it seems i constantly am confronted with those who are trying to make a "christian" out of me.
in various threads on this forum the term is used as if everyone understands what it means and there is no fuzzy edges.. i wonder if all here assume that only those that follow "jesus" are to be considered "christian"?.
consider that the title "christ" was not the name of the nazarene, only a title!
I definitely BELIEVE in Christ Jesus. Am I doing everything a Christian, according to the Bible, ought to be doing? Probably not. But, are all of the examples in the Bible of true Christians and their activities what we today ought to be doing today? I don't know.
"Enjoy God's creation, ride a dirt bike!"
this has been brought up from time to time in other posts relative to other arguments but i thought it deserved its own thread.. the first century christians formed congregations.
there is no debate about this.
that these congregations were not entities unto themsleves is attested to by the travels and subsequent letters of the apostle paul.
Frenchy,
If you feel the need to gather together, the scripture does say so, so why not? I remember you saying that you feel the need to reach out to others. I think it's a good thing. Maybe find other JW's in your area who would rather meet freely away from the Hall. Or, advertise to meet for bible study(and this time w/out WT books!)
Personally, at this time I want to stay as far away from any meetings as possible. I'm using this "time out" to gather my thoughts, do a little more research, and then maybe find a laid back group of people who don't want to change the world or "wait on Jehovah", just to read scripture and discuss. My older brother, who was never a JW, is meeting on Friday nights with a group that meet at a local grange hall. So far, he has told me that he enjoys the meetings, is learning a thing or two about the bible. He hasn't told me anything so far that would raise a flag in my mind, anyway.
this has been brought up from time to time in other posts relative to other arguments but i thought it deserved its own thread.. the first century christians formed congregations.
there is no debate about this.
that these congregations were not entities unto themsleves is attested to by the travels and subsequent letters of the apostle paul.
In my area, there are many people who meet to study the bible that aren't affiliated with a denomination. In Jesus day there was no evidence of a rigid organization such as the WTS. The congregations did have their people of different abilities, though. There were older ones, teachers, and so on.
Is it possible to gather today, even on the internet for Bible discussion and have Jesus with us? I think so. I think we can study the bible together without forming hard and fast rules to govern the discussion or our beliefs.(unless our beliefs are obviously wayyy out there!) All we can do is read what the Bible says, maybe having to look at different versions or translations to get the understanding of the context. We don't need an organization such as the WT Society to govern us. Is an organization ever referred to in Jesus day? There were some isolated incidents such as circumcision, but older ones were consulted, not the WTBTS! If we keep an open mind, maybe we'll understand a lot more than we did as JW's! It's just a thought.
The Bible says not where but to whom do we go. If we study the gospel accounts in a friendly atmosphere, maybe Jesus will be with us. We could do this on a new thread or under a certain topic on this board or others.(if it's OK with Simon)
"Enjoy God's creation, ride a dirt bike!"
forget that dalai lma crap(that was bs i cant belive i wrote all that stuff) heres the down to earth version.
well, my story!.
i'm not a jw....i read from age 15 to say 21 all the watchtowers and stuff...and was pretty well versed in it...knew all the basics,thought that 1914 stuff was pretty cool, i was amazed when i first read that and alll that revelation and babaylon the great, i thought jw had a lot of answers at times but had latent questions in the back of me head.
Hey Zep,
I think you're pretty perceptive. I just sucked it all down(JW doctrine). I believed everything they said. Things I didn't or couldn't understand, well, I just thought it too deep or intellectual for me. I met some very intellegent people at the Kingdom hall, and thought; how could they be wrong? Obviously I was young and naive, never having studied religion before.
I can't emphasize enough to people this: Check it out! Get more than one side of the story! Do a little or a lot of research! Don't hand over your life and mind to a belief system that you haven't studied from all angles! The problem is, when you first start studying with the JW's, it all sounds so good(except the door to door part, that's scary!). It isn't until later that one starts finding that it's mostly hogwash! Just studying the Society's own written material(stay away from the rewritten bound volumns!) from the start will show a person that they constantly have things bas-ackwards!
"Enjoy God's creation, ride a dirt bike!"
http://www.intrex.net/tallyman/the_list.html .
this site is a riot.
heres a taste of judge rutherford!.
Zep,
Jesus was supposedly choosing the organization when a lot of crap like that was written. What a joke. How any self-respecting JW can look at anyone with a straight face and admit it is beyond me.
When you think about it, the stuff they write today is just as ludicrous. How I believed in their tripe is embarrassing to me right now.
"Enjoy God's creation, ride a dirt bike!"
now last year the society came out with an article on voting that completly confused everyone.
many jw's thought they could vote, but from what i hear the c.o.
's have been telling them nothing has changed.
Andyman,
Check out this link : http://www.jwfiles.com/vote.htm
"Enjoy God's creation, ride a dirt bike!"
what attracted me to the wt....i read too many of their magazines from 15-19 basically....it almost got me buying into their stuff, but then, just when i had just started getting into it all, i stopped and dropped it with the idea that i'd look into it later.. i remember reading the book of revelation at age 15 and wondering what it meant, all those dragons and horned beasts...then i got hold of some jw literature and there it was...it was all explained, nice and simple.all those prophecies about the end time seemed so good to a kid....i mean, i never really could understand their blood doctrine but you can over look that...after all, the truth is a powerful weapon, you can make people do anything when you have "the truth"...even murder!..
another thing attracted me to it.....they seemed not to be preaching that bad people would burn in hell for all eternity, that there was no hell, that there was going to be a resurrection of the good and bad......yeah, seems pretty good, a caring religion eh!...everyone is going to be given ample chance to learn the truth and change.
but things change, i started questioning as i got older...gave the bible study guy a hard time with all those questions, then we had an argument and i just cut it off....decided to look at it later.... but their stuff was always in the back of my mind.. well, later is now....6 months ago i wander into h20 rather casual like, couple that with the fact that i find out a friend has fallen in with jw's and i get sucked into studying up about it all.....its very interesting.its amazing how much you chance your world view from age 19 to 27......things are all different now, jw's look like nothing more than a high control totalitarian cult with some rather wacky world views and prophecies??????????
Zep,
It's amazing how we can read one side of a story and start believing to the exclusion of everything else. Unfortunately, I was gullible. But now, like you, I've commited to read many different sides of the story.
"Enjoy God's creation, ride a dirt bike!"
is electronic/virtual ( read: online ) association with df'd, da'd, marked, evil slave, non approved associates, apostates etc right or wrong?
Well said, Path. Even non- Christians can have values that are admirable. In fact, most people I know that I'd like to give a swift kick to are so-called Christians, and most of those are JW's.
"Enjoy God's creation, ride a dirt bike!"
is electronic/virtual ( read: online ) association with df'd, da'd, marked, evil slave, non approved associates, apostates etc right or wrong?
Well said, Path. Even non- Christians can have values that are admirable. In fact, most people I know that I'd like to give a swift kick to are so-called Christians, and most of those are JW's.
"Enjoy God's creation, ride a dirt bike!"
for years i heard stories that certain items in the home could be demon-possessed.
i was told to be careful of items bought at garage sales because we didn't know their origin, or who or what they were used for.. did we own a ouija board before becoming a witness?
could it be that items like these were creating misfortune?
Path,
I agree. There once was a story in the W or A, I don't remember which, but it was about a JW in Africa that was being beaten my demons that were supposedly sent by the local witch doctor. Evidently, the Witch Doctor didn't like WT doctrine. That was the last story I read about demons.
Red,
Man that's weird. I guess I believe you, but it's kind of hard for me. Like I said before, I've never personally experienced so much as esp, let alone a demon experience.
Waiting,
What a horrific experience! Yeah, I'd say your father was the main culprit in that ordeal. Man that's sick, I can't understand people who are pedaphiles or those who perpetrate incest. The WTS is right about ONE thing, this world can be a sick place.
