"Apostasy"

by Zilgee 22 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • aqwsed12345
    aqwsed12345

    My "favorite" denomination is Mormon; I once debated a similar topic there.

    Mormon assertion: The Mormon Church is God's only true church.

    Criticism: How do we know this?

    Mormon: From the fact that the Holy Spirit has testified.

    Criticism: To whom does the Holy Spirit testify?

    Mormon: To everyone who sincerely asks God in prayer.

    Criticism: And those who did not receive such an answer to their prayer?

    Mormon: They did not pray sincerely enough.

    Criticism: And for those to whom the Holy Spirit testified regarding another denomination? My friend is a member of the X Church, and the Holy Spirit told him that the X Church is God's true church. How can this be?

    Mormon: That was not the Holy Spirit, but Satan, who pretended to be the Holy Spirit!

    Criticism: How can we know when it's the Holy Spirit speaking and not Satan pretending to be the Holy Spirit?

    Mormon: From the fact that the Holy Spirit confirms God's true church, and Satan works against it.

    Criticism: So we know which is God's true church from the Holy Spirit confirming it, but we know when it's the Holy Spirit and not Satan speaking as the Holy Spirit from the fact that it's the Holy Spirit that testifies to God's true church – so we know nothing, as there is no point of reference anywhere?

    The Mormon ended the debate at this point...

  • EasyPrompt
    EasyPrompt

    "The so called apostates of first century later became the Catholic Church. These apostates like Saint Athanasius, theologian, ecclesiastical statesman, and Egyptian national leader decided which books would be part of the Bible. We are now following what they decided. So does every JW become an apostate?

    Has anyone done research on canonization of the Bible? Would love to know more."


    Jehovah is the God of Truth. He inspired the holy scriptures. Any book that is not completely true is not part of the Bible.


    The Hebrew-Aramaic Bible Canon was set before Jesus' ministry. He affirmed that "the Law and the Prophets" were God's Word, and quoted from them.


    Contested Hebrew-Aramaic Apocryphal books are easily identified, because either they have "fairy-tale"-esch appendages or teachings that are contrary to the Bible or do not directly contribute to the theme of the Bible.


    For instance, Tobit has some crazy stuff about a guy who went blind when some sparrows pooped in his eyes while he was sleeping (I'm totally not kidding) and also some lady who never had sex even though she was married seven times because a wicked demon name "Asmodeus" kept showing up and cutting them off. An angel named "Raphael" supposedly shows up and helps a dude figure out how to heal "medicinally" by shoving fish gall in his dad's eyes and to kick out the demon by burning the fish heart and liver in the presence of the demonized person. It's totally bogus.


    Maccabees, while containing a lot of battle information and king stuff, is completely different from the way the books of Samuel or Kings or Chronicles are written, in that they do not praise Jehovah or provide any useful information as regards the identifying the lineage of the Messiah or prophecies. To the contrary, some of Maccabees contributes to the later misunderstandings of the phrase "gentile times" that gets thrown around even today as if it's a "Bible teaching", when, in fact, the phrase "gentile times" is a holdover from the Jewish sectarian hope of gaining an earthly kingdom and is not what Jesus was referring to in the gospels. The "gentile times" teaching is a Jewish "fairy-tale" that has been adopted by much of Christendom and manifests itself in the JWBorg 1914 false doctrine.


    As far as the canonicity of the Christian Greek Scriptures, it's the same idea - if they have some kind of stuff that doesn't jive with the rest of the Bible - like "The Shepherd of Hermas" where a lady comes back in ghost form to advise a guy, or the teachings of Ignatius or Polycarp that encourage worship of men with all their GB-like exaltation of clergy and misapplication about "the faithful and discreet slave" illustration, or the Didache with antichrist disfellowshipping-like ostracism and proscribed Pharisaical prayers/fastings and partial baptisms...just read those "books" and you know they're not part of the holy scriptures. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a Rhodes Scholar to figure it out.


    The gospels, John's letters and Revelation, Peter's letters, James, Jude, and Paul's letters all add to the understanding of the Bible's theme and don't contradict either the Hebrew-Aramaic books or Jesus' teachings. They are clearly part of the Bible canon.


    Each book in the canon fits perfectly with the rest of the "song" of the Bible, Jehovah's message of love toward His family.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF6cnLnEARo

  • aqwsed12345

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