There is nothing spiritually righteous about false prophet charlatans, even if they say they've been chosen by god.
I have read and re read acts chap.15 and for the life of me I can't find the part about the 1st century governing body!
by nowwhat? 15 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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GregW
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peacefulpete
Acts was written (or extensively edited) precisely to create an origin story for an organized Orthodoxy. It brings together the dominant characters and has them all collaborating. A central authoritative decision is made to be distributed to all. This revisioning of Christian origins has colored early Christian research till fairly recently.
What has been said frequently on this forum is the 'decision' to 'abstain from blood' was arrived at not as a perennial Christian necessity but as a compromise to Jewish Christians and potential converts. This is made very clear in verse 21.
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Phizzy
James Jack14 hours ago
Verses 22,23 talks about the Apostles and older Men (a Governing Body), rendering a decision.
As has been pointed out in a number of Posts , no way do these verses speak of a Governing Body. If they did, who would they "Govern" ? The various Christian groups were not unified in Doctrine, and were self Governing. The idea promulgated by the JW's of a single body of united Christians who would actually acknowledge governance over them is total nonsense.
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Guard
It seems very strange that the apostles did not replace the deceased members of the "Governing Body" with new disciples during their lifetime. This is all the more logical because at the very beginning they replaced Iscariot with another apostle. Why didn't they do it any further? Were they fighting for power among themselves? Or maybe the Holy Spirit didn't take care of it? No, Jesus said, " I will be with you until the end of the world."
What is the problem? It is only logical that there was no GB in the first century. The faithful were led by the Holy Spirit, not by a GB.
In true Christianity, GB never was and never will be. Because Jesus said that the "field is the world", not the organization (Matthew 13:37,38).
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westiebilly11
Ray Franz has so much to say about them and organization etc in his books...He discusses the whole set up.
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GregW
The JWS's preaching Gospel is so full of falsities and inaccuracies, its really the reason why the organization was so slow to grow and why so many have left the organization overtime.
The other problem to consider was this organization (WTS) had to legally establish executive directors for it to be a non profit organization in the US so that it could come under a tax exempt status .