Posts by Apostate Kate

14

Do you have to be "gullible" in order to be a good JW?

by JH in

jw
friends

in french we use the word "naif", which means to believe anything that's said without proof of it being true.

i think that gullible is the english translation.. i was very gullible in my early jw years.

i guess it's not faith that one needs to be a good jw, but gullibility...

Apostate Kate

Gullible and the word Virgochick used; vulnerable.

My mother was very vulnerable. She had a horrid childhood, very low self esteem, an abusive husband, and a friend who seemed to have the life she wished she had.

Of course that friend was a JW.

24

Picture of my kids,,,,,brag a bit

by LyinEyes in

jw
friends

i hope this works,,,,,,here are four of my reasons to love my life and at times pull my hair out!!.

the girl in the glasses is my daughter kelly , she is 13 and a goth, she is so unique and such a strong free spirit.

she wants piercings and tatoos, but it aint happening till she is 18. .

How do you deal with death now

by unique1 in

jw
friends

i must say, it was easier being a jw, believing that i would in fact be resurrected to a paradise earth and having the faith that would definitely happen.

i still believe in the bible to the extent that i believe jesus led a good life and if we follow his example we will lead one to.

however, the bible was written by men, who are imperfect and therefore i don't feel we can take the entire book at face value as truth.

Apostate Kate

as he is traumatized by my sister's suicide

I am so sorry for your loss. We do suffer so much grief at times.

75

Infallibility of Scripture

by drew sagan in

one of this biggest teachings present in mostly all christian denominations is the idea that the bible is infallibile.

my question is, where does the bible say this?

i know of many scriptures that point to the idea that what was written was directed by god, but where does the idea that what written is totally without error originate?

There are many reasons for this, one is that Jesus himself referred to the Bible completly so when one believes Jesus did the things that are recorded he did and said, it colaborates the OT. Jesus believed they were true. The NT is the Gospel, the truth written by ones who seen and heard Jesus. If the letters were lies, someone at that time would have said so.

There are fulfilled prophecies between the OT and NT to colaborate that it was God's word. Unless a bnunch of psychics wrote them, which I find rediculaous. Even Nostradamus was vague in everything he predicted. The OT predictions and discription of Jesus are accurate down to the description of his death.

Prophecies of Jesus Christ as Messiah

30

Ozzie in Paradise

by ozziepost in

jw
friends

remember me?

go on, did ya miss me?

nah!

Apostate Kate

Oh I LOVE it!

Ozzie what village was that picture taken at?

28

How do you deal with death now

by unique1 in

jw
friends

i must say, it was easier being a jw, believing that i would in fact be resurrected to a paradise earth and having the faith that would definitely happen.

i still believe in the bible to the extent that i believe jesus led a good life and if we follow his example we will lead one to.

however, the bible was written by men, who are imperfect and therefore i don't feel we can take the entire book at face value as truth.

Apostate Kate

I'll just tell you my personal experience and you can take it for whatever.

For me, I had a near death experience. It was not painful at all. Death is not painful. What was painful, actually terrifying was dying without a personal relationship with Jesus. That was very scary. Horrid. Beyond words. As a JW.

Now, after I have come to know what it is to have a personal relationship with Jesus, I have had some close calls with my health. I was so peaceful, knowing that it did not matter if I lived or died my life was no longer my own. We have a very bad hospital where I am at and one night my heart was racing at 120...I was exhausted and I just decided I was too tired to drive an hour away to the hospital.

I went to sleep not knowing for sure where I would wake up. But having total peace about it. Several years later I am still here, living an incredibly blessed life. Please no one take offense I am not preaching, I am just sharing my personal experience.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. <-----true

65

Why God refuses to interfere

by greendawn in

jw
friends

many people ask why doesn't god interefere to help suffering mankind?

biblically the answer is very simple: mankind exercise their freedom of choice and in so doing chose to be slaves to sin or the demons if you like.

god respects that choice however foolish it may be.

Apostate Kate

Hellrider; on the Job story you have it a bit wrong. It was Satan that asked for Job by name. God did not do anything to hurt Job, He allowed it. We all die. I am 100% sure of that. It is to a believer that life begins on death of the body. Job 1:8 Yahweh said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil."

You may think the death of Jobs family was sadistic but if they immediatly went into a beautiful place, "the bosom of Abraham" do you really think they were unhappy about it? Jews believed in an afterlife too.

As far as the logical sense of it all, it is your perspective that sees it that way. That is great, it is none of my business if anything in the Bible makes sense to you or not. Everyone of us would have disobeyed, that is the logic I understand. According to the Bible, God is omnipotent and omniscient as is Christ so obviously He knew ahead of time what we would do.

According to the Bible God made the provision from the beginning for forgivness through the blood of Jesus. He had it all planned.

26

Once saved always saved?

by greendawn in

at one extreme are people like the jws that we criticise for relying too much on works for their salvation and so they have to live through a lot of anxiety day after day out of fear of failing.

at the other extreme are those that say "i am saved by faith alone, once saved always saved, that's why jesus died for us" and seem to ignore completely the good works factor.

obviously the right balance is somewhere between the two but we need more sophisticated thinking to grasp it than just: i need works to be saved or i need only faith to be saved.

Apostate Kate

Why do works of charity not produce faith???

Depends on what faith you are talking about.

There are wonderful people all around the world who are not Christians who do good works and acts of charity.

There are clearly defined attributes of a cult versus healthy mainstream churches. You cannot lump them all together. The personal responsibilty comes from making the decision to accept the entirly free gift of life from Jesus. Romans 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

When one recieves this free gift it is not us but God by the power of the Holy Spirit that guides us to acts of charity. Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Again, if there was anything at all that we could have done to earn, deserve or work for salvation, Jesus would not have had to die. We could have worked our way via good deeds to a relationship with God.

The unconditional love of God is what moves a truly converted soul to acts of kindness and good works. It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that guides us as to what to do with ourselves, and how to serve God by serving mankind.

26

Once saved always saved?

by greendawn in

at one extreme are people like the jws that we criticise for relying too much on works for their salvation and so they have to live through a lot of anxiety day after day out of fear of failing.

at the other extreme are those that say "i am saved by faith alone, once saved always saved, that's why jesus died for us" and seem to ignore completely the good works factor.

obviously the right balance is somewhere between the two but we need more sophisticated thinking to grasp it than just: i need works to be saved or i need only faith to be saved.

Apostate Kate

As far as the faith vs work debate...

This is a cult buster; if there was anything at all that we could have done to earn salvation or a relationship with the Creator, Jesus would not have had to die

Faith produces works of charity. Not the other way around.

65

Why God refuses to interfere

by greendawn in

jw
friends

many people ask why doesn't god interefere to help suffering mankind?

biblically the answer is very simple: mankind exercise their freedom of choice and in so doing chose to be slaves to sin or the demons if you like.

god respects that choice however foolish it may be.

Apostate Kate

Christians today even have more of a blessing than Job did as we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside us. The Comforter.

2. As with Job, God did step back to see if Job still loved him and his ways..