I'm always fascinated by Leolaia's research.
Eden
early christian apocalyses
i thought it would be a good idea to put together into a single thread all the early 1st.
cent.
I'm always fascinated by Leolaia's research.
Eden
no longer a ms ........................... can't give details atm, for it might be a dead-giveaway and it ain't quite over yet.
but, it really taught me one thing: if you're trying to fade or stay in, trust no one.
and i mean no one.. eden.
It's easy to dismiss the elder's authority, chalking it up as having no legitimacy. While that may be true, when analyzed from a certain angle, it's no less true that in practical terms they have the power in their hands to cut you off from your family and friends, which, when you haven't got a network of family and friends outside the congregation, may be really hard to handle. So I must thread very carefully, and if I can get away with only loosing my "privileges" (gawd, I hate that expression), then I'd say the outcome isn't all bad. At least it buys me time to figure out how I can help my family.
Also, Phizzy is absolutely right. You DO have to have the mindset of someone living in North Korea, where you can get executed for giving a half-hearted clapping to the speeches of the 'great leader'.
Eden
yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
Laika, sorry, I missed that post.
That's not exactly my point. I think God respects our free choice, and since Christ's resurrection, he decided to refrain from being the type of interventionist God he had been before. It has nothing to do with the "falling" of Adam and Eve. It's not a punishment for human rebellion. It simply is God letting nature follow its course; believers get comfort, spirit, wisdom and hope from Him, but they cannot expect miraculous intervention in either the triffle matters nor the big natural calamities. So, Cofty's #22 doesn't suit either.
Eden
yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
Adam: Insurers consider all natural events such as hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, etc as "acts of God".
That's irrelevant from a doctrinal point of view, don't you think? The question asked was about the 2004 Tsunami. My answer is: Since Christ was resurrected, God stepped aside from interveining in human affairs, and instituting an automatic mechanism towards salvation based on the faith in Christ. Thus he didn't cause, nor would he intervein to forewarn or prevent that Tsunami. He merely offers hope and assure us of salvation, if we should accept it.
Eden
i would like to locate some information within the publications with comments from the wts that could help me build a case.. case in point is: can an individual jw hold different views on doctrine from those held by the "organization" and still continue to be a jw if he chooses to, and if he keeps his opinions only to himself?.
i remember a recent magazine making comments regarding the intolerance of other religions who limit the freedom of their members to study the bible....or another one (publishers book?
) about those who harbored doubts about the course of events within the organization but remained inside.. i got an excellent quote from rutherford in the booklet "intolerance" but that was from 1936 already.
yes, but I'm beyond "doubts".
yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
I find it difficult that you interpret my wording as 'God respecting their choice to drown because of an earthquake that he caused'. So I take it that you're just being insulting towards me. In any case,
If God interveines in a disaster of said magnitude, then he would be expected to act in a disaster of a smaller magnitude; then also in a little disaster; then again on personal disasters; then again in triffle situations of everyday life. Soon God would be expected to cure ingrown fingernails. If God would interveine to save the people in the asian tsunami, then others would ask fairly: What about ME? What about the people on that other volcano/flood/earthquake/ or whatever disaster ?
Stepping out from interveining and offering the hope of resurrection for everyone is actually a very loving and fair thing.
Eden
yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
You surely can't be that obtuse, Cofty. You're way more intelligent than that when you're defending your causes.
Eden
no longer a ms ........................... can't give details atm, for it might be a dead-giveaway and it ain't quite over yet.
but, it really taught me one thing: if you're trying to fade or stay in, trust no one.
and i mean no one.. eden.
No, the article was in paper.
I see some resemblance in my case with the outcome of yours, ProblemAddict.
no longer a ms ........................... can't give details atm, for it might be a dead-giveaway and it ain't quite over yet.
but, it really taught me one thing: if you're trying to fade or stay in, trust no one.
and i mean no one.. eden.
I kinda like your optimism, WMF
yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
He's not uncaring. He's respectful of our choices and he knows he wouldn't be respecting them if he would intervein. In any case, He knows that suffering can be mitigated because of the hope of salvation. it doesn't stop suffering now; but suffering will end eventually.
Eden