by cyberjesus 64 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Where you were born?
If in the western hemisphere, you're a christian and jesus follower.
If in the middle east, a muslim and a mohammed follower.
Which one is the right one to follow? Are you wrong if you were born in saudi arabia and believe in Mohammed because Jesus is the right one? Or are you wrong to have been born in Alabama and believe in Jesus because Mohammed is the right one?
Bummer it all comes down to geography like that.
I'll go with All Churchs for $1000 Alex. And he/she/it speaks to all of us, except those that don't believe call it a conscience.
cyberjesus,
I own all 3 books mentioned, the bible, torah and koran and have read all three. Each one is written about the SAME God only from differing perspectives. The Bible = Christian perspective, Koran = Muslim, Torah = Jewish perspective. Each group will say God is only on their side......However, I am sure God has his own opinion of the matter. Peace, Lilly
If God exists.... I imagine He attends all churches......
(......wait for it.)
(......go down further.)
.....for a good laugh.
Therein lies the problem for those who leave the society. If not the JWs' then who has the true religion? After leaving, I looked. I thought I must have missed it. I finally came to the conclusion that since 1914 is not the end of anything, we most likely are still in that time period marked as the "times of the Gentiles". That period was to be marked by Jehovah's absence from the affairs of man. Anyway, thats my take on things. What do you think?
Anyway, thats my take on things. What do you think?
In harmony with the idea of the thread, why are we necessarily in any "times of the Gentiles" ? Why not the Age of Aquarius or why are we not just in the time period of "now" unconnected to anything prophetic or spiritual?
ALL religion is man made. Faith in a God is not dependant on belonging to a certain religion, church or denomination. Lilly
If God exists.... which church does he attend?
None, why would god want to bore himself by going to church he's out places bets with Satan (see book of Job). So I would ask: "Which Casino does god attend?"
3Mozzies
so if you dont believe in any religion how do you know god exists and what he wants
I normally don't respond to threads like these but I decided to take an exception in your case. You and I joined the board at about the same time and I remember you said something to me on PJSCHIPPER's thread about a year ago.
You have your religion, i assume is christian, correct? Well all this questions regarding her religion can be asked about your religion as well? JW are cult and now I am very carefull with any religion. I was manipulated once. So if I had a religion i would question it as thoughly as hers. Thats what I did with mine and thats why I left. You get my point? We all want to do what is right. Well I do. I am sure you do, your wife too. I just dont want anybody to tell me what it is, I wanna find it myself.
I did not get what you were really saying back then. I just assumed that you were speaking about a church and not the entire Christian religion in general. I was so convinced back then, now, not so much so. I guess I still have faith, but I am indeed very concerned with so called right doctrines and wrong ones. So much bickering, so much 'heresy,' and so much concern for 'orthodoxy.' Makes one wonder what is what. CJ, I am in wonderland my friend.
So here's my responses for what they are worth.
So we lost our religion and its time for us to decide which religion to switch, I was sincere so I wanted to do his will as I was taught.... So many here still believe in God and Christianity. So my question for you is
I guess what gave me an 'advantage' is that I never actually lost a religion like most people here. Yeah, I 'lost my way' for a while after leaving a similar legalistic church that frankly the witnesses remind me of. They, unlike the witnesses, did not preach that all outside churches were wrong (though they did preach a lot of them were). I guess it was easier for me to stay because my choices did not seem as black and white as my church being the only one right or none of them are right.
That's not to say that I did not question things. There was times when I could only conclude the deist concept of God. Also, there were times when I would even reason like an atheist or an agnostic or even a gnostic. All the while, still being certain that the God of the Bible is the God of the universe and that Jesus was the only way. Sometimes I wish I had married a run of the mill Christian girl instead so that I can continue to live in blissful ignorance. However, that would be putting my head in the sand.
What makes you think that Christianity is the true religion? Why not Judaism, or Islam? If the JW religion was wrong and you didnt know that, what makes you believe you are right with the flavor of religion you have now?
I remember reading GotQuestions.org a lot and one thing I read was their reasoning on why Christianity was the only correct religion. Their reasoning that lead up to intelligent design seemed reasonable (the deist concept), then they went on to prove that only monotheism is correct (the logic became less sound), then ultimately concluded that of all the monotheistic religions out there, only Christianity was correct. I remember even then saying that they used fallacy to conclude that but to a believer, it was okay.
In short, for the believer, only one thing matters, faith. But, jews and muslims also have faith. What a conundrum. In the end, I think we can only prove what is incorrect and for the Watchtower, they have so many things that are so easily proven wrong. But of course, the same could be said about Christianity. I think the reason why Christianity survives today is due to its long history and the fact that so many things about it are buried in legend making it difficult to conclude what information is true and what isn't. It seems that for every argument, there is a counter-argument. If Christianity as a whole were as young as the WT religion we would probably see similar statistics on the number of members. The WT religion came up during the modern era where everything they ever printed was retained. This cannot be said for Christianity as a whole.
If the WT books are full of lies and you cant put faith on them.. what makes you believe your other holy books arent? Are you skeptical of your religious books as you are of the WT books?
I am now but I think that I am more skeptical of how they are used by religious leaders.
The essence or message of Christianity is the belief that God loves you as you are and wants to redeem you and that there is nothing you can do to earn this love because He already loves you in spite of yourself. Love of God, neighbor, family, and even enemies are the most important teachings. The whole fruitage of the spirit is something that I think the vast majority of us want to exhibit. It's too bad that a whole lot of people who call themselves Christian don't seem to fully grasp that and I sometimes think buddhists have a better claim to it than many Christians.
Religious leaders, like the WTS and that old Indy Fundy preacher I used to listen to, use the Bible to preach a legalistic doctrine geared to control its members.
Truth is though, I don't think the WT books are full of lies. A lot of things they say are in agreement with many churches. But, of course, the WTS would have you think that one 'false' teaching is like a 'drop of poison' in a clear glass of water and hence why they insist that the other churches aren't 'good enough.' Nevermind the fact that that reasoning could also be applied to them.
Sorry, I don't think I answered your questions but I did want to share that with you.
Oh and to your original question: Which church does he attend?
Answer: I don't know but I think God is way bigger than any one church. Perhaps also bigger than any one religion.
