Why doesn't the Society translate and provide the Russian Court Transcripts for us?

[Arauna]

Sostar:   I received the name from my aunt who died young after her first child was born.  She had cancer.  

Interesting that you found the name and realized it is a bible name... a man's name.  

Now here is the most interesting history:  Abraham went up to mount Moriah to offer up Isaac.  There was a very large flat stone on the mountain - still there today. Next to mount Moriah was another mount......  In the time of David he consolidated power and bought this place  where Isaac was offered up, on instruction from Jehovah. The large stone was then in use as a threshing floor and belonged to Ornan/Araunah.

Arauna was a high official - a Jebusite and may have been a proselyte as he offered the ground to David for free when he wanted to buy it. But Jehovah said he must pay for it.  Jehovah had punished David for counting the able bodied men who could fight when they went to war.  The pestilence interrupted and also made the census of David invalid.

David filled up the saddle of the two mountains.... on one side he built his palace (Mount Zion) and Mount Moriah was set aside for Solomon to build the temple there.  This is a wonderful story because it indicates that Jehovah had planned this all along and that there is total logic and continuity where Jehovah is involved! The exact same place! No conspiracy - only Jehovah!

It gets more interesting!  After the destruction of the 2nd temple in the year 70CE - only the wailing wall (today known as the wailing wall) remained. The temple ground was extended (filled up) by King Herod and this strong wall was built to keep this extensions in place.

Thereafter, Jehovah allowed the temple to be destroyed because it was no longer the way for Jews and the new Christians to obtain salvation.  The Spiritual temple with Jesus as high priest is now the only  way to approach Jehovah. The genealogy of Jesus (kept there) was also destroyed in 70CE - so the Jews no longer knew if they came from tribe of Juda or not.

So they cannot identify the Messiah  - which they are still waiting for! (Names like Cohen and Levi still remain).   The Jews then wrote down the Mishnah (for at least 250 years this was the oral traditions of the Jews - which Jesus condemned when he was on earth - because it made the laws invalid in the way it was applied) and then the Talmud...... actually human writings by Rabbis to control the people ....... and not a good set of books (9 of them)!

The Romans desecrated the temple ground by using it as a temple for a Roman god ; and much later - in the time of Mohammad - the ground was occupied and they built on and it is called the Dome on the Rock (on the rock) because Mohammad claimed to have flown there in one night on a horse. .... although no-one saw him and Aisha said he never left her bed! Some believed that he went up to heaven there! 

So today the Muslim - Dome on the Rock- is where all the problems of the Middle East is focussed.  The Jews bitterly want to rebuild the temple because they want the messiah to come back and dominate the world for them and so do the Muslims ...... because Mohammad borrowed some of his ideas from the many Jews which he associated with. One of the most quoted Muslim scriptures (the only one which refers to peace - but then later quotes the source as the Jews) actually  is quoting the talmud.  ....

So both peoples want this ground and view it as holy. 

[Srecko Sostar]

49 minutes ago, Arauna said:

I received the name from my aunt who died young 

Sorry to hear about    

[Srecko Sostar]

7 hours ago, Arauna said:

LOVE is the sign of a true disciple - anointed or not.   I chatted with a smart but sweet anointed sister in South Africa and she said to me....... Arauna, when in doubt -- show love (and I do show self-sacrificing love) when in doubt - because this always brings the best results!

Hi! Your post is interesting. And you highlight few good thoughts, generally. When you connecting this two;  "LOVE is the sign of a true disciple" and "Arauna, when in doubt -- show love" that remind me of something -

We have some bible records, examples, lessons from Jesus or before him and after him. Next we have inside state of mind and heart, conscious and something you called "social" maturity. And third thing we have "social" influence from WT Society and society inside self  as group that existing on various level inside JWorg; family, friends, congregation, brotherhood in small and wide space. As fourth thing i would mentioned two parallel power that are in JW member. That is Natural, God given conscience at one side and "bible trained" conscience builded by WT JWorg social influence as kind of group consensus based on Bible and WT Charter and other written and unwritten rules, code, traditions.  

In some situations these two kind of senses (conscience) on what is wrong and right are in conflict. I noticed that in, for example, situations when JW meet with ex members, accidentally meet on the street or similar. JW member suffocate, represses this Natural conscience (to show love or let me to used wording in "simplified edition" :)))) to show just polite behaviour, bon-ton, "social" maturity) and not want to say even Hello to ex JW. Some JW are fanatically hold on this GB instructions, some are more or less liberate and make greetings. So, whatever conclusion or decisions you personally have or made if found yourself in such situations, for me it is interesting that South Africa sister counsel -

"When in doubt--show love"    

  

[Evacuated]

2 minutes ago, Srecko Sostar said:

when JW meet with ex members, accidentally meet on the street or similar. JW member suffocate, represses this Natural conscience (to show love or let me to used wording in "simplified edition" :)))) to show just polite behaviour, bon-ton, "social" maturity) and not want to say even Hello to ex JW.

Your clarity in explaining this dilemna indicates your experience of it , it would seem.

Others of us do not have this problem. We know the difference between those once among us who now oppose and condemn as does their father the Devil, and those once among us who may have succumbed to the "machinations" of that one. Do you?

[TrueTomHarley]

7 hours ago, Srecko Sostar said:

As Arauna you are rather serious-minded, responsible, and stable. 

You have the gift of tact and diplomacy, and possess a charming, easy-going nature which endears you to others.

You have a serious desire to understand the heart and mind of everyone, and could be very effective in a career or in volunteer work where you are handling people and serving in a humanitarian way.

This name also gives you a love of home and family, and as a parent you would likely be fair and understanding.

You remember the thoughtful little expressions of affection and appreciation that mean so much to others, and you have the ability to create a warm and loving environment.

I was about to explode over this but then I calmed down. I began to think it was not intended the way I, at first, took it. No matter. It lays groundwork for a good post:

After correctly assessing @Arauna's gifts, Srecko suggests she "could be very effective in a career or in volunteer work where you are handling people and serving in a humanitarian way." Oh yeah! Go for it Arauna! Why do you waste your time here? Ycu could amount to something. Your gifts could be useful. You could help fix the world! It's almost there; your talents might tip the balance. [okay, okay, so maybe Srecko was not recommending a career in the world but merely acknowledging she would be valuable anywhere, including right where she is.]

She could be one more talented person fed into the ever-open maw of a world that consumes them all without response.

Srecko is another strange bird to me - a lot of them are. It must be me. They are all normal and I am the weirdo! But he alternately says things very perceptive and very obtuse - confusing true tyranny with the traffic cop's direction to walk in the crosswalk. I can't figure it out.

If you leave God's congregation, you leave it. We all have free will. But it seems that if you do so you should take ownership of the world you have chosen. When you see mayhem on the TV - the fruitage of man's independence from God - embrace it! It's yours.  Witnesses will take ownership of Jehovah's organization, imperfect though it is. The only significant way I can picture a human organization doing much better is to banish the humans. You should take ownership of what you have chosen.

There is only one significant advantage from casting off the Christian congregation that I can picture - the delirious freedom of going where no one can tell you what to do! You can be frreeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It is intoxicating - like a drug. All other considerations - material and spiritual - go out the window!

And yet even that is not true - that you go where no one can tell you what to do. It may be true in the human sense, but that is the petty sense. By giving up on the sure resurrection hope, old age and death will surely tell you what to do. By giving up on the 'wisdom from above,' the 'schemes and trickery of men will surely tell you what to do,' for the air has authority. By giving up on the Bible's complete explanation of suffering, the 'shit happens' outlook of the world will surely tell you what to do.

By the time you pay your new master his dues, God's congregation and the GB will look positively like doddering indulgent grandparents in comparison. Witnesses sacrifice some petty freedoms for the sake of the large ones - no Witness would ever say otherwise. If you lose all faith in God's promises, however, those sacrifices seem for naught and people start complaining. It is no more complicated than that. 

 

[TrueTomHarley]

4 hours ago, Anna said:

I am assuming your husband would let you know ("consult") if he was going to send money to his relatives and not just do it without telling you, and not do anything that you are not aware of, it's called communication.  Marriage is a partnership, where both are equal but only one makes the final decision.

One of my non-Witness dad's friends was a horrible tyrant at home. His wife wanted a computer. He would not permit it!

He was tormented terribly after his wife died unexpectedly. He repented, but it was too late. In relating the story to me, Dad said: "If Evelyn had wanted a computer the first thing I would know about it was to see it right here on this table!" And she didn't work outside the home. 

4 hours ago, Anna said:

A woman can make or break a household, that’s how much power they have...Well, that's Anna's wisdom for today.

"There ain't no limit to the amount of trouble women bring." - Bob Dylan

[Srecko Sostar]

17 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

I was about to explode over this but then

:))))) i am not worthy of your nerves ....

[TrueTomHarley]

1 minute ago, Srecko Sostar said:

:))))) i am not worthy of your nerves ....

When I liked the comment from someone who I thought fit the description of ones John says we should not greet, I found I had stumbled someone - a person who has since left this forum. I was not able to placate him by saying: 'well, even villains behave now and then.' (I am not calling you a villain here - that's not my intent)

So, considering what Paul wrote about giving up some rights so as not to stumble 'these little ones,' I resolved not to do it anymore. But if I did, I would do it now.

[Anna]

2 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

When I liked the comment from someone who I thought fit the description of ones John says we should not greet, I found I had stumbled someone

I'm not surprised since you give out likes like they were an endangered species! And then you go and like an enemies comment....

Of course, just because someone is opposed to most of what we do and say, doesn't mean we have to dismiss everything they say, even when it's true. Why should that stumble someone if we don't? As we've said on here before: "Truth is truth no matter who says it".  I think it's good to be fair...

[TrueTomHarley]

 

1 hour ago, Anna said:

Of course, just because someone is opposed to most of what we do and say, doesn't mean we have to dismiss everything they say, even when it's true. Why should that stumble someone if we don't?

Given what most of us have learned about not  'saying a greeting' to ones like John spoke of, I don't fault him for it. Actually, he was probably right. A 'like' is pretty much of a greeting. Some might not take it quite that literarly but it is not for me to fault those who do.

it makes it a little dicey hanging out here, where all Witnesses who hang out are avant garde. I mean, they're not the typical Witnesses. But since they stumble across the site as did I, by chance, traipsing over from Twitter - and they have no reason to think it not a fine spot for spiritual discussion. But then they find it is not necessarily so - that it CAN be, but is not reliably so - I feel I should remember that those brothers are around and not insist upon my freedoms in their presence. 

1 hour ago, Anna said:

I'm not surprised since you give out likes like they were an endangered species!

 

There! Happy?

[Anna]

2 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

I feel I should remember that those brothers are around and not insist upon my freedoms in their presence. 

Hmmmmm....I have to disagree with you there I think. They are free to leave any time they want and not listen to a word you say. You are here to say what you feel is the right thing to say. We can't please everyone. This is not the Kingdom Hall

[Anna]

2 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

There! Happy?

You are very good at evading. Those are not likes