The Watchtower's Version of God

Ariell

It really bugs me when people say we've been brainwashed by the Watchtower's version of God, but the fact of the matter is, the bible says what it says. These acts of silliness, cruelty, and injustice are clearly stated. Jehovah's Witnesses aren't the only ones disturbed by things they've read in the bible. Compassion, kindess, and love is--i hope-- the thread that binds us together. It's what makes us human. To say that the things written in the bible is okay would go against that. It would make us inhumane.

Ariell

.........Continued

I'm glad that there are people who stop to think "this can't be right". I believe those men who crashed into the world trade center on 9/11 believed they were doing the right thing. The suicide bombers in the Middle East believe they are justified in their actions simply because of a religion. That's scary. But no matter how many religions come and go, there are always those people who see the fallacy. That to me speaks volumes. If we're made in the image of God, then why is his idea of justice so different from ours? Would you think it right to stone your child to death for speaking back to you, or even slapping you? Would you think it okay to stone a woman to death for commiting adultery? Would you think the president of this country would be justified in ordering American soilders to slay all the Iraqi children? Of course not. So why was it okay thousands of years ago?

PinTail

I don't know about you Verginna but the WT did control my desire to think on my own and there by they acted like a cult. They taught me that God is a big god with big feet that is going to stomp the nation and put them in his wine press. Sounds like a loving god to know huh.

Ariell

So what are you saying? That the real God of the bible isn't totally screwed? Or are you just pulling my chain?

garybuss

I think the worst person in the world could say they were following the Bible and technically be correct with that statement. When the Witnesses shun and condemn and close doors and flip the law and scam us, they say they just follow the Bible and I agree in principle. In my opinion, that doesn't make them ethical, honest, or good.

Everybody that reads the Bible is not tricky and mean like the Witnesses. I know some very kind, ethical, honest people who can find the benevolent texts in the Bible and see the principles they want to live by there. I think the Bible is just the justification, just a convenient defence for people like the Witnesses.

MorpheuzX

I agree with you Sphere, the arguments for some of the crimes against humanity that take place in the old testament are ridiculous at worst and contrived at best.

That's why in a similar thread a couple of days I ago I commented that the Gods of the new and old testaments seem to be completely different individuals -- maybe there's something to that. (Yes you could look at Revelation and say it's the same thing all over again; remember John was 90, isolated on the Island of Patmos and possibly crazy, when he wrote that book.)

Obviously from that statement you could infer that I do not think that all of the present "canonical bible" is actually the word of God. In fact, I think a lot of it is pure folklore.

I look at the God of Genesis and the God of the Gospels and come to the conclusion that these are clearly different dieties. (Or people have made them that way.)

Euphemism

D'oh... I just wrote a post, and it got deleted. That'll teach me to forget to copy and paste.

Anyway, in a nutshell, I was just saying that you don't even have to look between the OT and NT to find serious variations. In Genesis, God is antropormorphic, whereas in Exodus, he's awesome and majestic. By the time of Isaiah, he's no longer concerned about rules and sacrifices, but instead about ethics and caring. In Deutero-Isaiah, and other post-exilic prophets, there's more of a universalist bent... he's no longer just the God of the Jews, but the God of all people.

I just don't see any way to make sense of it other than to believe that each writer wrote his own vision of God, according to the intellectual currents of the time.

Poztate

The god of the old testament more closely resembles the god of the Taliban than any god I choose to know and worship.

The so called god of "LOVE" in more like the god of blood,guts,pain and suffering.

If you review the bible in detail 99% of all the suffering and death has been caused by this god.

I think I will opt out of this kind of BS.

If this is the real god that controls everything...let him kill me...I am a little pissed off with him anyway.

ARoarer

Ariel, I think human beings incorporate thier own tendencies and ideas of what is just or unjust in the gods they worship. The ancient writers who grew up and lived around barbarien nations incorporated thier own fears and superstitions in their Bible God. Kind of like when little boys get in an argument "my dad is stronger than your dad". I think as they wrote in their scrolls they put a lot of thier own fears and prejudices in thier words. Just like the "spirit directed" governing body at WT does today. Humans fashion thier gods to the way they want them to be.

JamesThomas

Ariell, The traditional Bible interpretation of God, doesn't feel right -- does it. May I suggest going out into nature to a place you enjoy and just be. Sit, or walk quietly. Be very present and aware, not of your minds commentary and interpretations, but of the actual moment of aliveness. Feel your breathing. Really feel and be present with the embrace of nature all around and within. Be open and willing to intimately know Truth. Trust that what you dearly and achingly seek is so loving as to have been present and waiting for you. j

The Watchtower's Version of God

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