i spent most of my life in the org.
we were taught that our purpose in life was to serve jehovah.
that never really made sense to me, but it was still a purpose to keep going.
I agree that there is no self evident meaning or purpose in life. However, Jesus said, "I have come that you may have life and that you might have it more abundantly. That sounds to me like a relationship overflowing with meaning and purpose.
I see you did find meaning and purpose in your marriage. As a believer, I see sacrificial love in marriage as a picture of ultimate meaning and purpose.
if anyone were to come up to you claiming that they are the faithful and discreet slave, how would you go about proving them to be false, based upon scripture?.
estephan.
I could accept your first paragraph with the following correction
"The 'faithful and discreet slave' or steward described in Matthew 24:45-46 and Luke 12: 41-48 are both parables which describe not only Christians as individuals being faithful to the Master's commands in being diligent in carrying responsibilities of discipleship and to heed the exhortation to 'Keep on the Watch!' but also as a collective - the true Church of anointed Christians. The context of these parables is eschatological which pertains to events beginning in 1914 CE with the birth of God's Kingdom and the Parousia. that will transpire when Christ returns, i.e., at the parousia of the Lord Jesus Christ.
1914, 1918, 1919 1922, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1928, 1929, 1975 all mythologically manufactured bogus dates with no evident biblical significance..
if anyone were to come up to you claiming that they are the faithful and discreet slave, how would you go about proving them to be false, based upon scripture?.
estephan.
Every faithful anointed follower of Jesus Christ from the first to the twenty-first century.
do jw's still believe that babylon the great is the empire of false religion?
inquiring minds want to know .
estephan.
Well said TD.
And for example, i see almosr all of Matthew 24 applying to Christ's generation, not the 1914 or the 1934 or the 21st century generation.
what are some of the red flags that should alert people to the fact that jehovah's witnesses are a high control and damaging religion?.
one that comes to mind is.
1. one cannot leave jehovah's witnesses with one's reputation intact.
Ratigan,
Are not simple leavers who leave a note behind as to why they are leaving classified as apostates who are hated by Witnesses. Or have you forhotten that Morris said "I hate them!" while declaring they will soon be snuffed out as he blew out a match for illustration.
what are some of the red flags that should alert people to the fact that jehovah's witnesses are a high control and damaging religion?.
one that comes to mind is.
1. one cannot leave jehovah's witnesses with one's reputation intact.
Fisherman
This is not about me.
You say that many are justifiably good weaklings but these weak ones should be strong enough to bear the shame of unjust defamation ...as well as the rejection of family and friends. Sorry, you can't have it both ways.
do jw's still believe that babylon the great is the empire of false religion?
inquiring minds want to know .
estephan.
One of the simplest, yet strongest clues that Jerusalem is to be understood as the harlot of Babylon is that John seems to give the answer away directly to the observant reader in a couple of key places in Revelation. At the end of chapter 17, the interpreting angel tells John the identity of the adulterous woman explicitly: “The woman whom you saw is the great city which has dominion over the kings of the earth” (hJ gunh h}n eide" e[stin hJ povli" hJ megavlh hJ e[cousa basileivan ejpi tw'n basilevwn th'" gh'"). This phrase “the great city” seems to be set forth with the assumption that the reader knows what city that would be, and the phrase is tossed around several more times in this passage.47 Moreover, the phrase appears to be used quite exclusively in the book of Revelation. Outside of this passage, in which it occurs many times, all of which clearly refer to Babylon, the phrase only appears twice in the rest of this twenty-two-chapter book. The first, and most important occurrence of the designation “the great city” is in 11:8, which reads, “And [the two witnesses’] bodies will lie in the street of the great city which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified” (to ptw'ma aujtw'n ejpi th'" plateiva" th'" povlew" th'" megavlh" h{ti" kalei'tai pneumatikw'" Sovdoma kai Ai[gupto" o{pou kai oJ kuvrio" aujtw'n ejstaurwvqh).48
what are some of the red flags that should alert people to the fact that jehovah's witnesses are a high control and damaging religion?.
one that comes to mind is.
1. one cannot leave jehovah's witnesses with one's reputation intact.
What are some of the red flags that should alert people to the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses are a high control and damaging religion?
One that comes to mind is
1. One cannot leave Jehovah's Witnesses with one's reputation intact.
romans 1:18-31.
18 the wrath of god is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about god is plain to them, because god has made it plain to them.
20 for since the creation of the world god’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.. 21 for although they knew god, they neither glorified him as god nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
"The Book of Wisdom (also called Wisdom of Solomon or just Wisdom) is one of the books of the Old Testament. It has been grouped among the Septuagint, or the seven wisdom books of the Bible. It is part of the Catholic and Orthodox Biblical canon, put forward by the Council of Carthage in 397 and confirmed by Catholic leaders at the Council of Trent in 1546. It was written by a Jew in Ancient Egypt in the 1st century BC and talks about wisdom among other themes."
there are good reasons to belief that paul wrote hebrews.
i am convinced he wrote it.
is there any any convincing evidence or argument that can validate the belief?.
"Origen’s words about the author still ring true today: “God only knows.”"
