In addition, it might be helpful to read Mark 13:33-36 in between reading Matthew 24:42 and Matthew 24:43, since that makes a more logical sequence in the narrative. It makes a better conceptual link between verses 42 and 43 of Matthew chapter 24. Shortly after I got that idea I noticed that an arrangement very close to that is in the book called A Harmony of the Gospels for Students of the Life Christ: Based on the Broadus Harmony in the Revised Version, by A. T. Robertson.
Disillusioned JW
JoinedPosts by Disillusioned JW
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Disillusioned JW
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Disillusioned JW
Holy spirit! Notice that the last sentence of Matthew 24:51 (at least in the 1984 NWT) has the exact same wording as the last sentence of Matthew 25:30 (at least in the 1984 NWT, and in the latter part of both verses in both the 1901 ASV and the 1995 Updated NASB)! Also notice that Matthew 24:44 speaks about an hour that you don't know and so does Matthew 25:13. These factors suggest to me that very possibly Matthew 25:13-30 (or Matthew 25:14-30) should be right in between Matthew 24:44 and Matthew 24:45, or right after Matthew 24:51! If that was the case in extant ancient Greek manuscripts of the book of Matthew then it would be much easier for readers to discern the identity of the "faithful and discreet slave"! Talk about a revelation, or at least an insight!
Furthermore, perhaps Matthew 25:31-46 should immediately following Matthew 25:13!
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Disillusioned JW
Correction to the last two sentences of the second paragraph of my prior post. I meant to say the following. "One Christian woman (who attends a Bible Church) says I am an agnostic, even though I have many times told her I am an atheist. Perhaps that is because I sometimes say things (including explaining things) about the Bible from a Bible believing Christian's perspective - though as part of looking at ideas from both sides of the issues. In my presence (at her church's dinning room, when I go there for a free dinner that is open to all of the public) sometimes she tells people that I know much about the Bible and that I am very intelligent."
Further information: About two weeks ago she said that she has asked God to make her gray hair go away, but that it hasn't gone away. That reminded me of what I learned online about catalase in onions having the ability to neutralize peroxide build-up in the skin, and thus restore a hair's natural color. I wanted her to know what I had learned, so I jokingly told her the following. "Maybe God is speaking to you right now, through me, even though I am an atheist. If God can use an ass ('donkey') to speak to Balaam, then God can use an atheist to speak to you right now." I then told her what I had leaned about why hair turns gray and what can restore the natural color.
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Disillusioned JW
A moment ago I checked my notes that are in my old Bibles about the two chapters, but the notes did not pertain to the verses about the faithful slaves and the wicked/evil slave. Thus, the conclusion I reached today about the identity of those slaves is the first time I drew that conclusion (at least in the fuller sense I now understand it) - though many years ago while an independent Christian I had tried to discover the answer. [Using the NIV Study Bible, another study Bible, and some non-JW Bible commentaries I found some proposed explanations, and one was close to what I mentioned in my prior post except it did not use chapter 25 to make the determination. (At least I don't recall them doing so.) As a result I was not completely sure of the identity of the "faithful and discreet slave" of Matthew 24:45-47. While I thought it might mean faithful Christians in general, I thought (perhaps due partly to WT influence) that more likely it meant faithful Christian ministers/pastors/elders of the congregations. Now I know what the Bible reveals its identity to be.]
I continue to study the Bible and my understanding of the Bible keeps getting better. It is very hard for me to permanently cease studying the Bible; some aspects about the Bible fascinate me (though some other aspects of the Bible anger me). Some Christians might interpret these matters to mean that I became saved and that I am still saved (and that Jesus is with me), even though I've been an atheist for more than 10 years who tries to persuade people to becoming atheists. One Christian woman (who attends a Bible Church) says I am an agnostic, even though I have many times I am an atheist. Perhaps that is because I sometimes say things (including explaining things) about the Bible from a Bible believing Christian's perspective - though as a part of looking at ideas from both sides of the issues.
Hypothetically speaking, if there is a heaven in the sense of a spiritual realm with God and Jesus maybe I will end up there. But if so, I sure hope that God is much more loving than the frequent portrayal of him in the Hebrew Scriptures OT Bible. The description of the Jesus Christ of the gospels seems mostly very good and very loving and very kind. Some evangelical Christians say "Once saved, always saved" and a long time ago (during the time period I partook of Memorial emblems at my home by myself) I did pray to Jesus, saying I accept him as my savior.
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Disillusioned JW
I can read it if I enlarge it by clicking the "+" key of my PC keyboard multiple times while holding down the "Ctrl" key, since my web browser responds to that way of zooming in on a page. Another way to do it is use the pull down menu of the browser for enlarging a web page. However despite enlarging it is fuzzy and hard to read, but I can manage to read it.
Hey if the WT is saying that all faithful JWs are the "slaves" mentioned in Revelation 1:1 then they should also conclude they are "the faithful and discreet slave" mentioned in Matthew 24:45-47. That should especially be the case since the article cites Matthew 25:14, 19. How so. Well consider the following. Matthew 25:21-23 says that the industrious slaves of the group mentioned in Matthew 25:19 each are a "good and faithful slave" who will be rewarded by being appointed over many things! Furthermore, Matthew 25:24-27 says that the non-industrious slave of the group in verse 19 is a "wicked and sluggish slave". It thus just now dawned on me that Matthew 25:20-23 identifies who is the faithful slave of Matthew 24:45-47, and that Matthew 25:24-27,30 identifies who is the evil slave of Matthew 24:48-51! Wow! Holy spirit! Jesus Christ. Yahweh God Almighty! Eureka! Dynomite
Perhaps I had that insightful conclusion over 15 years ago when studying Matthew chapters 24-25 very carefully, but forgot about it. I do know that in some of my NWT Bibles I have notes in the margins in which I relate some of the passages of chapter 25 to some of the passages of chapter 24. I will re-examine those notes to see if any pertain to the two slave groups.
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What is your PSI / ESP potential?
by manon inexperts estimate that one person out of twenty possesses an unusual degree of extrasensory perception-esp or psi energy.
the following questions may determine your own psi potential:
1- is it unusual for you to be reduced to tears?
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Disillusioned JW
There is a fascinating lengthy transcript of a portion of an interview of Eric Wargo at https://ideaspace.substack.com/p/author-eric-wargo-on-dreams-premonitions . That web page also has audio files to the full interview. Part of the interview says the following.
"YANCEY: How do you explain it?
ERIC: This is what I've been thinking about for the last ten years, and I've written two books about now. A lot of lines of evidence from a lot of different fields are converging on a possible explanation, and it's going to have to do with the brain. This isn't a spiritual phenomenon, although I believe that spirituality can very much involve the brain and its tricks.
Let's start with physics. In physics it’s become much more accepted by a growing number of quantum physicists that at the smallest scales in nature, causes go both directions. The fact that we only perceive cause going one direction is an effect of entropy and things happening on a larger scale. But on the tiniest scales of particle interactions, there's really no way of telling. Temporal directionality is a lot less meaningful there.
Number two, what's even more interesting is in the last few years there's been a growth of research in quantum computing. That's where you try to scale up these tiny quantum effects into something that we can use to create a quantum computer. What they're finding in quantum computers is that you can reverse the temporal direction of a computation. It effectively means you could produce an output before an input.
YANCEY: Say that again?
ERIC: You could theoretically produce an output before an input in a quantum computer, because you can reverse the direction, the temporal order, of a computation. Now, I'm not an expert in this field, so the details are lost on me as well. But this supports the notion that there are ways to scale up this causal directional indeterminacy that goes on at the very smallest scales in nature.
Let's take it to another field. Quantum biology is an emerging field over the last two decades. Just a little over a decade ago it was discovered that plants are essentially quantum computers, because photosynthesis uses some of these same quantum principles. There has been a search for three decades now for quantum processes going on in the brain, because if there's anything in nature that ought to be a quantum computer, it would be the brain, right? There's growing evidence for this possibility that at least certain structures within neurons, called microtubules, might have quantum computing processing properties. If that proves to be the case that may be your explanation for how this works. Because one thing microtubules do in neurons is they reshape the tips of neurons as they form connections to each other. They’re involved in processes of memory and learning, because that's what memory learning is: the formation of new connections. The reinforcement of those connections as they're used, or the withdrawing of connections that aren't used, is the basis of memory and learning.
Now if those molecules that are controlling that process are getting information about their own futures, they're able to prespond to information ahead in time, even if we're talking a few seconds. That’s a potential mechanism where our learning processes, our connectivity in our brain as a function of memory, is influenced by experiences ahead in time. Not just in the past, the usual way we think of memory. When you study precognition and how it manifests in real life and in laboratory life, it looks an awful lot like memory, just memory going in the wrong direction. The similarities to memory are obvious if you pay attention to the research findings, and to the vast anecdotal data of dreams. It looks like memory for things future."
While at my local library today I noticed that one of its branches has available Wargo's book called Precognitive Dreamwork and the Long Self: Interpreting Messages from Your Future. I thus placed a hold on that book. Also while at the library I checked out a book called Psychic Abilities For Beginners: Awaken your Intuitive Senses, by Melanie Barnum.
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What is your PSI / ESP potential?
by manon inexperts estimate that one person out of twenty possesses an unusual degree of extrasensory perception-esp or psi energy.
the following questions may determine your own psi potential:
1- is it unusual for you to be reduced to tears?
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Disillusioned JW
scooby_future, I realized that you were saying that you experience the next day exactly what you saw the prior day in vivid pre-sleep imagery. To my knowledge (to the best I can recall it) I have not experienced any event which I previously saw in "unbidden" mental images, but I wonder if the events of those images are yet to happen, or if they happened without me noticing them. I do indeed (to my knowledge) have aphantasia to a large extent (but not totally since I can see a very slight image, not counting when I get the occasional vivid images). Since that is the case I can not recall most of the details of some of the brief vivid mental images in order know for certain if I later saw such the regular way (such on TV).
Sometimes when I try to form images in my mind I can make them more clear, and if I were to practice extensively maybe I could get very good at forming mental images at will. When I described to a co-worker my difficulty in forming clear mental images, she said "In your mind you are blind". That description struck me as very accurate. I read a web page (at https://www.verywellmind.com/aphantasia-overview-4178710 ) more than two years ago and the day I found it was the day I first learned the word "aphantasia". I had forgotten about that word until you used it in your reply to my post. The web page has an article which says the following.
"People with aphantasia do experience visual imagery while dreaming. This suggests that it is only intentional, voluntary visualization that is affected by this phenomenon. Zeman explained to the BBC's Science Focus magazine that this is possible because what the brain does during wakefulness is different than what it does while dreaming. The imagery of dreams originates from bottom-up processes controlled by the brainstem. Visualization, on the other hand, requires top-down processing that originates in the brain's cortex. ... The available studies suggest that having aphantasia does not necessarily hurt a person's success in life. People from all walks of life experience this phenomenon, including successful doctorate students, engineers, and other professionals. ... Mental imagery also plays a role in learning, so not being able to visualize scenes in your mind may make certain aspects of learning more difficult."
More than two years I also found and read an article at https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-the-minds-eye-is-blind1/ . It says that after a study had been published in 2010 about aphantasia a number of people came forward, "... all saying they had never been able to create mental images, unlike MX, in whom the problem was new. Zeman and two colleagues then had 21 respondents answer questionnaires about their visual experiences, including one known as the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ)." The article continues by saying the following.'They published the findings in 2015, using the name “aphantasia” for the first time. Most of the 21 said they realized only in adolescence and early adulthood (through conversations or reading) that other people could call up images in their mind. And although many of the respondents had dreams or flashes of visual imagery while awake, all were substantially or completely unable to purposely call up images in their mind, such as of past vacations or even their own wedding. ... Based on the first 700 or so surveys, Zeman estimates that aphantasia affects about 2 percent of the population ....
One of those who approached Zeman—Jonas Schlatter of Berlin—describes his own moment of discovery. ...
When Schlatter first began to discuss his discovery with friends, he also learned that “people’s ability to synthesize images differs.” Zeman concurs. His 2015 study included 121 control subjects. Most of them showed a moderately good ability to visualize. But there were outliers at both ends of the scale, with more subjects falling at the high end than the low end. Zeman calls the above-average ability to create vivid images hyperphantasia.'
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30
What is your PSI / ESP potential?
by manon inexperts estimate that one person out of twenty possesses an unusual degree of extrasensory perception-esp or psi energy.
the following questions may determine your own psi potential:
1- is it unusual for you to be reduced to tears?
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Disillusioned JW
Other than when such visuals "pop" into my mind, I am unable to form clear detailed images in my mind while fully awake - even when trying very hard to visualize in my mind (such as when reading a story, or imagining what I intend to do later in the day, or even when remembering a past experience of mine).
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/precognitive-dreamwork-and-the-long-self-eric-wargo/1137364581 has an overview of Wargo's book called Precognitive Dreamwork and the Long Self: Interpreting Messages from Your Future, as well as an except from it and a list of the chapters of the book.
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30
What is your PSI / ESP potential?
by manon inexperts estimate that one person out of twenty possesses an unusual degree of extrasensory perception-esp or psi energy.
the following questions may determine your own psi potential:
1- is it unusual for you to be reduced to tears?
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Disillusioned JW
scooby_future, the types of images I am referring to, ones which "pop' into mind, are as vivid and real looking as what I see in my fully awake state in an every day basis looking through my eyes. Often times the images are actually videos, instead of still frames, though of brief duration since the visuals only last for about a second or so (but seemingly for a few seconds for some, if I am lying down at the time). The images/visuals fill my entire mental field of vision, just like seeing though my eyes (and like dreaming). [By the way, when I dream with my eyes closed, it is always in full color.]
Most of the visuals are not scary or even negative, but some of them are very gory and scary (like watching a horror movie or other very violent show). Some are like what one sees on TV shows, such as a news broadcast, a fictional show about a shooting (or other means of killing) a person or group of people, or a fictional horror show. [Other than saying that, at this time I don't wish to mention specific visuals I've seen in my mind.] Once (or maybe twice) an image "popped" into mind while I was walking on the sidewalk - when I was about to enter the street (or perhaps to look both ways before deciding whether or not to wait before entering the street)! The timing of that was scary, because if it had happened a moment later my being distracted by it might would have resulted in me getting run over by a car!
Other than when such visuals "pop" into my mind or when I dream, I am unable to form clear detailed images in my mind - even when trying very hard. Thus the above experiences are very striking to me.
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30
What is your PSI / ESP potential?
by manon inexperts estimate that one person out of twenty possesses an unusual degree of extrasensory perception-esp or psi energy.
the following questions may determine your own psi potential:
1- is it unusual for you to be reduced to tears?
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Disillusioned JW
Dr. Miller makes some extraordinary claims about himself at https://www.richardalanmiller.com/about which are extremely hard for me to accept. That raises questions in my mind in regards to his credibility. I am in the process of investigating those claims.