by confusedjw 101 Replies latest jw experiences
Confused - Goodonya! (auzzie for Good For You!)
One day at a time, and Keep it simple. How about McDonalds for dinner tonight?
Plan what you need to, so it can get done, including the fun stuff. Dont forget spontenaety (sp) if you some small thing you know your wife will love, get it for her, or your kids.
Hugs on your new journey!
Bren
Bebu
When I die, I want to go peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather.
Not screaming and yelling, like the passengers in his car. .
I spit coffee on that one! Thanx!
Bren
Another thing: When Jesus said to the man hanging beside him, "Surely I tell you, you will be with ME in paradise." Where was Jesus going? So where was this man going if was to be with Jesus?
............................................................................................................................. pst....heaven, not earth!
"Surely I tell you, you will be with ME in paradise."
The org put a spin on this playing with puctuation! "surely I tell you today..."
"End, justifies the means"..... the Watchtower way
I think Einstein was right about time,, "the past present and future are an illusion",, and that there is only the present. So I'm beginning to think that this whole life we live, is not real, but an illusion made up of thoughts. I think death is an illusion,, just as much as this life I live is an illusion and time is an illusion. I think the deeper a person realizes this, the less he is troubled, by dashed hopes of the watchtower.
This life we live is a very deep mystery. Just what are we anyway? A bunch of thoughts tied up in a me?? Or are we even a we? Are we a non we or something different? Are we just thoughts which seem to be inside a head?
I no longer think of the New System,, my mind is a million miles away from that line of reasoning and onto things more fundamental.
I can still remember the crushing disappointment , the day thatI realised that the New World was just a "castle in the air", that it was NOT going to happen . That I was not going to spend endless years in an agricultural idyll . That my pet hopes and dreams would never be fulfilled. Further that this world will probably never be rid of suffering , ineqality and pain. Worst of all,personally, that I was not going to live forever, I was going to live and die just like everybody else, and that I had wasted three quarters of my allotted time. Disappointment turned to anger, that I had been fooled
It is all so clear now, one wonders how I ever believed it, but i did - wholeheartedly
Just had to interject another point:
Jesus said, "Surely I tell you TODAY you will be with me in paradise... Jesus used the phrase, "I tell you the truth" 73 times in scripture without ever adding an extra word like "today" to the end of it, so what would have been the point of him switching to a new phrase, "I tell you the truth today", aside from just confusing the meaning of what he was saying? The logical rendering of this verse plainly states that the theif would be with Jesus in the same place called "paradise" on that very day...
But anyway, I think JWs are trained to not "think outside the box". Everything about JW teaching is based on the assumptions that they already get the main jist of what God and life beyond this one is all about. Even going to the point of conjecturing all sorts of assertions of what He can and cannot do, that He's not omniscient, not omnipotent, not omnipresent, does not see the whole picture of what the future holds, Heaven is not an interesting place for most, etc. (even teaching as absolute truth at one point that he lives in the constellation Pleades, blah blah blah.). So everyone as a JW naturally thinks of the next life in terms of what they can understand about the present life, except that it's a "new and improved" version.
But if you step back and think about it, if you hold the assumption that the infinite creator of the universe has a plan for us after this life, and the very nature of the universe itself is way beyond our comprehension, then how much can we honestly expect to comprehend at this point about the very nature and possibilities of our future existance? I mean if someone lived in a cave their whole life and knew nothing about what the outside was really like, they may be pretty content about that cave and even look forward to living forever in that cave.
1 Cor 13:11-12 says, 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
I guess what I mean to say is that we can accept that we don't have to quite understand all that is in store for us, but it could be better than any of us ever imagined. In any case we can choose to leave it in the hands of our creator and not let it consume us.
MJ,
But if you step back and think about it, if you hold the assumption that the infinite creator of the universe has a plan for us after this life, and the very nature of the universe itself is way beyond our comprehension, then how much can we honestly expect to comprehend at this point about the very nature and possibilities of our future existance?
I think that was profound.
I think if we are honest with ourselves, we see any concept that we have of God, as wrong. If "God", or "Self", or "Emptiness", or "Nothingness", or "Whatever" you want to call it, cannot be comprehended, and any concept that we have of God, is false and not true. Unless of course you comprehend all God concepts not true, in that case perhaps,, you might have a correct concept of God.
Good morning everyone (Aussie time). It was very pleasurable to read your responses to my note yesterday and to feel the respect for the creator from most everyone. One of you mentioned that God hasn't advised you personally as to what he is going to do, and it is then a matter of faith in the men who said that they did get revelations from God.
I have just read a recent analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and their verification of the Hebrew scriptures, all supportive of believing that the creator did provide his word and instructions for living and hopes and promises, some yet to be fulfilled.
Again, thank you for the thoughts.
geoff. gdt.
MJ: In any case we can choose to leave it in the hands of our creator and not let it consume us.
That is exactly opposite of JW mentality "they must know everything"
I totally agree, and believe that people wrote the bible. People interpret the bible. People always want to tell people what to do!
Thus let's just be, and love each other in the mean time!
