by peake1 21 Replies latest jw friends
first, let me state that i see no need to worship anything (other than boobs).
however, i just finished reading Crises of conscience, and although i have no interest in being a christian anymore, Ray Franz did face your sort of question and as i understand it, came to the conclusion that he could be a christian without any brand of religion.
now go read it!
Oz
There might be a "creator," but we made a god out of it.
Ray Franz wrote an excellent follow up tome, entitled "The search for Christian freedom" well worth a look, but as Leavingwt said, if you had been born in Afghanistan you would be a Muslim now, so the whole question is bigger than just "What christian church should I go to"
Love
Wobble
Maybe the parable of the "Good samaritan" has a answer.
Acolytes
Not a jw nor have I ever been but grew up in a Protestant church I can tell you that we were taught that we don't follow any 'religion'. One is supposed to follow Christ. You may belong to a church for many reasons and you may end up in one particular church because you feel most comfortable there. However what I find is that jw's and many ex jw's do not understand is that many Christians can and do go to various churches as it is not the building, pastor, or denomination you follow but Christ. You need not agree with everything 'your' church says and still you are welcomed to voice your opinion. I remember as a teen not agreeing with the pastor during confirmation classes and there was no problem, he suggested reading (from the bible NOT church literature) certain scriptures and to get back to him on my thoughts if I would like to. He had complete confidence in the Word and that the Holy Spirit would do His job in teaching me if I was open to it.
I believe people get so hung up on finding the 'one true religion' they forget the message, the bigger picture. They care more about the 'religion' than God Himself. But then again jw's are not very fond of Christ so dogma is most important and they do not trust the Holy Spirit to teach as the bible said He would. Jw's fired the Holy Spirit long ago and do not truly trust Him. Why do people think they need a man to tell them about God? Do they think God is not capable of finding them?
Jews were gods chosen people for 4000 years then the JW's came and took it away for the last 100 years... (sarcasm)
PS Is there any other faith that puts more emphasis on the Father and not his Son and or the Trinity doctrine? If there is I sure can't find it.
Study early christianity and you will find issues such as the trinity as a lot more ambiguous than the WTS would have you believe. There is no one "perfect" version of Christianity from the first century. Instead, there were many competining versions.
Jews were gods chosen people for 4000 years then the JW's came and took it away for the last 100 years... (sarcasm)
According to the WT, Able and Abraham were Jehovah's Witnesses too
JWs are one step away from claiming they are the nation of Israel, after all they are following much of the OT law.
Blessings,
Stephen
Many of my Oriental brethren have not ever explored the Bible as 'God's Word'. Nor have many born into Christian west ever looked closely at Buddhism, Shinto, or Islam.
If you believe in God, why not let him out of the box?
Jeff
-Did you consider Islam before converting to Judaism?
One day of fasting on Yom Kippur is quite enough for me, let alone a whole month. I wouldn't care to get up at dawn to pray, let alone 5x a day, especially since I know that nobody is listening in heaven anyway. They have no sense of humor, either -and apparently it's not a religion to make jokes about.
3 men were shipwrecked on a tropical island- one man, Muhammed immediately made a prayer mat from the palm fronds and starts praying 5x a day to Allah for help.
The second man, John was a Christian, he makes a cross out of the palm fronds and started praying fervently day and night to Jesus to be rescued
The last man, Shlomo was Jewish, he wove a mat and went to sleep. After a few days, the others got mad and told Shlomo, "look here, we are both praying to our God for a rescuse and you are just sleeping- the least you can do is pray to your God for help. Shlomo looked up and replied- "Oy, every year I donate a million dollars to the local Jewish federation and this year I made the same pledge, but I haven't paid it yet. Trust me, they'll find me, they'll find me"
