How Can Jehova's Witnesses Pronounce the Word Thursday?

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Well, we Catholics dont sit there and rag on Jews, mocking their practices, and insulting their clergy.

... any more.

 

[loverofhumanity]

Someday though, these names will be changed, by Jehovah! Till then, we’ll have to ‘keep sinning.’

Lol.

It’s interesting you should mention that because our calendar both days of the week and months are named after the attributes of God.

Here is an example.

Days of the Week Baha’i Day

Saturday Glory

Sunday Beauty

Monday Perfection

Tuesday Grace

Wednesday Justice

Thursday Majesty

Friday Independence

So today Thursday is the day of Majesty in the month of Honour.

It seems like Jehovah has already brought a new calendar for us based on His attributes. Fascinating you should mention it. Thanks.

 

[Jainarayan]

Like Hockeycowboy, I too look forward to the time when there will be one God and one religion....the same ones they had in the Garden of Eden.
Then the days of the week and months of the years will be of God's choosing and will last forever.

Why?

 

[stvdv]

But actually, I don't understand the reason for the command. If I'm the only real god, then the other gods are necessarily fictional ─ there's no important difference between mentioning Marduk and Aphrodite and Horus, and mentioning Superman and Catwoman and Donald Duck.

Some Christians do criticize other Gods easily. Even when I explain "if there is 1 God, your criticism does not make sense at all" they don't get it.
Then I always end it with "obviously it's you, as a Christian, who believes in many Gods, talking about it, as if they exist".
This they also "don't get". Which "I do get now", so I stopped trying to explain this to these priests.

Considering the above, this verse does make sense to me. If I tell them they don't get it. So God needed to tell them.
But even now God told them, they still don't get it. Of course God, who created them, must have known they would not get it.
At least God can tell them "I told you so", when they stand before the gate of hell/heaven before God is dumping them in "God knows which one".

 

[Jainarayan]

I feel the Bible better than most priests preach the Bible. Good to have a Bible verse to make my point, next time

Yeah, I just say "Matthew 7:1-2" and leave it at that.

 

[stvdv]

Yeah, I just say "Matthew 7:1-2" and leave it at that.

I tried that verse all the time, but it seems this verse means to these Christians "Judge not, unless you judge other religions/Gods"

 

[dianaiad]

Problems arrise in different.countries where the week starts on different days.
International standard ISO 8601 tells us day 1 is Monday, day 7 is Sunday.
In US, Canada, Japan and some other countries day 1 is Sunday.

Don't blame me.

I don't have any problems with naming the days of the week after Norse gods (except, of course, for Saturday..) I don't have any problems with all the Christmas traditions being pagan, either. (Except, oddly enough, for Santa Claus which is about the only thing with a Christian origin except for the Savior Himself)

I don't have problems with the Easter bunny (though I still wonder about the eggs...)

I guess everybody just has to deal with their own issues.

 

[ChristineM]

Don't blame me.

I don't have any problems with naming the days of the week after Norse gods (except, of course, for Saturday..) I don't have any problems with all the Christmas traditions being pagan, either. (Except, oddly enough, for Santa Claus which is about the only thing with a Christian origin except for the Savior Himself)

I don't have problems with the Easter bunny (though I still wonder about the eggs...)

I guess everybody just has to deal with their own issues.

I dont blame anyone, i was simply stating facts

Why, "of course Saturday"?

 

[Oeste]

Is it necessary that you always have to blame my religion to justify yours?

It kind of is.

The JWs, like a few other denominations, have put themselves forward as the restoration of the "true" church after the old church went astray. It's a fundamental part of their brand.

Agreed. The Watchtower actively encourages members to point an accusative finger at every religion save their own. But @Landon Caeli is correct: they have turned Catholic-bashing into an art form.

I recently spent a very pleasant vacation with about 20 of them and the self-elevation inherent in "religion-bashing" is a real benefit for some. Finally, a vice (hubris) that you can indulge in, feel good about and one that's fully sanctioned by the Organization God.

For others, it's a retreat from a fearful world, a place where you can belong...an insular community, full of secret knowledge ("the truth") with plenty of friends engaged in organized activities. The only thing necessary to keep your membership in good standing is your willingness to commit time, publish the Organization's works, report dissent, shun former members and heap praise on the Organization, especially its hierarchy. You can see both types at play on this Forum.

However the "glue" that holds everything together is the constant, incessant fear of a raging God ready to destroy anything and everyone outside their Organization "at any moment".

 

[Oeste]

One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike.

Good quote from Romans 14:5.

So informing their congregations that God cares about them not celebrating Christmas because it has "pagan" origins in their minds, would indicate they are simply following what has meaning to them, but according to Paul, God doesn't care. If it offends them in some way, then they should avoid it. But my argument against this would be it never was an offense until one of their preachers told them it was.

Agreed! If only they left it at that, @Windwalker. No one would complain they don't celebrate holidays. They would be the part that considers "one day is like any other". But they go beyond, ignore the scripture, and chastise others who decide "one day is more sacred".

 

[Brickjectivity]

Lets stick to debating subjects and avoid characterizing other groups. Maybe I shouldn't have started this thread if its going to turn into an accusation fest.

 

[stvdv]

Lets stick to debating subjects and avoid characterizing other groups. Maybe I shouldn't have started this thread if its going to turn into an accusation fest.

I agree. That would be fabulous, no more accusations.

BUT what goes around, comes around. Law of Karma is very simple and unavoidable.
When certain groups "make accusations" and don't want to say sorry and stop their bad habits.
The Law of Karma will continue generating "Reactions" till their eyes are open to this truth:

"Don't do unto others what you don't want them to do unto you"

 

[Windwalker]

Good quote from Romans 14:5.



Agreed! If only they left it at that, @Windwalker. No one would complain they don't celebrate holidays. They would be the part that considers "one day is like any other". But they go beyond, ignore the scripture, and chastise others who decide "one day is more sacred".

I need to spend more time looking into American history with this wave of startup religions that occurred during the period following the Great Disappointment in the mid 1800s up particular through the early 1900s. There were lots of these groups popping up, each trying to differentiate themselves from each other as having the "restored truth", a "revelation", or some other interpretation of the Bible to make themselves the holders of the real truth, and all others are lost and deceived by the evil one.

You have the 7th day adventists, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Pentecostals, and even the Mormons, as well as scads of other growing up in that fertile ground of the disenfranchised religious. Each had something special to claim that others didn't, like restoring the truth sabbath day, or rejecting the Trinity, or gifts of the spirit, and so forth. All of this of course is just sales and marketing for religion. All of it is to attract followers. It's kind of a commodified package for consumption, and typically have very little if any spiritual value to its consumers. It appeals to the "us vs them", "chosen people" mentality for the sake of group belongingness. "Come out from those heathen and join us! It exploits spiritual naivete.

I'll add one quick thought as a placeholder. Considering these are founded on this sort of divisiveness, I do not think as a system it could ever truly rise above that to the level a maturty that Paul is talking about in Romans, which I quoted. That's not to say a member couldn't rise above that, but the system could not help facilitate that for them, since it's foundation is based on differentiating themselves from others as the "true followers". The system is broken from day one.

I really would like to line these all up on a timeline somewhere and create a map of common traits and themes. Hell, even my great grandfather fell into one of these Utopian visions some Prophet of God from Scotland sold them, starting an entire city in the 1900's from scratch, all with streets named after cities found in the Bible. It still stands today, but has been absorbed as bedroom community of Chicago. Fascinating history, both personal and historical. Here's the sort of thing going on back in the days when groups like the JW's and Mormons were being born.



Here's his history and the story of how he founded Zion, Illinois. John Alexander Dowie - Wikipedia

 

[QuestioningMind]

Exodus 23:13 "“Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips."

So...why do JW's continue to use the word 'Thursday' when everybody knows its named after a pagan god? Every time I hear a JW pronounce the word Thursday, aren't they breaking this commandment? Its is befuddling.

Because they are not using it as the name of a pagan god. They are using it to denote a day of the week.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

It’s interesting you should mention that because our calendar both days of the week and months are named after the attributes of God.

Here is an example.

Days of the Week Baha’i Day

Saturday Glory

Sunday Beauty

Monday Perfection

Tuesday Grace

Wednesday Justice

Thursday Majesty

Friday Independence

So today Thursday is the day of Majesty in the month of Honour.

It seems like Jehovah has already brought a new calendar for us based on His attributes. Fascinating you should mention it. Thanks.

That is interesting. But tell me, how does that work in dealing with the secular world? That would require a lot of explanation, wouldn't it?

 

[Hockeycowboy]

....celebrating Thor on Thursday.

How do you think we are 'celebrating' Thursdays? Are we setting up trees, or anything else, to honor it?

 

[Hockeycowboy]

Because they are not using it as the name of a pagan god. They are using it to denote a day of the week.

That's right. Thanks for your understanding.

 

[blü 2]

Putting it into a historical and Jewish context would probably make the question irrelevant, so we are not talking about the actual meaning of the Bible verse. We are only asking about why JW's don't obey it verbatim. It is a question for Jehova's Witnesses not an explanation of the verse.

Still, it's always curious to ponder how God's brain works, based on the clues in the writings attributed to [him].

 

[blü 2]

It was probably written at a time of henotheistic consolidation, so they sought to exclude real things and not just things that don't exist.

And now it's the 21st century and ...

 

[blü 2]

Some Christians do criticize other Gods easily. Even when I explain "if there is 1 God, your criticism does not make sense at all" they don't get it.
Then I always end it with "obviously it's you, as a Christian, who believes in many Gods, talking about it, as if they exist".
This they also "don't get". Which "I do get now", so I stopped trying to explain this to these priests.

Considering the above, this verse does make sense to me. If I tell them they don't get it. So God needed to tell them.
But even now God told them, they still don't get it. Of course God, who created them, must have known they would not get it.
At least God can tell them "I told you so", when they stand before the gate of hell/heaven before God is dumping them in "God knows which one".

Thanks. Makes me glad I'm not omniscient.