Greetings! I'm new here. Found this thread and thought I'd reply. I hope I'm not interupting a private conversation...I'd like to address a number of the issues raised in the thread, but first, I'll answer the survey just like everyone else had to do...
1. Do you believe in God (or that the universe has a Creator)? Yes. Absolutely.
2. Have you ever regularly attended meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses (either baptized or not)?
No. Never.
3. Do you personally agree with all current teachings and practices of Jehovah's Witnesses?
No. From my research, I'd have to say none.
4. Do you believe that the modern-day organization of Jehovah's Witnesses has God's blessing?
No. Not at all.
5. Do you believe that the modern-day organization of Jehovah's Witnesses is God's ONLY channel of spiritual revelation to mankind?
No. Not at all.
6. Do you believe that Christianity is the only form of worship approved by God?
True Christianity, Yes. Religeous Christianity. Nope.
7. Do you believe that the Bible (or parts of it) are inspired by God?
Yes, I'd say all of it.
8. Do you believe that any religious book(s) other than the Bible are inspired by God?
None that I'm aware of are directly inspired as the Bible or biblical literature is. Truth is truth, and partial truth can be found outside the Bible.
9. Do you believe that there will be a judgment day from God -- when God will judge living humans and put to death any that are not approved?
I believe in the judgement day, perhaps not in the same way you have described it.
10. Do you believe that mankind is living in the Bible's prophesied "last days" and that a judgment day from God will come in the near future?
Last days in the sense that it is the epoch between Christ's coming and the end of the world? Yes. No man knows the day, but relatively near future, yes.
Now, If I may, I would like to take up some of the issues raised.
The position that has been presented, that of progressive revelation through Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is really a limited relativism. The notion that they are all paths to truth. I must disagree. For it is written:
Malachi 3:6-7
"For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
"From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says
the LORD of hosts. "But you say, 'How shall we return?'
also,
1 Samuel 15:29
"Also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind."
and,
Psalms 110:4
The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind,
"You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek."
Hebrews 6:17-18
In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to
take hold of the hope set before us.
God does not change. His requirements do not change, his character does not change, his plan does not change.
You may say, from Judaism to Christianity is a big change, but I would remind you that there are some 300 prophecies beginning in Genesis and moving right up through Malachi that predict nearly every aspect of the Messiah's life. Everyone of them was fulfilled by the life and work of Jesus Christ. God's redemptive plan was announced IMMEDIATELY after the fall of man in the garden.
Getting back to the issue... It is impossible that all belief systems or religeons should weigh equally on the scale. For if one says "we are all gods" and another "there is one God" how can they both be right? If one says " Man lives once and then faces judgement" and another says "we keep coming back, over and over again until we get it right" then how can both be right? If one says "'god' is an impersonal force, blind to what is really going on" and another says "God is active in this world and personally concerned with our lives to the point that he cares about the number of hairs we have on our head" They cannot both be right. It's mutually exclusive. Either one is right and the other is wrong, or they are both wrong.
Narrow? rigid? Yes. But the kid who says 2+2=5 fails the test.
for it is written:
Matthew 7:13-14
"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it."
Throughout the Bible record, God clearly and demonstratively condemns the worship of any god's other than himself. It is clear that God does not view salvation as broad or relative.
Salvation comes through faith that God is who he said he is and will do what he says he will do. It was belief that was credited to Abraham as righteousness. It is faith in the person of Jesus Christ that saves us.
The law and the prophets were not given to provide salvation, but rather to reveal our need for redemption. The sacrifices of the Jews were not given but as a picture of the sacrifice God would make when he bound himself in human flesh, walked blamelessly before us as a model of his love acted out. Love to the point of death. That is the call on everyone who would follow Christ.
A final thought...
Jeremiah 2:11
"Has a nation changed gods
When they were not gods?
But My people have changed their glory
For that which does not profit."
