Since a number of people have argued that the gathering in congregation meetings or any sort of group activity is not a requirement for Christians, let me ask a general question - what was the purpose of the first century congregation and the appointed elders? Maybe if I could understand your perspective on that the lightbulb would begin to shine. (I mentioned earlier that this was the bit of Franz's book that didn't gel with me, so I think it's an important piece of the puzzle)
flamegrilled
JoinedPosts by flamegrilled
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238
Active JW understands flaws in WTS doctrine but believes in the Bible
by flamegrilled inperhaps this is a common topic for newbies on the site, but i have browsed for a while and not seen this exactly answered.. as an active jw who understands the flaws in wts doctrine, but believes in the bible, how do i identify a form of worship that meets all the criterea:.
1) by this all will know you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves (john 13:35).
sure i know that not all jws do this, and that people from other religions or non-religious people do this also, but as an official doctrine jws will not kill one another in war, and in general there is a genuine effort to exercise "agape" love not widely found in the world at large.. 2) preach the good news.
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238
Active JW understands flaws in WTS doctrine but believes in the Bible
by flamegrilled inperhaps this is a common topic for newbies on the site, but i have browsed for a while and not seen this exactly answered.. as an active jw who understands the flaws in wts doctrine, but believes in the bible, how do i identify a form of worship that meets all the criterea:.
1) by this all will know you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves (john 13:35).
sure i know that not all jws do this, and that people from other religions or non-religious people do this also, but as an official doctrine jws will not kill one another in war, and in general there is a genuine effort to exercise "agape" love not widely found in the world at large.. 2) preach the good news.
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flamegrilled
SA - but the implication of what you are suggesting is that what is written in each of Paul's letters is directed only to the specific recipients mentioned in each salutation. If his words to the Hebrews don't apply to the Romans or to us, then his letter to the Romans don't apply to the Corinthians or to us either. The final result of that logic is that nothing in any of his letter applies to us. That doesn't work for me.
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238
Active JW understands flaws in WTS doctrine but believes in the Bible
by flamegrilled inperhaps this is a common topic for newbies on the site, but i have browsed for a while and not seen this exactly answered.. as an active jw who understands the flaws in wts doctrine, but believes in the bible, how do i identify a form of worship that meets all the criterea:.
1) by this all will know you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves (john 13:35).
sure i know that not all jws do this, and that people from other religions or non-religious people do this also, but as an official doctrine jws will not kill one another in war, and in general there is a genuine effort to exercise "agape" love not widely found in the world at large.. 2) preach the good news.
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flamegrilled
ShadesofGrey - do you mean Paul rather than Cornelius then? Can you just say who you are talking about and I'll respond? I already mentioned Paul in my earlier post.
wobble - you say "not a clear scriptural grasp of what the kingdom is". I'm not convinced about that. I've asked people outside of JWs to explain the kingdom and it's so vague. I do believe that the Kingdom is God's government with Christ as king. I do believe that it is His means of reconciling all things to Himself as per his original purpose. I do believe there is scriptural support for this view.
Again, JW's might not have everything right, but personally I think they do have a reasonable idea about what the kingdom is.
You might have a really good and better explanation of the kingdom, and I would be happy to hear that, but generally speaking when I talk to Chrsitians about what God's kingdom is I don't come away feeling that they have a clear scriptural grasp either.
Now someone's going to say that's because it doesn't measure up to WT doctrine. Maybe so. I'm open to that idea. I'll wipe the slate clean and compare two different ideas from scratch if that's what it takes.
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238
Active JW understands flaws in WTS doctrine but believes in the Bible
by flamegrilled inperhaps this is a common topic for newbies on the site, but i have browsed for a while and not seen this exactly answered.. as an active jw who understands the flaws in wts doctrine, but believes in the bible, how do i identify a form of worship that meets all the criterea:.
1) by this all will know you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves (john 13:35).
sure i know that not all jws do this, and that people from other religions or non-religious people do this also, but as an official doctrine jws will not kill one another in war, and in general there is a genuine effort to exercise "agape" love not widely found in the world at large.. 2) preach the good news.
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flamegrilled
ee - glad to give you a good laugh. Anyway, moving on ...
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238
Active JW understands flaws in WTS doctrine but believes in the Bible
by flamegrilled inperhaps this is a common topic for newbies on the site, but i have browsed for a while and not seen this exactly answered.. as an active jw who understands the flaws in wts doctrine, but believes in the bible, how do i identify a form of worship that meets all the criterea:.
1) by this all will know you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves (john 13:35).
sure i know that not all jws do this, and that people from other religions or non-religious people do this also, but as an official doctrine jws will not kill one another in war, and in general there is a genuine effort to exercise "agape" love not widely found in the world at large.. 2) preach the good news.
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flamegrilled
ShadesofGrey - who are you refering to in those chapers - Cornelius? Or someone else?
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238
Active JW understands flaws in WTS doctrine but believes in the Bible
by flamegrilled inperhaps this is a common topic for newbies on the site, but i have browsed for a while and not seen this exactly answered.. as an active jw who understands the flaws in wts doctrine, but believes in the bible, how do i identify a form of worship that meets all the criterea:.
1) by this all will know you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves (john 13:35).
sure i know that not all jws do this, and that people from other religions or non-religious people do this also, but as an official doctrine jws will not kill one another in war, and in general there is a genuine effort to exercise "agape" love not widely found in the world at large.. 2) preach the good news.
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flamegrilled
ShadesofGrey - "First, one must go to Christ. Then Christ will lead you to the group of people he wants you with. "
That sounds great. I like the idea of it. My hesitance in believing that it is entirely true is due to the pattern set by the early Christians. Are there any examples of converts who established a relationship with Christ in isolation and then he led them to a group? I can't think of any. The gospel was preached and then as people learned the truth about Christ they joined themselves to the church that taught them. (Paul was obviously a special case, but then the Lord approached him, not the other way around).
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238
Active JW understands flaws in WTS doctrine but believes in the Bible
by flamegrilled inperhaps this is a common topic for newbies on the site, but i have browsed for a while and not seen this exactly answered.. as an active jw who understands the flaws in wts doctrine, but believes in the bible, how do i identify a form of worship that meets all the criterea:.
1) by this all will know you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves (john 13:35).
sure i know that not all jws do this, and that people from other religions or non-religious people do this also, but as an official doctrine jws will not kill one another in war, and in general there is a genuine effort to exercise "agape" love not widely found in the world at large.. 2) preach the good news.
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flamegrilled
elderelite - "all manner of information"? I haven't asked a single thing except why one person who appeared to be completely opposed to JW teaching would be on FS previous day. I still hold that it was a reasonable question, and once the answer was given I stopped asking.
I don't want to argue about the evident contradiction in the remainer of your post. If you would be so kind then I won't judge you, and I'd expect the same in return.
I've been honest. My motivation for being here is not to make friends (sorry). It's also not to be an apologist for JWs or to trash anyones point of view. I think that must all be obvious from my responses. I am here to explore some interesting views in relation to the honest question posted at the outset. I hope that's sufficient criteria for joining the board and having the discussion. If not then that's no problem. If it's necessary to share a personal history in order to be here then I'd just prefer not. I can respectfully take my leave.
Either way it hasn't been a waste of time. Some interesting ideas have been expressed by a number of posters, so I appreciate that.
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238
Active JW understands flaws in WTS doctrine but believes in the Bible
by flamegrilled inperhaps this is a common topic for newbies on the site, but i have browsed for a while and not seen this exactly answered.. as an active jw who understands the flaws in wts doctrine, but believes in the bible, how do i identify a form of worship that meets all the criterea:.
1) by this all will know you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves (john 13:35).
sure i know that not all jws do this, and that people from other religions or non-religious people do this also, but as an official doctrine jws will not kill one another in war, and in general there is a genuine effort to exercise "agape" love not widely found in the world at large.. 2) preach the good news.
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flamegrilled
N.Drew - with regards to the maning of "gathering ourselves" it's possible that you are correct. The phrase is only elsewhere used in 2 Thes 2:1 and it means exactly what you say.
Nevertheless, even if that's true the NT is pretty clear that the early Christians had congregation, that teaching took place there, that elders were appointed.
And the scripture also includes "incite to love and fine works ... encouraging one another, and all the more so as you behold the day drawing near." It's true that could be acheived outside of group gatherings, but overall the scriptures seem to set a pattern for the church that meeting together for these purposes and for instruction is something instituted and encouraged by God. That's the way I read it.
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238
Active JW understands flaws in WTS doctrine but believes in the Bible
by flamegrilled inperhaps this is a common topic for newbies on the site, but i have browsed for a while and not seen this exactly answered.. as an active jw who understands the flaws in wts doctrine, but believes in the bible, how do i identify a form of worship that meets all the criterea:.
1) by this all will know you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves (john 13:35).
sure i know that not all jws do this, and that people from other religions or non-religious people do this also, but as an official doctrine jws will not kill one another in war, and in general there is a genuine effort to exercise "agape" love not widely found in the world at large.. 2) preach the good news.
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flamegrilled
miles3 -
"Althought hell is a spitefull doctrine, at least you can get out of it after having been punished enough"
I didn't know that. I didn't want to get into these other doctrines here, but since I am ignorrant on this one please could you explain how that works? I thought the doctrine was that once you go there you are there for good. If I am wrong I would like to understand from scripture what the alternative is.
With regards to the rest of your post I can understand your perspective. If you don't believe any of the same fundamentals of scripture that I believe then you are not going to see things my way, and you'll just feel my original question is a moot point. I understand that. So really my question is only directed to people who believe that the the three points are valid in Christian theology and that believe there is a way that one can meet those requirements.
I'm not trying to avoid the argument, it's just not an argument that I need to have, since I have spent a lot of time satisfying myself that the scriptures are valid. I totally respect your right to see things otherwise. Of course I would like to convince you that you are wrong about that, but we'd get into volumes of information that are not related to the topic at hand and it sounds like you have reached your conclusions based on a lot of research anyway, so you just arrive at a different conclusion to me. Yes, I could be wrong, and I certainly don't have all the answers, but I do have enough evidence to satisfy myself that abandoning scripture altogether is not the way to go. One thing that I would say in general from my research is I've learned that a lot of things have been recorded about ancient history, and the level of evidence for the "facts"asserted varies wildly. It's really important to peel off the layers and substantiate everything. The number of times I've checked out the "facts" and found that they led to suposition and conjecture is just astounding.
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238
Active JW understands flaws in WTS doctrine but believes in the Bible
by flamegrilled inperhaps this is a common topic for newbies on the site, but i have browsed for a while and not seen this exactly answered.. as an active jw who understands the flaws in wts doctrine, but believes in the bible, how do i identify a form of worship that meets all the criterea:.
1) by this all will know you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves (john 13:35).
sure i know that not all jws do this, and that people from other religions or non-religious people do this also, but as an official doctrine jws will not kill one another in war, and in general there is a genuine effort to exercise "agape" love not widely found in the world at large.. 2) preach the good news.
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flamegrilled
... should have been "more parties than Christ" in case you were trying to look up "parites" in the dictionary :)