A QUESTION NOBODY EVER ASKS....

by Terry 31 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

Terry

michelle posits: But, suppose eventually others come along and start tampering with the 100% correct theology...they paint an entirely different picture of who God is...they even go so far as to make stuff up, listen to otherworldly entities, draw people out after themselves and or their ideas and completely disregard anything that the original teaching authority said. Why should God make allowances for sincerity if the 100% correct theology is still on the table?
How can what men hold inside their head by 100% correct if the object of thought is a transcendent being?
For humanity life must necessarily become about numero uno in order to survive and prosper. Humans are a contingent species.
What is the greatest need on which life is contingent? Let us perform a quick thought experiment, shall we?
I'm going to ask two questions. Let's pretend the 100% correct answer is either God or holy scriptures, okay?
QUESTION ONE: Your child falls off a cliff while on vacation and splashes into a river below. What is the most important thing in your mind as a parent??
QUESTION TWO: You are accidentally locked in freezer in a grocery store at closing time. You see the lights being turned off for lockdown. What is the most important thing in your mind for survival?
What is my point?
If you are drowning and somebody throws you a bible or stands praying while you drown the result is pretty much assured and it is lethal! If your life is in jeopardy and fast thinking 100% correct action is called for THE VERY LAST THING YOU DO when you have EXHAUSTED EVERY REAL possibility is our default choices of God and holy scripture. Get it? Our life hangs in the balance dependent on survival skills and not theology.
Religion tries mightily to substitute make-believe perils (hell, Armageddon, condemnation, etc.) ahead of actual life/death real world harms. We must be rational until everything is taken care of and then, in the quiet moments of the hour we can pray and read holy books. THAT IS PRACTICAL advice.
myelaine

dear Terry...
survival in a death situation is obviously important but a significant portion of life IS about living some choose to order their life around worship of God, their understanding is that God is central to their life.
dear cantleave...
"Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord , which He had not commanded them. 2 So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord ." lev. 10:1-2...
"Then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord , with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil." lev. 16:12...
aaron's two sons ignored God's law. they took matters into their own hands and took the fire for the altar from somewhere else. this was a terrible sin on their part because they disobeyed the command of God. their sin cost them their lives.
Jesus gave authority to what by 325 AD became known as the catholic church...Luther took already burning coals of fire from the altar before the LORD to burn incense inside the veil so to speak...the incense could be liked to sincerity as incense is liked to the prayers of the saints...BUT, the other "theologies" are strange fire.
*theologies...I'm refering strictly to the study of who God is, His Being. the catholic church and luthers protestant church teach that christians are to direct worship to the God of the OT (as that God has been revealed as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit)
love michelle
Terry

"Profane" fire?
Good gracious! How archaic an idea is that?!
How primitive a notion that the Supreme intelligence in all the universe is offended by certain kinds of fire!
I just can't see how a person can occupy their consciousness with a myriad of tribal fetish notions and O.C.D. rules of conduct in order to appease
a celestial deity as though they were living in a cave shivering at Thor's thunderbolts.
Why shouldn't Almight god stop fretting over "profane" fire and thought crimes and wake up to the molestations of children, the predation of women by rapists and the starvation of infants in 3rd world countries presided over by tyrannical "Superior Authorites" placed in their positions (according to scripture) by god himself!?
God's so-called priorities of what OFFENDS Him turns my stomach!
Finkelstein

Isn't God a fetishist when it comes to ritual and belief ?
Just about all doctrinal spiritual beliefs come out men's imaginations as a means to mostly self identify themselves.
Those so called god channelers or god's spokesmen are the instigators to godly fetishism, which in many cases
stumble good and valuable human social behaviors.
myelaine

dear Terry...
you said: "I just can't see how a person can occupy their consciousness with a myriad of tribal fetish notions and O.C.D. rules of conduct in order to appease a celestial deity as though they were living in a cave shivering at Thor's thunderbolts"...
tribal fetish?...I'm talking about WHO God IS and worshipping Him. When you know who God is it isn't about tribal fetish notions, it's about worshipping Him in spirit and TRUTH. the fact is that it is the cults that seem to have to prove they have the truth by nursing fetishes and they occupy thier consciousness with trying to disprove the historically stated theology of God with defense of their own notions about who God is. Jesus revealed who God is and said He had "started a fire" on the earth by means of the Holy Spirit through the visible *churchHe established. I think these scriptures imply that taking "strange fire" when worshipping God is akin to NOT worshipping THE God but doing your own thing.
the *church has as her defense..."there is no salvation outside the *church"...as the *churchis the body of Christ...there is no salvation outside the body of Christ...one has to be IN Christ, in the TRUTH. matthew 7:15-19 says beware of false prophets[teaching] because that same false teaching bears bad fruit and john 15:3-4, 8-10 says that one must remain in the word of Jesus to bear good fruit. God commanded exclusive worship, to do your own thing was to spurn Him in the OT. Jesus also commanded exclusive worship of God as stated in the great commission...(to do otherwise is to spurn Him the TRUTH and His salvation).
Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied[taught] in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!" matthew 7:21-23 AGAIN..."And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! 'For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother." matthew 12:49-50
you said: "God's so-called priorities of what OFFENDS Him turns my stomach!"...I hope their plight isn't about YOUR stomach
...because man doesn't remove himself from causing "offense" toward others, Jesus has promised that He will return and put an end to all things that cause offense, that He doesn't follow man's schedule, is reason enough to believe that there are still men who are about to do His will. Until He sees that all men that will be saved, are saved, we wait on His schedule. to put it another way...this isn't His kingdom it is man's and until He steps in to take it, things will remain as they are (rev 22:11-15).
*church...Jesus, having all authority in heaven and on earth, gave the great commission over to the teaching authority of the church...matthew 16:18-19
love michelle
Watkins

OTWO said: a God anything like what Christianity believes in, He should not be so petty as to assign eternal damnation or oblivion to those that sincerely worshipped in any way, even if it were not doctrinally correct. The God I believe in is NOT so petty as religions portray Him to be. imho. My dd gave me a bumper sticker(which my little car wore proudly until the sticker literally disintegrated) after my exit from wt: "I pray that God is not THAT picky". If God is love, which I believe He is, then He's not THAT picky!
Ucantnome

i don't think it was a great idea of Tyndale to translate the bible. I would be happy just looking at the stained glass windows.
The painting by George Clausen 'The English people reading Wycliffe's bible' I really like.
Terry

michelle: Jesus revealed who God is and said He had "started a fire" on the earth by means of the Holy Spirit through the visible *churchHe established. I think these scriptures imply that taking "strange fire" when worshipping God is akin to NOT worshipping THE God but doing your own thing.
The church= people of the Jesus movement.
The Jesus believers were meeting in people's homes. These "followers" of Jesus (they called themselves Akolouthontes or some called themselves Mathetai or "learners." If somebody brought word that another house in another town had Akolouthontes or Mathetai a person would be appointed as an emissary. These emmisaries were called Apostles. The job of an apostle was to contact other believers and create a network with them.
The task cut out for believers was in overcoming the dissonance of OPINIONS to the contrary within each group.
Few groups were without contradictory ideas of who/what Jesus was or meant.
Pagans, who were broad-minded about religious worship, called them contemptuous names such as "christian" . Eventually they called themselves that as well. The common term for 'christians' was FECAL HERETIC or Stercorantist because the arguments were incessant b.s. to the pagans.
Jehovah's Witnesses ask of another, "Are you in the Truth?" But, early members of the Jesus Movement would ask "Are you following the path?"
He Hodos (the path).
For there to be "strange fire" there would have to be a STANDARD christianity which there NEVER was until it was forced by the pagan state in 325.
Jesus was many opinions told by word of mouth. Those who followed the path were not in agreement. One thing is certain, however, all were convinced for quite awhile that Jesus was quickly returning. When this DID NOT happen, it was the first GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT. The religion changed into
a formal social movement of apocalyptic aspirations, martyrs and gadflys.
Sayswho

God is a not a good communicator and he doesn't want us to really know the answers to life!
SW
Finkelstein

Isn't religious theology similar to when a pianist composes and plays their own individual song, then self proclaims
their song spiritual truths ? Reject the song and your deemed spiritually weak, accept it and your deemed spiritual strong
and faithfully righteous to that song.
The WTS. is another pianist at the piano.

A QUESTION NOBODY EVER ASKS....

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