Need advice on a comeback to my wife: when she is in cult mode she says faith without works is dead.

by goingthruthemotions 40 Replies latest jw experiences

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  goingthruthemotions

  so i have gotten into arguements with my wife in the past about this cult. now a days after reading Steve Hassan books...i just try and avoid anything jdub with her. try to keep her in authentic mode..(not sure she really has one)

  anyways...when we have gotten in fight she will come up with the words. "faith without works is dead" i know where the phrase comes from.
  

  she uses this to pertain to going out in circus and going to meetings. " i would like my response to be...well shat about all the christians who help the poor and feed the hungry. arn't they doing fine works:

  what scriptures could i use to back this up about chritians helping the poor and others less fortunate.

  
  

  shalom
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  freemindfade

  Faith (religion) is and answer to a question no one asked. 
  Muslim radicals have works to their faith...
  Hell they probably have more faith than any other religious person. I'm sure they have similar mantras they have taken from scripture out of or even in context.  
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  Giordano

  Proverbs 19:17 ESV / 385 helpful votes

  Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.

  HelpfulNot Helpful

  Matthew 5:42 ESV / 141 helpful votes

  Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

  HelpfulNot Helpful

  Luke 14:12-14 ESV / 136 helpful votes

  He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

  
  

  Proverbs 22:9 ESV / 126 helpful votes

  Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.

  
  

  Isaiah 58:10 ESV / 106 helpful votes

  If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.

  HelpfulNot Helpful

  Luke 3:11 ESV / 87 helpful votes

  And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”

  
  

  Galatians 2:10 ESV / 81 helpful votes

  Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. 
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  Splash

  Ja 1:27 says The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world.

  You might also use the good Samaritan text. The injured man wasn't preached to, he was cared for physically, as many Churches do through their various organisations.

  Splash
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  freemindfade

  Have her show you where it says "organization" In the bible 
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  mynameislame

  Eph 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God

  Rom 3:29 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. 
  

  
  
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  leaving_quietly

  See this thread:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/248990/james-2-26-faith-without-works-dead
  
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  DesirousOfChange

  Ask her to define the difference between "faith" and "credulity" (often defined as "blind faith").

  There is NO evidence that anything said by the GB is true or will come true. Nothing ever has.

  Doc
  
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  OneEyedJoe

  Splash pretty much summed it up - read the scripture to her in context and ask what part of that is she doing.  Or ask where the ministry is in that scripture.
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  DATA-DOG

  It's pretty easy. If you REALLY have faith, then you will act on it. That's really the whole point of "dead" faith vs showing that you really have faith. 

  Maybe your wife needs to understand the difference between heartfelt actions and being guilted into performing perfunctory tasks. If your wife really believes the bible is God's word the the scriptures absolutely must be the authority. What does the bible say about works? It's pretty clear from the above comments.

  What does your wife think about "powerful works" that Jesus disapproves?? Why does she think Jesus disapproves? Could it be that humans come up with their own ideas about which "works" are approved while simultaneously ignoring what God wants? 

  
  

  DD