Arauna

I knew a guy like this - then he was in a motorcycle accident and his whole life changed. His attitude quickly changed too and he remembered the scriptures about compassion and love very quickly.

When they force you to wear a hijab - will you? Will you be prepared to stand out and NOT wear it? It is like wearing a yarmulke - the Jewish cap.... It is a symbol of a false religion - a religion which believes that in the final days of the earth it must take over the entire earth (by the sword) to bring Allah's brand of government and Sharia law to the entire earth. Islam has made a replica of the true government of Jehovah. They believe they must bring Sharia law to the entire earth - which includes wearing the hijab (now by fundamentalist Islamic standards because it now has become a political symbol of Sharia.) The true government of Jehovah has wonderful, loving laws and freedom of choice in every situation in life. We do not live by rules which must be automatically obeyed without thinking - but by the principles - which allows us to think before we do. We do not need to adhere to hundreds of rules which make women into their husband's property and takes away their freedom of 'thought'. Islam for example has rules for personal hygiene, how many times one has to pray etc.... every part of your life is organized by rules which must prove your "outward piety" to everyone around you or you can be branded a hypocryte. It is like the Jewish faith (from which much of it was stolen) on steroids.

I personally think that there are new government laws in place and they better follow the law otherwise there will be problems going forward. The past is the past. In the past there were no proper government laws to address all the problems surrounding this kind of crime but Laws have been improved considerably. The elders/trustees can deal with the way they managed these cases in the past by the infrastructure provided by the government to assist them at the time of the crime - which were not comprehensive. At least they tried to address the problems and not sweep it under the carpet! - albeit in a fashion that is now no longer acceptable. To interrogate the victim in front of the perpetrator is not longer acceptable if the victims are young. They use recorded evidence in court for this now - because this is the humane way to do it. Otherwise the victim is traumatized again. And I am sure Jehovah feels the same about this. To be discreet and smart - does not mean to hang on to authority - we learnt that a few weeks ago in a Watchtower study. When someone in the congregation is accused of theft or murder - even if he proclaims his innocence - we let the courts take its course - we do not judge these crimes ourselves. Elders then support them in jail until their innocence is proved or they are judged to be guilty. In ancient Israel the judges were elders but Jesus gave us a new command. Unfortunately sex offenders always proclaim their innocence... When people become JWs - they know the laws of Jehovah - which includes having a good name with people in the world - not bringing shame on Jehovah's name. Elders can support these accused sex offenders while the law takes its course. The government and its psychologists have the equipment and expertise to bring it to trial and convict. If an innocent person is found guilty by some misapplied justice - Jehovah knows this and he will compensate in future. This person can still ask for elders to visit him in prison and provide literature.... so the innocent person is not cut off from Jehovah. I am sure the elders can find a way to obtain a transcript of the court case to determine if a person is still to be part of the congregation - they do not have to interrogate the victims. Romans 13 is clear - the government has the sword to bring to justice those committing crimes.... and these days people land in prison for merely saying something against a government in some countries. This is why our lives must be spotless and we must avoid crimes because the government will use its sword - even if we are innocent. Elders should be aware of the laws in the respective country they live in to comply with it - every country has its own set of laws regarding this crime and aslo the handling of it - no interrogation of victims in many countries. The only time we do NOT obey a government law is when they expect us to break a direct law of Jehovah such as killing; taking blood; adultery; allegiance to political system; avoid paying taxes - dishonesty - not gathering together; or reading our Bible in private. The government is then breaking the law of freedom of conscience - which is a right that Jehovah has given us. But we do not have freedom of conscience to break laws that Jehovah has put in place. If the government catches us/or accuses us on breaking government law this then the perpetrator must suffer the consequences imposed by the laws of the country - as every other citizen of this country must face whether they are witnesses or not. So elders (and the organization must inform elders) to tread carefully to obey the laws regarding the handling of these cases in the respective countries they live in.

Eoin, I would actually put his age at 30..... but we do not have proof. He was a prophetic picture of Jesus. The true lamb was offered up in future and hence, I agree with you, that Abraham may have uttered a prophecy. The level of obedience was so great because of faith... and his faith was based on reality because he had "evidence" direct from God on several occasions. I look at this entire activity in the light of its place in the overall purpose of Jehovah. Since Jehovah is absolute in his logic and justice and also loving and giving - there is much about his ways that we do not understand. What we do understand is everything relating to His purpose, which is clearly set out in the bible and how this purpose has been "administered/managed" throughout the ages. (Eph 1: 9) This prophetic event had special meaning relating to his purpose- a future sacrifice for our sins. Jehovah is not unjust - and he would have given Abraham and his son more than enough evidence of his existence and confirmation of their role in his future purpose - which he did. Most cities - in those days had a priest-king. A type of government that controlled the entire life of its citizens. Abraham had left two moon-god cities to live in the open without protection and on one occasion went and fought with foreign kings to bring Lot back. (He was no ninny - but also discreet when he needed to be). He knew that human governance systems were corrupt and unjust and gave power to false religion. He did not name the future type of government (because he called it a city) but he was waiting on Jehovah in future to provide what humans needed. His faith is a real example to us because he truly believed the future promises of Jehovah. Jehovah gave him this role to play in the future of mankind because he was trustworthy and showed this level of faith BEFORE his circumcision and the promise from Jehovah. With regard to Josephus - I do not give worldly sources more credence than the Bible but "tradition" does help sometimes. Where I come from we still call am 18 year old a "boy" and even adults who are not mature we call a "boy."... So this description of Ishmael did not jar with me. Ismael was NOT the legitimate heir of a legal wife and his teasing was a threat to the future outworking to the purpose of Jehovah. If Isaac was lost there would have been a problem with the "promise" and Abraham knew this - so he knew that Jehovah would step in somehow (during or after the sacrifice) and he trusted Jehovah completely. Ishmael was much older than Isaac and it seems that the teasing was not light but threatening - if one takes into account the nasty behavior of Hagar towards Sarah after she fell pregnant - she could have passed on this bad attitude to Ishmael. She could have taught him that he is to inherit all because he was born first. Sarah stepped in and had her slave girl (Hagar belonged to her) sent away to make the point clear that he is not the legitimate heir of the promise. Abraham at first resisted her but Jehovah stepped in. There is also a prophecy in the Bible regarding the future of Ishmael which does not augur well. But it seems that Satan was ready to use this boy for his purposes because islam today claims that it was Ishmael that was offered up by Abraham and Mohammad tried to legitimize his prophet hood by claiming to be a descendant of Ishmael - although there is no written record of this. We have a record of the genealogy of Christ in two places in the Bible and Jesus was sacrificed as the prophecy indicated. After Sarah died Abraham had 6 more sons (Gen 25) and if one reads the account Abraham sent them all away with a "gift" and Isaac inherited his father's things - and the promise from Jehovah. Abraham made sure to send them away (like he did Ishmael) to ensure that there was no misunderstanding as to whom was the legitimate heir of the promise. At one time I thought Keturah was a legitimate wife but I found a scripture which said she was a concubine. So the six sons, which formed the arabic tribes and intermarried with Ishmael (Midianites) were not those of a legal wife. Ishmael was half Egyptian and married an Egyptian woman and it was an Ishmaelite tribe which took Joseph to Egypt - so Ishmael later had strong ties with Egypt.

Insight book says more or less 25 years old. Isaac also carried the wood for the sacrifice on a 3 day trip to the land of Moriah - (The same mountain on which the temple was later built by David - Jehovah planned it this way - the continuity). Mount Moriah was next to mount Zion. Excerpt of Insight book: "This dramatic episode proved the faith and obedience not only of Abraham but also of his son Isaac. Jewish tradition, recorded by Josephus, says that Isaac was 25 years old at the time. At any rate, he was old enough and strong enough to carry a considerable quantity of wood up a mountain. So, he could have resisted his 125-year-old father when the time came to bind him if he had chosen to be rebellious against Jehovah’s commandments. (Jewish Antiquities, I, 227 [xiii, 2]) Instead, Isaac submissively let his father proceed to offer him as a sacrifice in harmony with God’s will. For this demonstration of Abraham’s faith, Jehovah then repeated and enlarged upon his covenant with Abraham, which covenant was transferred by God to Isaac after the death of Isaac’s father.—Ge 22:15-18; 26:1-5; Ro 9:7; Jas 2:21. More important, a great prophetic picture was there enacted, portraying how Christ Jesus, the Greater Isaac, would in due time willingly lay down his human life as the Lamb of God for mankind’s salvation.—Joh 1:29, 36; 3:16."

Isaac was between 18 and 25 years old and yes - so he was not a baby - he was a thinking individual. He knew the miracle of his mothers womb which was closed for many years and was restored to bear him. He also knew of the promise of the seed through his family line. Abraham and Sarah would have raised him with a strong faith and told him over and over about his miracle birth and the direct promise from Jehovah and the circumcision of this covenant. There are many instances in the Bible where people saw miracles and did not believe it (like the Pharisees who saw the miracles of Jesus; and Israel saw the plagues and the fire cloud at night and quickly ran to idolatry) but there are those who will show faith/obedience by hearing about the promise. Isaac had good reasons to believe his own miraculous birth and the promise made to his father. Isaac showed faith....and a willingness to work with his father and it therefore was a perfect picture of Jesus who did the same and displayed perfect obedience. I think it takes a special frame of mind to do this but both of them were not without 'direct evidence' from Jehovah of the 'realities' even though the final 'promise' was not yet beheld. (Hebr 11:1) His father did not tell him immediately that he was to be the sacrifice. His father was pretty old - and Isaac was much stronger - he could definitely have refused if he wanted to and his father would not have been able to do anything about it. He obviously believed that Jehovah had spoken to Abraham. (There are other instances in the Bible where prophets were told to enact a story (like marrying a prostitute) to indicate what would happen in future). His obedience to his father was like that of Jesus to Jehovah. I use this picture a lot with Muslims to explain that this picture is a picture of the 'true messenger' and what was foretold he would do. He was promised to die. Jesus did die - Mohammad did not - so he is not the fulfilment of the Mosaic law. The death of Jesus brought the fulfillment of the Mosaic law which was a tutor until Christ. Both Abraham and Isaac believed the promise Jehovah had made that the legal legitimate son would bring forth the Messiah. They trusted that Jehovah would do justice by them - even if Isaac died. We should also show this kind of faith in the justice of Jehovah.

Point taken. Of course there are countries where people do not earn even one dollar a day and in most of these a life is not worth five cents. I was merely referring to the life threatening tipe of work and no compensation for that. Germany have all these laws but do not apply these in other countries and do not compensate as they know they should. Save a buck on the back of human lives in poor countries. There is no justice in this world - and the shipping industry seems to be under regulated in all facets of its operations. I recall disasters in recent years where passengers on boats died because they received bad instructions from the crew during evacuation phase. There were no drills ever practiced for this eventuality - or so it seemed at the time. My thoughts at the time were that less lives would have been lost by good evacuation procedures and dry practicing by the crew before passengers come on board. But I never heard that this is an instituted maritime law.

Isaac was young and his father old. He could have pushed his father away and said: No. So he willingly lay down to be sacrificed by his father - a willing participant - so he also displayed faith in the resurrection and the promises from Jehovah about the seed coming from his family line. Abraham did not have to go the whole way.... but Jehovah did go the whole way by allowing his son to die. Jesus willingly came to earth and offered his life to be sacrificed. This is a future picture of the greatest sacrifice offered up for mankind. As appalling as it feels to us that Abraham did this - it is actually a picture of how appalling this was to Jehovah se offer up his son. Both Jehovah and Jesus knew how necessary this was - otherwise we could not have the opportunity to live - we needed a legal ransom. When Jesus died it became night and the earth shook which demonstrated Jehovah's distress that his son had died..... while being perfect..... it was an unjust death because it was not deserved. Jesus, by his death proved that Adam could have stayed faithful to Jehovah - he was not created with a flaw. He knew what he was doing when he chose Eve above Jehovah. One perfect man sinned and brought death upon his offspring and one man's loyalty to Jehovah until death (under much more taxing circumstances than Adam), provided the ransom to give us life. I always ask Muslims why did god allow Abraham to offer up his son. (They believe it was Ishmael- and they do not believe that Jesus died. They say it was made to appear so....) If this was a picture of a future event..... Who provided that sacrificial death? Jesus or Mohammad?

I think it has to do with human rights. Germany is often targeted because it pretends to care for people when in actual fact its actions decry this.... the conditions these people are working under is appalling with no danger pay...

My reply to that - if you believe scientists - you are putting 'blind' faith in what humans are saying .... and the record shows that scientists are continually discovering new things which cancels out previously accepted teachings.

Yea- they are transplanting pig heart valves in humans... why? Because human flesh is closer to that of a pig than that of a monkey! Ha-ha-ha....no evolution from monkeys... And from the scientist's statement - the laughter must have developed independently - not in the same branch.... because these birds are separated by millions of years from dinosaurs with no other birds doing this behaviour. To me, this proves that they were created that way!

I suspect that more blood will be spillt by false religion in future and she will be riding the "beast" more intensely.... just speculation..... I am looking at what is going on in the middle east at present with millions of refugees and indiscriminate killing in the name of 'religion'. I saw a news article today which also shows that Hindu faith becoming more violent and positioning itself in the political arena. It seems that most religions are now becoming "nationalistic" for their religion and becoming firmer in their quest to be "bedfellows" with politics. This will expose them to be a false religion. At present Buddhists monks are leading followers to kill muslims in Myanmar...... an indication of how far we are in the timeline of the end.

It is a daily struggle to make sure that we are in line with Jehovah's requirements. The distractions are so many and our own flaws make it hard.... but every day we have the opportunity to show Jehovah that we love him again. Satan wants us to stumble - to be defiled in some way - so keep on the watch!

Funny!

LOL

Mankind cannot rule the earth - we are ruining it - as foretold in Rev 11:18. Other nations follow the USA's lead.... the blind leading the blind.

Thanks for the clip! More methane in the atmosphere will accelerate global warming! Apparently there are very large pockets of methane that will be exposed as the ice melts further. Mega-scale farms (of pigs, chickens, cows) are not just unhealthy regarding diseases but a major contributor to global warming (not cars). But all the press is silent about this. These type of farms do not only breed new illnesses and germs, cause drug resistance due to the use all kinds of antibiotics and growth hormones, but produce methane in such large amounts that it is contributing to global warming. Mankind was made to each have his patch of land and produce enough food for a family. This would mean diversity of plants and animals on one farm and manageable amounts of recycling which would benefit the earth.

Read up in the Insight book on "Man of lawlessness" and under anti-Christ.... to understand exactly how long this phenomenon has been around and what its way of operation would be....its MO (Modus operandi). Important to know as Muslims believe the anti-Christ (Dajjal) will appear and he will be a one-eyed Jew (and most believe and army of 70,000 Jews). Isa (the Muslim Jesus) will come and kill the Dajjal with the sword and all these Jews. Literal warfare because they believe Jesus will come back in the flesh..... such as false Christians also believe. I usually use Revelation 12 which shows that Jesus is already ruling ' invisible' in heaven and the "sign" of his rulership is Satan on the earth and the subsequent escalation of problems. Jesus will fight the battle of Armageddon (not in the flesh with a literal sword but with an army of angels!) We do not have to fight as Jesus is the one appointed to do the job. We may be tempted to get involved but we must fully understand the MO of this man of lawlessness so we are not deceived. Jesus warned that this man of lawlessness will appear and sit in the place of God as a god..... although this refers to false Christians (Matt 13), this same MO can also be attributed to Mohammad as he took the place of Christ and vehemently denies the death of Christ. To be a Muslim one has to believe that Mohammad replaced Jesus. It is sad that muslims have to say PBUH (peace be upon him) every time they mention his name but they do not have such a honorary sentence every time they speak of God!

I enjoyed this glimpse into Russian political thinking..... https://www.memri.org/reports/russian-fm-lavrov-world-becoming-post-western-it-time-get-used-multi-polarity-world

I love a neat looking beard! Scruffy ones - noooooo. Unfortunately it is very easy to let a beard go wild. It takes constant care it seems..... I have no experience regarding this so I better shut up! - although the menopause stray hairs have started developing and this also takes some care!

My husband knew this one too!

We are here to assist each other and not be hypocritical in our love. So we expose our bad sides when we are honest and way too often we may need adjustment - but this is good if we willingly adjust - because then we can be more pliable to be used by Jehovah and we improve as time goes by. We do not miss the mark as often! LOL. I use the words from the Bible when I say that a sweet fountain will not bubble forth bitter water all the time.... And sometimes we can come across as too critical and bitter and we do not allow the sweetness to bubble forth. I had a friend like this in England. She was too quick to see all the mistakes that everyone made and yet, .... I learnt a lot from her about persistence under difficult circumstances. She did get some resistance from others because of this trait ... and I sometimes had to give myself a break from her because she was too much regarding her temperament to see the negative. On the other hand she was like a mother to me and taught me a lot..... To influence others in an beneficial way we need to not be afraid to show our sweetness, to be perceived as weak and vulnerable. We then are true towers of strength. We can show empathy. You have the experience of a lifetime. I am sure you know a lot of positive things that other brothers can benefit from but you must gain their trust by allowing the wholesome, healing water to flow out of you. Become a vessel for good use. You seem to have the zeal!

I was shocked the first time a Brit called me a "mate". I thought they only refer to men in this way - and he also just meant my friend! Now you are reiterating the same lesson....onyamate! ..... JW insider? Where are you from? Just curious.....

My husband's mother was British and he has a very sharp sense of humor and he picks up humor from other countries very quickly - I am a bit slow - especially when it comes to things that rhyme with English words (my first language not English) like cockney jokes. But I do appreciate a good laugh (when I understand it).

Engineers seem to think they are the cream of the crop. My brother happens to be one (not a Witness) - had a company with 50 engineers working for him (some Harvard engineers) - retired now. Although the job requires 'logical' thinking - and this process is taught at universities so they can do the job - it does not mean that this automatically filters through to all other parts of life! So people have to do a little more effort to be 'logical' when it comes to ' life skills'. (Nor does a lot of money make a person more logical and 'acceptable' as a person - although the worship of money in America seems to make very wealthy people a god despite their being illogical and amoral people.) Consequently, I do often detect a rant from you against the organization in your postings which seems to be much more emotional than logical.... From your comment on this forum today, it seems you have decided to never listen to those around you - therefore the slightest 'criticism' is rejected and rolls off your back - as you yourself said. You like yourself the way you are and have decided to never try to adapt to changing circumstances and new ways of doing things or new ways of thinking. It seems you are a law unto yourself. Well, the thought I have for you is this: one only learns new things when you are humble like a child... and eager to learn. We all improve ourselves when we 'capitulate' and realize we must change something... and try some new way of doing something.... (experience talking - LOL). To 'challenge' every little detail without seeing the big picture is also off the mark. While small details are important - they are not more important than all the small details put together in the big picture. The planning of the electricity, sewerage, air conditioning is important in a building BUT if the foundation of the structure of the entire building is defective ..... what's the value of challenging the air conditioning? To 'question' things is different to a "challenge". A challenge is more aggressive. This is NOT how you win people over to your way of thinking. (I often have the same problem.) I am a duck ... and everything rolls of me .... makes you a bird that cannot fly..... One is never too old to learn to fly...