The Librarian

Turns out they didn't "ban" it per se but rather discontinued it as a "public holiday". The headline was misleading. I apologize for not understanding that at the time.

Here is an example from London...

The word ‘ Christmas ’ does not figure in the Bible.  This festival underwent the pagan influence of the Saturnalia, celebrated around the time of the winter solstice in honour of Saturn, god of agriculture, characterised by their famous drinking sessions and the exchange of gifts. 

Furthermore, on 25 December 274, the Roman Emperor Aurelius proclaimed the sun-god Mithra the main protective god of the Empire.

“The earliest mention of the festival of Christmas is found in the Philocalian Calendar, established in Rome in 336 AD.” - J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough

“The choice of 25 December appeared around 330, in order to cloud the pagan festivals celebrated at the time of the winter solstice. “This time was always marked in Antiquity, during the Saturnalia celebrated in Rome in honour of Saturn, the ancient master of time, or during Sol Invictus (Unconquered Sun), a cult of the god Mithra that came from Persia.” - Nadine Cretin, Fêtes et traditions occidentales [Western Festivals and Traditions] 

The festival of Mithra, Natalis Invicti, Triumphant Sun and ‘birthday’ of the Invincible One, he who gave life back to nature, was therefore gradually replaced by that of the birth of Christ, ‘Light of nations” according to words of old Simeon. - Luke 2:32

The festival of Christmas therefore originated at a time when the cult of the sun was particularly strong in Rome. These details confirm that this festival draws its origins neither from the Scriptures nor from the traditions of the very first Christians.

Double-Sided Mithraic Relief MND 1911 Denon room 25

Mithra, the Persian god of light, is shown on one side of the relief cutting the throat of a divine bull to make the universe fruitful.

On the other side, he is depicted at a banquet with the sun to which he is compared.

The sculptured Dendera zodiac (or Denderah zodiac) is a widely known Egyptian bas-relief from the ceiling of the pronaos (or portico) of a chapel dedicated to Osiris in the Hathor temple at Dendera, containing images of Taurus (the bull) and Libra (the scales). This chapel was begun in the late Ptolemaic period; its pronaos was added by the emperor Tiberius. This led Jean-François Champollion to date the relief to the Greco-Roman period, but most of his contemporaries believed it to be of the New Kingdom.

The relief, which John H. Rogers characterised as "the only complete map that we have of an ancient sky", has been conjectured to represent the basis on which later astronomy systems were based. It is now on display at the Musée du Louvre, Paris. D 38 Hall 12 bis In Egyptian mythology.

------------------------------------

Astrology had a big place in the art of divination from the second millennium BC when the Babylonian priests established the zodiac.
This term comes from a Greek word that means circle of animals. 
The signs do not correspond to the constellations, which earned them their original name.

The cult of the stars was particularly dominant in Babylon.

-----------------------------------

The servants of God took a strong stand against the cult of the stars. 

They shared the view of the Scriptures, seeing them as mere material bodies that do not dominate man but rather serve as lighting and benchmarks.

The faithful King Joshua "put out of business the foreign-god priests [...], those making sacrificial smoke to Ba´al, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations of the zodiac." (2 Kings 23:5). This expression comes from the Hebrew word mazzalôth, plural, which appears only once in the Bible.

-----------------------------------

The signs of the zodiac were introduced in the cathedrals of Christendom, and in Paris can be seen on the portal and left around Mary in the huge central rose of Notre-Dame de Paris and Burgundy the facade of the Basilica of Vezelay. 

See more here

@T.B. (Twyla)-  I submitted a ticket w/ @admin to get this fixed asap.

@T.B. (Twyla) I submitted a ticket to the @admin to get this fixed soon. .... 

A very handy notebook. Thank you again! @T.B. (Twyla)

Thank you very much @larryjohnson

Thank you very much @T.B. (Twyla)

Someone in the Italian group here mentioned that I should add the two in the link above both as well known writers.

In JW famosi aggiungi questi

https://felicebuonspirito.freeforumzone.com/

https://www.facebook.com/francesco.arduini.5095 

Entrambi scrittori

- Contributed via pm

9 hours ago, Arauna said:

That is the point - many young Christians have given up the chance to pursue a career in the arts - and would absolutely love the chance to sing a Christians song. 

At first I thought you might be being somewhat judgemental on the overseer George Benson....and stayed quiet.... however when you wrote the above it got me to thinking....

Wasn't there an official video not long ago telling young people to put down their violin (musical instruments) in favor of studying and field service?

That would be an obvious stumbling block to millions of JW's worldwide which would be a very strong argument for him to choose NOT to use his talent publicly despite having a natural right to do so.

Interesting conundrum here.

ok... I've said enough.... I'm sure Brother George Benson would be an interesting elder to talk to and get his views on things given his experience in life.

12 minutes ago, Arauna said:

it says the lion will eat straw. As far as I know the cat family is the only family that needs to eat meat at present. 

My father used to state in one of his public talks that during the 1st or 2nd World War (can't remember) that the big cats were given straw (purportedly because they had no meat to give them) and that they prospered very well.

I cannot verify that however.

13 minutes ago, Arauna said:

The bark of these trees were responsible for all the coal we see on the earth.

I heard that coal is made up of ocean plankton, algae and protozoa..... Hmmm. 🤔

14 minutes ago, Arauna said:

Did you know that there were forests of hollow trees on the oceans before the flood?

Do you have any info on these trees handy?

1 hour ago, Chioke Lin said:

Ironically, the person in the video wasn't an archeologist. He got his master’s degree in archeology after studying in Israel for 10 years. Before that, he just supported a few digs. He didn't know anything about how to study archeology.

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." - Eleanor Roosevelt

@Patiently waiting for Truth This is your thread to tell the world what you think of JW.org.

Please leave other subjects threads alone (stick to the topic at hand)

I'm surprised you don't get tired of spouting off the hatred daily...  

If you feel a certain way... make your post and add any additional thoughts to it.... don't twist every other topic to somehow relate to your hatred of a certain religion.

@Peter Carroll Chill on the website spamming please. We all already know where to find Jehovah's witnesses... @ jw.org   your spam is not helping us look any better. (especially on every single thread you touch).

Share ideas, thoughts and opinions..... not websites.

47 minutes ago, Chioke Lin said:

Is this the oldest historical inscription found? Maybe, however, there's another team of archeologists that suggest their find of a curse tablet with the name of god YHWH is the oldest inscription found.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/science/4976118/tiny-hebrew-curse-tablet-god/

that tablet could potentially be seen as the earliest known artifact to mention God in the Land of Israel.  

Interesting... but there is also the possibility it comes from much later. Whereas the Temple in Ancient Egypt is pretty rock solid... pun intended 😉

42 minutes ago, Chioke Lin said:

This material is by far older than all other evidence, and if the name indeed matches the divine name, as many have concluded, no account of Yahweh’s roots can begin elsewhere.

No one said the 'roots' started there in Sudan.  

I suspect this might be the oldest references (or one of) still in existence in physical form since we assume everything pre-flood was destroyed.

So unless someone finds Noah's ark... and a reference to YHWH in it.... this one seems to be the oldest. 

39 minutes ago, Chioke Lin said:

I believe the mention of nomads would be inconsequential, since anyone after the flood would be considered nomads.

A sitting Pharoah building a temple with huge rock columns in Ancient Egypt would definitely call a large crowd of Israelites wandering around the world following a tent (tabernacle) "nomads"...... (not everyone would be considered nomads)

I would say he is doing pretty good for 79 years of age!!  Good for him. 

7 hours ago, Patiently waiting for Truth said:

I did enjoy this video. But is it genuine ? And is it proof of 'that' name ? 

Genuine? The guy showed you exactly how he got there... where it is, who first dug into it....the entire site... other examples and then the EXACT column with the exact words......

I will accept it as genuine. Just as I'm sure the White house columns exist although I've never touched them myself. I've only seen videos.

Proof of the 'that' name? How much clearer would you expect an enemy Pharoah to be?

I seriously doubt he would have been able to add a postscript for future English readers what the preferred pronunciation and lettering in a then unknown (not even created yet) language should be. This is why I am steering clear of the whole YHWH vs. Jehovah debate. (that is a different thread)

I find it fascinating just as it is.... some Pharoah in Ancient Egypt.... knew these same Israelites were enemies and even referred to them just as the Bible explained.

This alone invalidates SO many ludicrous claims about the origins of the "Name" that it is an incredible find.

What more do people need? 

I love Tacos Al Pastor

www.tacobell.com

Here is my post on a different topic of Biblical archaeology:

ps - I don't get caught up in the differences of Jehovah vs. Yahweh. Both are correct.

Similar to the difference of pronunciation of Jehovah in English versus Spanish...

We get the idea... 😉