I do admire your use of scripture. I wish others here would do the same. Most of the "theories" here smell like the south end of a northbound mule.
Theocrat
JoinedPosts by Theocrat
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51
An honest estimate of ourselves.... (long)
by Theocrat ingod says: ?blessed is the able-bodied man who puts his trust in jehovah, and whose confidence jehovah has become.?
a governing body that made decisions based on the scriptures and blessed by jehovah!
now, he is once again serving as a christian elder.
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51
An honest estimate of ourselves.... (long)
by Theocrat ingod says: ?blessed is the able-bodied man who puts his trust in jehovah, and whose confidence jehovah has become.?
a governing body that made decisions based on the scriptures and blessed by jehovah!
now, he is once again serving as a christian elder.
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Theocrat
Huxley:
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51
An honest estimate of ourselves.... (long)
by Theocrat ingod says: ?blessed is the able-bodied man who puts his trust in jehovah, and whose confidence jehovah has become.?
a governing body that made decisions based on the scriptures and blessed by jehovah!
now, he is once again serving as a christian elder.
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Theocrat
I understand what you're saying, Flying...
The point I'm trying to make is: we don't have the capacity to govern our own lives. Man living independent from God has proved to be disastrous from the beginning. History is a testament to that. For instance, the United States has constituted itself such an enemy to the world, that it has to spend trillions of dollars every year just do defend itself. Its cheaper to buy dope out of some shmuck's trunk in the parking lot of Dairy Queen than it is to by medicine that we actually need. That is misery, my friend. Things like this only solidify the fact that man has no business governing himself nor the world. God's Kingdom is the only thing that can bring us lasting peace and happiness.
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51
An honest estimate of ourselves.... (long)
by Theocrat ingod says: ?blessed is the able-bodied man who puts his trust in jehovah, and whose confidence jehovah has become.?
a governing body that made decisions based on the scriptures and blessed by jehovah!
now, he is once again serving as a christian elder.
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Theocrat
Hey Huxley, while you're pointing your finger, go ahead and hang a big "guilty" sign around your neck. The topic wasn't why I'm here. Try reading it this time. Words form together to make sentences. Sentences form together to make paragraphs, etc.
In other words Huxley, what I really meant to say is:
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51
An honest estimate of ourselves.... (long)
by Theocrat ingod says: ?blessed is the able-bodied man who puts his trust in jehovah, and whose confidence jehovah has become.?
a governing body that made decisions based on the scriptures and blessed by jehovah!
now, he is once again serving as a christian elder.
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Theocrat
Where I come from, if one is doing all they can in their service to Jehovah, then are doing what is expected. What we "do" won't save us, but our faith is proved by action taken to further God's name and establish his Sovereignty.
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51
An honest estimate of ourselves.... (long)
by Theocrat ingod says: ?blessed is the able-bodied man who puts his trust in jehovah, and whose confidence jehovah has become.?
a governing body that made decisions based on the scriptures and blessed by jehovah!
now, he is once again serving as a christian elder.
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Theocrat
God says: ?Blessed is the able-bodied man who puts his trust in Jehovah, and whose confidence Jehovah has become.? ?Jeremiah 17:7
?An easy and elegant skepticism is the attitude expected of an educated adult.? ?Bertrand Russell
?WHAT is truth?? When Pontius Pilate asked Jesus Christ that question, he was showing the typical skeptical attitude of many people. Go to any Barnes & Noble or Books-a-Million and you?ll find shelf after shelf of theories from the ?experts?.
Now, we?re all intelligent adults here, and for one reason or another, we feel the need to ?validate? our reason for being here, to expound on our theories and how we are so much better off since we started ?doing our own thing?. This world has certainly elevated systematic doubt to an article of faith of higher learning. Secular humanist theories touted at universities all over the place have thus produced a generation of doubters, for whom ?everything is relative.?
I?ve seen all kinds of confounding posts here that no lover of God would ever publish. Undaunted Danny wishing that he hadn?t wasted his ?better than a Chippendales dancer? body when he was young. What would you rather have done, Danny? Fornicate with every whore that smacked your tail when you walked by? Would that have been pleasing to God? No, I didn?t ask: ?would that have been pleasing to the organization?? The Bible tells us at Ecclesiastes 12:1 to ?remember your Grand Creator in the days of your young manhood.?
Then there are some who take lightly the fact that they enjoy getting drunk now that they are so ?liberated?. Proverbs 20:1 says that ?Wine is a ridiculer? and that ?everyone going astray by it is not wise.? There are many more things to cite, but these are just an example.
So many here talk about how they are so much better off now that they have left the organization, but is that really so? Many of you talk about how the organization tries to get it?s members to conform constantly, and you just couldn?t stand the conformity aspect one more minute. But what about now, since you?ve left? Some are celebrating holidays that they know to be from Babylonian/Pagan origins. Why? Because your families that are so happy that you are now free are urging you to go with the flow of the world?s scheduled holidays? Who?s a conformist now?
I?m not writing you to put you down or to make waves. Its just that an honest estimate of ourselves is long overdue. Remember how good you felt when you knew you were giving praise and glory to Almighty God, not an earthly organization. The Bible inspires in its readers, not doubt, but confidence. Remember what Paul said, at 2 Timothy 1:13: ?Keep holding the pattern of healthful words that you heard from me with the faith and love that are in connection with Christ Jesus.? Its THAT openness to the ?healthful words? that we find in the Bible that increases our faith and love and gives us joy and confidence in the truthfulness of all the precious promises Jehovah has given us. And the by-product for that joy and confidence is hope, which Hebrews 6:17 says is ?an anchor for the soul, both sure and firm.?
No matter what each of our backgrounds may be, we still MUST realize that God?s kingdom as the only hope for mankind. In the early Christian congregation, the older men/overseers helped their fellow Christians to banish doubts and to be firm in the faith. With the help of the holy spirit they made decisions, issued instructions and sent out faithful men to build up the brothers.
Where is the evidence of holy spirit in your lives now? Take another contradiction that is often leaned upon in these forums: the governing body. Men. Faithful. But still, what they do is in the same pattern as the Bible shows happened in the 1 st century. In Acts 16, it says: ?Now as Paul and Silas and their traveling companions traveled on through the cities they would deliver to those there for observance the decrees that had been decided upon by the apostles and older men who were in Jerusalem. Therefore, indeed, the congregations continued to be made firm in the faith and to increase in number from day to day.? Imagine that! A governing body that made decisions based on the scriptures and blessed by Jehovah! No doubt some thought of that as a cult, or challenged it. Hindsight?s 20/20, though. Now that account has been preserved in the inspired canon of scriptures, so we KNOW that arrangement was blessed by God, and perpetuated by His holy spirit.
Maybe some of you think I?ve made a good point or two, but still your own personal experiences with the organization can?t be ignored. I understand that. No doubt Jehovah understands that. Be sure He will deal with unjust people in His own time. But know that corrupt individuals can still come into God?s congregation. Read 3 rd John and the account of Diotrophes. Here was an elder who ?abused? and even ?threw some out? of the congregation. Be assured that men like that always burn themselves out, and Jehovah?s allowing them to keep their position for whatever short time that may be, IS ONLY SO THAT OUR FAITH MAY BECOME STRONGER. The Apostle Peter even spoke of something similar to this at 1 Peter 4:12-14: ?Beloved ones, do not be puzzled at the burning among you, which is happening to you for a trial, as though a strange thing were befalling you. On the contrary, go on rejoicing forasmuch as you are sharers in the sufferings of the Christ, that you may rejoice and be overjoyed also during the revelation of his glory. If you are being reproached for the name of Christ, you are happy, because the spirit of glory, even the spirit of God, is resting upon you.?
Perhaps your doubts are linked to your motives. Remember when Jesus asked his disciples at Luke 24:38, ?Why are you troubled, and why is it doubts come up in your hearts?? Jesus knew that doubt starts in the heart, and that?s where our motives originate. Ask yourself honestly, ?Are our doubts genuine, or are they a pretext for slowing down? Do they betray a lack of endurance? Do they reflect a lack of faith in God?s power to forgive? Has some individual been sowing seeds of doubt?? One must agree that Satan is trying to draw away as many people from God as he can. At Hebrews 3:12-15, Paul said, ?Beware, brothers, for fear there should ever develop in any one of you a wicked heart lacking faith by drawing away from the living God.?
We MUST remember that we?re not created to be independent from God. The nation of Israel thought they could live successfully by ?doing their own thing?, but they were wrong. They balked at Moses, they balked at every good king. Isaiah 1:3 says, ?Cattle know who owns them, and donkeys know where their master feeds them. But that is more than my people Israel know.? By rejecting Jehovah?s arrangement, they rejected Jehovah.
In closing, I want to cite some personal experiences of people who once felt just like many of you here feel now:
?An ex-elder in the west of France began to have doubts about being one of Jehovah?s Witnesses because, as he put it, the spiritual food being served seemed to him to be always the same. So he resigned as an elder. However, his family and the other elders did not treat him as if he were an apostate. They lovingly helped him through prayer and upbuilding conversations. Gradually, this brother was helped to realize that there cannot be new explanations all the time, any more than a mother can serve entirely different meals three times a day and 365 days a year. The same basic ingredients come back in different forms, but an appreciative palate helps one to enjoy the food, digest it and draw strength from it. This brother was also helped to reflect on the dearth of spiritual food elsewhere. He gradually regained confidence, deepened his appreciation for the good things that he had learned, got his spiritual strength back and experienced newfound joy in Jehovah?s service. Now, he is once again serving as a Christian elder.
Here?s another:
A young Witness in the south of France, who had had libertarian ideas before coming into the truth, came across a book on anarchism (?the theory that all forms of government interfere unjustly with individual liberty and should be replaced by the voluntary association of cooperative groups?). He read it, found it interesting, bought more books in the same vein and while reading these began to lose faith and to have doubts. Then, suddenly, to quote him, ?I realized that I was allowing bad spiritual food to arouse in me traits of my old personality, one of which was a spirit of rebellion.? Two Watchtower articles set things straight in his mind: ?The Way of Life?Narrow but Free,? in the October 15, 1977, issue, and ?How God?s Kingdom Can Benefit You,? in the January 15, 1978, issue. He regained confidence, entered the full-time preaching work and is now serving as a special pioneer.
What is the point of all of this? Happiness. Pleasing God. Here are just 2 examples of people who were beset by doubts, but who overcame them and recovered their happiness in God?s service. If they had yielded to their doubts, today they would be unhappy and without hope. James 1:6 says: ?He who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and blown about? and James 1:8 says that man is ?an indecisive man, unsteady in all his ways.?
I?m just asking your to be honest with yourselves. If you pick up the ?spirit of the world,? doubting will become a part of your thinking pattern. But 1 Corinthians 2:12 writes: ?Now we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been kindly given us by God.? One of those ?things? Jehovah gave us is a purpose in life. We know where we are heading. We have a glorious hope, centered on God?s Kingdom. These are the end times. Soon the glorified Jesus will destroy earthly rulerships. Don?t be counted among the ones that 1 Timothy 4:1 describes: ?definitely in later periods of time some will fall away from the faith.?
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64
Does the Watchtower Society stunt personal development and growth
by truthseeker inwith so many "responsibilities" given to the witnesses by the "faithful and discreet slave", there is little time for them to do anything these days except sleep - and that is when they're not out preaching at unearthly hours in the morning.. .
the enormous pressure to perform, and to be under the watch of the elders to make sure you perform, is a draining experience.. .
a book i have on sociology says this regarding jehovah's witnesses, when discussing sects, that "they require intensive commitments and demonstrations of belief by members.
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Theocrat
Hey Corvin:
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64
Does the Watchtower Society stunt personal development and growth
by truthseeker inwith so many "responsibilities" given to the witnesses by the "faithful and discreet slave", there is little time for them to do anything these days except sleep - and that is when they're not out preaching at unearthly hours in the morning.. .
the enormous pressure to perform, and to be under the watch of the elders to make sure you perform, is a draining experience.. .
a book i have on sociology says this regarding jehovah's witnesses, when discussing sects, that "they require intensive commitments and demonstrations of belief by members.
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Theocrat
Learn the truth from you people? hahaha....I don't see one single characteristic of Christ's teachings throughout this site....but then again, what can I expect [deleted]
I'm signing off now. Its been a short ride. Now who will I find to talk to?
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64
Does the Watchtower Society stunt personal development and growth
by truthseeker inwith so many "responsibilities" given to the witnesses by the "faithful and discreet slave", there is little time for them to do anything these days except sleep - and that is when they're not out preaching at unearthly hours in the morning.. .
the enormous pressure to perform, and to be under the watch of the elders to make sure you perform, is a draining experience.. .
a book i have on sociology says this regarding jehovah's witnesses, when discussing sects, that "they require intensive commitments and demonstrations of belief by members.
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Theocrat
Apostate??!! Last I checked, this is where the discussion of Jehovah's Witnesses took place. If it were apostate, even if considered by general concensus, then I suppose I would need to withdraw from being here, under the counsel of Ephesians 5:11, "have nothing to do with fruitless deeds of darkness, but expose them."
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64
Does the Watchtower Society stunt personal development and growth
by truthseeker inwith so many "responsibilities" given to the witnesses by the "faithful and discreet slave", there is little time for them to do anything these days except sleep - and that is when they're not out preaching at unearthly hours in the morning.. .
the enormous pressure to perform, and to be under the watch of the elders to make sure you perform, is a draining experience.. .
a book i have on sociology says this regarding jehovah's witnesses, when discussing sects, that "they require intensive commitments and demonstrations of belief by members.
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Theocrat
I'm talking about the men who contribute to abuse, just as Diotrophes did in the first century. Still God's congregation, just a rotten man here or there.