What are your current beliefs on God and the bible (page 2)

LB

Before I became a dub you couldn't shake my belief in God. They've managed to muddy up the water for me.

blondie

Hi, Leander. I miss your posts. My husband and I are doing the slow fade. I'm sure it is much harder to do it without our wife's support.

I find it hard to pray lately. I still believe in God but not as the God the WTS preaches about. That has meant going back to the Bible using several translations, concordances, and commentaries.

Without getting into a debate with anyone, I don't buy the trinity, everyone having an immortal soul, hellfire (burning people up forever). Conversely, I don't believe everyone but JWs are going to die at Armageddon and I believe that all the dead (Sodom and Gomorrah, etc., too) will be resurrected. I don't believe that Jesus meant people to turn in field service slips when he said to go forth and preach about the Kingdom.

It is taking awhile to get the WTS programming out of my head. I have a goal to attend my last meeting next spring. Meanwhile I do my reviews to keep the propaganda at bay.

It helps to come here at JWD and vent a little too, Leander, and read other's experiences and know that we are not alone.

Blondie(easing on down the road)

drahcir yarrum

I'm now firmly in the athiest camp but not because the JW's ruined it for me. I have simply taken an openminded look at many of the transcendent beliefr systems pervasive in the world and found that they all have a common denominator, that being irrational dependence on the unknown.

MrMoe

YHWH - Jehovah or God (of the Bible) is bloodthirsty.

I personally am "pagan," tho this calssification does not completely suit me. Agnostic doesn't quite suit me either, so take your pick.

Why should I serve and worship a God who degrades women? Why should I serve/worship a God that would kill innocent children because thier parents didn't worship him? I am not an ancient Isrealite, and to be blunt I am shocked the bible has even made it's way into the western world. But, in the end, my personal choice is mine and mine alone. What you do with your life and your personal belief is up to you as an individual.

Here is soemthing I wrote in my blog a while back on religion in general:

Religion - Vent Number 1 To me, no religion is right or wrong, just as we all have the most precious gift, freedom of personal thought. Sadly though, religion is a tool used to control the masses rather than become the enlightening experience that true personal spirituality allows. Who is to say the Hindus do not have the "true" religion, or the Judaism, or Christianity. Many religions have the same common ground, such as a Messiah either past or coming in the future, just look at the mythology of the Ancient Egyptians. They, the Ancient Egyptains, had a Messiah, and in fact, much of their belief system mimics the bible - or the bible mimics it - depending upon your view... Take into example minor historical details later twisted to suit a certain need, even between the Jewish/biblical history of the Isrealites and Egyptians. Such as Imhotep (known in the bible as Joseph.) He was a highly regarded Priest and architect of the Djoser tomb/pyraimid, and the two accounts of him in the bible and Egyptian history are almost dead clones. Ok, getting side tracked... My main beef of "Religion" as whole is that it is too dense to see the striking commonality of their religious fellows, who are simply their particular religion based upon they way their culture had raised them to be. Is mankind so blind to see that we are all different? The way we dress, they way we speak, the way we raise our children, the way we treat women, and the God we worship. If God is real, and he is out there, do you think he would destroy - kill - leave for the birds to pick at your body - you and your family, simply because you were born in the wrong country and raised in the "wrong" religion? If so, I piss on your God, because that is not love. And if right now you are reading this, and you are offended, too bad, because you are not using the brain your "God" gave you.

Edited by - MrMoe on 10 December 2002 11:28:27

CoolBreeze

I posted this on another thread but I thought it was worth repeating.

I believe in god.I do not believe much that is in the bible. I belive the bible is nothing more than a book cobbled together in the 4th century out of existing documents which were edited to reflect the expansionist doctrines of Rome. It is my opinion that the bible is a political document created to further the intrests of the Roman Empire under tha auspices of the Holy Roman Empire. From what I have studied it has become evident to me that that the central figure of the new testament is a compilation of sevral mystical figures of the precedingthree centuries. These figures included, but were not limited to; Jeshua de Pantera and Apollonius of Tyenna both of whom have many of the same atributes as the Christ myth. The Hebrew testament is basicaly a retelling and reappropriation of the ancient Sumarian tales of Gilgamesh which predate Genesis by many centuries. As far as I'm concerned, the bible is a document which includes some historial facts deeply shrouded in mythology. It's primary purpose was to enslave the ignorant superstitius pesants of europe by holding their eternal existence hostage to the rules compiled by the (Holy)Roman Empire.

Anton

clash_city_rockers

I became a bible believing Christian because of HIS (God's) mercy and not of anything of my own choosing. The Lord has given me everlating life on the account of Jesus Christ. this is something I cound not get on my own nor could I have accomplished it with a cooperative effort between God and me, Jesus did it all and gave salvation to me.....

Since the God of the bible is the only true creator then he is lord and master over all. And man could not explain anything in HIS creation outside the knowledge of HIM. God has revealed himself in Holy Writ (thats a puritan way of saying the bible) in the bible you will see a true record of man his fall the penalty of sin and God's great redemptive plan of salvation in Jesus Christ in history.

Sorry JT but your objections are silly feebel and just plain absurd with no intellegability and self-refuting, but this is what you get when you reject Jesus Christ of the bible because of your own wicked sinfulness turn away from God and his salvation in Jesus Christ.

Soli Deo Gloria,

jr

BTW I am a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Edited by - clash_city_rockers on 11 December 2002 2:28:54

clash_city_rockers

Mr. Moe makes a self-refuting statement:

To me, no religion is right or wrong, just as we all have the most precious gift, freedom of personal thought. Sadly though, religion is a tool used to control the masses rather than become the enlightening experience that true personal spirituality allows.

You see your own religious statement is neather right nor wrong by your standard so why should we take your proposition seriously? Basically your proposition was a non sequitor, a statment that was internally self contradictory. When you abandon the God of the bible you abandon reason. Like the old Francis Scheaffer book "Escape from Reason"

Edited by - clash_city_rockers on 11 December 2002 2:38:42

clash_city_rockers

Cool Breeze,

with a silly statment like you made about the bible that you made you would get laughed out of every major educational instatution in America.

Try going to

Johns Hopkins University in Maryland

or Duke University In North Carolina

or University of California ar Berkeley

or Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA

or Texas A&M University in College Station, TX

or Prinston University, in NJ

they woulf laugh you out of the campus.......

CoolBreeze

Ahhh Clash,

Throwing around the names of universities to lend credence to your statements. For your edification I attended two years at UC Berkeley in 1992-94. Where did you think I got the information in regards to the transformation of the Sumarian creation myths into those of the Hebrews? A great deal of information was also obtained at UC Davis near Sacramento in regards to formation of the Catholic Church, specifically the history of the council Nicea in 325 C.E. I don't seem to recall any of the professors laughing or giggling as the material was presented.

Perhaps you were referring to the Divinity departments at these schools. You see I'm interested in the HISTORY of Christianity, so I took HISTORY classes.

Perhaps you might consider attending an institution of higher learing your self. Perhaps it would give you the ability to see the flaws in your application of logic. There are several schools here in California that offer courses in critical thinking. Perhaps you should look into them.

Anton

Edited by - coolbreeze on 11 December 2002 10:13:5

garboru

I believe that any who worship God as outlined in the Bible has truth. But there are many interpretations of the Bible on who and how to worship God.

I personally believe that the Father is the only true God and that Jesus is the promised messiah that He sent. I do not believe that God is a trinity/triunity God. I believe that there is only one path to God and that Jesus and his teachings are that path. I do not believe that there are many paths to God as some here believe. I believe that all who actively have faith that God will achieve His goals have truth. This includes many denominations that are unitarian in nature. I do not believe that all will see some sort of ficticious hell if you are wrong in your choice of path but will be around to grow into a true worshipper of God in the new world (of course you will be tested like Adam, Eve and Jesus were tested).

This is the tip of the iceburg of what I have came acrossed in my "search for truth" after drifting away from the JW organization. Much of what I believe comes from the JW's. I do not believe they are a cult or stuck in some sort of false religion. What I do believe is that some of thier teachings are wrong. But they will not be punished for that.

I beleive that Yahweh is God and that the Bible is His message to us on how to conduct ourselfs as worshippers of Him.

gar

What are your current beliefs on God and the bible

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