as we grow older and have more life experience we have an advantage in looking at our life as a whole.. we can see things from more than one perspective.
we can be wiser as our emotions cool.
hindsight gives us the power to judge outcomes.. for example, i was thinking about a 20 year chunk of my life.
Never being baptized. I think that I had the necessary brains, along with the friendly rivalry my high school friend provided, to become an architect, an engineer, something of that sort. All I needed was the confidence, something that I believe that being JW and being raised by a single, over-protective mother kept me from gaining.
But, as you say, who knows what the ultimate outcome would've been? Better to live the life now and look towards the future.
both claim to be the sole path to god (or did at some point ).
both claim to reach back to first century christians ,( though jw`s are a bit ambiguous about this).
the r.c church has a pope , the j.w.`s have a governing body ,both providing spiritual food to the faithful.
So, according to Sulla and the official church doctrine, the RCC is Christ's Church alone, correct? Can we please get a clarification on this? A simple yes or no?
I'd rather this be a learning experience for me. What does the Catholic Church have to offer? Why claim it as the sole truth?
judges 1:19 and the lord was with judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.
chariots of iron sounds like they had dodge ram trucks or something.
or maybe armored tanks.
i'd like extend a greeting to all members of jwn.
i've been a lurking by-stander of this forum for approximately 6 months.
i think this forum's best moments can be attributed to the involvement of actual jw's in doctrinaire discussions and to heated (though not always dialectic) debates.
Welcome Ethos! Perhaps it's people like you that will allow JW's to breach into the 'normal', and perhaps allow full-fledged discussions/debates such as those Russell had with other pastors of different denominations. With the internet and the passing days that shows that Armageddon is no where in sight, I think the GB will continue to loose control over the sheeple and actually have to engage the world... something they've only wanted to do when they've had the upper hand.
as a teenage jw, i grew up believing that i was not going to finish high school nor would i get old and have to die like my grandparents did.
well, i did finish high school, as did my children and my grandchildren and old age has not been kind to me.
i don't like to look at pictures from 40 years ago, from a time when i was healthy and i had the goal of "stay alive till 75.
But, you're still here. That's something. Why not pass on wisdom instead of sulking? There is still life to be lived...
peace to you!
i wanted to get some thoughts out there on this subject, because there are so many people who look to the bible as the image of god.
to the point that they do not look to christ at all, but rather they look to the law or to moses or to the ot as the image of god... over... christ.
Let's see... was the Law human or Divine? Let's start there.
do you guys (americans) know who won between obama and romney yet?
how long does it take?.
i listen to you guys so much on your political debates, that i feel very invested, lol.. peace,.
Tec... I thought you were American!....
So you actually traveled to America for Comic Con?!
i don't know about you, but i love saturday mornings...now that crawling out of bed on a cold november morning to go and knock on doors is no longer on the agenda.
does that sense of being free ever grow old?
i hope not any time soon at least.. this week we've had quite a few atheist vs believer threads along with speculation on what the actual numbers are on jwn :.
I love statistics.
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1) absolute autonomy—being free to do as they please
No such thing. It is only an ideal. The real world never works like that. Would you say the US, then, was founded on 'atheist' or 'occult' ideologies? Remember, this is the ideal strived for. Even then, with freedom also comes responsibility...
2) the lack of ultimate accountability—there are no eternal consequences for doing as they please.
You could say there are eternal consequences. A foolish mistake that would end life earlier would have eternal consequences. It would prevent you from living those extra minutes, hours, days, years, etc. and you would never gain that opportunity again (life).
Hmm... do you believe in hell? You've already stated you don't believe in Satan as a literal being... so what exactly is your theological position? How about you tell us your position first, instead of pissing on atheists?
