expatbrit

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Posts by expatbrit

• 
  173

  PEDOPHILES are to WTS as flies are to honey?

  by Focus in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  w73 11/15 703-4 questions from readers ***.

  do paul's words at 1 corinthians 6:1-7 mean that under no circumstances should a christian take to court a case involving a fellow believer?

  -u.s.a. here paul was showing the corinthian christians the inconsistency of taking disputes between christians before secular tribunals.

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  expatbrit

  Hi Friend:

  One question for you:

  Are you referring to the WT's formal written policy, or to the WT's informal unwritten policy?

  Just curious.

  Expatbrit.
• 
  5

  DO THE GB HAVE A CONSCIENCE?

  by anglise in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as you read of all the "flip-flops" and the cover ups and even blatent lies that the gb has published throughout the years doesnt it make you wonder how they can do it.. if they really believe there is an all powerful being whom they represent how can they actively be so misleading and dishonest in full knowledge that he sees and knows what they are doing.. "9 for, as regards jehovah, his eyes are roving about through all the earth to show his strength in behalf of those whose heart is complete toward him.

  you have acted foolishly respecting this, for from now on there will exist wars against you.

  " 2 chron 16v9.

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  expatbrit

  Anglise:

  I've wondered about that myself.

  I think they've been immersed in the WT so long, spending their entire lives following, and then making, it's doctrines, that they actually believe what they say. They think that this is how God actually works. Once they delude themselves in this fashion, any flip-flops or lies become justifiable.

  It's the same mentality shown by the average JW when they explain shunning to be an act of love, and they believe it to be so.

  Given that level of delusion, conscience isn't really a factor.

  But the motivating force behind the delusion is indeed, the love of power over others.

  It's a testimony to the capicity of the human mind to avoid reality.

  Expatbrit.
• 
  71

  God's will or free will?

  by thinker in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i've heard many people tell me about bible prophesy.

  if the bible can predict future events then it stands to reason that those events are predetermined and man has no choices in this world.

  think about all the choices you've made in your life and how different life for you would be if you had done things differently.

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  expatbrit

  Thinker:

  I'm not sure if this is really connected to your question, but you may find the following article of interest, regarding Pelagius.

  Let me know what you think.

  Expatbrit.

  Augustine and Pelagius
  By R.C. Sproul

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  "It is Augustine who gave us the Reformation." So wrote B. B. Warfield in his assessment of the influence of Augustine on church history. It is not only that Luther was an Augustinian monk, or that Calvin quoted Augustine more than any other theologian that provoked Warfield's remark. Rather, it was that the Reformation witnessed the ultimate triumph of Augustine's doctrine of grace over the legacy of the Pelagian view of man.
  Humanism, in all its subtle forms, recapitulates the unvarnished Pelagianism against which Augustine struggled. Though Pelagius was condemned as a heretic by Rome, and its modified form, Semi-Pelagianism was likewise condemned by the Council of Orange in 529, the basic assumptions of this view persisted throughout church history to reappear in Medieval Catholicism, Renaissance Humanism, Socinianism, Arminianism, and modern Liberalism. The seminal thought of Pelagius survives today not as a trace or tangential influence but is pervasive in the modern church. Indeed, the modern church is held captive by it.

  What was the core issue between Augustine and Pelagius? The heart of the debate centered on the doctrine of original sin, particularly with respect to the question of the extent to which the will of fallen man is "free." Adolph Harnack said:

  "There has never, perhaps, been another crisis of equal importance in church history in which the opponents have expressed the principles at issue so clearly and abstractly. The Arian dispute before the Nicene Council can alone be compared with it." (History of Agmer V/IV/3)

  The controversy began when the British monk, Pelagius, opposed at Rome Augustine's famous prayer: "Grant what Thou commandest, and command what Thou dost desire." Pelagius recoiled in horror at the idea that a divine gift (grace) is necessary to perform what God commands. For Pelagius and his followers responsibility always implies ability. If man has the moral responsibility to obey the law of God, he must also have the moral ability to do it.

  Harnack summarizes Pelagian thought:

  "Nature, free-will, virtue and law, these strictly defined and made independent of the notion of God - were the catch-words of Pelagianism: self-acquired virtue is the supreme good which is followed by reward. Religion and morality lie in the sphere of the free spirit; they are at any moment by man's own effort."

  The difference between Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism is more a difference of degree than of kind. To be sure, on the surface there seems like there is a huge difference between the two, particularly with respect to original sin and to the sinner's dependence upon grace. Pelagius categorically denied the doctrine of original sin, arguing that Adam's sin affected Adam alone and that infants at birth are in the same state as Adam was before the Fall. Pelagius also argued that though grace may facilitate the achieving of righteousness, it is not necessary to that end. Also, he insisted that the constituent nature of humanity is not convertible; it is indestructively good.

  Over against Pelagius, Semi-Pelagianism does have a doctrine of original sin whereby mankind is considered fallen. Consequently grace not only facilitates virtue, it is necessary for virtue to ensue. Man's nature can be changed and has been changed by the Fall.

  However, in Semi-Pelagianism there remains a moral ability within man that is unaffected by the Fall. We call this an "island of righteousness" by which the fallen sinner still has the inherent ability to incline or move himself to cooperate with God's grace. Grace is necessary but not necessarily effective. Its effect always depends upon the sinner's cooperation with it by virtue of the exercise of the will.

  It is not by accident that Martin Luther considered "The Bondage of the Will" to be his most important book. He saw in Erasmus a man who, despite his protests to the contrary, was a Pelagian in Catholic clothing. Luther saw that lurking beneath the controversy of merit and grace, and faith and works was the issue of to what degree the human will is enslaved by sin and to what degree we are dependent upon grace for our liberation. Luther argued from the Bible that the flesh profits nothing and that this "nothing" is not a little "something."

  Augustine's view of the Fall was opposed to both Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism. He said that mankind is a massa peccati, a "mess of sin," incapable of raising itself from spiritual death. For Augustine man can no more move or incline himself to God than an empty glass can fill itself. For Augustine the initial work of divine grace by which the soul is liberated from the bondage of sin is sovereign and operative. To be sure we cooperate with this grace, but only after the initial divine work of liberation.

  Augustine did not deny that fallen man still has a will and that the will is capable of making choices. He argued that fallen man still has a free will (liberium arbitrium) but has lost his moral liberty (libertas). The state of original sin leaves us in the wretched condition of being unable to refrain from sinning. We still are able to choose what we desire, but our desires remain chained by our evil impulses. He argued that the freedom that remains in the will always leads to sin. Thus in the flesh we are free only to sin, a hollow freedom indeed. It is freedom without liberty, a real moral bondage. True liberty can only come from without, from the work of God on the soul. Therefore we are not only partly dependent upon grace for our conversion but totally dependent upon grace.

  Modern Evangelicalism sprung from the Reformation whose roots were planted by Augustine. But today the Reformational and Augustinian view of grace is all but eclipsed in Evangelicalism. Where Luther triumphed in the sixteenth century, subsequent generations gave the nod to Erasmus.

  Modern evangelicals repudiate unvarnished Pelagianism and frequently Semi-Pelagianism as well. It is insisted that grace is necessary for salvation and that man is fallen. The will is acknowledged to be severely weakened even to the point of being "99 percent" dependent upon grace for its liberation. But that one percent of unaffected moral ability or spiritual power which becomes the decisive difference between salvation and perdition is the link that preserves the chain to Pelagius. We have not broken free from the Pelagian captivity of the church.

  That one percent is the "little something" Luther sought to demolish because it removes the sola from sola gratia and ultimately the sola from sola fide. The irony may be that though modern Evangelicalism loudly and repeatedly denounces Humanism as the mortal enemy of Christianity, it entertains a Humanistic view of man and of the will at its deepest core.

  We need an Augustine or a Luther to speak to us anew lest the light of God's grace be not only over-shadowed but be obliterated in our time.

  __________________________________________

  R.C. Sproul is now the distinguished visiting professor of systematic theology and apologetics at Knox Theological Seminary.
• 
  16

  Cads!!

  by expatbrit in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it would appear that certain dastardly husbands have been making witticisms at the expense of their dear wives.. don't look innocent, we all know who you are....... expatbrit.. husband quotes:.

  i just didn't know her first name was always.. i haven't spoken to my wife for 18 months.

  i don't like to interrupt her.. marriage is a 3-ring circus: engagement ring, wedding ring, and.

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  expatbrit

  It would appear that certain dastardly husbands have been making witticisms at the expense of their dear wives.

  Don't look innocent, we all know who you are......

  Expatbrit.

  Husband Quotes:

  I married Miss Right. I just didn't know her first name was Always.

  I haven't spoken to my wife for 18 months. I don't like to interrupt her.

  Marriage is a 3-ring circus: Engagement ring, wedding ring, and
  suffering.

  The last fight was my fault. My wife asked, "What's on the TV?" I
  said, "Dust!"

  In the beginning, God created earth and rested. Then God created man
  And rested. Then God created woman. Since then, neither God nor man has
  rested.

  Why do men die before their wives? They want to.

  Young Son: Is it true, Dad, I heard that in some parts of Africa a man
  doesn't know his wife until he marries her?
  Dad: That happens in every country, son.

  A man inserted an 'ad' in the classified: "Wife Wanted". Next day he
  received a hundred letters. They all said the same thing: "You can have
  mine."

  The most effective way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it
  once.

  First guy (proudly): "My wife's an angel!" Second guy: "You're lucky,
  mine's still alive."

  How do most men define marriage? An expensive way to get laundry done for
  free.

  Just think, if it weren't for marriage, men would go through life Thinking
  they had no faults at all.

  If you want your wife to listen and pay undivided attention to every word
  you say, talk in your sleep.

  Then there was a man who said, "I never knew what real happiness was
  Until I got married; and then it was too late."

  A little boy asked his father, "Daddy, how much does it cost to get
  married?" And the father replied, "I don't know son, I'm still paying!"
• 
  5

  House of Commons: JW`s Fraudulent.

  by Englishman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this article appeared in todays "the times": .

  friday march 02 2001 .

  gummer attacks jehovah's witnesses .

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  expatbrit

  Good old gummy!

  Expatbrit
• 
  28

  GOOD cult control techniques

  by philo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  with logical's post in mind, i want to start a thread about something positive.

  the wt are positively good at controlling their followers.. which is your favourite wt control technique, and why??????????.

  the best contibution wins six million devoted worshippers and a 40 year conditional canonisation in the pages of the wt.. the one i like is so good because it works from 'on high' as well as among the orphans and widows at the congregation.

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  expatbrit

  Philo:

  It was pure vomitatious parody, old chap. Just put the brain into the old groove, and let the tongue flap (or the fingers tap).

  Expatbrit.
• 
  9

  Theocratic sex please.

  by philo in

  1. social
  2. relationships

  this forum is great for my needs because i specifically need more sex.. i realise this might seem a little forward.

  but other forums have strict rules about what is allowed and what is not allowed.

  so here in a 'sex' forum surely anything goes!

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  expatbrit

  Another one from Woody Allen:

  "Is sex dirty? Only if it's done right."

  Expatbrit.
• 
  9

  Is this guy for real?

  by expatbrit in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was browsing on the web under the yahoo categories for jw's.

  one the sites is at the following address:.

  a concerned sister.

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  expatbrit

  P.p.s. had me going for a bit there, though.

  Expatbrit.
• 
  9

  Is this guy for real?

  by expatbrit in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was browsing on the web under the yahoo categories for jw's.

  one the sites is at the following address:.

  a concerned sister.

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  expatbrit

  P.s. I think he's a rather witty apostate, actually.

  Expatbrit.
• 
  20

  Question #3 "What will you say?"

  by ozziepost in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  all irregular and inactive publishers will be pleased with the heartwarming news that april will see a special campaign by the elders to encourage you.

  yes, don't faint, it must be true because the april kingdom ministry says so.

  in fact, so strong is the forecasted encouragement, that it states on paragraph 25 of the insert article:.

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  expatbrit

  RR:

  Never been anyone else. Just had to hide it all these years.

  Expatbrit.