TrueTomHarley

I think they’d call us liars for mistranslating, inserting a phrase that’s not there simply because we like it. You can say ‘a god’ or an adjective like ‘divine’ by handling the indefinite article as we do. You can say ‘God’ by botching the significance of the indefinite article. But by no stretch of the imagination can you say ‘Son of God.’ It’s not there. You have to translate the Greek or Hebrew as accurately as you can, and then let that translation instruct you. You can’t do it the other way around—let your beliefs dictate your translating (as though you are instructing God). ‘Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament’ by Jason Beduhn, examines John 1:1 in several translations and concludes only the New World Translation gets it right, translating in accord with the actual Greek. It’s most of the other translations that read their beliefs into the translating and thereby mess it up, he says. We never want to be like that. It’s dishonest. It’s taking liberties with the Word of God. https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2009/06/scholars-bias-and-the-new-world-translation.html

Don’t forget Big Defense Are you sure it was for this reason? Or was it that once ‘money’ is backed by debt rather than gold, there is no limit to how much of the stuff can be printed, with any day of reckoning put far far off into the future (though perhaps not so far now).

Any scenario these days of the US govt working for the interests of non-renewable energy company seems a little hard to swallow. Aren’t they public enemies #1 for pumping up climate change? Making trouble with Russia is always a thing, I agree. I recall Trump posing the question, “Wouldn’t it be nice if we actually got along with Russia?” Whereupon outside forces intervened to virtually ensure they would not. You would think so. But the world is so screwy today. And the notion of national leaders betraying the interests of the populace is widespread. Yeah, I guess there was some mix-up as to that. My bad. Well…he’s a big boy. He should know better. There are some topics you can’t let within 100 yards of a Bible person—all of them, really. Nonetheless, I’ll refrain from (maybe) commenting along that vein pending another thread.

The real question, should the United States emerge as the culprit, will be the question of why. Is it to win business for American energy companies? Or is it to enforce a globalist view of breaking free from oil as a power source, in which case there would be many a sympathizer, if not co-conspirator, among their like minded ‘brethren’ in Europe who have satisfied themselves as to their own personal well-being.

I appreciate the ‘research.’ Someone is doing dirty unto others far more than others are doing dirty unto him. Why anyone would waste their time issuing a downvote I’ll never know.

The neat thing about the internet is it doesn’t matter. Write what you write and go to bed. I’ll make sure the ruffians don’t erase it while you sleep. Then when you wake and see ten dumb comments appended to your remark, blast away.

I dunno. In that case we’d all be disciples of you-know-who, who quotes scriptures by the truckload but they never apply.

A little research project I recently did: I was about to comment on how Solomon requests of God an ‘obedient heart’ and that is the last thing you might expect a king to request. Before doing so I checked to see what other translations had done with that expression. To my surprise, ‘obedient’ was almost unique. The vast majority said ‘understanding.’ At first blush, this doesn’t bode well for the New World Translation, Only one other out of 64 translations say it as they do, but upon research, I came away thinking ‘obedient’ is likely the best rendering of all: https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2022/08/an-obedient-heart-or-an-understanding-heartwhich-is-it.html

Claret. I hear that she seriously boozes it up with the Librarian (that old hen) every evening.

Witness said the C-word? I mean, I can do it because I don’t pretend to be shining brightly as the sun, but her!

Those instruments have been described as ‘phallic.’ When I heard that, I promptly threw mine in the trash.

Not only engaged. All but married. (To be sure, not happily married) What prompted the change? The position of the earthly organization is not new.

I put it first on my own blog. It’s also in TTvtA. It didn’t carry the day with that Reddit bunch, but then they ARE a hostile crowd. And even I have to admit those mannerisms do take getting used to, regardless of their origin. I think we have to drop back to Pudgy’s comment: Coming from cynical Pudgy, this is extraordinary praise, the equivalent of ‘Stellar’ from anyone else. It may be just an example of God ‘laughing at the wisdom of this systems’s wise ones,’ proof that his anointed are, as in the first century, seldom of ‘noble birth,’ nor ‘wise,’ but decidedly ‘uneducated and ordinary.’ I’ll take substance over style any day. Turn on the TV and you can see endless people whose ‘style’ is impeccable. Among them are some of the stupidest people whom God ever let roam the earth.

Why would he need one?

Jesus sometimes spoke in hyperbole and so does Lett. You could almost say that the man himself is an hyperbole. A brother in our congregation who works with the deaf, who himself has deaf ones in his family, casts doubt on this. Rather, he says it is from long habit of battling Bell’s palsy, which paralyzes the face and which you overcome by deliberate working of face muscles. In response to my questioning, he said he had it “on good authority,” so I rate it probably 90% as being true.

It’s the same as when you want to buy a house only to find all houses have been taken off the market. They are only available for rent, big business having figured out they can make far more money over the long haul than had they just sold it to you.

Everyone wants subscription these days. Recurring income, and they don’t have to do a thing for it. Lawsuits over tractor-makers for not allowing farmers to fix their own tractors,

I know my word is my bond, just like James Bond says before hurls a villain into a piranha pit*, but I didn’t. I put it on my own blog first as ‘Part 2.’ It’s mostly just a rehash of points made first here anyway. Update Pete Carroll’s pic one comment above to show piranhas at the bottom of the abyss and Bond doing the hurling, and you’re golden.

“Then Truetom, also called TTH, becoming fed up, looked at her intently and said: “O woman full of every sort of fraud and every sort of villainy, you daughter of the Devil, you enemy of everything righteous, will you not quit distorting the right ways of Jehovah? (Acts 13:9-10) What he said was: “Now, if we think about it, we're not born as friends of God because we're born as sinful offspring of Adam. Actually, when we think about it, we're born as enemies of God. Sometimes you'll hear people say of a little baby, ‘Look at that little angel,’ but more accurate would be to say, ‘Look at that little enemy of God.’ Now, of course we love that little baby and it's now not hopeless because our loving creator has made reconciliation with him within the reach of everyone. We can become a good friend of God and that close relationship with Jehovah will become our most valuable possession.” Notice how he twice said, ‘when [if] we think about it?’ You have to do that: think about things and not just parrot sound bites to make people you hate look bad. Oh, you spiteful woman, who quotes scripture by the bushel basket but never lays hold on the one that applies, besides the reference to Adam in Genesis, the place to focus is here: “…through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because they had all sinned—.” Romans 5:12 “when we were enemies we became reconciled to God through the death of his Son,” by exercising faith in him, which a baby cannot yet do, and thus is temporarily ‘grandfathered’ via the faith of it’s parents. (vs 10) Now, as for Bro Lett, for a guy who will quote Job 12:11, “Does not the ear test out words As the tongue tastes food?” you’d almost think he’d test them out a little more before letting loose with a phrase that every evil cherry picker will use against him to “distort the right ways of Jehovah.” Still, I hate to think what you would have done to Jesus, after his, ‘Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I will resurrect him on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.’ John 6:54-55 Taking into consideration that passage in John, I would say Lett is supremely adhering to and following Christ as a model, more so than any of the other GB members. Imagine: what sort of vile person would comb through a convention in which every talk explores the verse ‘seek peace and pursue it’ to find and exploit a faux pas?

Now—THERE’S an image: “The waves of death broke all around me; Flash floods of worthless men terrified me.” (2 Samuel 22:5) Flash floods of worthless men. Not all translations so personalize it but enough do to make it clear that the former are being overly prissy, the latter adding a necessary specification that the former avoid. “A deadly flood was carrying me away,” says English Revised Version. Oh yeah? A deadly flood of WHAT? “the floods of ungodly men made me afraid,” says King James Version Thank you. “while torrents of abuse from the ungodly overwhelmed me” International Standard Version Yes. “devil waters rushed over me. Hell’s ropes cinched me tight; death traps barred every exit.” Message Oh for crying out loud. Deviate too much into paraphrase and you bring on charges of ‘What have THEY been smoking?’ “the floods of scoundrels overwhelm me” Orthodox Jewish Version Yeah! That’s what I’M talking about! It’s too much bother to check what renderings come from which manuscripts, though I suppose it would be a good thing if someone did so.

And to build character. Any club that would quickly admit me isn’t worth being admitted to—according to a certain grouchoism.

My wife stumbles from the bedroom one morning, into the kitchen, and the cat is right there to meet her. "He didn't feed me," it cries. "I've been so hungry for so long, and he doesn't care! He wants me to st-starve! He doesn't care if I d-d-die!" What a liar! I fed that cat thirty minutes ago! Delicious chicken feast. So delicious that my wife will probably be furious because she planned to use it for our dinner this evening. I throw the cat outside where the plants are. But I forget the Bible principle, ‘Bad associations spoil useful habits.’ When I walk outside later, those flowers lite right into me, complaining about God. "He hasn't watered me! I've been so thirsty for so long! He doesn't c-care if I d-die!" What a bunch of liars! We had a downpour two hours ago!

Don’t want no ‘1984’ references either. George Orwell wrote 1984 at a time when totalitarianism was sweeping the globe, Nazism, Stalinism, crushing even the sturdy and powerful good guys like Winston Smith. (Churchill—how many ‘Winstons’ do you know?) These governments would not just lean on people with a certain amount of peer pressure. They would literally take command of ever part of your life, literally assign you a role that you’d better not reject, literally punish you for neglecting propaganda channels, literally torture you for deviation, and then literally kill you after rehabilitation as a lesson to others. If George Orwell could see how is work has been trivialized today to settle religious scores he would say, ‘Thank God I’m dead.’

I remember a newspaper article many years ago to the effect that police could nab the petty thieves fairly easily. The style was to wear their pants below their rear ends and they’d instantly trip themselves making their getaway.

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