Sad Emo: Just looked up the word 'cult' in the OED: "A small religious group regarded by others as strange or as having too great a control over its members." For someone believing the above story to be true, they would be hard pressed not to view Christianity as a cult. What could be 'stranger', or an exercise of greater "control over its members" than the cult-leader himself ( Jesus ), killing cult members that incur his displeasure?
scout575
JoinedPosts by scout575
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Scriptures You Will Not Hear at the 14-05-06 Church Sermon
by scout575 in"but a certain man named ananias with sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, but his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
but peter said , ananias, why hast satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the field?
( acts 5:1-3 ).
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Scriptures You Will Not Hear at the 14-05-06 Church Sermon
by scout575 in"but a certain man named ananias with sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, but his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
but peter said , ananias, why hast satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the field?
( acts 5:1-3 ).
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scout575
Sad Emo: Interesting double heart attack theory. If I were a Bible-believing Christian, living today, I might be grateful that I wasn't a Christian in the same church as Ananias and Sapphira. If I step out of line, either the wrath of Jesus clobbers me, or the public humiliation by Peter kills me. I might get to thinking that going back to 'spikey'Judaism, would be less life-threatening than 'cuddly' Christianity.
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Scriptures You Will Not Hear at the 14-05-06 Church Sermon
by scout575 in"but a certain man named ananias with sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, but his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
but peter said , ananias, why hast satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the field?
( acts 5:1-3 ).
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scout575
Sad Emo: In saying, 'Cult leader', I meant Jesus himself ( Matthew 23:10 ). He is the one who the NT portrays as inflicting punishments on 'wayward' Christians, from his heavenly position. Notice Revelation 2:16, 23; 3:16 etc.
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Scriptures You Will Not Hear at the 14-05-06 Church Sermon
by scout575 in"but a certain man named ananias with sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, but his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
but peter said , ananias, why hast satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the field?
( acts 5:1-3 ).
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scout575
Shazard: I believe you. Notice the effect that God's execution of Ananias and Sapphira had on Christians in Jerusalem: "And GREAT FEAR came upon all the church." ( Acts 5:11a ) If I were a Christian listening to your pastor preaching this Bible story, and believing the story to be factual, I might begin to doubt whether spending an eternity in heavenly 'bliss' with God, was such a good idea.
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Scriptures You Will Not Hear at the 14-05-06 Church Sermon
by scout575 in"but a certain man named ananias with sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, but his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
but peter said , ananias, why hast satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the field?
( acts 5:1-3 ).
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scout575
jwfacts: Thats true, to say the very least. Ananias and Sapphira sell some land for a certain price. They keep some of the sale price for themselves, and then donate the balance to the apostles, pretending that they have donated the entire sale price.
Although this can't exactly be described as honourable, the punishment that heaven metes out to them is execution.This isn't just an absence of political correctness, this is creepy and barbaric. As is seen so often in the Bible, the heavenly punishment is way out of proportion to the 'crime' for which it is administered. In the above portrayal, the only crime is the punishment itself.
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Scriptures You Will Not Hear at the 14-05-06 Church Sermon
by scout575 in"but a certain man named ananias with sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, but his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
but peter said , ananias, why hast satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the field?
( acts 5:1-3 ).
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scout575
"But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, but his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said , Ananias, why hast Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the field? ( Acts 5:1-3 )
"And Ananias hearing these words FELL DOWN AND GAVE UP THE GHOST, and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out and buried him. ( Acts 5: 5,6 )
"Then Peter said unto her, how is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then FELL SHE DOWN straightway at his feet, and YIELDED UP THE GHOST: and the young men came in, and found her DEAD, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things." ( Acts 5:9-11 )
Cult leader kills two of his followers for the 'crime' of, 'tempting the Spirit of the Lord'.
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Scriptures You Will Not Hear at the 07-04-06 Church Sermon
by scout575 in"enter ye at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
" ( matthew 7:13,14 ).
"then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
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scout575
Shining One: Its hard for me, in a sense, not to be pleased for you. You seem happy in your faith. It was the same for me when I was a JW. I used to literally gasp with appreciation for Jehovah and my privilege of having a 'relationship' with him. I notice, in reading the ex-Christian websites and message boards, that whilst many of the ex-Christians say that Christianity is a cult, and a scam, and that they were miserable and riddled with guilt when they were Christians, others say that they were happy in their faith. Despite their satisfaction with their faith, they simply came to view Christianity as just another ancient superstition. I would recommend that you google 'leaving Christianity' and read some of their very interesting comments.
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Scriptures You Will Not Hear at the 07-04-06 Church Sermon
by scout575 in"enter ye at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
" ( matthew 7:13,14 ).
"then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
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scout575
Shining One: You ask, in what did I have faith? I had faith in God, a supernatural Jesus, the redeeming power of his sacrifice, the Bible being inspired of God, eternal life, heaven, judgement day, etc. I had profound faith in thses things and zealously preached them for many, many years. I gradually came to view them all as myths.
Obviously, my no longer believing in these things, doesn't constitute proof that they're myths. Its ironic though, that it was solely through the daily reading of the Bible that my faith eroded. I read no anti-Christian or atheistic literature. It was the deep flaws within the Bible itself that left me with no choice but to leave the 'truth'. I did this despite the fact that I enjoyed being a Witness. I don't view my time as a Witness as a waste, as I still believe wholeheartedly that there is much in the Bible that is good and helpful. I benefited in so many ways by my long exposure to the Bible, and I will always be grateful for that. I very reluctantly came to the conclusion that the Bible is of human origin alone.
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"A Boat Load of Guilt."
by scout575 in"my 'walk', in short, was one big struggle with "fleshly desire" and a boat load of guilt hanging over me.
this pretty much describes my life on a daily basis.
despite the advertising, jesus doesn't make you free.".
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scout575
Fe2O3Girl: Whilst its clear that religions don't necessarily cause harm to their adherents, but can even be beneficial to them, that doesn't mean that I'm pro-religion. I enjoyed much of my time as a JW, I don't have any horror stories to report, I delighted in my 'relationship' with God, felt very privileged that I had the 'truth' etc. I left, simply because I came to view the Bible as being of human origin. I don't think that people should remain Bible-believing Christians just because it 'works' for them. If it is mythical, as I clearly believe it is, then that is ample reason for them to leave.
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"A Boat Load of Guilt."
by scout575 in"my 'walk', in short, was one big struggle with "fleshly desire" and a boat load of guilt hanging over me.
this pretty much describes my life on a daily basis.
despite the advertising, jesus doesn't make you free.".
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scout575
Sad emo: If you google 'leaving Christianity' you will find a wealth of ex-Christian websites and message boards. Ex-Christian.net is a good message board.
mrs jones5: Good points. I'm concentrating on fundamentalist/evangelical churches because, in my experience, they seem to attract ex-JWs more than any other religion.
Fe203Girl: Forgive me if I've misunderstood your reply, but I'm an atheist now, and so I don't belong to any religion. I find that people within the SAME denomination of Christianity are affected by it in vastly different ways. One person thrives on it whereas another person feels terribly oppressed by it. It demonstrates that Christianity doesn't work for everyone who embraces it and sincerely tries to live by it.