"...If a Cult Religion loses members to Reality it is not counted as a Loss but as proof that prophecy is right: in the last days many will fall away..."
Wow! Talk about the truth about the Truth.
truth_b_known
JoinedPosts by truth_b_known
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13
Ants and Jehovah's Witnesses: The Elite Death Spiral
by Terry inwhat creates an elite death spiral?claiming special privileges by virtue of having been selected among others french élite "selection, choice," "chosen person" define the term privilege.
“rights and priorities over and above others” advantage granted, special right or favor granted to a person or group, a right, immunity, benefit, or advantage enjoyed by a person or body of persons beyond the common advantages of other individuals"question: how are the privileges of the elite conferred and by what right are they exercised over others?special knowledge (insight into useful secrets and abilities unknown and unavailable to others).oracle: "a message from a god expressed by divine inspiration through a priest or priestess," in answer to a human inquiry, usually respecting some future event.prophet: "person who speaks for god; one who foretells, inspired preacher," "the function of a prophet; inspired utterance; the prediction of future events," test of a claim of special knowledge: what is it?.
conditions: 1. completeness: a. both parties must be honest b. both parties follow the rules2.
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truth_b_known
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Jw's sending me invites and letters, I don't get it.
by Foolednomore infirst off, i have made it real clear with jw's my thoughts on being a jw.
i'm out, there is no coming back.. second, i'm on their " do not call list" .. so why now all of a sudden my mailbox is getting bombed 💣 by their memorial invites and letters?.
don't they follow their do not call list?
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truth_b_known
As i tore it up--unread--i pondered how much she spends on postage stamps.
In the U.S. we can write on the outside of a piece of mail received something like "Wrong Address - Return to Sender" and the US Postal Service delivers it back to the return address. I know they are using their local Kingdom Hall for the return address, but I still think it is a great opportunity.
On the front of the letter write "Wrong Address - Return to Sender".
On the back of the envelop you have a whole blank space to write whatever you want. For example -
"Google: Australian Royal Commission and Jehovah's Witnesses"
"This household does not accept mail from groups that protect child sexual abusers"
"108 years since 1914 and still no Armageddon"
"Can you explain an Overlapping Generation?"
"J F Rutherford told me religion is a snare and a racket"
"If the end is so close, why did you stop going to meetings for 2 years?"
"How many non-participating observers were with Jesus when he passed the wine & bread?"
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The senseless ''non partakers'' Jesus Memorial
by RULES & REGULATIONS inmatthew 26: 18-20 .
18 he said: “go into the city to so-and-so and say to him, ‘the teacher says: “my appointed time is near; i will celebrate the passover with my disciples at your home.19 so the disciples did as jesus instructed them and prepared for the passover.20 when evening came, he was reclining at the table with the 12 disciples.. only jesus and his 12 disciples were present at the passover .if jesus wanted observers, he would of had some sit down at his last meal and requested that they be present that day and future passovers.
why does the wts feel that observers ( non partakers ) need to attend the yearly memorial?
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truth_b_known
The ritual Jesus started, if he ever existed, and every ritual held thereafter never had persons present who we believers, but non-participants. Therefor Jehovah's Witnesses' Memorial is a new ritual that is based on Jesus' ritual, but not Jesus' ritual. It is a deviation and thus invalid.
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Refuting the Alleged Evidence of Jesus' Resurrection
by truth_b_known inin the past few months there have been a few debates on this site over alleged evidence of the resurrection of jesus.
this can be a hot topic as most would agree that without the resurrection of jesus there would be no christianity.
i am not so sure of that, but i am more sure that dr. gary habermas' minimal facts approach to the resurrection has no evidentiary basis.. here is a 22 minute video on the topic.
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truth_b_known
Thanks for bringing my attention to Philo of Alexandria. Interesting. It looks like there were at least 2 sects of Christianity existing during the time of Paul writing the Epistles. One sect says the Jesus of the Gospels are an allegory to which Paul refutes.
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Refuting the Alleged Evidence of Jesus' Resurrection
by truth_b_known inin the past few months there have been a few debates on this site over alleged evidence of the resurrection of jesus.
this can be a hot topic as most would agree that without the resurrection of jesus there would be no christianity.
i am not so sure of that, but i am more sure that dr. gary habermas' minimal facts approach to the resurrection has no evidentiary basis.. here is a 22 minute video on the topic.
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truth_b_known
1. Roman historian Tacitus (Annals 15.44), c. 100AD.
Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome[Tacitus wrote] at a time when Christians themselves had come to believe that Jesus had suffered under Pilate. There are three reasons for holding that Tacitus is here simply repeating what Christians had told him. First, he gives Pilate a title, procurator [without saying procurator of what! FRZ], which was current only from the second half of the first century. Had he consulted archives which recorded earlier events, he would surely have found Pilate there designated by his correct title, prefect. Second, Tacitus does not name the executed man Jesus, but uses the title Christ (Messiah) as if it were a proper name. But he could hardly have found in archives a statement such as “the Messiah was executed this morning.” Third, hostile to Christianity as he was, he was surely glad to accept from Christians their own view that Christianity was of recent origin, since the Roman authorities were prepared to tolerate only ancient cults. - G.A. Wells The Historical Evidence for Jesus; p.16
2. Jewish historian Josephus (Antiquities 18.3), c. 90AD.
Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man...a doer of wonderful works—a teacher. when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.- No loyal Pharisee would say Jesus had been the Messiah.
- Josephus did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah, i.e., as “the Christ.”
- The text does not appear in earlier manuscripts of Antiquities of the Jews and is believed to be a forgery.
“Enough of the writings of the authors named in the foregoing list remains to form a library. Yet in this mass of Jewish and Pagan literature, aside from two forged passages in the works of a Jewish author, and two disputed passages in the works of Roman writers, there is to be found no mention of Jesus Christ.” John E. Remsburg, The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidence of His Existence
The writes referred to by Remsburg who lived during or within a century of 30CE -
- Josephus Juvenal
- Lucanus
- Philo-Judæus
- Martial
- Epictetus
- Seneca
- Persius
- Hermogones Silius Italicus
- Pliny Elder
- Plutarch
- Statius
- Arrian
- Pliny Younger
- Ptolemy
- Petronius Tacitus
- Appian
- Dion Pruseus
- Justus of Tiberius
- Phlegon
- Paterculus
- Apollonius
- Phædrus
- Suetonius
- Quintilian Valerius Maximus
- Pausanias
- Dio Chrysostom
- Lysias
- Florus Lucius
- Columella
- Pomponius Mela
- Lucian
- Valerius Flaccus
- Appion of Alexandria
- Quintius Curtius
- Damis
- Theon of Smyrna
- Aulus Gellius
- Favorinus
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13
An offer in exchange for some help.
by JeffT inas some of you might recall, i self-published a novel last fall.
i hoped “armageddon’s disciples” would be successful as my previous works (an alternate history trilogy) had done well.
not so with “disciples.” i’ve sold a total of nine copies.
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truth_b_known
I agree with WingCommander. Exposure is everything. If I read it I will buy it. I believe in supporting writers.
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Memorial invite
by JoenB75 innow they start inviting to their "commemorate the death of jesus" event.
it always makes me a bit sad.
i don’t think i could endure to watch it myself today.
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truth_b_known
It's an elaborate ballet of moronity. - FFGhost
I was just thinking the same thing! Add to that the speaker walks off the stage, sits down passes the emblems, and then goes back on the stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZv62ShoStY
"Pass the wine to the left...the left...left
Now take it back..."
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Owe Raymond Franz my life anyone else??
by Witness 007 inso imagine a governining body member faithful slave who's uncle wrote the new world translalation bible and predicted 1975 would be armagedon writes a book in 1980 that changed my whole life...thank you raymond franz for setting me and my wife free love this man forever.
true pioneer!
👍 love ❤️ .
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truth_b_known
I remember Ed Dunlap and had a lot of respect for Commentary of James. Probably the best book the Watchtower published.
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Owe Raymond Franz my life anyone else??
by Witness 007 inso imagine a governining body member faithful slave who's uncle wrote the new world translalation bible and predicted 1975 would be armagedon writes a book in 1980 that changed my whole life...thank you raymond franz for setting me and my wife free love this man forever.
true pioneer!
👍 love ❤️ .
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truth_b_known
I think all active JWs owe it to Ray to read his book. Why is ok to read all the articles and books he wrote prior to Crisis of Conscious, but not CoC itself? Hypocrites!
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Refuting the Alleged Evidence of Jesus' Resurrection
by truth_b_known inin the past few months there have been a few debates on this site over alleged evidence of the resurrection of jesus.
this can be a hot topic as most would agree that without the resurrection of jesus there would be no christianity.
i am not so sure of that, but i am more sure that dr. gary habermas' minimal facts approach to the resurrection has no evidentiary basis.. here is a 22 minute video on the topic.
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truth_b_known
In the past few months there have been a few debates on this site over alleged evidence of the resurrection of Jesus. This can be a hot topic as most would agree that without the resurrection of Jesus there would be no Christianity. I am not so sure of that, but I am more sure that Dr. Gary Habermas' Minimal Facts Approach to the resurrection has no evidentiary basis.
Here is a 22 minute video on the topic. From 1:30 to 6:41 the video addresses the scholars who agree with the minimal facts in Habermas' Minimal Facts. It is telling.
Over all the video is well worth the 22 minutes of your life spent watching it.
Remember, the Norse god Odin promised to rid the Earth of ice giants. There are no ice giants alive today. There is no other evidence for the lack of ice giants so Odin must be real. We even have a day of the week named after Odin (Wednesday aka "Woden's Day") and since our modern calendar uses Odin's name Odin must be a historical figure. Thursday is named after Thor ("Thor's Day") and Friday is named after Frey (aka Frigg for "Frigg's Day").
If you don't believe in Odin, Thor, and Freya it may be because of this saying -
"The difference between a Christian and an atheist is an atheist believes in one less god."
or not.
Either way, I do not appreciate intellectual dishonesty by those who purport to be academic scholars.