xero
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Posts posted by xero
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No I don't think so.
https://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Projects/Reln91/Gender/Gnosticism.htm
The gnostics considered Jehovah a demiurge and evil for having created the material world, and that material in general was evil.
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31 minutes ago, xero said:
That was informative. Thanks for the link!
I wonder if Joan actually watched it, or if it was just some knee-jerk reaction to being decent.
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1 hour ago, Witness said:
That was informative. Thanks for the link!
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On 8/18/2021 at 10:33 AM, Patiently waiting for Truth said:
A couple of points here. firstly
I've have said this many times before on this forum. With God all things are possible.
secondly.
Hence my name I use now on this forum. Patiently waiting for truth. And I get mocked for it.
But when you say WE, would you be kind enough to say exactly who the 'we' are ?
Are you referring to individuals or the Watchtower Soc' / JW Org / GB ?
everyone
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Like these....
Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, And your ways are not my ways,” declares Jehovah. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So my ways are higher than your ways And my thoughts than your thoughts."
42 Then Job said in reply to Jehovah:
2 “Now I know that you are able to do all things
And that nothing you have in mind to do is impossible for you.+
3 You said, ‘Who is this who is obscuring my counsel without knowledge?’+
Therefore I spoke, but without understanding
About things too wonderful for me, which I do not know.+
4 You said, ‘Please listen, and I will speak.
I will question you, and you inform me.’+
5 My ears have heard about you,
But now I do see you with my eyes.
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4 hours ago, Space Merchant said:
Well things won't get back to normal anytime soon. There are 2 types of normal, the one you once had, then you have the Orwellian Normal. Evidently, you will be in subjection to added protection.
EU will be hit the hardest in the next few months, UK, Germany, etc.
Only recently did I realize the Moderna and Pfizer aren't the usual vaccines we're used to (J&J is - the one I got), these are experimental.
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One thing is clear. "Cursed is the able bodied man who makes flesh his arm."
If there's anything I suspected from my earliest days and each passing year has confirmed, is the truth of the above statement.
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30 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:
This is the most thorough collection of reasons I have yet seen—everything under one roof.
OK, but now we're down to 17. I wonder why the fact checkers at facebook haven't been able to address the other 17 reasons.
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I wonder how many would review their decision now. I don't like it, but I feel like I'm floating in a sea of turds and I can't be expected to examine each thing under a microscope to see what's there.
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49 minutes ago, Pudgy said:
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How something is worded often contains subtle nuances and references, and sub-references that escape almost everyone, except those whose thinking is not agenda driven.
The problem is .... almost EVERYONES' thinking is agenda driven.
Without getting into George Carlin's famous comment about sticking a needle in your finger, consider the very real difference between these two phrases, being "waiting to engage", and being "engaged to wait".
If you work for someone, and are on call 24/7/365. make sure that the phraseology is "engaged to wait", and not "waiting to engage".
It makes a difference as to whether or not you are due payment for your services.
In similar fashion, the nuances inherent in the way Scripture is phrased make a very real difference.
However, if your perception is agenda driven, you will always be wrong.
If you think you are a hammer ..... EVERYTHING looks like a nail.
..... and your theology and carpentry work will be crude, ugly, and unworkable.
Some things are straightforward, but other things are a matter of interpretation. The thing that gets me is when someone acts like they have it all figured out. Nope.
- Srecko Sostar, Anna, JW Insider and 1 other
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4 minutes ago, Arauna said:
Satan can promote the idea pf evolution without believing it himself. it is called propaganda. He knew god existed but was rebellious and did not obey the creator
I understand that. Also knowing God existed is also not the point. If Satan imagined Jehovah himself was the product of the realm in which he was able to view him, like me being in a room or in a world with defined boundaries and I see someone and imagine that they didn't create the realm that we both reside in, but in point of fact simply was the first on the scene, then you'd be getting the point the author is getting at.
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W/regard to Jehovah's foreknowledge I've always thought of it this way:
There's only so much stuff in the universe and only so many ways these can be configured over time factoring in the operation of free will. Before Jehovah created even Jesus as the Word he examined all the possible scenarios and that no matter which path was taken it would all end up being "very good" at the end.
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1 hour ago, Pudgy said:
Wrong again.
The Physical Universe was designed to be self-sustaining.
...to run without a need for maintenance.
All evidence points to this, in thousands of integrated facts usually described as Quantum Physics, and only agenda driven theologic fantasy suggests otherwise.
It is theologic fantasy BECAUSE it contradicts all known facts that are real, with "facts" that are merely wishful religious fantasy, with no proof whatsoever.
I'm not sure that's true. There's a thomist who's essentially arguing exactly this - that God continuously sustains everything. The argument is that like you can't have an infinite regress in the physical realm w/universes (no matter how many) and you can't have an infinite regress at any given point in the here and now, so God's spirit is the sustaining point for all reality. You can think of it the same way you think about the universe - no infinite regress longitudinally , but in the here and now flipped it's also true vertically.
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43 minutes ago, Arauna said:
James 219 You believe that there is one God, do you? You are doing quite well. And yet the demons believe and shudder.t
They believe - implies they know he is the creator - the only true god.
This is the new philosophy pushed by scholars - that all religions evolved. The worship of the demons of half-gods is based on the stories and subsequent worship of the Nephilim. They built the Tower of babel to get closer to heaven... and these demons were associated with the stars etc. So the was an origin for these beliefs and then it grew. Evolution implies it came from nothing.
The book isn't pushing the "religions evolved" idea. It's pushing the idea that false religion has from the beginning fostered the idea of evolution because it's originator also believed the same (or at least wanted these to believe it).
The demons, BTW aren't the same thing as the sons of god, at least not according to 2nd temple thought. It was thought that the demons were disembodied dead nephilim. I suppose not being fully human might have made it different for them as opposed to normal humans. Maybe they had phantom-body pain (like a vet who has phantom limb pain) and that was why they kept trying to get inside people or anything physical like pigs.
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41 minutes ago, Arauna said:
The bible indicates that Satan knows that Jehovah exists and shudders - but he does not obey. It is like a child that is on drugs and destroys his own life in front of a parent.
Satan has seen the power of Jehovah - but it is rarely used destructively. Satan is the father of death and destruction, lies and deceit. He knows that Jehovah is his creator but will spread lies to humankind about it. Anything which takes away the honor from Jehovah whether it is atheism or false philosophy
Actually the "knowing he is his creator" is actually not specifically stated in scripture - this is what the author suggests the possibility is...
Yes @Anna the author is suggesting, as did the Sumerians, that all the gods evolved. This would include Jehovah. Not that the author believes this, but that the lie fostered was fostered by and believed by Satan (and that this could be the contribution to what any sane person would think was a foolish endeavor) was the heart of the rebellion.
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So I'm just about done with "The Long War Against God: The History & Impact of the Creation/Evolution Conflict" and a couple of interesting notes in the book were that the idea of evolution existed from the beginning in the Sumerian texts and every ancient religious text (except the Bible). The author suggests that perhaps Satan was himself an evolutionist and did not believe that Jehovah created the universe, himself or any of the other angelic beings. He was not dogmatic about this, but it's a thought I never considered. It would certainly make more sense that if you didn't believe that Jehovah created the universe and that you simply sprang into being or perhaps such was the case at least w/Jehovah, that you might actually believe you could take him.
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8 hours ago, John Houston said:
There was a question asked which seemed tricky at first, but once I read it again I understood it and with practicality it can be answered. The husband would have to go through life alone,until the death of his wife. Even with a divorce it does not free him to remarry. That is just common sense. There are no loop holes or other circumstances. Sexual misconduct by his wife or her death frees him to remarry. PERIOD!
Totally disagree.
Actually even in the 1st century in a Christian congregation no matter where you were any local government would have likely executed the wife who murdered her children, so the fact that today she's not a corpse wouldn't change the principle that she should be dead. Slicing and dicing this like "she's still alive ..duuuhh! you can't get remarried" reminds me of Jesus who condemned the religious leaders of his day who'd make loopholes to avoid fulfilling the principles behind the law.
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3 hours ago, Patiently waiting for Truth said:
That is so funny considering the topic you've made here and the length of your first comment.
You seem concerned about people's attitudes and about people 'grumbling'.
I'm more concerned about the way JWs bring shame on God and Christ.
You spend a lot of time worrying about other people's affairs. I think you'd be better off looking in the mirror.
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1 hour ago, Patiently waiting for Truth said:
It wasn't me that did the blaming of their own people. Hypocrits
I'll just place this here again.
It must take a very dull or almost dead conscience to remain a JW.
Why do you spend so much energy worrying about the affairs of other people?
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The 144k and the GB...gnostics?
in Topics
Posted
Nice reply Tom. I was just going to reply w/this...
But your reply is better.