James Thomas Rook Jr.

TTH:

That's the way I look at it ... I am happy to be alive now, in this time... and in this place ... and with my wonderful wife, dogs and chickens, who somehow we all eat regular, and have superb medical care ... and if Jehovah remembers me, all the better.

If he does not, well, I have had a good run, and somehow survived with my hand on the doorknob to death's door more than a hundred times, and am somehow still here, and I know that people much better than me in every way have lived short lives of hardship and calamity, and are gone forever.

I pray for God's Kingdom to come, even if I don't make it.

But then again ... I have always considered myself expendable.

The PURPOSE of the Universe, is women and children.

The REASON we exist at all is our entertainment value to Jehovah God.

..... and that experiment with the Dinosaurs just wasn't working out, so God dropped a big rock on them.

Yeah, but it is embarrassingly ( for Matther9969 ) obvious, and sets the stage for OTHER fun absurdities. If he wants to undress himself in public, I have no objections.  Might be good for a laugh.

..... reminds me of that legendary old Olympic great competitor, of Russian Roulette fame, "Ol' Doubleclick", who has been in a coma since 2004.

There are plenty of reasons why “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which first premiered in 1946, is still considered to be one of the most popular Christmas films of all time.

The beloved drama, directed by Frank Capra, tells the story of an angel named Clarence (Henry Travers) who is sent from heaven to help George Bailey (James Stewart), a desperately frustrated businessman on the verge of suicide. Clarence then shows George what life would really have been like if he had never existed.

The black-and-white classic has become a staple during the holiday season and is still recognized as one of Stewart’s most iconic films.

This is a story board of the new version, by The American Snow Chickens of the USA, to start production in 2020.

Yeah .... I remember (hits self in head several times with a ball-peen hammer, to not laugh out loud ...) when the Catholics produced the KJV, about 900AD.

May I then take your answer to my question, César Chávez, as a resounding YES?

1 hour ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Can you imagine how @James Thomas Rook Jr., not to mention yourself, would have blown a gasket back then

No problem, that's why I keep a drawer full of spare gaskets.

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You know, the Bible way back then was actually just a collection of letters, stories, novels ( The "book" of Enoch comes to mind ...), poems, essays, and "church" stuff, some on scraps of papyrus, before it was edited and assembled into what we now call the Bible.

Since the Bible we have today was originally decided upon by the Catholic Church ( Eusebius of Caesarea was there and watched it being done, as well as helped ...), should we credit THEM with being inspired?

( I hope JWI jumps in on this one and does the "heavy lifting", to get it straightened out ....)

It's like a gun.

A gun is a tool that is no better or worse than the man who uses it.

Hmmm.... seems a bit off .... did you check it word for word before posting?

I am just guessing, and it has been a half- century or so., starting around 1966.

I never knew that the paragraph you just quoted was EVER in the Watchtower, but I do know, and entirely from memory, that it came out in the book "Things in Which It Is Impossible For God To Lie", on page 384, paragraph 24.   I used to know entirely from memory when that same paragraph, verbatim, ( slightly different from the one you quoted) was quoted 20 years later in the book "Life Everlasting in the Freedom of the Sons of God", or the book "Worldwide Security Under the Prince of Peace, if I even got that correct, also toward the end of the book, but my memory is not what it used to be.

Spoing!

I just remembered the address of where I lived when I was 9 years old, and ..... page 184, paragraph 10.

The only "Farmer's Experience" I ever heard that I remember was about the old farmer who used a section of garden hose to repair his milking machine, and the connection broke loose and blasted him across the farm yard with a jet of hot milk. 

It might  have killed him, had he been lactose intolerant.

There are people that will stand in the middle of quicksand, and declare adamantly that they are not ... even as they drown, and their head disappears from sight.

There is NOTHING you can do for such ones.   Nothing at all.

They are doomed to always be wrong, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

I would like to remind everyone that Charles Taze Russell was considered an apostate, as was Jesus.

In the very first issue of the Watchtower CTS observed that if we received a truthful statement from Satan (possibly referring to how he was viewed as "satan" ...) .... that statement is still the TRUTH.

Everything has to be evaluated on its own merits, and THAT ALONE ... irregardless of the messenger.

The FIRST refuge of the incompetent is to call someone an apostate.

The second refuge of the incompetent is to in effect say "... take your baseball, and go home.".

...

God DOES work in mysterious ways.

That is why we have Hippopotamuses.

23 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

 Imagine how Peter—and everyone that allowed him to stay in his place—would have been savaged here on the World News Media Forum.

That is a very good observation TTH.

However, in a debate forum searching for Truth, all those things would be brought out and analyzed, both positively and negatively.  That is the "nature of the beast".

If you hang your stocking on the fireplace mantle ... expect that it might be filled with coal.

Ho Ho Ho

( not to be confused with yelling out the car window while driving around in the 'hood.)

10 minutes ago, 4Jah2me said:

I don't even think the Holy Spirit flows.

Probably not like a river, or taking a shower .... like quantum physics, there are some things that are so counter-intuitive that are actually quite real, that ANYBODY who says they understand it, is only deluding themselves. 

Fortunately, we can avail ourselves of the pragmatic, practical technology that makes Smart Phones, iPads, GPS and the like just by knowing how things operate, without actually grokking the nature of what the sub-atomic particles we are using actually are.

Frankly, I have had only one experience with infusion of Holy Spirit, and that was back in July of 1964, and it scared me so much I resisted it as being illogical, and dangerous, as I did not know at the time what was happening.

How many times I wish I had not resisted it, I might have turned out a better man.

I know the feeling .... especially since the Dry Cleaners lost my Superman suit.

I am sorry ... I did not know you were writing on a tablet or pad.

I do my writing on a laptop, with a USB keyboard in front at an angle, with the back on a brick., and with a USB mouse, it is almost effortless, and I type with two fingers.

If it's one thing I have learned in life ... use the best tools you can't afford, even if it means missing two meals a day.

I think you are both living in a fantasy world where you get encouragement  from others.

Whatever happened to "With Godly devotion, self sufficiency"?

You think the Holy Spirit only flows with those who think vegetarian thoughts, and through encouraging people?

Gimme a break!

3 hours ago, Arauna said:

So what would your solution be?  Shoot them all? Castrate them?  Or what.....   Social workers used to put children back into the home of the perpetrator..... until that did not work out in all cases.

During the time of El Cid, when the Spanish were trying to throw the Muslims out of Spain by combat, a Catholic military General who was also a Bishop was informed that half the people in the walled city where the Muslims were holed up, were Catholic.

His reply was "Kill them all, and let God sort them out!".

Of course, if we used that as an example, we would be disfellowshipping CSA victims, and it would be documented somewhere from our own internal records ... perhaps in Australia.

I worked in an office in 1968 that played "The Little Drummer Boy", all day ... every day, over the MUZAK system, from about December 15 to after Christmas.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I hate to hear "rump-pa-pum-pum".

Arauna:

It would be helpful to me if when you are quoting someone, PLEASE quote at least the complete sentence.

Perhaps even with some context.

Thanks.

These cut off, fragmented sentences remind me too much of trying to say something to one of my ex-mothers-in-law.

All that you have said being considered, you still did not provide a SINGLE modern day instance to the contrary, of my suppositions.

Not ONE !

8 hours ago, Arauna said:

Since I do most of my writing from memory I guess I am really too lazy to go and search for one from the second world war that may please you.... after the third example I may get tired of your oh so exacting standards ...... and still I may not have pleased you.

I now refrain from adding any other comment.

I only asked for ONE example, from any modern human experience, anywhere, by anybody ... that could not be BETTER explained by just plain coincidence or serendipity.

Just ONE, out of the billions of experiences people have, or know about.

The real reason you are refraining from further comment is that trillions of facts .... hard evidence .... irrefutable evidence, contrary to hopes and dreams, and flights of fancy, show God does NOT interfere with our lives, in modern times.

Not as a secular nation.

Not as a spiritual Nation.

Not as individuals.

Just ONE solid example could have proven me wrong.

You may as well go to www.NORADSANTA.ORG, to see where Santa Clause is delivering toys at this moment.

I suspect that can be reduced to a single page of six paragraphs, and never need revision.

28 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

After: “so that, on the contrary now, YOU should kindly forgive and comfort [him], that somehow such a man may not be swallowed up by his being overly sad.” 2 Cor 2:7)

The thought just occurred to me that, if expressed in today's language, it means forgive and try to repair any damage, or depression at being shunned might overwhelm such a person, and he commits suicide.

Swallowed up by death.

Synopsis:

So, of the billions of things that happen to people everyday, sometimes wonderful things for which they give God the credit ...you cannot think of a single instance that cannot more probable than not of being just plain coincidence.

Not even ONE!

Got  it.

Perhaps someone else has a verifiable solid instance, but looking at World War i and World War II, as the classic examples .....

... I doubt it.

...

If in the travails of life, you see no evidence of "Love Never Fails" ... perhaps you should associate with a box of puppies.