I remember back in time my first biblical interpretation was that Genesis 1 was poetry and dels with the Almightys subjection of chaos and the bringing of order. The earth is a tool or co creator. Calvin in his 16th century Genesis commentary says it is not scientific but phenomenologic and speaking to all men. After all this was how they saw it back then. if there were no waters above, how could it rain 🤭. This is only one of several creation accounts in the Bible. This gets more attention being on page 1. Later in the Bible we have some interesting uses of creation language. In Jeremiah 4 etc creation language is used relating to the judgment of Israel and some say Genesis 1 is really about creation of old covenant.
JoenB75
JoinedPosts by JoenB75
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For heaven's sake , Jan 1-5 weekly program
by waton injanuary one.
genesis one wt mental gymnastics.
gen 1:1 earth created in the beginning, ?
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How Much of the WT Teaching Did You Believe?
by Ding insome people on this forum have said that they never really believed any aspect of wt teaching, that they couldn't wait to get free of it all.. others seems to have been really gung ho, believing it all until something happened that got you questioning "the truth.".
i would say my own high water mark was about 50%, which put me squarely on the fence, trying to decide if i should be in or out.. how about you?.
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JoenB75
Very interesting topic. We left when I was about 15. I was born in infamous 1975. I remember JW as boring. My parents had issues from bad childhoods that the religion did not help with. I was an understimulated isolated kid who was dragged along to boring meetings and even more boring conversions. I remember looking at the schedule for the lovely spiritual banquet lol and dreaming of time to reach 6 pm or so so we could go home. There were a few rewards such as getting to eat sausages with no blood, a drama that sometimes included people in ancient clothes or occassionaly going out with some other old JWs and eating in a nice restaurant. I was rarely dragged out to ministry. I hated it and showed no progress. I was a late child and my parents did not go from door to door in my life time. I did go to some study with an elder JW elder and his wife. Various elders did try to save me. I remember I offended them by saying I thought it was unfair all this Armageddon stuff. In reality I meant my isolated life getting dragged to the hall, no birthdays etc. I dont recall ever reading in the Bible except a few times when dad forced me to publically read loud a piece from the Bible in the theocratic school with a short comment he had written. It was a bit comical. I had to rehearse before him 2-3 times. In my twenties I began to believe and became the Bible nerd. My starting point was Russell's studies in scriptures my father held in high esteem. But I quickly rejected Russell. I was a Christadelphian for a short while and they taught me to read the Bible in context. But alas shortly after Christadelphian baptism I came to realize they had their errors so I left. Christadelphians disagree om many things unlike jw leadership. My misfortune was running into some old school hardliners. Had I met the more liberal or free spirited kind, it might have been different. I retained an interest in the history and doctrines of both groups and often think of the exchanges I had with my father when I started believe in the end of his life.
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Help please
by jhine inhi , would someone help me please with some info about the nwt .
during my study time l have been reading john 1:1-14 and colossians 1:15-17 .
both these passages indicate that jesus was not created as the wt asserts .
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JoenB75
jhine,
There are some that want "all things" or the "world" to be a few things and as we are told translation is complicated.
But I think is a good thing to consider the context. Colossians 1:13-20 seems to speak of the relation of the Son to all things. Paul really seems to painstakingly say the Son is number one in ALL Things. It would be strange if all things were really a code for few defined things. But you will find people that really believe Colossians 1:13-20 speaks of Son's creation of the saints only in an exaggerated language. Calvinists often believe the world in John 3:16 is the elect saints:
http://reformedanswers.org/answer.asp/file/45604
In 1 Peter 4:7 we read the end of all things is near. That is a difficult text, but I dont believe it can mean a few things. It must be all things within a context. I believe the context is the old world. JWs believe that is just around the corner, as Preterist I believe the last days of the old world was about 30-70 AD.
In Romans 8:19 we read that the creation eagerly awaits the manifestation of the sons of God. Many rationalize that into the saints eagerly await their glory. Not surprisingly we are some that disagree and take Paul on his word. The old Calvinist Charles Hodge saw this too in his amazing commentary that sadly did not include Colossians:
https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/hdg/romans-8.html
I conclusion I will go very far to argue that all things mean all things within their context. So if I spoke to JWs concerning John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16, I would not have an A Bomb for them but I would say that it would be very odd that they would be say that a) a creature is part of the creation and b) that the cause of all things, Logos, is a creature.
Michael is "one of the chief princes" Daniel 10:13.
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Were You Willing To Die For Jehovah?
by minimus inwe were supposed to be dedicated unconditionally to jehovah god.
we were willing to be persecuted to the death if need be.
if it came to taking a blood transfusion or dying, we were loyal to jehovah and would be a martyr for god.
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JoenB75
Pete that is nice to hear. In a few cases, personal freedom goes too far. Such as when parents allowed to harm their children that way. -
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Were You Willing To Die For Jehovah?
by minimus inwe were supposed to be dedicated unconditionally to jehovah god.
we were willing to be persecuted to the death if need be.
if it came to taking a blood transfusion or dying, we were loyal to jehovah and would be a martyr for god.
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JoenB75
My mother stated she would not allow herself to be tortured for her faith. My father though more genuine believer stated he believed martyrdom was not the will of God. I have No idea what their stand on blood was I was never a believing jw. If you ask me today as a believing Christian I honestly dont know
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Help please
by jhine inhi , would someone help me please with some info about the nwt .
during my study time l have been reading john 1:1-14 and colossians 1:15-17 .
both these passages indicate that jesus was not created as the wt asserts .
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JoenB75
Hi jhine, I am sorry if I am confusing. I know Trinitarians believe Jesus is God. I was just being critical of the view that all things mean all things in Colossians 1:16 but not in Colossians 1:20. Many years ago when I held jw like beliefs, Evangelical preaching put strong emphasis on what you yourself stated in your first post.
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Help please
by jhine inhi , would someone help me please with some info about the nwt .
during my study time l have been reading john 1:1-14 and colossians 1:15-17 .
both these passages indicate that jesus was not created as the wt asserts .
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JoenB75
We must look at the context. I am allowed to say I ate all in response to did you eat the cookies? Or say I greeted all in response to did you talk to the people in church today ☺️
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Adam could have put Jehovah In Paradox!
by JohnTron72 ini'm going to be the first and throw this out there for others but, from careful study of the scriptures i've found a loophole that even adam who was perfect at the time missed!
i'm sure everyone has heard the conundrum about ,"can god create a rock he can't lift?
" and if he can't create one he can't lift, then god cannot do everything" well that doesn't really matter since we know jehovah says himself he cannot lie right?
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JoenB75
I remember a colourful jw book that tried to make the case that the Eden account and the Job account was about the great controversity of who man must choose as ruler God or satan. That is a bad case. These accounts, and I notice Job is in the wisdom litterature genre, deal with the human experience with sufferring as a life condition in contrast to the heavenly bodies we will have later 1 Corinthians 15
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Were / Are the Governing Body "Rock Stars"
by Number 6 inin 1976 when i was a young lad of 6, fred franz came to glasgow and gave a talk in govan a suburb on the south side of the city (for those of you who dont know).
our congregation hired a bus to ferry us all to the hall and it was standing room only.
being only 6, i have only the vaguest of memories other than an old man shouting and bawling from the stage.
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JoenB75
Typical US style network marketing -
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My Grandmothers Funeral
by Enrique Tomlinson 1 inmy beloved grandmother has passed away and her funeral is next week at a kingdom hall.
she was a loyal jw, and unfortunately i am not understanding of the funeral procedures.
please could you kindly explain what what will happen in the funeral?
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JoenB75
It was probably her dying wish to let the JWs conduct her funeral. I would talk to them. In my fathers case he did read a little something we wished to be read and focused the speech on his faith in John 3:16 and Jehovah. But you can only hope they take your wishes into consideration