what is happening in kazakhstan?
that country that occupies a space between russia and china?.
kazakhstan is a landlocked country in central asia that shares borders with russia, china, kyrgyzstan, uzbekistan, and turkmenistan, and also adjoins a large part of the caspian sea.. kazakhstan is 70% muslim.
Christians have always operated under restrictions in some of the shady ex communist, communist and Muslim parts of the world.
The sad part is other churches have figured out how not only survive but thrive. Doing ex reach work, feeding Programs, house churches etc.
I have little sympathy for people who feel the need to be annoying telemarketers with a very pompous and annoying message.
with respect to christ being the "redeemer" and of having "paid the ransom", i would like to know:.
(1) what is your technical understanding of each term?.
(2) what is the watchtower's understanding of each term?.
I just love how they dance around this issue and never really teach what the society believes.
Jesus died for seven men in new York and though your works and obedience to this men you will be saved.
i`m showing my ignorance here , not being an active member of any church before joining jw`s as a 19 yr old ,whenever i was ever confronted with the question of "grace" i was always at a loss to give an effective answer from a jw point of view.. was it just me ?
or did anybody else have a similar experience ?.
(ps , i dont think i ever heard the expression " grace" in a religious sense in all my 33 years in the borg.studying the wt.).
When I first attended the kingdom hall I was quite surprised about how much they discussed the old testament. It's was always some obscure story about some guy with an messed up name didn't bow to some pagan God and how it's more important to hand out magazines no one wants even if it means we should go jail.
It took a few years to realize they basically avoided the doctrines of grace and Fruitage of the spirit and becoming the new person in Christ.
It's like they don't really get what Christianity is.
this is obviously a question for the older generation.
i'm really curious what it was like to be a witness in the 60's and 70's?.
was the society as strict as it is today?.
Is it true you could disassociate yourself prior 1981 with no restrictions? And how did you treat people who choose to leave?
at last night's clam the circuit overseer made this comment, "we elders sometimes have to act as judges in the congregation.
but we (the elders) are imperfect, and so cannot know everything about judicial matters.
that is why we (the elders) have the biblical rule that there must be at least two witnesses to wrongdoing.
It's up to secular authorities to decide if there is enough evidence to proceed with charges in circumstances like child molestation or rape.
There is no decision or judicial committee to decide if there is enough evidence to proceed. If a victim or potential victim says something, the matter is to be taken to the police immediately.
Good god. Delusional idiots
next weeks watchtower.
'who is leading god's people today' is quite incredible.
i am so looking forward to blondie's comments on this one.
i'm reading a book called "what to do when they knock" that goes over the jw book "what does the bible really teach?".
it points out that the "bible really teach" book, on page 218, makes a bit of a point about there being only one archangel.
it says michael is "the archangel" and emphasizes that "the" means only one.
I remember watching Stephen Kings It as a kid and it just scared the hell out of me, but the ending was just stupid. I thought it was like the writers went on strike or they forgot to pay them, so they walked.
The watchtower explanation of how Jesus is Michael to me is like the writers just gave up. Let's turn him into Michael so we can go home.
The really stupid part is later in when I started to learn about old testament christogy and why certain verses are quoted in the new testament or what new testament writers believed, it became hell a stupid. It really became the issue that convinced me no jw should teach the bible to anyone.
some bibles use the term "worship" when refering to jesus...at times people did fall down and bow to him........this doesn't show he was god!
the greek term; proskeyneo, means to prostrate oneself, to bow down and show honour.
now, this was done for jehovah.....and his representatives....jesus israelite kings and priests....but for the honour of jehovah not as creature worship which even angels would refuse.. also i studied the non-biblical early church gospels which really does show a slow decline over 150 years, into the trinity as the watchtower claims...........although i still hate the watchtower society at least i learnt something that wasn't a lie..
The general understanding is Jesus is the angel of the Lord or word of the Lord in the old testament. Also you get some weird plurality in the old testament where the Lord is speaking to the Lord or jehovsh speaking to jehovsh.
When you read the new testament it becomes pretty clear that the authors believed Jesus was the second visible jehovah of the old testament.
This is only a message board so I am not going to write a book but do the research of appearances of Jesus in old testament . Then the pieces start to fall together.
last night at the meeting, a local needs talk preempted the regularly scheduled part.
an elder who is the most society following elder talked about loving god and then he talked about bible principles such as marry only in the lord.
he talked of deut.
I was actually in the kh when they marked my wife. Still pisses me off to even think about it.
Uhhh.
I have made a promise to myself to take shit on that guys grave when he dies.
when i studied as a young adult, it was in one of those congregations.
having viewed the religion as a quaint little band of christians it conpletely dumbfounded me when i was told about such rules as 1 - no beards.
2 - you must wear a suit to meetings and while giving a talk.
My wife went back to her first cong the other day because we went to visit my parents. The elders are notorious dickheads. Even other dubs have told us please don't judge us all by that Cong.
After I asked her how many children were there in attendance. She said none. Literally the entire Gen x generation has been disfellowshiped. Those assholes are kind of the good guys. Even almost got my wife to leave.
It's this hip and cool new cong that scares me more.
