Have you wondered "WHERE else could I go"?

by Fernando 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Fernando

  The question has an inbuilt fatal flaw. It forces only one answer NOWHERE.

  This question is also based on a FALSE premise that we can be right with God if we find and follow the correct rules, doctrines, moral code and knowledge. This is in direct opposition to what Paul teaches over and over on IMPUTED righteousness (justification, being COUNTED as righteous, as a free gift that cannot be earned, deserved or paid for). When Martin Luther finally discovered this (after his noble and almost fatal attempts to find God through self-righteous monkery) he very nearly single handedly destroyed religion, almost 500 years ago.

  However if the question is asked correctly and scripturally another option emerges.

  The scriptural question is: "WHOM else could I go to"?

  The scriptural answer is: "Jesus".

  That person who the builders - religionists - treat as the "stone of stumbling" or the "rock-mass of offense".

  Jesus leads people away from religionists. That is why they killed him and still (secretly) hate the REAL Jesus today.

  Ask yourself: "when Jesus was on earth, did he lead people TO the elders and Governing Body, or AWAY from them?". Beware of Watchtower propaganda at this point - yes, there was a Governing Body - it was known as the Sanhedrin.

  That is why religionists always defeat the map that leads to Jesus by removing most of its 30-odd markers. The result is a "truncated gospel" or depleted "good news".

  It is "easy" to recover the full map with all its markers. Simply start by finding and marking each of the ±152 occurrences of the phrase "good news" in the Bible. You will note that more than half of these are by Paul.

  It is no accident that Watchtower religionists fumble when asked to explain the "good news according to Paul". They are not able even to open the Bible, read and explain even a single of the ±85 instances where Paul refers to the "good news", let alone have anything coherent, honest and meaningful to say about IMPUTED righteousness (justification).

  You could also ask your favourite Watchtower religionist how many of these ±85 times Paul refers to "Kingdom" in the same sentence as the "good news". Maybe they could explain why it is ZERO?
• 

  Knowsnothing

  Fernando, besides the prophetic blunders, incredible (and I mean it in the original sense of the word, not believeable) miracles, and Apocalyptic message that Jesus preached, I can jive with texts like Matthew 7:12.

  But, to say the Bible and the Gospels are 100% factual, is demonstrably false. To believe in the Bible as the Word of God presents serious problems for a rationalist, fact-finder.
• 

  N.drew

  Where else is there to go?

  No where. Stay home and open the door. NO! Not when the JWs come calling. Open the door of the spirit.

  Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20
• 

  Fernando

  Hey Knowsnothing!

  A growing number believers will agree with much of what you say. The way religionists have conveniently framed the Bible and God gives them what they crave: power, authority, control and status over a following of mindless dumb sheeple.

  There is much I was certain of as a Watchtower follower, that now as a simple Jesus follower, I have put in the "middle basket" (uncertain) and look at as peripheral.

  By focussing instead on the map (the gospel) which is woven through the Bible, and hidden to religionists, I have been able to overcome my addiction to a morass of supremacist, doomsday, self-righteous, closed-minded, irrational, inconsistent, unhelpful, anti-sex, anti-gay, anti-Jew and anti-Muslim thinking, beliefs and actions (in a relatively short time).

  Many of us know it takes a very special and powerful bomb to wake someone up from Watchtower blindness, confusion, inebriation and insanity - and lead them to a much healthier outlook and existence.

  The map has led me to that bomb - a person - Jesus.
• 

  steve2

  " Where else could I go? Whom else could I go to?" are comforting questions to those on the lookout for an absolute (i.e., Divine) prescription for living. However, to those who are beginning to think for themselves, they are both loaded and unhelpful questions.

  Just as a recently divorced person is best advised to stay away from marriage until they've sorted out the latest mess, so too people who have been spat out of an absolutist belief system need to keep clear of other "Divine" belief systems until they learn what it means to truly take adult responsibility for their lives.
• 

  N.drew

  Excellent post steve2

  My belief system was always To Seek and To Find. I was a lucky one that did not get "married" to the Watchtower Society. I obeyed but I did not take to my heart what I did not understand.
• 

  blondie

  Ten or so years aog when I left, I did investigate many religions and walked away seeing the same flaws. Then I realized I did not need a group. As time has gone by, I question the validity of the OT doctrines and how different they are from the NT ones. I don't understand God allowing polygamy until the Christian era (and truthfully, until 1947 in the WTS).

  He (Herbert McCabe) became editor of the journal New Blackfriars in 1965 but was removed in 1967 following a now-famous editorial in that journal in which he criticised the theologian Charles Davis for leaving the Church. Davis left the Catholic Church publicly, denouncing it as corrupt. McCabe countered that of course the Church was corrupt but that this was no reason to leave it.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_McCabe

  Ray Franz saw a lot of his situation in Charles Davis's.

  http://www.mosquitonet.com/~prewett/questofconscience.html

  http://www.commentarypress.net/cpn-essays/English/AD719468-561A-4A26-BC06-EC8FC9A3FFDB.html

  Here Ray Franz quotes Charles Davis and applies his comments about the Catholic Church to Ray's experience with the WTS:

  Charles Davis was for many years a priest and prominent theologian (and editor of the British journal The Clergy Review ) in the largest of the institutions that developed, the Roman Catholic Church. Explaining the reason for his decision to withdraw from his lifelong affiliation with that institution in the late 1960s, he wrote in his book A Question of Conscience : I remain a Christian, but I have come to see that the Church as it exists and works at present is an obstacle in the lives of the committed Christians I know and admire. It is not the source of the values they cherish and promote. On the contrary, they live and work in constant tension and opposition to it. Many can remain Roman Catholics only because they live their Christian lives on the fringe of the institutional Church and largely ignore it. I respect their position. In the present confused period people will work out their Christian commitment in different ways. But their solution was not open to me; in my position I was too involved. I had to ask bluntly whether I still believed in the Roman Catholic Church as an institution. I found that the answer was no. [Underlining ours]
• 

  Fernando

  Hey steve2!

  I have been reading about the "Plato Truth Virus" (PTV) and the immense harm caused by the (religious, physical, natural, carnal, temporal) pursuit of "absolute truth". Whilst still digesting and contemplating I must say I see a lot of correlation with what I am learning from the pursuit of the hidden map in scripture (called the gospel or "mysterion" and "euaggelion" in Greek).

  This map is specifically an answer to and against authoritarian control and captivity of the human spirit - and has a specific and deliberate marker called "liberation" and a specific and deliberate destination called "freedom".

  My experience so far has not been finding "absolute truth" but rather a healthy relationship with a great wealthy, benevolent, healing, flexible, liberal and wise friend who accepts me as I am and wants the very best for me.
• 

  Fernando

  Hey blondie!

  Never knew about Charles Davis. Awesome parallel. Thanks for sharing.

  Indeed N.drew!

  Best wishes.
• 

  Knowsnothing

  Fernando, don't get me wrong, I like the "ideal" Christian morality. I just don't jive with things like "leave family, friends, etc. for me (Jesus)". That's why doctrines like DF exist, and advocating anything that painful and unnecessary, is just well.......

  Fernando, is your belief one of philosophy, or one of concretely believing in the divine Jesus?

  I don't mind which one you choose, but I certainly side philosophically with the good aspects/teachings of the Gospels.