We do not have infallible understanding, but God communicates what we need to know clearly enough (otherwise He is a jerk and could not hold us responsible). The main teaching of Scripture is clear. Obscure verses and debates will not affect one's ability to know God or our destiny. You underestimate the ability to know truth from error.
godrulz
JoinedPosts by godrulz
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328
Jesus Is Jehovah/Jehovah Is Jesus
by snowbird inhttp://www.str.org/site/news2?page=newsarticle&id=5725.
i fought against this with all my wts-trained power, but truth prevailed.. any way you cut it, it comes out the same.. peace and strength in your search.. sylvia.
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328
Jesus Is Jehovah/Jehovah Is Jesus
by snowbird inhttp://www.str.org/site/news2?page=newsarticle&id=5725.
i fought against this with all my wts-trained power, but truth prevailed.. any way you cut it, it comes out the same.. peace and strength in your search.. sylvia.
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godrulz
The text is clear (perspicuity of Scripture), but like the Pharisees, there is a spiritual blindess over those who reject the light they have. For hundreds of millions of Christians, the Deity of Christ and Trinity is clear in Scripture (even if all of them cannot adequately explain it to a JW). Many verses and principles point to Jesus being more than a created being, but God Himself. He has the names, titles, attributes of Deity. He receives worship (something reserved for God alone) and honor. He makes claims of equality with God and does His works (Jews get it and want to stone him for blasphemy, but still reject the claim). Fuzziness means you need glasses and the illumination of the Spirit. Don't be like Russell who put reason/rationalism above the revelation of Scripture.
Jn. 1:1 and Jn. 20:28 are sufficient, but there are dozens of others to confirm it. The few Arian verses can be dealt with if one understands (vs straw man) the trinity and incarnation (Jn. 14:28; Rev. 3:14; Col. 1:15; I Cor. 15, etc.).
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Does the WTBS still push private Bible reading as much as 10-20 yrs ago?
by unshackled infriday at 4pm pacific is probably not the best time for this.
but what the hell...trying to kill the last hour of work here.. in my years as a dub and before i faded about 8 years ago i recall private bible reading was regularly encouraged by the org.. there was the weekly bible reading schedules to keep up on, remember it being repeated in publications the importance of reading your bible, and then the bethelite stories i heard where you were required to read the entire bible.. so, do they they still stress it as much as they used to?
they are increasingly placing the governing body as the ultimate authority, squeezing out jehovah and jesus, and stressing that you need the gb's publications to properly understand the bible.. based on that, wouldn't encouraging personal bible reading suggest you can understand it on your own and detract from their brain-numbing publications?.
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godrulz
I hold their literature and the Bible. I put the lit on top of the Bible to illustrate what they are doing. Then I put the Bible on top of the lit and look through it to show what God expects us to do with any non-biblical writing. The WT has so many extra/contrabiblical views that I cringe and cry.
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328
Jesus Is Jehovah/Jehovah Is Jesus
by snowbird inhttp://www.str.org/site/news2?page=newsarticle&id=5725.
i fought against this with all my wts-trained power, but truth prevailed.. any way you cut it, it comes out the same.. peace and strength in your search.. sylvia.
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godrulz
Christianity is embraced by some of the greatest intellectuals in history. Either it is objectively true/defensible or it is not. Not everyone thinks things through well, but those who do should end up affirming the biblical worldview, especially the existence of God revealed in Christ.
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12
Does the WTBS still push private Bible reading as much as 10-20 yrs ago?
by unshackled infriday at 4pm pacific is probably not the best time for this.
but what the hell...trying to kill the last hour of work here.. in my years as a dub and before i faded about 8 years ago i recall private bible reading was regularly encouraged by the org.. there was the weekly bible reading schedules to keep up on, remember it being repeated in publications the importance of reading your bible, and then the bethelite stories i heard where you were required to read the entire bible.. so, do they they still stress it as much as they used to?
they are increasingly placing the governing body as the ultimate authority, squeezing out jehovah and jesus, and stressing that you need the gb's publications to properly understand the bible.. based on that, wouldn't encouraging personal bible reading suggest you can understand it on your own and detract from their brain-numbing publications?.
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godrulz
From Russell forward, they consider the Bible a closed book apart from the guidance of 'God's organization'. Practically, there is no room for independent Bible interpretation or disagreement with WT (without risking DF). One must believe something, even if it is false, until 'new light' comes along. This ensures uniformity, but not truth or biblical unity. I remind the JWs at my door to read the WT through the eyes of the Bible, not vice versa (they may think they are, but they are not since they default to WT views/indoctrination). I have the freedom to exegete the text and critically compare it to claims made by other religions or believers (cf. Bereans). The other problem is their reliance on sectarian NWT which is a pathetic translation on all fronts. Using the KIT would help, especially relating to the Deity of Christ verses they twist to their own destruction.
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328
Jesus Is Jehovah/Jehovah Is Jesus
by snowbird inhttp://www.str.org/site/news2?page=newsarticle&id=5725.
i fought against this with all my wts-trained power, but truth prevailed.. any way you cut it, it comes out the same.. peace and strength in your search.. sylvia.
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godrulz
The gospel is the power of God for those who believe, but it is foolishness for those who are perishing (Rom. 1:16; I Cor. 1:18). If you really understood the issues facing the Moral Governor of the universe in reconciling sinful man to holy God, you would see the love and wisdom and power of God Himself dying for us that we may live. You are a gnat trying to question/understand the infinite.
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328
Jesus Is Jehovah/Jehovah Is Jesus
by snowbird inhttp://www.str.org/site/news2?page=newsarticle&id=5725.
i fought against this with all my wts-trained power, but truth prevailed.. any way you cut it, it comes out the same.. peace and strength in your search.. sylvia.
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godrulz
Jesus is YHWH, period, not just for all intents/purposes (either He is uncreated Creator/Almighty or He is subordinate creature). This is THE pivotal issue that makes WT cultic, not Christian.
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122
Judas and Unforgivable Sin
by corpusdei ini'll be the first to admit that i haven't done the research on this one, and i can't remember the answer from my jw days - but there's something bothering me about the scenario of judas and his betrayal of jesus.. considering that the betrayal of jesus by judas was foretold in prophecy, it was essentially set in stone.
it was going to happen, it was an absolute because divine prophecy is correct.
judas had to betray jesus in order to fulfil prophecy.. now, i've always personally believed that a person does not sin by an act that they cannot avoid, but this seems like kind of the motherload of standing on the traintracks.
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godrulz
Christians debate non-essential, peripheral issues. We are talking about Christian vs cultist on the essential issues such as Deity/resurrection of Christ, salvation by grace through faith alone apart from works, Bible as Word of God, etc. A Mormon and a Christian are not fellow believers unable to agree. They are diametrically opposed, mutually exclusive religions debating eternal destiny issues.
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Were you ever DF'd? For what and how long?
by QuestioningEverything ini was df'd when i was 20 or so for fornication.
i got reinstated when i was 24. i had a son during that time and i was worried about us if we didn't get back to the fold and 'protection' of the organization.
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godrulz
Russell and the Presidents of WT were essentially popes. Church discipline in the early days was not too strict. Russell said: 'The Lord's word does not authorize any court of the Elders, or anyone else, to become busybodies. THis would be going back to the practices of the Dark Ages during the inquisition; and we would be showing the same spirit as did the inquisitors.' Early freedom has been replaced by tyrannical judicial committees, harsh shunning, unbiblical disfellowshipping. Due to his beliefs and practices, Russell would be disfellowshipped today from his own organization (as would Rutherford, etc.)?!
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122
Judas and Unforgivable Sin
by corpusdei ini'll be the first to admit that i haven't done the research on this one, and i can't remember the answer from my jw days - but there's something bothering me about the scenario of judas and his betrayal of jesus.. considering that the betrayal of jesus by judas was foretold in prophecy, it was essentially set in stone.
it was going to happen, it was an absolute because divine prophecy is correct.
judas had to betray jesus in order to fulfil prophecy.. now, i've always personally believed that a person does not sin by an act that they cannot avoid, but this seems like kind of the motherload of standing on the traintracks.
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godrulz
The Ps. 82 context is using 'gods' as a delegated authority of judges. They are rebuked for being unjust and false gods. This is not an argument for the divinity of humans (Mormons use the same proof text for their exaltation to gods theory, but it is not saying what they think it is; this is the original lie of Satan in the garden; there are so-called gods, false gods, but only one true God; creation is ontologically distinct and different from God/Creator).
The Bible is selective history. The Spirit did not deem it necessary to say that Judas hanged from a tree over a cliff. There are many other places/truths that do not go into even more important detail on any given subject. This lack of detail does not negate the truths of the statements that are not contradictory. It is not an argument against inspiration.
There are other places where two contexts are spliced and credit is only given to the major prophet. This is a convention of the writer, not a contradiction. Matthew saw these events as a fulfillment of a Jeremiah prophecy (it is not necessarily predictive prophecy, but using OT verses by way of parallel illustration...as seen in other contexts, even about Jesus...again, a convention used by the Spirit...the context about Jesus in Egypt seems out of context, but it is parallel and is applied as an illustration, not as absolute prediction). Matthew quoted primarily from Zechariah (close resemblance; there are also issues with Septuagint vs Masoretic text at times). But there are also similarities between Mt. and Jeremiah's ideas in Jeremiah 19:1,4,6,11. Mt. referred to Jer. because he had both prophets in mind, but only gave credit to the major vs minor one (cf. Mk. 1:2-3 where Mark mentions Isaiah/major, but quotes from Is. AND Malachi).
Another possible explanation is that Jeremiah, in the Babylonian Talmud (Baba Bathra 14b), was placed first among the prophets, and his books represented all the other prophetic books.