>WHY do you worry about us "hateful" hell-bound non-believers. We're going to get it in the end, right?
Dan,
I apologize if I have given you the wrong impression! Why would you think that I want you (or anyone else) to suffer eternal separation from God? I gain no pleasure from anyone having to face that. My thinking is nothing like many JWs express. There is real, sick joy in thinking that those who ridicule us as JWs are going to be destroyed in Armageddon. I remember the days when we used to pick out homes, cars and other possesions when some rude householder gave us the 'boot'.
Sure, I warn people about 'mocking God' but there is no unforgivable sin until we ultimately disbelieve (John 3.17-18). I don't want anyone here to meet that fate. Nothing would please me more than to see many more people here find reasons to believe and trust Jesus as their Lord and savior.
Grace truly is amazing. To think that any sin we commit will in fact, not hold us from heaven if we truly repent of that sin, give our life to Christ and receive His sacrifice as payment in full for all of our sins, past, present and future. Yet that is exactly what scripture teaches. No one has to earn their way to eternal life as described in Rev. 20, 21.
Please don't mistake my defense of Christianity as some macabe desire to see vengeance. Read John 3.16, Romans 5.8; 6.23; 10.9-11; 8.1, 28; Eph. 2.8-10; Rev. 3.20. See what you find then please get back to me.
Rex
From Fundementalist to Humanist
by peacefulpete 34 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Shining One
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Terry
Fox is my favorite, personally. I love Bill O'Reilly. I see his flaws and I forgive him (most of the time.) He is full of it about a third of the time. However, he is an old fashioned populist and a sincere one. That makes his stock soar in my book. O'reilly is way off on the Ten Commandments, however.
He knows how to hold an interviewee's feet to the fire.
I'm a big O'Reilly Factor viewer.
T.
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Cygnus
Shining One, texts that completely turn me off from the gospel are those such as:
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Rbi8 1 Thessalonians 2:13 *** Indeed, that is why we also thank God incessantly, because when YOU received God’s word, which YOU heard from us, YOU accepted it, not as the word of men, but, just as it truthfully is, as the word of God...What arrogance! And...
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Rbi8 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 ***...the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels in a flaming fire, as he brings vengeance upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus. These very ones will undergo the judicial punishment of everlasting destruction from before the Lord and from the glory of his strength...
What abject viciousness to be happily wished upon even ignorant ones (the NWT I quote from is being generous with the text; other translations render this passage in a far more menacing way).
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DanTheMan
I apologize if I have given you the wrong impression! Why would you think that I want you (or anyone else) to suffer eternal separation from God? I gain no pleasure from anyone having to face that.
But believing that many of us will is part and parcel of the religious worldview that you subscribe to, isn't it? And what exactly do you mean by "eternal separation"? Is this not the same sort of euphemistic language that JW's use when they speak of Jehovah destroying "this old system" which really means God killing everybody except JW's?
My thinking is nothing like many JWs express.
I think it is. Have you not adopted an elitist religious outlook that consists of you belonging to a relatively small group of people who have grasped the "truth" and are working urgently to save the souls of us who walk in darkness?
There is real, sick joy in thinking that those who ridicule us as JWs are going to be destroyed in Armageddon. I remember the days when we used to pick out homes, cars and other possesions when some rude householder gave us the 'boot'.
Belief in eternal hellfire is indicative of a very similar, if not exactly the same mindset.
Sure, I warn people about 'mocking God' but there is no unforgivable sin until we ultimately disbelieve (John 3.17-18). I don't want anyone here to meet that fate. Nothing would please me more than to see many more people here find reasons to believe and trust Jesus as their Lord and savior.
Grace truly is amazing. To think that any sin we commit will in fact, not hold us from heaven if we truly repent of that sin, give our life to Christ and receive His sacrifice as payment in full for all of our sins, past, present and future. Yet that is exactly what scripture teaches. No one has to earn their way to eternal life as described in Rev. 20, 21.
Again, this is euphemistic. What happens if I die tomorrow having not as yet put my "trust in Jesus" and subsequently not having my "sins forgiven"? Hellfire.
Please don't mistake my defense of Christianity as some macabe desire to see vengeance. Read John 3.16, Romans 5.8; 6.23; 10.9-11; 8.1, 28; Eph. 2.8-10; Rev. 3.20. See what you find then please get back to me.
I know what the scriptures say. I don't believe them to be of any more significance to my life than any other ancient text.
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Shining One
Hi Dan,
Can't you see that I am trying to reach out to you? I don't judge where you may or may not be going. That depends entirely on where you are at with God. I would just advise you to reamin open minded to what you see and experience in daily life. No one is 'elite', no one is good. There is grace and it is unmerited favor. None have ever earned salvation, not the pope, no saint of God. Salvation's work for the believer is simply that: belief.
Rex