I'm really trying to understand.... (page 3)

The Oracle

Many of us want desperately to believe in something.... in something greater than us.... in something better than us.... something infinitely wiser and kinder than us.

The JW version of truth is so wrong - so twisted, it's no wonder that many peoples faith has been shattered in all things theocratic.

I prefer the clean slate approach. Now that the garbage has been identified, let's start fresh.

Let's begin the journey.

The Oracle

Anti-Christ

Apurpose in life? Well how about not analyzing it to death and start enjoying what the planet has to offer?

I totally agree. I find that certain things need to be analyzed but not at the expense of enjoying life. I think if a belief does not old you back and does no harm to you and others then I don't see any problem with that. I do think it is important to question why we believe something. That's one reason why I love coming here, I'm able to get a lot of information, answers and different points of view. Life is awesome.

OnTheWayOut

StAnn

I've been studying Christianity and the Bible at university for some time and all I can say is it can't be explained quickly in one post, so I won't even try. The more I learn about it, the more astonished I am at how much I didn't know. It's quite embarrassing to think I used to go door to door, feeling oh-so-smug about my wealth of Bible knowledge. I knew very little then and what I did know was wrong.

I've watched quite a lot of the History Channel's religion programming and I've found it to be biased and misleading. I guess the scholar in me wants a certain amount of objectivity.

Remember at Pentecost how, after Jesus' death he sent the Holy Spirit to guide the early Church? Remember that Jesus said to Peter that the gates of hell would not prevail against his Church and that he would be with it always? We really believe that. We believe that Jesus really did send the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and that He has really guided his Church and never abandoned it. After a couple of hundred years of discussion, the Catholic Church weighed the authenticity and authorship of the various books floating around and decided which ones were in keeping with the teachings of Christ and which were not. The ones that were in keeping were codified into the Canon of scripture that we have now. Even the JWs haven't tried to introduce new books into the Bible or rejected the Bible, which was given to the world by the Catholic Church.

I don't believe in a man made religion unless that man is Jesus. I do believe in Jesus. I didn't for a long time. I was so burnt out after 25 years as a JW that I didn't believe in anything for the longest time but that has changed with time, research, and experience.

If you want to go back and research the history of the very, very early Church, from the time of the apostles through the first 300 years, read the writings of the Ante-Nicene fathers. There is a 10 or 11 volume set of their writings still in print. There's also a good book that puts some of the stories of the early fathers in a very readable form, called "The Four Witnesses" by Rod Bennett.

They say women come to religion through their hearts and that men come to religion through their heads. With me, it was a combination of both because my heart had been bloodied and beaten by the WTBTS.

LouBelle

People want to believe in god and honestly how bad can that be. People believe in ufos, aliens, magic, the stars....so why not a god.

I may not agree with the contempary belief of what god is or god but I do believe in something more spiritual than us.

Everyone is different, that's what makes this a wonderful world.

worldtraveller

Hello StAnn. Welcome to the forum. Can I assume you were once a Witness? If that is the case, I can understand a slight jaded tone in your post. I guess that may be due to false teaching by the society. I wish I was as convinced as you about the story of Jesus. My problem is that there are just too many versions of what is supposed to be the truth to actually be comfortable with it at all. My problem is with the actual virgin birth. Hard for me to believe it. I think that is why I prefer to have faith rather than religion. Faith does not to be explained. In fact I cannot explain it at all. But when I have a discussion with friends and here, I get as many opinions as there are people on the forum. So I find it safer to stick with the faith I have and just listen to the various opinions of everyone that I meet.

Maybe when you have some time, you can tell us more about yourself and what you have gone through and how you have arrived at your present beliefs. I look foreward to that . Bill. PS I was never one, just lectured by one (so called bible study) for 5 years.

Anti-Christ

People want to believe in god and honestly how bad can that be. People believe in ufos, aliens, magic, the stars....so why not a god.
I may not agree with the contempary belief of what god is or god but I do believe in something more spiritual than us.
Everyone is different, that's what makes this a wonderful world.

I agree but the problem I have is believing that the bible is 100% from god and inherent. I find it difficult to understand but slowly I'm getting it. like I said at the start, I believed in the bible because I did not know all of the details and of course I was victim of mind control but now that I'm free from it all and I look back I realized that I always struggled with that belief, I guess I instinctively knew it was very questionable. I guess that it must be the same for some of the people here, that they struggled with most of the doctrine and religious law, when they were "in".

I'm really trying to understand....

The Oracle

Anti-Christ

OnTheWayOut

StAnn

LouBelle

worldtraveller

Anti-Christ

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