Organized or unorganized?

by Wicaugen 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Wicaugen
    Wicaugen

    A little background.

    I've been stumbling with religion over the past year, making a change from Agnostic to quasi-Christian during the time period, journeying with many Jehovah's Witnesses, a few Baptists, and even two families of Evangelicals.

    Anyway, one of the serious problems I have with the JW's is following the 'governing body'. You understand, of course. But I have a more urgent question. Is organized religion in the Bible?

    Two JW elders presented me with only one plausibility, and that's in Acts 15. The account is about circumcision. But the overall point the JW's try and make is that the church in Jerusalem sent out letters to ensure that the congregation was united - Much like the Watchtower Society attempts (And, if you ask me, really fails, I've met some pretty poor JW's in the last year) to do.

    I know what the WATCHTOWER has to say on the subject. I'm just wondering whether or not even the idea of organized religion is Biblical.

  • Kosonen
    Kosonen

    Yes, organized religion is Biblical. But it should be organized in a balanced way. That means not too much organized and also not too little organized.

    In Hebrews 10:24,25 we are told to have meetings. Jesus also told Peter to feed His little sheep. (John 21:17) Jesus also told his apostles to do disciples in Matthew 28:19. So it is evident that there should be some kind of organized activity for christians. But when the shepards in the congregation are evil, hypocrites and refuse to follow the guidelines in the Bible, then this organized worship works badly, like a broken car. And the congregation members suffers. Some new maybe live in an illusion, but soon with increasing understanding of God's will they start to see that there are a lot of problems.

    God's and Christ's will is to make the congregation perfect. It will take time. The final result will anyway be according to Ephesians 5: that he might sanctify it, cleansing it with the bath of water by means of the word, 27 that he might present the congregation to himself in its splendor, not having a spot or a wrinkle or any of such things, but that it should be holy and without blemish. (NWT)

    Now the congregation arrangement has existed since the first centry and still it has not attaind the beauty and slendor, so surely it will take a lot of time to fullfill the purpose.

  • thomas15
    thomas15

    Wicaugen,

    I could go into this long detailed expose on the different kinds of church governments and the various misconceptions of them. But that is not really what I think you are asking. I think you want to know how does the organized religious body relate to the belief or faith system?

    I personally do not see membership in a church group as a requirement to be a servant of the Lord mentioned in the Bible. In my opinion, and I'm not trying to mock anyone's faith, but the Christianity of the New Testament is, to my understanding a personal faith. Yes, there are churches in the New Testament, but what is their stated purpose? A pooling of resources, a missionary device, a teaching resource among other things. But saving faith always seems to me to be between the believer and God through Jesus.

    My older sister is a member of an old, very large very well organized church group of Christendom. If I say to her anything critical of the churches teaching, their leaders or their theology, all rational thinking stops. It doesn't matter how much Scripture I use to make my point, she is going to be insulted and totally convinced that I'm somehow misusing Scripture. In short, her faith is in the church she belongs to, not the actual word and teaching of God: The Bible.

    Every Christian or Quasi-Christian group uses the Bible to back up their theology. The question is are they handling the Scriptures in the proper way and how do you determine if they are handling them properly? Good question, but the central focus should be on Christ and Him Crucified. If you find a teaching that troubles you after a personal study of the Bible on the subject and you cannot question it without suffering at the hand of the leadership then something is not right. In my opinion, based on a study of the Bible, rituals and ceremony do not save, nor does knowledge. However, faith and trust in the risen Christ does.

  • drew sagan
    drew sagan

    Modern christian religion is much more complex (jws included) than anything that exsisted during the time when the new testement was written. I think you may want to reconsider if it's actually possible to come to a "biblical" answer on the subject at all.

  • leavingwt
    leavingwt

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