A little help from you bible brainiacs ;)

rassillon

I wanted to throw this out there just to make sure I got my facts straight. I have been researching this but I am still trying to weed out those thoughts planted during a life as a JW. I will just ask the questions and not cloud with my own view but would like the input from you guys....girls too! SCRIPTURALLY.....What is the "Good News" that is to be preached? SCRIPTURALLY.....Is there any support for including a message of warning or destruction? Thanks for your help.... On a side note, I don't know how some of you brainiacs use a computer, I would have thought that when you start thinking your head would create so much static electricity that it would burn out the motherboard? LOL....I know it is corny but I just had to write down the image I had in my head. Thanks -r

LittleToe

The WTS makes much of Matt.24:14 "This good news of the kingdom...", and binds it to their end-times prophesying. The counter to that slant is found in the parallel verses in Luke 21:8 where there's a warning not to follow after people who say such things or to be terrified, but to discern a sense of urgency for yourself in eagerness for the Christ..

The "Gospel" or "Good News" is actually about Christ/ Messiah. That he has arrived, done his work, and people can receive the blessings that come from that. Some expand that to include a future "return", and if that helps them then so be it. Personally I see it in terms of a desire to enjoy more of his presense, rather than a sense of a current absence.

Anything to do with signs and seasons, confusion and anti-christ is just so much window dressing, to my way of thinking. When the emphasis is distracted away from the person of Christ himself then it has become something other than Christianity.

nvrgnbk

I am not currently a believer(respectful of those who are).

I understand the "good news" to be that of salvation through Jesus' shed blood. He is(in his words) the way, the truth,

and the life(John 14:6). IMHO that is so obvious from an unbiased perusal of the New Testament.

What-A-Coincidence

The Good News?

I believe JWD is "The Good News". Next question?

Confession

Neither am I a believer, but (like Nvrgnbk) respect pure Christianity a great deal--and even feel glad for the good qualities I absorbed while a part of that perversion of Christianity: The Watchtower religion. (Yes I'm happy to be able to see the good, despite the bad.)

I think Little Toe explained it well. Christ came, showed followers "The Way," laid down His life to redeem the souls of all who would then put faith in Him.

Note: Remember when Jesus likened himself to the copper serpent Moses lifted up in the wilderness? The story goes that, for a time, God's loyal were instructed to fixate on this copper serpent so that--if they were bitten by a poisonous viper--they would not die. Jesus similarly said, "Keep looking at me."

[Watchtower translation] 'Keep looking, not at Jesus, you pathetic, undeserving ones...But at us, and we will "manage" your faith for you.'

jgnat

AND when the copper snake became the focus of their worship, it was put away.

Matthew 11:2-6. Jesus pointed to the evidence; the sick and the poor are healed and made whole.
Luke 4:18 -21 . The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave [it] again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

Doug Mason

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Rom 1:16, 17, NIV)

The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” (Gal 3:8, NIV)

Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! (Gal 1:7-9, NIV)

UnDisfellowshipped

When the Apostles taught the truth of the Good News, this is what they taught:

All men are sinners, who cannot save themselves by any good works (see Romans chapters 3 and 4), that God The Father loved the world so much that He sent His Only-Begotten Son to the earth (see John 3:16-18), and that Jesus was The Son of God and God (see John 1:1, 1:14, 1:18, 5:18, 5:23, 8:58, 20:28, Colossians 2:9), who became flesh to suffer, die, and shed His blood for our sins (see Isaiah chapter 53, Philippians 2:5-11, John 1:14) and was buried and rose again on the third day (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-8) and was taken up to heaven where He sits at God's right hand (see Psalm 110:1, Hebrews 1:3), and He is our Lord, Savior, Mediator, and High Priest, and that we must turn from our sins (repent) and we are saved only by grace through faith in Him and His sacrifice, and by trusting in Him and calling on His Name, and once that happens then we are born again and washed from our sins by The Holy Spirit who then dwells in our hearts.

That Gospel is pretty straightforward and simple isn't it? That is what is required to be saved. No extremely complex set of theology. No "in-depth" understanding of all of the details. No deep revelation about how the Trinity could exist or the exact details of the relationship between The Father, The Son, and The Spirit. No "Faithful and Discreet Slave Class" required. After you are born again, God's Spirit leads you into all truth, more and more progressively.

The Apostle Paul summed it up better than I ever could in 1 Corinthians chapter 15:

1 Corinthians 15:1-8 (Good News Translation): And now I want to remind you, my friends, of the Good News which I preached to you, which you received, and on which your faith stands firm. That is the gospel, the message that I preached to you. You are saved by the gospel if you hold firmly to it---unless it was for nothing that you believed. I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures; that he was buried and that he was raised to life three days later, as written in the Scriptures; that he appeared to Peter and then to all twelve apostles. Then he appeared to more than five hundred of his followers at once, most of whom are still alive, although some have died. Then he appeared to James, and afterward to all the apostles. Last of all he appeared also to me---even though I am like someone whose birth was abnormal.

1 Corinthians 15:11, 14-20 (Good News Translation): So then, whether it came from me or from them, this is what we all preach, and this is what you believe. ... and if Christ has not been raised from death, then we have nothing to preach and you have nothing to believe. More than that, we are shown to be lying about God, because we said that he raised Christ from death---but if it is true that the dead are not raised to life, then he did not raise Christ. For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is a delusion and you are still lost in your sins. It would also mean that the believers in Christ who have died are lost. If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more, then we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world. But the truth is that Christ has been raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised.

Then Paul put a curse on anyone who changes this Good News or preaches a different Good News:

Galatians 1:6-9 (Good News Translation): I am surprised at you! In no time at all you are deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ, and are accepting another gospel. Actually, there is no "other gospel," but I say this because there are some people who are upsetting you and trying to change the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel that is different from the one we preached to you, may he be condemned to hell! We have said it before, and now I say it again: if anyone preaches to you a gospel that is different from the one you accepted, may he be condemned to hell!

2 Corinthians 11:3-4 (Good News Translation): I am afraid that your minds will be corrupted and that you will abandon your full and pure devotion to Christ---in the same way that Eve was deceived by the snake's clever lies. For you gladly tolerate anyone who comes to you and preaches a different Jesus, not the one we preached; and you accept a spirit and a gospel completely different from the Spirit and the gospel you received from us!

OnTheWayOut

The Good News- I will answer from my understanding and not from the WT.

The Good News is "The good news of the kingdom and of Christ's sacrifice."
That means the good news or "Gospel" is supposed to be about how Christ gave his
life for the salvation of all mankind.

WTS convolutes by focusing on the first part- Good news "of the kingdom."
They say this is the message of Paradise and how Jehovah will bring it about, how
the government of the Kingdom will solve all of Man's problems. This allows them to
remove the focus from Christ and put "personal responsibility" into the news. You
can't partake of the sacrifice unless you accept the kingdom message, you can't accept
the kingdom message unless you accept this literature that God's representative has
printed for you, and you should donate money for it, to show that you appreciate it.

LittleToe

UnDFed:

That Gospel is pretty straightforward and simple isn't it?

Sorry to get on your case, bro, but; not when put that way!

If you want it simple, then: "He die; me no die!"

A little help from you bible brainiacs ;)

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