The Olivet Discourse

by biblexaminer 24 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  biblexaminer

  Thanks wolfman for that link. I did see that awhile back. It's a fine effort. However, it foments the same old superstitions that I have sought to get away from.

  The idea that God is behind natural disasters has proven harmful to mankind and beneficial to insurance companies who seek to de-risk themselves, relegating more and more to "acts of God". They get rich of this superstition. I received another such letter this year as my insurance company further de-risked, assigning local flooding to "acts of God". So I will not be covered.

  Jesus did not say that 'earthquakes and the like' were signs. Rather they were anti-signs. "Be not terrified" for "the end is not yet" as "these things are but the beginning of pangs of distress" ( an idiom )

  He was pointing out to superstitious listeners that natural calamities were no reason for fear, and certainly no reason to take flight, prematurely.

  The article you linked to says that "earthquakes" are "the beginning of sorrows". This is from only one version of the bible, an incorrect translation. The literal translation is "beginning of birth pangs" and that is not sorrowful. My wife's first birth pangs were an exciting event for us both, the start to the best day of our lives.

  Hardly sorrow.

  Thanks again, but that interpretation is very incorrect. Been there, done that.
• 

  biblexaminer

  David Jay. I've investigated that angle years back. When you're done, there's no reason to think of these verses as anything but an invented moral lesson from some ancient nameless clergyman.

  And certainly no reason to spend any more time struggling to adopt somebody else's value set.

  it's gotta mean more than that, for me.

  Thanks though.
• 

  David_Jay

  Biblexaminer,

  I agree with you, actually, as I was not advocating the critical view as exegetically conclusive or as my personal stand. It isn't offered dogmatically either, if I am correct.

  The information is highly philological as well, so it is not what I would call "practical" to the average Christian. Roman Catholcism, for instance, advocates these views but uses them as a building block and sees no end in critical findings alone. From there several schools of hermeneutical approach are applied to come up with the various views acceptable in that religion (there is practically no dogmatic requisite about this discourse from the Holy See however). Some of these interpretations conclude in manners that suggest that the philology plays little or no part in the end, which is along the lines of what you mention.
• 

  biblexaminer

  David, interesting point about Catholicity having no prerequisite on this topic. Quite different from Watchtower, where their foremost and primary doctrine used to support their hierarchical grip finds its twisted roots.

  Having made it my own personal 'requisite ' over the last three decades, and having arrived at a somewhat unique viewpoint on it, I have come to see a few errors in thought that are common to all who have espoused their stance. Including Watchtower.

  Some others have put forward views that have yet other common threads in them that are equally unsupported when you poke a stick at them. This includes actual bible translations that have altered the text in ways that support their views on the discourse.

  I am of the belief that if the truth of Jesus' words can be arrived at and published, then readers "will know the truth (when they read it) and the truth will set (them) free".

  
  
• 

  biblexaminer

  Is God responsible for earthquakes, wars, famine, plague, pestilence and starvation?

  Watchtower has taught at people's doors, for 100 years, that all the negative things on this planet are God's "sign" he has sent us, a 'divine composite sign' to inform mankind that his Son is in 'in town' and we should sit up and take notice.

  Watchtower arrives at this monstrosity by twisting 2 bible verses, Matthew 24:7,8.

  In support of their erroneous teaching that the war in 1914, and subsequent diseases and suffering, was the beginning of Jesus visit to us, marked divinely by all the most negative this you can imagine, the New World Translation was used as a tool.

  Matthew 24:7,8 were separated from the framework of the text using spaces, to introduce into the impressionable subconscious of weak minded listeners, that these verses are 'stand alone' and support Watchtower dogma.

  Through false teaching, the idea was then introduced into the weak minds of would be converts, that the wording of verse 8 indicates that the "Nations" rising in war against other nations spoken of in verse 7 are different wars from the "wars and rumors of wars" spoken of in verse 6.

  Foolish translators like those who translated the Youngs Literal Translation gave credibility to this demonic propaganda when they changed the words in their rendering, in verse 8, to refocus person's attention, using slight of hand, on a false aspect.

  Jesus did NOT say "sorrows". That is a lie. Where YLT actually bastardized the text in their version, Watchtower bastardized their version using the Watchtower rag and false teaching.

  Why is it that people today accept the objectionable factoid, that earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, floods, war, disease, starvation and, when you're finished, planes hitting tall buildings, are an "act of God"?

  People today shell out loads of money for insurance that covers nothing. They have been duped by insurance companies into accepting this bullshit. And religion has been their biggest ally. Number 1 on the list is the door to door, God-did-its of Watchtower Fable and Tricks Society.

  Ill bet Warren Buffet has read his share of Watchtowers and laughed, all the way to the bank.