Thanks, Lulu, for your insight on Solomon. But that doesnt' really answer my question on free will by saying that Jehovah can do whatever he likes.According to the JW interpretation, all of creation is participating in a huge court case in which Jehovah is trying to make the point that there will be persons who will serve him, no matter what the consequences to themselves.How is that free will if he dictates that if we serve him, we will be rewarded with everlasting life, but if we do not, we will die a horrible death at Armageddon? What real choice does that really give? And why did Solomon choose not to serve him, if he had more insight into things--was his wisdom purely secular?That would be conjecture to state that, because it doesn't specify in the Bible.
If Jehovah is the personification of love, why would he "do whatever he likes, when he likes, and to whom?"Afterall, according to 1 Corinthians, love is kind and seeks the interest of the other.
It's not my choice to die at Armageddon. So if I go along with what I'm told by Witnesses or any other Christian group that their interpretation of the Bible is THE only one to follow, and if I push my questions out of mind so as to not challenge Jehovah (or is it an organization of imperfect human beings that I am actually questioning?), does that make me an obedient servant or a puppet who just doesn't want to die?I mean if I were to genuinely push all of my doubts out of my mind and not think about them at all?Facts like the fact that my child who was raised in the Witness religion could not get baptised by a JW simply because she only put in seven hours of field service every month instead of ten,or that my son-in-law is destined to die at Armageddon according to the Watchtower because he is not a baptised, (blood) card carrying Jehovah's Witness or a member of his parent's nonWitness religion either(even though he is the most decent, caring young man I have met in a long time.Poor guy, everyone tells him he is going to die and/or burn in hell forever)?Or the fact that I got tired of the "What did you do to deserve it?" mentality I was "comforted" with by the elders when my nonbelieving husband physically abused me a few years ago.
And I really haven't got a clue what I'm doing.Except escaping from a whole lot of pain and a rigid paradigm that told me I would never hit the mark, no matter how hard I tried.I feel no malice toward Jehovah.I just have honest questions. So Lulu, does that constitute making a choice in your opinion?
