Either the Bible is true or it is not. If not, what would be a standard of revelatory truth that would be divine/authoritative? If it is true, then one should understand the message even if they reject it. The message is an evangelical one. The reason Christianity (don't call any generic belief in god/christ Christian) is exclusive is because Jesus is God and risen from the dead (unique). This excludes every other option as a legit way to God. If it is not true, eat, drink, be merry and pick whatever tickles your fancy. This is an age of relativism, subjectivism, individualism, humanism, contrary to absolutes, objectivity, theism.
Judas and Unforgivable Sin
by corpusdei 122 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
ProdigalSon
what would be a standard of revelatory truth that would be divine/authoritative?
Neale Donald Walsch talks about Absolute Truth....
http://spiritlibrary.com/neale-donald-walsch/neale-talks-about-absolute-truth-%E2%80%A6
I don't know about you, but I've spent my whole life looking for my truth outside of myself.
First, I found it in my parents, who were my earliest authority figures, and who I assumed spoke Nothing But The Truth on everything.
Second, I found it in my family members--my older brothers, my aunts and uncles and the relatives with whom we visited. All of them, to some degree, were authority figures.
Then, I placed my schoolteachers in that category. My earliest teachers were nuns and priests, as I went to Roman Catholic elementary schools. The nuns taught us every day and the priest came in once a week for catechism class. I learned about God and about Life from these individuals, whom I assumed to be impeccable sources.
As a result of this, God soon became my highest Authority Figure. The only problem was that I had to depend on humans to tell me what God wanted. This I did, of course. I listened carefully to what the nuns and priests told me.
Difficulties began to arise, however. Some of what the nuns and priests told me about God and what He wanted did not seem to jibe with what my stomach told me. By that I mean, it did not "sit well." Something inside told me that some of what I was hearing at school was not true.
I left the parochial school environment when I left the 8 th grade--and left the Church's understandings about God behind me at just about the same time. The God that I knew in my heart just didn't seem to be the God I was being told about by others.
None of this came together for me in any complete sense until the Conversations with God dialogues began nearly 35 years later. But after those dialogues I became very clear that something I'd felt might be "so" was, in fact, so: With regard to God, and my life, I am the Truth.
No one else's truth can be Absolute Truth for me. Others can share with me their thoughts, others can give me their ideas, but I have to make up my own mind about what is true for me.
This may sound like a simple and obvious conclusion, but I can tell you that it was not a conclusion that was easy for me to come to. Nor, from my observation, is it easy for most people. We have all invested so much of our authority in other people from the earliest days of our lives that to take that authority back, to reclaim it, later on in life is no small matter.
Yet Conversations with God made it clear that the only truth in the Universe is the truth that exists within me. There is no such thing as Absolute Truth, CwG said. This was a startling statement when I first heard it. All my life I had believed the opposite. Yet now I see that all "truth" is relative, and that it is truly, therefore, in the eye of the beholder.
The moon is "up" when looked at from the earth. Yet one can look "down" on the moon from outer space. All definitions disappear as perspectives change. Nothing is true, nothing , in the absolute sense. Truth is, to use the phrase of Hemingway, a moveable feast.
My life shifted dramatically when I gave back to myself the authority I had given to others. In some ways, this begins to happen as an automatic process of life. I remember when I first moved out of my parents' house. I was 19, and the moment I walked into my own apartment I knew that my life had changed. I was driving my own car, living in my own place, working at a job that I loved (in radio), and--quite suddenly, it seemed to me--living "my own life."
I could come and go as I pleased, eat what I chose, do as I wished. The parental authority over me had vanished, literally over night. I could stay on the phone as long as I wanted, come in at night whenever it suited me, even sleep with whomever I desired that desired me.
Whoa.
So THIS was what life was like!
Wow.
I never knew such power.
Or such responsibility.
I felt very much the same way after hearing the statement, "You are the truth" in my conversation with God. I felt that someone had just given me the "keys to the kingdom." Suddenly, I was all-powerful. I didn't have to believe anyone else any more. I didn't have to take another's word for anything.
But I also had new responsibility. I had to decide for myself what my truth was.
Now, if I had to do this alone, I would have felt that it was just too much of a task. I am just one little old human being, and I cannot decide, even for myself, the truth of the Universe.
But the wonderful news is that I do not HAVE to make these decisions alone. That's because I have a real, a genuine, and a working friendship with God. Because of this, I can ask God's help in determining my truth. And that, of course, is what the Conversations with God books are all about.
Each of us can have our own conversations with God. We do not have to rely on the books written by others. We can write our own.
Is this true or not? What do you believe? What do you think?
Ask God right now. Take out a sheet of paper, clear your mind of all other thoughts, ideas, or considerations. Now write out your question.
Is it true that I can have my own conversations with you? Will you respond to me just as clearly and immediately as you responded to Neale Donald Walsch?
Go ahead. Write the question. Then listen for your answer.
When you get the answer, write it down. Do not question it. Do not doubt it. Just write it down as you hear it in your head.
-- Neale Donald Walsch
P.S. If the answer comes up "no," ask another couple of questions. Ask, "Why not? If God is not replying to me right now, then who is?"
Then, keep the dialogue going. But remember, stay out of your head when you do this. When you see yourself writing the answers that are in your mind, stop the process. You can tell the difference between answers that are coming to you from the highest place of wisdom in the Universe and answers that are coming to you from your own mind or previous thoughts or deepest fears.
Trust this. You will feel the difference.
-
EntirelyPossible
There are many Christians who agree... It's the ''evangelicals'' who like to tell everyone they are wrong, and that you HAVE to believe in the Jesus they believe otherwise you are going to hell with Buddha.
There are also many who DON'T agree. It's the one's who think they are right, whatever flavor of the month of Jesus they subscribe to, that like to tell you what you have to beleive, otherwise you are going to hell.
It's always funny when people say what the other guy does, even as they are doing the same thing they are complaining about.
Silly Christians, invisible friends are for kids!
/This post brought to you from 36000 feet.
//In-flight wireless is awesome!
-
EntirelyPossible
Neale Donald Walsch talks about Absolute Truth....
Neale is, apparently, as batsh*t crazy as godrulz.
-
godrulz
Truth is absolute, not relative.
Prodigal: Conversations with God, A Course in Miracles, Urantia Book, etc. are demonic, not divine sources. You need some discernment, wisdom, and the objective source of revelation, the Bible.
-
still thinking
ProdigalSon does raise an interesting issue though godrulz. Why can't you believe yourself over what others say, or even how others interpret the bible?
Why wouldn't God guide us individually? I am not sure about the process of writing lead by the spirit. But I do think he has a valid point that no humans have more authority or knowledge than you when it comes to your own personal relationship with God.
I cannot tell you what your relationship is...and likewise, you cannot judge mine or tell me what mine is.
-
godrulz
God knows the heart and minds of men and we do not. However, Paul did judge sound vs false doctrine. We are responsible to understand the true gospel and expose the lie from Scripture. We can say that Muhammad and Joseph Smith are false prophets, the Koran and Book of Mormon are not Scripture, etc. If one assumes relativism vs absolutes, then we can know nothing about anything with certainty. Laziness and ignorance are not excuses, nor is leaving the thinking to WT/GB an excuse. Scripture is meant to be understood. We can demonstrate why a god is wrong and God is correct at Jn. 1:1. In any given verse, we can eliminate many wrong interpretations and narrow it down to one or a few plausible interpretations. We can accept Jn. 3:16 at face value, even as a child. Those who know God and have the illumination of the Spirit do not have the same wishy washy doubts about essential truth. Either Jesus rose from the dead or He did not. We do not have to waffle or speculate. If He did, trust Him. If He did not, reject Christianity. It comes down to yes God or no God. We don't have to have exhaustive knowledge, but there is a minimum amount of understanding that virtually all people of Christian faith accept. WT is a fringe cult and its teachings can be shown to be unbiblical with reasoning from the Scriptures (they proof text, not exegete).
-
ProdigalSon
Prodigal: Conversations with God, A Course in Miracles, Urantia Book, etc. are demonic, not divine sources. You need some discernment, wisdom, and the objective source of revelation, the Bible.
The fact that you can read the above article by Walsch and call it demonic is truly laughable. You are every bit as blind as any JW. You see light and call it darkness. You see darkness and call it light. Every other thought about God that's spoken or put to writing is from the Devil. That convenient crutch on whom to blame everything. That perfect excuse to sit on your ass and wait for Jesus to fix it all.
A good portion of your Bible was channeled by demons, and finalized by the Catholic Church... the way you view it as a Golden Calf and the only source of truth is proof of that. It makes you a judgmental buffoon, a Pharisee, which is its intent exactly.
It's sad when a perfectly sane mind is deluded into the tunnel vision of a bronze-age book compiled by black magicians.
The good news is, your blindness is only temporary.
-
ProdigalSon
entirelypossible: Neale is, apparently, as batsh*t crazy as godrulz.
I'm really glad you think so. It reassures me of its truthfulness.
-
godrulz
For the record, I did not read the article and was not comparing it to the other things (except Conversations with God which is not divine, but demonic...that must have caught my eye leading to my rant).
Counterfeit (oh, I did not realize he was the author of Conversations...all the more reason to skim the article without embracing its New Age ideas). If you have Jesus and the Word, you won't need this type of trash (Eph. 1:3; 2 Peter 1:3; Jn. 14:6).
The problem with an ex-JW overreacting to Pharisaism is that they let down their guard and go for nothing (atheism) or everything (New Age, Mormon, etc. etc.). Discernment in light of Scripture and the Spirit is needed. Not everything 'spiritual' (Oprah) has a divine source. It may be demonic or the musings of men.