by SweetBabyCheezits 37 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Now now... I think the last part of your statement is gonna start a fight
LMAO, yeah, I tried t sneek that one in there :)
But you know what I mean, we agree the Chist is THE WORD and that the bible is the written words the convey the message of God, yes?
SBC
Whether those of us in Group X1 truly understood the concept at that age is not particularly relevant at this moment.
I think it's has to be relevant. JWs and "Christian denominations" deal with this topic differently, not to mention how and what our parents taught.
I wasn't lied to, many JWs were. I was allowed, even encouraged to explore these issues. How many JWs were?
Most would admit there are errors in modern bibles. When most people speak of "Biblical inerrancy" they are referring to the autogripha (original copies) which we no longer have. Most would say that what God gave to man in the original copies, was inerrant.
Woops! Now there's a slippery slope!
So how much of "modern Bibles" differs from the "autogripha"?
1%? 5%? 20%? More? Less? How do you know?
More importantly, how do you know which X% is in error?
If I read "Confess the Lord Jesus and you will be saved", is that an error? Is that what the original writer wrote? How do you know?
I was in Grade 8 and in Portugal we had a "religion and morals" class and the first thing we discussed was the bible.
It was given by a RC priest that was also a theologian and had a teaching degree in History.
I recall the conversation more or less because someone asked is the bible right about everything and he replied it it correct in regards to all things about God and Jesus and that, beyond that, we need to realize that the writers wrote what they knew, what they saw and what they felt about their history as it happened and as they were told.
So I said, "does that mean that NOT all of the history is right"?
And he said, "History is never the clear cut and even less so when the writers focus more on God and less on facts"
But he did make it clear that the bible is still very historical and it was then that I heard for the first time the view of comparing the historical bible with other historical books because that is what it should be held up to, the parts that are about God are held at a different level.
Only many years later did I understand what he meant about that.
DD, it's not relevant to this chain of logic or analysis of stats at this point because I'm trying to isolate when bias towards belief in the bible as the only holy book first took place.
Is it safe to say your parents, community, or environment influenced you to accept the bible as a child?
See, here is the thing, the writers and the copyist were mor einterested in passing on the MESSAGE then getting all the facts and minute right on the button and that can cause headaches looking back 2000 years after.
Guy runs in a bank and holds up the teller, gets the money and runs out, there are 4 witnesses:
1) it happend at lunch time, He was Black, with blue pants and had a gun and said give me the money or you die
2) It happend just after lunch, He was dark with jeans, had a gun and told the teller he was gonna shot her
3)It happend before lunch, He was tannednned, with indigo pants had a glock and told the teller he would kill her and everyone else
4) It happened at 1, He was west indian and had dark jeans on and had a gun and siad he woudl shot everyone.
What matters here?:
It happend between 12 and 1, He was dark skinned, possibly black, was armed with a gun and threatened to shoot if he didn't get his money.
I was born in 60 years ago. All I ever heard was that the Bible was God's word, and any seeming problems could be explained.
As I grew older (teens) I came to the feeling that God gave the ideas to the men that wrote the books, but they recorded their ideas in their own way and according to the knowledge they had.
I still believed it contained nothing but truth.
Upon leaving the bubble existence, a bit like the "Truman Show", that is life within the WT Org. I began to examine scripture and my belief in God, with an open mind and heart.
At first my reading of the Bible,without WT specs on, lead me to the conclusion that Jesus was the Way the Truth and the Life, and that He was truly God.
This was based on believing the Bible to be "truth"
Further education lead me to the firm conviction that the Bible is simply the writings of shepherds , fishermen and nomads who on the whole were not even educated to the extent that their peers were.
For example, Isaiah talks of the "circle of the Earth" and uses the Hebrew word that means a plate like shape. There was a word for sphere in Hebrew, he did not use it because he did not know, as some of his contempories did, that the Earth was round.
I then went on to find out that the Gospels were written decades after the events and sayings they "record" and were tracts written to promote the new sect of the Christians, not to record true sayings and history.
Add to that the fact that the canon was fixed only after 381 C.E and the church by then had its own , mainly political, agenda, so other, possibly more genuine writings about Jesus were suppressed and destroyed and you do not have much left to put faith in.
As we have no autograph copies of even the poor stuff that was produced in the first place, all we have are copies of copies of copies that are then translated by people with a particular theology and agenda, how can anyone believe the Bible is infallible, inerrant or even more silly, the word of God?
Is it safe to say your parents, community, or environment influenced you to accept the bible as a child?
No. That's my point. At least for me, as a child those things were questioned openly from many differing view points.
What matters here?:
It happend between 12 and 1, He was dark skinned, possibly black, was armed with a gun and threatened to shoot if he didn't get his money.
Why do you hate brown people?
And on a side note, they would probably just look at the security tapes and get the exact time and what he looked like.
sir82
Woops! Now there's a slippery slope!
Life is filled with slippery slopes!
