Posts by EverAStudent

63

Armagedden Suitcase

by Magwitch in

my mother let it slip the other day that all the families in their hall are putting together a small suitcase.

inside this suitcase are to be things that you will take with you if given a 5 minute warning that the great tribulation is starting and you need to leave your home.

my father seemed quite embarrassed that this slipped.

Yes, the Mormons do have a doomsday scenario. They believe that a great apostacy is coming and a war between gentiles (that's all of us) and the believers (that's the Mormons) will erupt worldwide. So they quietly stockpile provisions, including guns and ammo since they are not pacifists.

By way of contrast, most evangelical Christians (Trinitarians) believe they will be taken off the planet (raptured, first resurrection, swept up, whatever you wish to call it) before the Great Tribulation begins, so they neither prepare for it or worry much about it.

63

Armagedden Suitcase

by Magwitch in

my mother let it slip the other day that all the families in their hall are putting together a small suitcase.

inside this suitcase are to be things that you will take with you if given a 5 minute warning that the great tribulation is starting and you need to leave your home.

my father seemed quite embarrassed that this slipped.

EverAStudent

With all due respect, the Mormons are so much further ahead in this matter. Every Mormon home has a survival shelter in the basement stocked with one year of food and water and plenty of ammo. In Utah there are caves that house the genealogical records of the planet that are said to be able to survive the coming nuclear holocaust (they never want to forget!). And all you got is a suitcase?

36

What do most ex-JWs "believe" after leaving?

by EverAStudent in

has anyone done a survey to determine what faith system, religion, or set of religious beliefs ex-jws tend to settle into after leaving the organization?

if not, would you care to post what you presently consider to be your own personal religion (e.g.

protestant, catholic, baptist, jw but not in the organization, agnostic, atheist, ...) and especially what you presently believe about jesus (was he a real historical human, is he god, is he an angel, ...).. thank you!.

EverAStudent

Has anyone done a survey to determine what faith system, religion, or set of religious beliefs ex-JWs tend to settle into after leaving the organization? If not, would you care to post what you presently consider to be your own personal religion (e.g. Protestant, Catholic, Baptist, JW but not in the organization, agnostic, atheist, ...) and especially what you presently believe about Jesus (was He a real historical human, is He God, is He an angel, ...).

Thank you!

37

How do you explain...

by AwSnap in

1 samuel 19:9?

i thought god didn't commit evil...and this also appears to be predestination, no?

that was the new world translation.. the new international bible says:.

EverAStudent

Words have a large range of meaning. Evil, which in this passage is "raraah" in the Hebrew, does NOT have one simple meaning. It can mean unhappy, tormented, distressed, grieved, sinful, bad, sorrow, displeasing, etc.

In this passage, it would probably be best to apply the meaning "distressing," as in God sent to Saul a distressing spirit to grieve and torment him.

21

Luke 9:27. How does The Watchtower explain it?

by VM44 in

luke 9:27 says:.

"...but i tell you truthfully, there are some of those standing here that will not taste death at all until first they see the kingdom of god.".

how does the watchtower explain this?.

EverAStudent

It is a common misunderstanding to assume that the phrase "kingdom of God" always and only means the future heaven/paradise. Jesus often used the phrase to mean "everythinig that God rules over, starting right now."

"But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you."

(Matthew 12:28) Notice that the kingdom had already come upon them. In Matthew 21:43 He told the Jews they presently were in the kingdom of God,, though they would soon lose that. Mark 1:15 states the kingdom was then just beginning. Mark 10:15 states that we who are alive must receive the kingdom with the faith of little children, right now, or we cannot enter it later.

When Jesus said that those standing there would see the beginning of the kingdom, He may well have meant that they would see Him crucified, resurrected, and His gospel go into all the world--literally the beginning of the His kingdom rule. In other words, the kingdom started with Christ, continues on now, and will be fully realized in glory when eternity begins.

30

I went to the meeting today

by doublelife in

so my husband dragged me to the meeting this morning.

i brought my new bible that i bought instead of the nwt and he didn't say anything about it.

in the public talk, the speaker opened to matt.

EverAStudent

I am sorry for jumping in, but thought I would attempt to answer the original question: what do non-JW Christians believe about the second coming of Jesus?

There is not a consistant answer across all Christianity, but a popular view is:

sometime in the future believers in Christ will be taken off the planet to meet Christ in the air, this is alternately called the First Resurrection or the Rapture
the Great Tribulation will begin after that and run for 7 years
after the Great Tribulation Jesus will return visibly and bodily to the Earth and bring all those who were in the First Resurrection so that they can be His administrative staff
Jesus will rule for 1000 years and finish all the promises of land and blessings that have ever been made to the nation of Israel over the years--much of the curse will be suspended and people will live long lives, it is said that those who only live to be 100 years old are the unlucky ones during this time (Isaiah 65:20)
After the 1000 years the second resurrection of the unbelievers will be completed so they may be judged, the universe (and planet Earth) will be consumed in fire, the unbelievers will be put into Hell along with death, and Christ will create a new universe and a new Earth that houses New Jerusalem, and all believers will live with the Father and the Lamb there for eternity.

Salvation, living with Christ and the Father on new Earth for eternity, depends only on whether one has believed on Jesus as Savior, not on the works they have done.

9

Celebrated my first Halloween

by LoriJis in

as you know i recently started my fade while my husband has been doing it for years.

well last weekend i decided we should celebrate halloween and bought tickets to this halloween cruise.

we dressed up and went.

EverAStudent

Read Colossians chapter 2. You are "allowed" to celebrate or not celebrate any holiday you want and not be outside God's will. Give the celebration and the thanks to God and enjoy.

Also, laugh a little--read this: http://thefaithfulword.org/cookturkey.html

77

How do you know the Bible is from God?

by cognac in

jw
friends

i really want to believe it, but, sometimes it is very difficult to figure out how it can be from god.

i mean, in the old testament, he seems horrible in some instances.

the adam and eve thing doesn't make to much sense to me.

EverAStudent

garyneal wrote: "In the end, though, it would still make more sense for me to believe rather than not believe. I guess, in the end, I find myself quoting another poster who said this, 'It is better for me to have questions I cannot answer, rather than answers I cannot question.'"

That's a pretty good philosophy with regard to this matter. There are passages of the Bible I still cannot figure out and one that nags at me because it has the appearance of a prophecy that failed. Yet, I am constantly reminded that just because I cannot understand something does not mean it is wrong, it just means I cannot understand it. If every mysterious thing was immediately assumed to be error, then study, exploration, and inquiry would be squashed.

Over all, I look at the evidences of the majority of prophecies in Scripture (e.g. Isaiah and Daniel) and am utterly convinced that God has revealed Himself and the future to certain persons. It is kind of funny. The world says, "Show me just one valid supernatural event and I will gladly believe in spirits, demons, and magic, however, for me to believe in the God of the Bible you must first prove to me that every comment and event in the Bible is true." When it comes to belief in the true God the world changes their standard of evidence and proof.

77

How do you know the Bible is from God?

by cognac in

jw
friends

i really want to believe it, but, sometimes it is very difficult to figure out how it can be from god.

i mean, in the old testament, he seems horrible in some instances.

the adam and eve thing doesn't make to much sense to me.

EverAStudent

Hi Bohm, I get it. What would be a convincing scientific find that would demonstrate that evolution was more likely the mechanism God used to create life than not? For you to believe in creation, you said it would take, "our DNA is NOT full of junk sequence" or some things like that. Would you be interested in seeing photographs of dinosaur footprints chasing and overlapping human footprints?

Honestly, I don't know. I know I have not yet seen it. Many times the evidences I have been exposed to that are pro-evolution keep getting shelved because of more current "findings." For example, I was once taught that the calcium deposits that comprise stalacmites and stalagmites could only precipitate at a given rate, thus showing certain caves were billions of years old in their ongoing formation. Yet, it turned out that calcium precipitate leeches at a locally variable rate depending on ever-changing ground moisture content. Heavy ground water flows resulted in greatly increased formation growths.

It is interesting that what scientists used to call "junk DNA sequences" and "vestigial organs" are frequently being more deeply investigated all the time and one-by-one being shown to have present value and use, not really vestigial or junk at all. These are all evidences and not proofs. Worse, scientific evidences have an annoying habit of being overtaken and replaced by new findings that force drastic revisions of old theories.

77

How do you know the Bible is from God?

by cognac in

jw
friends

i really want to believe it, but, sometimes it is very difficult to figure out how it can be from god.

i mean, in the old testament, he seems horrible in some instances.

the adam and eve thing doesn't make to much sense to me.

EverAStudent

Bohm wrote, "EAS: I dont want to bury you and I, to, would really like to know your view on leavingwt's question, since in this whole flood debate it can sometimes be hard to actually find out what both sides theories are. But i do have something else that is more personal in nature and i really think is the first question that need to be asked: if we ASSUME that the bible said nothing about ark, and it said nothing about evolution/creation. ie. we take away ALL the biblical evidence and consider ONLY the secular. would you then believe the ark to be true? evolution?"

First, thanks for not wanting to bury me :)

There are no "official" creationist views on much of anything, since, unlike the Watchtower Society, creationists are largely independent in theology, science, and study, that is, there is no oversight board to keep us standardized. Many creationists will tell you that all species share similarities because they share a common planet. God said He made the planet to be inhabited. The differences are God's design. The design is programmed for flexibiliity and not stagnation. The DNA code has built into a vast amount of pre-programmed variations and pre-planned adaptations. For example, take a sighted fish school and trap it in an underground stream and without light it adapts to its environment, effectively becoming blind because there is no longer light to interact with. Modern scientists will call that a form of micro-evolution. Creationists see it as flexible DNA coding to allow for adapting to the ever-changing environment.

You asked that if the Bible did not speak of creation, the ark, or the flood, would I believe in them or in the dominant secular view? How could I believe in something I did not know about? For example, a couple of men who were ex-patriots from Jerusalem had only ever heard John the Baptist preach but had never heard of Jesus. They were later asked whether they had been sealed with the Holy Spirit. They replied, "We did not even know there was a Holy Spirit." They wanted to believe in the Holy Spirit and in Jesus, but they had not yet been taught.

Bohm also wrote, "By the way - thanks for being here! It is allways interesting to have a JW point of view to stir things up once in a while." Sorry to disappoint. I am a born again Christian, not a JW. I am on this forum because I had been meeting regularly with JWs in Bible studies for well more than a year. I wanted to know more about what they and ex-JWs thought and believed. Again, sorry to disappoint.