Ends of times prophecy that I can't shake

[KevinM1]

Since when is the Skeptic's Annotated Bible the atheist bible? All it is is a regular Christian bible with annotations from a skeptic (hence the name) that has been put online, but it's not like it's our holy book or anything.

We don't have a bible, thankfully.

[Minimalist]

But I am not trying to get out of my indoctrination by just having people tell me that all religion is bullshit so you're an idiot if you believe one word of the bible. Even the atheist bible, the skeptics annotated bible, has a section for "good stuff."

The SAB is not "our" bible, dummy.  It is "your" bible which someone thoughtfully took the time to correct for you.

[The Grand Nudger]

So my op is simply on the fact that the statues feet simply describes a political world that we live in. I find it interesting that a guy 2500 years ago predicted a government that was ruled by the common people. 

I don't think that it -does- describe the world we live in.  That's immaterial in the bigger picture though.  If I predicted something today and it -hadn't- come true, or there was no one who could interpret it as having come true..... given 2,500 years time, -that- would surprise me.  That would be interesting.

As to the general; thrust of the OP.  Someone, somewhere, has thought that today would be the last day every day in recorded history (and let;s be honest with ourselves, we didn;t just start to think that when we first decided to write it down, it had been on our minds before).  The early christians thought the end was nigh.  An ocean away and hundreds of years later the Inca were convinced the world was ending.  JW's have made countless failed end times predictions and schismed for it endlessly.  Harold Camping thought it would all go south last year (and the year before that, and the year before that, and...).......and today, it's you.  You have a sneaking suspicion.  

The clock didn't stop ticking since you posted the OP, the odds are long that it will stop before you respond.  If you never shook this particular notion, you'd die holding it - as so many before you have done, and the next day....the sun would rise in the east, just not for you.  Business as usual.  This obsession with the grand last call at the bar of life isn't really specific to any one religion, or culture, or individual.  It's an oddity of humanity. A thought so terrible if ony for it's complete and total terminus that we find it difficult to shake regardless of its validity or sense. Understandable, but wrong, in each and every case thusfar. OFC....one day, it's bound to be right, just like that "prediction" up above, eh?

[Godscreated]

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I'm glad it gets under your skin to see Christians trying to help those former ones if we can, means we are doing something correct.

GC

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I would never join a religion like baptist. If I did believe in the god of the bible I know he would not approve of people adopting pagan religious customs into their religion. I know that he wouldn't support his people getting involved in political affairs of mankind. I know that Jesus is not god, but his son. I am still proud of JW's in a lot of areas, even if no one on this forum gives them any credit.

I never asked you to join the Baptist or any other denomination, I said you might look into them. Jesus is God and the Bible proves it, Jesus is the creator only God can create. Being involved in political affairs is to take a stand in a free society to say what one believes and what they believe is best for the country. Be cause Christians did not take a stand against abortion years ago we now have mass murder in this county, do you believe that's okay?
The Baptist nor any other protestant denomination rewrote the Bible to suit their preconceived ideas like JW's have, we've accepted God's word for the truth and try to live our lives by it as given by God.

JW's called out religions as a snare over a 100 years ago before it was cool

This in no way makes the JW's right in their beliefs, especially considering they had to change the Bible to criticize others.

JW's have been persecuted and killed by Nazis and other political parties for their strict neutrality stance

Now your bragging, shame one such a supposed humble people, you think the JW's have anything on the Jews when it comes to Nazis persecution. Christians are killed all over the world for their beliefs not their non political stance, seems to me these Christians have given their lives for something worthwhile. 

JW's stay neutral in all political affairs, which means that they aren't trying to push their religious policies into your life through legislation

Christians are trying to help keep this country in a morale attitude, like not murdering the unborn, but then I guess you think that's okay. I know many unbelievers who believe the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for certain crimes, just as I as a Christian does.

Of course they aren't perfect and there is the bullshit. But I am not trying to get out of my indoctrination by just having people tell me that all religion is bullshit so you're an idiot if you believe one word of the bible. Even the atheist bible, the skeptics annotated bible, has a section for "good stuff." So my op is simply on the fact that the statues feet simply describes a political world that we live in. I find it interesting that a guy 2500 years ago predicted a government that was ruled by the common people.

 No denomination is 100% correct, though I know a few who claim to be, arrogance at it's highest. I certainly do not believe in all the Baptist doctrine, such as once saved always saved, that would go against the absolute free will we believe in and it also goes against what the scriptures teach. The real idiots are the one's who do not believe the word of God, they will receive no salvation, is that what you want, just asking not trying to judge? No guy predicted it, God told us what the future holds, it's for our benefit not His. You should learn what truths the Bible holds, you might just get a pleasant surprise.
GC

[Nihilist Virus]

Could we get a prophecy that isn't in some kind of weird code language? If a "prophecy" has to be interpreted because all its events and  elements are symbols for other things, then it seems to me that almost any event could be reverse-engineered to fit the vague ramblings of one ancient text or another.

lol... So if you were fast forwarded in time 4000 years and brought back you'd be able accurately describe the events going on, in a foreign language using words that have not even been coined in the time you wrote them down? Or would you struggle to describe what you saw by taking things familiar to you and added to them to paint an accurate picture in your own language?

Now to someone 4000 years in the future who does not know your language nor customs or even some of the things you described, would then your words not themselves have to be interpreted?

Wanna know another word that hadn't been coined in the time the Bible was written down?

[LastPoet]

I could spot the bullshit in the bible on my own, before the internets!

In a way, the SAB is just redundant... If you can't spot the BS right away, no amount of annotations will suffice.

[Won2blv]

I would never join a religion like baptist. If I did believe in the god of the bible I know he would not approve of people adopting pagan religious customs into their religion. I know that he wouldn't support his people getting involved in political affairs of mankind. I know that Jesus is not god, but his son. I am still proud of JW's in a lot of areas, even if no one on this forum gives them any credit.

I never asked you to join the Baptist or any other denomination, I said you might look into them. Jesus is God and the Bible proves it, Jesus is the creator only God can create. Being involved in political affairs is to take a stand in a free society to say what one believes and what they believe is best for the country. Be cause Christians did not take a stand against abortion years ago we now have mass murder in this county, do you believe that's okay?
The Baptist nor any other protestant denomination rewrote the Bible to suit their preconceived ideas like JW's have, we've accepted God's word for the truth and try to live our lives by it as given by God.

JW's called out religions as a snare over a 100 years ago before it was cool

This in no way makes the JW's right in their beliefs, especially considering they had to change the Bible to criticize others.

JW's have been persecuted and killed by Nazis and other political parties for their strict neutrality stance

Now your bragging, shame one such a supposed humble people, you think the JW's have anything on the Jews when it comes to Nazis persecution. Christians are killed all over the world for their beliefs not their non political stance, seems to me these Christians have given their lives for something worthwhile. 

JW's stay neutral in all political affairs, which means that they aren't trying to push their religious policies into your life through legislation

Christians are trying to help keep this country in a morale attitude, like not murdering the unborn, but then I guess you think that's okay. I know many unbelievers who believe the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for certain crimes, just as I as a Christian does.

Of course they aren't perfect and there is the bullshit. But I am not trying to get out of my indoctrination by just having people tell me that all religion is bullshit so you're an idiot if you believe one word of the bible. Even the atheist bible, the skeptics annotated bible, has a section for "good stuff." So my op is simply on the fact that the statues feet simply describes a political world that we live in. I find it interesting that a guy 2500 years ago predicted a government that was ruled by the common people.

 No denomination is 100% correct, though I know a few who claim to be, arrogance at it's highest. I certainly do not believe in all the Baptist doctrine, such as once saved always saved, that would go against the absolute free will we believe in and it also goes against what the scriptures teach. The real idiots are the one's who do not believe the word of God, they will receive no salvation, is that what you want, just asking not trying to judge? No guy predicted it, God told us what the future holds, it's for our benefit not His. You should learn what truths the Bible holds, you might just get a pleasant surprise.
GC

So can you give me the specific areas where JW's completely altered the bible to suit their beliefs? Because from the research I've done, the main criticism is us generous uses of God's name. Other than that, the main detractors are biased religious detractors. The NWT is an overall solid translation. The verses taken out were spurious to begin with. Like the account of the prostitute that was about to be stoned and Jesus said, Let he without sin cast the first stone.

Jesus is not god. You can read the bible in a way that suits your purpose but if you tally up every scripture that you could even barely infer that Jesus is referring to himself as god compared to every scripture that clearly differentiates them, it would be minimum 10-1. And those few scriptures where it seems like Jesus is referring to himself as god, like he who has seen me has seen the father, are a lot easier to understand for there more accurate meaning. In that instance, Jesus is clearly just saying that he is the perfect representation of God's qualities. But like I said, there are 10 scriptures for every one of those. Like Jesus saying, "Don't say I am good. No one is good except the father in heaven" or "no one knows the day or the hour. Not even the son of man knows. Only the father in heaven knows" or when Jesus is baptized and a voice out of heaven says, "this is my son, the approved, listen to him" I am not quoting those word for word but I don't care what translation you choose, the meaning is easy to discern if you don't insist on your preconceived personal bias.

Yeah, I am bragging about JW's being persecuted by the Nazis. I even have a bumper sticker of it

Abortion is legal because the constitution allows a system of checks and balances and 3 separate branches of government. The judicial branch ruled that abortion is legal. If you are of the ilk that the constitution is god given, then this is a major flaw in your argument. If you believe Jesus is going to have a second coming (which I assume you do) then why would humans waste time trying to fix something that can't be fixed? Why not rather focus on Jesus commandment before he ascended to heaven and go make disciples? Thats what the apostles did in Acts. They didn't try to get laws changed or run for office. They went from door to door and city to city making disciples. Kind of like what JW's do... oops, I'm bragging again right?

And to your point about the death penalty... I don't even know what that has to do with anything? I have never believed in the death penalty and that has been strongly influenced by my christian beliefs growing up. If you are a christian that believes Jesus will come back and set up a heavenly kingdom, wouldn't you think Jesus would find it almost insulting that you tried to fix the broken system on earth? What words of Jesus would you even use to justify getting involved in political affairs?

[Redbeard The Pink]

You're not even pretending to have a crisis of belief any more. That didn't take long.


I'd tend to agree that Jesus was not God (if he existed at all), but I think we probably have different reasoning.

[Won2blv]

You're not even pretending to have a crisis of belief any more. That didn't take long.


I'd tend to agree that Jesus was not God (if he existed at all), but I think we probably have different reasoning.

Are you saying that I have gotten over my crisis? Or that my crisis was some kind of red herring?

[Wyrd of Gawd]

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I'm glad it gets under your skin to see Christians trying to help those former ones if we can, means we are doing something correct.

GC

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I would never join a religion like baptist. If I did believe in the god of the bible I know he would not approve of people adopting pagan religious customs into their religion. I know that he wouldn't support his people getting involved in political affairs of mankind. I know that Jesus is not god, but his son. I am still proud of JW's in a lot of areas, even if no one on this forum gives them any credit.

And for every one else that dogs religions as being equally as bad

JW's called out religions as a snare over a 100 years ago before it was cool

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JW's have been persecuted and killed by Nazis and other political parties for their strict neutrality stance

---

JW's stay neutral in all political affairs, which means that they aren't trying to push their religious policies into your life through legislation

Of course they aren't perfect and there is the bullshit. But I am not trying to get out of my indoctrination by just having people tell me that all religion is bullshit so you're an idiot if you believe one word of the bible. Even the atheist bible, the skeptics annotated bible, has a section for "good stuff." So my op is simply on the fact that the statues feet simply describes a political world that we live in. I find it interesting that a guy 2500 years ago predicted a government that was ruled by the common people.

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Before I give up on this thread, does anyone have any point or comment concerning that?

The good news is that if the JWs are true believers then their violent deaths made them martyrs and added to the total that need to be killed before Jesus returns.  OTOH, if they aren't true believers then their violent deaths had no meaning and they were simply killed for being a big pain in the ass.  In any case the number killed was insufficent to reach the magic number to get Jesus to show up.  Someone has to kill more believers.  It's biblical. (Revelation 6:9-11).  Gotta reach that magic number sooner or later.