Where is Jesus?

AuntieJane

Did any of you who came into the dubs as adults ask this question, since JC is "stifled" by the JW "bible", the NWT.?? If so, what kind of answers did you get? If not, did you think it odd that this so-called Christian organization didn't preach in Christ's name?

Brummie

Where is Jesus?

He posted here for quite a while, there was a thread asking where he was but no one had heard from him.

:)

When you have the JW doctrine from a young age it never occurs to you that Jesus isnt given a lot of attention, so you dont ask. Infact, in the jw mindset, it seems wrong that other religions give him so much attention. Its not until one is questioning and doing personal bible reading that one begins to realise we have missed the most essential ingrediant.

There is a scripture in Philipians 2 that says he was raised above every name, I guess no one can raise him any higher than that, so we were wrong to condemn people for raising him too high.

Holey_Cheeses*King_of_the juice.

Don't worry AuntieJane I am never too far away........oh shit, damn that lisp of yours - I thought you called for cheeses.

cheeses - who hears your pleas for help.

mizpah

AuntieJane:

For many of us who came out of the traditional Protestant churches, we were so overwhelmed with new information that we hadn't heard in church that we never really thought much about the secondary role Christ played among Jehovah's Witnesses. In most churches, the emphasis on Christ overshadows the role of His Father. (The trinity doctrine probably is the major cause of this.) In my own mind, though, Christ was as important as ever...so it never really registered that others thought differently.

However, over the years it slowly became evident to me that the role of Christ was being usurped by the Watchtower Society itself. Although Jehovah's Witnesses would strongly deny this, they view the Watchtower Society as the means that God uses to redeem and save mankind. Near the end of my association it was really brought home when a relative of mine who was one of Jehovah's Witnesses said: "All the churches talk about is Jesus, Jesus Jesus." I was really shocked. I thought to myself "isn't this what the "church" is all about?"

heathen

From what I've seen they do often talk about jesus . I notice that many churches don't mention jehovah becuase of the trinity doctrine so I am inclined to think that the WTBTS focuses on jehovah in an attempt to disassociate itself from mainstream religious beliefs . As far as the WTBTS is concerned Jesus is at this point ruling the church invisibly so to them he is a real figure influencing the belief structure from heaven on a daily basis . Jesus did say he was the light of the world and that is why the WTBTS thinks it is the light of the world.

Frannie Banannie

Auntie Jane, it is written that if one knows where Jesus is, one is not to "go there"....so....in that vein....if I told you where Jesus is, I'd hafta kill ya.....

Frannie B

Vita Nuova

These responses ring very true. When I began the process of converting to Catholicism this was one of the first distinctions I made between the two belief-systems. Everywhere the WTBTS and mainstream Christianity differ, it seems that the WTBTS departs from the accepted doctrine with no other purpose than to be divergent. Or perhaps that is a characteristic of their Fundamentalist roots. It just seems that the fundamentalist logic that explains their radical beliefs merely seems to have been added to justify a belief they arrived at before they thought it through, hence the desperate feats of fallacious logic. Whether it is a prohibition against celebrating birthdays or decrying any reverence of the cross as idolatry, the attitude is primarily one of debasing everything else, so that there is no possible chance of interfaith relations, and thus less chance of conversion.

So when Jesus took a back seat in the WTBTS/Fundamentalist theology he was demoted to the least possible role a ?Christian? organization could accept. With that, showing Jesus any reverence on par with God would be unacceptable in any manner, and the gap between the JW?s and every religion that identified Christ as the central figure of its faith would be unbridgeable. To make the distinction even more unmistakable, let?s make the cross into merely a signpost, too. And for good measure, how about we restrict the Eucharist, his body and blood, to only the elite of the elite. How many? Well, the book of Revelations throws around a lot of numbers; we?ll pick one from there.

AuntieJane

Cheeses you are so funny!( Yikes, that sounds kinda sacrilegious to me!)

Frannie, you are too. Thanks everyone's input; it helps give me some insight.

berylblue

Hey, Vita! Welcome.

eyeslice

There is a very big problem with the role of Christ within the WTB&TS. You need only look over at what has been studied at the book study for past couple of years (book about Daniel and Isaiah) and the Watchtower over the past month or so (about the book of Micah). It appears that we can have weeks and weeks of study without ever mentioning the name Jesus or looking at his example.

A couple of obvious things that puts Christ very much in the back seat:

1. The name Jehovah?s Witnesses. The average witness understands what is needed to be a witness of Jehovah, his name, his sovereignty, etc. However, to Christians Christ said, ?you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.". So, Christians were commissioned to be Jesus? Witnesses not Jehovah?s Witnesses.

2. The fact that the average Witness has an ?earthly? hope. This means that they do not consider themselves actually to be Christ?s brothers and sisters. This results in most of the NT having very little meaning for the average witness; e.g. the whole of the gospel of John with its ?born again?, ?eat my flesh and drink my blood?.

Eyeslice

Where is Jesus?

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