Help with Israelite Example

by TheListener 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  peacefulpete

  There were ocasions in the legends where the army was told to follow the priests and prophets bizaare directions without questioning. However these legends were rewritten at a time when the priests and prophets were very involved in politics and sought to establish the new Persian form of Yahwaism. Event he OT reports that the prophets were suspected of being puppets to the ambitions of Nehemiah the Persian envoy that sought to become king.

  However ultimately, in the ancient pre-enlightened past priests and prophets were obeyed as agents of god. Why would we wnat to return to such a dark and ignorant past?
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  Noumenon

  Every Israelite was born into a legal covenant relationship with Jehovah, started at Mt Sinai, so Jehovah legally obligated himself to keep dealing with them, forgiving them, despite all their wrong ways and apostasy. The Watchtower organisation and religion was not born into a covenant relationship with God, so it has no special relationship with God per se. God only deals with individual born again Christians, whichever religion they may be in, whether that be from the bible students, a JW, a Christadelphian, a biblical Unitarian, a United Church of God, or whatever (I personally doubt any are to be found amongst Babylonish Christendom in general, but that is just my view). Only the Israelites were 'Jehovah's Witnesses' and called his witnesses by divine mandate. That name mandate ended at Christ's death (Jesus never once uttering the name Jehovah as recorded in scripture). The hubristic replacement theology of JW's is therefore just that - one of numerous forms of replacement theology, and seriously flawed at that.
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  TheListener

  Thank you all for your replies so far. I have read and will continue to review your statements. This is the brick wall that I keep hitting. Before I begin to slowly dismantle it I need to really feel comfortable.

  The examples of the Israelites not following god's chosen representative were awesome. I had something like that in mind but couldn't express it. Thank you all.

  The good you do today may be quickly forgotten, but the impact of what you do will never disappear.
  --Anonymous
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  Flash

  Remember, we're Christians now, not Israelites and Christ's example to us is to think and reason and question, not blindly follow. He was also outspoken about what was wrong with God's Organization in his day and was hated for it...He was considered an apostate!!
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  mnb77

  1. The Israelites did what they were told by their god directed organization even if they didn't understand the reasoning (or weren't given it). We don't always understand why the society gives certain direction or may even see that the direction doesn't make sense - do it anyway; God's looking out for us. For example the smoking and cancer link and the blood transfusion and AIDS link.

  Okay...

  The Isrealites did what they were told by their God Directed organization (Moses, then Joshua...) even if they didn't understand the reasoning. There is a difference in then and now. In the OT times, the people God spoke to was his person like moses or the preist ( you can read it, OT) to communicate what God wanted done at times. Now-a-days, we don't need a human (here on earth kinda thing) mediator to speak with God as they did in the OT (sin kept them from God) we now have the blood of JC to cleanse (not guilty of sin) us and can approach the throne of grace with confidence. In the OT they couldn't do that cause of the need of animal sacrafices to atone their sin. We have the blood of christ as the atonement for our sin. with this atonement we can speak directly to Jesus and he is our intercessor (praying for us to the Father on our behalf). The verse below coorespond to the the statements above. because i know the JW have taught that christ is only a mediator for the 144,000 please look at this page to explain how he is not just for them: http://www.carm.org/jw/docs/securityworldwide1986p10.htm

  1 Tim 2:5 " For th er e is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;"

  1 John 2: 2 "And he is the propitiation (the act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing (especially appeasing a deity) (dictionary.com)) for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."

  Heb 7: 25 " Therefore he is able to save completely [c] those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them."