Hey guys. Just wondering what you guys believe the holy spirit is, according to you JW beliefs. More questions may come depending on answers provided.
Thank you for your time :)
Scotty
What is the holy spirit? (according to JW)
by Scotty_was_taken 33 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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stillajwexelder
First of all welcome to the board
Second I would say this board is 70% Ex Jws , 25% free-thinking still Jws but fading, 5% never been JWs
A typical JW views the Holy Spirit as Gods active force, NOT part of a Trinity and NOT a person
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Scotty_was_taken
Thank you for you answer.
The next question is, what do you think the meaning behind "blashphemy against the 'holy spirit' is unforgiveable" is. Is it safe to assume that saying the works of God are from satan fits right into this meaning?
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Gopher
Is it safe to assume that saying the works of God are from satan fits right into this meaning?
It is safe to assume that JW's believe so. They say the "works of God" were brought about by holy spirit, so anyone denying that would supposedly be blaspheming holy spirit.
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Scotty_was_taken
You guys are so quick! I love it!
Ok so, the third question is do you believe that the power of healing is reserved for christians, or can be satanic also?
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Gopher
I'm not a JW but was brought up to be one, and can "think like one" just for the sake of argument or for fun!
JW's believe that only the first-century Christians had the "gift" of healing, and that it was only transferred to a person through a living apostle. They teach that after the apostles died, the special gifts cease - as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13 they would one day.
Can Satan do healing? I'm a little fuzzy on what exactly JW's teach on that, since I don't remember them saying much about it. I think they believe that any "healing" done by non-Christians was fraudulent or imaginary, and that ANY healing after the first century (including now) is also either fraudulent or imaginary.
The JW's do believe that the demons can still do very scary things to people. Demon-phobia is not uncommon among Witnesses.
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Scotty_was_taken
Ok, so to sum up. Any proven fact of spiritual healing would shoot JW beliefs on that 'particular area' out the window? Or could there be a different approach on it?
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Gopher
I can't provide any 'proven facts' about healing. That's not a subject we'd ofen raise to disprove JW doctrines.
To try to argue with JW's on something they don't believe (Trinity, charismatic gifts, hellfire) usually gets you nowhere. It's more straightforward to get them on things they actually do believe in (such as the 1914 doctrine, other dates they had to change). Even then, it's usually hard to get through to a JW.
Usually they only see the light about their organization when they're ready to, and it's usually more over the lack of love inside their Kingdom Hall than it is over a particular doctrine.
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tula
John 20:
22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
(one of the gifts of the spirit is discernment)
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Scotty_was_taken
I can't provide any 'proven facts' about healing. That's not a subject we'd ofen raise to disprove JW doctrines.
To try to argue with JW's on something they don't believe (Trinity, charismatic gifts, hellfire) usually gets you nowhere. It's more straightforward to get them on things they actually do believe in (such as the 1914 doctrine, other dates they had to change). Even then, it's usually hard to get through to a JW.
Usually they only see the light about their organization when they're ready to, and it's usually more over the lack of love inside their Kingdom Hall than it is over a particular doctrine.
Hrmm. The thing is a good friend of mines spine was healed at a worship thing. Every week i have some JWs come over (every tuesday) and we just talk about beliefs. one thing i stumbled across was him saying that healing by someone who believs in the trinity is satanic. Now if they believe that satan heals, thats a kingdom against itself, which cannot stand according to jesus. if they dont believe that satan can heal, then The holy spirit was infact the healing force, and they spoke out against it. Now im not saying they're unforgiven, because they most likely have to witness it and then speak against it, rather than just hear about it. but im worried what JW's will do if they ever witness one.
another thing is they dont believe that it wasn't all jesus that did the healing, but relied greatly on the healed persons faith. Jesus always asks "do you believe it can happed?" and they would say yes. he would then go to say "then it is done". Never did he heal a person who didnt believe it could be done. the bible even says somewhere "and he didn't do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. it was funny watching him change the topic immediately when i informed him of that little detail.
i dont believe any denominations are 100% correct. They just seperate people who love God. I'm sure there are people who are JW and people who are other denoms that are on the right path to Christ.