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General discussion

Of interest only to a Witness, of course.

Apr 22, 2020 3:55AM PDT

Discussion is locked

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So why post it here
Apr 22, 2020 5:24AM PDT

when you're the only one around?

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Don't you mean plan B?
Apr 22, 2020 6:19AM PDT

As I understand it, humans were to populate the earth and have dominion over its critters. Looks like we did that quite well. However, perhaps we've over-populated the earth, over-reached in our orders to be a dominant entity and compromised some sort of balance. No prisoners are taken when that happens. The "reset" button appears to have been pushed for other reasons as well. Mull that over...but don't over-think it.

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Funny you should ask. This is Plan A
Apr 23, 2020 8:18AM PDT

You may have heard that we go doorknocking- or used to.
We train for it in fact, every Thursday night* in our case. Some of the training comes from video demonstrations prepared at HQ.
Each one raises a Bible topic of interest to many. If there's a good response we leave a leading question and come back to answer it.
Here's April's #1 "initial call". Watch it and see what you think. Notice that you're already a step ahead of this householder.
If you pretend you're like this nice- and curious- woman, I'll post the next one. That will of course give the Bible's answer to the question and raise another one. Then one more after that.

But if you call me a babbling cult member and slam the virtual door in my face then I won't. Chances are someone on your block will be interested. Of course, your name then goes on our GONNA BURN! list. Sorry about that.
https://www.jw.org/en/library/videos/#en/mediaitems/VODSampleConversations/pub-mwbv_202004_1_VIDEO

* Zoom, these days. We're getting good at it.

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Link ok.
Apr 23, 2020 8:23AM PDT

Once in a while our videos don't play within our site on my phone. In that case I d/l and run on ny desktop.

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BTW here's from your side, just in.
Apr 23, 2020 8:44AM PDT
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I ran this by my wife for various reasons.
Apr 23, 2020 10:23AM PDT

She objected to the "GONNA BURN" stuff simply because we do NOT teach 'a burning fiery Hell', as I think you know. She worries that someone who doesn't know me will get a wrong idea. So, I won't do it again. Sorry.
Dragon and I used to tease each other. He would write of God in the female gender, and I would tell him he was 'gonna burn'. Don't know what happened to him.

BTW I've had people get angry with us because we don't teach everlasting torture in neverending flames, poked by demons with pitchforks. Go figure.

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Lots of myths, speculations, etc. on this
Apr 23, 2020 11:03AM PDT

One of these being that "Gehenna" (sp) was possibly a trash dump that had a habit of spontaneously catching fire and that it also contained the dead bodies of a variety of people who were not in good stead. You know how it goes when folks gather around and just chit-chat about the why's and wherefores and that sometimes old stories live on and grow....either to become heroic or disgusting. Remember those "Fractured Fairy Tales"? Perhaps Gehenna is one of them. IMO, it's still nothing that should distract us from the more important message.

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Which is?
Apr 23, 2020 11:50AM PDT

Hint: Its in the Bible.
...
What do you think of the video?

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"One of these being that "Gehenna" (sp) was possibly
Apr 23, 2020 2:58PM PDT

a trash dump"
Not possibly. Was a trash dump. Buried now, after 2000 years. And that's more than Bible trivia.
Jesus used it several times as a place where bad guys would go, along with household waste and such. It was the main dump- land fill we would call it- and as you guessed it was a place where corpses were dumped that had no other home. It was a much deeper canyon in those fays, but still the smell was a problem. The solution was to dump sulphur on it from time to time and set it afire. Sulphur dioxide has a strong smell but can be tolerated in small amounts. There is no "small amount" of rotting meat.
Suplhur has been a commodity for centuries. Easily obtained, safe to handle. The fires were tended so as to give rise to the analogy of "fire that is not quenched". Sulphur BTW was called brimstone in King James' day.
The important fact is that it was a plain old solid waste management facility. No living creatures were put there. What goes there today? Things that have no more use. What happens to them? They're destroyed, by the fire or corruption or years. Destroyed, not kept alive for torture.

Given the resurrection hope from Jehovah, one's death need not be permanent. That first death to which we are all heir is likened to sleep in the Bible. Job 14:12; John 11:11-14. We can be awakened from sleep.
The Bible also mentions a second death, four times in Revelation. That one is in "the lake of fire". Fire destroys. Ask my wife. She has seen Kilauea.

Why is it, do you think, that men invented the common afterlife stories, whether in Hell, Heaven or Paradise?

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Of course it was a real place
Apr 24, 2020 5:24AM PDT

where the worm doesn't die and fire is never extinguished. What I was suggesting is that such things "grow legs" and become used as in imagery and metaphor. When we can't see something, we tend to substitute something we can see as a way to describe it. The NT can be said to have used gehenna as the closest earthly reference to Hades that humans could picture. Our own imaginations can overpower our sensibility at times. Look at the many tales that were possibly partially true that have become accepted (by some) to be completely true though largely folklore. They make great stories and entertain endlessly. Ask any Irishman. Happy

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So, you saw the Bible's flat statement that our
Apr 24, 2020 7:06AM PDT

purpose here was to enjoy the earth, no problems mentioned. You'll also agree it isn't enjoyable much now; too many problems.
Q. Is that all there is, or does the God offer a way back?
Your answer is that you're not interested, right?

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bible teaching about hell
Apr 24, 2020 10:53AM PDT

or Sheol. What about the rich man and Lazarus who begged at his gate, but both died and the rich man looked up and said he was in torment and wanted some water?


Isaiah 66:24
Verse Concepts

“Then they will go forth and look
On the corpses of the men
Who have transgressed against Me.
For their worm will not die
And their fire will not be quenched;
And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.”
Matthew 13:50
and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.


Revelation 20:10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Revelation 20:15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

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Two factual errors.
Apr 24, 2020 9:17PM PDT

All these points covered before.
Come back when you show a willingness to learn.

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come back when...
Apr 25, 2020 11:39AM PDT

...you can believe in the real Bible, instead of the corrupted JW print version of it.

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BTW,
Apr 25, 2020 5:50PM PDT

I've had people get angry with us because we don't teach everlasting torture in neverending flames, poked by demons with pitchforks. Go figure.

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It's what Bible teaches which matters
Apr 26, 2020 9:32AM PDT

If they are angry, it's with God, so long as they are told truth.

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Tell that to Steven.
Apr 26, 2020 11:34AM PDT
Grin

Here's another point I find interesting. Jehovah doesn't torture. "God is love.
Men torture.
So, hellfire people have made their god in their own image.
Go figure.