Posts by Fisherman

47

divorce question

by depressed in

my soon to be ex-husband's father is the presiding overseer of the congregation and his entire family is very spiritual - including my husband's sister and her husband who serve in gilead.. to make a long story short, my husband and i used to serve in bethel but eventually left.

we moved around the nyc area where we both took on full time jobs, pursued our four year degrees, and led pretty successful lives.

i left the organization, because i was tired of gossip, etc and half of my family was disfellowshipped.

Fisherman

I don't have a clue. What you describe is not going to go over with the body if hubs pop the po acts that way he has no basis to shun you but he can pay for his sons divorce. Their family is sticking together backing up their son. You can go to the elders or you can write the wts. I have never heard of such a thing.

30

Do you understand the ransom?

by Fisherman in

because i am a christian i accept the ransom with a leap of faith but undrstanding it is beyond my imagination.

i cannot justify torturing and killing the innocent, but that is only my thinking.

god must have good reasons for what he does.

Fisherman

Nar,

Nice post. While it is true that the individual Jesus is not metioned by name in OT, the OT does lead readers to conclude that certain prophecies refer to God's ungered. Also, just because the OT does not menion Jesus by name, one cannot conclude that that Messianic prophecies do not apply to him I am familiar with Jewish thought on Messianic verses. Christians conclude that Messianic prophecies apply to Jesus and Jews don't accept Christian views on certain verses as Messianic prophecies, for example the suffering servant of Isaiah. However, above and beyond that, the doctrine of Redemption is found in the OT and the NT. Although the related verses in Hosea can have broader meaning as you note, this does not eliminate the interpretation that God will redeem humans from death as the overall tune of the BIble seems to be saying in support of this interpretation. I think that Hosea is positively saying that God will Redeem. "Should I redeem them?" "No" However, God will anyway. Should God take back adulterous Israel? NO! But, God does. He illustrates this by having the prophet Hosea take back his adulterous wife and her children. No matter how obscure and confusing the meaning of ransom in Hosea, ransom is mentioned in connection with redemption

However, I also agree with you that the verses in Hosea mentioned do not specifically refer to Jesus, that is a conclusion and also that these verses refer to the sacrificial death of Jesus, which is also a conclusion.

The fundamental creed of Christianity is that Jesus died a sacrificial death for the purpose of saving humanity . No matter how one explains it , it is all basically the same. "Jesus died for our sins" Why? God required it. In concept, I think that if death and sin holds humaninity captive then the payment to release can be termed ransom. That is what the NT seems to say. Jesus died though, payment was made and yet at AF argues in his treatsie, more is required.

15

Revelation book study. A look at Watchtower changes to prophetic meanings

by jwfacts in

with the upcoming study of the old-new revelation book i thought it would be good to expand an article i had done on the watchtower's ability to understand bible prophecy.

it appears at http://jwfacts.com/index_files/revelation.htm i can not understand how anyone that knows of the number of changes the watchtower has made can believe jehovah's holy spirit directs the watchtower.

particularly interesting is the changes that have been made to the understanding of the 1260, 1290, 1335, 2300 and 2520 days that appears towards the end of this article.the current explanation of these are an embarrasment.

Fisherman

THanks for this post!

30

Do you understand the ransom?

by Fisherman in

because i am a christian i accept the ransom with a leap of faith but undrstanding it is beyond my imagination.

i cannot justify torturing and killing the innocent, but that is only my thinking.

god must have good reasons for what he does.

Fisherman

Because I am a Christian I accept the ransom with a leap of faith but undrstanding it is beyond my imagination. I cannot justify torturing and killing the innocent, but that is only my thinking. God must have good reasons for what he does.

It must me conceded however that humanity benefits from a horrific crime and bases its salvation on this perverse crime. Loving the ransom provision and all of that and delighting in human pain seems to me to be sadistic, depressing and perverse. People actually enjoy seeing Jesus nailed to the stake and just love to read the account with pleasure again and again.

Again, I accept the ransom and the free gift of salvation but I cannot understand the ransom. Can you?

17

How do you view the Bible?

by Fisherman in

i think that the bible gives hope and comfort.

i also think that the bible is a good book without me saying too much.

but is it a product of god?

Fisherman

I think that the Bible gives hope and comfort. I also think that the Bible is a good book without me saying too much. But is it a product of God? If so, why does god want so much controvery by making a book which is ambiguous and equivocal on so many thing?

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