This may be your last email from me!

January 8th, 2011 No Comments

I am now using FeedBurner to send blog updates via email.

Unless you fill in the form and subscribe to my new FeedBurner account.

The Subscribe2 WordPress plug-in just does not cut it for me. I get new “subscribers” several times a day now, and they are all robots and spammers. FeedBurner has been doing such a wonderful job at my other blog, that I decided to implement it here. With FeedBurner, you have to verify your email address by replying to the verification message they send you, and by doing so, you prove that you are really human.

So, if you still want to get an email notice every time I jot down some of my mindless drivel in a blog entry, share a pic, joke, or video, then you must subscribe your email address using this form here…

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Don’t forget that you must reply to the verification email that they send you. Check your spam or junk folder if you don’t get the message soon after subscribing.

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Watchtower Library 2010 CD-ROM for Download: Ethics, Honesty, and the Internet

December 27th, 2010 12 Comments

The Watchtower Library 2010 CD-ROM is only available in your local congregations.

The internet is a funny place, filled with dubious individuals with fickle morals.

A small number of people have recently asked where the Watchtower Library 2010 CD-ROM can be downloaded from off the internet. This would be the latest upgrade to the software that most of Jehovah’s people, with computers, are eagerly awaiting to arrive at our Kingdom Halls.

Of course, I have not received my CD, and I would never dream of putting a copy of it on the internet, and if I was aware of where it could be downloaded, I would never share that link with anyone. Why is this? It’s a matter of something we call loyalty, honesty, and integrity. Let’s review what the Introductory Letter says…

YOUR USE OF WATCHTOWER LIBRARY

1. What constitutes proper use? Watchtower Library has been designed for your personal use. Hence, you may copy, print, or excerpt from the data for your personal use. But you may not distribute the program or large sections of the data to others who do not own Watchtower Library on CD-ROM. Do not sell Watchtower Library or put the program or data on the Internet or any electronic network.

2. Who may have a copy of Watchtower Library? Watchtower Library is a research tool for Jehovah’s Witnesses, not for the public or for institutions such as schools or libraries.

…

5. May I make a duplicate of my CD-ROM as a backup in case I lose or damage my original? Yes, but this does not refer to duplicating the CD-ROM for others, which would fall outside the realm of personal use.

Well that is rather clear and understandable, isn’t it? It is designed that way. Most other software comes with a License Agreement that governs your right to use the product, which you license from the publisher, and not actually own it. The Watchtower Library on CD-ROM is no different. But licenses are often written by lawyers in “legalese” language and can be difficult to understand without reading it through a second or third time. That is why the publishers of the Watchtower Library CD-ROM include the Introductory Letter, to put in layman’s terms what the actual license agreement is saying. Even so, the agreement is pretty clear as well…

3. RESTRICTIONS ON USE. You may not do any of the following: Sell the Product, the SOFTWARE, or the DATA; post all or any portion of the SOFTWARE or the DATA on the Internet or on any other electronic network; copy, print, or excerpt from the DATA for the purpose of…..

That first sentence above even applies to eBay, where sadly, it is occasionally being offered for sale.

So it should be clear how ethics come into play regarding this situation. The people who upload the Watchtower Library CD-ROM and make it available for others, strangers at that, to freely download, are showing a complete disregard for the program authors who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the publisher of such software, the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society. They are violating a host of Bible princples. To name a few:

“Jesus then said: “Pay back Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.” Mark 12:17

“Let every soul be in subjection to the superior authorities, for there is no authority except by God; the existing authorities stand placed in their relative positions by God. Therefore he who opposes the authority has taken a stand against the arrangement of God; those who have taken a stand against it will receive judgment to themselves.” Romans 13:1-2

The above two scriptures apply because the person who has obtained the software and uploads it to the internet is violating the license agreement, which in turn, is breaking the law. Would Jesus, the head of the Christian Congregation, think this practice was okay? The scripture in Romans not only relates to one breaking the law, but also draws to mind that the person uploading the Watchtower Library 2010 CD-ROM software is taking “a stand against the arrangement of God”, in two ways: directly, and by breaking the law.

“We trust we have an honest conscience, as we wish to conduct ourselves honestly in all things.” Hebrews 13:18

A person who obtains the software and then puts it on the internet is certainly a dishonest person. We could list scriptures all day long that also demonstrate why this practice is wrong.

So I recently saw a post on a supposed “Jehovah’s Witness” blog asking if somebody had gotten their Watchtower Library 2010 CD-ROM yet from their congregation, and if they could upload it to the internet in a .rar or .iso file and send the blogger a link.

Right away this post should make a faithful brother or sister among Jehovah’s people question whether or not the blog owner is in fact a brother at all. Why can he not wait to get his own copy through proper channels, namely, through his own congregation’s literature counter? Why on earth would he encourage someone to act so unfaithfully, and then act with such disrespect to our entire association of brothers around the world, and make the link to such software freely available to all?

And lastly, why would any faithful brother or sister download the software off the internet from some unapproved website or blog on the internet? Would you not be encouraging the other person to continue in his course of wrongdoing?

If the faithful and discreet slave saw fit to distribute this software over the internet, then they would have the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society make it available to us all at JW.org

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Jesus Christ May Not Have Died on Cross

October 15th, 2010 No Comments

Jesus was hung on a stake, likely without a crossbeam.

So this is really an interesting article that follows, originally published by ABC News. A few months back, a similar article appeared in the Daily Mail, and we had posted about it and discussed it over at JWTalk. The Daily Mail is a news publication in print over in Britain. But this one by ABC News is interesting because it is local to us in the USA, is reputable, and the details of this version are much more interesting.

This article will be of particular interest to Jehovah’s Witnesses, as Christians are known as today. It is widely known that we do not believe that Jesus died on a cross, because the exact wording of the Holy Bible gives strong indication that he did not. Whether he did or did not is a moot point, and a blog entry for another day. And while we certainly do not need secular support for anything we know to be true based on the scriptures, the article below based on the recent comments of one scholar is very interesting indeed.

The bold text for emphasis has been added by me.

- Bob

Jesus Christ May Not Have Died on Cross (ABC News Article)

No Evidence in Ancient Sources Backs Up Defining Symbol of Christianity, Scholar Says

Jesus Christ is put to death.

By RUSSELL GOLDMAN

July 2, 2010
For 2,000 years the crucifix has been a potent symbol of both Jesus Christ’s death and Christianity. Now one Swedish theologian says that despite the crucifix’s proliferation in art and literature, there is scant evidence in the Bible or other ancient sources to indicate that Christ was killed on a cross.

Gunnar Samuelsson, an evangelical preacher and theologian, says he spent three years combing thousands of ancient texts to research his recently completed 400-page doctoral thesis “Crucifixion in Antiquity.”

What he discovered, he said, “came as a shock.” While there were numerous references to “suspension devices” used for executions at the time of Christ’s death, he could find no explicit references to the classic T-shaped cross.

“There is no distinct punishment called ‘crucifixion,’ no distinct punishment device called a ‘crucifix’ anywhere mentioned in any of the ancient texts including the Gospels,” he told ABCNews.com.

Samuelsson devoutly believes the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection, but says for generations people have misinterpreted and mistranslated the Greek word “stauros” to mean crucifix, when really the term just means a suspension device, which might have been anything such as a “pole or a tree trunk.” The earliest versions of the New Testament were written in Greek.

“If you chose to just read the text and ignore the art and theology, there is quite a small amount of information about the crucifixion. Jesus, the Bible says, carried something called a stauros out to Calvary. Everyone thought it meant cross, but it does not only mean cross. We cannot say every instance of this noun, stauros refers to a cross,” Samuelsson said.

Suspension devices, basically tall polls or pikes, were routinely used in the ancient world, by the Romans and their contemporaries, both as execution devices and for displaying the bodies of executed criminals and enemies as a public warning.

Part of what tipped Samuelson off to the apparent mistranslation, were routine references to things like fruits and dead animals being “crucified” in ancient texts, when translating the word as “suspended” makes more sense.

For Samuelsson, a 44-year-old pastor who is completing his research at the University of Gothenburg, his faith leads him to believe in the tradition that Jesus was suspended on a cross.

However, he says, “We don’t know how those wicked people next to him on the right and on the left, were executed. Or what the devices looked like for people the day before or the day after.”

“I am not saying no ‘crucifixions’ took place I the ancient world. But we cannot find evidence of them in the ancient texts,” he added.

Given that the Romans were careful record keepers who wrote detailed and gruesome histories about their military conquests and lengthy legal treatises, it is strange that they would not have written plainly about their execution methods, he explained.

Samuelson says the idea of suspension devices would have been understood in the ancient world and by the contemporaries of Jesus.

“If you were walking around Galilee and heard Jesus say he will be suspended in days. People would have an understanding of the kind of torture involved.”

While the Gospels mention Jesus’ suspension, none specify a cross, according to Samuelson. Furthermore, the passion is described differently in different Gospels and has been depicted in various ways throughout history.

“In the movie the ‘Passion of Christ,’ Jesus carries the whole cross on his back. In some scholarly works, he just carries the cross beam. Nails are not mentioned before the passion and only mentioned in one book after he is executed,” he said.

Samuelson said he never expected the international reaction his thesis has already received. He originally printed just 200 copies that he thought would be read by family and friends. He said he hoped scholars would be intrigued by his work, but has been surprised by the worldwide attention.

“I’m just another boring pastor. I think Jesus is the son of God. I read the New Testament every day. I’m filled with the Holy Spirit. I keep telling people, this does not mean we have to tear down the crosses in all the churches.”

Article Source: ABC News

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Searching for WHAT?

September 11th, 2010 No Comments

So each day I look at my statistics for these sites. I am up over 50,000 visitors now, which is cool. Always interesting is the terms people are using in the search engines that cause them, for whatever reason, to churn out a link to my site. Much of the search terms revolve around Jehovah’s Witnesses, which makes sense, since I use to post a lot about my Christian faith, including several news reports, before I splintered that off and made it a blog of it’s own at the same domain where our discussion group has resided for several years. Other search terms are for my name, which makes one a little leery, although there are hundreds of other people with my name anyway.

And then, there is something just completely off the wall, like this…

Um… okay?!? Sounds tasty, although I would prefer a taco myself.

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Origin of the Human Race

August 19th, 2010 3 Comments
Adam & Eve

Adam & Eve

A little girl asked her mother, “How did the human race appear?”

What a Legacy!

What a Legacy!

The mother answered, “God made Adam and Eve and they had children, and so was all mankind made.”

Two days later the girl asked her father the same question. The father answered, “Many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race evolved.”

The confused girl returned to her mother and said, “Mom , how is it possible that you told me the human race was created by God, and Dad said they developed from monkeys?”

The mother answered, “Well, dear, it is very simple. I told you about my side of the family and your father told you about his.”

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