what are your biggest, funniest, scariest, etc.... wait wt says there are non hahahah.
2 Chronicles 19:7 "Now then let the fear of the LORD be upon you; be very careful what you do, for the LORD our God will have no part in unrighteousness or partiality or the taking of a bribe."
The LORD is not partial.
Deuteronomy 14:2 "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
God's impartiality led to what could be described as genocide, which seems rather partial.
in natural calamities, everyone (despite one’s faith) is affected.
when one denies god’s existence, he experiences no punishment from him.
when one worships him, he receives no special favor from him.
Thanks venus,
Your reply is insightful and I do agree, and draw great value from it, but I struggle to see how this gives me a foundation for belief in the existence of God. Your reply can be true without God? That is what is tearing me apart at the moment! Leaving organized religion has left me empty in regards the existence of the almighty.
I know I may be asking you to prove the existence of God (that is what I feel I need at the moment) and that is unreasonable of me, but I'm starting to feel, and fear that the concept of God may be a man made "shoe box".
You use the word "God" with confidence (at this stage I envy that) but how did you receive it? Hearsay? Shoe box?
Apologies for drawing you into my struggle.
i had this point highlighted to me yesterday by a dyed-in-the-wool j.w.
who is beginning to see cracks in his beloved golden calf of warwick.
so encouraging to hear his disgruntlement with org-related topics.. “many in the christian congregation may not have expected their loved ones to die this side of armageddon.” (july 2017 study wt).
moreconfusedthanever,
I was controlled like that for a long time, and am still trying to shake it. Even now I'm not sure what to do, but looking at evidence the case for true religion is not good, and consequently the evidence for the existence of God is also not looking good. I spend my time looking for provable reasons to believe in God but they are nowhere to be found and mostly end up as being based on hearsay. Sadly.
Lets say there is a God (but he is not the christian God) and one day in judgement he asks: "Why did you believe in the christian god?"
Can I answer that its because the bible told me so? Or my pastor/priest told me so? People control us because we believe what we are told by people and their writings, not by God directly.
Apologies to OP, I think this may be going a bit off topic or hopefully its also applicable.
in natural calamities, everyone (despite one’s faith) is affected.
when one denies god’s existence, he experiences no punishment from him.
when one worships him, he receives no special favor from him.
"means all scriptures have misrepresented Him"
"When I tried to copy this aspect of Him I found how much heart-break I was spared of."
Lets say I take a similar position, then without scripture and hearsay, what would I base my position on God on?
Are there some representative scripture I can use?
Thank you for taking time to explain.
in natural calamities, everyone (despite one’s faith) is affected.
when one denies god’s existence, he experiences no punishment from him.
when one worships him, he receives no special favor from him.
Great summary Venus,
I'm trying to gauge your position from this and other posts. I find it intriguing that you end with two choices: Majesty or non-existence.
What is your pick of the two?
I am in a place where I am not sure God even exists anymore, so things like this trouble me somewhat. I have issue with atrocities in the old testament, and at the moment I even consider Gnostic/dualism explanations (demiurge) more acceptable than the standard views on this violence.
Or is it better to just let God go? Help....please....
i was chatting with my very jw pioneer mother (aged 65) and out of the blue she tells me she is sore from a particular pose she did in yoga class.
"wait, what??
" i say in my mind.
Many witnesses practice watchtower-yoga (Woga). Bending over backwards to place a magazine, stretching the truth, downward dog in submission to GB, etc.
due to watchtower flagging the mike & kim videos on youtube for copyright, youtube is giving them 6 days before they are shutting down their entire youtube channel.
can you help with a mass downloading program and then reuploading them on a mirror ?
would hate to lose all those good videos!
Lol, WT flagged them for copyright infringement? If I was spreading the truth with the power of God's holy spirit I would want anybody to copy my material.
I always laugh when WT takes legal action; should they not just pray and leave things to Jehovah like they tell child abuse victims?
a thought occurred to me that most humans (whether they like to admit it or not) love to take a firm and proud stance on something, and love to be able to say to others "see, i told you so!".
this arrogance creates a proud and determined mindset to make people dig their heels in on a stance they have taken - all in the hope that they can one day be proven right, and therefore prove someone else wrong.. so it is with most witnesses.
they are so desperate to be proven correct after all they have invested in their faith, and they have a keen desire to say "see i told you so!".
People don't want to die, and religion feeds on this. If I don't believe with confidence, and look for those "See I told you so" moments to justify my position, I have to start facing the ever present fear that there is no God, and that when I die its all she wrote.
Most people choose confidence, arrogance and "See I told you so" even in the face of cognitive dissonance scenarios.
i had this point highlighted to me yesterday by a dyed-in-the-wool j.w.
who is beginning to see cracks in his beloved golden calf of warwick.
so encouraging to hear his disgruntlement with org-related topics.. “many in the christian congregation may not have expected their loved ones to die this side of armageddon.” (july 2017 study wt).
What baffles me is that anyone could influence peoples lives this way without any direct communication from God. All these claims are based on hearsay from ancient texts.
If the clouds opened over Pastor Russel, and the voice of the almighty spoke from heaven and instructed him to say and do the things he did, I would understand. But as is the case in all religions, this never happened. He and his replacements just interpreted the ancient texts (hearsay) and F'ed up millions of lives.
i went into my mother's office to leave her a small note to say that we love and miss her and would love to get together.
i found this on her desk.
this is jehovah's witnesses.
For most people their mothers are their anchors in life, the one you can always rely on to be by your side and support you. Jehovah's Witnesses deny many of us this.
Your disappointment is shared by many of us....hugs.
