JW Core Beliefs .... As Applied

Patiently waiting for Truth · July 6, 2021

On 7/5/2021 at 12:11 PM, JW Insider said:

It's also possible that "blood" in Acts 15 is a symbol for "bloodguilt," such as murder, manslaughter, war, etc., just as "idols" can include things like "gluttony" (Phil 3:19) "greediness" (Col 3:5) and even "pleasing men" (Eph 6:6,7; Gal 1:10) Personally, for my own conscience, I'm fine with the idea that abstaining from blood transfusions is one way that we abstain from blood. But there's a chance that we as individuals and as an organization should not be imposing this as a rule on the Bible-trained consciences of others.

Acts 15.

28. For the holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to you except these necessary things: ²⁹ to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper. Good health to you!”

Berean Study Bible
You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

Those three things are referring to food stuff. Things eaten via the mouth.

However, I am always fascinated when you 'reveal' a 'new light' of thought, because it seems you have an 'inside knowledge' of the workings of the GB and it's helpers.

Your last sentence ( above quoted ) says it all after Reading the 'Core 'beliefs'.

Such hypocrisy to say " WE DO NOT TAKE BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS" Then to say " WE ALLOW CONGREGANTS TO USE THEIR OWN CONSCIENCE".

Thinking · July 6, 2021

3 hours ago, Srecko Sostar said:

Apologize, but we have to make clear distinction between this two celebration. Christmas vs Jesus Birthday celebration. Christmas is one wrong way full with traditions and folklore of that how people are convinced that they giving honor to Jesus. JW members missed opportunity to "show the world" what can be better or proper way to doing so.

Nowhere in its text does the Bible show that celebrating a birthday is wrong or pagan.

Has having more than one wife ever been a pagan custom? Jewish law in the Bible says no, but it was and became a Jewish custom legitimized by decrees. How would JW members declare today what polygamy is? A pagan custom or simply a social norm of a nation and tradition?

Is celebrating a birthday "more dangerous and bigger evil" than having more women or vice versa?

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THE SATANIC BIBLE & BIRTHDAYS, THE IDOLATRY OF SELF ESTEEM THE HIGHEST OF SATAN'S HOLY DAYS/HOLIDAYS

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2017

Posted by: Still Waters Revival Books | more..

71,520+ views | 65,470+ clicks

SWRB does not necessarily endorse anything outside or beyond the testimony against the pagan practice of birthday keeping in, or from, any of the information or sources quoted in this blog.

There is an affinity of such commemoration among the wicked as recorded in The Satanic Bible (Anton LaVey, (Air) Book of Lucifer – The Enlightenment, Avon Books, 1969, Ch XI, Religious Holidays, p. 96) regarding Birthdays:

"The highest of all holidays in the Satanic religion is the date of one’s own birthday. This is in direct contradiction to the holy of holy days of other religions, which deify a particular god who has been created in an anthropomorphic form of their own image, thereby showing that the ego is not really buried. The Satanist feels: ‘Why not really be honest and if you are going to create a god in your image, why not create that god as yourself." Every man is a god if he chooses to recognize himself as one. So, the Satanist celebrates his own birthday as the most important holiday of the year. After all, aren’t you happier about the fact that you were born than you are about the birth of someone you have never even met? Or for that matter, aside from religious holidays, why pay higher tribute to the birthday of a president or to a date in history than we do to the day we were brought into this greatest of all worlds? Despite the fact that some of us may not have been wanted, or at least were not particularly planned, we’re glad, even if no one else is, that we’re here! You should give yourself a pat on the back, buy yourself whatever you want, treat yourself like the king (or god) that you are, and generally celebrate your birthday with as much pomp and ceremony as possible."

http://www.mashiyach.com/Misc/birthdays.htm

It is interesting that birthdays are considered the most important holiday to these Satan worshipers (the founding of their “church”, called Walpurgisnacht, and Halloween are the other ones of importance to them).

Of course, early Christians did not celebrate birthdays nor did the early Jews. Nor have real Christians ever celebrated Halloween.

http://www.cogwriter.com/news/doctrine/the-satanic-bible-and-birthdays/

Origen of Alexandria, writing over two centuries after the death of Jesus follows this same line when he recorded a diatribe against the memories of birthdays, indicating that at the time of his writing, a day to remember the birth of Jesus was not part of the church calendar. In his Homilies on Leviticus, speaking on the aspect of birth, Origen states:
. . . not one from all the saints is found to have celebrated a festive day or a great feast on the day of his birth. No one is found to have had joy on the day of the birth of his son or daughter. Only sinners rejoice over this kind of birthday. For indeed we find in the Old Testament Pharaoh, king of Egypt, celebrating the day of his birth with a festival, and in the New Testament, Herod. However both of them stained the festival of his birth by shedding human blood. . . . But the saints not only do not celebrate a festival on their birth days, but, filled with the Holy Spirit, they curse that day (, after the example of Job, Jeremiah and David).

(Barkley, Homilies on Leviticus: 1–16 / Origen, 156.)

http://firstfollowers.vision.org/public/blog/170001?archive=Weekly+.2007-50 & http://snipurl.com/8zkwz [books_google_ca]

What is the origin of birthday celebrations?

Birthday celebrations are actually rooted in paganism.

Encyclopedia Americana (1991) states:

"The ancient world of Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Persia celebrated the birthdays of gods, kings, and nobles."

Authors Ralph and Adelin Linton reveal the underlying reason for this. In their book The Lore of Birthdays, they write:

"Mesopotamia and Egypt, the cradles of civilization, were also the first lands in which men remembered and honoured their birthdays. The keeping of birthday records was important in ancient times principally because a birth date was essential for the casting of a horoscope."

So, there is a direct connection between the Pagan practice of birthday celebrations and astrology (horoscopes and fortune telling).

Not surprisingly then, the ancient Jews did not celebrate birthdays, regarding them as Pagan.

Also, World Book Encyclopedia (3:416) states:

"The early Christians did not celebrate His [Christ's] birth because they considered the celebration of anyone's birth to be a pagan custom."

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_origin_of_birthday_celebrations

Down to the fourth century Christianity rejected the birthday celebration as a pagan custom.

http://www.abcog.org/birthday.htm

To satiate this point, notice also the record of the first century historian Josephus: The Jews in Christ’s day knew God’s attitude toward birthday celebrations, “Nay, indeed, the law does not permit us to make festivals at the births of our children” (Josephus, Against Apion, II:26).

http://ow.ly/eVu75

History of celebration of birthdays in the West

It is thought that the large-scale celebration of birthdays in Europe began with the cult of Mithras, which originated in Persia but was spread by soldiers throughout the Roman Empire. Before this, such celebrations were not common; and, hence, practices from other contexts such as the Saturnalia were adapted for birthdays. (Wikipedia. Birthdays. July 12, 2007).

Christmas is also relevant because December 25th was the day of celebration of the birthday of the sun-god Mithra.

... World Book Encyclopedia notes,

Christmas... In 354 A.D., Bishop Liberius of Rome ordered the people to celebrate on December 25. He probably chose this date because the people of Rome already observed it as the Feast of Saturn, celebrating the birthday of the sun (Sechrist, Christmas, Vol. 3, 1966, pp. 408-417).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday

Long ago, the average person never paid any attention whatsoever to the anniversary of their birth. The initial pattern that developed concerned the celebrating of the birthday of their deity, once each year, at the winter solstice. This is the origin of Christmas, since the winter solstice was considered the "re-birth" or "birthday" of the solar deity (Natalis Sol Invictus, or the Nativity of Sol, the unconquerable). This alone marks the behavior as originating from the rebellion against YaHUaH, Who is the one and only Elohim of Heaven and Earth. Remember that YaHUaH commanded that we not learn the ways of the heathen (Dt. 12). Later, people began to celebrate the annual birth of their king at the same time as their deity, aligning their ruler with the same honors given to their deity. In their minds, their ruler became an anthropomorphic version of their deity. In the east, average people slowly began to celebrate their personal "birth day" once each year on what they believed to be "new year's day." Eventually, people developed the custom of observing their personal birth day on the annual day they were actually born.

http://www.fossilizedcustoms.com/birthday.html

Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts; Origen, glancing perhaps at the discreditable imperial Natalitia, asserts (in Lev. Hom. viii in Migne, P.G., XII, 495) that in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday; Arnobius (VII, 32 in P.L., V, 1264) can still ridicule the "birthdays" of the gods.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm

In their essay titled "Birthdays, Jewishly," Lisa Farber Miller and Sandra Widener point out that the Encyclopedia Judaica is very blunt on this topic:

"The celebration of birthdays is unknown in traditional Jewish ritual."

... Originally, even as more and more Gentiles began to profess Christ (so much so that they outnumbered those of Jewish heritage that did), the early Gentile leaders also did not endorse the celebration of birthdays. No early church writer endorsed the observance of birthdays by Christians, nor are they ever listed in the early observances of the Christian church.

Therefore, the celebration of birthdays, was clearly not part of "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).

No early religious/church writing from the second century that I have seen (and I have read most that are available) seems to endorse (or even suggest) the celebration of birthdays by any who professed Christ.

Although he was not part of the Church of God, the writings of the early third century Catholic theologian Origen of Alexandria show that, even that late, Orthodox Catholics were against the celebration of birthdays. The Catholic Encyclopedia states:

Origen, glancing perhaps at the discreditable imperial Natalitia, asserts (in Lev. Hom. viii in Migne, P.G., XII, 495) that in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday (M.C. Christmas, 1908).

http://www.cogwriter.com/birthdays.htm

Christmas is coming! Quite so: but what is "Christmas?" Does not the very term itself denote it's source - "Christ-mass." Thus it is of Roman origin, brought over from paganism. But, says someone, Christmas is the time when we commemorate the Savior's birth. It is? And WHO authorized such commemoration? Certainly God did not. The Redeemer bade His disciples "remember" Him in His death, but there is not a word in scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, which tells us to celebrate His birth. Moreover, who knows when, in what month, He was born? The Bible is silent thereon. It is without reason that the only "birthday" commemorations mentioned in God's Word are Pharaoh's (Gen. 40:20) and Herod's (Matt. 14:6)? Is this recorded "for our learning?" If so, have we prayerfully taken it to heart?

- A.W. Pink, Xmas (Christ-mass)

Srecko Sostar · July 6, 2021

2 hours ago, Arauna said:

Christians were only instructed to commemorate his death NOT his birth.

It is not about justification something, but about fact that Bible never said how celebrating birthday is wrong.

Just for serious fun. Bible not instructed JW members to give monthly report, but you still doing that despite fact how JHVH or Jesus not command you are obligated to do so. Even more, elders making decisions about your "spirituality" based on your monthly reports. Where in Bible you can find justification for that?

Bible not instructed you how going to higher education is against God' or Jesus' teachings, but your publications still harping on that, and you welcome such instructions.

Do you really want to go into and to enumerate what are and how many there are real, original "Bible Instructions" God gave to people?

Srecko Sostar · July 6, 2021

2 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Only in one place have the doctrines been guarded

Please, who were people who were "guardians of doctrines" in period of 2000 years before WTJWorg? ... and where that place was located you speaking about? In Bible?

Then God do not need GB to be "guardians" today!

2 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Every time someone flushes a toilet in Bethel it is a doctrine for you.

Perhaps it is funny in your community, ...... but shameful and not expected that you would use such shallow way of communication. ..... and I did not come to this forum to teach someone how to behave.

Good luck with that.

TrueTomHarley · July 6, 2021

1 hour ago, Srecko Sostar said:

Please, who were people who were "guardians of doctrines" in period of 2000 years before WTJWorg? ...

If you ever were actually a Witness, you would know the answer to that question.

(Excepting only if you are like PSomH, who doesn’t seem to know anything about anything.)

xero · July 6, 2021

Srecko's problems are w/Jehovah and it's a distraction and it's patently false that his issues have anything to do w/Jehovah's Witnesses.

S - "Why circumcision Jehovah?"

Jehovah - "Because I said so."

S - "But whyeee?"

Jehovah - "Think about it."

xero · July 6, 2021

In a similar manner, JW's are the only religious group I know of who never stop voluntarily choosing to be rejected. This is a really healthy activity, even healthier if you do it solo in the evening.

Srecko Sostar · July 6, 2021

2 hours ago, Thinking said:

But the saints not only do not celebrate a festival on their birth days, but, filled with the Holy Spirit, they curse that day (, after the example of Job, Jeremiah and David).

Under what circumstances they curse own day of birth? .... says a lot about this issue.

I hope, You don't think how individual have to curse his birth day every time he/she have problems in life?

2 hours ago, Thinking said:

Origen, glancing perhaps at the discreditable imperial Natalitia, asserts (in Lev. Hom. viii in Migne, P.G., XII, 495) that in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday (M.C. Christmas, 1908).

Now I get it. "Sinners alone, not saints" going to take higher education and became Lawyers who defending WTJWorg in Court cases. Please, what sort of logic is given in conclusion made by Origen? Who is Origen, that we should listen and accept his explanations?

Srecko Sostar · July 6, 2021

2 hours ago, Thinking said:

in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday

Appendix

In the Scriptures a Levite alone, not sinners, carved up the body of his concubine into twelve pieces which he sent to all the Israelite tribes, demanding revenge.

Srecko Sostar · July 6, 2021

53 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

If you ever were actually a Witness, you would know the answer to that question.

Would you be so kind to remind me?

TrueTomHarley · July 6, 2021

30 minutes ago, Srecko Sostar said:

In the Scriptures a Levite alone, not sinners, carved up the body of his concubine into twelve pieces which he sent to all the Israelite tribes

Sometimes a guy has to do things to get people’s attention.

29 minutes ago, Srecko Sostar said:

Would you be so kind to remind me?

No.

Patiently waiting for Truth · July 6, 2021

16 hours ago, Srecko Sostar said:

Do you really want to go into and to enumerate what are and how many there are real, original "Bible Instructions" God gave to people?

I think we already know that the GB ( and previous leaders ) make it up as they go along.

Acts 15 : 28 & 29

It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond these essential requirements: You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

That seems to prove that the GB go beyond the things written.

JW Core Beliefs .... As Applied

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