Posts by Bourne

since within the jw community, it is so fragmented so as to keep any one person from having the complete operating picture, what keeps the partakers number around the 8000 mark?

could they not just as easily continue to reduce the number in a moderate way so as to keep the pressure on?

This thought just occured to me. Since within the JW community, it is so fragmented so as to keep any one person from having the complete operating picture, what keeps the partakers number around the 8000 mark?

Could they not just as easily continue to reduce the number in a moderate way so as to keep the pressure on? After all, the annointed, in general, do not have any influence on doctrinal changes or procedure. Who would ever know?

Just a thought.

Bourne

31

If you STILL believe in GOD, what do you believe is the RIGHT way?

by Bourne in

jw
friends

i should preface this by saying that this is generally directed towards the premise of still believing in the christian god, the bible as the inspired word of god, and the desire to worship him in spite of the disillusionment of the jw "take" on "true" christianity.. i am left with many unanswered questions, but don't get me wrong, i don't have "having all answers" listed as a prerequisite to worship god, because even the bible doesnt list all answers, ......faith is expected in at least some areas.

so........that said....... please grace little ol' me with your sincere answers to the following questions:.

1. is this the last days?.

Bourne

When I said "a step further" , I meant in the sense of including the JW religion....all organized religion together......or in other words.......throwing the JW religion in WITH Babylon the Great.....leaving just the individual....if people want to congregate? Fine. Just NO authority over your fellow-man.

Bourne

31

If you STILL believe in GOD, what do you believe is the RIGHT way?

by Bourne in

jw
friends

i should preface this by saying that this is generally directed towards the premise of still believing in the christian god, the bible as the inspired word of god, and the desire to worship him in spite of the disillusionment of the jw "take" on "true" christianity.. i am left with many unanswered questions, but don't get me wrong, i don't have "having all answers" listed as a prerequisite to worship god, because even the bible doesnt list all answers, ......faith is expected in at least some areas.

so........that said....... please grace little ol' me with your sincere answers to the following questions:.

1. is this the last days?.

Bourne

To everyone: Thanks for all the interesting viewpoints.

If I may request though, please indulge me with more comments closer to what I am currently exploring.

In this, I would like to explain myself (and think out-loud) a bit further.

I have always had a critical and scientific approach to things. Sometimes with good results....sometimes with bad results. And in doing so in regards to religion I have started with the beginning.......(Is there a God?........If so, then) ....that kind of thing. What I have come down to is my present view, that of seeing a clear need to please God. That said, ...just for the sake of argument,....if you believe that the Bible IS from god, then it would follow that you would proceed from the most accurate translations, and from these proceed under your ownconscience in following God's Word. Because, IF you assume that he wanted us to please him, he would have to make sure that a "reasonable" picture of his original thoughts survived from the first century down to our day. That said, for him to hold against us making mistakes due to differences in translations, after doing the best we can, would be flat-out WRONG.....even for him.

So..then it would follow that logically, the answer must be that, as someone posted earlier ( I can't remember who): Organized religion ,is, at best,nothing more than a guide to help us, but one that "should not" have any divinely-authorized authority or corrective capacity.....just a meek guide.

Now, admittedly, christianity is NOT the only religion on earth, so it must follow that until some kind of supernatural ultimatum is given (in the form of a booming voice or universal revelation, of sorts, to all, so as to prompt a choice to worship him or not, ......UNTIL THEN, it would be wrong of him to hold our uncertainty against us individually, especially when you consider that Jesus himself warned us of false prophets, false angels of light, etc.

It seems that it would be cruel to knowingly submit us all to vast uncertainty and then punish us with death for not being sure about which way to go.

But, to go a step further, it could be argued that organized religion in ALL its forms IS the object referred to in the book of REV as...Babylon the Great and is what the Apostle Paul had in mind when he stated that after he was gone that the APOSTOCY would arise....leaving what I stated above.....All of us, individually, using the bible and the holy spirit, which Jesus said would be our "helper", to train our conscience in doing his will, as we await the end.

That is....if you agree with the title of this thread.

Just some food for thought.

Bourne

31

If you STILL believe in GOD, what do you believe is the RIGHT way?

by Bourne in

jw
friends

i should preface this by saying that this is generally directed towards the premise of still believing in the christian god, the bible as the inspired word of god, and the desire to worship him in spite of the disillusionment of the jw "take" on "true" christianity.. i am left with many unanswered questions, but don't get me wrong, i don't have "having all answers" listed as a prerequisite to worship god, because even the bible doesnt list all answers, ......faith is expected in at least some areas.

so........that said....... please grace little ol' me with your sincere answers to the following questions:.

1. is this the last days?.

Bourne

Thank you all for your thoughts. However, allow me to clarify a few points.....

First of all, yes, V , in all honesty, I guess you could say that I'm still thinking "inside" the box, as it were. Thus, the confinement of my question to a specific segment of this forum. That said, I still welcome any and all opinions from athiests, agnostics, etc.

As you can tell, my basic struggle seems to be with the fact that I still find the "solo worship" thing to be a very foreign concept. This, I think, is quite understandable, as any of us who were raised from infancy into this particular faith can attest to. It's just deeply ingrained into me to reach out and desire a concrete, physical method of worship in addition to prayer and meditation on the Bible.

Secondly, I should say that I also realize that JW's were not the first to revive the use of a personal name of god, just in the "modern" sense. Yet, I am also aware of the argument that there are NO occurences of this name in any manuscripts of the greek scriptures. That is something I'm still mulling over. But, this, I suppose, is a fairly minor problem.

Thirdly, to others suggesting that I "deconstruct" my beliefs and start from scratch......I have and am still in the process of doing that, both from scratch and from the angle of keeping the christian faith and proceeding from that point onwards.

31

If you STILL believe in GOD, what do you believe is the RIGHT way?

by Bourne in

jw
friends

i should preface this by saying that this is generally directed towards the premise of still believing in the christian god, the bible as the inspired word of god, and the desire to worship him in spite of the disillusionment of the jw "take" on "true" christianity.. i am left with many unanswered questions, but don't get me wrong, i don't have "having all answers" listed as a prerequisite to worship god, because even the bible doesnt list all answers, ......faith is expected in at least some areas.

so........that said....... please grace little ol' me with your sincere answers to the following questions:.

1. is this the last days?.

Bourne

I should preface this by saying that this is generally directed towards the premise of STILL believing in the christian god, the bible as the inspired word of god, and the desire to worship him in spite of the disillusionment of the JW "take" on "true" christianity.

I am left with many unanswered questions, but don't get me wrong, I don't have "having all answers" listed as a prerequisite to worship god, because even the bible doesnt list all answers, ......faith is expected in at least some areas. SO........that said......

Please grace little ol' me with your sincere answers to the following questions:

SUCH AS:

1. Is this the last days?

2. If so, was a preaching work to be done? If so, in what format?

3. If you conclude that "organized" religion is not needed or sanctioned by god, what do you believe was to be the desired method of worship?

4. Given the fact of the Tetregrammaton's obvious existence, do you believe that the usage (regardless of the uncertainty of pronounciation) of god's personal name is desired of god? And, please, try to rule out a "no" JUST because of the fact that the JW religion generally started the revival of this usage.

5. Did god and jesus basically expect us to congregate in "loosely" knit congregations ( as described in the book of Rev.) for support and fellowship only, as we await the end?

6. If this is the case, then.....generally speaking, does this not mean that "all (christian) roads lead to the same place"......that old saying, which the JW's like to poo-poo, so as to endorse the concept of one true religion?

I have read CoC and IsoCF by Raymond Franz and understand that he generally does NOT belong to any organized religion. But, I obviously don't want to "follow" yet another man's interpretation of god's word. Thus the humble request for your sincere opinions.

I have other questions but these are the biggies.

I really welcome any and all input.

Bourne

9

Bourne is Back!..........Who..?

by Bourne in

jw
friends

i am a tip-toeing lurker who finally got the nerve to join & post here about 3 months ago.

to review: i'm in a "scripturally" ( at least by jw standards, anyways) separation, hence the apprehension about posting or revealing too much.

but, i'm realizing that i'm being a bit too paranoid.

Bourne

proplog2: I'm am sorry to say that "bourne" in not my real name......and unfortunately, I'm not a CIA secret agent....sigh......the things I could do....+ ....

Bourne