I formerly had a book which was a Harmony of 1st and 2nd Chronicles with both 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings. Some critical scholars have said that Chronicles is a rewrite or revision of Samuel and Kings. I think that view of those scholars is correct.
Disillusioned JW
JoinedPosts by Disillusioned JW
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Great books for Gospel Research
by peacefulpete inamong the first books i acquired in my research was an old copy of a harmony of the synoptic gospels for historical and critical study by burton and goodspeed.
before that i had heard others speak of the 'synoptic problem' but it was meaningless to me and just sounded like quackery meant to discredit the bible.
i have to say this one volume's laying out the synoptic gospels (matt,mark,luke) without any commentary in a side by side parallel format rocked my world.
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Disillusioned JW
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Great books for Gospel Research
by peacefulpete inamong the first books i acquired in my research was an old copy of a harmony of the synoptic gospels for historical and critical study by burton and goodspeed.
before that i had heard others speak of the 'synoptic problem' but it was meaningless to me and just sounded like quackery meant to discredit the bible.
i have to say this one volume's laying out the synoptic gospels (matt,mark,luke) without any commentary in a side by side parallel format rocked my world.
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Disillusioned JW
peacefulpete, I have the book called "A Harmony Of The Gospels For Students Of The Life Of Christ: Based on the Broadus Harmony in the Revised Version, By A. T. Robertson, M.A., D.D., LL.D., Litt.D., Chair of New Testament Interpretation Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Louisville, Kentucky". It is published by "Harper & Row, Publishers" and copyright in 1922 by them and copyright 1950 by The Citizens Fidelity Bank and Trust Co.". That Gospel Harmony was an eye opener for me, like the one mentioned by you was for you. I used to own a harmony based upon the ASV text, but the Broadus Harmony seems more precise to me in the way it grouped the parallel passages. The Preface says the following.
"It is now just thirty years since the day his young assistant suggested to Dr. John A. Broadus that he prepare a harmony of the Gospels that should depart from the old plan of following the feasts as the turning points in the life of Jesus.
... A generation has passed and it is meet that the work of Broadus should be reviewed in the light of modern synoptic criticism and research into every phase of the life of Christ. ... The Gospel of Mark appears in the first column, then Matthew, Luke, and John. It is now known that Matthew and Luke made use of Mark for the framework of their Gospels. This change simplifies amazingly the unfolding of the narrative.
There is still dispute concerning the historical worth of the Gospel of John, but the Johannine authorship is not disproved.
... No effort is made to reconcile all the divergent statements of various details in the different Gospels."
The back of the book in the "Explanatory Notes On Points Of Special Difficulty In The Harmony" in the section called "2. Synoptic Criticism" says the following.
"The criticism of the synoptic gospels has been able to reach a broad general conclusion that is likely to stand the test of time. The reason for this happy solution lies in the fact that the processes and results can be tested. It is not mere subjective speculation. Any one who knows how to weigh evidence can compare mark, Matthew, and Luke in the English, and still better in the Greek. The pages of the present harmony offer proof enough. It is plain as a pikestaff that both our Matthew and Luke used practically all of Mark and followed his general order of events. ... But another thing is equally clear and that is that both Matthew and Luke had another source in common because they each give practically identical matter for much that is not in Mark at all. This second common source for Matthew and Luke has been called Logia because it is chiefly discourses."
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WT Ruining Members' Futures
by HiddlesWife inwhat i mean by the title of this thread is what has happened to a relative of mine, one who is really upset about this factor:.
this relative is a distant cousin on my mother's side of the family.
she studied as a child and got baptized at 14 1/2 years old.
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Disillusioned JW
Vanderhoven7, I was in error in what I said in my prior post about you. I just now noticed I had skipped over your introductory words of "Here is Mark Jones' experience."
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WT Ruining Members' Futures
by HiddlesWife inwhat i mean by the title of this thread is what has happened to a relative of mine, one who is really upset about this factor:.
this relative is a distant cousin on my mother's side of the family.
she studied as a child and got baptized at 14 1/2 years old.
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Disillusioned JW
Vanderhoven7 I didn't know you are so young (compared to my age). I was baptized a few years before you were born. Is the photo you use on this site not really of you? I thought it was of you since you are officially an ex-JW and sometimes use your real name on this site and thus don't have to hide your identity on this site.
It is too bad what you experienced as a JW, but I disagree with some of what you said about the religion in your most recent post in this topic. For example, consider the following which was the case about the religion at least until I ceased attendance of regular JW meetings in about the year 2000.
The religion does not prohibit JWs from dating and marrying non-JW, despite the religion strongly urging JWs to avoid marrying non-JWs.
The religion does not forbid JW men to wear a beard, though it was frowned upon and though those with a beard typically did not get appointed within the congregation. Shortly before I stopped being a ministerial servant I started wearing a beard and no one in the congregation said anything to me about it. I later ceased being a ministerial servant but not for wearing a beard.
The religion does not produce a specific list of websites and literature to avoid. The religion states guidelines on which types to avoid and urges avoidance of certain kinds, but it never names specific web sites and specific books to avoid viewing. It leaves it up to the individual JWs to decide which specific sources to avoid. It does say to avoid apostate sites and literature, but even if an elder found out that a JW did read such the JW probably would not be expelled simply for doing such. In the late 1990s (including when I was a ministerial servant) I read on the internet some science articles about the discovery of new planets and of new discoveries of fossils (including about fossils which were claimed to support evolution). I also read articles about archaeological discoveries pertaining to claims of the Bible.
Regarding use of spare time and of hobbies, from early pre-teen years to the present I have had hobbies in science and inventing/inventions. I read books and articles about such. When I was under age 35 (including while a teen) I tried to invent things and I did science experiments at home. I didn't spend all of my free time in WT/JW activities, though I did spend much of my free time in such.
While in the workplace I socialized with some of my coworkers and while in the classrooms at school I socialized with some of my classmates. The religion does not forbid doing such. Like you however, while I was an active JW I avoided making JW friends outside of the classroom and the workplace, but the religion does not expel people from having non-JW friends.
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Who really is the Faithful and Discreet Slave?
by Godlyman inif anyone were to come up to you claiming that they are the faithful and discreet slave, how would you go about proving them to be false, based upon scripture?.
estephan.
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Disillusioned JW
To those of you who spend a lot of time trying to understand the Bible better, including trying to figure out from the Bible who the faithful and discreet is, I recommend that you spend some time trying to find out if perhaps the Bible is not inspired by a God (any god), and if perhaps Jehovah/Yahweh God doesn't even exist. I say that because I spent a great deal of time studying the Bible in order to get a more accurate understanding of the Scriptures, while delaying extensive studying of scientific literature on evolution and while completely delaying the study of atheistic literature that promotes atheistic naturalism as a powerful truth. Had I both studied extensively the pro-evolution literature and had I studied the pro-atheism/naturalism literature much earlier in my life I would have saved a lot of time. That is because I eventually discovered that Jehovah/Yahweh God is not real.
If I am right that Jehovah/Yahweh God is not real (I am extremely confident he is not real), then there is no value (or nearly no value) in knowing whom Jesus and/or the writer of the biblical gospel book called "Matthew" meant by the term "faithful and discreet slave", other than possibly helping a person to decide if she/he should cease being a JW. Please think about that.
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GB pushed the vax
by Diedsuddenly ini remember during the pandemic the gb updates got progressively stronger pushing the vaccines .
they even had experiences of some who were reluctant to get them and then due to the gb keep saying fully vaccinated these poor jws went out and got all the catch ups shots and even all the boosters.
i remember someone making a compilation video showing all the gb update clips of the gb pushing the clot shots, even tony morris saying the words ‘go get vaccinated’.
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Disillusioned JW
Thanks peacefulpete. Regarding my coworker who "got Covid-19 twice while she was fully vaccinated against Covid-19" I should note that she has been experiencing multiple health problems since even before Covid-19 came into existence. She is also a cigarette smoker.
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GB pushed the vax
by Diedsuddenly ini remember during the pandemic the gb updates got progressively stronger pushing the vaccines .
they even had experiences of some who were reluctant to get them and then due to the gb keep saying fully vaccinated these poor jws went out and got all the catch ups shots and even all the boosters.
i remember someone making a compilation video showing all the gb update clips of the gb pushing the clot shots, even tony morris saying the words ‘go get vaccinated’.
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Disillusioned JW
Correction: in my latest post to peacefulpete where I said "At the same time though, I think the Covid-19 vaccines might not be as safe as the medical community (the world's health organizations) claims they are" I meant to say the following. "At the same time though, I think the Covid-19 vaccines might not be as safe as the medical community (and the world's health organizations) claims they are."
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GB pushed the vax
by Diedsuddenly ini remember during the pandemic the gb updates got progressively stronger pushing the vaccines .
they even had experiences of some who were reluctant to get them and then due to the gb keep saying fully vaccinated these poor jws went out and got all the catch ups shots and even all the boosters.
i remember someone making a compilation video showing all the gb update clips of the gb pushing the clot shots, even tony morris saying the words ‘go get vaccinated’.
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Disillusioned JW
LV101 and enoughisenough, see https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/covid-death-rates-higher-republicans-democrats-why-rcna50883 (the article is called "Covid death rates are higher among Republicans than Democrats, mounting evidence shows: Lower vaccination rates among Republicans could explain the partisan gap, but some researchers say mask use and social distancing were bigger factors"). It says the following.
"Average excess death rates in Florida and Ohio were 76% higher among Republicans than Democrats from March 2020 to December 2021, according to a working paper released last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Excess deaths refers to deaths above what would be anticipated based on historical trends.
A study in June published in Health Affairs similarly found that counties with a Republican majority had a greater share of Covid deaths through October 2021, relative to majority-Democratic counties.
... The Yale researchers behind the new working paper say vaccine hesitancy among Republicans may be the biggest culprit.
"In counties where a large share of the population is getting vaccinated, we see a much smaller gap between Republicans and Democrats," said Jacob Wallace, an author of that study and an assistant professor of health policy at the Yale School of Public Health.
Indeed, his paper found that the partisan gap in the deaths widened from April to December 2021, after all adults became eligible for Covid vaccines. Excess death rates in Florida and Ohio were 153% higher among Republicans than Democrats during that time, the paper showed.
"We really don’t see a big divide until after vaccines became widely available in our two states," Wallace said.
But the June study suggested that Covid vaccine uptake explained just 10% of the partisan gap in the deaths. Those researchers suggested that compliance with other public health measures such as mask use and social distancing was a significant factor."
See also https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-in-republican-counties-have-higher-death-rates-than-those-in-democratic-counties/ (the article is called "People in Republican Counties Have Higher Death Rates Than Those in Democratic Counties: A growing mortality gap between Republican and Democratic areas may largely stem from policy choices"). it says the following.
'During the COVID-19 pandemic, the link between politics and health became glaringly obvious. Democrat-leaning “blue” states were more likely to enact mask requirements and vaccine and social distancing mandates. Republican-leaning “red” states were much more resistant to health measures. The consequences of those differences emerged by the end of 2020, when rates of hospitalization and death from COVID rose in conservative counties and dropped in liberal ones. That divergence continued through 2021, when vaccines became widely available. And although the highly transmissible Omicron variant narrowed the gap in infection rates, hospitalization and death rates, which are dramatically reduced by vaccines, remain higher in Republican-leaning parts of the country.
... In a study published in June in The BMJ, Warraich and his colleagues showed that over the two decades prior to the pandemic, there was a growing gap in mortality rates for residents of Republican and Democratic counties across the U.S. In 2001, the study’s starting point, the risk of death among red and blue counties (as defined by the results of presidential elections) was similar. Overall, the U.S. mortality rate has decreased in the nearly two decades since then (albeit not as much as in most other high-income countries). But the improvement for those living in Republican counties by 2019 was half that of those in Democratic counties—11 percent lower versus 22 percent lower.
.. The new study, conducted by researchers in Texas, Missouri, Massachusetts and Pakistan, covers the years 2001 through 2019 and examines age-adjusted mortality rates—the number of deaths per 100,000 people each year—from the top 10 leading causes of death, as recorded in 2019. These include heart disease, cancer, lung disease, unintentional injuries and suicide. The researchers then analyzed county-level results in each of the five presidential elections that took place during their study period, identifying counties as Republican or Democratic for the subsequent four years. They found the gap in mortality rates between Republican and Democratic counties increased for nine out of 10 causes of death. (The gap for cerebrovascular disease, which includes stroke and aneurysms, remained but narrowed.) Political environment, the authors suggest in the paper, is a “core determinant of health.”
... And an analysis of the new study’s data by subgroups supports the idea that individual choices play a role. Hispanic Americans everywhere saw significant improvements in their risk of death. Black Americans still have the highest mortality rates of any racial group, but they saw relatively similar improvement. “It didn’t really matter where they lived,” Warraich says. For white Americans, however, the difference was profound—a fourfold increase in the mortality gap between those living in Republican and Democratic areas.
... In the intervening decades liberal states enacted more policies to address health concerns while conservative states went in the opposite direction, with inflection points in the early 1980s 1994 and 2010. Montez notes that those dates line up with Ronald Reagan’s election as U.S. president, Newt Gingrich’s control of Congress and the rise of Tea Party politics. Political affiliation drives social policies and spending, says Lois Lee, a pediatric emergency physician at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Conservatives tend to see health as a matter of individual responsibility and to prefer less government intervention. Liberals often promote the role of government to implement regulations to protect health. The Democratic approach has included expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Access to health care and having health insurance are important for well-being, Warraich says. Democrats also spend more on what are known as the social determinants of health. “We know things like your housing situation, your socioeconomic status, your access to healthy foods and healthy lifestyles, as well as exposure to toxic stress—all these things affect your overall physical as well as emotional and mental health,” Lee says.
Several kinds of policies—around tobacco, labor laws, the environment and guns—repeatedly emerge as significant. “Each party has bundled multiple policies together,” Montez says. In Mississippi, for example, there are no statewide clean indoor air policies restricting smoking in bars, restaurants or workplaces, Montez says. In California, on the other hand, smoking is restricted in all three environments. Cigarette taxes also differ dramatically. “The places where you can’t smoke indoors are also the places where cigarettes cost a lot,” Montez says.
... Cultural differences between red and blue counties also likely contributed to COVID deaths. “You’re affected by your neighbors,” says Neil Sehgal, a public health professor at the University of Maryland and co-author of a recent study of the association between COVID mortality and county-level voting. Sehgal and his colleagues found that through October 2021, majority-Republican counties experienced 72.9 additional deaths per 100,000 people relative to majority-Democratic counties. To the researchers’ surprise, however, vaccine uptake explained only 10 percent of the difference. The finding suggests that differences in COVID outcomes are driven by a combination of factors, including the likelihood of, say, engaging in unmasked social events or in-person dining, Sehgal says. By February 2022 the COVID death rate in all counties Donald Trump won in the 2020 presidential election was substantially higher than in counties that Joe Biden won—326 deaths per 100,000 people versus 258. “COVID was probably the most dramatic example I’ve seen in my career of the influence of policy choices on health outcomes,” Woolf says.'
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GB pushed the vax
by Diedsuddenly ini remember during the pandemic the gb updates got progressively stronger pushing the vaccines .
they even had experiences of some who were reluctant to get them and then due to the gb keep saying fully vaccinated these poor jws went out and got all the catch ups shots and even all the boosters.
i remember someone making a compilation video showing all the gb update clips of the gb pushing the clot shots, even tony morris saying the words ‘go get vaccinated’.
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Disillusioned JW
peacefulpete, I notice you said "Disi...My 2 cents. ... Reasonable caution is always appropriate but imputing murderous motives to the world's health organizations is something quite different." Did you think I was imputing murderous motives to the world's health organizations? I was not doing that at all. I disagree with those who impute such motives, but I was also asking for clarification from some of those who impute such motives. At the same time though, I think the Covid-19 vaccines might not be as safe as the medical community (the world's health organizations) claims they are. I do believe that the bast majority of those in the medical community who claim the vaccines are safe truly believe they are safe.
But early televised news reports of major complications (clots and heart problems) make me wonder. Furthermore, the anecdotal evidence I have seen in my own legs. and which I have been told about by my close friends and family about a now dead elderly friend of mine (who got a stroke and died about a week after getting the first dose of the vaccine) and about my mother's severe brain condition make me wonder if the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines have a major problem. Furthermore, the very nature of how the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines function has concerned me since I learned of how they work. Some of my co-workers have received the Covid-19 illness after they got vaccinated (even with the same brand of the vaccine I received). One of the co-workers got Covid-19 twice while she was fully vaccinated against Covid-19. She ended up missing months of work. When she returned to the workplace her health condition looked awful - looking like she had a stroke and became physically handicapped as result. She told us she came to say goodbye to us, because her health condition now prevents her from resuming her job in our workplace again.
I do have a respect for medical science, but I also exercise independent thinking and critical thinking in my personal medical matters. When I meet my doctor and my nurse, I ask them questions if they tell me something which seems incorrect (or possibly incorrect) or possibly unsafe to me. I sometimes bring up medical information I have read in online from trusted health information sources and I ask them about that in regards to what they told me. When I was in the hospital recently due to massive blood loss from internal bleeding, I questioned the conclusion of a doctor who said I was well enough to leave the hospital and return to work. I told a doctor why I didn't think I was well enough. It was good that I did such because the next day (or two days later) in the hospital I started bleeding again and my health condition became much worse. The condition became so bad I ended up accepting a transfusion of two units of packed red blood cells in order to save my life and my health. [Those transfusions were the first times (and thus far the only times) I accepted a blood transfusion.] I felt immediately better within an hour after getting each transfusion. My health condition greatly improved and then I left the hospital. If I hadn't questioned the earlier conclusion of one of the doctors (who said it was safe for me to go home), I would likely be dead by now, or I would have had to return immediately back the hospital, likely by ambulance.
A few years ago my doctor at the time prescribed Naproxen to me to reduce inflammation cause by an injury. I told him I prefer to not take man-made drugs if possible, preferring herbal medicine instead. He assured me the medication was safe and better treatment. I thus accepted it and began taking it. But, the medication ended up causing extreme pain in my digestive tract and as a result I reduced my dosage (from the prescribed amount) and I reduced the frequency of the dosage. About two years later I decided to take some of the pills, thinking that by reducing inflammation in general it would be good for my health and longevity prospects, but my new nurse and doctor at the time insistently demanded that I stop taking it. I then researched the medication online and discovered that new medical data says the medication [and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID)] can cause bleeding and severe damage (even without symptoms) and even death. [Seehttps://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a681029.html .] After learning that I haven't taken it again. I learned I was right to be initially suspicious of the safety of that medication.
The medical community used to recommend that most people age 60 or over to take aspirin daily to reduce their risk of getting a hear attack, but new medical data now says the danger of the aspirin causing bleeding is greater than formerly thought. As a result the medical community no longer recommends that most people age 60 and older to take it. https://connect.uclahealth.org/2022/04/26/daily-aspirin-no-longer-recommended-to-prevent-heart-disease/ says the following.
"A panel of disease-prevention experts says older adults who don’t have heart disease should not take daily low-dose aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke, a shift from earlier guidance.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a panel of physicians who review scientific research to develop guidelines to improve Americans’ health, published new recommendations on April 26 advising against daily aspirin use for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in people age 60 and older.
Taking baby aspirin daily has been routine for millions of Americans looking to prevent a heart attack or stroke. Aspirin has blood-thinning properties that can reduce the likelihood of blood clots forming in the arteries. But these same properties can also cause ulcers and bleeding in the digestive tract.
The task force says in its new recommendations that low-dose daily aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD) has a modest benefit for people ages 40 to 59 who aren’t at increased risk for bleeding.
It concludes that there is “no net benefit” of taking aspirin for primary prevention of heart disease in those 60 and older."
Aspirin has been a problem for me, staring with the earliest time I took it. Whenever I take more than one whole pill in a two-day period I have extreme pain (excruciating pain) in my digestive tract. As a result, I no longer take it. Tylenol (Acetaminophen) also is a problem, but I can tolerate more of it before experiencing digestive tract pain.
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GB pushed the vax
by Diedsuddenly ini remember during the pandemic the gb updates got progressively stronger pushing the vaccines .
they even had experiences of some who were reluctant to get them and then due to the gb keep saying fully vaccinated these poor jws went out and got all the catch ups shots and even all the boosters.
i remember someone making a compilation video showing all the gb update clips of the gb pushing the clot shots, even tony morris saying the words ‘go get vaccinated’.
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Disillusioned JW
OK, but do you have a post from several months ago in which you mentioned the resources?