"It was a shame he left in such a hurry. I was going to ask him another question"
Best thing to do with Jehovahs Witnesses who wont listen to your reasoning and try to leave is to put your foot in the door.
i was having a discussion with a (currently serving) elder recently when he brought up a straw-man argument that went something like this:.
elder: i've been invited to speak with other christian groups, you know what they do when studying the bible?.
elder: they read a verse or chapter, then go around the room asking how everyone interprets the reading.
"It was a shame he left in such a hurry. I was going to ask him another question"
Best thing to do with Jehovahs Witnesses who wont listen to your reasoning and try to leave is to put your foot in the door.
to the household of god, israel, and those who go with... may you all have peace!.
i meant to post this very simple message to you earlier but was distracted.
the truth.
AGuest and Wasblind, I love your posts.
Heres my guess on why God didnt act as soon as the ransome was paid,
Firstly, does "act" involve killing off all the wicked, leaving the Earth for the Meek to inherit?
Dont ask me why, but I get the impression God doesnt want to kill off anyone, after all, when do you kill a wicked man?, when hes 40?, yet by the time he was 50 something might have moved him to repentance and goodness.
I think God might even leave things as they are, except that, when God does act it will be because he has no choice, it will be when the wicked have such control over the world, when Gods own people are threathened, when the Earth is on the verge of ruin, when "no flesh would be saved unless those days were cut short", then God will act, only when it would be worst if he didnt act, and those days have not yet arrived, but things seem to be shaping up.
howdy guys and gals,.
i am currently researching some material on what watchtower doctrine says with regards to punishments jehovah candish out to us after the thousand year reign and the final test.. my mother (a brilliant woman) always told me that if a human purposefully went against jehovah after the thousand years and the final test, jehovah would instantly put them to death.
is this true?
Below, is Revelation 20.
Can those of you who still belive JW doctrine point me to the scripture that describes a "test" please?
Far as I can see, the ressurection of the dead occurs at the end of the 1000 years, and people are Judged by the lives they lead during their first lifetime.
The nations still exist and as one they all seem to fail this suppossed "test"and attack the camp of the Saints, or to put it another way, everybody thats outside the camp of the Saints attacks everybody thats inside, so dont those on the inside get a test?, does everyone on the outside fail this test?
Where as a member of the "Great Crowd" do you expect you will be, in the camp (no test) or ouside, (a part of the nations decieved by Satan and destined to fail)?
20 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
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i must admit that after carefully examining the nt it seems that christians will have heavenly life.
but my question is, who will remain on earth?.
http://askville.amazon.com/gnashing-teeth/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=3956680
I Googled it, some better answers towards the end such as its an old English word for grinding ones teeth.
what with the very low baptism rate, many leaving, many waking up and staying in for now, but not "zealous" any more, the wt/jw religion/scam is without doubt moribund.. i do not foresee a sudden end to the wt but what will it look llike in ten years time ??.
the late teens/early twenty year olds of today will i think be very thin on the ground as 30 year old jw's, so my view is that in ten years time it will be mainly old hardcore ones ,50 yr old and up, and even they will be aware that the org.
is dying..
Heres my stab in the dark.
The hidden ruling powers have been exposing us to the idea that 2012 something bad will happen, they of course will arrange it so but hope we wont blame them but say, "yeah, it was written in the Mayan calander.
Maybe they will let off a big bomb at the Olympics, blame it on the usual suspects, and start WW3, this will end up with a Global Goverment.
Or/and, the banking crisis will get so bad, all economys will fail, and only a united world governmant and bank will save us!, (they have allready stated this is our only hope, a "New World Order"to save us from economic collapse).
This New World Order is the 7 headed Beast, it will turn on Christians who dont worship it including JWs, they will be most suprised as they think they had their persecution in 1919.
Babylon the Great, which is Jersalem/Zionism/International banking, will be destroyed by this NWO in 2018, this is 70 years since Babylon the great took control of Israel back in 1948.
Jesus will then come, judgement will start with the House of God, will the Watchtower be considered part of the House of God along with the rest of Christendom?
Or will it be considered a false Prophet and be hurled into the pit?
Whatever, as an organisation it will not exist in its present form in 10 years time, it will either be cleansed and made good, or will be destroyed.
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i must admit that after carefully examining the nt it seems that christians will have heavenly life.
but my question is, who will remain on earth?.
I think the Bible is more literal than JWs think, I think that all the people who survice the coming Tribulations will continue to live as Nations today, but they wont have Satans bad influence.
So far there has never been a test to see if mankind can run himself happily independant of God AND Independant of the Devil.
It is these Nations that at the end of the 1000 years try to storm Jerusalem, its not a final test of Christians like the JWs say, nowhere does it say that.
Christians on Earth will live in Jerusalem, maybe with Ezeikiels third temple with its river of water of life, outside will be the failed Christians, unable to get in so they will still be with the nations, they will literally be weeping and gnashing their teeth, not figuaratively.
Iam unsure about Isaiah 65, maybe this will apply to people of the nations?, life will certainly be better without the Devil and his bankers enslaving us, if the Christians in Jerusalem have access to the waters of life, why would they die after 100 years?, unless the third temple comes after the 1000 years, but I dont think the disciption matches with the New Jersualem temple?
i'm sure this question has been raised a lot but it is always good to look back.
the last 5 or 6 years of me being a jw, i did not have a very good go of it.
one thing i actually did enjoy was going to the international convention.
When I first met the Sister I last courted, (Last girl I ever courted for that matter, the Elders put her off me!), she invited me to her house where she was hosting a meal.
So, I turned up, to find I was the only Brother, with about 12 or 13 lovely single Sisters in attendance, I remember getting lots of attention and lots of food as the star guest!
Such a thing has never happened to me in the world, I dont even get invited to dinner by girls in the world!
let's assume that there are about 20 ,000,000 armageddon survivors (baptised jw's and their children), after just 30 years every survivor will be sexually mature and with increased vigour and health.
chemical contraception, condoms, i.u.d's etc will all be long gone so any married couple with a normal sex-drive will be producing children at an average rate of about 1 per year.
world population at the beginning of the 20th century was less than 1.5 billion.
Reading the Bible without Watchtower aids, I get the impression from Isaiah 65 that even good people will still die at 100, and that the resurrection of the good, (including the afore mentioned from Isaiah), and the unrighteous, all get ressurected at the end of the 1000 years, not at the beggining. Backing this point is that the last enemy to be destroyed during Christs 1000 year reign is death, again backing my thoughts that people will still die.
Maybe the ones living in Jersualem who can drink the living waters from Eziekiels third temple wont die during this time?
cedars' "makeweight" scenario posed as a question:.
can you show me one scripture that supports the idea that the holy spirit would deliberately feed god's servants untrue information or a flawed understanding of scripture as a "makeweight" until actual truth would be revealed at a later date?
is there a biblical principle that justifies jehovah dealing with his servants in such a way?.
They would just say the Org never claims to be infallible, that Jehovah reveals things as and when they are neccesary, "new light" they will say, they might even quote from Daniel 12 about the words being made secret and sealed up until the time of the end.
In their own minds this will be quite satisfactory to them.
You might therefore ask them, how do they know the differance then between what God has actually "revealed" to them, and what they have guessed God had revealed to them.
They might then say, "when it comes true", in which case you can ask, "what has come true so far then?
my wife asked me a very simple, but profound question; "when does someone who claims to be anointed, get baptized in holy spirit?"..
i'd never thought of it before, but it quickly dawned on me that in general, anyone who claims to have the heavenly hope, never had it at their baptism.
they almost always received their 'calling' after several years as a christian.
I had felt the Holy Spirit prior to Baptism, allways internally.
When I was a Witness, I never thought of myself to be of the "Annointed", however, about half hour after I got baptised, I felt the Holy Spirit on the outside of me, as if it where being poured over me, I just assumed all Witnesses felt this after they got baptised.
Its only after having left the Witnesses and studying and remembering that Iam considering I was annointed in Holy Spirit because that is what annointing is, having something poured over you.