matthew 18:19-21 (king james version)
19again i say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven.
20for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am i in the midst of them.. .
Dearest JH,
I am all for everyone being free to believe what they want, but I find your last comment to be a little offensive. And I am sure others will too. I am sure you meant it as a joke, but please be kind and sensitive to others beliefs also. Thank you. Lilly
Yes. I believe Christ died for all mankind to reconcile us back to God. This will be attested to in its due time. Right now, only the Church of Christ really believes this in their hearts and minds. But the benefits of this reconciliation will one day be proved to all mankind. And everywhere on the earth, man will be taught about the true God and God will write his laws upon their hearts, like with the Church class. And then the scripture will be fulfilled that says "The knowledge of Jehovah shall fill the earth". Then all mankind will live in peace together. AMEN.
does anyone out there have any wise words for us to live by?
a favorite motto?
please share your wisdom if you don't mind.
Does anyone out there have any wise words for us to live by? A favorite motto? Please share your wisdom if you don't mind. I will start us off.
My motto happens to be the Golden Rule. Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.
is it really a scholarly translation?.
(excerps taken from) .
http://www.xmark.com/focus/pages/jehovahs.html.
Drew, you make a very good point. All the religions that make their own translations are biased. It is good to remember this no matter what bible we are using.
i apologise for this being so long, but i know some of you were curious as to what happened following my baptism nullification so as follows, my conversation with my dad.
most of my friends still in have been supporting of my decision and are not shunning me.
let me start this with a little preliminary information.
Dear Unique 1,
I can really understand your frustration. Due to years of being indoctrinated into their head, the JWs believe that God always had an organization. What they fail to realize is that Christ did away with all the old ways of doing things. They will point out that there were elders so there had to be organization but in the early church, elder just meant older men there was no central body over the believers.the WT tries to reason that since Paul wrote some letters to the Christians that he helped bring to Christ, in order to adjust them and upbuild them, that he was in fact like the present day governing body.
Christ himself alluded to the fact that the old way of worship would be done away with. When the Samaritan women asked where she should go to worship God, Jesus did not tell her to go to Jeruselum but said that the "time is coming when you will not worship on your forefathers mountain NOR in Jeruselum, but you will worship in spirit and truth". If Jeruselum is where the so-called body of elder men where, than why did not Christ direct her there? What he was saying here, and All the bible scholars will agree is that the day is coming when WHERE you worship is not important.
The Apostle Paul, in Acts expounded on this thought when he told the men in Athens that "God does not dwell in man made temples".
There is no organization on earth today that can claim that they only have Gods blessing. People of real faith in Christ understand that we are the living body of Christ - the Church, it is the people in Christ. We are united together by the Holy Spirit and the Love we have for one another. Sure, the early Christians were loosely organized if you want to call it that because they would meet together for prayer and song and praising God and Christ. But each group was independent and could decide for themselves how they could worship God. There was no such things as organized meetings. The only requirement for them to be called Christians was a basic understanding of Christ, God and the bible. Read the NT and you will see, there were very few things they were under compulsion to agree on.The resurection of Christ is one of the things they had to believe. That is what our faith rests on. But, there were many things that are gray areas left up to the Christians conscience.
All the major religions claim they are the true church and try to prove by their history (which man himself has made up), that this is true. When you learn the REAL TRUTH , none of these organizations has any hold over you. It is man that made Religion so that he could have power over the masses. Christ did not establish a right Religion, he established a FAITH. Any where there is two or more gathered in his name, united by Holy Spirit, he is there with them. It is really that simple. Now, I am not saying you should not join a religious institution if you so wish, but no matter which one you join, you will see that you will have to accept all their doctrines if you really want to be accepted there. I for one enjoy being free in Christ and do not feel I have to be on a roll call of any particular church. I enjoy visiting different ones and learning about their views. But like we always heard at the KH, each one must carry their own load. Good luck to you with your family, Lilly
hello everyone, been browsing the forum for quite a while now(about a year) and decided its time to post.
i'm male, just turned 36 on the first of april, i've been in a the process of fading for about two years now, not that easy having come from a witness family.
i've been in doubt about this religion for most of my life, but finally built up the courage to stop going to the meetings, finding out now how big and beautiful this world is and realizing how much i missed out on "real" life!.....i started to fade about the time i was being pushed, yes pushed into becoming a ms. i did not want to have that duty, and i say duty, not "privelege" as they would say because thats what it is, a duty!
Nice to have you here! Lilly
no dotrinal question could shake me, but it was a personal one, out in service that started my initial doubts.
a man asked me: 'are you really happy?
' i couldn't say, 'no, i'm miserable' but i thought it was a powerful question, anyone else asked something that really shook them?
I remember the last door I ever went to "preach" at. I was not prepared on what to say or what scripture to use. I had no magazines on me. It was one of those days that you really want to just stay in bed. My hubby gave me a few of his mags, which he only had the Awake ones left. He liked to give them out individually. The Mag he gave me to hand out featured an article on how to train your pet, of all things! Well, I am looking at this and saying how ridiculous it this? When I heard singing coming from the home I was about to knock on. When the lady came to the door she explained that her family was just signing to honor the Lord. Then she said, my church goes out and preaches to others also. I asked her what they preach, thinking I can trap her into a wrong answer. She said that they preach that Jesus Christ is Lord! Well, now I will look even more ridiculous trying to give her a mag. on training your pets and it finally occured to me that most of the time, our mags. have nothing to do at all with God, Jesus or the kingdom. So I just said to the lady, God bless you for doing that and have a nice day and walked away. I mean what else can I say, this lady had a better message than we usually have. That was my last door. And I left the Witnesses not long after that.
i've got the conversation my 'laywer' jason had with the head of my appeal hearing ghram, he refues to answer any questions about the recorder being tampered with, but denies that anyone named 'sean' was at the meeting, then later he talks about talking to 'sean' at the meeting!.
this guy is so desprate to cover his own ass.
btw, i will testify that the bag was closed when i was in the room before i left and that it was open after i got back.
The point is to show the Judicial committee up to be who they exactly are which is a bunch of Pharisees reminincent of the Sanhedrin of Jesus Day. Any more questions?
i do not agree with your reading of "policy".
i base this on personal experience on a couple of fronts.
1. i have yet to come across a single verifiable of a cover up.
Beep Beep,
You came onto this site knowing we are against the Watchtower organization and yet you get offended when you get told off?
As far as attacking Danny on his looks, you are just proving that as a Jehovah's Witness, you are not a good example of a Christian. How dare you attack the man about his appearance? Would Christ do that? Do you not feel any sympathy for Danny or the many others who were molested as children by other JW members and it was covered up?
Let me appeal to your reason because I will not insult you and I expect you not to insult me: How do you think I felt after 12 years of dedicated service to Jehovah and pioneering and helping all the elderly in my congregation, and helping elders who's families needed financial and other support, when the one elder in the congregation I trusted the most, refused to tell me that there was a dangerous predator in the congregation? This elder had a son too like me, but since he was privy to this child rapist's past, HIS child was safe. But mine was not. I was the victim of sexual abuse as a child but not in the JWs. But do you know how I cried about this? Think about it, I thought my children were safe in the congregation. Never in a million years did I think someone like this would be anywhere near my precious son. I know what it is like to suffer for the rest of your life after having been molested. I know what it is like to feel dirty, guilty, and unclean so much that you try to take your life several times, do you? I swear to Jehovah God that I told my hubby if that man had come anywhere near my son and hurt him the way I was hurt when I was a child, I would have taken a knife into the KH and cut him threw with it!
After leaving that hall we found another pedophile in the next hall. By then, my hubby realized too that our children were not safe. When confronting the elders, they were more concerned about the appearence that everything was o.k. than actually doing something to protect our children. Yet, since they are privy to the information, their children are protected. Now, if we ran into sex offenders in two seperate halls only a few miles apart, are you still going to say there is no problem or coverup? The only way we found out about these men is that true spiritual christians, under the threat of disfellowshipping came forward anyway to protect OUR children. They, the lowly publishers showed better christian behavior than the elders in charge. What is wrong with this picture?
I hope to God that nothing like this ever happens to you personally. But be warned, the goal of the elders is to support the organization NO MATTER WHAT. This includes lying, covering up or any other means.
God bless people like Richie and Danny and everyone else on this board who has a conscience and does not want anyone to be hurt anymore by this cultish religion. And I pray every day that Jehovah take them down soon so the hurting can stop. Please, beep beep, think about what I am saying. I am not lying. And you have to understand the peoples anger on this forum. Most of us gave long years of our life supporting the WT, only to be burned by them and traumatized. If they really were Jehovah's only true religion, nothing like this would happen because they would have true love for one another. Is true love putting someones child at risk but protecting your own? I am going to pray for you also because I know you mean well. But you are very misguided my friend. Peace be with you, Lilly
all right you guys.... i discovered this wonderful, helpful, supportive site of unconditional acceptance a month ago.
since then, i've read miles of posts, bookmarked countless reference sites, downloaded all of sol's stuff... and obviously, as well, have sacrificed a bit of my usual gym time for my healing, as i've seemed to have added about 6-7 pounds to my ass.
aaaarrrgghhh... but they're happy pounds.
I hear ya. I keep trying to walk away but the computer keeps pulling me back!
