by AK - Jeff 54 Replies latest jw friends
i am with the chain of thought
that truthfully states all i have
done is choose not to support
something that has been revealed,
to my satisfaction, to be egregiously
errant and arrogant ....
still not sure about any of the rest of it
and enjoying the ambiguity
Black and white is colour blind.
Every line drawn on a map will cut the world into "two sides" until you realise that the world is not the map.
Agnostic
Not so arrogant so as to say
that nowhere in the universe
(or my neighborhood) is there
someone / something that is
superior to myself
In WatchTower World you are a Jehovah`s Witness,or you are not..............................OUTLAW
Chalam -
So if you have not rejected God why don't you ask Him what He has to say? After all, if He exists He can hear you, either if you speak out loud or in your mind.
But I have - no answer. Many thousands of times. Why not speak to me in a way I understand? He wants me to follow.... doesn't He?
Secondly, why don't you try and read the bible?
That too! I have 17 translations on my shelf - I spent a few years after Jwism reading them.
Here's my problem, and it is damned circular:
All Christians tell me to have faith in God [kinda like you have been doin' here]. When I ask them what God - they answer:
Christian: "Well of course the God of the Bible."
Me: "I suggest there is no evidence that God wrote it"
Christian: "You lack faith."
Me: "Faith in what?"
Christian: "Faith in God and His Word."
"Which is?" I query?
"The Bible" they say.
"How do I know God exists?" I ask again.
In frustrated anger they answer "Because the Bible tells you so!"
Me: " You mean the same Bible that told me that all of sin and death and wars and fornication and hatred and illness and unkindness and badness that world has seen forever, came from an innocent naked woman who secretly ate an apple offered her by a talking snake ? That Bible? The same one that told me that all of that horror would end when a Jewish man was executed for all the sins of man that happened because a naked woman listened to a talking snake and ate an apple?"
Christian: Yes that one!
Me: "And yet, 2000 years later billions of people still labor under all that same badness? Why didn't Jesus finish the thing after he paid the price?"
Christian: "Beware - your lack of faith will end you in God's disfavor."
Me: "But I don't lack faith. Your very book states that faith is the 'assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities."
I see no such 'evident demonstration' of these 'realities'. How can I be accused of failing to have faith - when it is God who does not provide the proof - THE EVIDENT DEMONSTRATION I should be able to see clearly?
The Christian - or Muslim - or Jane - or Jw.... you get the point... walks away muttering that I lack faith and cannot be saved.
Not one of them will just show me the evident demonstration that God is the one mentioned in the Bible and that the stories there are honest and absolutely true.... they just want to go in circles. And when I get dizzy from the circles they want to go some more. And when I tire of the circles it is always me that lacks faith, not them that lacks ability to reason.....?
Why doesn't God make it easy for me to see this?
I guess I am just too damned evil to see it. I spent 40 years quoting verse to unbelievers without faith in God and Bible. I took them on the same circle-jerk.
No more verses, please. Unless it is written in the sky where all of mankind can see it clearly and understand it plainly. But thanx anyway.
Jeff
Jeff, no verses from me. But I do believe that faith is a gift and that, if you want it, you need to ask God for it. (And don't ask me which God!) Just pray to whoever you think God is and ask for faith and see what happens. Don't expect lightning bolts but it may surprise you over time.
St. Ann
This question is just as black and white as the society is.
Life is NOT black and white.
History is replete with people who imposed a black and white world view on everyone they could bring under their influence.
The results have always, always, always been suffering.
Sometimes I think the truest words in the bible are when Pilate said "what is truth?"
ofo
Hi Jeff,
But I have - no answer. Many thousands of times. Why not speak to me in a way I understand? He wants me to follow.... doesn't He?
The answers can be very subtle and not so subtle. Look for coincidences too. One could be just that but two or three together?
Get to a church who a using the gifts of the Spirit. No doubt, God will speak to you, a prophetic word or "word of knowledge" etc.
That too! I have 17 translations on my shelf - I spent a few years after Jwism reading them.
First thing is to ask God to open your ears to what He wants to say. No doubt, you have all that WT junk ringing in them when you read?
All Christians tell me to have faith in God [kinda like you have been doin' here]. When I ask them what God - they answer:
OK here's my answer. This God.
He is THE one you need faith in. Here's why
JWs do not believe in Jesus, their "faith" is in "Jehovah".
OK I gotta split for work!
All the best,
Stephen
The world / people see things in right and wrong according to what they have been taught to believe as right or wrong. Murder is wrong and you end up in jail, but what if that murder lead to the murderer reforming his way because of the crime he committed - was it then right....right for him perhaps?
As for sides - there is no wrong or right side to be on. There is simply YOUR path.
A couple of years ago, an elder told me:
"that I had pinned my colors to the wrong stake".
Just doesn't seem to fit in with JW speak! or is this now taught at elders schools?
fokyc
