peacefulpete

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Posts by peacefulpete

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  141

  My Prediction Regarding New Space Telescope That Will See Back to 100 Million Years From the Big Bang

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a new space telescope launched a few days age that will supposedly be able to see to within 100 million years of the big bang.

  wow... only 100 million years from the big bang.

  that is pretty early given the 12 billion year age of the universe assigned by scholars who adhere to naturalism.

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  peacefulpete

  https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-science-denial
  
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  141

  My Prediction Regarding New Space Telescope That Will See Back to 100 Million Years From the Big Bang

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a new space telescope launched a few days age that will supposedly be able to see to within 100 million years of the big bang.

  wow... only 100 million years from the big bang.

  that is pretty early given the 12 billion year age of the universe assigned by scholars who adhere to naturalism.

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  peacefulpete

  From the Cornell article you posted:

  Most surprising about these galaxies, considering their age and mass, was their mature metallicity – amounts of elements heavier than helium and hydrogen, such as carbon, oxygen and nitrogen – which the team estimated to be similar to our sun. Compared to the sun, which is about 4 billion years old and inherited most of its metals from previous generations of stars that had roughly 8 billion years to build them up, we are observing these galaxies at a time when the universe was less than 1.5 billion years old.
  “We are seeing the leftovers of at least a couple of generations of stars having lived and died within the first billion years of the universe’s existence, which is not what we typically see,” Vishwas said. “We speculate that the process of forming stars in these galaxies must have been very efficient and started very early in the universe, particularly to explain the measured abundance of nitrogen relative to oxygen, as this ratio is a reliable measure of how many generations of stars have lived and died.”

  It's so tiresome to unpack the misrepresentations and half truths of creationists.

  We sent the telescope out to learn and we are learning. It would be more than suspicious, and pretty boring, if we saw only what we predicted to see.
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  60

  Sign of the Last Days

  by Fisherman in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in the sermon on the mount, jesus foretold that earthquakes “in one place after another” would be part of the sign of the last days clímaxing in the great tribulation.. what could jesus possibly have meant?

  using a phone app nowadays, there are earthquakes detected in one place after another but is this what jesus meant and did they have so many earthquakes throughout the centuries affter his prophecy or are these modern day detected earthquakes unique to this epoch?

  how can we be sure unequivocally that modern day earthquakes are part of the sign fulfilling bible prophecy?.

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  peacefulpete

  Matt is striking in his use of the word seismos in the calming the sea episode. Luke follows his (and Matt's) source, Mark, in saying the lailaps (wind storm) was rocking the boat. The simplest explanation is that Matt was referring to the commotion of the water appearing like an earthquake. Either that or Matt was again altering his source to introduce an earthquake as he does at the death scene.

  All three use the word seismos as one of the signs. If storms were intended, the authors would have used the word for storms, lailaps.
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  6

  Acts 15

  by peacefulpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  acts 15. the pericope has been long interpreted by the catholic church as a proof text for a central authority.

  churches like the wt repeat this claim.

  however, reading the text without this coloring reveals something very different.. the story starts with paul and barnabas going to the antioch church and there they encounter pharisee christians from jerusalem (15:24) contradicting the doctrine held by the antioch church.

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  peacefulpete

  Acts 15

  The pericope has been long interpreted by the Catholic Church as a proof text for a central authority. Churches like the WT repeat this claim. However, reading the text without this coloring reveals something very different.

  The story starts with Paul and Barnabas going to the Antioch church and there they encounter Pharisee Christians from Jerusalem (15:24) contradicting the doctrine held by the Antioch church. The church leaders in Antioch send Paul and Barnabas to go to the church these guys were from (Jerusalem) and find out if they had in fact sent them with what was deemed heretical doctrine by Paul. They are greeted and a short airing of opinions ensues. Then the leaders of the Jerusalem church make clear they in fact had not sent the guys and they did not agree with them (again 15:24). Then James declares his opinion is that the Pharisee brothers needed to accept the changes but at the same time thought it best if the Antioch church would accommodate the Jewish Christians on matters that they (the Pharisees) regarded as "essential/necessary" The Jerusalem church then sent 2 guys along with Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch to ensure the relationship between churches was 'back on track'.

  IMO the story was created was to create the impression that these powerful churches had in fact been unified at an early date (6:5 also) not to suggest Jerusalem was in control. However, soon after, the Catholic church used it to support the role of Rome and the apostolic succession doctrine. The long Catholic tradition has widely influenced the interpretation of this story. It has also influenced the translating with words like "commanded" rather than 'Instructed' and James saying I "judge" rather than 'in my opinion'. (Unless we are conceding James was in charge of all Christians)

  BTW, Paul effectively denies this version of history in Gal 2.

  Also Acts 21:21 relates a slightly different version wherein Paul has to be informed of the Jerusalem letters distributed rather than Paul being present and involved in the distribution of the letters. This contradiction reflects the complicated textual history of the work.

  As an aside, this pericope has many textural variants. A number of manuscripts changed the list of necessary things or preserved an older form. And what also cues me editing is involved is the simple change from a definite article before each item in the list in verse 20 to no articles in 29. A small thing but reflecting a different hand IMO.

  For a modern student of religious studies, the text represents a Proto-Orthodox polemical attempt to revise the story of Christian beginnings. The pericope is a 2nd century retrojection of unity between the historically divided branches of Christianity.

  The story certainly reflects real issues of the day that divided the churches and it is possible that some early effort was made to find a middle ground. Paulinist positions on sexuality (real or perceived) and freedom from ceremonial taboos were upsetting Jewish Christian converts around Jerusalem. (Acts 21:21) It appears to me however that this argument was of secondary importance to the author of Acts 15. The subject merely served as part of the plot, as a literary device. The historical divisions over Jewish views of ritual and sex were well known to the second century readers, (in fact little had changed by the time of the writing of Acts) and would serve the story purpose of uniting the branches of Christianity of the early 2nd century.

  Some might add a secondary purpose, that of supporting a central hierarchal church structure. I am not presently convinced this is evidenced by the story details, but it certainly was used that way and has influenced the translating.
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  60

  Sign of the Last Days

  by Fisherman in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in the sermon on the mount, jesus foretold that earthquakes “in one place after another” would be part of the sign of the last days clímaxing in the great tribulation.. what could jesus possibly have meant?

  using a phone app nowadays, there are earthquakes detected in one place after another but is this what jesus meant and did they have so many earthquakes throughout the centuries affter his prophecy or are these modern day detected earthquakes unique to this epoch?

  how can we be sure unequivocally that modern day earthquakes are part of the sign fulfilling bible prophecy?.

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  peacefulpete

  Jewish eschatology generally anticipated divine interventions at a point of terrible suffering of Israel. IOW God would rescue them when they needed him most. As I read the mini apocalypse in Mark, the author was simply saying the same again.

  The dark period of the decades surrounding 70, inspired the eschatological anticipations similar to those of the century before when they faced Antichus and then Pompey. Similar to the many times previous that they faced times of great suffering by war, food shortage, disease.

  Earthquakes are possibly explainable by the earthquakes that had happened in the Mediterranean region, but I'm suspecting the author had in mind earthquakes such as supernaturally caused. Matthew specifically added an earthquake in the death scene. It is accompanied with a mass resurrection. That suggests to me that that redactor of Mark thought the earthquakes mentioned by the author of Mark were assumed supernatural.
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  55

  If JW is not the truth, then what is the true religion?

  by TxNVSue2023 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  even though i'm disfellowshiped ( & i belive wrongfully so).

  i still belive this is the truth.

  i have been d'f for about 8 months now and working on reinstatement.

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  peacefulpete

  By truth you mean "Truth (tm)". It's a powerful word reduced to a sectarian brand.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_by_Twos
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  63

  Jerusalem will be trampled by the nations until the Gentile Times are Fulfilled. — Luke 21:24

  by Fisherman in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jerusalem will be trampled by the nations until the gentile times are fulfilled.

  — luke 21:24 .

  the bible book of luke records jesus prophecy of the last day with his parousia including the verse about the gentile times.

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  peacefulpete

  The author of those words in Matt 13 is reusing the metaphor from Isaiah 6 to supplement his source document (Mark).

  There the prophet blamed the people for not agreeing with him. The fault was theirs not his or his arguments. Similarly 700+- years later the Matthean author felt that Jews that did not agree with him were somehow deficient, the fault was theirs.

  Ironically Isaiah would probably have been one of those for just two verses earlier (7) he declared his sins were atoned for and guilt removed.
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  63

  Jerusalem will be trampled by the nations until the Gentile Times are Fulfilled. — Luke 21:24

  by Fisherman in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jerusalem will be trampled by the nations until the gentile times are fulfilled.

  — luke 21:24 .

  the bible book of luke records jesus prophecy of the last day with his parousia including the verse about the gentile times.

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  peacefulpete

  delete
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  63

  Jerusalem will be trampled by the nations until the Gentile Times are Fulfilled. — Luke 21:24

  by Fisherman in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jerusalem will be trampled by the nations until the gentile times are fulfilled.

  — luke 21:24 .

  the bible book of luke records jesus prophecy of the last day with his parousia including the verse about the gentile times.

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  peacefulpete

  It's a matter of the heart, not the eyes.

  That could be taken as meaning ignore your eyes in favor of a warm feeling
  
  
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  63

  Jerusalem will be trampled by the nations until the Gentile Times are Fulfilled. — Luke 21:24

  by Fisherman in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jerusalem will be trampled by the nations until the gentile times are fulfilled.

  — luke 21:24 .

  the bible book of luke records jesus prophecy of the last day with his parousia including the verse about the gentile times.

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  peacefulpete

  Your world views involve God using hidden messages, cryptic riddles and secret code words. A sober minded secular view sees the texts as sectarian responses to social injustice with creative use and reuse of metaphor. I enjoy a puzzle as much as most, but I'm also going to look at the 'big picture' on the box.