It was always about "Jehovah God". Jesus was mentioned but he was always in the background. Many religions boast of loving Jesus. Witnesses say they love him too but I never felt it....What about you?
As A JW, Did You Ever Really Love Jesus?
by minimus 29 Replies latest jw friends
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JH
Jesus was more of an example to follow.
Jesus had love for everyone he met, but as JW's we didn't love Jesus, but obeyed him.
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JH
It's hard to LOVE a spirit, that we never did or will see.
Same thing with Jehovah, it's a fear of displeasing him that I had, rather than love.
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minimus
Interesting....
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GetBusyLiving
The more I learn about Jesus the more absurd 'loving' him seems to me. To me he was a liar and causes more pain from false hope than anything. It was all hazy shit to me even when I was a dub.
GBL
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AnnOMaly
This reminds me of J.M. Feazell's story about the WCG (The Liberation of the WCG):
"In early 1991 my grandmother was close to the end of her life, and she knew it. ... As she and I talking in the small room of her convalescent home, I could see she had something on her mind. She put her hand on mine, looked into my eyes, and asked slowly, in her stroke-slurred speech, 'Mick ... - do you love Jesus?'
I am chagrined to say that I was uncomfortable with the question. We just didn't talk like that in the Worldwide Church of God. That was Protestant talk. Syrupy sweet. We wanted to be asked, 'Do you obey Jesus Christ?' We didn't like to say 'Jesus' without adding 'Christ.' That sounded manlier, more powerful to us. Just saying 'Jesus' sounded wimpy and sickly sweet. And now here was my stroke-stricken grandmother, whom I would not want to hurt or disappoint for the world, asking me if I loved Jesus. I could hardly get the words out, but thank God I said, 'Yes, I love Jesus, Grandma.'
'Oh, I'm so glad,' she said.
Looking back on it, it seems strange. I considered myself a Christian, but I had trouble saying 'I love Jesus.' I would die for Jesus, I thought, but don't ask me to say the words 'I love Jesus.' What kind of Christian experience teaches people to think like that?"
I know just what he means. I didn't love and appreciate Jesus as much as I do now - he was always someone (important,yes but) on the sidelines. For JWs, I think, they 'love Jehovah' and have faith in Jesus, but to say 'I love Jesus' is happy-clappy evangelical emotionalism and that doesn't sit right with the more clinical idea of the grand purpose vindicating/sanctifying God's name and sovereignty, where Jesus and other faithful are merely instruments of that great scheme.
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Undecided
He seems to be a ficticious character that never existed, at least nothing he said seems to be happening.
Ken P.
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Honesty
He was an abstract idea along with Jehovah when I was a JW. I only came to really love Him after I distanced myself from the mind control. BTW, all scriptural references and comparisons point to Jesus as being Jehovah. I hope this doesn't hijack your thread. So if anyone wants to discuss, refute agree, disagree, etc.; start a thread and hold on to your engines.
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Narkissos
I think I did, although to me Jesus' character only began to stand out clearly from the rest of WT doctrine in the last few months before my exit (1986).
In the second part of the 70's (after the 75 failure) there was a definite breath of fresh air in the WT literature, with a real emphasis on Jesus, and I remember I was quite sensitive to that. I felt in tune with that orientation, and this was probably an important factor in my decision to become a pioneer.
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Euphemism
In the latter part of my JW experience, as I began to appreciate the spiritual beauty of the gospels and to imagine what (I believed at the time) the actual first-century man Jesus was like, I began to feel a bond to him.
Before then, honestly, it felt a little bit like Jesus was redundant--everything that was attributed to him was attributed to Jehovah, and vice-versa. They might as well have been the same person, for all the Dubs insisted that they weren't. This actually bugged me; one of the things I always wondered as a JW was how exactly Jehovah and Jesus were different. They supposedly had a relationship and communicated; and yet, if they knew each other perfectly and were exactly alike, what sort of relationship or communication could there be?
Ann... good point. Actually, while the NT contains many references to Christ's love, and the love that Christians should have, explicit references to love for Christ seem to be rather rare. John 8:42, John 21:15ff, and Philemon 5 were the only ones I could find.