I was asked in a previous topic whether I thought the Bible had continuity in its thought/teaching from start to finish, from Old to New Testament. I do. You can argue from specific passages taken apart and out of context that the Bible contradicts itself, but, all in all, there is one message-that of love, a Father's love. The Bible is the story of a Father who creates a family (beginning with Adam and Eve), but they break their bond with him. Because of the Father's deep personal love for his people, the remainder of the story is the restoration of that familial bond. In the beginning of the story there is a break, at the end there is a wedding, a unity.
Continuity of the Bible - Start to Finish
by tyu 40 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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alanv
You are joking. Surely. The father's deep personal love for his people?
Because of Adam's mistake, you feel it really shows us God's great love for the human race when he allows billions of people to die, some in terrible ways over the past thousand of years.
Not to mention the mass slaughter that JWs expect in the near future.
You really feel this shows God's love for the human race.
I am speechless.
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Amelia Ashton
Speechless
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designs
alanv- Don't you get it, Judgement Day or Armageddon is just a lite spanking from Dad
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Listener
But the sad part of this story, according to the JWs, the latter part was only written primarily for a small number of 144,000 anointed even though there was a Great Crowd of people who loved God dearly. They were not invited to the wedding, nor were they able to consider God their father and hence were not his sons and daughters.
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designs
Listener-
Try not to sweat the small stuff, to a JW that thinks they will live on the earthly paradise its just a matter of when not if. Another 5200 Watchtower studies and they got it made in the shade
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acolytes
tyu
How and why do you think "they broke the bond with god"?
Acolytes
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Black Sheep
a Father's love?????
Would you kill your children for eating the chocolate after you had told them not to?
If not, why not?
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Band on the Run
The only continuity I see is a constantly changing persona of God. There is such an obvious contrast as time moves on. There are far more differences than any consistency. God's love is sorely lacking time and time again. Humans have more morality than God in many places. Love may be a theme in the Greek scriptures but then Revelation comes along. If it is taken literally, which it never was meant to be taken, a loving God does not bring Armageddon. Women are not dirt as in the nonPauline Pauline scriptures. The Hebrew scriptures are chockful of a vengeful, angry, lunatic God wiping out entire civilizations so the Jews can have more land. The Psalms combine prayers of love with vents of hatred and horror at God.
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tyu
Wow. Where to start? I guess - in the beginning...God created Adam and Eve in perfection. They had perfect reasoning and were in perfect union with Him. He gave them one simple test to prove their love for Him. God doesn't want robots; He doesn't force us to love Him. He gave us free will in hopes that we would recognize the great gift He had given us in creating us. Their eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil isn't like stealing a cookie from the cookie jar. Think of that tree - knowledge of good and evil. God didn't want them to know evil, so He gave one command. Obeying would not only prove their trust in and love for Him, but it would safeguard them from evil. God never wanted us to die, that wasn't part of His plan. However, actions mean something. Therefore, when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, there were consequences. (Why do we only get mad at God for consequences. Do we get upset with gravity when something falls and breaks?) Now that they knew evil, they couldn't remain in a place of perfection. Why they broke their bond with God? I guess temptation was just too alluring or they were too cowardly to stand up to the devil and refuse his temptation.
All in all, as awful and horrible as human tragedies are, ultimately it's not about this life. This life is just a passing through. If this is it, wow, what a disappointment! Our souls are what matter and we can rise above the disappointments and tragedies we experience here.