I don't think you are judging him Joshua, I do hope I didn't push that on you. My point is this, Solomon was the wisest man to ever walk the earth except Jesus Christ. The story about the Queen of Sheeba, and the amount of gold that came to him being 666 of talents is most likely a portent of the end times. Meaning that Gods anointed in the end would fall to the 666 mark of the beast. That perspective is more easy for me to accept than calling the mark of the beast the mark of Solomon. Thats just how I feel, but I'm glad there is a site I can express that the things that I feel, even if they may be wrong. Thank you.
Absolutely... I'm the kind of person you can say anything to. I don't take offense because I don't care what others think of me. You can call me every name in the book, disagree, agree, or whatever you like. What I don't respond well to is that attitude from the Garden of Eden. When people twist others' words to mean something they did not intend to say or to think they know better what someone else is saying than they do, that's when my radar goes up. We all speak for ourselves, not others... You probably wouldn't be surprised how often people like to tell you what kind of person you are based on their own assumptions of you. Other than that, we're an open door here. Joshua
I guess it just comes down to what kind of person Jehovah sees us as, since he is perfect in his opinion.
The hexagram, star of David, seal of Solomon, is known as the star of the pagan god Ramphan, who is also Moloch to whom child sacrifices were made by the Jews, and is identified as the star Saturn, from which derives our Saturday. Acts 7:42,43; Amos 5:25,26 Future idolatrous and nefarious uses are therefore likely. Harry
I know the freemasons use the star of David, and I also heard that Russel was a mason but I don't know how much of that is true.
When the expected return of Christ in 1874 did not materialize, Russell was at the point of repenting from making the prediction, but was then dissuaded from doing so by Nelson Horatio Barbour and others, who used a mistranslation of the term Parousia in Benjamin Wilson's Emphatic Diaglott - translated as 'presence' instead of 'coming [and consequent presence with],' wrongly implying a presence [invisible] before, or without, actual coming - to persist in their presumptuous error of predicting that 'which the Father has placed in His own jurisdiction,' a decision that Russell later regretted making, when he deferred to the older Barbour on going along with this unscriptural invisible presence. Ac 1:7 The claim that Russell was a mason mainly derives from a speech he gave before an assembly of free masons, where he used some of their concepts and terminology to appeal to them joining his movement, which some, no doubt, ended up doing, a strategy he also employed with a largely Zionist audience that he addressed on other occasions. Because he adopted the invisible presence idea, he ended up looking for tangible signs of Christ's benevolent kingdom rule in the world around him, such as coming across 'miracle wheat,' a mutation where a strain of wheat had prodigious output, or other technological innovations such as steam trains, transatlantic submarine cables, and so on - makes you wonder what he would say today, what with CRISPR gene editing technology, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and so on. All of that totally misses the point: the problems in the world are not of a technological nature, but are a spiritual and moral failing, which JWs say can only be solved by God's kingdom; but that is not true, because Satan is in the process of building a total technocratic, AI directed, control system, where moral behavior - of whatever standard - will be minutely enforced by means of a social credit system, coupled to a cashless economy with build in rewards and punishments to nudge desirable behavior and outcomes - it is just that Jehovah doesn't like mercenary motives for doing the right thing, but wants a world of voluntary submission to His ways, and He is currently looking for suchlike ones to come to Him. Harry
Huh? Harry, I enjoy your flows of intelligent verbiage, but sometimes I don't have a clue of what you are talking about because you use such a strong vocabulary that it makes it difficult to follow. I just feel like I'm talking to a doctor kinda sometimes. Sorry
Lol, you are funny - yeah, the info may at times be dense; I am just trying to be succinct, not be over-egging the pudding, so to speak, but assuming perhaps a bit too much common knowledge in areas that are not so well known, like WT history in this case, which I delved into quite a bit; just consider my posts as shortcuts to volumes of reading, with the luxury of being able to ask questions on points of interest to clarify and elaborate. Harry
Yes...dense for sure. Not bad but hard to follow for us newbies. You are certainly passionate, as are all here about the their beliefs. I just didn't realize that Jehovahs Witnesses had so many different perspectives outside of the Watchtower. Now I see why we are warned to looking at websites, not just because the ideas are different, but because there are so many different ones. My head is swimming........................................................................................
There is nothing hidden that will not come out in the open - Satan will openly challenge Jehovah on His righteousness; it is better to face these challenges to the truth now, before the winds of changes shift, 'because with footmen you have run, and they would tire you out; how, then, can you run a race with horses? And in the land of peace are you confident? So how will you act among the proud thickets along the Jordan?' Jeremiah 12:5 The truth has nothing to fear, it only shines brighter as it is being challenged. Jehovah tells us to test the inspired expressions to see if they originate with Him; therefore should we not also expect Him to enable us to do so for ourselves?