from the 2013 new world translation 2 tim.
all scripture is inspired of god and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, so that the man of god may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.. .
as jw's we must have read that scripture a thousand times.
As JWs we thought the watchtower(tm) represented the bible with that spin 'bible based'.
Amazing how they succeeded in replacing the bible with the Watchtower and replacing Christ as Mediator with themselves as mediator...all with such simple word spins like the example you provide above.
from the 2013 new world translation 2 tim.
all scripture is inspired of god and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, so that the man of god may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.. .
as jw's we must have read that scripture a thousand times.
The book of Enoch is a history book, like the book of Jasher, which is mentioned by name twice in the bible and quoted once, if I recall. The Book of Enoch, Jasher, and others while interesting, are not Scripture. The Holy Spirit did not lead the church to include them in the canon of Scripture.
I think Paul's words are on point here:
As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.
from the 2013 new world translation 2 tim.
all scripture is inspired of god and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, so that the man of god may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.. .
as jw's we must have read that scripture a thousand times.
Many good points RJ .... you ratchet the issue up to the next level.
It is not a book that one should be listening to, but Christ himself..... No book can be "the way, the truth and the life."
Right On. The bible is sort of a tutor (like The Law) leading us to Christ himself.
But remember, "faith cometh by hearing". I remember the first time I read in a majority text NT bible that "God was manifest in the flesh" as opposed to "he was manifest in the flesh". I literally leaped out of bed.
from the 2013 new world translation 2 tim.
all scripture is inspired of god and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, so that the man of god may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.. .
as jw's we must have read that scripture a thousand times.
It's strange that for 3/4 of the history of Christianity, the so-called word of God was not available to anyone except the clergy, yet the churches survived.
Research the history of the majority text. Generally speaking the RCC were keepers of the minority text. In the majority text camp, there are thousands of extant bible manuscripts from throughout the last 2000 years that we have written in Italic, old latin, Latin, Syriac, Greek, and Aramaic copy fragments. This is not including songbooks, lectionairies, bible semons etc.
In the 1400's Erasmus was fascinated by how much he found circulating around Europe during his travels. He bought as many as he could find. Of course, for the average non-catholic believer, (ie., faith in Christ Alone by Faith Alone), being found with many of these materials meant the inquisition, with a minimum of having their property confiscated by the RCC, if not death for not recanting the "heresy".
from the 2013 new world translation 2 tim.
all scripture is inspired of god and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, so that the man of god may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.. .
as jw's we must have read that scripture a thousand times.
Just for the record, there are thousands of thousands of churches that refuse to preach or teach out of any book other than the bible .
Personaly, I would never attend any church that uses any textbook other than the bible . I'm sure many are fine. They are just not for me.
I agree. Even though I’m now agnostic and haven’t “found Jesus” as Perry thinks he has, I admit that I have never thought about the point he made about 2Ti 3:16,17. That is a powerful point to use on JWs.
So, why does it make sense to make the same mistake twice? I mean, if real belief in, and adherence to 2 Tim 3:16-17 could have saved us all from an abominable cult, is it possible that it could also save us from other equally unprofitable endeavors or worldviews? Without 2 Tim. 3: 16-17 ; how could a person be sure that he was not simply drilling out of one prison cell into another?
he replied that Jehovah reads the heart and that he would not destroy those who were not presented the message...so I said why do we preach if the people who never hear the message have a better chance of survival? His reply was that we have to start teaching some of them now because who is going to teach the resurrected ones during the milenium?
You are so right. WT reasoning is so anti-biblical. If people can escape judgment by simply not hearing the WT message, then we were really doing a disservice to people, securing their condemnation when they declined out literature.
Also, if we can get a "clean slate" just by dying, like a lot of JW's believe, shouldn't we all be seeking to die before Aramgeddon to secure our salvation?
Likewise, if we don't need Jesus to be our Mediator, why did he die for Adam?
The simple biblical answer is "that it is appointed for man once to die, and then judgment - Heb 11:27 Jesus however stands in the place of the believer and takes the death penalty in his place by means of the legally recognized New Covenant.
That such a simple legal maneuver by God could be made so hidden to "Christians" is amazing to say the least.
after missing 63 years of birthday celebrations, i'm making up for it in spades.
cake, presents & parties.
i tell everyone i meet that today is my birthday just to hear them say "happy birthday".
((((((( Happy Birthday )))))))
i'm researching for an article on religious torture, how the un condemns physical and psychological torture and how that applies to witness shunning and ran across the information below on mediatorship.
<a href="http://imgur.com/rrqt8ei"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/rrqt8ei.jpg" title="hosted by imgur.com" /></a> .
[url=http://imgur.com/rrqt8ei][img]http://i.imgur.com/rrqt8ei.jpg[/img][/url] .
Designs,
Moses was the mediator of the first covenant.
In Heb 9:18-20, in order to demonstrate the necessity of Christ's death as the means by which he became the mediator of the new covenant, the author recalls the fact that the first covenant was inaugurated with blood. To make this point, he refers to Exodus 24:1-8, an account of the ratification of the covenant by Moses—the mediator of the first covenant—between God and the Israelites.
In this rite, the people declared their willingness to do all the words of the Lord and the ordinances (Exod 24:3). Half of the blood of the calves Moses threw it against the altar, but he used the other half to sprinkle on the people, saying "This is the blood of the covenant." (Rather than "Behold..." in LXX Exod 24:8, the author uses "This is...," which is parallel to Mark 14:24 "This is my blood of the covenant.") The point is that the new covenant is also ratified with blood, so that Jesus’ blood is the blood of the (new) covenant.
Implicit in the author's theologizing is the position that the blood of the animals are anti-typological of Jesus' blood, i.e., death, as the means by which the new covenant is inaugurated. (On this passage, see J. Dunnill, Covenant and Sacrifice in the Letter to the Hebrews , 126-34)
I suppose there could be a "Judaism" without Moses the way some people fantasize about a christianity without Jesus.....but that is completely outside of the common-sense definitions.
i'm researching for an article on religious torture, how the un condemns physical and psychological torture and how that applies to witness shunning and ran across the information below on mediatorship.
<a href="http://imgur.com/rrqt8ei"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/rrqt8ei.jpg" title="hosted by imgur.com" /></a> .
[url=http://imgur.com/rrqt8ei][img]http://i.imgur.com/rrqt8ei.jpg[/img][/url] .
The one scriptural passage that unlocks the mess that the Watchtower tries to make of a beautiful offer of God is Mathew 26: 27, 28
From the NWT:
"And taking a cup, he offered thanks and gave it to them, saying: “Drink out of it, all of you, for this means my ‘blood of the covenant,’ which is to be poured out in behalf of many for forgiveness of sins."
Here you have Jesus (1) offering the cup to everyone, which is (2) a symbol of his blood sealed covenant to (3) forgive sins of the covenant members. This is what makes a person clean, the life of Jesus for yours ("the just for the unjust"-1 Peter 3:18)...... and not by their works, "lest any man should boast". The blood covenant washes a person and makes them white like snow before a court of law even though their sins be crimson.
NOW, lets look at the condition of the "Great Crowd". Are they declared righteous by the "benefits" they receive by being in association with the Watchtower corporation? Noooooooooooooo
From NWT:
Rev. 7 After this I saw, and look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations ........ “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb
The great crowd of tribulation saints get declared righteous the EXACT same way EVERYBODY previously did .... the blood of the lamb, only accessible by THE COVENANT. This is the ONLY deal offered mankind in the New Testament (Covenant) Scriptures. Destinations, functions, rewards may differ....but the mechanism for avoiding judgment is the SAME.
This is the true pupose of the WT, to prohibit the blood covering of Christ so that members are not declared righteous but must face judgment for their own sins at the Great White Throne. No one survives this judgment. Everyone gets judged, either vicariously (with a free pass) or in person....the choice is yours.
Satan knows that Judgment where he himself is headed and there is no savior for him. He wants to take the children of Adam, that he so jealously hates, with him.
the whole article makes me ill with its worse than average mind control.. i was going to only include one quote but there are so many doozies that i will post what i feel to be the worst.. from paragraph 6.
"gods organization survives and flourishes on earth because the people who are part of it have his approval.".
the great tribulation has been "so close" for over 120 years of wt history.
we must .... accept adjustments in our understanding of the Scriptures
This fine young pioneer brother was having trouble accepting changes in doctrine. However, he faithfully submitted to a theocratic thinking readjustment is now well on his way to moving ahead with Jehovah's Organization.
