Posts by peacefulpete

8

Temple Talk

by peacefulpete in

recall the famous charge made against jesus in his trial in the gospel mark: .

“we heard him say, ‘i will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days i will build another, not made with hands.’”.

matt has a shorter version which likely reflects what he saw in his copy of mark *:.

peacefulpete

https://www.amazon.com/Two-Gospels-Mark-Performance-Text/dp/0578505312

Phizzy, splitting hairs just to clarify the suggestion by Danila Oder. She follows the suggestion of a number of scholars before in recognizing many elements about G.Mark having relationship to theater. Her proposal is that the play form of what we now call Mark was subsequently summarized into a narrative that retained the 5 act format. This narrative then took on a life of its own so that by 20-30 years later it had been expanded eventually including birth story and incorporated more 'sayings' that were in either oral form or part of the hypothetical Q document.

It is my opinion that Q can be dispensed and follow Goodacre/Farrer reconstruction of (Mark-Matt+Mark-Luke).

349

Who really is the Faithful and Discreet Slave?

by Godlyman in

if 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.

peacefulpete

An advocate does not consider evidence or proof and change his position. He wants to win. You need to convince the Court.

After the hundreds of posts in this thread a reader will make their determination as to who are those guilty of not considering evidence and who are, in contrast, letting the first/second century context and clues provided in text itself interpret the passages.

349

Who really is the Faithful and Discreet Slave?

by Godlyman in

if 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.

peacefulpete

seventy schmeventy.

"Seventy years, the reckoning of it's destruction which He had inscribed, the merciful God Marduke, as soon as his heart had calmed down, reversed the order (of the sign) and ordered it's resettlement after eleven years." Babylonian Inscription of Esarhaddon

In the old thread above I argue that the number 70 was meant and understood by ancient Semitic people as symbolic of a generation and not a literal number. How much bandwidth has been wasted on this pointless argument.

7

Do you Attend University scholarly Lectures

by peacefulpete in

we've been privileged to attend a number of outstanding lectures on a wide range of scientific topics, some by now quite famous researchers.

for example, we attended a caltech discussion/lecture by svante paabo not long after his initial work on neanderthal dna was released and met him after the lecture.

he wasn't a dynamic speaker but a humble man who obviously felt more comfortable in the lab than on the podium.

peacefulpete

We've been privileged to attend a number of outstanding lectures on a wide range of scientific topics, some by now quite famous researchers. For example, we attended a Caltech discussion/lecture by Svante Paabo not long after his initial work on Neanderthal DNA was released and met him after the lecture. He wasn't a dynamic speaker but a humble man who obviously felt more comfortable in the lab than on the podium. He just received the Nobel Prize for that and subsequent work in the field of genetics.

Does anyone have an experience they would like to share?

42

WT Ruining Members' Futures

by HiddlesWife in

what 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.

peacefulpete

Somehow, despite spending our absolute all, we never felt like we had the respect of the congregations we were part of. Certainly never felt like celebrities. Bethelites were generally unwanted in their congregations, as missionaries we were perceived as outsiders and meddlers, pioneering just meant we didn't want to hold a real job. It was in some measure the suspicions of us that began the process of disenchantment.

We had absolute nothing when returning to America. Lived with her parents for a while, then with mine. Got a $50 junk car and changed the transmission in the driveway. When we finally both left the church we took advantage of Pell grants and nontraditional student aid and never looked back. We invested every penny and lived below our means. We can now 20 years later talk about retirement without panic. Funny thing is we knew of very few others who actually "sought first the Kingdom". Most of the even most JWish seemed to have a long term plan of retirement or career. It was evident we were outliers. Not sure if that represented a change in the church or if we were just unusually credulous.

349

Who really is the Faithful and Discreet Slave?

by Godlyman in

if 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.

peacefulpete

It's maybe odd but I actually enjoy digging in the writings of the Bible far more now. When I was "in" there actually was a self imposed resistance to "disproof. I couldn't enjoy reading anything but literature from the WT, however carefully reading that soon became unsatisfying. Jewish and Christian history is a fascinating study filled with puzzles and complexity once you aren't desperately needing to preserve a statis quo.

41

GB pushed the vax

by Diedsuddenly in

i 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’.

peacefulpete

I'm sure you know, the vaccine like most vaccines doesn't prevent infection. It primes the immune system to respond when infection occurs, but as with everything as complex as a mutating virus and unique biological hosts, it cannot prevent all bad disease responses. It's all a matter of probabilities. Your coworker may have been infected with a new variant before the vaccines were adjusted. It's also possible she was just one of those unfortunate folks whose immune response to the vaccine wasn't robust. Too many unknowns.

Cases like your coworkers ought to to reinforce the need to stay current with boosters and practice good judgment when in crowds, even when vaccinated.

41

GB pushed the vax

by Diedsuddenly in

i 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’.

peacefulpete

Disi...I wasn't suggesting YOU held those extremely disturbing views. Sorry I was not clear. As far as being your own advocate in medical decisions, absolutely agree. Your doctor is a human and probably overbooked. My oncologist last month called to tell me my cancer had spread to my lungs. My heart sank. Seconds later when describing the mass on my lung, I stopped him and reminded him I had a massive pulmonary embolism that killed the bottom third of my lung. He paused and said, "Oh that's probably it then."

I was relieved but still displeased he hadn't consulted my file before calling with such bad news. Doctors and nurses are people. I don't think anyone (not you) should equate that with a worldwide conspiracy to reduce population, as is being spread by many. Researchers around the world whose job is to keep us safe, knew what the various vaccinations were, it wasn't a mystery to them. Even the cutting edge mrna approach has been studied for years with the purpose of quickly responding to a situation like what arose. Any injection has a small risk, and any medication has a risk of reaction.

I hear your preference for "natural" medicine. Medical research is always looking at naturally occurring compounds and how they interreact with disease. Nature has had many millions of years to experiment.

Many chemotherapy drugs were derived from "natural compounds". They are poison but their preference for cancer cells makes them useful. Again sorry for not being clear. I respect you, I just disagree that the evidence suggests the vaccines we have are less safe than being reported by medical authorities.

41

GB pushed the vax

by Diedsuddenly in

i 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’.

peacefulpete

Disi...My 2 cents. Apply the same critical thinking you apply to creationism and you will likely have a similarly sober minded respect for the value of medical science. Reasonable caution is always appropriate but imputing murderous motives to the world's health organizations is something quite different. Myself I defer to trained professionals when it comes to my health.

1

Beecher Bethel

by peacefulpete in

jw
friends

most of us are aware the wt original purchase of brooklyn properties were the "plymouth bethel" and henry ward beecher's residence.

i was just sitting here and it occurred to me these should be recognized as historical sites.

beecher's role in american history surrounding the civil war is certainly worthy of recognition and remembrance.

peacefulpete

Most of us are aware the WT original purchase of Brooklyn properties were the "Plymouth Bethel" and Henry Ward Beecher's residence. I was just sitting here and it occurred to me these should be recognized as historical sites. Beecher's role in American history surrounding the civil war is certainly worthy of recognition and remembrance. Why wan't there some effort to put up a plaque or something?