Labels: Pics

An angle that I successfully used in a discussion with a Jehovah Witness.

As the subtitle explains, this is a teaching that I will give to expose and exploit one of the Jehovah Witness's sacred cow's. And that is how they repeatedly use the word "Jehovah" many times in the New Testament section of the New World Translation of their bible. "Jehovah" is an english translation of the hebrew word "Yahweh" which comes from a word called the Tetragrammaton (YWHW), which is four letters that make up God's name. Yahweh (YHWH) is used abundantly in the original hebrew manuscripts. In New Testament Greek however, we never see the word "Jehovah" being used at all. How can they do this and still claim scriptural accuracy? Lets take a look.

Even though this shouldn't have to be said I am going to say it anyway. There is no one sure teaching to read that will equip you enough to successfully argue a point to defeat a Jehovah's Witness. A Jehovah's Witness is usually very studied up and entrenched and ensnared in his/her doctrine. There are two main ingredients that you should have in your christian life to be a successful witness to the JW's, knowledge and anointing.

You've heard the cliche that 'knowledge is power', well in this case the little bit of knowledge I had went a long way. At this point in my christian life I was at a crux in my life in that I knew I was a leader in the ministry that I worked with, but wasn't to sure how I was going to land after things got rolling. The Lord blessed me with a means to earn a fair amount of money, and that money went into buying study books of all kinds. I literally began to absorb information, the only problem I have now is that I could retain all that info that I learned.

Anointing, that word says so much that there is almost nothing more that I need to say. In fact, if you have the 'anointing' you can skip the 'knowledge' section that we just covered. The simplest way to explain what the anointing is is God's hand reaching directly into someone else's life and making a life changing effect through you. To get to this point in your life cost you a whole lot. Denying yourself, obedience to God, making him Lord not just savior, etc. I wish I had had more of that anointing when I had my talk with this JW, but thankfully I had a little of the knowledge.

In my aforementioned quest for books, I stumbled on a few JW books in a used book store, I had a credit with the store for trading some books that I no longer needed, so I bought them and made some use of them. One book called "Reasoning from the Scriptures" and a "New World Translation Bible" which is a version of the bible that they publish and give to their witnesses to use.

One interesting thing that I read in Reasoning from the Scripture was concerning the New World Translation on page 276. It defines it as ..A translation of the Holy Scriptures made directly from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek into modern-day English by a committee of anointed witnesses of Jehovah. These expressed themselves regarding their work as follows: "The translators of this work, who fear and love the Divine Author of the Holy Scriptures, feel toward Him a special responsibility to transmit his thoughts and declarations as accurately as possible..." emphasis added.

On page 277 we read... For one thing, it is an accurate, largely literal translation from the original languages. It is not a loose paraphrase, in which the translators leave out details that they consider unimportant and add ideas that they believe will be helpful. Again emphasis added.

Even on page 278 they address my initial claim... "Why is the name Jehovah used in the Christian Greek Scriptures?" They make a reference to 'The Emphatic Diaglott' as using the word "Jehovah' 18 times when an OT verse is being quoted that contained the Tetragrammaton (YWHW). Next they use the Septuagint (LXX) as a reference point showing that the tetragram is used in its pages. Which it is, and this is where the wetness' that I talked with tried to trick me. He shown me articles containing a graphic showing the tetragram embedded within a Greek text and said "see the early writers did it this way, so the NWT does translate the NT scriptures correctly". Well if I didn't already know that the Septuagint was the Old Testament translated into Greek having nothing to do at all with the New Testament, then he might have stumped me. Once I called him on his error he conceded the discussion.

His partner, a visibly confused lady and quite disturbed with the direction of conversation I was taking him in, asked me why was this so important to me and what was the big deal that they had a few 'Jehovah's' misquoted in their translation, and that even the King James Version doesn't accurately translate everything either. I agreed that the KJ isn't completely accurate, but the NWT is heralded as "an [accurate], largely literal translation...is not a loose paraphrase, in which the translators leave out details that they consider unimportant and add ideas that they believe will be helpful." If the NWT is found not to be accurate in such an obvious fashion, than how can we trust it when it reads "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was a god." There are many other verses that we can reference here too but I will stick with this one because it so blatantly steals the deity of Christ away. It steals something so pivotal, so important to our faith, and we are supposed to put our trust in this altered translation of the bible.

If there is a single strategy that can be used while dealing with cults, it would have to be the deity of Christ, and or the trinity. Study yourselves up in these areas and you will do well. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.

Labels: Study

An age long question is "What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit"? and "Can we be forgiven of it"?

The source of these questions comes from the story in the New Testament when the Pharisees came to Jesus and claimed that the works he was doing were of "Beelzebub the prince of the devils." This is written about a couple of times in the NT but we will draw from Matthew 12:22 - 32.

First question: What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? My question to you is, What was Jesus doing when the Pharisees came along to provoke this dialogue where He mentions blasphemy?

verse 22: Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.

and immediately after that...

verse 24: But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.

Jesus was casting out devils and healing the blind and dumb then along came the Pharisees and said he cast out devils by the power of Beelzebub. Jesus' rebuttal was, how can satan cast out satan and by the way...

Verses 31 and 32: Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

Its interesting to note that Jesus was the one to mention the word 'blasphemy'. Which means that what the Pharisees just did was considered blasphemy to Jesus, and that was calling His great works the works of the Satan. Which will be forgiven. So we can therefore determine that if we call the Holy Spirits works 'of the Devil' that this would be blasphemy. and that brings us to our second question. Can we be forgiven of it? According to Jesus' words in Matthew it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

Labels: Study

On December 15th the was "The Hope of Christmas" christmas show in downtown Elmira at Wisner Park, that some of the Cottt churches took part in. The show had drama, dance and music among other things, and was billed as free and open to the public, Fun for the whole family! Well it was certainly free and open to the public and that is as good as it gets. My wife and I spent less than 5 minutes there and had to leave, for fear of loosing our lunch. The choice of music was lousy and played at volumes that only rock music should be played, and the drama... What the heck is that anyway?! Horrible music playing with people on stage acting out a skit, and sometimes set to banner and flag waving. There is only 2 maybe 3 Churches that do this kind of thing and only a handful of people in those churches that actually enjoy it. So why does anyone need to see this in public on the streets in Elmira?

What ever happened to "...compel them to come in." You have a once a year opportunity to attract people to your churches and instead you blare Hillsong music that's been long overplayed for years, that attracts who? a handful of out of touch christians? I have been a christian for 25 years and my wife has been in church all her life and we both wanted to leave as soon as we got there. If we detested this that much then how about the poor folks in the Mark Twain Tower that from the comfort of their own homes was forced to hear something that I have a hard time choking down.

Be irresistible!!! You had a chance to get outside the four walls of comfort but you refused to think outside of that box. Why is there no church growth? The only growth we see is the same old recycled christians going from one church to the next trying to find something to feed on because they are starving, all to have this to feed on.

Labels: Rant

Labels: Pics

Ouch again! I know who that is in Palmira too.

Horseheads business owner denies pirating software.

By G. Jeffrey Aaron
jaaron@stargazette.com
Star-Gazette
December 6, 2006

Bit Bucket Computers in Horseheads has been named in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Rochester by Microsoft Corp.

According to court papers, Bit Bucket, located at 703 S. Main St., is accused of violating nine of Microsoft's registered copyrights and seven trademarks. The software programs involved in the civil action include familiar titles such as Access 2003, Office Outlook 2003 and Office Word 2003.

Microsoft is seeking statutory damages that will be determined by the court, the profits Bit Bucket derived from the sales of the pirated software and attorney fees.

John Cecce, Bit Bucket's owner, denied any wrongdoing and described the charges as an example of the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant "throwing its weight around."

"Microsoft has made certain allegations against us and I believe those allegations will be found without basis when my attorney mounts a vigorous defense," Cecce said.

Cecce also said that on the advice of his attorney he would have no further comments. Bit Bucket, which builds and sells computer systems for home and office use, has 20 days to file its answer to the complaint.

The case against Bit Bucket is one of 30 copyright and trademark infringement lawsuits Microsoft filed Monday in various district courts around the country. Nine of those cases involve computer system and software vendors that are located in New York. Six of those involve New York City-area vendors. The remaining three involve businesses in Horseheads, Palmyra and Utica.

Microsoft has a national program in place to locate and identify pirated copies of its software programs, said Mary Jo Schrade, a senior attorney with the company. It focuses on raising awareness of the risks to consumers from counterfeit software programs and trying to address piracy, which is costing the industry "billions of dollars" each year.

"But what people don't think about is it goes beyond the (manufacturer)," Schrade said. "There are a lot of honest companies that also lose money to pirates. We picked some areas for enforcement where we have had concerns in the past, and New York is one of those areas where we've seen a lot of piracy."

Schrade said Microsoft uses investigators posing as ordinary consumers to purchase computer software packages from a suspect vendor and send the items to Microsoft, where they are examined by the company's engineers. If counterfeiting is discovered, the company sends a cease-and-desist letter to the vendor. If the practice continues, Microsoft seeks legal remedies, she said.

Using the scenario described above, Microsoft learned that Bit Buckets sold a computer system to an undercover shopper in February that contained a pirated copy of Windows XP Pro software.

Although the company sent a cease-and-desist letter to the vendor later that month, a second investigator purchased a computer system loaded with two pirated programs -- Microsoft's Window's XP Pro and Office 2003 Pro software -- in August, the complaint alleges.

Microsoft's size, in terms of marketing reach and available products, makes it especially vulnerable to copyright infringements, said Guy Amisano, president of Salient Technologies. The Big Flats software firm develops online analytical processing software programs that can be used by business and government.

Amisano said he regularly receives e-mail solicitations from questionable vendors hawking Microsoft products.

"We use a copyright to protect our codes and we never let the codes out without hardware protection. The codes are also serialized so we know who's using it, and since we're a smaller operation, (pirating) isn't much of a problem," Amisano said.

Consumers not targeted

Microsoft will provide consumers affected by pirated software with a letter they can use to obtain a refund or get the software they should have received. To be eligible, consumers must report the incident to the company's anti-piracy hot line at 800/785-3448.

Labels: News

Ouch!

Star-Gazette
December 5, 2006

Bit Bucket Computers, located at 703 S. Main St. in Horseheads, has been named in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Rochester by Microsoft Corp.

According to court papers, Bit Bucket is accused of violating nine of Microsoft’s registered copyrights and seven trademarks. The software programs involved in the civil action include popular titles like Access 2003, Office Outlook 2003, and Office Word 2003.

On or about February this year, the papers allege, Bit Buckets sold a computer system that contained a pirated copy of Windows XP Pro software to an undercover "mystery shopper" hired by Microsoft. Although the company sent a cease and desist letter to Bit Buckets later that month, a second mystery shopper purchased a computer system loaded with two pirated programs in August.

Microsoft is seeking punitive damages that will be determined by the court, the profits Bit Buckets derived from its illegal activities and attorneys fees.

Labels: News

Who might this be??? Unfortunately someone in my own backyard felling the MS pinch.

Star-Gazette
December 4, 2006

An unidentifed Horseheads computer business is being named in a civil suit filed Monday in federal court that charges the business with pirating Microsoft software and violating copyright laws.

Mary Jo Schrade, senior Microsoft attorney, said the name of the business is being withheld until the legal papers are served later today. The local company will be identifed then, she said.

Schrade also said the legal action against the Horseheads company is one of nine similar suits being filed in New York. Overall, 30 suits will be filed across the country today, with a second round scheduled for filing in late January.

Schrade said all of the cases filed today involve pirating copyrighted software or hard disc loading, where a vendor buys one copy of a software program and loads it on every computer sold at a particular store. Depending on the particulars of each individual case, Microsoft is seeking penalties ranging from $150,000 to $1 million.

The cases all resulted from "mystery shoppers" purchasing suspect computers and shipping them to Microsoft, where they where analyzed by the company’s engineers.

Check back with www.stargazette.com for continuing coverage of this story and read Tuesday's Star-Gazette for the complete story.

Labels: News

The story below was aired on WETM channel 18 News in Elmira, NY. The story, as you'll see, was about identity theft from discarding your old pc's with information that you don't think is still on it. Well, WETM called yours trully to do data recovery on some hard drives that were discarded, just to see what we could find for a news story, and we did find alot to go on. Below is the story as it aired and they posted it in print on their website as well, and they included a quote from me in the story too :)

Last Update: 11/29/2006 2:46:10 PM
Posted By: Rachel Rose

Bank account numbers. Social security numbers. Home addresses and more.

It's everything a criminal needs to steal your identity. Chances are, all or most of that information is stored right on your personal computer.

You may think you can just click "delete" to get rid of information on your hard drive before you throw it out, right? Wrong! We went through dozens of old, discarded computers and found everything a thief needs to steal your identity.

Take Margaret Rebarchik of Horseheads, for example. When she threw out her family's old personal computer, she thought she'd erased all the files from the hard drive. What she didn't know was that clicking "delete" doesn't really delete anything at all.

"It's just... it's just very unnerving that this would be out there," said Margaret when we confronted her with all the personal information we retrieved from her discarded computer.

We found Margaret's computer at R.E.A.C.T., an electronics recycling center in Big Flats. Then we took it to CyberDark Computing in Elmira to see just how easy it would be for a hacker to pull up her old files.

In a matter of minutes, we hit the jackpot: account numbers, addresses, phone numbers, employer information, birth dates. The list goes on and on.

"We just ran a simple little recovery that can be easily downloaded online, and recovered all their deleted files," said Phil Dowd, a CyberDark technician.

All it took was the simple click of a mouse and, in an instant, we had everything we needed to steal Margaret's identity. That's something that should be of grave concern to people who own personal computers, according to New York State Assistant Attorney General Michael Danaher.

"I had the opportunity to go through some of the information and you can almost picture the person in front of you when you look at some of the things recovered off the hard drive," Danaher said.

Of course, Margaret wasn't the only one at risk for identity theft. We found discarded computers with tax returns on them... even a copy of a security card with a signature! The risks are enormous, and the results could be devastating.

"A person can use any personal identification information to go into accounts and take money out of the accounts," Danaher said. "They could try to have the accounts transferred over to their names, they could get credit cards in the name of the person, using their personal identification information, and they could create a whole new credit history for that person."

According to the Federal Trade Commission, last year, more than 17,000 New Yorkers reported they'd been victims of identity theft. The same held true for 8,000 Pennsylvanians.

Fortunately, Margaret Rebarchik wasn't one of them. But, she could have been.

"All that personal information is stored on the computer as if it were a file cabinet," Danaher said. "You threw out your file cabinet without destroying any of the papers that were in it!"

A lesson learned in Margaret's book.

"I didn't know this back then, but I do now!"

Labels: News