back in bible times, the common literary style was in parables, metaphors, and allegories.
the reason for this is that the spiritual truths they were trying to convey are too abstract and difficult to express in literal terms.
the bible itself says that not a word jesus spoke was literal:.
According to Paul, the story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar is an allegory.
What? That's ridiculous. Paul as a good Jew revered Abraham as an historical figurehead of his race.
In John 8:56-59 says, "'Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.' 57 The Jews therefore said to Him, 'You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?' 58 Jesus said to them, 'Truly truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.'
what happened to the original christian churches named in the bible - philadelphia, thessolonica, ephesus, smyrna, pergamum, thyatira, sardis, and laodicea to name a few?
one would think that since these were the original churches, if we could trace the history of these churches down to our day, we could find who is preaching truth today.
obviously this doesn't lie with jws because it is a new religion, although i do not doubt the sincerity of their belief.. there are two likely cases that i can see: 1) these became what is now known as the roman catholic church, 2) the roman catholic church was an apostate christianity that seperated from these true churches and used their power to snuff out the true churches from history.. which one do you think is correct?
Which one do you think is correct?
This is an interesting question. I used to think that this question is silly because the truth doesn't live in a religion it exists wholly with God. "Your Word is truth"..... "I am the Way, the Truth and.... In the beginning was the Word.
But, Ive since softened a little and can say that religion does matter. Where you find a body of believers preaching faith in CHRIST ALONE for salvation from judgment after you die....you won't be far off. Also, when members display a servant attitude, it is a good indicator of "correctness".
when i was a kid in the early 90's there always seemed to be a mention of how demons posessing people or how if you saw a demon or something supernatural occuring mearly calling jehovah's name would rid you of the situation.
rarely now a days do you hear anything of the sort.
that got me to thinking, what are some other topics the society has backed off of?
I haven't heard much about the anti-typical wide-mouth cooking pot lately or the secretary with the writer's inkhorn.
Funny how when Franz got too old and died, much of the prophetic craziness left with him.
GB: It is reccommended to study WT publications at your "bible studies".
Q: But why can't we just study the bible at our bible studies?
GB: Because many have become apostate by doing that, that's why!
So sad. I love God more and more each day. My life could not be better since ditching religion and becoming identified solely with Jesus.
God is Love.
so is the christian hope in heaven or on earth?.
in acts chapter 1the question was raised: 6 so when they had assembled, they asked him: lord, are you restoring the kingdom to israel at this time?
7 he said to them: it does not belong to you to know the times or seasons that the father has placed in his own jurisdiction.. notice jesus never said thered be a change in venue, just that it wasnt up to them to know when..... so what is there from both sides?
Good Suggestions EOMysteries. Keep in mind that the OT Prophets could not see the Church Age. They could however see into the Millenium. The church age (Times of the Gentiles) was a mystery to them.
so is the christian hope in heaven or on earth?.
in acts chapter 1the question was raised: 6 so when they had assembled, they asked him: lord, are you restoring the kingdom to israel at this time?
7 he said to them: it does not belong to you to know the times or seasons that the father has placed in his own jurisdiction.. notice jesus never said thered be a change in venue, just that it wasnt up to them to know when..... so what is there from both sides?
I wished that I could tell you to just ask an average bible-believing church going Christian. But, that probably won't get you very far. The reason that so many Christians talked about heaven when we met them at the door is that they just assumed that we knew about Judgment Day. They assumed wrong about us.
The whole purpose of the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament was about avoiding judgment. The animal paid the death penalty for sin IN PLACE OF the one offering it.
The destination of those pardoned is God's business. Most born again Christians are so happy to be pardoned, and to actually know it in their spirit, they never really study past this teaching and look into the Millenium.
My website is bibleready.org I have a lot of info there. You can email me if you want me to.
Most pastors of decent bile churches will help you as well as several of the more studious in the congregation body as well . This is common stuff in bible-believing Christianity. High church type christianity.... not so much.
so is the christian hope in heaven or on earth?.
in acts chapter 1the question was raised: 6 so when they had assembled, they asked him: lord, are you restoring the kingdom to israel at this time?
7 he said to them: it does not belong to you to know the times or seasons that the father has placed in his own jurisdiction.. notice jesus never said thered be a change in venue, just that it wasnt up to them to know when..... so what is there from both sides?
Because this is the after-death destination of people who Now escape personal judgment. This was opened up to the Gentiles because the Nation of Israel (Jehovah's wife-like people) rejected "the Lord of Glory". Once the Bride of Christ is filled, others who escape judgment will live on earth.
Paul was the "Apostle to the Nations" (Gentiles) so he wrote a lot about their destiny. But it's still all about escaping judgment. There is no need what-so-ever for anyone to end up at the Great White Throne Judgment where their eternal condition is on the line.
it's been a couple of years since i checked in here and wanted to see what's up with y'all.
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what's the most interesting thing to happen in jw land in the last two years?.
Only the 144,000 are declared righteous in the biblical sense of being justified. For everyone else, they assure you that you can still be God's friend even without being legally declared righteous.
Can you guess what it takes to be "God's Friend".
as we know, we can search the bible from cover to cover and we dont find any reference to the governing body.
not now, it has been slipped in for the outine of contents for acts 15. here we are looking at history through a modern, distorting lens.. outline of contents.
dispute in antioch regarding circumcision (1, 2)question brought to jerusalem (3-5)elders and apostles meet together (6-21)letter from the governing body (22-29)?
