by Quentin 189 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Thank you, TRULY, dear LV101, for sharing your experience (the greatest of love and peace to you!). I know how much courage it takes to do so! Our experiences are not that dissimilar, dear one. It's just that the Holy Spirit appears to each in such a manner as the Father chooses.
Please... hang on to your great faith - it will serve you well, you will see!
Again, peace to you!
YOUR servant, sister, and fellow slave of Christ,
SA
nickolas
Why is there so much disrespect on this board? |
hey no disrespect intended - my reaction was completely spontaneous
aguest
peace to you too. I really enjoy your humour and hope that you take mine in the same way. However I will understand if you don't and apologise.
curtains
wherami,
First off, I am absolutely SICK of you atheists telling me I still have Jehovah's Witness mindset because I am still a Christian. You don't know anything about me. I wasn't even a true JW when I was part of that organization.
I make a valid arguement and that is UNLESS God almighty comes down and smacks you on your head, you will not beleive in any miracle anyway. In Jesus day MOST did not believe in him even though he performed powerful works.
If you want to think jokes on me for believing in a divine power that created the world then so be it. But I wonder if YOU are not the one that cannot get over your JW background. I think you are just plain bitter because you were duped by a publishing cult and now take it our on ALL believers in God. Don't you understand WE have absolutely nothing to do with them? They are not part of mainstream christianity.
The reason I say you are bitter and others too on this board is that you go out of your way trying to disprove God. What is your motives for doing this? Do the believers here go out of their way to disprove atheists? NO. Because we are not bitter and have other, better things to do with our lives. Maybe you so often bring up these topics because you are trying to Convince yourself your position is true? I don't know its just how I am beginning to see things. Because I am sure it took some effort to produce your little video and a lot of time too. And all that to try and tear down someone else's belief system???
Seems to me YOU are the one who has the JW mindset indeed. For that is exactly what the WT does, produce volumes of magazines and books trying to disprove the beliefs of others. You better look in the mirror a little more often. Or better yet, take the rafter out of your own eye, before you take the splinter out of mine.
You can address my post all you want. Believe me I can stand my ground. I was a christian before I entered the WT, I am a christian now and will remain one. Athieism has absolutely NOTHING to offer people of any value.
Athieism has absolutely NOTHING to offer people of any value.
I hope you won't mind if I chime in, Lil. Most atheists would not prohibit religious discourse even if it was possible. I am not at all sure that the reciprocal would hold with theists. I have several theist friends and family in my life and we acknowledge that there are real and irreconcilable differences between us and the way we think and we give each other our space. My experience with at least some theists who are not part of my inner circle is that they are incapable of respecting or allowing me my atheism and strive to convince me that I am wrong and they are right. While I acknowledge that their intentions are good I also know that these intentions originate from their holy books which command them accordingly.
But to your comment, atheism offers personal emancipation and a deep sense of peace. It also offers a keener perspective and appreciation of the here and now, since we live our lives on earth as if they are all we will ever have. Those things are extremely valuable, at least to me, and I did not have them when I had faith. I am not saying that my life is better than yours. Not at all. There are some very happy theists in the world. But you should be aware that there are also happy atheists in the world. We don't have horns, we don't mutate into demons during a full moon, we do not perpetrate ghastly deeds because our principles and morals are not inspired by faith and we are not in any way bitter. We just don't believe what you do even if at one time we did, which brings to mind another thing of value. Most of us inherited faith from our parents and understand fully what it is to believe. We shook off that inheritance because we perceived a clearer, more honest reality. It is a reality that most, if not all, theists cannot comprehend and that agnostics can comprehend only in fractions. What I am saying is your faith prevents you from understanding me to the same degree that I understand you. You may honestly say that you have had crises of faith in your life and these have provided you with insights into what it is like to be atheist, but you would be only partly right. All of us who became atheist also had crises of faith, but they are not the same as finally discarding faith and stepping into a much different mindset.
Quite intriguing for me reading Shelby's beginnings with hearing god's voice. My anointing (or whatever you choose to call it) certainly changed my relationship with Jesus in a very significant way and enhanced it in a way that the Org didnt encompass.
Loz x
Early on in the disscussion there were posters that commented God speaks to them by what they observe in the world around them. Then there are those, like Shebly, who state God speaks directly to them. That is THEIR subjective point of view. Along comes those who build their belife on the foundation of the Bible only, it being THEIR subjective point of view.
Along comes the atheist who sees the same awe inspiring beautful world around us, many who have even read the Bible, and falls back on science to not belive in God, let alone a Creator who speaks to anyone, because God does not exist. That is THEIR subjective point of view.
Whether it comes from seeing the world around us, the Bible, or science, it is subjective to the individual and where they are in life. Of course there are objective things that can be observed like steeping off the edge of a forty story building, it will kill you....unless you survive. Then it's back to the subjective vs the objective.... What a conundrum we find ourselfs in. By the way atheists are just as moral and upright as anyone walking the streets.
I thought about if I should post this...
I recall the first time I heard God.
I had spoken, well, YELLED at Him many times and never heard anything back, wonder why eh?
I always had so much rage and anger against what I THOUGHT God was, so much rage against the "absent father" that he was, how he had turned his back on Us, how he was the total opposite of love, God to me, was INDIFFERENCE, God didn't care.
I won't go into to much detail, but I was reading a book on day, a book recommended by my wife, I book that if it was recommended by anyone else I would have told them where to shove it.
I read a part of the book that embodied ALL the issues I had with God, embodied all the rage and nager I felt at God.
I wept with tears of rage.
I read "God's answer".
I collapsed in tears and sorrow and a pain I had never felt before.
The, suddenly, that anger and pain and rage was gone and I felt peace and I heard a voice, soft, gentle, loving, all encompassing, from everywhere and all wound me, a voice that simple answered the question that I truly had in my heart and that voice said, simply, " I have always been here, I love you".
Sorry...I not sure I can go on...
PS, please . . . do go on. I'd very much like to read the rest. Respectfully, Inkie
I've developed a cold and BAD cough (peace to you all!)... so more drugs, rest, and I can't respond to everyone right now... but I will. I DO need to say a few things, though, if you all will permit me: Dear, dear PSacto... Your response made me cry. THANK you... and the greatest of love and peace to you, dear one! Dear Nick... the greatest of love and peace to you...and may the ubdeserved kindness and mercy of my Father, the MOST Holy One of Israel, JAH of Armies, and the love and peace of His Son and Christ, the Holy One of Israel and Holy Spirit, my Lord, JAHESHUA MISCHAJAH be upon you... And your entite household. Dear Lil, Loz, tec... and dear, dear Inkie... Stand strong, dear ones... and may JAH bless! The greatest of love and peace to you!! YOUR servant and a slave of Christ, to time indefinite, SA
Blessings-
MOTZOJOHNMAYHALLBLUESBANDFOREVERSHALAM
