My first encounter with a Jehovah's witness

[T_More]

I find the highlighted line of great interest. Can you elaborate more on that? I have always heard such but many former JWs that I have run across are reluctant to speak to this.

Padrej, the main focus of their meetings are to train the members to convert others. The meetings are very much like sales meetings, in that it’s all about getting their publications into others hands and overcoming objections. In their minds, this is worship. They devote more space in their literature attacking the Catholic Church than any one else, and actually praise men such as Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Hus, Wycliffe, etc because they challenged the Church, but don’t really like talking about the fact that these men were all Trinitarians, believed in heaven, and really were more like the Church than they were like the Watchtower Society.

One of the things I remember is during their weekly studies of their Trinity tract, they would make fun of the Catholic Church because of the word “mystery”, which really was a misunderstanding of what the Church really means by that word. Somehow, they thought that the Church must be confused because they had to “resort to using the word, mystery”. The irony is when one looks at the WTBS’s rather short history how much their teachings have changed over a short period of time. This makes God look awfully confused if he can’t reveal vital truths right from the get go to them. So would that make this a mystery?

Most do not know that the Catholic Church canonized the bible, and a medieval Catholic priest of the Dominican order came up with the possible translation “Jehovah”.

 

[Nicea325]

[SIGN]
QUOTE=Flame4;6898716]I

She talked about how we must call God by the right name: Jehovah.

My rebutal: Names are symbols. If we say the word “house”, the word house is not really a house. Its a symbol for a real house. Because we are human and we are limited, we need symbols and names to explain higher meanings. That is why we have so many symbols- things that are tangible for us- in the Church, so we can more easily connect with God.

On the other hand, God is unlimited. The names we come up with are simply for us

to have something to call him. It doesn’t mean he has a name. So there is no proper “name” for him. To me, using “God” shows how he is unlimited. [/SIGN]

…and yet you all still pray ‘Hollowed be your name’ Matthew 6:9
also there is this…

*** Divine Name Brochure

(1984) God’s Name—Its Meaning and Pronunciation ***

Different scholars have different ideas about how the name YHWH was originally pronounced.
In The Mysterious Name of Y.H.W.H., page 74, Dr. M. Reisel said that the “vocalisation of the Tetragrammaton must originally have been YeHūàH or YaHūàH.”
Canon D. D. Williams of Cambridge held that the “evidence indicates, nay almost proves, that Jāhwéh was not the true pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton . . . The Name itself was probably JĀHÔH.”—Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (Periodical for Old Testament Knowledge), 1936, Volume 54, page 269.
In the glossary of the French Revised Segond Version, page 9, the following comment is made: “The pronunciation Yahvé used in some recent translations is based on a few ancient witnesses, but they are not conclusive. If one takes into account personal names that include the divine name, such as the Hebrew name of the prophet Elijah (Eliyahou) the pronunciation might just as well be Yaho or Yahou.”
In 1749 the German Bible scholar Teller told of some different pronunciations of God’s name he had read: “Diodorus from Sicily, Macrobius, Clemens Alexandrinus, Saint Jerome and Origenes wrote Jao; the Samaritans, Epiphanius, Theodoretus, Jahe, or Jave; Ludwig Cappel reads Javoh; Drusius, Jahve; Hottinger, Jehva; Mercerus, Jehovah; Castellio, Jovah; and le Clerc, Jawoh, or Javoh.”
Thus it is evident that the original pronunciation of God’s name is no longer known. Nor is it really important. If it were, then God himself would have made sure that it was preserved for us to use. The important thing is to use God’s name according to its conventional pronunciation in our own language.

Forms of the divine name in different languages, indicating international acceptance of the form Jehovah
Awabakal - Yehóa
Bugotu - Jihova
Cantonese - Yehwowah
Danish - Jehova
Dutch - Jehovah
Efik - Jehovah
English - Jehovah
Fijian - Jiova
Finnish - Jehova
French - Jéhovah
Futuna - Ihova
German - Jehova
Hungarian - Jehova
Igbo - Jehova
Italian - Geova
Japanese - Ehoba
Maori - Ihowa
Motu - Iehova
Mwala-Malu - Jihova
Narrinyeri - Jehovah
Nembe - Jihova
Petats - Jihouva
Polish - Jehowa
Portuguese - Jeová
Romanian - Iehova
Samoan - Ieova
Sotho - Jehova
Spanish - Jehová
Swahili - Yehova
Swedish - Jehova
Tahitian - Iehova
Tagalog - Jehova
Tongan - Jihova
Venda - Yehova
Xhosa - uYehova
Yoruba - Jehofah
Zulu - uJehova
[Box on page 11]
“Jehovah” has become widely known as the name of God even in non-Biblical contexts.

Franz Schubert composed the music for the lyric entitled “The Almightiness,” written by Johann Ladislav Pyrker, in which the name Jehovah appears twice. It is also used at the end of the last scene of Verdi’s opera “Nabucco.”
Additionally, French composer Arthur Honegger’s oratorio “King David” gives prominence to the name Jehovah, and renowned French author Victor Hugo used it in over 30 of his works. Both he and Lamartine wrote poems entitled “Jehovah.”
In the book Deutsche Taler (The German Taler), published in 1967 by Germany’s Federal Bank, there is a picture of what is one of the oldest coins bearing the name “Jehovah,” a 1634 Reichstaler from the Duchy of Silesia. Regarding the picture on the coin’s reverse side, it says: “Under the radiant name JEHOVAH, rising up out of the midst of clouds, is a crowned shield with the Silesian coat of arms.”
In a museum in Rudolstadt, East Germany, you can see on the collar of the suit of armor once worn by Gustavus II Adolph, a 17th-century king of Sweden, the name JEHOVAH in capital letters.
Thus, for centuries the form Jehovah has been the internationally recognized way to pronounce God’s name, and people who hear it instantly recognize who is being spoken about. As Professor Oehler said, “This name has now become more naturalized in our vocabulary, and cannot be supplanted.”—Theologie des Alten Testaments (Theology of the Old Testament).

Anyway, just had to speak up for Jehovah.

And yet nothing you provided tells us which Dead Sea Scroll mentions God being called Jehovah?

 

[RazzsMom]

djdave —

Just a small correction. No one in the Catholic Church (nor any other church to my knowledge) prays “Hollowed be Thy Name…”

We pray “Hallowed” which means to honor as holy.

*hal·lowed   /ˈhæloʊd; in liturgical use often ˈhæloʊɪd/ Show Spelled[hal-ohd; in liturgical use often hal-oh-id] Show IPA
–adjective
regarded as holy; venerated; sacred: Hallowed be Thy name; the hallowed saints; our hallowed political institutions. *

“Hollowed” is what I did last year to my pumpkin.

 

[Padrej]

djdave —

Just a small correction. No one in the Catholic Church (nor any other church to my knowledge) prays “Hollowed be Thy Name…”

We pray “Hallowed” which means to honor as holy.

*hal·lowed   /ˈhæloʊd; in liturgical use often ˈhæloʊɪd/ Show Spelled[hal-ohd; in liturgical use often hal-oh-id] Show IPA
–adjective
regarded as holy; venerated; sacred: Hallowed be Thy name; the hallowed saints; our hallowed political institutions. *

“Hollowed” is what I did last year to my pumpkin.

“Hollowed” is what I did last year to my pumpkin :bowdown:
I needed that laugh

 

[Padrej]

Padrej, the main focus of their meetings are to train the members to convert others. The meetings are very much like sales meetings, in that it’s all about getting their publications into others hands and overcoming objections. In their minds, this is worship. They devote more space in their literature attacking the Catholic Church than any one else, and actually praise men such as Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Hus, Wycliffe, etc because they challenged the Church, but don’t really like talking about the fact that these men were all Trinitarians, believed in heaven, and really were more like the Church than they were like the Watchtower Society.

One of the things I remember is during their weekly studies of their Trinity tract, they would make fun of the Catholic Church because of the word “mystery”, which really was a misunderstanding of what the Church really means by that word. Somehow, they thought that the Church must be confused because they had to “resort to using the word, mystery”. The irony is when one looks at the WTBS’s rather short history how much their teachings have changed over a short period of time. This makes God look awfully confused if he can’t reveal vital truths right from the get go to them. So would that make this a mystery?

Most do not know that the Catholic Church canonized the bible, and a medieval Catholic priest of the Dominican order came up with the possible translation “Jehovah”.

Makes one wonder if they are purposely leaving that final tidbit out.
You know if the witnesses have been there all along in the Bible Funny the same Catholic Church that set up the Bible did not discover this. Could it be a cunningly devised fable???

 

[T_More]

Makes one wonder if they are purposely leaving that final tidbit out.
You know if the witnesses have been there all along in the Bible Funny the same Catholic Church that set up the Bible did not discover this. Could it be a cunningly devised fable???

Of course they leave that bit out. Just like most JW’s have no clue about the beliefs of the early Christians, the mere existence of the Deuterocanonical books, that the Church defined the Trinity doctrine 60 years before the canonization of the bible, where Russell came from, what he taught, how Rutherford seized control of the Watchtower and how the WTBS is the product of a schism, why the 144,000 became a literal number under Rutherfords tenure as president and on, and on, and on. They don’t even know what they don’t know.

A fable? Yes, but not all that cunning.