This companion chart shows what the index is made up of (both from the book "Spirit Level"):
Fernando
JoinedPosts by Fernando
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50
Why Finding the One True Religion is Impossible
by Simon injws like to think they have found the one true religion.
but like so many other religious people, it's usually the religion they were born into, the only religion they know because it's the first one they found or, at the most, one of two or three (typically the second one after they left their first / born-in faith).. the trouble is, there simply isn't enough time to explore and investigate each and everyone of the many thousands of belief systems, religions and sects around the world.. think of it this way: which is the best neighbourhood to live in where you would be most happy and most successful?
not just in the city or even the country you are in, but the entire world.. how would you ever know?
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Fernando
Personally I have come to conclude that the Watchtower organisation had at least one thing right, until they abandoned this teaching in 1950: all religion is a snare and a racket.
References (books written by JF Rutherford):
- Enemies 1937
- Religion 1940
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22
1st christmas ever
by notalone inso, i am around 50,4th gen born in- christmas.
strange thing this christmas thing.
i've been watching people this year, really watching them.
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Fernando
What I like about the Christmas carols is that it filters out religious legalism, moralism, judgment, hypocrisy, clericalism, magisterium, fear and guilt.
These spiritual toxins just don't set well to music...
Thank God!
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37
Despite their false predictions aren't the JWs right? Won't the world eventually end & Paradise come?
by deegee inaren't there christian denominations who do not make false end of the world predictions but who nevertheless believe that the world will eventually end and paradise (whether in heaven or on earth) will come?.
it seems the watchtower was just jumping the gun when they made false end of the world predictions but they are nevertheless the right: the world will eventually end and paradise will come..
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Fernando
The Watchtower is dead wrong about "the end" and about Armageddon.
"The end" is the fall of religion, and the rise of man.
And Armageddon is a situation - a long war - not an event - the war between ideological opposites: religion and its nemesis the liberating gospel of grace.
According to religion, eternal life, a right standing with God, and a clean standing with God, are earned.
The gospel message says they are imputed as priceless free gifts to any that will receive them (Rom 3:23-28).
“Religion and its defenders have always been the most insidious enemies of the true faith precisely because they are not glaring opponents; they are imposters" (“Waking the dead” by John Eldredge)
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Fifteen years later, I went to the UN in person.
by biblexaminer inof all the things that the watchtower has done wrong, what would you say is the singular most powerful thing that you could point a jw to, to crack their eyes open?
what is the singular thing that can be expressed bluntly and conclusively that might shock a jw to their senses?
if you could only carry one arrow in your quiver on your way to war with watchtower, what would it be?.
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Fernando
And then there are millions like myself who have never read a single page of these books - the finest ever written...
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33
Fifteen years later, I went to the UN in person.
by biblexaminer inof all the things that the watchtower has done wrong, what would you say is the singular most powerful thing that you could point a jw to, to crack their eyes open?
what is the singular thing that can be expressed bluntly and conclusively that might shock a jw to their senses?
if you could only carry one arrow in your quiver on your way to war with watchtower, what would it be?.
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Fernando
Yup, Crazyguy...
Trussell it seems was right after all...
Oh, the depth of the darkness that envelops those who dare to stop reading Trussell's "Studies in the Scriptures"...
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33
Fifteen years later, I went to the UN in person.
by biblexaminer inof all the things that the watchtower has done wrong, what would you say is the singular most powerful thing that you could point a jw to, to crack their eyes open?
what is the singular thing that can be expressed bluntly and conclusively that might shock a jw to their senses?
if you could only carry one arrow in your quiver on your way to war with watchtower, what would it be?.
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Fernando
(Galatians 2:16) . . .a man is declared righteous, not due to works of law, but only through faith toward Christ Jesus. . .
(Galatians 2:21) . . .for if righteousness is through law, Christ actually died for nothing. . .
(Galatians 3:11) . . .by law[keeping] no one is declared righteous with God. . .
(Galatians 5:4) . . .YOU are parted from Christ, whoever YOU are that try to be declared righteous by means of law[keeping]; YOU have fallen away from his undeserved kindness. . .
(Romans 3:28) . . .a man is declared righteous by faith apart from works of law. . .
(Ephesians 2:8, 9) . . .By this undeserved kindness you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing; rather, it is God’s gift. No, it is not a result of works, so that no one should have grounds for boasting.
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33
Fifteen years later, I went to the UN in person.
by biblexaminer inof all the things that the watchtower has done wrong, what would you say is the singular most powerful thing that you could point a jw to, to crack their eyes open?
what is the singular thing that can be expressed bluntly and conclusively that might shock a jw to their senses?
if you could only carry one arrow in your quiver on your way to war with watchtower, what would it be?.
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Fernando
Somehow for me personally, nothing ever penetrated fully, until the ruling religious clergy class in my "congregation" attacked me and my family.
We were attacked and threatened for choosing to believe in the good news as defined and outlined in their own publications.
They were also highly offended and alarmed because I once dared to ask a simple question: "what is the gospel in one word?"
We were agreeing with the electronic Watchtower library and were attacked for this.
The issue was the same as in the 1980 Bethel witch-hunt and purge: the liberating gospel of grace versus apostate legalism.
Due to my experience, these are my favourite questions to help a JW, especially when they are doing the tolley-folley work:
- How long have you been a "publisher of the good news"?
- According to the good news, is a right and clean standing with God earned or imputed?
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The response is a confused deer-in-the-headlights look as the cognitive dissonance kicks in overdrive.
Then their answer "earned" demonstrates they have never heard nor published the good news.
Then I give them a shocked look of disbelief, with a long pause: "no it is imputed as a free gift".
If the person is honest-hearted and sincere I then recommend they search for and highlight the words righteous and righteousness in Paul's letters especially to the Galatians.
