Please Help me with Answers to my Questions..... (page 3)

peacefulpete

Your questions are those of a person whose has questions about interpretation of the Bible. Being that interpretation is a messy and subjective thing, perhaps it would be best to learn about the book itself first. What is it's history? Who wrote it? Why do most scholars not regard the work as infallible as we were taught? This Bible research forum attracts people of every stripe. We have prolific posters who have serious neurotic obsessions with number crunching. We have sincere believers grappling with general questions of meaning. We have educated folks that have scholarly discussions about Christian and Jewish religious origins and literature. This is the time to ask the really tough questions. The thread posted by Leolaia listed below this one is an excellent start.

Undaunted Danny

My exit date 01-05-92 D-day! 33 year 3rd generation.

Before you get all confrontational take a few deep breaths and consider this; It's better to be undisfellowshiped than disfellowshiped,esp if you have family ties.Moles are welcome.

You don't owe the JW/WT$ any accountability ,you can just go missing [MIA] for now Danny sez;"be a coy Roy and don't look back Jack".If the busybody control freak elders get in your face,just use the elder subterfuge all purpose catchphrase. "It's confidential".

I was an R+D doctrinal heavy and still am.I still don't have a clue to the grand design of life.This altered state of ambivalence is normal a sort of spiritual limbo.I'm just a nice guy and an honorable humanitarian.

Any issues this link can be helpful: http://www.freeminds.org/psych/psych.htm

nemo

Thank you all for your responses, I welcome various ideas, now that I am in the open looking for myself.

I think the suggestion from LyinEyes was a great one to take a year off, I think that is what I need, it's culture shock and not make any decisions. I suspect the mental manipulation and fending off friends and elders will be all I can handle. I wish that I could express my feelings to my friends and family I am fully aware this is not an option. I tried to express a doubt to my closest friend and it did not turn out well, so I backed off and said I am just having alot of problems. Anything to make this easier.

By the way Undaunted Danny - "Don't need to discuss much, just drop of the key Lee and get yourself free......"

Nathan Natas

Hi again, Nemo.

I'm going to give you my answers to your questions in just a moment, but first I think we can appreciate the truth of the saying, "I'd rather have questions I can't answer than answers I can't question."

Now, on to my opinion. Whatever anyone tells you, it is always their opinion...

Which Bible is viewed as the most accurate?

They are all equally accurate, because they are all the product of fantasy. Are DC comics more accurate than Marvel comics?

Do we all go to heaven, is there a hell?

We go to the dirt. This life is not a dress rehersal for the hereafter; it's the only shot you get. There is no hell, and there is no heaven.

What about the resurrection of the righteous and unrighteous?

I'll bet you can guess what I'm going to say. It's a fantasy.

1000 years?

There will be years and years and years for as long as the Earth continues to go around the Sun, but not one single one of those years will be part of any Millennial Reign of an Invisible Imaginary King Jesus.

DanTheMan

:Which Bible is viewed as the most accurate?

Read a lot of different ones, if you must read the bible at all. Also, books such as Who Wrote the Bible, God: A Biography, and A History of God may serve you well in your journey of gaining a more true understanding of the mythological origins of the desert deity YHWH and the book that (supposedly) reveals said mythological deity's will. Leolaia also posts some great stuff on this board, check out some of her threads.

:Do we all go to heaven, is there a hell?

What do you believe? Does the hellfire teaching make any sense at all? Of course not, it's bloody ridiculous. Whether or not there is conscious existence beyond the death of the physical body is anybody's guess.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
- Voltaire

I think the hardest part is feeling lost after having such strong convictions.

Yes it is difficult. This is a great place to hang out while you're going through that. I feel your pain, I really do. Life is difficult, and uncertain.

M.J.

Sorry, I've never been a JW but I think that becoming disillusioned by a human organization doesn't necessarily have to translate into becoming disillusioned in what you believe to be God's word. Nor does it mean that you must reject your faith in God. As long as you find you can accept the Bible as God's word, you will find that discovering its message does not have to be a great and secret mystery. In fact, it can be quite rewarding to explore its messages without pre-determined "answer" in mind, relying on a historical, grammatical, interpretive method. This can take years, but it's all part of the spiritual walk we take. Nonetheless there are plenty of viewpoints out there, and plenty of pursuasive sounding arguments in answer to your questions. But for me, anyway, I found that reading many commentaries from many perspectives, along with plenty of objective, non-segmented, contextual scripture reading was very helpful.

One take on a range of doctrines, coming from an ex-Witness, was in a book I read called "The Truth Will Set You Free" by Randy Watters. I found it was an excellent overview of most major doctrines from an 'orthodox' Christian perspective:

http://www.freeminds.org/sales/books.htm

Coming out of the WTS, one does not necessarily have to think that all religion "is a snare and a racket"...

SixofNine

nemo, I would highly recommend a book titled "Who Wrote the Bible?". It can save you years of tortuous mental gymnastics. It is a book I actually bought when I was a witness, but put it down quickly (and nervously, I might add) after a couple chapters when I realized it didn't confirm/(conform to) my life-long notions of what the bible really was and where it came from.

Shortly after I got the courage up to read CofC, I found I had the courage and curiousity to find out what we really know and don't know about who wrote the bible.

Anyway, it only makes sense to have a proper foundation of knowledge about the history of the bible before sweating about what the best translation is.

A Paduan

Which Bible is viewed as the most accurate?

Where are you from? English is spoken differently in different countries. Read them all (online for free) and put the picture together yourself - include the rsv, with the books that the religions who "knew better" removed.

Do we all go to heaven, is there a hell?

Have you been in a kingdom of love and truth? A holy place, where you need fear nothing anymore? Or, have you been in some other kind of place, away from that.

What about the resurrection of the righteous and unrighteous?

It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body - After encountering truth, people either make a meal of it and go toward life or reject it and go for judgement - to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life - And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil (those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment)

- flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable

1000 years?

A literal time span? How long is 7 days?

LoverOfTruth

One trait I've noticed with many JWs is they expect the WTBS to have all the answers for them. You can fall into the same trap if you likewise want someone elso to have the answers. - BEWARE - There's always another Cult ready to suck you.

What helped me for a number of years was to read and re-read the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in a variety of translations. I've only recently moved on to more difficult areas.

You really do have to make the truth your own. That means doing your own research with an open mind. It's helpful to pray first.

Carmel

Nemo my friend, you are very early in the first stage of withdrawl from JWism. Your intense interest in sorting out doctrin is normal and likely to captivate you for some time. It did me. You will find that Christianity is very divided on many of the issues you raise and while you will find biblical support for one answer or another, there are good meaning people that will quote scripture that will seem to contadict. Two perfect examples are the resurrection and the trinity. Once you've concluded that there are two sides to every issue, you may want to step outside the box of limitation that most all Christians will want to impose on you, and read what other faiths have to offer. You may find that there are equally as compelling arguments for completely different paradigms. Once you've done this you will really be going in circles and wonder what the hell this is all about. Time then to look for a "unifiying principal" just like in science where by induction, we know there is a unifiying force, we just can't put a final finger on it.

Hope you have fun in your journey.

carmel

Please Help me with Answers to my Questions.....

Share this