by Gamaliel 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Gama : I work the West Hempstead branch during the week, and the Hempstead branch on the weekends...I'm on one of the new M-7 trains... I did work the 3:37 AM train that left Babylon Wednesday morning though..
:: Our clean train campaign is working , so plese help by taking any Awake magazines that you see and depositing them in trash containers located on the station platform for your convienence...
Rayzorblade laughs @ thegentleman
That was hilarious. Ironically, last night while riding the subway to work, I noticed something on the floor in front of me. It was an AWAKE magazine.
It was the one with the two little girls holding the bunnies on it. (Spoofed on here a little while ago). I left it where it was, it was obviously wet and covered in road salt and boot smudges. Yuck!
The conductor of the train has spoken, place all littered magazines in their appropriate places. We all know where that is now, don't we?
(recycle bin would be kinder) - essentially the same idea .
if the harlot is Christendom, how does she get paid? Obviously, she is paid by 404(b), 170(c) or 501(c) type tax breaks that religions and charities get when they apply for non-profit filing status. The problem is that JWs also ask for this same harlot's wage for services rendered. But JWs don't put out. I mean, they rarely give anything charitable back to the nations. They don't build hospitals, run blood drives, give clothing to the poor, or give out toys for tots at Christmas time.
I'm having trouble with your analogy, here; how is this anything like illicit sex? Hell, it doesn't even violate the Golden Rule!
I'm too Bible-allergic to actually do any serious thinking about this, but I'm not at all sure that Babylon the Great has anything to do with Christendom. Just because she's "a whore" doesn't mean she was cheating on the bible-god.
GentlyFeral
The WTBS is no better than the white-washed graves her predecessors were.....she "spills blood" too......in disf'ing....and scatters families.....and money-changing?....it changes from the "fleeced ones" hands to her hands....then watch how the WTBS "generously" LOANS money back to the congregations (who gave the WTBS the dang money in the FIRST place) to build kinkdom halls in which NO ONE will be allowed to live or benefit from in any tangible way and for which all glory and compensation goes back to the WTBS....
Auntie Flame
I was not trying to be too serious here. But if you're having trouble with the analogy then that's part of the point.
Bible beasts admittedly represent nations, and this particular beast is supposed to the the "nation of nations" or the United Nations. But if all religion is a whore riding on the nations then there must be a "services rendered" by religion, and a "payment for the services" that these nations have "enjoyed" (which somehow they will tire of). The most well-known relationship between religion and the state is the tax break for non-profit status. It involves a services rendered (charity) and a payment (effective tax refund).
You're right, that if we got very serious about this then we might look for only clandestine or unsavory services rendered and the payment being some sharing of power with religion (non-separation of church and state) which is a more likely thing that nations would tire of.
I don't particularly care what Revelation means, but if I were to guess at the original author's intent, I would think it was pointing to the idea that God's judgment had just been poured out upon Jerusalem, which had often been called a bloodguilty "harlot" in the past. It had spilled the blood of the prophets before, and had recently played with fire in getting Rome to do the dirty work with the execution of Jesus. So in spite of Jerusalem's taxes, and friendly ties with the Herod's etc., Rome tires of her games by 70AD and continues bringing God's judgement upon Judea well into the 130's AD. But a New Jerusalem, a new Bride, a new Nation, will remain without spot from the world of Rome, etc. etc.
I'm sure there are other possible explanations that have proved more appealing throughout history, but for me, this one seems to best fit the author's original clues.
Gamaliel
