Using the word Father far more intimate than saying Jehovah?

by BU2B 12 Replies latest jw friends

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  BU2B

  This was one of the things I thought about while I was beginning to think for myself.

  Who has the more intimate relationship, the coworker of a man who calls him by his first name, or his child who calls him Dad, or Papa?

  All the emphasis JWs put on Jehovah blinds them to this simple truth. What if one of us walked up to our father and said, hey Bill! What would his reaction be? Likely he would feel disrespected. Growing up, it was a big deal for a child in the Cong to call someone older by their first name, because it was seen as not respectful. Would a father want to be on a first name basis with his children, or use the more loving, close terms for a father.

  If Jesus set the example of prayer and even the NWT starts out with, our father, not a name, why dont JWs do as Jesus did in the MODEL prayer?

  Have you ever thought of this when you first started waking up?
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  Moses Unedited

  While a JW, at the very most, I felt a lukewarmness toward whole heavenly father, Jehovah character. However, I feel much differently now. After reading the Old Testament anew, I feel that Jehovah was simply a maladjusted neurotic. Jehovah is just like one of those guys you see that after being beat up in school, always picked last for kickball, and rejected by all the girls; he grows up to be a cop.
• 

  sspo

  While i was in for 32 years and read the bible always wondered why Jesus and the apostles never used God's name.

  As Jesus was being crucified he called not on Jehovah but on " Papa " or Father.

  The watchtower introduced Jehovah in the NWT approx 235 times which goes contrary to what bible itself says not to add or subtract.
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  *lost*

  Father. I'm sure if it would of been anything else more important that we should know about, then he would of told us.

  He said pray to OUR Father in heaven.

  Likewise, if God's name was jehovah and that name existed 6,000 + years ago Jesus would of told us, and it would of been clear.

  It wouldn't of suddenly popped up 1,000 + years after the Bible.

  As a loving parent of a child knows, it is an unbreakable spedial bond. Words cannot explain parental love
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  no lies please

  You have a really great point. I thought about this a lot in the past. I was expected to call my parents by their first names, and we weren't really close. "Dad", "Father", "Mom", "Mother" all seemed like a closer relationship that being on a first name basis with one's parents. Using the name "Jehovah" did not make me feel closer to God. Calling him "Father" always felt closer.
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  designs

  How do you feel about Sonny instead of Jesus.
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  ranmac

  Ive thougt about this too. The repetitious obsession with saying Jehovah over and over again seems formal and cold. At a meeting a speaker once used this illustration: At a funeral the speaker giving the eulogy would never refer to the person as "the deceased" over and over again, it would be very impersonal. Some how that was supposed to be fitting.
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  Julia Orwell

  I felt much more intimate with God when I started calling him just father. I too thought, I call my own father Dad because it's a term of endearment and sign of put close bond. I never called him by his name, so why would I call my God father by his name? Apparently only 144000 have Him as father but even they have to call him Jehovah. That name never made me feel close to the divine power. I think it misrepresents the divinity, whatever it is.
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  Tiktaalik

  The logic of this thread is simple and extremely powerful.

  The whole world can call your parents by their first names, but only you (and your siblings) can call them mum or dad. It engenders a special bond, a "we're all in this together" closeness.
• 

  BU2B

  Great points guys..

  I was just thinking, in the OT the name, however pronounced was used because humans could not yet have that personal bond with God. It was all formality, sacrifices, and rigid. Once Jesus came things changed. Humans could be truly close to God, enough to rightly call him our Father. This is a change from the OT when humans did not have that closeness. Jesus was trying to show the difference by telling us we could say father, but JWs dont get it, and it makes sense since they are Judeo oriented anyways, with the modern Talmud, rules for everything, pharasaical, legalistic, and stuck in the OT.

  How many mentions of David for one of Jesus in the Kool-Aid WT? Whats the ratio?