My thoughts about John 16:1-3

by TimothyT 15 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • TimothyT
    TimothyT

    Hi everyone,

    The gospel according to John is my favourite book of the bible. I've just picked up where i left off reading it at chapter 16. I havnt looked at the bible since being disfellowshipped and I read the first 3 verses:

    1 “I have told you these things so that you won’t abandon your faith.2 For you will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God. 3This is because they have never known the Father or me.

    Jesus encouraged his disciples not to lose their faith, it seems when they would be thrown out of the religion they belonged to. I find it quite poignant that the first thing i read is something that relates directly to me at the moment, and how my being thrown out of this religion could have affected my own spirituality. Im glad I have read this as it has shown me that the same things happened to the disciples but they continued to have faith in Jesus sacrifice. I can be the same no matter what the JW's do to me. I love the bible!

    Peace

    Timmy xxx

  • paulnotsaul
    paulnotsaul

    Keep reading Tim. The word will open itself up to you now that the JW glasses are off. Thats what happened to me. peaceT paulnotsaul

  • ProdigalSon
    ProdigalSon

    Hang in there buddy, and consider this the greatest blessing you could imagine. I too went through UnHoly Hell after being disfellowshipped, thinking that what they did was backed up by God.

    Just came across this in today's email....

    http://spiritlibrary.com/neale-donald-walsch/the-right-way-to-worship-god?utm_source=Spirit+Library+Updates&utm_campaign=289147f6e0-Daily_Update&utm_medium=email

    From The New Revelations

    by Neale Donald Walsch

    I have to admit that I always did find it hard to believe God would tell people they may not intermarry, or that women must not allow any portion of their body to be seen in public, or that couples may not use contraceptives, or that men must wear beards.

    I never did understand why God felt he had to give human beings so many orders.

    I don't. I don't have to give orders to anyone, and I've never done so.
    Never?

    No. And I never will.
    You never will? You mean that we will never know what God really wants?

    No.
    Why? Why would you do this to us?

    Do what to you?
    Why would you tell us to follow God's law, to obey your wishes, and then not tell us what you really want?

    Because there is nothing that I do want. And this is what you cannot understand or refuse to accept.

    There is nothing that God wants or needs.

    God demands nothing, commands nothing, requires nothing, compels nothing. Teach this in your seminaries and your madrasas.

    God neither orders nor requests, insists nor expects, anything. Tell this to your young.

    I am the Author of Everything. I am the Creator and the Created. There is nothing that is that I am not. I have no need to give orders to anyone.

    To whom would I give orders? There is no one to command but me. I am the All In All. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. And whom would I punish were my orders not kept? Would I use my right hand to slap my left? Would I bite my nose to spite my face?

    Your teachers and your doctors of law, your priests and your ulamas, tell you that God is to be feared, for He is a vengeful God. You are to live in fear of God's wrath, they say. You are to tremble in His presence. Your whole life you are to fear the terrible judgment of the Lord. For God is "just," you are told. And God knows, you will be in trouble when you confront the terrible justice of the Lord. You are, therefore, to be obedient to God's commands. Or else.

    Most of you, therefore, spend much of your adult lives searching for the "right way" to worship God, to obey God, to serve God. The irony of all this is that I do not want your worship, I do not need your obedience, and it is not necessary to serve me.

    These behaviors are the behaviors historically demanded of their subjects by monarchs--egomaniacal, insecure, tyrannical monarchs at that. They are not Godly demands in any sense, and it seems remarkable that the world hasn't by now concluded that the demands are counterfeit, having nothing to do with the needs of Deity.

    Deity has no needs. All That Is is exactly that: all that is. It therefore wants, or lacks, nothing--by definition.

    If you choose to believe in a God who somehow needs something--and has such hurt feelings if He doesn't get it that He punishes those from whom He expected to receive it--then you choose to believe in a God much smaller than I. You truly are Children of a Lesser God.

    No, my children, please let me assure you again, through this present writing, as I have done in writings past, that I am without needs. I require nothing.
    Then you haven't given us "orders"?

    No. It was human beings who felt they had to give human beings orders, in order to keep order. And the best way they knew how to get people to follow orders was to say that they came directly from God.

    There were also those who sincerely believed that they were receiving directives from God about how life should be lived, and what they said that they received was passed on by others in good faith. Yet this does not mean that what was passed on was always accurate, nor does it mean that the person who claims to have been the original recipient of these revelations was infallible.
    Any more than this book is infallible.

    That is correct. That is exactly right. Any claim of infallibility for this book would be inaccurate.
    It would be inaccurate to say that this book is accurate.

    Yes.
    So this book is accurate when it says that it is inaccurate.

    That's clever, and that's another yes.
    So if it's inaccurate, why should I believe it?

    You should not believe it. You should apply it and see what works.

    Incidentally, put every other writing that claims to be a communication from God to the same test.

  • Fernando
    Fernando

    (John 9:22) . . .His parents said these things because they were in fear of the Jews, for the Jews had already come to an agreement that, if anyone confessed him as Christ, he should get expelled from the synagogue.

    (John 12:42-43) . . .All the same, many even of the rulers actually put faith in him, but because of the Pharisees they would not confess [him], in order not to be expelled from the synagogue; for they loved the glory of men more than even the glory of God.

    (John 16:1-4) . . .“I have spoken these things to YOU that YOU may not be stumbled. Men will expel YOU from the synagogue. In fact, the hour is coming when everyone that [spiritually] "kills" YOU [by falsely labelling you an apostate] will imagine he has rendered a sacred service to God. But they will do these things because they have not come to know either the Father or me. Nevertheless, I have spoken these things to YOU that, when the hour for them arrives, YOU may remember I told them to YOU.. . .

    (Matthew 7:21-23) . . .“Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. Many [religionists] will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew YOU! Get away from me, YOU workers of lawlessness.

    (John 17:3) . . .This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of [knowing] you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ, [in a real, personal, authentic, and organic relationship]. >> Compare NWT and KIT (Greek Kingdom Interlinear Translation by Watchtower Society). See also www.bible.cc

    (Colossians 2:11-12) . . .By relationship with him YOU were also circumcised with a circumcision performed without hands by the stripping off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision that belongs to the Christ, for YOU were buried with him in [his] baptism, and by relationship with him YOU were also raised up together through [YOUR] faith in the operation of God, who raised him up from the dead.

  • Ding
    Ding

    Remember that when Jesus encouraged his disciples not to lose their faith, he was talking about their faith in HIM, not their faith in a self-proclaimed, latter-day "faithful and discreet slave organization."

  • bioflex
    bioflex

    This seems to be a really big problem in todays church, too many christians just like to depend on their churches, pastors and so on, i mean the word of God is clear about what we ougth to do, follow Jesus and not the church, thats why many are deceived, not because they cant see but because they dont want to see.

  • TimothyT
    TimothyT

    Indeed bioflex! Thanks everyone for your comments too!

    I was explaining to my boyfriend yesterday that very same point! Too many people rely on others to find their spirituality.

    The JWs are just the same! They rely on the WTS and when they are a part of it, they dont need to think about Jesus sacrifice anymore.

    They all need to think carefuly about Jesus and what he did for us, rather than just go along with others!

  • irondork
    irondork

    Great observation, Timmy. Nice thread topic. That was one of the most refreshing realizations for me when I left the organisation; "apostasy" is mostly a word the WTS like to throw around WAY too much. I didn't have to actually be one. I could still have a relationship with God - now, I realize, an even better one.

    paulnotsaul: Keep reading Tim. The word will open itself up to you now that the JW glasses are off. Thats what happened to me.

    Me too!

  • Terry
    Terry

    In my personal opinion, the greatest danger facing a disfellowshipped person is not realizing the NEW CONTEXT they are living in.

    You've got a brain toolkit with tools that ONLY allow thoughts, reasonings and rules suited for METAPHYSICAL THINKING.

    There has been a Game Change.

    The Game is over. Put the game controller down and move on.

    Life is real. Metaphysics is not.

    You've lived with one foot in reality and one foot in make-believe for a long time. How did that work out? It DIDN'T.

    The part that DID NOT WORK OUT is the one you must abandon permanently.

    But, as I said, once your toolkit (pattern of thinking) is trained for metaphysical analysis it simply WILL NOT SERVE YOU in real world thinking.

    The bible is a mental trap like the La Brea Tar Pits were for hungry prehistoric beasts starved for nourishment.

    Wander in and graze at your own peril.

  • wantingtruth
    wantingtruth

    Timothy,

    I am so glad that you love the Bible , and read it !

    I also read the Bible and here is what I have found :

    http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/177953/1/The-Kingdom-of-God-when-in-Heaven-according-to-Jesus

    greetings to you

    wantingtruth

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