Mother refuses to answer any questions posted in the Media, strange though they love to bring articles and good "write ups" when it's good, why not take the good and bad instead of hiding?
skepticSam
JoinedPosts by skepticSam
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WT October 15, 2015 - Don't believe Apostate Lies
by Designer Stubble inthe last article in this new wt, shows me that the organization is dealing with much information that is damaging them.
i am sure that the many recent lawsuits are being noticed by the r&f.. here are some gems from that article, titled the naive person believes every word.
we must be very selective about what we consider worthy of our attention.
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Why Ravi Zacharias Never Became A Jehovah's Witness (Pre 1975 End Times Preaching). Famous Christian Apologist.
by skepticSam ini was shocked to learn dr. zacharias studied with the jws and why he never became a jw, it was the jws incompetence that lead to dr. zacharias leading a different path in life.
he's one of the best speakers and logicians in my opinion, he's got two phds and works with extraordinary men and women willing to speak at any university or mormon temple because the word he uses is based off the word.
how come the governing body are afraid to attend q/as at yale, cambridge, oxford, ucla, harvard, rutgers ect..??
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skepticSam
I was shocked to learn Dr. Zacharias studied with the JWs and why he never became a JW, it was the JWs incompetence that lead to Dr. Zacharias leading a different path in life. He's one of the best speakers and logicians in my opinion, he's got two phDs and works with extraordinary men and women willing to speak at any University or Mormon Temple because the word he uses is based off the Word. How come the Governing Body are afraid to attend Q/As at Yale, Cambridge, Oxford, UCLA, Harvard, Rutgers ect..?? Why won't they teach their message and allow students in college chances to ask "Why" instead of cowardly hiding behind the choir like they always do!
"Sometimes we can convince ourselves that the answer to everything lies in economic well-being. Obviously, this is a very important facet of life. When you can afford a meal, a bed, a home for your family, you can be content. But it does not ultimately solve the deepest questions that haunt you. That is where religion is supposed to help, to offer answers.
Whether we like to admit it or not, many religions of the world are concocted to hold fear and control over people. Nobody likes to talk about this, but it’s the way it is. The human psyche is vulnerable because of its built-in fear of failure, and becomes an easy prey.
That’s the way I remember first experiencing religion—as something involving fear: A man rolling down the street, chanting the name of his god. Men and women with deep gashes in their faces. Tales of goats being sacrificed in temples to procure answers to prayers. Each time I asked my mother about these things, she explained, “They do it to worship their god.”
Worship? It was an empty word to me, steeped in some mysterious expression that didn’t make ordinary sense. It was a magic wand to ward off tragedy. The one thing I learned from observing such rituals was a palpable sense of fear. Everything had to follow a certain sequence. If you didn’t do it right, something bad was going to happen to you. If I didn’t make my offering, what would befall me? If I didn’t do this one thing correctly, what price would I have to pay to some sharp, implacable divine being? Was all that just superstition born out of fear, dressed up into a system, and embedded into a culture?
There was one wonderful aspect of the religious world I grew up in that held my fascination—and that was its stories. I loved the pictures; the mythologies; and the ideas of rescue, of winning wars, of magical potions, of how your mother could be saved by some god who came down and carried her away from harm. It was a bit of folklore here, a bit of drama there, a bit of religion, a bit of historical fact, all mixed together.
I used to go with my friends and their families to watch the religious plays at the festivals, and I became quite fond of them. To me, it wasn’t so much religious as that it was part of a family’s annual routine. Each year, when the Hindu god Ram’s birthday came around, I went with my friends to see the plays that reenacted stories about Ram. I loved these dramas, because my little brother Ramesh was named after Ram.
~~~
My siblings and I got our first taste of Western religion when two Jehovah’s Witnesses came knocking on our door one day. A Mr. and Mrs. Smith appeared, telling my father they wanted to teach us children to read and to know the Bible. They assured our dad how very important this was.
So the Smiths came to our home once a week, and for the next year and a half they sat in our living room and taught us for an hour or two at a time. I remember reading the Witnesses’ book Let God Be True and the magazines The Watchtower and Awake. Most impressive, though, were the assemblies where they gathered groups and showed movies. One of these movies featured tens of thousands of people attending a Jehovah’s Witnesses rally at Yankee Stadium in New York City. When my siblings and I saw that spectacle, we couldn’t help being awed by it.
Yet, in retrospect, it shows how easily the human mind and heart can be manipulated. Ours was a small family with very little in comparison to most families in the West. And seeing that movie, with all those highly successful-looking people gathered in a magnificent stadium, my siblings’ hearts must have raced as my heart did. I’m sure they also thought, “This has to be true.” It made us want to be part of such a great event, in a great city like New York.
So we continued to study with the Smiths until the day Mr. Smith came to the chapter on heaven in the book of Revelation. He stopped there and told us that, according to Jehovah’s Witnesses’ teaching, only 144,000 people were going to make it to paradise.
That hit me like a ton of bricks. Here my siblings and I had thought we were becoming very spiritual. These Western missionaries had sat with us each week, giving us homework and encouraging our studies. But now I scratched my head over this news. I asked Mr. Smith, “Only 144,000?”
“That’s right,” he said.
“Sir, how many people are there in your organization?”
“Oh, we have many.”
“Do you have more than 144,000?”
“Oh yes.”
“So even all of your people aren’t going to make it to heaven?”
I thought of the Smiths’ constant praying, of all their efforts to reach more and more people—and yet even they had no way of knowing where they were going after death. So they certainly couldn’t assure me of where I might be going.
“Mr. Smith, before you came, I didn’t know where I was going after I died,” I said. “But now, after all this study, I still don’t know where I’m going after I die.”
They probably sensed they were up against something difficult at that point. Or perhaps my outright shock over this curious point of doctrine registered with them more deeply than normal. But not long afterward, the Smiths were succeeded by another couple, and when they sensed they were getting nowhere, they stopped coming to our house. Who knows, in another six or eight months, maybe we would have been convinced by them. But at that stage, I told myself, “I don’t much care for this. I’m done with Christianity.”
I didn’t know that it wasn’t Christianity I was rejecting, but I really had no idea how to distinguish one sect from another. At best, each of us was only thinking pragmatically, “What is it that’s going to work for me?”
~~~
Like most of India, my mother was very spiritual and at the same time very superstitious. In our home hung a picture of Saint Philomena, a Catholic saint, because of a commitment my mom had made after my sister Shyamala (Sham to us) was diagnosed with polio at five days old. The doctor gave Sham no hope of surviving, and in desperation my mother decided to send a gift to the Saint Philomena shrine in South India. She pledged that if my sister would get through this, my mother would give money to the shrine faithfully.
Sham survived. In her younger years she wore a crude knee brace from just above the knee to her ankle and walked with a bit of a hop. (Today, after a surgery, she has only a slight limp that is virtually undetectable.) But what was most important to my mother was that her daughter’s life was spared. That is why, almost until the day Mom died, she faithfully sent money to the Saint Philomena shrine. It is also why my sister Sham was given the middle name Philomena.
After that ordeal, our family was brought to the brink again years later over our baby brother Ramesh. I especially was very close to him, so it struck me hard when little Ramesh, only six or seven years old, became ill with double pneumonia and typhoid. Very little could be done in those days for someone in his condition, and the doctors offered us no hope.
I remember the evening my parents decided to take us to the hospital to visit our brother in what we sensed might be our last time to see him. I was deeply shaken when I witnessed what had happened to Ramesh. He was shriveled down to a bag of bones. I barely recognized him; he looked like a picture of a starved child. After seeing him, we all expected that this would be the night he would die.
My mother stayed at the hospital with my brother while my dad took us home. We gathered for prayer in my parents’ bedroom around a picture of Jesus that hung on the wall beside the picture of Saint Philomena. I recall that night clearly, on our knees in that room, my father’s voice cracking as he prayed. I couldn’t believe we were losing him. My little brother was really dying.
One of the people my dad had called to come and pray with us was a certain Pentecostal minister. Mr. Dennis had come to our house occasionally on his motorbike to talk with my dad and pray with him. We used to make a lot of fun of Mr. Dennis and to joke behind his back because he always sang when he prayed. He simply broke out into song, and it sounded so odd to us. We were unkind because we had no clue what this was all about, and our Hindu servants in the house reprimanded us for making fun.
But now, with my brother dying, I prayed as I never had, alongside Mr. Dennis and the others in the room that night. In a voice of deep reverence, this man asked God for a touch of healing, for a miracle. There was nothing funny now. I was moved to tears as he called on the Lord to have mercy on my brother.
Meanwhile, the doctor had come to my mother soon after we left the hospital. He uttered to her the worst news of her life. “Sometime between midnight and 5:00 a.m.,” he said, “it will be over.”
My mother had not slept for several days. She had sat by Ramesh’s side the entire time. Now, as she faced the torturous hours ahead, she was overcome with exhaustion. She simply couldn’t keep her eyes open. As the night wore on, she fell sound asleep at my brother’s bedside.
Hours later, my mother suddenly shocked herself awake. When she realized what had happened, she feared the worst. The hour had long passed at which Ramesh was to have gone. Yet when she looked at my brother, she saw that he was still breathing. In fact, his chest now rose and fell with a stronger rhythm than before. Something had happened during the night.
When morning came, my mom sent a message to us that Ramesh was looking stronger and better. None of us were sure what this meant. But the same message came to us on the second day, then the third day, then the fourth. Our brother had made the turn, and his strength was restored.
In our family’s collective memory, this was one of our most defining moments. I don’t know to what degree Mr. Dennis’s prayer consciously played a role in this monumental episode of our history. But to me, there was something of God in it.
I don’t recall ever seeing Mr. Dennis again, though I have often thought of him. He was a missionary living on a meager salary, a living saint. Somebody must have supported him. Why did he pick our family to visit? Was this not God in the shadows, keeping watch over His own? I did not think of it then, but I see it now. I made an association with the life of prayer and calling in that man, and with the miracle we all had witnessed—my brother’s life had been spared.
~~~
Being back here in my mother’s brother’s home brings me closer, I sense, to the reality of a sovereign God. I can never forget that sovereignty behind my life, and it brings to mind a great Indian custom.
If you travel to the north of India, you will see the most magnificent saris ever made, and Varanasi is where the wedding saris are handwoven. The gold, the silver, the reds, the blues—all the marvelous colors threaded together are spectacular. These saris are usually made by just two people—a father who sits on a platform and a son who sits two steps down from him. The father has all the spools of silk threads around him. As he begins to pull the threads together, he nods, and the son responds by moving the shuttle from one side to the other. Then the process begins again, with the dad nodding and the son responding. Everything is done with a simple nod from the father. It’s a long, tedious process to watch. But if you come back in two or three weeks, you’ll see a magnificent pattern emerging.
This is an image I always remind myself of: we may be moving the shuttle, but the design is in the mind of the Father. The son has no idea what pattern is emerging. He just responds to the father’s nod.
Back here in my homeland, I see the threads. My family, my home city, my spartan beginnings, a life having come out of nothing—I’m reminded again that the threads are all being pulled together.
This is the only explanation for the great irony in my being here now. You see, of all five siblings in my family, I had the unhappiest childhood. Yet I am the one who is most drawn to come back.
It’s unexplainable. All of my siblings are natural leaders, and all live in Toronto today. Each had the beginnings of his or her success and happiness sown here, in India. Ajit, the oldest, was an engineer with IBM in the 1970s who later went on to his own commercial success as an entrepreneur. You would think he’d want to come back to the place where his mind was shaped, where all his dreams and hopes and promises were formed. You would think the same of my younger brother, Ramesh, now a successful surgeon, and my two sisters, Sham and Prem. I have no doubt they have this desire, but not one shares the deep, soul-wrenching, unshakable tug that I feel. Ramesh does tell me, “I want to go back sometime. But I want to do it with you, Ravi.”
I’m the one who keeps coming back—and who wants to keep coming back. I have maintained the language and the contacts, mainly by walking these streets. When I return and see the buildings and the beauty and the people, I reminisce, “This is where my life was shaped. This is where my calling began. And this is where I very nearly ended it all, out of my own despair.”
The sound of a voice crying out to God, a voice that once spelled terror in my heart, is now the very cry to which I respond with a sense of privilege all over the world. Still, to me, coming back is a dip into an ocean too deep for me to fully fathom. The full story only the tapestry can explain.
Ravi Zacharias is founder and chairman of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries."
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WHAT JESUS REALLY MEANT Vs the GOVERNING BODY'S VERSION OF THE BIBLE.
by skepticSam ini found these contrasts incredible, anyone who claims that following the watchtower's bizarre aloof teachings is a "insurance policy" needs to have their heads examined.
these people were once in line with the watchtower's leaders until they got tossed out of the organization during the great purging of anointed jws in 2012.. the more i am around the worldly people, the more i see how insane jws are and the lack of love they have.
their selfish, always wanting to mooch off each other, steal from their brothers and sisters, evade taxes, cheat and hate playing by the rules.
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skepticSam
I found these contrasts incredible, anyone who claims that following the Watchtower's bizarre aloof teachings is a "Insurance Policy" needs to have their heads examined. These people were once in line with the Watchtower's Leaders until they got tossed out of the Organization during the Great Purging of Anointed JWs in 2012.
The more I am around the Worldly people, the more I see how insane JWs are and the lack of love they have. Their selfish, always wanting to mooch off each other, steal from their brothers and sisters, evade taxes, cheat and hate playing by the rules. I know so many JWs that are thieves and give talks at Circuit and District Assemblies, how can you really think this Organization is backed by Jesus Christ? Have you ever read any of Paul's Letters,'Oh, that's right, those are meant for the "Little Flock", yes, the entire Bible is meant for the GB,(Catholic Monarchy once taught that) not the common pubs!'. I see why Jesus said people who follow Cults deserve "twice the serving of Gehenna" than their leaders because these blockheads want their ears tickled!
WHAT JESUS TAUGHT
"This generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.(Matthew 24:34)
WHAT THE GOVERNING BODY TEACH JWS!
A generation of anointed Christians in the 20th century which overlaps another generation of anointed Christians, but does not include the next overlapping generation of anointed Christians, will by no means pass away until I return to earth to destroy the wicked people who refuse to follow the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
(Watchtower, 1/15/14, page 31) Note 3
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Church of God pastor writes what could be to some a helpful synopsis of Ray Franz "Crisis of Conscience."
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.thejournal.org/issues/issue92/crisiscn.html .
a 'crisis of conscience' opens eyes part 1.
he continues on page 346: .
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skepticSam
Barbara how are you moving forward in your life, this terrible Cult has drained so many people's lives and taken their youth in pursuit of a lie. Your older than most here, how are you both moving forward because many good people here will continue struggling in pain, what advice can you offer to new members joining our ranks now knowing it was all a lie! What is your secret to waking up each day and trying to help victims of the Cult, how do you keep yourself together and with each passing day, do you ever ask yourself "It's all so clear, how come I did not see the truth earlier, the facts were there the entire time, why, why did I miss them?" What's the secret to forgiving ourselves we were tricked, thoroughly deceived by liars?
"On page 408 he writes:
"Life is a journey, and we cannot make progress in it if our focus is mainly on where we have been; that could lead to emotional inertia or even spiritual decline. What is done is done. The past is beyond our changing, but the present and future are things we can work with, focus on. The journey inevitably contains challenge, but we can find encouragement in knowing that we are moving on, making at least some progress, and can feel confident that what lies ahead can be fulfilling.""
Anderson
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Was The Apostle Paul Out Of His Mind? Or Just An Eccentric Megalomaniac?
by Brokeback Watchtower ini have some quotes from the new world bible from 2 cor 11&12 read them and give us your prognosis, he definitely thought very highly of himself, his vision that he received from the unconscious and inflated his ego for sure.
i'm sure this guy is over the top in his exaggerations about what he did and didn't do probably lots of denial about some of his own fraud being projected onto his boogie man rivals he sarcastically calls superfine apostles.. for i consider that i have not proved inferior to your superfine apostles in a single thing.+ 6 but even if i am unskilled in speech,+ i certainly am not in knowledge; indeed we made it clear to you in every way and in everything.....12 but what i am doing i will continue to do,+ in order to eliminate the pretext of those who are wanting a basis* for being found equal to us in the things* about which they boast.
13 for such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of christ.+ 14 and no wonder, for satan himself keeps disguising himself as an angel of light.+ 15 it is therefore nothing extraordinary if his ministers also keep disguising themselves as ministers of righteousness.
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skepticSam
FT it's great we can have discussions with Broke-back because he is actually asking questions and providing his input instead of insulting us. I like him, I like you and I like the poster who brought in different ideas about "Paul never existing" so we can learn more and have fun topic discussions without the hate! Thank's for the link Brokeback, working on it now. .Broke-back, how do you think the Jews made it to China by the time Marco Polo traveled there, was it due to the Khans and their tolerance and bringing order to that region why?
If you have not had the time to read John Marcos Allegro's works on the Essene Culture I recommend checking his ideas out because something made him change his entire view of Christianity chasing a story about a community in Quram all kicking back, a vegetarian culture where both sexes were considered equal. New myth writers claim St. Paul killed all of the Essenes or at least those who would not follow him. Paul changed them to "meat eaters", "downgraded the roles of females as inferior(Don't see that in Paul's writings, he was emphatic on taking care of the poor and needy widows, attacking men who left women abandoned as "worse than a dog!". Why was Paul's message met by the females with eagerness, he had something about him that made the marginalized feel good and have hope, something the Religious kept hidden from all non-elect Jews.
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Are Jehovah's Witnesses Christian or Cult, Do JWs Offer Solutions for Local and Global Problems of life?
by skepticSam inthe awake on "hope for the homelessness" was one of the worse illustrations how the cult has no love for anyone that can't provide donations to further this spiritual ponzi scheme!
the premise of this awake made no sense, i've read many books and took classes on social issues affecting mankind, the awake does not help fix the problem.
what did this magazine offer those who are suffering the humiliation of living out of their cars or "tent city" or under a bridge?
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skepticSam
"JWs are definitely on the 'Christian' spectrum. However, they view Christianity in a different way than the mainstream religions do, and there are reasons why it is this way.How they contribute to solving the troubles that plague humanity is done at a personal level, one a person at a time so to speak. Let me explain. In my Spanish cong there are several examples of individuals whose lives we lived while drinking in excess, smoking, drugs, and other unwise ways; since becoming JWs, these same people seem to live a better quality, cleaner life. So, rather than distributing food at the KH, the teachings dispensed there are spiritual food that, when put into practice, help the subject to take ownership of behavior and adjust it for a better outcome.
SL
While working on Kingdom Halls we have many people show up and ask if we had a "Mercy or Food Aid" to help the poor. A station-wagon with three crying hungry babies and two tweaked parents, not the first time and not the last. Piously we showed them our building and handed them a few donuts and snacks the congregation brought to help the workers. They were not really impressed and neither was I, I have seen from decades of being a elder and longer being a JW, we don't help like you claim. Maybe it's because I've been in the Mandarin, Spanish, Aremenian, Tagalogog, Hindi, French, English, and Japanese groups, perhaps I was too busy helping form these new language groups while attending two sets of meetings to see how we help them.
The first time I attended a local church (Non JW) that was deeply invovled in the community, I was shocked at how calloused our religion is. Than researching the Early Christian Church and how people benefited greatly by knowing a group that opened up it's arms to all instead of focusing on itself, that's when I realized JWs are not Christian, they are a offshoot of a White Adventist Religious Movement with no ties to anyone outside their congregation(as if being in a congregation is a guarentee the JWs will help their own. Many here have proof that JWs don't give shit about their own, so why would they care about the World and it's Poor?). This is just the ramblings of a Elder who is burned out after helping brothers start many language groups, often the new language people after learning English bailed on us because we offered them nothing of value, we don't preach Grace and boy do we judge each other's works harshly!
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Are Jehovah's Witnesses Christian or Cult, Do JWs Offer Solutions for Local and Global Problems of life?
by skepticSam inthe awake on "hope for the homelessness" was one of the worse illustrations how the cult has no love for anyone that can't provide donations to further this spiritual ponzi scheme!
the premise of this awake made no sense, i've read many books and took classes on social issues affecting mankind, the awake does not help fix the problem.
what did this magazine offer those who are suffering the humiliation of living out of their cars or "tent city" or under a bridge?
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skepticSam
DJ, a percentage have caused their own plight depending on which political party one has ties with. The Republicans never think helping the poor is a good idea, though they enjoy all the social programs their given too. When Mitt Romney ran for President, who was his VP? The VP who faked helping in a Food Kitchen, a VP whose father died and his mother lived off SSI because they had not enough money. A VP Candidate that showed no compassion towards those who are suffering what he went through because he's rich now! That's the problem with people, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have more money than several countries and refuse to turn a blind eye to social problems.
We have Republicans like Arnold, Tiger Woods, Micheal Jordan who are not known for charity, they all are the most selfish people and reflect the true "Self Made Man" spirit. Corporate America is aware the outsourcing they use is "slave labor", do they care, only if they get caught. Selfishness is something people don't like but if we are truly animals than why fight this quality? These same political figures say 'at least the 6 year old girl has work, better than starving to death", yes that's the spirit that will turn the White Republican Party in to a Dinosaur of the past. Even Ann Coulter is seeing the light, she knows they are going to become doomed because they are so greedy and don't care about humanity, she's actually cool off the air and in person!
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Are Jehovah's Witnesses Christian or Cult, Do JWs Offer Solutions for Local and Global Problems of life?
by skepticSam inthe awake on "hope for the homelessness" was one of the worse illustrations how the cult has no love for anyone that can't provide donations to further this spiritual ponzi scheme!
the premise of this awake made no sense, i've read many books and took classes on social issues affecting mankind, the awake does not help fix the problem.
what did this magazine offer those who are suffering the humiliation of living out of their cars or "tent city" or under a bridge?
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skepticSam
DJS, did you read my article and miss this key point?" It's the Watchtower that insinuated a Band-Aid solution, not me. The dynamics of all the homeless are beyond what any one agency can handle, no way in Hell a tract is going to solve these issues. That of mental illness(Republicans throwing out all the mentally ill on the streets when Ronnie Reagan did his famous "Great Dump" putting them outside to fend for themselves or locate a church to help them not starve to death. My post flowing, filled with factious comments how the Watchtower's twisted thinking that "Hope for Homeless" is based off "attending the Kingdom Hall", getting "cleaned up" and "Finding a home" thanks to the grand efforts of the Kingdom Hall members! It's not me who is claiming this works, I know all too well how complicated this issue is! It's the Watchtower who watered down the problem, their the ones who make it all sound so easy, don't you think DJS? You are probably one of my top 3 favorite posters, I thought you of all would catch my scathing sarcasm against these Dark Lords, peace to you DJ!
"The solutions are so simple and we all know what simpletons JWs are, they will read this magazine and think "Oh, those people are alcoholics, drug addicts, lazy and don't want the "lifesaving message of the Truth!" reinforcing the faulty statement I started this paragraph with, the solution to all these problems is far from simple, it's exhausting to the professionals who deal with this problem on a daily basis and must find ways to turn this off when they get home. I know people who work with teenagers that have babies living on the street, these church members seek them out, give them diapers, enough for half-a-week(If you give them a bag, some do take them back to the store for credit to buy beer and let the kids soak in fecal matter) and help get food for the mother and baby. The Social Workers are stumped, one of my friends read the magazine and asked "Are the writers 5 or 6 year-old because they make the issue so simple and vague, it's a way of shirking their responsibility towards the poor!"" -
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Dawn Bible Students Association and Ken Fernets
by Hold Me-Thrill Me inthe dawn bible students association has a problem.
ken fernets, when on the phone, shows his true colors to women who call.
he engages in flirtatious speech.
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skepticSam
Work's for me, I like women between 39-58 to flirt with, younger girls don't have all the skills of the older gals. Maybe he's developing some online Tinder or Craigslist Casual Encounters for Bible minded Men and Women? -
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Was The Apostle Paul Out Of His Mind? Or Just An Eccentric Megalomaniac?
by Brokeback Watchtower ini have some quotes from the new world bible from 2 cor 11&12 read them and give us your prognosis, he definitely thought very highly of himself, his vision that he received from the unconscious and inflated his ego for sure.
i'm sure this guy is over the top in his exaggerations about what he did and didn't do probably lots of denial about some of his own fraud being projected onto his boogie man rivals he sarcastically calls superfine apostles.. for i consider that i have not proved inferior to your superfine apostles in a single thing.+ 6 but even if i am unskilled in speech,+ i certainly am not in knowledge; indeed we made it clear to you in every way and in everything.....12 but what i am doing i will continue to do,+ in order to eliminate the pretext of those who are wanting a basis* for being found equal to us in the things* about which they boast.
13 for such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of christ.+ 14 and no wonder, for satan himself keeps disguising himself as an angel of light.+ 15 it is therefore nothing extraordinary if his ministers also keep disguising themselves as ministers of righteousness.
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skepticSam
Meglomaniac Definition
1. A psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence.2. An obsession with grandiose or extravagant things or actions.Psychopaths are destructive and eventually blow themselves out unless they have power (Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot) are examples of men who had positions except one of them did eventually go away after his destructive, emotionless and pitiless wicked actrocities on humanity.Comparing Paul's writings in 2 Corinthians to a "psychopath" or any psychological destructive personality abnormality, I don't see what your seeing. Can you explain how Paul might be like a "sociopath" or "psychopath" in his qualities? Psychopaths toy around with humans like a cat and a mouse, they lack the ability to have empathy, love and other normal qualities some of us are plagued by having too much love and empathy for our fellow man.Reading all Paul's Letters I read about a man who is worried the followers of Jesus Christ are going to get snatched up by con-men, men who are two-faced like Peter(Galatians 2) and treat the Flock with contempt. If Paul was here do you think he would allow the Governing Body to rob each person of their Christian Freedom? The followers of the Myth claim "Paul was too relaxed, he allowed followers to eat at temples or indulge from the meat sold by followers of Mithra", all because Paul said "Don't allow anyone to control your consciece", if Paul was a Meglo as you assume, he would be like the Governing Body that demanded total obedience!Paul in the book of Acts, he commends the Beroeans who were making sure what he taught was found in the Hebrew Scriptures, can you imagine a Watchtower Leader commending people for checking the entire Bible to make sure what they taught was not personal opinion but the message of the Prophets and Moses? No, once you found fault with their teaching, they would walk away and shun you, Paul was proud all these followers made sure they were obeying the Scriptures, not men! His entire premise is to have Christian Freedom and making sure your not being lead astray by every new teaching (Galatians 1-3), "Avoid men that are trying to mutilate the skin" "(Philippians 1-3)Are you of the mind Paul infiltrated and killed off the "Vegan Essenes" or believe the works of John Marcos Allegro's "Magic Mushroom" Jesus and Essene version of history? Those who accuse Paul of being this monster rely on texts that are not originals, they are made by enemies of the Christian movement and have some very strange ideas that don't reconcile with the Jewish Culture. The followers by Quram, until the Dead Sea Scrolls were found we knew very little about their life and interactions with humanity as a whole. Paul does not write like the Gnostic, I am sure they hated him because he warned about all the strange teachings that would come forward.If anyone tried to force their own minds on people the Gnostic and their rituals and blind obedience and claims "The only way to the Divine Forces through following one of the Gnostic leaders that achieved the level" "All material is bad" and "All Spirit is good". Which author did you read that lead you to your premise Paul was a psychopath, I would like to see which of the authors you read so I can enjoy them and see their source material, most people don't arrive at these conclusions, usually we need a nudge from someone with a different look on early history or anti-Christian writer, can you post the link you visited?