leavingwt: Thank you for posting this. I really needed to read it today. It was truly "spiritual food at the proper time" for me.
Could this mean that YOU are the "Faithful and Discreet Slave"? .... lol
Thanks!
Daniel
You Can Overcome WT Phobias!
by leavingwt 54 Replies latest jw friends
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leavingwt
Daniel: I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm no longer a slave, but a free person. :-)
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Found Sheep
good post I'm getting there
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00DAD
LWT: Yes you are a Free Person. Thanks for sharing and appreciating my irreverent humor.
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isojourn
Freeminds is a great site. Thank you for posting this leavingwt.
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Balaamsass
Great thread. Thanks!
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3rdgen
Our thoughts and actions have been micro-managed to the point where some have trouble deciding what flavor ice cream to order without being told.
(thought process) Is rocky road for "true christians"? Answer: only if it is a narrow, cramped scoop! Thanks Shamus, your maple syrup thread helped
me to get the Bible's viewpoint on tree blood which helped me reason on the ice cream issue.
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Brad Wilson
Our thoughts and actions have been micro-managed to the point where some have trouble deciding what flavor ice cream to order without being told
So very true 3rdgen, and all across the board witnesses do, often as not, what they want to do and yet fall back to "what does the society say" when others are around. Just not a healthy environment to live in.
Brad
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jonathan dough
Fear of Armageddon
Though death is seen as annihilation by the WT, there are special indignities visited upon those not fully immersed in organizational activities when the end comes. Their eyes will rot out of their sockets and they will suffer immolation at the hands of God. Armageddon is kept vivid in their minds, through pictures such as the one designed to scare small Witness children found in From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained, 1958, p. 208209). Much fear is centered around the intense shame and despair that will surely be experienced as the JW sees their friends survive while they die.
While it's true a believer musn't necessarily "fear" Armageddon, make no mistake about the fact that the Bible writes of bad times coming for the earth.
The word "reign" cannot mean to rule over humans on earth, especially on an earth destined for fire and complete destruction which is made clear by 2 Peter 3:10,11: "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire and the earth and everything in it will be found out. ... everything is to be dissolved this way," (NAB; "Total destruction is assumed (11)," notes 3,10). "...the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat" (2 Peter 3:12). "But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men" (2 Peter 3:7). Peter's warning reemphasized Zephaniah's warning, where the ancient prophet transmitted the Almighty's words, "I will utterly consume all things from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the birds of the heavens, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah" (Zephaniah 1:2,3)
Complete destruction of man on earth is intended. " Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like dung. 18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the LORD’s wrath.” In the fire of his jealousy the whole earth will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live on the earth (Zephaniah 1:17, 18). The Jehovah's Witnesses theory that they alone, their great crowd, will survive Armageddon and be ruled from heaven by the 144,000 is simply not in accord with Scripture.http://144000.110mb.com/144000/index.html
Fear of God
The Watchtower may paint a kindly picture of God in their publications, but in practice God is austere and exacting once you are baptized. Salvation is never secure, and JWs can only believe they are saved on a momentary basis. Since a relationship with Christ is not promoted and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is not taught, the believer receives no true joy of fellowship with God. Pride of personal and organizational accomplishments and the spirit of elitism fills the void.
True, to a point. In all fairness the Bible does teach, repeatedly, that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God, and a healthy fear of God, not cowering necessarily, is wise and mandatory. What it doesn't teach is fear of man, which includes those over at The Company, the elders, etc., who want you shaking in your boots. They aren't the glorious ones Paul was referring to. http://144000.110mb.com/trinity/index-2.html#10
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designs
jonathan-
You have accomplished that awesome feat of substituting one superstition for another superstition.
