I heard Gerrit Losch from GB yesterday at JW convention. His biblical exegesis was terrible. I cringed when he said that the outline (notes he stuck to) says this or that or that WT says this or that (vs thus saith the Lord from the Bible).
The JW's dependence on WT literature.
by Knowsnothing 93 Replies latest watchtower bible
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kurtbethel
Instead of upbuilding people so that they grow spiritually and learn discernment, the organization business model creates a dependency on a regular fix of literature. This makes people unable to work out spiritual matters through study of scripture and guidance of holy spirit. It is spiritually crippling. Very sad.
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AwareBeing
Yes, my family realizes this too. We call it a "sugar high". Or say:
"No meat, just the same ol' grizzle" with a dash of spice to hide it's flavorless nature.
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Liberty93
I never contested that Jesus existed. I'm claiming that you are making some gigantic assumptions with a tiny amount of evidence. The fundamental thing is this - you can't prove what you say, so there's no reason to believe it.
Consider this - I claim that a person named Plato existed, and that he taught and wrote books. This is in accord with many of our experiences. We all know of people who exist. Further, we know of people who exist and who write books and/or teach.
Consider your claims on the other hand - that God incarnated himself by causing a virgin to become pregnant, that this man lived, died on the cross, and was resurrected after three days. None of these claims, other than that the man existed have even the slightest resemblance to anything that a sane person has ever claimed to experience, and therefore, there is no belief in these events as literal events other than in words - there can be no true belief that these things happened because, as literal events, they are simply nonsensical.
As events symbolic of greater spiritual realities, they make quite a bit of sense, but Christians, and Protestants in particular, are, as a rule, totally unable to concieve of any divinity that transcends their own quotidian lives. They do not ask how the divine transcends time and space. Rather, they ask what God's "plan" is for you. Maybe you've been "called" to go take a dump, or go outside and get the paper.
That's the problem with bible-whackers - they cannot concieve of transcendent majesty and so, instead of raising themselves up to view it, they drag it kicking and screaming down to their own mundane level. More often than not, the obsession with a personal conversion experience and a "personal relationship with Christ" is a subtle (or not so subtle) form of self-worship.
And that feeling so many of you get when you feel or imagine that Christ enters your life? It's pretty darn similiar to some of the lower jhanas, meditative states, that even novice meditators can place themselves in at will. And the thing is, there are even "better," or more peaceful or what-have-you, jhanas beyond those first four. The rub is that reading a book and thinking you know everything isn't how you attain them.