hey,.
i'm hoping some on here, maybe realizing that what the bible really teaches, no church or religion has it.
your learning and working hard to uncover it's true message.
not a captive said "I had a revelation some years ago that I didn't understand fully.
Any truth that is not accessable to a poverty-stricken, illiterate woman with too many children to care for is no truth worth the knowing. If she has to rely on someone with the mind and resources to know better than she does and tell her so , then it is not the truth."
Well said, couldn't agree more...
okay here is my thread to discuss this.
i believe the bible is inspired by god and reliable.
many argue it's neither.
Seems to me that "unbelievers" are saying the same thing that atheists have been saying forever; "Show me the evidence that God exists"!!! Nothing new... Giving undeniable absolute proof that God exists is what the atheist wants wether it's the Christian God, Muslim God or whatever. It just isn't possible to satisfy that demand, so as long as that's the case, there is nothing more to say.
okay here is my thread to discuss this.
i believe the bible is inspired by god and reliable.
many argue it's neither.
Very interesting thread. I think that an atheist and a believer in God both believe what they want to believe.
sorry about the mishap on my previous post.
anyway i've been a member on this board for quite a while but mostly just lerking.
i've given just a tease about what my deal is on a previous post but this will be a little more in depth.
not a captive - I thank you for your coments and sincerity in which you've expressed yourself about how important a personal relationship is with God. I quite agree, but I also find it a little condescending in assuming that it isn't possible for Cathlolics to have a "personal relationship" with God because they submit also to the Authority of the Church. As far as leaders being an obstacle in that relationship with God, I should tell you that I have struggled trendously with the issue of "Sola Scriptura" as being tenable in light of the fact that it the the "Leaders of the Church" which discerned what books/letters would be included in the New Testament Canon. The very book which the Christian world regards as the "Written Word of God". The selection and preservation of those books/letters was not left in the hands of every Christian seeking a personal relationship with God, but rather with the leadership of the Church. This fact is irrefutable. So, as I continue my own discernment as to what kind Authority God has empowered to lead the faithful, I want you to know that I do appreciate your comments none the less...
sorry about the mishap on my previous post.
anyway i've been a member on this board for quite a while but mostly just lerking.
i've given just a tease about what my deal is on a previous post but this will be a little more in depth.
ziddina - Thank you for your suggestions. My son is attending a very good community college in our area that I am paying tuititon for, not too expensive, and it is tough budgeting that in, but I made a very conscious decision to encourage him to be some what ambitious and to get educated. However, his JW uncle was in computer aided drafting and because he seems to be a teenager himself trapped in a 35 year old body who has always tried to influence my son, my son was taking drafting classes. However, he wants to drop that class now because he says it's just not what he wants to do. He isn't working now either because the economy is pretty bad here too and there just isn't enough work. I've told him not to stress himself out with that right now because it's education I want him to focus on right now and I help pretty much give him a little cash now and then to go to movies with friends and stuff like that, not much, just enough. All of your suggestion I pretty much am already doing. I've had many conversations with him about the realities of life and what it takes to not only provide for yourself, but also for a family that he wants to have some day. I'm an insurance agent in California and I make a decent income but he sees that even with that, we are by no means well off, just doing ok. He has no clue about the Anti-education stance the Watchtower teaches. Even my wife has said, in so many words, that he better keep it up and continue his ed, but I don't know if she just says that because she knows that's what I want, even though the Watchtower teaches otherwise. To be perfectly honest, I've studied the teachings of the Society so hard the last couple of years, that in my gut I truely believe I know more about the doctrines and their history than she does.
man, i did it again in messing up my post.
anyway, after reading many exjw responses to questions from posters, i see there is a wide variety of opinions on faith and religion in general such as still believing that there is a god to no belief in god at all.
for those of you who still believe that there is a god, i'd like to know whether or not you still believe in the doctrines of the watchtower, but you just don't believe that it is gods "only true religion"?.
Terry - I think I got it but not sure... Are you saying that a true believer doesn't follow a set of doctrine, rules or belief systems developed by "men" that are recognizable and then categorized to fit a mold of what most people would assume are believers? Or is is something else? Hmmm
jehovah's witnesses don't expect to convert the world.
they expect to educate the world about jehovah's kingdom and his christ.. before: nobody knows about it.. after: everybody knows about it.. how would you measure what people "know"?.
how well informed is the average citizen in 2010 vs 1879, for example?.
My observations of Jehovah Witnesses are that they are a group of people who have been decieved by the decieved (I beleive that Ray Franz says that they are victims of victims), Organized by a group of decieved men determined to maintain a self proclaimed Authority over them and who have developed and refined a "turn key" system of tearing down the "faith of the theologically uneducated with half truths and deception, thereby converting and indoctrinating the truth seeker by manipulating and embelishing upon their psyche a dillusional parallel world of their own creation that includes a perception that this created world is the world of the 1st Century Christians which holds the truth seeker hostage through fear and guilt.
man, i did it again in messing up my post.
anyway, after reading many exjw responses to questions from posters, i see there is a wide variety of opinions on faith and religion in general such as still believing that there is a god to no belief in god at all.
for those of you who still believe that there is a god, i'd like to know whether or not you still believe in the doctrines of the watchtower, but you just don't believe that it is gods "only true religion"?.
Man, I did it again in messing up my post. Anyway, after reading many EXJW responses to questions from posters, I see there is a wide variety of opinions on Faith and Religion in general such as still believing that there is a God to no belief in God at all. For those of you who still believe that there is a God, I'd like to know whether or not you still believe in the doctrines of the Watchtower, but you just don't believe that it is Gods "only true religion"?
sorry about the mishap on my previous post.
anyway i've been a member on this board for quite a while but mostly just lerking.
i've given just a tease about what my deal is on a previous post but this will be a little more in depth.
cyberjesus - Paragraphs, got it...
jamiebowers - My son, who's now 18, has been made aware and agrees. However, I believe he's been told to beware that others may try to discourage him from learning the truth. I played right into that. I talked to him some about how mom and I just disagree about some things but it's very very difficult trying to keep him out of the religion without bashing it.
MMXIV - You hit the nail right on the head. Once I left no doubt how I really feel about this religion, they dropped me like a hot potato. It's strange in a way because my wife has tried many times in the past to go to meetings, and I have a couple. The very first meeting I went to was about 15 years ago and it just seemed so strange to me. Everyone seemed like programmed robots, and it was quite boring. Afterwards everyone came to shake my hand and greet me. I use to be involed in a multi-level marketing business years ago and we use to do the same thing to get the new recruits to think how wonderful everyone was to make it more attractive. I saw through this when it happend to me. There seems to be a lot of similarities in me Multi leven marketing experience to what the JW's do to gain recruits... Sometimes I think that God allowed me to go through that Multi level business to see through the smoke screens that I see with the Watchtower, so many similarities. I think I post some of those some time...
JIM_TX - I haven't given up my faith in the Catholic Church, although I'm sure many here have their reasons for rejecting it, but for myself I'm still in the process of discernment. I've made it clear that our summer vacation will be as a family, just us, and I kind of got a blank stare from my wife although she agreed but I could tell I struck a cord.
