Topics Started by Ding
-
69
Is Annihilation of the Unrepentant Wicked Justice?
by Ding inwe all understand the justice argument against hell: the idea that god might decide that a wicked person's sins merit everlasting conscious punishment offends our sense of justice.. do even hitler's sins merit never-ending conscious punishment for all eternity?.
we know that the wtbts takes an annihilationist view of the "everlasting" punishment described by the bible.. they teach that there is no separate "soul" or "spirit" that survives physical death and that the ultimate fate of the unrepentant wicked is annihilation by jehovah.. let's assume for the sake of argument that they are right.. is this justice?.
over the years, the wtbts has flip-flopped on whether or not these wicked people will be resurrected for purposes of judgment or whether they simply will remain dead with no hope of any sort of resurrection.. let's look at various possibilities.
-
5
The "New Light" Excuse
by Ding inwatchtower: "if we were following a man undoubtedly it would be different with us; undoubtedly one human idea would contradict another and that which was regarded as light one or two or six years ago would be regarded as darkness now.
but with god there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, and so it is with truth; any knowledge or light coming from god must be like its author.
a new view of truth never can contradict a former truth.
-
11
Does This Bother Any JW Apologists?
by Ding indoes it bother any jw apologists or lurking jws that charles russell, joseph rutherford, and the watchtower board members who backed them would all be disfellowshipped today for teaching what those men taught as truth?.
does it bother any of you that you would be disfellowshipped today for believing what their followers would have been disfellowshipped for not believing?.
-
28
What Did You Expect to Do During the 1,000 Years?
by Ding infor those who were jws, what did you expect to do during the 1,000 year reign?.
since only loyal jws would survive armageddon, it seemed to me that field service and tms would be eliminated.. so what did you expect to do with your time, besides getting rid of the dead bodies and petting lions?.
-
10
Propaganda Techniques for Replacing "Old Light"
by Ding inanother thread got me thinking about the process the wts uses in changing important teachings or long-standing practices.. first, the gb decides that some teaching or practice needs changing because (a) it's obviously wrong (example: 1975) or (b) it's time to tighten the grip (example: harsher rules on dfing).
once they come up with the new teaching, they have to decide what to do with the "old light" which they so dogmatically promoted as truth.. .
here are some propaganda tactics they have used effectively over the years:.
-
16
Matthew 10:28
by Ding inin view of their teaching that there is no separate soul apart from the body, how does the wt interpret matthew 10:28: "do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.".
i'm not asking about the hell issue here.. i'm wondering in wt doctrine how it's possible someone to kill the body but not the soul..
-
6
Awake Articles
by Ding ini always used to wonder about those awake articles that had nothing to do with anything like, "interesting nutritional facts" or other articles that could have just as well appeared in the reader's digest.. can someone explain the purpose of those types of stories?.
the only thing i can see is that people at the door might be willing to look at them even if they wouldn't take the watchtower, thereby giving jws an excuse to make a backcall..
-
5
Generation
by Ding ini read in the news the other day about a man who just celebrated his 114th birthday.. obviously an evil, pagan thing to do, according to the fds, but that's not the point.. the point is that this guy was born in 1896, so he was 18 years old in 1914.. proof positive that the 1914 generation has by no means passed away!.
now, if he lives to be the same age moses did, he's got 6 years left.. that's 2016.. a new date for armageddon, fds?.
-
2
How Does the WT Explain These Verses About Jehovah's Judgment?
by Ding inhow does the wt explain these verses in the nwt?.
zephaniah 1:2: "i shall without fail finish everything off the surface of the ground," is the utterance of jehovah.. zephaniah 1:3: "i shall finish off earthling man and beast.
i shall finish off the flying creatures of the heavens and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked ones; and i will cut off mankind from the surface of the ground," is the utterance of jehovah.. zephaniah 1:18: "neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of jehovah's fury; but by the fire of his zeal the whole earth will be devoured, because he will make an extermination, indeed a terrible one, of all the inhabitants of the earth.
-
2
Watchtower Organizational Sheep's Clothing
by Ding inwe all have seen plenty of wts statements like this: "how grateful we should be that jehovah has provided us with a faithful and discreet slave class to provide us food at the proper time!".
suppose instead they had written it this way: "how grateful you should be that jehovah has put us in charge of you to tell you what to think and how to behave!".
someone once said, "the sheep's clothing of the false prophets is their vocabulary.".