New Light on Beards

[xero]

The closest thing to a biblical argument I've ever been able to muster is related to the holy anointing oil used by the priests. It was only to be used for spiritual reasons, not because you liked the smell. So whereas the individual elements could be used w/o worry, it wasn't OK to use them in the special combination that they were combined in.
 

“You will speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘This is to continue as a holy anointing oil to me during your generations.+ ³²  It is not to be applied to the flesh of mankind, and you must not make anything with a composition like it. It is something holy. It is to continue as something holy for you. ³³  Anyone who makes an ointment like it and who puts some of it on an unauthorized person* must be cut off* from his people.’” - Ex. 30:31-33

Based on the quantities given in Exodus 30:22-25, the composition of the holy anointing oil in terms of percentages of each solid ingredient is as follows:

• Liquid Myrrh: 33.33%
• Fragrant Cinnamon: 16.67%
• Fragrant Calamus: 16.67%
• Cassia: 33.33%

These percentages are calculated based on the relative quantities of each ingredient in shekels, excluding the olive oil, which is a liquid base and measured in a different unit (a hin). In ancient recipes like this, the exact method of combining the solid ingredients (measured in weight) with the liquid (measured in volume) is not always clear, so these percentages represent the proportion of each solid ingredient relative to the total solid content.

So if we consider "blood" to be a composite in the same manner as the holy anointing oil. Could some imagine it to not be "blood" if it wasn't represented in the same ratios?
 

At what point does a thing stop being that thing, if the thing is a composite?

[TrueTomHarley]

5 minutes ago, Many Miles said:

So, I brought up a 1/100 fraction (white cells of your circulating blood) and asked you about it. Suddenly crickets.

Judging from your down-home profile photo, you’re used to them.

[Many Miles]

6 minutes ago, xero said:

At what point does a thing stop being that thing, if the thing is a composite?

The society teaches of Adam: There was a body formed of dust from the ground. There was breath of life. But only when breath of life was breathed into the body formed from dust of the ground was there man. That man was Adam. The moment breath of life left that body "the man" ceased.

That is what the society teaches of man, and of animal.

But not with blood. With blood suddenly we have pieces that can be artificially isolated remaining "the thing" they were once associated with. I have news for everyone. If all we had in your circulatory system was red cells we'd all be dead because we would not have blood. Blood is a composition of many things, none of which by themselves are blood.

Red cells are no more blood than hydrogen is water.

[Anna]

53 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Judging from your down-home profile photo, you’re used to them.

Now, now boys, behave!

[Anna]

4 hours ago, Srecko Sostar said:

All in all, they shift all responsibility for their stupidity to God, because, well, that's God's way, not man's.

We don't need to worry about that.

Each person will render an account to God for what they did or didn't do, or say or didn't say. Romans 14:12.

 

[Anna]

4 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

I think it indicates that people want a ‘king,’ somewhat like in Samual 8. They can’t handle subtle. They want a king.

 

4 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

I think those seeking the downfall of the earthly organization also resemble those Israelites who demanded a king. Those ancients couldn’t handle the seeming vagaries of judges popping up here and there. They wanted a king, with all the trimmings, that they could see strutting around at all times.Similarly, people look real closely into the GB, see it is composed of men who have all the differing idiosyncracies of the first century disciples and they can’t handle it. How can God’s direction come from such a human arrangement? They either want an undisputed miracle-backed single entity (which we all know is not going to happen today) or they want dissolution of the whole model, going back to a ‘Jesus and me’ model.

I tend to agree.

[Anna]

By the way, since this is a beard thread I thought I would mention that so far we have one elder and two MS with a full beard, one elder with a soul patch, as of the midweek meeting. 

[Many Miles]

13 minutes ago, Anna said:

Now, now boys, behave!

No worries. He's right. I love my crickets. They sing me to sleep. Unless one's in the house. That's dog just won't hunt! He's gotta go! But them ones outside, they be fine by me.

Now when the cicadas come out. They drown out my crickets and a soul can hardly sleep with all that noise.

But crickets? They be fine!

[Many Miles]

3 minutes ago, Anna said:

By the way, since this is a beard thread I thought I would mention that so far we have one elder and two MS with a full beard, one elder with a soul patch, as of the midweek meeting.

It's just beginning.

[Many Miles]

4 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

...I think those seeking the downfall of the earthly organization also resemble those Israelites who demanded a king.

Anyone seeking a downfall of the society is in for a long, long wait. It can change. But fall is not in sight.

[xero]

1 hour ago, Anna said:

By the way, since this is a beard thread I thought I would mention that so far we have one elder and two MS with a full beard, one elder with a soul patch, as of the midweek meeting. 

Soul patches and hair donuts should be grounds for immediate disfellowshipping and so should those with man-buns.

[Pudgy]

let’s assume for a moment that Jehovah God said cannibalism was forbidden. (he did not ever do such a thing so this is only theoretical).

Later the church fathers in Jerusalem gave the extended instructions “… abstain from cannibalism.” 

And one day you go over to someone’s house for dinner and they have a big plate of pickled peoples’ feet, some horseradish, tomatoes and other fixins’.

…. could you say that you are abstaining from blood…… er… cannibalism because you are only eating a “fractional person”?  A big  plate of ears, or sliced liver is not “whole human” … it has been separated into component parts!

…. perhaps your conscience will allow you to eat a rump roast, but not an arm, or a barbecued torso with nipples.

If it EVER was whole human … the component parts never stop being human.

The same thing with blood. If it EVER was whole blood, the component parts never stop being blood.

Another thing …. one may decide to show respect for blood obeying their NATURAL CONSCIENCE … Irregardless of Mosaic or Noahachian Laws.

To me, the word Noahahide reminds me of a material used to cover sofas.