I didn't appreciate the book called The Bible until I made a good study of the secular history of the Hebrew people and studied Judaism and the manners and customs of the Jewish people. I read the Tanakh in English, and interviewed all the Rabbis that would tolerate me.
The Jehovah's Witness writers don't have one single clue what Judaism means and what the festivals mean in antiquity and today. The Witnesses don't have a clue about manners and customs in Biblical times. They don't understand which stories are myths and parables are which are historical.
Challenge your assumptions.
Don't know what to belief anymore?
by GBSJG 23 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
garybuss
-
jgnat
You can neither debunk or verify the bible with historical "facts". It is impossible to have perfect clarity of history, due to it's nature. Every second you are away from an event, the more you rely on your memory or imperfect record of the event. Even two eyewitnesses will give a different account, or perspective. Here's a bit of literature, barely 400 years old, written in English. What does it mean?
That barefoot plod I the cold ground upon,
With sainted vow my faults to have amended.
Write, write, that from the bloody course of war
My dearest master, your dear son, may hie:
Bless him at home in peace, whilst I from far
His name with zealous fervor sanctify:http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/allswell/allswell.3.4.html
Now, you take ancient history, thousands of years before our time, an alien culture, a dead language, and the best we can do is guess. Now, there are very good scholars who make very good guesses. Then you have academia scrutinizing the scholars. Who did the better research?
The Jehovah's Witnesses demand perfect order in their universe. Unfortunately, the universe does not cooperate very often. Give up the idea of perfect order, observe, and the world starts to make a whole bunch more sense.
-
lovelylil
The bible is about Jesus. The OT pointed to him and why we needed him. The NT introduced us to him in the flesh. The bible should not be held up to our modern day evidences as if it is a book of archaeology or science or anything like that. And like LT said, if you focus on dates, the bible will become nothing more than a dusty old book.
Many people read the bible and though we realize that it was written by men from their own perspectives, contains some oral tradition handed down, contains parables and not actual events, and some things they wrote about may not be significant for us in our day, we still find much value in the teachings and principles laid out in it. I love the way LT said the bible was written to introduce us to a person. He is so right. Focus on that and you will enjoy reading the bible again. Lilly
-
parakeet
If you feel you must have answers to all your questions, then turn off the thinking part of your brain and stay a JW. Not knowing what to believe is the beginning of wisdom. You may never find all the answers you're looking for, but learning to live with doubt (and awe) when confronted with the big questions is a worthwhile end in itself. Keep searching and keep an open mind. You're doing great!
-
poppers
But the next question is then what to belief.
There is an assumption in this statement that is being overlooked. The assumption is this: You must believe in something. Is this really true? Is that what you are looking for, just something to believe in? If so, just keep looking for some belief to invest energy in keep by checking out different religions and philosophies. But if you are looking for a happiness and a fulfillment that isn't dependent upon anything then there is no need to seek that in something outside yourself. Stop all searching, all seeking; stop all beliefs in anything, including the belief in a self separate from everything else, and you will be astonished at what is found.
Religions' and philosophies' greatest curse is that they keep you stuck in the belief that you must believe in something in order to find peace and clarity. It just ain't so. If you want to continue to remain separate from everything else, if you want to isolate yourself from others, find yourself a nice comfortable religion or philosophy to cling to. And when that fails to give satisfaction dump it and find another. But if you want to find deep peace, contentment, and fulfillment discover what's here right now - discover what you really are prior to the arising of any belief.
Parakeet is on to something when she said:
Not knowing what to believe is the beginning of wisdom.
-
OnTheWayOut
There is no doubt in my mind that the JWs are not the one true religion. But the next question is then what to belief.
I totally relate to that. Many ex-JW people are Black-and-White-Thinkers. There must be a right way and the others are wrong ways. I fight that feeling constantly, but still have it with me.
I find proof that seems to indicate that what is described in the Bible actually happened .....
Then you find a lot of proof that seems to indicate otherwise
Yes, I think that many proofs are in how the analysis uses the data. They prove whatever they want to prove and ignore data that doesn't fit. That is not only the JW way, that is the way of science, religion, politics, debate.
So in my mind i'm becoming an agnostic or maybe even atheist, but still the evidence that seems to be in favor of the bible story is really bugging me sometimes. How do you handle this? Do you just ignore it or give up because you realize you will never find concluding evidence either way and you choose what in your mind is the most reasonable?
Same here, GBSJG. I feel like I am leaning toward atheism more and more, but I don't know if that is so. That makes us agnostics. I figure that the God of the New Testament is about forgiveness. If I live a good life, and never discover the exact way to worship him, he promises to forgive me. If the message of Christianity is even remotely accurate, God would not destroy billions of people because they were confused by all the religious ideas out there. Enjoy the search. I know that my JW experience causes me to avoid association with ANY organization. How could God hold that against me? Yes, I doubt the Bible is the word of God, but it might be. Yes, I am confident that Science has better explanations than religion about the origin of life and man, but maybe God used those methods. Who truly knows.
-
GBSJG
When I still believed the world was so simple. All the import questions in live had been answered before me I just had to look them up in the Watchtower.
When you then research things and come to find that the WTS is not the truth then the world is not that simple anymore. And you actually have to do research and think for yourself about all those questions and create an own opinion. Which I enjoy doing that definetly gives me a feeling of freedom.
But I'm heaving some trouble accepting that on some questions I will never find an absolute answer. Life isn't as black and white as I used to think. Leaving the WTS really makes you doubt everything you have ever learned and that causes some stress.
I also keep thinking about the progress of science. People didn't understand how thunder and lightning worked and they believed that the Gods where having a fight in heavens. At that time that conclusion seemed reasonable. Now we know more about how thunder and lightning works and we don't believe the old conclusion anymore. When I think about that then it's also possible that in the future science will discover more things that we at this moment don't understand yet. -
OnTheWayOut
Welcome to the way most people have to face life- saying "I want to know, but I don't know what truth is."
This is the Black-and-White thinking that I fight:
Either there is a God or there is not.
If there is a God- Either He inspired the Bible or He did not.
If He inspired the Bible, then He wants us to learn it's value.
If He did not inspire the Bible (or if there is no God), then the Bible is just Men's thoughts.Either way, most groups of men mislead people with the Bible.
I am on my own to decide what "truth" is, but that means I will never be 100% sure.I say I fight this thinking because it is so FINAL. Just knowing if there were a God
would not automatically allow me to know who he is, what he is like, what he expects.
Even if he inspired the Bible, it would not tell me if what we have today is his thoughts
or those of the men who interpret it, I would still have to decide how to use the Bible.
Even if he did not inspire the Bible, it has value to us, today.Science will keep updating itself, proving that what we "knew" years ago was wrong.
Enjoy the learning process. Expand your mind. Keep searching. -
2112
Nobody has a monopoly on God. Nobody is totally right on all things and nobody is totally wrong on all things. Follow what you know to be rightous in your heart and you will do fine. Many good replies have been posted here read them and think on what they have said.
-
AK - Jeff
When I still believed the world was so simple. All the import questions in live had been answered before me I just had to look them up in the Watchtower.
But I'm heaving some trouble accepting that on some questions I will never find an absolute answer. Life isn't as black and white as I used to think. Leaving the WTS really makes you doubt everything you have ever learned and that causes some stress.Simply put - the Watchtower mindset is; If the Tower doesn't explain it, we don't need to know the answer.
Life is absolutely not black and white. Stress is not absolutely a negative thing though. It sometimes drives us to shift our paradigm, 180 degrees at times.
I still have not 'landed', cannot totally explain my personal theological perspectives yet after three years. I count that a blessing in many ways. I am looking at things from a totally different position now - and finding a delightful world of diverse opinion. To me it is like the sun rising on a foggy morning - the more fog that dissipates, the more I can rejoice in finding that all the conceptions of myself having all the answers were wrong - and comforting too. What terrified me thru the fog becomes a blessing when the fog is gone. I no longer see my world as evil and corrupt - though there is some of that. I no longer judge people as damned for a different perspective than my own. Wonderful freedom that.
I asked a believer at work yesterday if she was 'religious' or just 'spiritual'? She and I had a wonderful conversation on God and life and much more - I found that I would not want this person to die at Armageddon, though she did not believe the same as I do in all things. How could God not see the 'goodness' of those diverse in thought and action. The world became a better place when I left the 'box'.
I work on defining my Christianity yet, but humanity is part of my character now. That piece is in place for me.
Jeff