Pudgy

11 minutes ago, Many Miles said:

So what is today's governing body's version of "Whoever is declaring to you as good news something beyond what you accepted, let him be accursed"?

What is the litmus test today?

Reality checks are best done by comparing theory with reality.

Were the Jehovah’s Witnesses marched out of Nazi concentration camps to cargo ships to be sunk and drowned rescued by God, or the American and Allied forces?

The “litmus test” is actually DOING the testing.

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You make my points even better than I can ….

I can describe in ONE SENTENCE all that I need to know about theology.

1.) Pick any scripture and read the page before it and the page after it, in context.

All else is possibly interesting, but not essential.

 That means to avoid distractions, ad nauseum, you can safely ignore it.

After all those words, and you cannot say …

I like my system better.

Well … I have found in life that the more words a person uses to explain contested ideas, the less likely the premises of the arguments are valid.

Juan, you are very articulate and easily understood, and logical and coherent.

But I cannot bring myself to give fealty to anyone but God and Christ.

If I was a United States Marine, of reasonable intelligence, I would of course know that most Officers were petty, deeply flawed, arrogant, presumptuous and likely to view me and my fellow Marines as career building cannon fodder.

But even in the Marines you are not required to obey an illegal order.

So, who decides what is an illegal order?

You do.

You may be shot or hanged, (or disfellowshipped) but it is better than living an unexamined life in a pseudo- fantasy.

Believe what you want.

No skin off my nose.

Flesh we can eat.

Blood has to be returned to God.

He says the blood belongs to him!

It is symbolic.  A form of teaching obedience and respect … to God and the animal.

Interestingly enough, it seems to only apply to animals who have “the breath of life”.

I have never heard of anyone bleeding a fish.

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It is depressingly sad when the WTB&TS finally adopts the right viewpoint, then screws it up listening to their accountants and lawyers to avoid being sued by indecisive people terrified of dying.

What part of “Abstain from Blood” is not crystal clear?

Stealing a car is wrong, whole, or in dozens of car parts. It’s STILL a stolen car!

If you separate whole blood into 13 components, and hook up 13 tubes to your body and pump it in, you don’t get disfellowshipped.

…. and the Society doesn’t get sued.

2 hours ago, Juan Rivera said:

Let me know if this helped

No it did not help.

To me the whole thing was just rationalizing gobbledegook.  

I don’t care if you believe it or not, but if you are an Elder or the Governing Body you can  … and do … ruin my life and family relationships if I don’t believe pretentious crap.

The Society never needed more than one book of hard facts (besides the Bible), easily understood and to the point, without the pretentious crap.

But NOOOoooo …. they came out with really good NWT of the Bible, and then PARAPHRASED it, so the crap was justified.

I have slowly and carefully read the past 20,000 or so words, and both of you have many valid points, some I fully agree with, some I “somewhat” agree with, and some are wishful thinking.

It boils down to two elements:

1.) You have NO moral obligation to support ANYONE when they are wrong.

About ANYTHING.

2.) We all have a “natural conscience” and with every statement each individual alone has to decide what part is TRUTH, and what part is agenda.

The classic example is practice and policy on disfellowshipping.

Do we do it as Jesus said in Matthew 18?

NO WE DO NOT!

We even take hostages and punish THEM, 

Show me THAT in Matthew 18.

I 100% agree that we should conform to the standards and edicts of Congregational Authority ….

…. unless they are WRONG, and you can prove it.

OTHERWISE … we don’t even NEED a conscience !!

Sometimes a Christian is  called upon to sacrifice his life or his freedom for the sake of Christian Unity, but he should never be called upon to sacrifice his Conscience.

…. When someone says “that’s not the question that should be asked…” because it’s offensive or inappropriate or awkward, or just plain embarrassing……

That’s the question you should be asking!

sure…. lizards eat insects.

So did John the Baptist.

…. and that was before toothbrushes!

… “Food at the proper time” means different things to different people.

Ice cubes should probably not be made with hot dog water.

I think SS’s questions, whatever else they may or may not be the case, need to be addressed, if you want to have a dialog … it’s a two-way street.

in a forum such as this one asking someone not to ask certain questions reeks of petty tyranny at worst, and arrogance at best.

The way to handle it is if you don’t think the question is appropriate … too bad.

You are in the wrong room.

Just ignore the question and leave it unanswered. 

The way I look at it is this:

When Armageddon comes there is absolutely NOTHING I can do to avoid it, or hurry it up, or slow it down.

This is God’s War, not mine. Obviously the Creator of the Universe is going to win.

Just like the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace, if it occurs in my lifetime, I intend to just sit back and watch the show!

…. and perhaps eat popcorn, and microwaved big greasy hot dogs!

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suitable in what way?

I think what SS was referring to, or alluding to was what  if Russell and Rutherford had been  Chinese …. so rourd the irrustrations in the Socrities pubrications.

This is not new. 

But humans are not the ideal representations shown in the Society’s publications.  Infinite variety. 

in that respect I see no difference between Jehovah’s Witnesses management team and any number of corporate, government, or military organizations such as the US Treasury Department, the United States Marines, or the Environmental Protection Agency.

As the number of legs on the spider grows, it subtracts from the brain, until it is all legs, and no brain.

This is NORMAL.

Justice we get from Jehovah God…… All else, and I mean ALL ELSE , is merely due process that we are due, but sometimes it’s justice, and sometimes it’s just due process.

it’s like those sliced square lunch meats with the pimentos and olives in them. 

I like fat greasy hot dogs like bratwurst, microwaved until the sodium nitrite preservatives squirt out and the skin splits … knowing the danger.

Pick your poison.

…. or don’t eat.

That is what is called “ The Hook”.

Appealing to  man’s better nature …. sometimes for what turns out to be nefarious ends.

Sometimes ….

4 minutes ago, Peter Carroll said:

That's great to hear! I'm here to assist you with any questions or tasks you have. Is there something specific you'd like to know or discuss today?

YES!  How can I legally get $120,000 to buy a Jetson One flying car? It requires an $8,000 down payment to reserve one.

18 minutes ago, Malakh said:

https://scitechdaily.com/how-you-speak-reflects-who-you-are-the-way-we-talk-both-unites-and-divides-us/

What does this say about the human race?

I read the entire blurb from your link, and after having read it have concluded that the answer to your question “what does this say about the human race?“ That it says absolutely nothing about the human race.

It’s a completely different subject.

Being able to effectively communicate an idea with accuracy and precision is a heavily nuanced thing, and should be modified to your audience so that the communication is clear and understandable and unambiguous.

Here’s a quote from the author of the article.

Irregardless of the phraseology, it never does well to cater to agenda driven eggheads, or the mentally ill.