by snowbird 193 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Hi EyesOpen,
Indeed, come they did; the bitter, the cynical, the doubting, the questing, and the true-blue believers.Hi snowbird. I'm curious - which of those names do you judge me as? (Obviously not the last one...)
Not to worry, though. Everyone's eyes are opened at different times.
Sylvia
Snowbird.
Earlier in the thread you made a request when you said ‘Please enumerate any God-approved injustices found in the Bible. Thank you.’
Perhaps you should go back to page one and remind yourself that 83501nwahs took the trouble to provide you with the information, posted above, that you missed when you were reading your Bible.
Trevor
One person's monster is another person's Savior.
Sylvia
Snowbird: One person's monster is another person's Savior.
The same was said about Hitler.
Some people’s morals will not allow them to endorse the deity described in the Bible.
Still I admire your honest in admitting that you choose to worship a monster because you believe he has something you want - Salvation.
Trevor
Still I admire your honest in admitting that you choose to worship a monster because you believe he has something you want - Salvation.
Trevor
My statement was in reference to those who may view His past actions as monstrous. There are others who view the same actions as salvation for His people.
He has already performed His salvation toward me, and will gladly do the same for you.
Sylvia
the cynical, the doubting, the questing
Thanks for letting me know. I'm actually less cynical in reality these days. I used to think the world was beyond repair and needed destruction at Armageddon so that "we" could start afresh. Now I understand things are not as we want them, but that we can improve. I now also doubt myself a lot less; my gut feeling that what I'd been taught was not right was proved right by my research (including that on the bible itself). Am I questing? Yeah: questing to live life as a human devoid of false beliefs.
I am so glad that religious types' judgments on me now have absolutely no validity in my mind, and that I now require natural evidence/experience before believing things.
Anyway... any more comment on the God-said-everyone-would-die-so-he-must-be-right thing? You do realise that this is actually an unsupportable line of reasoning, even if it holds meaning for you as a person who has faith in God?
Snowbird: My statement was in reference to those who may view His past actions as monstrous. There are others who view the same actions as salvation for His people.
Every time you speak you make the hole you are digging yourself into, a little bigger.
Perhaps you should think a little more about the logic of what you are saying before you post. Unless, of course, that is something that religious people are not equipped to do.
Trevor
Anyway... any more comment on the God-said-everyone-would-die-so-he-must-be-right thing? You do realise that this is actually an unsupportable line of reasoning, even if it holds meaning for you as a person who has faith in God?
Oh yes, there's more.
When you think about it, there's really no biological reason for death. We've been given all the right equipment to LIVE, and yet despite all endeavors to avoid it, we DIE just as God decreed.
My attempt, albeit feeble, was to show that not one of us has been able to bypass that edict. If there was any impotence or injustice on God's part, surely someone somewhere would have found a way to get around the sentence of death. That's all I'm saying. Take it or leave it.
Sylvia
That's wonderful Snowbird! Being indwelt by the Holy Spirit is great indeed. I wished our churches would go beyond that and be filled with the Holy Spirit though.
I do not attend a Charismatic type church, too much pretending in many cases from what I've seen....certainly not all though. But, I know the Holy Ghost seeks those believers out that do not quench His prompting and those that agree to be filled. The reason is to equip the believer for more complicated service.
Acts 2:4
'And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost...'
I believe a fundamental characteristic of the early church which we see in Scripture is that they were filled with the Holy Ghost. In Matthew 3:11 we see John the Baptist prophesying that Christ would come and that He would baptize the people with the Holy Ghost. In John 7:37-39 we see Christ teaching that those who believe on Him will receive the Holy Ghost. Every believer at the moment they accept Christ as their Saviour is immediately given the gift of the Holy Ghost. He immediately indwells every believer at the moment of their salvation when they place their faith in Christ as their Saviour.
In Acts 2:38, Peter instructed all those gathered together at Pentecost to repent and they would then receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. All throughout the book of Acts we can see those who trusted Christ as their Saviour and then were immediately given the gift of the Holy Ghost. We can even look in the book of I Corinthians and see that even they were indwelt by the Spirit of God as carnal as they were (I Corinthians 3:16; 6:19). So we can see that there is ample evidence throughout the New Testament to suggest that each believer has the Holy Ghost living within them immediately upon salvation. Simply being indwelt by the Spirit, however, is not what allowed the early church to turn the Roman world upside down.
If we look back in our text verse we see that Peter and the other disciples were not just indwelt by the Holy Ghost but rather FILLED with the Holy Ghost. This is a big difference between those early Christians and most of today's Christians. While every believer is indwelt by the Spirit of God not every believer chooses to be filled with the Spirit. The Bible instructs us in Ephesians 5:18 to be filled with the Spirit. This is accomplished by allowing the Spirit to take control of our lives. Most Christians, however, do not want to turn that much of their lives over to the Lord. They want to hold onto those things which satisfy their fleshly appetites. Galatians 5:16 tells us to walk in the Spirit so that we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. As has been stated by many a preacher before, "Whichever one we feed the most, whether the flesh or the Spirit, is the one which will control our actions." As long as we live after the flesh then it will be impossible for us to be filled with the Spirit and our relationship with the Lord will suffer as a result (Romans 8:8).
Many Christians would rather quench the Spirit as Paul warned the church at Thessalonica about doing (I Thessalonians 5:19). Today Christians have a myriad of ways to choose from in order to quench the Holy Spirit's working in their life. The majority of these ways can be lumped into two different categories. The first way many Christians quench the Spirit is by simply refusing to separate from the world and its lusts. The majority of Christians dress and talk so much like the world that you would not know them to be a Christian outside of them attending a church service on Sunday - though that does not make one a Christian. We need to follow what the Bible says in II Corinthians 6 and separate ourselves from the ways of the heathen.
If you haven't yet asked God to fill you with the Holy Spirit, I would reccommend you do that. I was filled when I asked God to confirm for me that I was indeed saved. I've heard countless testimonies that are similar as well.
God Bless you and yours.
If you haven't yet asked God to fill you with the Holy Spirit, I would reccommend you do that.
I have, and my request was graciously granted!
God Bless you and yours.
Same to you, my brother.
Sylvia
Snowbird
I realize now I should have taken you seriously when you made the following statement early on in this thread.
Logic only takes me so far; faith does the rest.
