Posts by slimboyfat

55

Trinity Statements in the Dead Sea Scrolls

by Sea Breeze in

dr. ken johnson has identified several statements in the dead sea scrolls that predict that god would visit the earth as a man... as the messiah.

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljrfvytjhve&ab_channel=kenjohnson%28biblefacts%29 .

slimboyfat

The NT never calls God's angels 'THEOS',

By confining your statement to the NT it seems you are aware that the OT does call the angels gods in places like Ps 8.5. Why doesn’t that count?

Christ has a higher dignity than the angels, according to the beginning of chapter 1 of the letter to the Hebrews.

What Heb 1.4 says is that Jesus “became” better than the angels because he inherited a more excellent name than theirs. This makes sense if Jesus was elevated above the angels as JWs believe. On the other hand it makes no sense to talk about God himself “becoming” better than angels.

Which manuscript are you saying had a full stop in John 1.1c?

3154

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

by Simon in

jw
friends

uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

slimboyfat

The whole “libellous” claim is complete nonsense. I’ve pointed it out numerous times, but if he was serious about defending his name against defamation then wouldn’t he have directed his legal action against the journalist who described him as a manipulative cult leader (Andrew Gold), and the psychiatrist and author who described him as a narcissistic psychopath? (Dr Sohom Das) If he thought he had a leg to stand on then that’s where he would direct his “legal team”. His so called “legal action” is a barely veiled attempt to bully other xJW YouTubers into stop telling the truth about him, nothing more and nothing less.

10

How Much of Russell and Rutherford is Left?

by NotFormer in

russell is kind of acknowledged as the founder, but rutherford is the one who really made the wt what it is, or at least laid the foundations for what it came to be, today.

how much would someone from that era recognise in the wt today?

what are the big changes that they would see?.

slimboyfat

Quartoceimanism also dates from the Russell era, plus rejection of the Trinity and support for Arian-like Christology. The complete rejection of “social gospel” in the Russell era also remains in the DNA of JW culture.

Who came up with the JW reading of Gen 3:15? Was that Russell or later?

Russell held that salvation remains open to almost everyone who has ever lived, including Adam. For this, some of his contemporaries accused him of the heresy of “universalism”, which he denied. Personally I think Russell was closer to the mark than current JW teaching. Jehovah will save everyone in the end. Isn’t this what 2 Pet 3.9 says?

10

How Much of Russell and Rutherford is Left?

by NotFormer in

russell is kind of acknowledged as the founder, but rutherford is the one who really made the wt what it is, or at least laid the foundations for what it came to be, today.

how much would someone from that era recognise in the wt today?

what are the big changes that they would see?.

slimboyfat

In a real sense Russell has been demoted and Rutherford has been promoted by the recent “faithful slave” change which, as far as I understand it, teaches that the faithful slave only came into existence in 1919. This means that Russell was never part of the faithful slave and that Rutherford was the leader when the faithful slave was selected.

I think Fred Franz is up there with Russell and Rutherford as one of the most important leaders in Watchtower history. He dominated the written religious output of the organisation between 1928 and the 1980s, including most prominently their Bible translation.

83

Thought on “0 hours” reporting

by FFGhost in

so everyone knows the “big news” of this past weekend, no more reporting of hours, placements, return visits, etc.

beginning november 1, jws just tick a box indicating whether they “shared in any form of the ministry during the month”.. so there was a brief comment by a redditor that seems like a brief joke “throwaway comment” but after thinking about it….why not?.

the idea is, what is “any form of the ministry”?

slimboyfat

I remember a pioneer brother who was a bit of a joker used to say that if he waved to a return visit from his car when passing them on the street - that counts as a return visit! The definition of return visits was something like “furthers the interest of the householder in the good news”. He used to say that a friendly wave was a good as a chat for encouraging the householder. Others in the group would get flustered arguing with him that a wave didn’t count as a return visit. I’m sure he was just winding everybody up. 😆

18

Has The WT Allowed Outsiders to be Saved?

by NotFormer in

https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/1734baj/they_just_had_a_huge_meeting/.

this reddit post suggests that the cessation of reporting hours isn't the only thing announced at the recent meeting.

can anyone in, or sufficiently well versed in jwdom confirm that the op's understanding of this announcement correct?.

slimboyfat

The Reddit poster has an over active imagination. I don’t see pioneers resigning en mass or elders arranging mass underground meetings. This is fantasy.

Is there a change about people being able to repent during the GT? What are the details? This is interesting and would have psychological impact on believers long term. The idea that it ends JWs overnight is farfetched to put it mildly.

3154

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

by Simon in

jw
friends

uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

slimboyfat

I think the biggest change was stopping charging for the literature in the 1990s. Until that point Watchtower was effectively a publishing company and their entire culture (including counting time, placements, return visits, and so on) reflected this. In some ways not counting time is the logical (if much delayed) consequence of no longer functioning as a publishing company.

362

Just read that Carl Olof Jonsson died yesterday

by slimboyfat in

for newbies, who was carl olof jonsson?

he was a jw in sweden who was challenged by a householder in the 1960s, who pointed out to him that secular history books don’t agree with watchtower that jerusalem was destroyed in 607 bce, but instead place the event 20 years later.

the reason the date is important is because it is the starting date for jw chronology which leads to 1914 as the end of the gentile times, and the beginning of the last days, as jws understand it.

slimboyfat

As I recall (I’m too lazy to look right now) yes Jonsson did question the whole concept of “Gentile Times” including the WT interpretation of Luke 21. He didn’t advocate simply shifting the chronology 20 years forward to 1935, or whatever. His argument was that the whole chronological endeavour was flawed on many levels, the date of the destruction of Jerusalem being just one.

176

No more REPORTING field service!!!!!!!!!

by BoogerMan in

this is going to break the hearts of a lot of uber-jw's!

reddit has now removed the video link of samuel herd telling jw's they will no longer have to report time or placements - just tick a box which says "active.".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akdshyx79rm&t=13s.

slimboyfat

Well this is going to mess up the nice graphs

33

2023 WTS Annual Meeting?

by careful in

the first saturday in oct. is coming up soon.

that's when the org holds its annual meeting.

not that many years back, it used to be hyped beforehand with favored ones getting special invites.

slimboyfat

I wonder, was there any reference at all, even a very oblique one, to the removal of AM3 from the GB? You’d think they might make some kind of vague reference to it, if for no other reason than to avoid the impression that are embarrassed about it.