Posts by Disillusioned JW

48

"Jehovah God"

by Jeffro in

the expression "jehovah god" has always seemed strange to me.

even when i was a jw, i found the term awkward, and never used it myself.

both words are nouns intended to be synonyms of each other, unless the name "jehovah" is being used as an adjective, which is also weird.

Diogenesister, Dial UP works OK for me most of the time provided the web pages I am accessing are mostly text, without a lot of Javascript and provided they are coded in a way which is compatible with older versions of web page coding standards. The ISP I am using is located in the USA and is call DialUp4Less (see https://www.dialup4less.com/ ). Before I opened an account with them, the company representative asked me several questions on the phone to make sure I realized the kind of ISP I was signing up for. After I told the representative that I have a circa year 2002 computer running Windows 2000 (later I switched to somewhat newer computer running XP) and that I primarily want to read articles (and not watch videos at home) and that I often have Javascript turned off and that I have been using Dial Up since the 1990s, I was allowed to create an account with them.It wasn't easy for me to find that company. I also found another dial up company, one which is by the company which bought out AOL (and thus Netscape) a very long time ago, as well as the Computerserve brand name and Netscape's (and/or AOL's?) dial up internet ISP, but I didn't like the terms of its service agreement (see https://isp.netscape.com/ and https://www.aol.com/ ). The last time I checked (a few years ago) AOL's (America Online's) dial up internet service was still used in those rural areas of the USA which do not have good access to wireless internet service.

The browser edition I am using at home on my Windows XP computer is Firefox ESP 52.9.0 (32-bit), since it is most up to date browser which can run on a Windows XP computer system.

One of these days I hope to switch to a Linux based computer system. I first tried installing Linux way back in the year 2000, but I never managed to get a version of Linux to run completely well on any computer of mine (at best the problem was with video when running software which displayed text, such as word processors); many times the install process would freeze up well before getting near to being fully installed.

When I need a better internet experience, than what I have at home, I use the computers in the break room at work (including after work) and the computers in the local public library. I now have a laptop with Windows 10 (I installed the 2021 Edition Update last Thursday onto it) and I hope to get modem drivers installed onto it so I can use a current browser edition (on the better computer) at home using my dial up connection. I already bought a serial to USB adapter for it and properly installed the drivers for it onto the laptop. Eventually I will get broadband internet (perhaps with 'cable' TV and digital phone) at my home, or by getting a smartphone with a Wi-Fi hot spot, or by getting a tablet computer with cell phone data capability and a Wi-Fi hot spot. But that will only be after I find a plan which is cheap enough for my liking.

48

"Jehovah God"

by Jeffro in

the expression "jehovah god" has always seemed strange to me.

even when i was a jw, i found the term awkward, and never used it myself.

both words are nouns intended to be synonyms of each other, unless the name "jehovah" is being used as an adjective, which is also weird.

Disillusioned JW

Jeffro in your case of you I discovered this old topic thread and another because I wanted to understand you better, due to a perceived dispute. But I posted on very old topic threads by others even months before I started posting on your two very old topic threads. Furthermore I chose your two topic threads because I found them interesting and wanted to express my views about the topics.

48

"Jehovah God"

by Jeffro in

the expression "jehovah god" has always seemed strange to me.

even when i was a jw, i found the term awkward, and never used it myself.

both words are nouns intended to be synonyms of each other, unless the name "jehovah" is being used as an adjective, which is also weird.

Disillusioned JW

Jeffro, I have revived several topic threads (not just ones started by you) which are more than 10 years old - and I will likely do so again and again. I see nothing inappropriate with that. You seem irritated by me reviving old topic threads. If that is annoying to you, why is that the case?

The main reason why I posted to old topic threads is because apparently Simon the moderator months ago put a restriction on my account which prevents me from creating new topic threads. [I thus now can only make posts to already existing topic threads; I no longer can create new topic threads. As a result, if I wish to post a comment I have to find an already existing topic thread, even if very very old, in which to post my comment. I now have no other choice when posting to this web site.] He apparently did that because he incorrectly thought I was intentionally spamming (instead of unintentionally spamming), because a number of times I created multiple topic threads with essentially the same content.

But the reason why I created multiple topic threads with essentially the same information was due to technical difficulties. Those specific posts were delayed in posting to such an extent that I thought they hadn't been fully received by Simon's computer system due to problems with my 46 Kbps dial-up modem based internet connection (which sometimes disconnects me from the internet while attempting an upload) and outdated computer system (and I also thought that perhaps some wording or punctuation in the title of my posts' topic thread created a technical glitch). As a result I made repeated attempts to upload them. Many hours later they posted, resulting in Simon having to delete the duplicates.

20

NWT Revisions

by Jeffro in

there is mention on a wikipedia article that there was a 2006 revision of the nwt.

is this true?

what differences are there?

Disillusioned JW

Hi Sea Breeze that is a good example you gave from Philippians which supports the point I made, but I think you meant 2:9 instead of 1:9. By the way, I also notice that in the 1984 NWT the brackets are in Philippians 2:9, but in that verse the brackets were not in any prior edition of the NWT. I'm guessing that the WT had added them to the 1984 revision of that verse due to criticisms by evangelicals and/or non-JW scholars of the Bible.

Your drawing attention to Philippians 2:9 reminds of something I have noticed about the NT which is very puzzling to me. The name Jesus (Iesous in Greek; Yeshua in Hebrew) was a very common Jewish name during the time that Jesus Christ lived on Earth (if he ever was a historical person) and is simply a variation of the name Yoshua/Joshua (which in turn is a contracted form of the name Yehoshua), which was also a very common Jewish name. It is thus very puzzling to me that the NT makes a big deal about that name Jesus being special when applied to Christ, when the one called Christ (if he ever existed) was by no means the first human to have that name. [For other examples of the NT making a big deal about the name Jesus, see Matthew 1:21 and Luke 1:31-33.]

During most of my active time as a JW I didn't know that the name Jesus was very common in the early 1 century CE, and probably most Christians today also don't realize it was very common. Luke 3:29 even lists a person named Jesus as an ancestor of Jesus Christ! For some documentation of that see the 1984 NWT and the Bible translated by Goodspeed and Smith (though the name Joshua or Jose is used in many other Bible translations). Even the criminal Barabbas (the one who the NT says Pilate released instead of Jesus Christ), according to some NT manuscripts of Matthew 27:16–17 (see the NRSV, the translators' note in the RSV, TNIV, REB, and the 1991 NAB) was named Jesus Barabbas (meaning Jesus son of the father)! The crowds thus were asked which Jesus they wanted to be released, namely "Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah" (NRSV)!

[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barabbas says the following. "These versions, featuring the first name "Jesus" are considered original by a number of modern scholars.[12][13] The Church Father Origen seems to refer to this passage of Matthew in claiming that it must be a corruption, as no sinful man ever bore the name "Jesus" and argues for its exclusion from the text.[14] He however does not account for the high priest Biblical Greek: Ἰάσων, romanized: Iásōn from 2 Maccabees 4:13, whose name seems to transliterate the same Aramaic name into Greek, as well as other bearers of the name Jesus mentioned by Josephus.[10] It is however also possible that later scribes, when copying the passage, removed the name "Jesus" from "Jesus Barabbas" to avoid dishonor to the name of Jesus whom they considered the Messiah.[15] ]

Furthermore, the name Jesus/Joshua/Yeshua honors the name Jehovah/Yahweh/Yah/YHWH since it literally means "Jehovah/Yahweh/Yah/YHWH saves" or "Jehovah/Yahweh/Yah/YHWH is salvation", though some sources (incorrectly in my view) say it means "salvation" or "savior". For example, note that https://aleteia.org/2019/05/13/what-is-the-meaning-of-the-name-jesus/ says the following.

'The Catholic Encyclopedia points out that the Hebrew name Jeshua—or Joshua, or Jehoshua—means “Jehovah is salvation.” The Greeks transliterated that as Iesous, which in turn gave us the Latin form, Jesus.

“Though the name in one form or another occurs frequently in the Old Testament, it was not borne by a person of prominence between the time of Josue, the son of Nun and Josue, the high priest in the days of Zorobabel,” the Catholic Encyclopedia notes. “It was also the name of the author of Ecclesiasticus, of one of Christ’s ancestors mentioned in the genealogy, found in the Third Gospel (Luke 3:29), and one of St. Paul’s companions (Colossians 4:11).' Admittedly that Catholic source goes on to say the following. 'Though about the time of Christ the name Jesus appears to have been fairly common … it was imposed on our Lord by God’s express order (Luke 1:31; Matthew 1:21), to foreshow that the Child was destined to ‘save his people from their sins.'” '

173

Roe vs Wade Overturned by US Supreme Court!

by Simon in

i know there was a leak a few weeks back, but this really does seem to have come out of the blue.. the anomaly was the original decision.

it clearly had no basis in law or the constitution, and was a flimsy, ridiculous ruling.

plus the whole thing was based on a fraudulent case in the first place.. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61928898.

Disillusioned JW

The USA Constitution has a bias against majority popular vote rule at the federal level, in regards to the number of US Senators from each state and in regards to having an Electoral College elect the USA President. Both factors result in a conservative bias towards who gets appointed to the USA Supreme Court.

Each state, regardless of the size of its population gets to send two people to the USA Senate. Since urban areas with large populations tend to be more politically liberal than areas with much smaller populations (such as rural areas), political conservatives get more representation in the US Senate than would otherwise be the case. Likewise by electing USA Presidents through an Electoral College system instead of purely by a national popular vote, a conservative has a slight edge in being elected president of the USA than a liberal/progressive, than would otherwise be the case.

The Senate factor preventing Obama (a Democratic) from filling as many vacancies in the USA Supreme than as would have been the case if the Republicans in the Senate would have not blocked an appointment of his (and for a time the USA Senate also had rules of requiring 60 votes to overcome a filibuster on appointments to the USA Supreme Court) and the number of Senators was proportional to the size of each state. For example, the highly liberal/progressive state of California, despite its huge population, has the same number of USA Senators as the highly conservative states of Kentucky and Idaho, despite their much smaller populations.

Likewise the Electoral College system prevented Hillary Clinton (a Democrat) from being elected USA President, than would have been the case if a straight national popular vote system had been used to elect the President. If she had been elected USA President she would have filled vacancies in the USA Supreme Court instead of Donald Trump. Furthermore, if a straight national popular vote system had been used to elect the President, Al Gore (a Democrat) would have been elected President in the year 2000 instead of George W. Bush (a Republican).

The voting population of the USA at the national level is more liberal than the representation in the USA Senate.

Regarding Roe vs Wade Overturned by US Supreme Court, I have a neutral view about it, perceiving both some good and bad about it. Perhaps I somewhat more approve of it having been overturned than I disapprove of it having been overturned. For me, the topic of abortion is complicated matter, but I feel sad when I think of human fetuses (or even chimpanzee fetuses) in the womb (or outside of the womb) being intentional killed. Likewise, infanticide saddens me.

540

Simple Question Re 1914

by Slidin Fast in

wt claims that satan was thrown out of heaven in october 1914 precipitating ww!

and the end times.

a small problem with that is ww1 started on july 28th 1914 whilst satan was still in heaven picking his nose.. how did we not see this and waste years of precious life?

Disillusioned JW

True, but it would nice if I was really intuitive. I guess what happened was just a matter of me making good guesses. For today I did not come up with any good guesses.

16

Experiences with kiss up kick down Jehovahs witnesses

by hoser in

jw
friends

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/kiss_up_kick_down.

i’ll go first.. in a previous congregation we had a pioneer couple that have since gone on to be gilead graduates and are now either in circuit work or translation.

they checked all the boxes off the societies list so they were exemplary.

Disillusioned JW

The WT shouldn't even apply the scripture the way they do, since the scripture (of not taking fellow Christians to court) is talking about those who believe they will go to heaven and judge angels, yet these days hardly any elders in the congregations claim to have that hope. Hardly any congregational elders claim to be of the anointed. Furthermore, only an extremely tiny percentage JWs living since the 1950s claims to be of the anointed.

540

Simple Question Re 1914

by Slidin Fast in

wt claims that satan was thrown out of heaven in october 1914 precipitating ww!

and the end times.

a small problem with that is ww1 started on july 28th 1914 whilst satan was still in heaven picking his nose.. how did we not see this and waste years of precious life?

Disillusioned JW

Jeffro, it was as I described it above. If by record you mean a written record, the answer is no. I had no need for such for I had no intention to report it to anyone (other than to a close friend of mine). I only posted it here because someone asked me if I really think the future might already exist - and even then I hesitated to post it. Yes the 'predictions' can easily be attributed to making guesses, specifically educated guesses. After all I said, "I mention these examples not to convince anyone of the possibility of the block universe model of time and the possibility of calling to mind future observational events of one's life". Perhaps these examples are nothing more than what would be expected from making educated guesses. It was by thinking of prior times that a police car passed me by that I got the idea that a police car would pass me by on a specific road in a specific direction on the particular occasion mentioned.

540

Simple Question Re 1914

by Slidin Fast in

wt claims that satan was thrown out of heaven in october 1914 precipitating ww!

and the end times.

a small problem with that is ww1 started on july 28th 1914 whilst satan was still in heaven picking his nose.. how did we not see this and waste years of precious life?

Disillusioned JW

Hi Jeffro. Thank you very much for your reply. Earlier today, before reading minutes ago your reply, I became much more convinced of your idea regarding the visions of Daniel. That was a result of reading the following sources today: https://www.livius.org/articles/misc/daniel-11-in-context/ and Irwin's Bible Commentary, in regards to what it says about the book of Daniel. Thanks for providing your link to your page on wordpress .

Regarding my experiment, the actions observed were what other people did near by me.

The first one was that a woman on roller skates, who was near me, would fall within a minute while next me after passing me. That very soon happened but on the opposite of me than what I expected (after she passed back to where she was earlier). Her falling while to the left of me was the reverse of where I 'predicted' she would fall moment earlier.

In the other experiment I 'predicted' that a police car (whether a regular city police car or a Sheriff's car) would pass me by from behind me (while I was on the bus I was on at the time) before the bus turns left onto a different street. Several minutes later while the bus was waiting at a traffic light to make the left turn, a Sheriff's police car passed me from behind. Before that event happened, I changed my prediction to say a police car (whether a regular city police car or a Sheriff's car) would me pass me by from behind after the bus had turned left onto the other street. Before the previously mentioned police car passed me (while on the bus) by, a Sheriff's police car on the cross street passed me by (while the bus was waiting to make its left turn) from the right moving to my left. If the bus turned onto that street a half a minute earlier, it would been passed by from behind by that other police car. It was several minutes from my making the prediction (and from the time of me revising the prediction) before I heard the sound of the police cars and thus before I saw the police cars. Prior to hearing the siren of the first police car, I was starting to worry to my attempt of prediction, one which I had thought was very likely (like a memory, but of the future) wouldn't happen. Granted it didn't happen exactly the way I imagined it (I did not image it happen at the intersection, but rather well before; and later I thought it would be well after it), but what did happen was close enough to satisfy me and astonish me. Close in the sense of like how our memories (especially for some of us, including myself) of the past are partially inaccurate instead of perfect.

These are the two experiences I was referring to of my attempt to call to mind what I would observe in the near future. I mention these examples not to convince anyone of the possibility of the block universe model of time and the possibility of calling to mind future observational events of one's life, but rather to give a reason why I personally think such are plausible ideas.

I hope the above also answers regarding whether what I experienced was déjà vu. I also hope it answers your questions of what my controls were.

540

Simple Question Re 1914

by Slidin Fast in

wt claims that satan was thrown out of heaven in october 1914 precipitating ww!

and the end times.

a small problem with that is ww1 started on july 28th 1914 whilst satan was still in heaven picking his nose.. how did we not see this and waste years of precious life?

Disillusioned JW

Another correction: Where I said "afterlife versus on afterlife" I meant to say "afterlife versus no afterlife".