a taunton mass.
2nd grader was sent home from school after the class was asked to draw something relating to the holidays.
he had been with his dad a couple of weeks before to a church function and saw these types of crosses on display.
You know, I don't think the illustrations in WT lit switched from cross to stake until at least the 40's or 50's. So that shows that the cross was used for the better part of a century!
It's staggering when you think of how much WT doctrine has changed - repeatedly - over less than a century and a half. Seems to me like the RCC, which has been around for almost 2000 yrs, has to catch up to the WT in that dept!
minimus started a thread asking why the resurrection was comforting.
i said i would start a new thread to get more responses to *my question*:.
why do so many people want to see dead relatives?
What happens when we die?
I don't know. As far as I can tell, I've never died. Have any of you?
we believed we'd see our dear loved ones back on paradise earth.
now, we don't accept this.
so what hope do you have?
To be perfectly honest with you, I actually think existence/afterlife might actually be similar to the concept in "Groundhog Day". Death just pushes the global reset button.
we believed we'd see our dear loved ones back on paradise earth.
now, we don't accept this.
so what hope do you have?
right chickpea... like i said, from a nontheistic standpoint, the resurrection actually makes more sense.
Think of it this way: If the soul was something left totally up to God, then we're at God's mercy and there's no way to know for sure.
On the other hand, if the "soul" or consciousness is something that can be explained or quantified scientifically (it would by necessity have to be in a non-theistic/material universe), then "existence", however you define it, can be altered, perfected, even reproduced, no? Something like a cosmic computer sim, you know. Steven Weinberg has asked the question, "Is the universe a computer"? I believe it is. I call that "computer", for want of better word, "God."
If you've got unlimited quarters, who cares how many times you die in a video game?
I don't worry about death anymore. Not really.
we believed we'd see our dear loved ones back on paradise earth.
now, we don't accept this.
so what hope do you have?
Agh, restrangled, my heartstrings are about to snap in half!
It's this kind of emotional appeal that snags so many dubs initially. At one time, the WT were master propagandists with that kind of approach. Now most of their energies are focused on propaganda devoted to "keeping 'em in" rather than catching 'em out there. The bait has been neglected at the expense of a fish hatchery that's totally polluted.
wt 59 page 312.
"true to the prophecy, not long after the fall of jerusalem, the king of babylon came against tyre.
but tyre was confident.
Man, Leolaia, HOW DO YOU DO IT? I take one look at this stuff and my eyes glaze over!
I mean, my God, if you really have to have this kind of encyclopedic knowledge in order to be saved, who among us has a snowball's chance in hell?
Who among us has the time/memory to pull off these kind of requirements?
I guess that means no more Oral sects...
we believed we'd see our dear loved ones back on paradise earth.
now, we don't accept this.
so what hope do you have?
Jews (from what I've read) have a fascinating perspective on the resurrection. It's kind of similar to dubs, except they concede science may play a role.
Google "Luz bone"... FASCINATING stuff...
1. bethel in ny suspect high level apostate, cant identify it but know its there.
2. major organizational changes about to start rolling out, one is changes to the "service committee" and titles, po to be done away with, thats all i know for now.
was told that if you are the sort of person that cant handle changes, you wont stay in the org for long.
They'll never drop 1914. Oh sure, they'll continue to put out "new light" on the MEANING of 1914 ad infinitum until it totally loses all meaning (in my opinion it already has, being 95 years ago and all), but they'll never concede that nothing significant happened in 1914. Of the countless dates they've predicted, 1914 was the only year where something earth-shaking really happened. It might be the only thing that even comes close to giving them a semblance of prophethood.
Nope, the only thing that'll clear out the deadwood is a total WTS makeover ala Worldwide Church of God. The only reason it hasn't happened in the WT is because there is no Herbert Armstrong to overthrow. The organization has become an entity unto itself.
Unless the WT swallows some humble pie and invites some of the nutty-but-compelling-in-their-own-way "anointed" folks (i.e. an "e-Watchman" type) back into the fold and admits they've totally run out of ideas.
The last thing I remember the WT saying in a fairly recent mag that even sounded like a fresh idea was an absolute damp squid. It was something about the "second resurrection" to heaven happening beginning in 1918, seeing how it was 3 1/2 years after 1914. They said the correlation to "times, time and half a time" - or was it Jesus' 3 1/2 years in ministry - was an "interesting possibility".
It was neither interesting nor a possibility.,
we believed we'd see our dear loved ones back on paradise earth.
now, we don't accept this.
so what hope do you have?
The Paradise Earth hope is more concrete for those who find the hope of heaven too nebulous. I understand that. Some of my loved ones have lost their parents too early and this is their biggest motivation.
But what I TOTALLY don't get... even from the die-hards... is when they talk with hushed excitement about the future "education work" in the new system...
I mean, come on, give up everything in this life that brings me joy to spend my life preaching so I can be rewarded with... an eternity of preaching?
What is WRONG with this picture?!
