What is the meaning of Apostate?

by NiecyMe 20 Replies latest jw experiences

  • IP_SEC
    IP_SEC

    Once it was the most dishonorable term I could have imagined. Now it is a brand of honor. The WTS uses it as argumentum ad hominem. By our actions we can/have made it something to be proud of.

    Im with Dave, independant thinker.

  • A Paduan
    A Paduan

    how 'bout 'Truthteller'

    Do you tell it like it is, or are you a jw - do you talk up your emporer's clothes, or say what you know

  • ButtLight
    ButtLight

    1 : renunciation of a religious faith
    2 : abandonment of a previous loyalty

    So what it really means is that if you werent born in the "truth", and left, lets say the catholic faith to become a witness, your an apostate. So in that case, half the witnesses are apostates!!!!!!!!

  • schne_belly
    schne_belly

    I've always preferred "heretic"

  • MsMcDucket
    MsMcDucket

    Strong willed person. Someone who was able to go against his peers beliefs. Willing to be shunned because he/she knows that leaving the group is the right thing. I, also, like ex-cult member, because it throws the ball back at them.

  • jgnat
    jgnat

    I like the Apologetics index definition.. A falling away or departure from a previously maintained orthodox position (as in certain denominations which once held to orthodoxy but have rejected it). Adj.: "apostate." Definition from: "A Biblical Guide To Orthodoxy And Heresy Part One: The Case For Doctrinal Discernment" (an article from the Christian Research Journal, Summer 1990, page 28) by Robert M. Bowman.

    Also: renunciation of a previously held religious faith, or abandonment of a previous loyalty (e.g. a cult member who defects).

  • NiecyMe
    NiecyMe

    This is my thought... Apostate is a word that exsist as a label. To depict someone out from another...like: black, rich, poor, ugly...ect. If anyone here has learned anything about life at all...open your eyes. We are not apostates!! we are people that love, give love and recieve love. We all breath the same air. So..to carry any label..you are just that "a label". trapped in a title that says that this is who you are and that is all?! to be something is to become nothing first. God only sees the colors of your spirit....is that not what we should only try to see in all people. Freedom is all we need. From eachother and from ourselves.

  • tetrapod.sapien
    tetrapod.sapien
    We are not apostates!!

    sorry, but you will have to speak for yourself there. Apostate is one of the only labels i do not mind. because it's not just about being an apostate to the WTS or xianity. it's about being an apostate to conservative, narrow-minded thinking.

    God only sees the colors of your spirit....

    not in my universe. in my universe, i am God, and answer to no other Gods, and i see no colors of anyones spirit. which makes sense since we are yet to document these things called spirits.

    have a nice night.

    TS

  • ackack
    ackack

    The term apostate, as JW's use it today, did not come into Watchtower parlance until 1980, post Franz. Previously, apostate was usually paired with Christendom, as in "apostate Christendom" or "apostate Christians of Christendom" or something along those lines.

    Hey... what can I say? They needed a label. :)

    ackack

  • Jeffro
    Jeffro

    Anyone who leaves any religion to become a Jehovah's Witness is also an apostate. The Witnesses seek to assign addtional meaning to the word when using it refer to anyone who leaves their religion, but it is an illusion.

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