by Longlivetherenegades 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
When God hates certain things does that mean you are not expected to do that particular thing or certain things 100%
For example,
1. God hates divorce does that mean we are not expected to divorce at all? (Hint: Jesus allow divorce)
2. God hates violence. Does that mean we should hate violence 100%? (Hint: the one who God loves he scourges, to some extent God's punishment comes with degree of violence)
If God hates something bad enough I suspect he has the power to tell you directly if he is really that concerned.
(Based on that, you can probably go ahead and masturbate without guilt.)
He hated the high places for many generations in Israel but apparently he tolerated their existence otherwise he would have torn them down by having the earth consume them.
God hates divorce.....but t t t....most of his favored "friends" had multiple wives and concubines. Go figure.
Even later, you only needed to have one wife if you wanted to be a "servant" or elder.
According to the Bible, the only thing that god will not forgive is blasphemy against the holy spirit (Matt 12:31).
OP raises an interesting point. It seems from scripture that God is a lot more forgiving than most of the humans who claim to represent him, bodies of JW elders included.
WT (and most other religious organisations) like to paint God as a loving father, yet often their portrayal of how he views sin and error is not that of a loving father, and their own internal systems of punishment are far harsher. Shunning and disfellowshipping within JWs being an obvious extreme example.
In contrast, scripture and Jesus himself showed that God is more forgiving and tolerant than often believed, and that would make sense if he truly is a "father" to us all.
I enjoy reading up about ancient Rome, and one thing the Romans did really well, even long before Jesus was born, was divorce.
If a wife wasn't pleasing her husband in some way, or not providing an heir, or a better wife, with a big fat dowry maybe, was in view, they'd simply send the current wife back to her parents, if they were lucky they'd get the dowry back with the daughter, but usually not the children from the marriage.
Lol @DoC.
Does God really hate masterbating to images of Native American wooden statues placed on the porch outside of old western saloons? Asking for a friend.....
