hello, i discovered this site yesterday and have been on it for hours!
i've been studying with jehovah's witnesses for 4 years and quite frankly love it.
a bit of background, i am a college educated young man (have a bs in psychology) and am currently a medical student.
misspellings! oh may I be struck with thunder so that I can learn to care enough to proofread. Is it really that serious?
haha, the attempted character assasination is quite amusing.
The true mark of those who've been empowered by the TRUTH and seek to lead their lives accordingly. Continue walking in Jesus's example my friends.
I'll be around
peace
hello, i discovered this site yesterday and have been on it for hours!
i've been studying with jehovah's witnesses for 4 years and quite frankly love it.
a bit of background, i am a college educated young man (have a bs in psychology) and am currently a medical student.
Consider Judges. Used by Jehovah despite the fact that many of them were inadequate and damaging leaders. Consider Samuel, righteous at first yet proved to be wicked. Used none the less by Jehovah. Consider David. Righteous enough to stand against Goliath yet incapable of turning away from adultery. Both righteous and wicked people have been used by Jehovah both as leaders and as examples for future bible students. Your right, inadequate scholarship is damaging, yet bible students are to train their consciouses using the bible in order to discern when elements of Jehovah's purpose are being fulfilled for us in the last days. Jehovah's purpose is far beyond any human or human organization. Consider Aaron, who lead the Israelites into idolatry by erecting the golden calf. An act that nearly caused Jehovah's anger to blaze against the people. Inadequate leadership? Maybe. Yet he was used.
hello, i discovered this site yesterday and have been on it for hours!
i've been studying with jehovah's witnesses for 4 years and quite frankly love it.
a bit of background, i am a college educated young man (have a bs in psychology) and am currently a medical student.
I should really contain all of these thoughts into one post - lol.
I say again and this is NOT making excuses, it's perspective. The bible shows that Jehovah HAS used IMPERFECT people to carry out his will in the past. He has used both those who were dedicated to him as well as those who were not (the Babylonians and the Romans in bringing down the nation of Israel for example). This tells me that it is not necessarily the credibility of the people that I should look at to decide if Jehovah is working THROUGH them or not rather it is their works and how it fits with Bible prophecy. Right?
Regarding the 607 issue. That's interesting, I'll have to research that. It though would not change the fact that the Bible considers the times we live in now, the 'last days' which is the more important issue. I'm not interesting in subverting the truth, but I emphasize that my concern is, has always been, and will always be larger than the integrity of an organization which is only a vehicle guiding me to Jehovah.
hello, i discovered this site yesterday and have been on it for hours!
i've been studying with jehovah's witnesses for 4 years and quite frankly love it.
a bit of background, i am a college educated young man (have a bs in psychology) and am currently a medical student.
Regarding the "increasing light" rational being a WTS excuse, the bible supports this. Consider Abel's knowledge of Jehovah, his qualities and his will for the future. Moses' knowledge verses David's. Solomons versus John the Baptizer. Jehovah's way of giving increasing knowledge to his servants over time is supported by the bible. Imagine the mistakes the apostle John made in attempting to explain his visions (later recorded in Revalations) to people of his time! He had no idea how these visions would be fulfilled, how could he possibly teach them.
hello, i discovered this site yesterday and have been on it for hours!
i've been studying with jehovah's witnesses for 4 years and quite frankly love it.
a bit of background, i am a college educated young man (have a bs in psychology) and am currently a medical student.
good discussion.
Thus far I have choosen not to answer direct questions because it would lead off into many tangents. I mainly wanted to feel out the group. If you have any specific questions for me feel free to message me. I'm not on trial at all so it was a bit disappointing to see those few who attempted to pick apart my words and speculate on the brief introduction of myself without context. very interesting - lol. Someone even said that I shouldn't be associated with here because I don't know what a baptised publisher is. That's funny because I am one. Let's please keep the discussion objective. Egos are ridiculous, I'm assuming we're all just trying to learn, so let it be.
An answer to one quesiton tho, I've been studying for so 'long' because dedication to Jehovah as I was taught, is personal and involves oneself and Jehovah. "Pressure" from those in the hall means absolutely nothing to me.
Plus, with the JWs matching cult theory. Wouldn't you say that the Mosaic law's governance over the Jews made them by the logic proposed here, a cult as well? They were taught to see those outside of the nation as 'outsiders' and to have little to no dealling with them as well. Many of the laws made some behaviors punishable by death, something that I would think would instill a bit of obedience by fear (if you choose to look at it like that). From what I've learned and witnessed within the JW organization, it seems to match the role God wanted his people in 'bible times' to play within their world. In fact, this 'cult' behavior of God's people as recorded in the bible may have been precisely why (or at least one of the reasons) they were persecuted by Jewish leaders and by Roman leaders such as Nero. Remember all of the sciptures about keeping 'without spot from the world?"
Anyway, like I said, good discussion. Feel free to message me.
hello, i discovered this site yesterday and have been on it for hours!
i've been studying with jehovah's witnesses for 4 years and quite frankly love it.
a bit of background, i am a college educated young man (have a bs in psychology) and am currently a medical student.
yes, i go out into field service and the whole nine.
If most of you all are former JWs then you must have been trained to encourage others to gain a complete understanding of the bible rather than using specific scriptures to prove points. Scripture jousting will (and probably has multiple times in the past) open up another can of worms.
hello, i discovered this site yesterday and have been on it for hours!
i've been studying with jehovah's witnesses for 4 years and quite frankly love it.
a bit of background, i am a college educated young man (have a bs in psychology) and am currently a medical student.
I'll clarify. I've been attending JW meetings since middle school. Just started studying 4 years ago, using all of the time in between to search for my path towards Jehovah. I combed sites like this, sites of the various denominations, and spoke to countless people about the subject of Christianity. The kingdom hall was simply my base or foundation, yet I was never enslaved with the cult mindstate to turn away from everything else. Yes, it was preached to do so but ultimately one must seek out their OWN understanding of love.. We humans have free will and Jehovah wants us to love him. Love would be the motivation for us to submit ourselves to his way of rulership. Look at the Mosaic Law. But todays standards, those laws were much more harsh than any WTS standard but its no question (to bible believers at least) that those were directly given by Jehovah. And again I say that both Jews and 1st century christians were NOT immune to anything under the sun objectionable by Jehovah, yet they WERE used by Jehovah. Remember David's adultery?! The apostle Peter studied with Jesus himself! He was then warned that he would deny Jesus three times, and still did so! Mistakes to the highest degree are very much possible among God's people that's why our focus must most beyond mistakes of humans.
Regarding other specifics of me, and how I fit into the JW mold, I'll answer but that has little relevance. I'm me, a sinner, slave, whatever. Regardless of my path to Jehovah, I trust that he reads hearts and that's all that matters.
Good discussion though. Glad to be here.
hello, i discovered this site yesterday and have been on it for hours!
i've been studying with jehovah's witnesses for 4 years and quite frankly love it.
a bit of background, i am a college educated young man (have a bs in psychology) and am currently a medical student.
Regarding Lifton's work, no I haven't but i'll definitely check it out. If you know any credible online sources then please message me.
hello, i discovered this site yesterday and have been on it for hours!
i've been studying with jehovah's witnesses for 4 years and quite frankly love it.
a bit of background, i am a college educated young man (have a bs in psychology) and am currently a medical student.
as a future physician, a patient's ethics on blood is his/her own. The ethical dilemma is not mine.
hello, i discovered this site yesterday and have been on it for hours!
i've been studying with jehovah's witnesses for 4 years and quite frankly love it.
a bit of background, i am a college educated young man (have a bs in psychology) and am currently a medical student.
I apologize for the grammatical errors. I'm excited to post so have only discovered them after I've already posted and I haven't yet seen a link to edit posts.
