by PEC 18 Replies latest jw friends
To either make up for all the shit they're done in their lives or to cover their asses for the great beyond just in case. My grandfather on my father's side got baptised as a jw very late in his life, my sister said he did it cuz he feared death, I'm thinking he must have did a lot of shit he was trying to make up for.
Josie
Because they are at the end of their lives and think more about it, and wonder if there is an after-life.
Maddie
Lore, No doubt about it, he would screw up any afterlife he was given.
Mr. Flipper, How can one be out the cult for so long and still believe? Maybe, I should send him a copy of COC.
It is sad that so many people live in fear of death. Why let something you have no control over ruin your life?
If there is a God, (I truly don't believe there is one.) all will have to account for their actions. Being good for the last hours, will not make a difference. Why can't people see this?
free2beme, I hadn't thought about #2, all of his brothers and sisters are Dubs and probably many of his children. He may be giving up one and gaining many.
Philip
Just to let you know that 80 is the new 50! ??????? How do you figure that out???I do believe Jesus is the reason for the season. But in some countries TODAY is the reason for the coming of Christ. Which would YOU want me to follow??? I dont care WHEN he came!!!! I just know I have a relationship with HIM I think he is coming again ,,, Maybe when I am dead I will see him, what ever !!!!But I believe HE IS THE CREATOR ....O.K. rocks may now be thrown
If you think I feel 50 & if you think you will be 50 when your 80 I have some land here to sell you!!!
::covering Mouthy with a magic rubber suit of armor so rocks bounce off:: (its me; Redneck Kathleen from California)
Maybe your Dad is afraid of HIS GOD holding in to account all his past "sins" & feels if he works for that GOD he will be forgiven...
I think the same thing. The good thing is you don't have to take God away from your dad in order to help him find love. What he needs is to find Jesus and understand the true gospel message that there is no amount of works he can do to be "approved" of by God. Repentance, being truly sorry for your screw ups, is something you need Jesus for, not the Watchtower. It is sucha simple act, and yet the hardest one for us. We hate to admit we are wrong and have done wrong and justify ou\r evils by accusing the ones we hurt.
Crisis of conscience might be a good idea. I'll send him one if you want. I've done it before and write "from someone who loves you".
The other day, I was talking to my brother and he tells me that my biological father, has started going back to the meetings and is now shunning him. This man, now 77, has lived a life outside (sex, drugs and rock and roll) of the borg for at least 47 years. He lives about a 6 hour drive from me. I am tempted to drive there and give him a piece of my mind. If you would like to know more about this man, read my bio. I know he is not worth my time; but, my brother deserves better. What do you think?
Philip
When my father died of prostrate cancer at 74, He said he never made a deal with god. I didnt care much for my father, but I do respect that he was consisten in how he lived his life.
He didnt make any deals on his death bed.
I read your bio, it sounds like you had it rough growing up.
I think we are all products of our enviroment and upbringing and education and then there is also our own make up and genetics. Ive raised cocker spaniels, I have 4 since birth, they were all given love and attention and they have different personalities, same with cats.
What I'm saying is I dont know why your father abandoned you.
If giving him a piece of your mind would provide closeure to you that could be an option.
I waited 52 years for my father and mother to make right the wrongs of their raising me, it never happened.
My father did tell me he loved me before he died and my mothe said she was sorry for whatever she did that upset me in my life.
Cant really put those things in the bank or market them in place of a jw education.
You say he's not worth your time. I'm thinking you have a curiosity to see your biological, genetic begetter. Which is probably very normal and natural.
Keep us posted on your adventures.
So herein is the problem with the whole bs story. You are told to be afraid-God is vengeful, spiteful and so on. It is scored into your psyche. Problem is that is an awful thing to believe and the mind just can't get over it because once again fear is the motivating factor, But you cannot be 100% certain because we are after all thinking human beings. Why would God be so full of negative emotions?
So as long as people believe there is negative feelings about God, there will always be doubt. If anyone here can believe that the creator is not what some say it is, then perhaps you can cross this negative threshold and start to feel better about your current existence. If you can't , you will always be afraid of the unknown.
My JW associate asked me last month about this question. I told him that if you believe that God is a spiritually perfect being, then what reason do or should you live in fear? I said I am fully aware of my limited lifespan, and believe that if there is an afterlife, that I (and everyone else) would be taken care of. Because I for one do not live in fear. Only I control me. He on the other hand lives in endless fear. That's the control.
Thanks worldtraveller. Those wise and rational thoughts made a LOT of sense to me. It comes down to this: If Jehovah will terminate the great majority of humankind for eternity at Armageddon, as the Watchtower indeed teaches he will, then the Devil won! The Devil succeeded in getting Jehovah to kill billions foreve in furtherance of His own need to prove Himself to his creation as a loving, just, God worthy of worship. One doesn't have to be a genuis to see the awful irony in that. I have no desire to worship such a God, the God of the Watchtower religion. Such a monstrously unfathomable act of cruelty would also prove that Jesus was a liar since Jesus said he came to save the world. If Jesus massacres billions of mankind forever at Armageddon, by no account has he saved the world and he did not love the world as he said he did (John 3:16). You cannot say "I love you. I'll kill you!" That's evil and absurd. It would also prove Jehovah is not just because by no stretch of the imagination is to just to resurrect billions who died in ignorance but to slaughter billions at Armaggedon for eternity who are likewise in ignorance. Why should you get a second chance at eternal life based only on the arbitrariness of when in history you were born. God is not so capricious. So if Jehovah is a loving, just, merciful God, he would never, ever kill most of humanity for all eternity at Armageddon. I dont' quite know what Jehovah has in store for humanity in the future but I know it is not the awful holocaustic future that the Watchtower paints. This simple but profound epiphany is what extinguished my morbid, fear of Jehovah that kept me enslaved to Watchtowerism. The realisation taht the Watchtower was not teaching the truth about Jehovah's purposes for mankind is what broke the Watchtower's spell over me and set me free. Yes, "knowing" the truth about who Jehovah is indeed set me free (John 17:3). The Watchtower distorts this truth to keep their subjects in loyal, obedient, unquestioning mental bondage to their religionism.
Just a reminder of what a great religion Catholicism is. You can be a completly despicable piece of human garbage all your life and then get absolution on your death bed. No muss, no fuss. As far as what really happens after death, well, that's the beauty of of a religion that promises everything...after your dead.
Philip, you may not be aware of this, but God is using you in ways you have no idea about. Believe me I know. God can use any person any time as an instrument to accomplish a matter or God's will.
I believe some people feel very guilty about the things they should and shouldn't have done in their lives. Its like they want to make an amendment with God. Sometimes that is all they have to hold on to because they are afraid. Perhaps with your father, he was once a witness and he turned away and now out of fear more then remorse he is trying to fix things. He may wonder will God forgive me for what I did to my kids and wife. .. He is like making a bargin with God, by telling God I am sorry and just maybe He will not judge me so harshly. Fear factor is strong when on a death bed. If a person has any kind of a conscience one is going to beg God for forgiveness . It is only natural. I believe that even the worse person has some good in them on the other hand a person knows what he did to you and your family so he needs to ask God if He will forgive him. When Jesus was dying on the cross the evildoer beside Jesus asked if he will be remembered when Jesus gets into his Kingdom, This man was a criminal probably did terrible things and yet Jesus answers affirmativiely. Its only in the hands of God, it is not for us to judge. As we may judge to much.Or unfairly. Yes he hurt you all very deeply, but he is still your father. Maybe it hard to except that and I don't blame you. However when we pray and ask God's forgiveness he grants us only if it is asked in true sincerity. That is where the matter of the Heart comes into place if your father is sincerely sorry and you'll only know that if you go to see him and set matters straight and get matters off of your chest. Forgiveness is by no means an easy thing to do. However it is possible. Go to his bed side and see for yourself what he says and leave the rest in the hands of God.
If I have overstepped my boundry here I apoligize to you. But I believe we all deserve second chances.
love Orangefatcat
