Posts by FadeToBlack

26

Sing Dirges to Jehovah?

by donny in

back in 1985 my then-wife and i were having a lunchtime "gathering" at our place to show some support to the ones in our congregation who were full-time pioneers.

i had just recently received the vinyl collection of the songs featured in the song book "sing praises to jehovah" which had been released the previous year.. .

many of these melodies sounded depressing to me although i would have never admitted it at the time.

I never should have clicked on this thread... Now for the rest of the weekend while my wife is away at the CA, I will be working in the yard, whistling to the the tune of "Darks days are here". Thanks.

17

Feeling alone...

by bohm in

jw
friends

hey, im bohms girlfriend.

i thought i was feeling better... i quitted the anti depressant a year ago - but now ive started again.

i know the jw isnt the truth- but i feel so very lonely.

FadeToBlack

If you like animals, try some sort of animal welfare/rescue org. Might meet some nice folks and the critters really do respond - unlike some humans... Being arounf and helping animals in need seems to be good for both parties.

19

Six years , new location , no love.

by smiddy in

jw
friends

i had never thought about this that much until now.

my wife and i have been living in this community for over 6 years now , and nobody has ever called upon my wife or myself for that matter, to encourage us back to the meetings as jehovahs witnesses , who have become inactive /faded .. the same goes for my son and his wife , who live in the same area , have never been contacted with the intent of trying to re-activate them.. admittedly, only a couple of times in these past 6 years we both my son and i , have had witnesses call upon us in the normal d2d work , without acknowledging if ever they knew we were non practicising witnesses .

hard to beleive since my neice is in the local congregation , and is aware of our former congregations that we attended .. to cap it off , a few of our "freinds" who know where we are have never ever offered any encouragement or support in trying to get us back to their "truth ".

FadeToBlack

Yesterday, when my wife came back from the meeting, she told me I had 'special' regards from 3 brothers and 1 sister. One of the brothers is an elder. Usually, I just get regards, so I think the 'special' regards is because the CA is next week, and they hope to see me there. Fat chance. I've already wasted most of my life in the borg. I'm not about to give them 2 entire days! I just don't have that many left. I'm already dreading the upcoming memorial. My wife doesn't put any pressure on me to go to meetings anymore, but I'm not sure I can get away with missing this one. At least it is a short service.

20

Why Thousands of years instead of Billions???

by Bloody Hotdogs! in

jws have long ascribed billions of years to the age of the earth, yet only thousands to the length of the creative days (see 2014 awake!

on creation).

what game are they playing??

FadeToBlack

If a 'day' could be an indefinite length of time, why do they all have to be the same? Couldn't one day be 737 million years and another 1.5 billion years? Sounds to me like someone had an agenda. In other words, conclusion first, then force-fit your evidence to support your theory.

16

Reading the Bible with my wife.

by FadeToBlack in

after she came home today from the meeting and we had a big discussion about the need for christains to meet together.

she was very concerned that i would not survive the coming big a. i suggested that we start reading the bible together (just to show her i wasn't uninterested )and try to keep up with the wt schedule.

she agreed.

FadeToBlack

@nonjwspouse: That is why i am thankful that she revealed that she was always shocked by the practice of animal sacrifcice. Something to work with. I am just reading and asking questions. I realize she has to finally connect the dots.

16

Reading the Bible with my wife.

by FadeToBlack in

after she came home today from the meeting and we had a big discussion about the need for christains to meet together.

she was very concerned that i would not survive the coming big a. i suggested that we start reading the bible together (just to show her i wasn't uninterested )and try to keep up with the wt schedule.

she agreed.

FadeToBlack

So today we read Genesis 3-5. Some things we discussed:

1. Translation in Genesis 3:1 NWT and nNWT uses cautious. All others use something like crafty, subtle, cunning, shrewd.

2. Genesis 3:24 - sword? Adam would know what a sword was?
3. Genesis 4:17 - a city? Cain and Enoch started building a city?
4. Genesis 4:22: - forger of every sort of tool of copper and iron? This tied into our discussion of swords. Pretty sure Iron Age started much later in history.

5. Genesis 4:26. I asked her what that sounded like to her and then showed her how the WBATS explains it:

In the days of Enosh, almost four centuries before Enoch’s time, “a start was made of calling on the name of Jehovah.” (Genesis 4:26) The divine name had been used since the beginning of human history. Hence, what began when Enosh was alive evidently was not a calling on Jehovah in faith and pure worship. Some Hebrew scholars hold that Genesis 4:26 should read “began profanely” or “then profanation began.” Men may have applied Jehovah’s name to themselves or to other humans through whom they pretended to approach God in worship. Or perhaps they applied his name to idols.

6. Genesis 5:32 Why did Noah wait until he was 500 years old to have children?
That led to a separate discussion about how unlikely it is that anyone ever lived to the ages presented in chapter 5. I mentioned extremely long ages listed in the Sumerian King list and how people who study Sumerian history realize and admit something else was going on here. Either mistranslation or some other unkown purpose on part of later priests. I also mentioned that the WTBATS mocks the Sumerian King list as example of unreliable history.

Other themes:

1. Genesis 3:22. If they were kicked out of Eden before they could eat from the tree of life and live to time indefinite, doesn't that imply that they hadn't eaten from it yet and that they needed to eat from it to continue living? In other words, they were not created to live forever, but they could have if they would have if they had chosen the right tree.

2. More tree discussion. In Genesis 3:5, Satan promised that in the day of their eating from it, their eyes would be opened and they would know good and bad. Was it true? In Gen 3:22, before putting them out he said: Here he has become like one of us in knowing good and bad.

3. We got off into discussion god of OT vs god of NT when she brought up she never got this sacrifice thing. It always turned her off. Prompted by my mentioning Gen 4:4. What would cause someone to think that killing an animal and BBQing some of its organs would be pleasing to God (who created life).

4. What did the snake do to deserve any punishment? I thought it was just used like a ventriloquist uses a dummy/prop?

She ended up revealing that she is not really an OT type of person and prefers to focus on the good things Jesus taught. She did not know and doesn't care about 4026 or 2370.

I'm not sure how much farther we will make it thru the OT. I'd like to get thru at least Exodus. May need to alternate with weeks of reading in parallel from NT/Greek scriptures.
I'm just asking open-ended questions posing as an interested person that she met in the field service who was reading the bible and had some questions. I jokingly told her that
she needs to be careful, because she is getting close to being an apostate by having her own opinions about what the bible means.

16

Reading the Bible with my wife.

by FadeToBlack in

after she came home today from the meeting and we had a big discussion about the need for christains to meet together.

she was very concerned that i would not survive the coming big a. i suggested that we start reading the bible together (just to show her i wasn't uninterested )and try to keep up with the wt schedule.

she agreed.

FadeToBlack

Just had a casual follow up conversation at dinner. I mentioned that I had done more research after our first reading of Genesis 1 and 2. First I mentioned that after researching jw.org library online, they (WTBATS) does not seem to be supportive of the 'Big Bang' theory. I mentioned that they do not offer an alternative theory but just don't like the randomness of it all (God is a god of order). So it seems to me like they believe god put the entire universe in place and then let the randomness begin!

Also mentioned that if god created domestic and wild beasts, who took care of the domestic beasts until man appeared? Ever seen a cow or goat that hasn't been milked in a few days?

I also mentioned that I had downloaded a copy of 'Millions now living will never die" and for sure they were saying the end would occur in 1925. In the book, they also kind of mocked the 1914 prediction.

What was really funny was that they were so dogmatic about the earthquakes that Jesus said would mark the last days. It was absolutely clear to the writers of that book , that everyone knew that when the bible spoke about earthquakes, they were talking about revolutions.

Looking forward to covering Genesis 3 and 4 this weekend (since we are snowed in she can't get to the mmetings tonight or Sunday).. Praise the lord...

24

Corruption of Hubby Continues...

by jgnat in

well, it's been a few weeks since he's gone inactive and hubby's already signed up at the fitness club.

this morning he saw one of my apps and now he wants it too.. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reverie-daily-inspirational/id514591805?mt=8.

it has a pretty picture and an inspirational quote for the day.

FadeToBlack

Keep up the corrupting. Might I suggest some preset channels for music that he might enjoy? Maybe you can buy him a decent quality headset for (next holiday)...

16

Reading the Bible with my wife.

by FadeToBlack in

after she came home today from the meeting and we had a big discussion about the need for christains to meet together.

she was very concerned that i would not survive the coming big a. i suggested that we start reading the bible together (just to show her i wasn't uninterested )and try to keep up with the wt schedule.

she agreed.

FadeToBlack

Seems like I have competition - the TV. So no bible reading/discussion today. I don't want to push it or make it seem like I have an agenda, so I let it slide. Maybe tomorrow, after breakfast. From 4PM on, she is pretty much parked in front of the TV. If I come into the room, the first thing she does is turn the volume up. While I don't watch TV, I don't have anything against someone watching a favorite show or two, but watching a repeat of a show you just watched yesterday? I started to think, maybe it was me. I know I don't have the most dynamic personality, but still. She admitted though, that she is addicted to TV. Seems strange to me. Life is so precious, yet she spends 1/3rd of it watching TV?

16

Reading the Bible with my wife.

by FadeToBlack in

after she came home today from the meeting and we had a big discussion about the need for christains to meet together.

she was very concerned that i would not survive the coming big a. i suggested that we start reading the bible together (just to show her i wasn't uninterested )and try to keep up with the wt schedule.

she agreed.

FadeToBlack

To late to correct the typo, but I meant 2370 for global flood (they might as well say it happened last week). Thanks for the thoughts, Searcher. I just need to calm down a bit and I think it will be OK. I should be glad that we can at least talk about it.

If anyone has any other 'gems' as we progress thru the WT assigned reading, please feel free to share or point me to previous threads that might be of interest for discussion.