Posts by Watkins

93

How many here actually still believe that there is a God??

by annalice in

jw
friends

after being gone from the jw's for many years now , and having done extensive research on the history of god and the belief in him , i can't seem to find any logical way to have a belief in an invisble being up there ruling over us.

how many here still believe?

how many don't?.

Watkins

I do. Doubts do come about, mostly because of the suffering of mankind, but then I look outside. The plants, animals, the land and sea, the atmosphere, sun and moon - it all works together in such succinctness to provide this planet, like no other that we know of, with life - I must conclude that there is an intelligence behind it, whom I believe is the God of the Bible. He doesn't "rule over" all of us - only those who believe and accept His rulership. I believe His promises through His Son for those who choose Him as Ruler and love Him. In a nutshell I'm a believer. Like the Monkees song.

watkins

4

need help finding speech

by Watkins in

i'm trying to find the bethel graduation speech given by - i think - fred franz, wherein he disassembles the wt ideology of a centralized 'governing body' in the first century.

i've tried the search function, but must not be wording it right.. i hope you know what i'm looking for - i'm sure i've read it here, or maybe by a link from here.. thanks in advance for your help!

watkins.

Watkins

HUGE thanks to you Atlantis - that's the one! I was typing in the wrong search word - using 'Bethel' instead of 'Gilead'.

Again, thank you sooooooo much - you is The Man!

watkins

4

need help finding speech

by Watkins in

i'm trying to find the bethel graduation speech given by - i think - fred franz, wherein he disassembles the wt ideology of a centralized 'governing body' in the first century.

i've tried the search function, but must not be wording it right.. i hope you know what i'm looking for - i'm sure i've read it here, or maybe by a link from here.. thanks in advance for your help!

watkins.

Watkins

Hello all! I'm trying to find the Bethel graduation speech given by - I think - Fred Franz, wherein he disassembles the WT ideology of a centralized 'governing body' in the first century. I've tried the search function, but must not be wording it right.

I hope you know what I'm looking for - I'm sure I've read it here, or maybe by a link from here.

Thanks in advance for your help!

watkins

9

we dont know them..the GB...anyone ever use that?.......

by oompa in

jw
friends

i mean all these rules and structures and teachings.......come from some changing guys we dont even know......and ya...these guys change about every year...an so does what they teach......but i dont know a single one of them..........oompa.

yet........damm........i lived over forty years trying to do what they say........never even knew em.......damm i was not lucky from birth......nlfb....

Watkins

Yes, oompa - I used that one when some elders came a-visitin' once. They were talking about trusting the FDS to prepare the right food at the right time. I said how can I trust them with life-altering decisions(blood) when I don't even know them?(and it's hard to trust some people one does know!) The one elder said he'd met a couple of them and they were "real nice fellas, very spiritual". Oh, well, fine then - my life is in their hands! Not. And now I wonder what kind of spiritual...

That particular tag-team has never returned to my doorstep - maybe I planted a seed, dunno. Nice to think maybe I did.

To question their authority in your life is valid and logical - the JW's defense of them is beyond reason and definitely illogical.

Been away for a while - nice to see you again, oompa. My best to you

Watkins

39

All of this...................BY CHANCE?

by Warlock in

jw
friends

http://digg.com/d1ofqt.

warlock .

Watkins

But I think God did it somehow... I don't know how else to reconcile the diversity of life on this planet - as far as we know, only this planet. The attention to detail in every single minute thing. An intelligent design if ever I saw one.

Watkins

6

cat found on craigslist

by John Doe in

is this your cat?.

Watkins

"not really housebroken" Lol!

42

The Potter: Do You STILL Want to Worship This?

by WTWizard in

jeremiah 18 starts like this:.

1: the word which came to jeremiah from the lord, saying, .

2: arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there i will cause thee to hear my words.

Watkins

I understand what you're saying, Bob, but no, I don't believe we are predestined to be either saints or sinners. We become either believers or unbelievers, imho. But to say that we are predestined to a particular 'fate' is, well, fatalism. I believe God knows which we will choose, but He doesn't choose that which we will become. From my own experience, I got to a point when I had to choose what to believe, or whether to believe in nothing at all. Surely we all reach that point sometime in the course of our lives.

There's more to the Bible by way of addressing this issue than Paul's letter to the Romans; and it all happens to be a "biblical view":

Deuteronomy 30:19
This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live
James 4:4
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
1 Peter 4:3
For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
John 7:17
If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.

Looks very much like a personal, individual choice to me. I've heard the "God doesn't have to make sense'' argument before - to me, the argument itself doesn't make sense! Don't make me list all the Bible verses that spell out how much God wants us to dig for and gain understanding of Him and His ways - but I will if it helps.

Watkins

42

The Potter: Do You STILL Want to Worship This?

by WTWizard in

jeremiah 18 starts like this:.

1: the word which came to jeremiah from the lord, saying, .

2: arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there i will cause thee to hear my words.

Watkins

Respectfully, Wiz, I think that scripture is being misapplied. It was spoken to pre-Christian era Israel. I think, could be wrong, but seems to me God is telling the nation of Israel that they can be replaced. The imperfection is the 'vessel' was their tendency to worship other gods. He threatened them a lot to straighten up or else. That's the way I read it - but I'm no scholar.

Christianity in general and the WT in particular wants to take every last word in the Bible and apply it to themselves - well, all the good stuff anyway - even though sometimes the words address only Israel in particular circumstances and at only particular times in their history. It's like taking Napolean's speeches to his troops and trying to make them fit with my modern life - it don't fit. I don't think this is saying anything like God makes the vessel for only one life destiny - I believe we have freewill to choose.

Choose to worship God - or don't. It's only up to each one of us to choose.

Watkins

11

Any fans of 'The Mentalist' or 'Lie to Me'?

by AK - Jeff in

besides ncis, these two are about all the tv i watch.

well, except for pga and nfl events.. jeff.

Watkins

Life on Mars is my very favorite too - what a great premise and characters. Is it cancelled? I've missed it many times when the network switched time-slots. When you don't know when to find it on it's hard to watch it! I blame them for it's demise if it's demise is true... what a shame if it's cancelled.

I like all the CSI shows, tho' NCSI probably has my favorite characters.

My hubby would watch TV from sunup to sundown no matter what was on, but I'm pickier, lol.

I ws looking forward to 'Lie to Me', but haven't seen it so far - something must be on another network that we watch. But I love 'The Mentalist' on CBS - his sense of humor gets me. :)

33

How could any of us here ever actually believe it again????

by oompa in

jw
friends

i have two df'd friends...one gay....and they are both going back to meetings to be reinstated.

one has a serious drinking problem and he feels the jw life with friends and family again will help him with the drinking (i would drink even more!

)....he has some doubts, but believes a lot of it.. the gay friend you would think is full of holy spirit!....i thought from prior discussions she thought it was all bs....but nope, he has just always felt he was an evil sinner and wants a better relationship with god and to be with family....proven it to their self that it is full of lies?

Watkins

And wouldn't it matter a lot if one had been raised in it - never knowing anything else and being leary of all 'Christendom'... It would be much harder for them to separate the only religion they ever knew from real truth. Just a thought.

I'm glad I wasn't raised in it. At least I had family support - those who never wanted me to be a JW in the first place. It must be tremendously hard for those with family 'in' to truly break free from the WT propaganda and mind set.

Watkins