does the bible have a central theme?.
there seems to be a general consensus throughout christian religions that there is a consistent theme throughout the bible.
the seeming evidence of a theme coming from a collection of books written by over 40 different authors over a period of 1500 years is what givse credence to the claim that the bible is an inspired literary work.
Personally I have found the central message (or theme) of scripture to be the legal custody battle, over us the children, fought by means of controlling religion versus the liberating gospel message of grace.
| Religion | Gospel OT/NT | Main Book/s |
| Death | Salvation | Psalms/Acts/Romans |
| Enmity | Atonement/Reconciliation | Leviticus/Rom/2Cor |
| Bondage | Deliverance/Liberation | Exodus/Galatians |
| Decay | Restoration | Isaiah/Ezekiel/Hosea |
when my son became baptized as a witness at age nine, it worried me that he could now get a no blood card.
i wanted to make sure if blood transfusions were really as disgusting to "jehovah" as i was taught.
i already found out some things about my beliefs that were not true, so it wasn't hard for me to be questionable about this.. i first looked in the reasoning book under blood as to why we don't accept transfusions.
Ray Franz, in speaking about the blood doctrine I believe, pointed out how apostate "legalism" leads to a "morass of inconsistencies".
Now it is OK to take parts of donated blood, but not OK to donate blood?!
Ultimately we are all called to obey "the truth" of "the Good News", and to disobey religion/ists.
Did Jesus lead people to, or away from, the elders and Governing Body (Matt 23 esp v15)?
Great question.
What The Searcher said - spot on I believe.
Lead how?
Who lead?
Lead where?
a genuine question really.. do they actually make desicions or are they simple sock puppets for the lawyers?.
are they just a front (like the queen is in the uk), with little or no desicion making input?.
do they just give talks and make appearances?.
CTR described the outcome quite well:
"The endeavor to compel all men to think alike on all subjects, culminated in the great apostasy and the development of the great papal system, and thereby the gospel, the one faith that Paul and the other apostles set forth, was lost - buried under the mass of uninspired decrees of popes and councils. The unity of the early church, based upon the simple gospel and bound only by love, gave place to the bondage of the church of Rome ... Each new reform movement (like Protestantism) has made the failure of attempting to make a creed just large enough for its prime movers ." --WT, Sep. 1893, p. 1572
a genuine question really.. do they actually make desicions or are they simple sock puppets for the lawyers?.
are they just a front (like the queen is in the uk), with little or no desicion making input?.
do they just give talks and make appearances?.
The GB quite simply advance apostate clericalism.
Along with its apostate cronies legalism, moralism, supremacist ethnocentrism, and religious Gnosticism.
i'm trying to pin down a definition for evolution, hopefully in plain english, and some questions have come to mind:.
is this a fool's errand?.
has evolution itself evolved?.
Thank you too Phizzy, and I look forward to learning more and understanding better.
it has been a while since i've seen a witness, either in person or virtually.
searching for someone on facebook took me to the profile of a ministerial servant that i know.
i scrolled through his wall to see who is still around and found this gem:.
The Art of Propaganda, at which the WBTS excels, comes to mind for me:
*** w56 6/15 p. 360 Getting and Giving the Thoughts of God ***
We usually believe what we want to believe, and one thing we like to believe is that we do our own thinking. Hence it is not too hard for clever propagandists to make us think their thoughts are ours. They plant the thought and nourish it, but do it so subtly that we think it is our own.
my wife and i were witnesses in the melbourne area from 1960-70 covering 5 congregations before moving to an area just north of brisbane for the best part of another23 years which involved another 5 congregations .. maybe our paths crossed or your parents and our paths crossed or people you know crossed our paths .. if you are inclined , i would love to hear from you via pm for privacy , or if you prefer here.. smiddy.
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Hey smiddy, I'm in South East Queensland, and would be happy to meet up for a coffee sometime, and/or exchange PMs.
Greetings Fernando
this is my first post here.. i was raised in "the truth", and am an ex-bethelite who worked in brooklyn for several years back in the 90's.
a few years after i left bethel, i started to become disillusioned after doing research about the society and reading crisis of conscience (i know..i wasn't supposed to do that lol).
i eventually stopped attending meetings and going out in service.
Welcome im_free!
My wife and I have come to exactly the same conclusions from "independently" pursuing the unabridged gospel (especially according to Paul, and especially in Romans).
Greetings and blessings
Fernando
SEQ, Australia
(Our family left the WBTS and religion for good mid-2009, after 4 decades and 4 generations)
