastic response from Terry.
We really should have a "Lurkers Must Read" forum with links to threads like this one.
Second example of inconsistency:
Wt 99 3/15 p25 Re: Church of the Santa Maria Rotunda. (Rome)
In this light, perhaps it is not so surprising that a former Roman temple to “all gods”—the Pantheon—should become a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Mary and all the “saints.”
It ought to be obvious, however, that changing the dedication of a temple or the name of a celebration is not sufficient to transform the ‘worship of devils into the service of the true God.’ “What agreement does God’s temple have with idols?” asked the apostle Paul. “‘Get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah, ‘and quit touching the unclean thing’; ‘and I will take you in.’ ‘And I shall be a father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to me,’ says Jehovah the Almighty.”
There are many Kingdom Halls that were former buildings of "Babylon the Great. One example here:
YB 00 p101
In the early 1970’s, one of the congregations in Swansea, Wales, offered to buy an unused chapel for use as a Kingdom Hall. A deacon of the church that owned the building said that he would rather die than see it sold to the Witnesses.............
It would be useful to compile a list of unscriptural or pagan things the JW belief system was based on in the beginning. While I've heard rumors and haven't done much research on that topic (mainly because it bores me to tears) it would be useful. This topic is a phenomenally good one and really shows how contradictory JWs are with their own belief system.
I'll start:
Pyramidology - Pyramids were elaborate tombs for Egyptian kings, who were regarded as gods.
I was baptized!
That was a practice that had "pagan" origins!!!
konceptual99 - "We really should have a "Lurkers Must Read" forum with links to threads like this one."
Damn; I wish I'd thought of that.
And remember, what is "pagan" means what is not from the Jewish culture--right?
I'm a Jew. Let me tell you what is VERY pagan about the Jehovah's Witnesses.
1. Accepting the New Testament is the written word of G-d. Guess what? Jews don't accept the Christian Greek Scriptures.
2. Not observing a weekly Sabbath. That's right folks. When JWs treat Friday sundown to Saturday evening as just another day they are acting exactly like pagans!
3. Uttering G-d's name. Only pagans believe that their gods won't answer or even listen to their prayers unless they use the names of their deities. The G-d of Abraham and Sarah never has to be summoned by name because G-d always watches over humanity.
4. Not learning at least a little bit of Hebrew. You don't have to speak the language entirely, but you should at least know how to pray the Shema and read a little bit of the Torah in Hebrew.
5. Considering this the year 2015. If you are not a pagan, it's 5775.
6. For men, shaving, being uncircumcised. How many JWs grow beards? How many have...well, you know!
7. Viewing faith in doctrines as more important to G-d than doing something that will benefit the world around you. In fact, being neutral is definitely pagan. Jews believe you have to be involved in making the world community a better place for all.
8. Eating pork and/or mixing dairy and meat. How many Witnesses eat bacon cheeseburgers, pizza?
9. Not observing holidays. Yep, if you don't observe Jewish holy days that means you are a pagan.
10. Believing in a hierarchy or central governing body for doctrinal truth. While all organizations and groups have some type of structure, religious truth is a communal thing in Judaism. The pagan Gnostics developed the current belief popular among Christians that "truth" is found only among an enlightened few and that the rest of us are destined to feed off the crumbs that come from their table. Sorry, but that's a pagan concept.
The list can go on and on. And while some things by themselves are neither pagan or Jewish (not all Jews follow the exact same kosher rules for example or use them at all), the fact that the Witnesses claim to be a "pagan-free" religion is definitely a lie.
There is a pagan free religion. But sorry Jehovah's Witnesses. You guys are definitely quite pagan in custom and teaching.
Pagan did originally mean "country bumpkin" and morphed into all beliefs non-Christian. It was primarily applied to the polytheistic beliefs of the people of the region of Europe that was under Roman rule. Today, it has a sense of anything sensual or hedonistic about a belief system. Somehow, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims escape the definition.
Because it's a changing word like most words, Christians use it at their convenience to mean anything they don't like outside of their beliefs.
Everything that exists can be described as pagan by defining them as existing before Christianity or existing outside of Christianity. So calling a statue of a duck or a cross pagan is a meaningless statement.
OnTheWayOut is very correct.
The term "pagan" actually refers to a different concept than the way it is used by the Watchtower. The pagan religions were the Hellenistic and Roman forms of religion.
"Heathen" is the word that the JWs mean to use. A "heathen" is someone who does not worship the G-d of Abraham and Sarah. However one cannot call Jews or Muslims "heathen," so this might be a reason why "pagan" has become the chosen word for JWs and Christians with views similar to them.
