Ask him what does John 20:28 mean to him. This should be interesting.
garyneal
JoinedPosts by garyneal
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Bible Study with JW Starts with the book of John
by FingersCrossed injohn and onwards for a start?.
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garyneal
One that was constantly hammered into my head growing up is the one in James about "faith without works is dead".
That one was hammered into me a lot too by my wife when we discussed our differences in what constitute salvation. I personally do not accept that salvation requires any works because the amount of works that would be required would never be enough to measure up to what God requires of us, total perfection. He had to come down to us because we could never amount to His level.
Remember, the Jehovah's Witness is working for the hope that he or she will be saved. The never know if they have it in spite of them being baptised, pioneering, reaching out for privileges, serving in Bethel, whatever. They could literally be a saint and still don't know that they will not die at Armageddon. This concept is totally foriegn to your average Christian.
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garyneal
Why don't you Google it? Is this a question for your Bible study with your witness friend?
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SECRET SANTA 2012 ........... Wish List ....... GO ON YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO
by finallysomepride infor those of you joining the secret santa this year, please give some thought to what you would like to recieve, remembering us$15.00 should be the limit.. just through out some ideas.
the secret santa thread.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/241894/1/secret-santa-2012.
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garyneal
Be creative.
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Study the Bible with JW - Any advice?
by FingersCrossed ingoing for a word by word bible reading/study with a jw, no literature involved and maybe using more than one versions.
is that a wise move and is there any advantage?.
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garyneal
Gary gave you great advise. He probably has always had in his mind what a perfect family is, and what would make him happy. He is probbaly trying to "settle down".
More like discovering myself. Truth is, my wife and I did have these visions in our minds of what we thought a 'perfect family' would be like as it pertains to our religion. We both changed, but not in the ways either one of us expected. She and I both have attachments and sympathies for our respective religious backgrounds due to upbringing and experiences but we are now both skeptics (leaning agnostics).
I respect and support my wife now as she tries to maintain ties to the witnesses and even encourage her at times but caution her as to what she can say to them (as if she don't already know). She shares with me how she truly feels and says things that would never be allowed in a kingdom hall and I share with her all the dumbness I see in the churches now. She nearly tipped her hand to a witness friend one time when she casually said to her, "If I weren't a witness, I'd probably be an atheist." To say this raise eyebrows for her friend is an understatement and she realized VERY quickly that you watch what you say amongst the witnesses.
I wish I could get her to meet other witnesses who still maintain a very simple faith in God but has issues with the witness doctrines. That is where she is right now. jwstruggle might be a good place but she is not ready for that.
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Study the Bible with JW - Any advice?
by FingersCrossed ingoing for a word by word bible reading/study with a jw, no literature involved and maybe using more than one versions.
is that a wise move and is there any advantage?.
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garyneal
Well, as my posts and my links suggest, I think this is largely an exercise in futility. However, if you are intent (as I can tell you are) in going through with this, here are some suggestions.
I think you stated that this person is not an active witness. Like a christian who does not attend church regurlarly but still believes in the Bible and God, he or she may envision a 'perfect family life' that involves regular church / meeting attendance, mutual studying of the scriptures, and family prayer. Both the witness and the christian may harbor this hope for the idealic family within their respective religions. If either the christian or the witness feel that his or her religion is right and/or the other's religion is wrong, prepare for a lot of disappointment as it will be hard to shake the faith of either one of them.
Think about it, sure Christ Jesus was not born on December 25th but the typical christian sees nothing wrong with celebrating the first advent of Christ around the holidays and for many of them adds to the meaning of this time of year. The witness, on the other hand, sees this as wrong since it is based on a false premise. Likewise, the witness knows that Watchtower does get a few things wrong and may be wrong about things today, but the witnesses are good people trying very hard to serve Jehovah through an imperfect organization and that does not make them all that bad. At least that is the reasoning of the witness but the christian, on the other hand may wonder why the witness is so hard on outside religions when looking at their blemishes while simultaneously giving their own religion a pass concerning its own imperfections.
In the cases of both the witness and the christian, if neither one of them is very active in their chosen faith, they are probably holding this idealic view of their individual churches' teachings while recognizing that they just need to work on themselves to attain this 'perfect life.' The life that will probably not happen until after they get married, settle down, have kids, and THEN want to get more involved in their faith. If this describes either you or that witness in the slightest, prepare for a lot of disappointment unless either one of you is willing to give up your cherished beliefs (and I am assuming that you have a belief) and come together somehow. This is the voice of experience talking.
So let's say you manage to extract this person away from his faith in the Watchtower and the Jehovah's Witness teachings. Then what? Do you expect that he will embrace Christianity? Some might, but judging from the posts I read on this board, the words that my wife says when she is truly examining things, and from the words of one of my co-workers who was once raise a witness but is not one today, the most likely path for this individual is extreme skepticism that will most like lead to him becoming an agnostic leaning atheist. After all, if he believes that most christian churches are wrong and later discovers that his own church is wrong, how can he possibly prove that any one of them is right? As Terry pointed out, there are NO signed original writings of the various books of the Bible, there are only copies of copies. Add to that the fact that the collection of books that currently make up the Bible were all chosen by religious leaders over the centuries coupled with the fact that not all Bible canons are the same will ultimately lead anyone who is seeking the truth to wonder what exactly it is. The truth is, most people who have accepted a 'religious truth' cannot handle the truth.
Good luck to you, and feel free to post your progress with this individual as we will all be happy to critique your position and his most likely responses based on Watchtower teachings. However, I believe that unless he sees the dishonesty and double standards in this religion for himself, you are not going to get very far in cracking his JW armor. He is trained to ignore outsiders when they say things that attack their faith.
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Study the Bible with JW - Any advice?
by FingersCrossed ingoing for a word by word bible reading/study with a jw, no literature involved and maybe using more than one versions.
is that a wise move and is there any advantage?.
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60
Study the Bible with JW - Any advice?
by FingersCrossed ingoing for a word by word bible reading/study with a jw, no literature involved and maybe using more than one versions.
is that a wise move and is there any advantage?.
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garyneal
I remember wasting my time on these exercises of futility.
There is more...
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SECRET SANTA 2012
by finallysomepride insecret santa 2012. with only 7 weeks to go until christmas, should we start to do something now, especially for those posting overseas.
just a thought.
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garyneal
How many people have signed up for the Christmas card exchange?
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Angus Jones becomes a Seventh Day Adventist
by barry inangus jones has been baptised a sda in a end times conspiracy theory sda church and is telling people not to watch two and a half men because its filth..
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garyneal
He says his family tried to tell him he's in a cult.
Bad move on the part of his family.