Is God a loving God? Does He enjoy seeing His children in pain? sorrow? Then why would He put us in Earth that is full of pain, sorrow, sickness. Let's study the Bible and find out why are we here on Earth. First, let's find out what how God created the first man, Adam:
Genesis 2:7 [Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.]
So man is compose of two elements: dust which is the flesh and breathe of life which is out spirit or soul. Then what happens when a man dies:
Ecclesiastes 12:7 [then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.]
Return? So our dust returns to the Earth as it was and our spirit returns to God? How can we return to a place where we have never been before? Like for example, if I tell you to return to my home and you have never been there, how can you? Then we must have been in Heaven with God even before all men were created in Earth. Let's find out through the Bible if we have life even before the world were created. Here, King Solomon testifies about our existence even before world were created by God:
Proverbs 8:22-26 ["The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. When there were no oceans, as given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before he made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world.]
Proverbs 8:30 [Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence.]
Wow. Clearly King Solomon was a craftsman at God's side before the world began, before God made the Earth or any dust of the world. Then now let's see another example of our existence before the world began when God spoke to Job:
Job 38:1-4 [Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.]
Job 38:21 [Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!]
Wow. Another proof of our existence before the world began that God revealed to Job that he was already born and have lived so many years before God laid the Earth's foundation. King Solomon and Job are also men like us, composed of dust(flesh) and breathe of life(spirit or soul). So now, why are we all men here on Earth that's full of sorrow, pain and suffering when we all rejoice in God's presence with Him? Let's see what the Bible reveals to us what God did to King of Tyre:
Ezekiel 28:12-17 ["Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: " 'You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.]
King of Tyre, a guardian cherub, was thrown to the Earth by God because he sinned? Now it's clear that all of us are here on Earth because of sin. Now what is the punishment of sin:
Romans 6:23 [For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.]
Romans 5:12 [Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.]
Death is the punishment of sin and we all sinned since we are all on Earth, it also says that God's gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord:
Ephesians 1:7 [In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.]
Now through Jesus blood, our sins can be forgiven. Did Jesus gave us a way to receive it?
Luke 22:7-8 [Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover."]
Luke 22:19-20 [And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.]
John 6:53 [Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.]
There you go. The Passover lamb, Jesus body and blood gives eternal life. But can we celebrate it whenever we want or look at the Bible on when to celebrate it? Remember, it is also celebrated on the first month on the fourteenth day, just as celebrated in the age of the Father, Jehovah:
Matthew 5:17 ["Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.]
Jesus fulfilll the laws of the Prophets, not to abolished them. Passover lamb in the Old Testament is just the shadow of Jesus suffering and bearing our sins so that we may have eternal life and escape death and disaster. God is so merciful and has always given us a chance to escape from death and disasters and return to Him in Heaven by celebrating the Passover just as Jesus and His Apostles celebrated it. God bless you.
Secret of Forgiveness of Sins
by brofromzion 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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brofromzion
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WTWizard
I will post a possible explanation:
Faith may be our weakest point, leading us (as it has in history) to commit evil, and leading us from truth. God could merely be a demon, a jinn, one of Scientologists aliens, a powerful spirit or who knows what, simply deceiving us. It can make it feel right -- as many people before have felt it is right to kill and do evil in the name of God.
If this is the case. it would explain why sacrifice was required that was a waste of goods. It would explain why Cain's best was not good enough. It would explain why God killed people just for not being His worshipers or for wanting freedom. It would explain why God has so many petty rules, and violating any of them is taken seriously. And why God continues allowing people to suffer needlessly. If this is the case, it would make God our worst enemy and vindicate Satan totally.
(Note the excerpt was from Vexen Crabtree.)
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trevor
Brofromzion
You talk with great authority but there is not a shred of proof for anything you say. You could just as easily be relating as fact the story of a frog that was kissed by a princess and became a prince.
You claim that god: breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Presumably he did the same for all animals so they also contain spirit which will return to god or heaven. So they too have lived in heaven with god.
Or do animals just head North when they die, to reside with Santa Clause and his reindeer friends?
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
God is so merciful and has always given us a chance to escape from death and disasters and return to Him in Heaven by celebrating the Passover just as Jesus and His Apostles celebrated it.
So, eat leg of lamb once a year and I'm going to heaven. Cool.
Trevor: there is not a shred of proof for anything you say.
In addition to scripture, I believe it was Mother Goose who was inspired to write about "Mary [who] had a little lamb." Isn't that proof enough?
Good for us. Not so good for the cute little lambs.
B the X
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Rapunzel
Bro - from - Zion: If I may, I'd like to present an alternative viewpoint, one which posits that the provenance of man's "spirit" is not heaven, but, rather, the earth.
The following is a quote from Joseph Campbell's MythsTo Live By - "The residence of the spirit now is experienced as centered, not in fire, in the animal and plant worlds, or aloft among the planets and beyond, but in men right here on earth: the earth and its population [...] My friend Alan Watts in a lecture once proposed an amusing image to replace the old one (now longer tenable) of man as a Heaven-sent stranger in this world, who, when the mortal coil of his body will have been cast away in death, is to soar in spirit to his proper source and home with God in Heaven. 'The truth of the matter,' Dr. Watts proposed to his audience, 'is that you didn't come into this world at all. You came out of it, in just the same way that a leaf comes out of a tree or a baby from a womb...Just as Jesus said that one doesn't gather figs from thistles or grapes from thorns, so also you don't gather people from a world that isn't peopling. Our world is peopling, just as the apple tree apples, and just as the vine grapes.' We are a natural product of the earth, that is to say; and, as Dr. Watts observed in that same talk, if we are intelligent beings, it must be that we are the fruits of an intelligent earth, symptomatic of an intelligent energy system; for 'one doesn't gather grapes from thorns.'"
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trevor
Rapunzel - Rapunzel
Your thoughtful reply is in my humble opinion, spot on.
We are of the earth and rely on its oxygen and the warmth of the sun. The reason we are so suited to planet earth is that we are a product of planet earth.
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VoidEater
Rapunzel: I now feel warm and fuzzy inside, ready to take on the rest of the day. Funny, the Bible never did that for me...
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Rapunzel
On page 250 of Myths to Live By, Campbell quotes Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, (1855 edition, section 48, lines 1262 - 1280) - "What is, or what is to be, the new mythology? Since myth is of the order ofpoetry, let us ask first a poet: Walt Whitman, for example in his Leaves of Grass (1855) -
I have said that the soul is not more than the body,
And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,
And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's-self is,
And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral, dressed in a shroud,
And I or you pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the earth,
And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod confounds the learning of all times...
And I call to mankind, Be not curious about God,
For I who am curious about each am not curious about God,
No array of terms can say how much I am peace about God and about death.
I hear and behold God in every object, yet I understand God not in the least,
Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.
Why would I wish to see God better than this day?
I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then,
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass;
I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God's name,
And I leave them where they are, for I know that others will punctually come forever and ever.
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brofromzion
Wow you guys must not have seen it clearly. It's what the Bible testifies, not an opinion in the will of men. I pity you guys.
Luke 8:9-10
9His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
” ‘though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand.Isnt it obvious all of you dont know what youre saying??? CHRIST said it best
John 10:26-28
26but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.So who do they belong to?
John 8:41-47
42Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. 43Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”Hence verse 47
47He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”Isaiah 29:10-12
10 The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep:
He has sealed your eyes (the prophets);
he has covered your heads (the seers).11 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say to him, “Read this, please,” he will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.” 12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” he will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”
You cant understand because the words have been sealed, only those that have been given the honor to see are his sheep!
What did John say?
Revelations 5:3-5
3But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. 4I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. 5Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”Who is the Root of David????
Revelations 22: 16
16?I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”Because the Root of David came to unseal it. Only the Root of David can open up the scrolls. But as of now, I can clearly see that you guys don't even know what really the Bible testifies because even the simplest verse on it, you guys can't see. I really pity you guys.