if you believe in jehovah as portrayed in the bible, you believe that you are a creature possessing free will.
you don't believe in fate or predestination.
you believe that jehovah selectively answers prayers.
I was an intense devout lifelong sincere to the core Jehovah's Witness.
I think this reveals the heart of our problem. We were (and those still active Witnesses) became followers of a 'religion' rather than worshipers of Jehovah. There is a big differance. Jesus set us free from traditions and man made rules and encouraged thinking! The WTS does the opposite, it enslaves people who want to follow Jesus and worship His Father.
by constantly irritating the un and other government organisations about their complaints against the wts as an organised religion, do you think these men are contributing to the fulfillment of the wts 'interpretation' of the prophecy regarding the wild beast turning against organised religion?
...do you think these men are contributing to the fulfillment of the WTS 'interpretation' of the prophecy regarding the wild beast turning against organised religion?
No, I think the Muslims, Catholics and the rest of the politicly active (including the WTS) religions are doing the job themselves. Any complaining by some about any religion may add to it, but not cause it.
if you believe in jehovah as portrayed in the bible, you believe that you are a creature possessing free will.
you don't believe in fate or predestination.
you believe that jehovah selectively answers prayers.
Maybe God, as universal shot-caller, reserves the right to use anyone he wants to do anything he pleases. Since God is supposedly good, his doing this would not cause lasting harm to anyone whom he enlists as his gopher.
I agree with what rocketman said here. And at times, danger/harm might be present.
come to the wedding.
' for i say to you that god is able to raise up children to abraham from these stones.
' for i say to you that god is able to raise up children to abraham from these stones.
Does that make our law makers (government) guilty of the laws they make, simply for defining the law? Why does creating something that is lacking one or more ingredients credit God with sin?
D Dog I think its apples and oranges. God who creates can (and did) provide the ability for humans to maintain perfect law. Humans do not have that ability, they can only create laws, not the ability to obey them perfectly.
Can't he add those ingredients when and how he wants, to complete his creation or his plan?
Would that be loving? Not in my opinion.
come to the wedding.
' for i say to you that god is able to raise up children to abraham from these stones.
' for i say to you that god is able to raise up children to abraham from these stones.
Your Bottom Line section is a good idea for people like me.
Bottom line:
God KNEW that Adam and Eve would choose to sin when He created them, but to say that God created Adam and Eve WITHOUT freedom to choose whether to sin would be crediting God with evil and with creating evil and sin.
I'm not so sure He knew Adam and Eve were going to rebel...or even Satan, but I am convinced that He knew somewhere along the eternal way 'someone' would cross the line.
God DID NOT create Lucifer or Adam and Eve as robots who were PROGRAMMED to sin and do evil. God created Lucifer and Adam and Eve with the freedom to choose whether or not to sin and do evil, even though God knew what choice they would make.
There is a big difference between allowing someone the freedom to choose to sin, and creating them in such a way that they MUST SIN.
The Bible shows that the Devil is the originator of sin and death, not God.
The Bible shows that God hates sin, cannot stand sin, must be separated from sin, is absolutely HOLY. So, there is no way that God created Adam in such a way that Adam HAD to sin without freedom to choose.
God chooses who he wants to "draw" to His Son, and then He sends The Spirit to enlighten them with the truth of the Gospel. Then, the person makes a choice -- either repent and believe in Jesus and be saved, OR reject and deny Jesus and go to Hell.
I agree that for God, sin (lawlessness) is untouchable. I believe that God is Love and does nothing un-loving. I think that God being/becoming love was a deliberate choice and the key to His eternalness. The Law of Love is His un-deviable standard and the standard for all creation. Lawlessness is Chaos which by nature is self-destructive. IMO
come to the wedding.
' for i say to you that god is able to raise up children to abraham from these stones.
' for i say to you that god is able to raise up children to abraham from these stones.
Hi Agent 1 of 1, nice to meet you. Welome to the board.
if you believe in jehovah as portrayed in the bible, you believe that you are a creature possessing free will.
you don't believe in fate or predestination.
you believe that jehovah selectively answers prayers.
If god answers prayers, we automatically do not all have free will. If we do all truly have free will, god can't answer our prayers because doing so would be interference with our freedom, not so much with the receiver, but the person who is unknowingly moved to grant the request, assuming the prayer was for something physically tangible.
Excellant question New Light...deep
I believe that at some level we are agreeable with the new direction when God acts on us to change our course even though the idea is not from our own origination. So our free will is not over ruled or canceled out but worked with and used in a positive way to work out His plan.
is it "fair" for paul to disfellowship those who are not working secularly in the 1st century?
Paul had his own unique way of looking at things. He went from being an unbalanced over zealous Jew to being unbalanced over zealous Christian.
newspapers, by their representatives, seek interviews to get matter for a ?story,?
and out of the facts contained in the information furnished a ?story?
is made up.
Post publishes what purports to be information obtained from some undisclosed source as to the cost of books and other publications.
Gee, When the WTS uses un-named quotes in their WT's its OK, why is it a problem now??
comments you will not hear at the 5-16-04 (week of 5-10 to 16, 2004) wt study (4/1/04)
review comments
will be in black and parentheses ().
...And the Watchtower tells us that these leaders are acceptable to Jehovah.
Yes and so was King Saul who eventualy had to fall on his sword.
