AllTimeJeff, If I may say this, and you are free to disagree with me. Everyone, regardless of what they say or how they act, everyone has a religion, a faith in something.
thomas15
JoinedPosts by thomas15
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61
A Problem With General Christian Beliefs
by AllTimeJeff infirst of all, lets head off some potential problems before they start.
i am not doing this thread to argue.
if you would like to, thats fine.
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51
Calvinists: Why I Can't I Choose to be Saved?
by leavingwt into the calvinists among us, please assist me in understanding this.
msthemearminianism teaches that each person is not spiritually helpless.
rather, each person has free will and can choose to be saved.
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thomas15
As chalam has mentioned, there are many passages of the Bible that teach predestination. There are other passages that teach total depravity. While most Calvinists are "reformed" and or covanent in their theology, I'm not as I hold to the dispensationalist view. So this makes me somewhat of an odd-ball in calvinist circles. What Calvinism teaches is that man is totally spiritually dead and it is because God who predestines who will be saved and who will not, works in the dead man's heart to bring him to God. The work is all of God, man can take no credit in his salvation. This is one of the differences between salvation by "works" (like that taught by the WT) and salvation by grace through faith.
I know that this is not a popular view as the natural man is desprate to have a part in his/her own redemption. Many times on this forum I see people rejecting the WT take on things based on their personal belief that a loving God would not inflict judgement on those whom they see as innocent people. While I totally reject the teaching of the WT, my reading and study of the Bible inclines me in the direction of calvin.
If anyone is still listening to me at this point, I would like to mention that is a question that I have spent much time in study. I have approx. 12 systematic theology books (or sets of books), the exact number depending on your definition sytematic theology books. Four (4) of them are full blown Arminian in nature. So it would be a strain to state that I haven't given the Arminian camp due process. And, I can state truthfully that I'm open to anyone who can convince me of the errors of calvin.
Finally, I appologize to anyone who thinks I'm a twit or self-righteous. I haven't been around much lately and try not to impose my beliefs on anyone. I have said it before and will repeat it again, the fact that you who have been mauled by the WT are even remotely interested in discussing the Bible or God is very impressive to me.
Take care,
Tom
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Article on Education and Belief in the bible
by maninthemiddle ini found this while sifting through old papers at my aunt's house.
even though it isn't a wts paper, it loooks like someone "studied" it very well.. there have been related topics in the past, but i think this goes to show it is not just jws.
the second page has a wonderful graph that i think says more than the article.. .
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thomas15
The footnotes are impressive.
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25
John 14:2 - what does it mean
by quietlyleaving infrom the 21st century king james version (biblegateway).
2in my father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, i would have told you.
i go to prepare a place for you.. for some reason this verse keeps coming into my mind.
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thomas15
Mansions= dwelling places. Right now, Jesus is preparing a place with the Father for those who are trusting in Him. Jesus is telling those who will listen to have the same belief/faith in Him as they have in Jehovah. BTW, John ch 14 is one of the most important passages in the NT. Entire books have been written on this passage.
Yours truly,
Tom
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as a JW were you comfortable with this question?
by highdose ina few times in the ministry i would find someone clued in who would ask the jw on their doorstep " so what your saying is, unless i join your religon god will kill me?
and everyone else who isn't part of your religon?
" now theres only one answer to that question as far as jw's are concerned but i never saw a single one answer that with a straight answer, mostly i suspect because they were so uncomfortable about being made to face the truth about their beliefs..
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thomas15
wobble:
I would have answered as I honestly believed as a Dub, that God can read hearts and would only put to death those who would never live a moral, Christian, life.
This would beg another question, if God reads hearts, then He would know that some of those in field service are not pure of heart. If that is the case, then some JWs would be killed and some non-JWs would not. Which would imply that being a JW is not needed to be saved from Armageddon, only living a moral Christian life. This would actually be perfered (if you ask me) because that is the standard from which God judges us (according to the logic I just made up).
But of course I believe that we are saved by faith through grace in the living Son of God as outlined in Acts 16: 30-31
Tom
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Why does God hate Grand Funk Railroad?
by HappyGuy inlike all teenagers of the early 70s i loved grand funk railroad.
especially their live album.
yes, mark farner is probably the worst guitar player in the history of music but mel shacher is the best bass player in the history of music.. their music is so silly.
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thomas15
small tidbit, Mark Farner became a born again Christian.
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To tell my parents or not to tell my parents...unfortunately that is a question
by feenx ini could use some perspective on something i'm struggling with.
first off, a little background info.
i am an only child and my parents, in addition to quite difficult circumstances we've all experienced, both personally and as a family while i was growing up, remain devout.
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thomas15
From my totally NON JW perspective...
I find the JW rules for disfellowshipped ones to be silly. It is like the drug abuser, that person would rather shoot up or drink with their friends than have a conversation with their children. It is total selfishness and unnatural on their part, not yours.
Both of my parents and both of my inlaws had passed before our kids were born. It makes me sad when I think about it, the missed music concerts, the birthday parties, so forth. My daughter turns 16 this week and I'm taking her to get her learners permit on Firday. She doesn't have a Grandparent to share this special moment with. In your case it really stinks because there is really no rational reason why your parents don't have a basic relationship with you, your future wife and any future grandkids.
My advice, which is just my opinion is this. Send them a post card with the news. They have to read the short message even if they throw it away. No envelope to open. Don't expect them to call but pray they do. I hope they do.
Take care,
Tom
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15
Volunteering
by BlackSwan of Memphis inwhen we were jw's we 'volunteered' our time to help others learn the 'truth'.. in what ways do you volunteer your time now that you are out and are free to help others as you see fit?.
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thomas15
Once again my disclaimer about not ever prsonally being a JW...
I live in a semi-rural part of North East Pennsylvania. Many people say that there isn't anything to do around here, I disagree.
When we moved here in 2004 and we didn't know anyone I determined to meet people. I have meet people through my church but at age 46 I became a volunteer firefighter. My county is 100% volunteer fire services. Being an actual firefighter isn't for everyone but fire compnies like mine need non-active members to run the company. There is plenty for non-firefighters to do.
In 5 years I have gone from knowing nothing about the fire service to becoming certified by PA as a Firefighter, Automobile Rescue Tech, Truck-Bus rescue Tech, Haz-Mat ops. I have training in water rescue, confined space rescue, forest fire, I have a class B CDL with tanker and airbrake endorsement. I'm secretary of the local fireman's relief association and the secretary of the county firemen's association. Right now I'm 3/4 of the way through training to become a volunteer EMT.
I went on 3 calls this weekend, the first was friday night (dwelling fire out of town), the second was a motor vehicle accident Saturday 2:00AM(rollover, no injuries), the third was another MVA Sunday 11:30 PM.
Tom
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15
I had a REALLY big first in my life today!!!.....
by oompa inbeen kinda bummed for a few...and a newer nondub friend said i should go to church with him and his wife today...he called me last night about it....so it was not far and i knew nothing about it...but my friend and i are a lot alike....so showed up...it rocked!!
!...everybody had jeans on including the preacher with his shirt untucked...he was lively and funny and real....there were some skits that screamed district convention to me but they were way funnier and better acted....and even though i totally tuned out to most of the sermon part and all the jesus stuff.........the band freakin rocked!...the music was incredible!....just great talent....i told my buddy we should go tell the preacher that not only did he get a newbie in the door...but that it was someone who had never been to church in his entire life!!!.
i went just for social reasons........and there are prob great babe opportunities there....lol.....but it was a good morning and we went to lunch.....it was a great day!!
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thomas15
Hi ommpa,
I'm happy to hear that you are doing well and your not writing off completly the Christian faith. One of the things you may notice if you continue to dabble with christiandom is that while each protestant group has their unique theology, it is OK and actually encouraged that you read and study alternate belief systems. This is one of the things I think is weird about the WT, they want to place their materials with protestants and catholics but the dubs themselves are in for it if they read something by a protestant writer. How can someone know that they are right if they have never studied the wrong? If the WT has so much joy to offer, why would they be afraid of the dubs reading "apostate" material?
Of course we know the answer but it is good to see that you are getting your mojo back.
Tom
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"lucky punch"
by inbetween inafter some research and study here on the net and elsewhere, i know, that the doctrine of blood and the treaching of 1914 are not based on the bible, maybe just loosely related,.
however why are they so much accepted by jw ?.
i think one reason is, because both teachings hit something apparantly right, somehow on accident.. i`ll explain:.
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thomas15
To me, as a Non-JW there is no lucky anything. As far as blood goes the Old Testament probition is on drinking it. It had to do with pagan blood practices. There is about 11 or 12 pints of blood in an adult. If you loose 20% of your blood, the pump (heart) doesn't have enough fluid to keep a pressure high enough to allow perfusion in the body. No perfusion, no life, just that simple. True, you can add saline to the blood stream and increase BP but once you dilute the blood too much perfusion again stops and you have just simply prolonged the inevadable. A problem with transfusions is that the body may reject what it sees as an enemy invasion by using someone elses blood. My neice, after being hit by a car needed numerous transfusions and she had reactions to it but she lived.
It is easy for me to accept what some of you say about blood with respect to the WT, carrying the "No Blood" keyfobs is a way of self identification with a cause, misguided as it may be.
As far as 1914, the few items I have read from the WT from the 1920s say nothing about the 1914 or 1915 date. It is again something they just made up. They had a date and a result and just looked all over the Bible to some way to show the members, just show how cleaver they are to figure out the date. Some of their thinking comes from other church's teachings. I picked up a copy of the WT back in the early 1990s, the cover story was on Noah's Ark. They talked about the size and design of the boat and presented the information as if only the WT is smart enough to figure this out. I recongnized a lot of the comparisons of the ark to a modern freight train car and so forth from a book written in the early 1960s by a scientist Dr. Henry Morris titled The Genesis Flood. The WT stole all their information from an "apostate" book written 30 years earlier.