A blog by Tom Sheepandgoats (aka Tom Harley)
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Regarding the Recent Update on Blood Transfusions: Part 2
(See Part 1) At long last, two scriptures long acknowledged but long deemphasized are coming to the fore. I could not be happier. For the longest time I have adopted the Rolling Stones song as my personal year text: “You can’t always get what you want.” Now it is beginning to appear as though I can. Or at least more than previously imagined. The two…
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Regarding the Recent Update on Blood Transfusions: Part 1
What about the recent revision regarding blood transfusions—that it will no longer be a matter the congregation gets involved with? It’s not as though any view has changed with regard to the prohibition of blood stated at Acts 15:29. It’s just that the congregation will no longer get involved in how people navigate it. Two of the “four basic components of blood: white cells and…
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Boarding a Ship that You Know is Going to Sink: Part 2
(See Part 1) The Adam and Eve account is one of humans cutting themselves off from their power source. Thereby, they bring death upon themselves that would not otherwise come. Like the blades of a fan after pulling the plug, lifespans slow. At Genesis chapter 5, they are in the 900-year range. By Genesis chapter 11, it has dropped to about 500 years. By Abraham’s…
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Boarding a Ship that You Know is Going to Sink
A certain sage likened the journey of life to boarding a ship heading out to sea that you know is going to sink. Somehow, people must come to grips with that. Nobody would ever book a cruise knowing the ship will sink, no matter how enticing the stops on the way. Somehow humans have to come to terms with our limited lifespan. A good start…
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Setting Matters Straight Between Us
“Come, now, and let us set matters straight between us,” says Jehovah. “Though your sins are like scarlet, They will be made as white as snow; Though they are as red as crimson cloth, They will become like wool. (Isaiah 1:18) Many times I speak with people. Rarely do I precede my remarks with “Come now, and let us set matters straight between us.” It…
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Takeaways from Gibeon
You know when people are pulling lessons out of Gibeon that you’re dealing with a Bible people. You’re dealing with a people who take seriously that counsel that “all the things that were written beforehand were written for our instruction.” (Romans 15:4) So it was with the Watchtower Study of September 13, 2026, reviewing several developments in that Gibeonite mess that nonetheless turned out well.…
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The New Covenant of Jeremiah 31: Parts 1-3
(1) The New Covenant of Jeremiah 31 Just after that slogan of setting teeth on edge and what it means (Jeremiah 31:29-30) comes the promise of the new covenant that sets it in motion: “Look! The days are coming,” declares Jehovah, “when I will make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant. It will not be like the…
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Fathers Eat Sour Grapes; The Teeth of the Sons are Set on Edge
What about this expression: “In those days they will no longer say, ‘The fathers ate sour grapes, but the teeth of the sons were set on edge. But then each one will die for his own error. Any man eating sour grapes will have his own teeth set on edge?” (Jeremiah 31:29-30) Does it mean that the days are coming (1) in which no one…
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That First Night Away from Home
That First Night Away from Home That first night away from home you don’t sleep so well. The second night, and all nights thereafter, you do. It’s a carryover from the caveman “eat or be eaten days,” say people who believe in such things. Half your brain is sound asleep. But it has charged the other half, also asleep, to sleep not so soundly, to…
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What is the Purpose of the Daniel 4 Dream?
What is the Purpose of the Daniel 4 Dream? The purpose of the 4th-chapter-Daniel dream is reiterated three times to Nebuchadnezzar. Three times! Isn’t there a thing that repetition so many times means it carries great significance? “that people living may know that the Most High is Ruler in the kingdom of mankind and that he gives it to whomever he wants, and he sets…