feeling blue about loss of faith?Grimly holding on in the face of your mortality?Dust that sings

by Diogenesister 6 Replies latest forum links

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  Diogenesister

  As I am aware a lot of posters are feeling down or grieving the certainties lost when their faith is revealed as nothing but the stories of mortal men...I am posting one of my favourite youtubers, Philhellenes who, like the ancients you studied, contemplates that sense of awe that he is indeed fearfully and wonderfully made...and when faced with the inevitability of mortality he imagines the plight of the mayfly...and wonders" would it be cruel to tell an adult mayfly that it only has that afternoon to live...would it still fly as far and as high as it could?Might it fly further and higher than usual?Or would it forget about it's wings and sit on the water, head bowed, sufficiently traumatised to invent religion?"

  We are privileged that after millennia we are some of the first life forms to know exactly how we came to be..and what we are made of ...and if that isnt miraculously awe inspiring,I don't know what is
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  jaydee

  ♩ ♬ ♭ ♮ ♯...Dust that Sings...♯ ♮ ♭ ♬ ♩
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  Cold Steel

  But if offers nothing. And just because one religion is a fraud doesn't mean that all are. The WTBTS villifies other Christian sects, so when people leave it they have nowhere else to go. That's why many become atheists and bitter towards all religion. No matter which belief system one follows, he or she can fall victim to cognitive dissonance, because atheism has as many problems as any other "ism".

  That the WTBTS is a manmade church is self apparent. It's not even a church, which is strange because Jesus said, "upon this rock I will build my church." Jesus is the rock, the very stone of Israel. But the GB says very clearly that it's not a church (in fact, you can be excommunicated for even attending a church service). So if it's not a church, it isn't of God. So why does it baptize? And why does it take your money if it isn't divinely established?

  Some people, I think, hold God responsible for the WTBTS being a false religion when they need to examine its claims a bit more.
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  smiddy

  The J.W.`split hairs with this , one their terminology is rock-mass and Congregation , not Church as we all know .

  Mat.16:18 NWT

  smiddy
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  Alive!

  'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you traverse the sea and the dry land to make one convert, and whenever it may happen, you make him twofold more a son of Gehenna than yourselves.'

  No-one deserves to feel so miserable and hurt as the WTBTS makes people feel.

  There is no real joy in the WTBTS version of the 'truth' - if like me, you felt a burden of anxiety for the poor delivery of 'the good news' beneath the superficial happy happy culture - then the above words kind of make sense....

  One can sense something much, much better than their insulting version of 'God's promises' - we are all accountable, we are all responsible. In a good way, not the crazy, outward appearance, bean counting way of this sect.

  
  
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  Cold Steel

  Yes, but why don't they even claim to be a church? Jesus gave Peter the Keys of the Kingdom and said that what he bound on Earth would be bound in Heaven and vice versa. That's why baptism works and excommunication was considered as a major threat to one's salvation. If the GB doesn't have these keys, who cares what they do? If you're disfellowshiped, big deal. No keys, no authority! YAWEH won't recognize anything the Society does if there are no keys. And if the Society has those keys, where did it get them? How were they conferred and by whom? If it doesn't need them, then why did the ancient church need them? It's something that I've never seen addressed. People say, if poor Uncle Ebert isn't reinstated, Jehovah will destroy him at Armageddon! But even if Ebert dies, Jehovah will resurrect him, then destroy him. Why? Because he was cut off by the Society. Or do I have it wrong?

  The Society definitely has its own keys. It can turn family against family, friends against friends. It can prevent marriages, control what one reads, what one believes, says and even the medical attention one receives. It has destroyed careers by its poor counsel, misled people about prophecy, corrupted marriages and has come between parents and their children. These are all keys of its own making, all made of tin and all self assumed. Otherwise, if it had the Keys given to Peter and the Twelve, they owe it to everyone to explain how they got them. And if they don't, they should explain why they don't need them.

  It would be great if someone who's been active in the Society could tell me why the Society would be hesitant to classify itself as a church? If it isn't the church that Jesus built, just exactly what is it? Does it consider itself the Kingdom of God as in "thy Kingdom come...."?
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  talesin

  Cold Steel

  I would say that they refuse to call themselves a church in order to make themselves appear to be different. It's one of the few things the R&F have to hold onto - the fact that they are different from 'Christendom'. For example, their clergy? Is not clergy. But they *are* clergy when they want to claim privilege (eg, child rape cases).

  So it's not a church, it's a Kingdom Hall. They have no clergy, everyone is a minister. Some ministers just have more control and authority than others.

  Yup, it's crazy time! : P