by crossroads 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Prisca,
I understand your point perhaps you don understand mine.....
if my fathers name was Robert.........and I ...his son.... call him BOB how do you feel about that.
is the "JAH " in the original text ///////////or in the New Outerspace Translation.......
stephen,
Did your Dad say it wasn't OK?
Prisca,
No he never did...and I never asked...it was just a respect thing
Waiting was keeper of the tree for many years but her dogs wouldn't quit their digging. - Seven
Rueful woman. My dachshunds can make a landfield out of my front yard within the hour looking for gophers. Makes my husband so mad - he has taken over care of the grass (new area for him).
if my fathers name was Robert.........and I ...his son.... call him BOB how do you feel about that. - Stephen20
Personally, before becoming a jw, I prayed to God with the opening words of "Dear Father." My own father, I called Dad, but would never have dreamed of calling him by his given name - and he wouldn't have allowed it, trust me.
I wouldn't think calling God "Dad" would be appropriate, but "Father" has a nice, personal, ring to it. And shows respect for his position as our heavenly father.
waiting
stephen -
Maybe you should respect others rights and beliefs;
Rastifarians use 'Jah' exclusively, for example.
Their concept of god is biblical in origin.
I'm pretty sure that 'Jah' or 'Yah' has historical precidence in the Bible too, thus words like Hallelujah, where a contracted form of the tetragrammaton is used as a suffix to the Hebrew for 'praise', if not as a solus contraced form.
whatever you say aba
My girlfriend (never a JW) nearly lost it completely when my mum (very JW, I'm x-JW by the way) was talking to her about the tree and the snake and everything.
I mean, it is ludicrous to take this story literally.
Eve get spoken to by a snake, what does she do? Have a conversation!!
At no point does she yell for Adam and say "Honey, you ain't gonna believe this".
Even given the weasel word explination (Satan used the snake as a puppet), it doesn't explain Eve's reaction.
She knew what snakes were, she'd seen them before, and this one talked. Any reaction? Oh, no, just a normal day in the garden.
And then, when she talks to Adam, it's like... no reaction. 'Oh that's nice darling, pass the fruit'.
It's two choices, either Adam and Eve would have been kicked of Springer for being too dumb, or it's a metaphorical story.
If it is a metaphorical story, then maybe the seven days and seven nights creation stuff is metaphorical, maybe the flood is metaphorical, maybe loads of the Bible is just a story that, maybe, some wisdom can be found in.
Prisca-forgive Steve I always told him cute girls win.
As for Jah I like the name myself just think all names
refer to the son-Abraham talked to the son-Jacob
wrestled with the son and so it goes. The Father is
the Father this is the LORDS game.
Abaddon we will not leave you that way.
It was a serpent not a snake. His curse was to become
a snake. Perfection does not make a person all
knowing does it? Eve was how old-2-3-4 couldn't
be much older do you think? Certianly they would
have figured out by then how to reproduce,no.
Lets pick 3 probably younger though. Why would she
be frightened of anything-except Adam trying "your gonna
put that were". If a dog started talking to a little one
the little one being raised by a very loving Father
would she be frightened or amazed and excited.
If you have ever seen the amazement of the look in
a little ones eyes the story changes a bit.
Hmmm-Adam not much older this beautiful woman
offering another 3-year old candy I know what I'm going
to do. I'm not saying they weren't adults I am saying
they didn't know what an adult knows. They were the
first explorers-learning as they went-not even knowing
the difference between good and bad.
As for the flood why do ancient civilazations mention one
even though they were spread out over the earth.
As for the slippers the Lord took them away only to
personally hand deliver them back to his all to real
game pieces. To get to the spiritual place we were
meant to inherit ; instead of clicking the slippers
or eating of the tree of life, we only need to BELIEEEEVE.
Well must go now Springer is coming on gotta see if
I can pick you out.
Re the Garden of Eden:
Recent Sumerian studies have shown that the conception of a divine garden and of a state when sickness and death did not exist and wild animals did not prey on one another is to be found in Sumerian mythology. (Their writings are older than Hebrews and Abraham was a Sumerian from Ur, one of their chief city-states--patio) The desciption of this earthly Paradise is contained in the Sumerian poem which Dr. Kramer has called the Epic of Emmerkar:
The land Dilmun is a pure place, a clean place, a bright place. The lion killed not, the wolf snatched not the lamb, unknown was the kid-killing dog, the grain-devouring boar, the sick-eyed says not "I am sick-eyed', the sick-headed says not 'I am sick-headed', the old woman says not I'm an old woman (or man). The singer utters no wail, by the side of the city he utters no lament.
Later, one of the immortals and his wife were allowed to live in Dilmun after the Flood.
(Btw, the ancients were located in the valley between the Tigris and Euphrates and flooding--great floods--happened occasionally as with any river valleys.)
Also the Sumerian mythology (written BEFORE the Bible) had a goddes who was created to deal with a rib and was named Ninti, which means 'the lady of the rib.' Sumerian word 'ti' had double meaning of 'life' as well as 'rib', so that Ninti could also mean 'the lady of life'.
We have seen that in the Hebrew myth the woman who was fashioned from Adam's rib was named by him Hawwah, meaning 'life.' Hence one of the most curious features of the Hebrew myth of Paradise clearly has its origin in this somewhat crude Sumerian myth.
And the list of plagerisms from the Sumerians goes on and on and on.
(Information is from the book Hebrew Mythology" by S. H. Hooke.)
Patio
The tree of life was doing what it was suppossed to do.
It was giving Eternal life to whoever ate from it.
Even the gods (Elohim) were worried that humans would eat from it. Since humans had already eaten from the tree of knowledge, They would be like gods if they had eternal life.
They were so worried about it that they placed a computer guided flaming sword to go around the tree protecting it. They also placed cherubs to guard the tree.
The tree of life had to be a real tree. The sword going aroung it would not really travel around a person or an animal.
The fact that it was protected shows that it could give eternal life.
So it is a tree that gives knowledge
and it is a tree, not Yaweh, who gives eternal life.
Unless the Bible is lying to us.
Nah. The word of god lie? impossible.
Both trees had to die during the deluge, together with the rest of Earth's vegetation after being sunk in salty water for months.
JRP
