Posts by OHappyDay

20

JW perception of Armageddon's Iminence

by FirstInLine in

i am wondering how iminent did armageddon seem when you were jws?

how iminent does the wts feel it is today?.

i recall that for me it seemed that it could happen at any moment.

OHappyDay

In fairness, it should be said that this is not just a problem or failing of Jehovah's Witnesses. The New Testament makes it clear that Christians have expected the return of Christ almost from the moment he went away, and that they expected the End in their days...and almost every era since the First Century. They were all disappointed.

Somewhere along the way, Christians decided, perhaps to keep their sanity, to just live the best life they could, and to leave the End in God's hands.

Jehovah's Witnesses have not yet appreciated the wisdom of this. But how long can the boy cry "Wolf!" and no wolf appears, before people just lose interest and stop listening?

168

The UN Posts Their Letter!

by jgnat in

did our letter-writing campaign work?

http://www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/watchtower.pdf.

here are some lovely instructions drafted by syn, and hosted by valis, on how to navigate to the site yourself.. http://www.sassquatch.com/syn/un_ngo_letter/.

OHappyDay

FWIW, I saw this link first on a "loyal" Witness site. I assume we still do not see the "scandal" of it all.

Maybe some of us even secretly see a UN-Watchtower alliance as a good thing, despite the official policy.

UN secretary-general Kofi Annan looks proudly from page 7 of the March 22, 2004 Awake! magazine, right beside a quote of his words that would appear to be giving a heads-up to God's Kingdom.

Maybe the left hand just doesn't know what the right hand is doing. (Matthew 6:3)

35

Is Jehovah an invention of Jewish imagination??? The fact seem obvious!

by frankiespeakin in

yes, if we think of god as a "transcendant" above everything and then when we think of the biblical jehovah, we come up short 51 cards of a deck of 52.

he is so human,,,, come on,,,,, that to me is proof enough of the preposition that he is just the:

"figment of the jewish imagination"

OHappyDay

I strongly disagree. Why would the Jews create a god who would give them so much grief? Destructions, exiling, annihilations, plagues, pestilences, frequent punishments, even Holocausts?

One could just as easily read the Old Testament to say that Jehovah didn't like the Jews very much. Or rather than God being in man's image, man is in God's image.

3

A Great Scripture!

by Beans in

what if every jehovah's witness could apply this scripture when pondering questions?.

1st thessalonians 5:21. prove all things; hold fast that which is good.. beans.

http://quotes.watchtower.ca

OHappyDay

We are taught to apply those scriptures to only to what other people say while accepting without question what our own leaders teach.

Nice little arrangement, eh?

37

Are JW's embarrassed by faith in Jesus?

by eyeslice in

i think i posted the fact that i suddenly stopped attending all the meetings, field service and all, very suddenly.

not a single meeting this year.

i guess i would describe myself now as a sort of little toe guy, a liberal christian.. of course, i have had all the elder visits asking me how i am doing etc.

OHappyDay

It's hard to have two Saviors. Christendom opts for the one, Jesus, while we opt for the other, Jehovah. I remember that when I first saw the illustration of the shepherd on the back of the Draw Close to Jehovah book, I thought it was an illustration of Jesus. But no, the book relates it to Jehovah. (In the Bible, both Jehovah and Jesus are called "shepherds.")

So, since it's hard to love two, there is gravitation toward either Jehovah or Jesus. Or, in the case of many sects, to make the two one, Jehovah of the OT = Jesus of the NT.

In our case, I blame Joseph Rutherford. He's the one who named us Jehovah's Witnesses, whereas the New Testament says we should be Jesus' Witnesses. (Acts 1:8) From that point on, our focus has been on Jehovah, with Jesus running a poor second.

28

Do all informed JW's deny the man Christ Jesus as their mediator?

by hooberus in

many here are familiar with the current watchtower doctrine that jesus is the mediator for only the 144,000. .

members of the great crowd who know and believe wt doctrine on this subject will deny that jesus christ is their mediator.

those of the remant who know and believe wt doctrine on this subject will claim to have jesus christ as their mediator, but will deny that the mediator is a man.. however, the bible says that the mediator is .

OHappyDay

1 Timothy 2:5

The current JW understanding of that text is based on a "legal" or business meaning of the Greek word for "mediator." But it is not proved that Paul had only a "legal" meaning in mind when he wrote, especially when he tied the word "mediator" with the phrase "ransom for ALL," not just for 144.000.

But neither do Paul's words indicate that Jesus is now a "man" in heaven. He was a man when he gave his life as the mediator, that was Paul's reference in the verse. Jesus was able to be the mediator precisely because he was a man. But Paul is not implying that Jesus is still a man up in heaven. Greek scholars point out that the word for "man" in this verse is an anarthrous noun (noun without the definite article "the"), emphasizing again the relationship between his status as a human and his mediatorship: he was human at the time when he gave his life as a ransom.

Therefore, I do not accept the WT doctrine that Jesus is mediator only for 144,000, but neither do I accept the doctrine that Jeus is still a man up in heaven.

20

Any research on Fred Franz?

by Spudinator in

just curious if anyone out there has done or knows of an extensive biography of fred franz.

since he was such a pivotal person in the wtbts it would be interesting.

i know that the bible students are writing a biography of charles t. russell and alan f has said that someone is writing a bio of j.f.

OHappyDay

Both scholar and Farkel are correct. Franz was a "natural" scholar, lacking only the degree. But as a prophet, he was lacking divine inspiration.

Franz thought that by saying it, the End would come when he wanted it to come. By so doing, he ignored the warnings in the Bible about false predictions of Christ's coming.

In the end, Ego triumphed, and Truth lay vanquished.

20

What is the next Book Study Book?

by codeblue in

ok...just noticing the worship the only true god book will end the week of march 8th...what is the next book to be studied?

i would appreciate your help in this matter!

codeblue

OHappyDay

Maybe the "Sister" has studied Draw Close to Jehovah on her own and this will be "again" for her, but this is the first time the book is being used at the Congregation Book Study.

Now, Jehovah's Witnesses will say that we are always studying the Bible, regardless of book used as an aid. As the Ethiopian eunuch asked of Phillip the Evangelist, "How could I understand [the Bible, in this case, a passage from Isaiah], unless someone guided me?"

IMHO, this book is one of the better ones.

16

Bible Has No Room for "Observers"

by OHappyDay in

as another memorial season approaches, our only and most valued holiday, the traditions of men will again invalidate the word of god.. ninety-nine percent of those who attend the memorial will ignore and transgress jesus' commandment: "as they continued eating, jesus took a loaf and, after saying a blessing, he broke it and, giving it to the disciples, he said, 'take, eat.

this means my body.

' also, he took a cup and, having given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, 'drink out of it, all of you; for this means my blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out in behalf of many for forgiveness of sins.

OHappyDay

J.C., I appreciate your comments. Truth is, however, that I have enough trouble with understanding our own take on chronology, etc., to consider taking on another viewpoint. So, my post is with current JW commentary on the Memorial.

As I understand it, we now interpret "until the Lord comes" to mean his coming with judgment, i.e., at Armageddon. So, we celebrate the Memorial until that "coming."

My point is that if Witnesses are going to celebrate the Memorial, we should really celebrate it, all who are in attendance, by doing as Jesus said, "drink of it, all of you," and not as our Tradition says, "drink of it, some of you." Jesus did not say in any case, "Just sit there and observe."

28

Question for Dubs

by Farkel in

to this very day, the wts teaches that "babylon the grape" ("the world empire of false religion") "fell" in 1918. that was 86 years ago, yet religion is bigger than ever before in the world, and for the most part it is practiced without any problems or governmental intervention.

it is cults like the dubs which do get government interference in place, mostly because of their blood ban, and their sick and destructive social culture.. where then, and how then, did babylon the grape "fall" in 1918, little dubbies?.

farkel

OHappyDay

Carl Sagan had us figured out in 1982? Fascinating. Apocalypticism is our Achilles' heel. We fall into a long line of religions with failed expectations of the End. Best we left that to God, and go on living the Christian life (if we are Christians) day by day.