Posts by EdenOne

10

The significance and purpose of BAPTISM - new article

by EdenOne in

ive just published a new article on my website, this time about about the subject of baptism.

its titled the significance and purpose of baptism.

its divided in 5 parts:.

EdenOne

I see your point about the JW baptism, NN.

With 25 years "in", I can't say that I disagree.

Eden

12

Why have the Pharisees been deemed unforgiven and forever in the grave

by I_love_Jeff in

jw
friends

why is it that many believe that the pharisees who spoke against jesus/holy spirit will not be given a second chance?

i know jesus said that it is blasphemy to speak against holy spirit.

did they not follow their mosaic laws and teach others about the rules within the torah?

EdenOne

I_L_Jeff,

In Law there is usually the following principle:

"ignorantia legis neminem excusat" - ignorance of the law is no excuse for anyone.

Fortunately God is superior to human legislators and he does take ignorance into account when weighing each one's responsability.

Acts 17:30 " Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent". Fortunately for mankind, God does forgive ignorance.

Why wasn't this tolerance extended to the Pharisees?

First of all, you're assuming that the Pharisees were sentenced to Gehenna while they were still alive. As I noted, Jesus was making a rethorical question, not a final judgement about them. If they continued to resist the operation of the Holy Spirit, and they would not repent and turned to do God's will, they would die in their sin, and that would ultimately be an unforgivable sin. The killing of Jesus was the ultimate material evidence that the Pharisees were beyond repentance. Even after evidence that Jesus had been resurrected they still persecuted his disciples in order to silence this "sect".

As Jesus said, they were the type that "imagined they were rendering sacred service to God" by killing him and his disciples. Wouldn't that amount to "ignorance", as you put it? No, not to the religious leaders.

Moses's Law, which they were the experts of, prophesied: "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him... I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. I myself [Jehovah] will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name." (Deuteronomy 18:22)

So the religious leaders knew that a prophet of at least the same magnitude of Moses would come. The hebrew prophets uttered many prophecies about the Messiah. Two in particular are very telling:

Micah 5:2 - The Messiah would come out of Bethlehem

Zechariah 4:1-5 " Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD "

Now, the Pharisees took much interest in John the Baptizer, to the point of asking him if he was Elijah or the Messiah. John said he wasn't Elijah nor the Messiah, but told them that he was fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 40:3 and Malachiah 3:1, "clearing the way to the Lord" (John 1:23), and therefore the Messiah was to be revealed soon. The Pharisees had developed a strange doctrine that Elijah was returning in the flesh. So John was telling the truth: He wasn't Elijah himself. But he knew that the angel foretold that he would have the "spirit of Elijah"(Luke 1:13-17) The Pharisees were blind to the significance of John's work as a prophet. Jesus told his disciples that the Pharisees failed to recognize John the Baptist as the prophesied "Elijah" (Matthew 17:12). In the same manner they had been blind to the operation of the Holy Spirit in John, so they were blind to the operation of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ.

There is a passage in John that is very clear about the Pharisee's intentional misinformation regarding Jesus. Although they had access to all birth records, and they were able to trace the birthplace of Jesus (Bethlehem, as per the prophecy of Micah 5:2), they intentionally passed on the idea that Jesus was born in Nazareth, and that, therefore he was a false messiah. " They replied, "Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee." - John 7:52

On the other hand, common people, like the early disciples easily identified the one that the Scriptures foretold: " Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." - John 1:45

So you see, even common men who merely attended the services at the Synagogues could identify Jesus; But the experts of the Law, the Pharisees, because of their agenda and their false doctrines, willingly failed to identify Jesus.

THEY WEREN'T IGNORANT.

This is the basis for their condemnation:

"Everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked". - Luke 12:48

" The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses" - Matthew 23:2

Having taken upon themselves the task of "sitting in the chair of Moses", they were entrusted with great responsability. With that came great accountability. That's why their refusal to recognize Jesus as the messiah and their refusal to repent was an unforgivable sin.

Eden

38

2014 means "LUCY, you've got some splainin' to do" for Jehovah's Witnesses

by Terry in

next year the watchtower society will be forced by world events (i.e.

no armageddon yet) to confront a full century of christ's presence.

with nothing to show for it!.

EdenOne

Great synopsis. Thank you Terry.

Eden

12

Why have the Pharisees been deemed unforgiven and forever in the grave

by I_love_Jeff in

jw
friends

why is it that many believe that the pharisees who spoke against jesus/holy spirit will not be given a second chance?

i know jesus said that it is blasphemy to speak against holy spirit.

did they not follow their mosaic laws and teach others about the rules within the torah?

EdenOne

Matthew 23:33 " You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?"

Notice that Jesus was asking a rethorical question, not making a statement. The Pharisees could STILL escape Gehenna, however their stubborn resistance to the teaching of Jesus wasn't a good sign. Should they continue in that path, they would surely perish eternally.

Notice the interesting comparison with John, the Baptizer, four years before, adressing those who came to him to be baptized: " John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham." (Luke 3:8)

The Pharisees didn't heed the warning from John. When Jesus told them that the truth would set them free, they replied: "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" (John 8:32, 33) They did not understand that they were slaves to sin; They failed to see that they needed to repent from their sins and embrace the message of Christ, the Messiah that they ought to have recognized.

So we can see that the potential "unforgivable sin" of the Pharisees was their unrepentance. The "sin against the Holy Spirit" is the stubborn refusal to repent from sin. While the person is still alive, there is always the possibility to "escape from the judgement from Gehenna", through repentance. But once the person dies, if he dies unrepentant, there isn't anything more than the Holy Spirit can do for the person. Jesus could see the unrepentant nature of the Pharisees. He gave them clear warning that they were paving their way into Gehenna. To sin "against the Holy Spirit" is to refuse the help and power of the Holy Spirit to repent from sin, beg for forgiveness, and turn to God. Naturally, that can only be verified once the person dies, hence the reason why no human can judge other as to the "unforgivable sin" has been commited or not.

Eden

90

Numbers don't lie :The End of JESUS...

by raymond frantz in

(1john2:22,23)who is the liar if it is not the one that denies that jesus is the christ?

this is the antichrist, the one that denies the father and the son.

23 everyone that denies the son does not have the father either.

EdenOne

NeverKnew

Such numbers are just trivia. JW's pay a lot more attention to Jehovah than they pay to Jesus Christ. The amount of Scriptures quoted from the OT in relationship to the ones quoted from the NT is very telling of that. We are much more 'Jehovists' than 'Christians'.

Eden

90

Numbers don't lie :The End of JESUS...

by raymond frantz in

(1john2:22,23)who is the liar if it is not the one that denies that jesus is the christ?

this is the antichrist, the one that denies the father and the son.

23 everyone that denies the son does not have the father either.

EdenOne

As any JW will attest to, if a JW talks more about Jesus than they do about Jehovah, JWs start to get very uncomfortable and will view the speaker with suspicion.

ADCMS

That's entirely true. It's extremely rare that a document of the Witnesses doesn't mention the name "Jehovah" at least once. It's as if the name isn't there, there isn't a "seal of aproval". That's a supersticious use of the divine name, btw.

anyone who says they don't also refer to Jesus quite a lot is a liar .

Jeffro

Also true. I've heard the accusation that Jehovah's Witnesses aren't a christian religion in the field service a handful of times, especially from evangelicals and pentecostals. It doesn't take much to debunk such accusation.

Eden

90

Numbers don't lie :The End of JESUS...

by raymond frantz in

(1john2:22,23)who is the liar if it is not the one that denies that jesus is the christ?

this is the antichrist, the one that denies the father and the son.

23 everyone that denies the son does not have the father either.

EdenOne

The basis for the search operators is indeed Boolean algebra.

You're da boss, man!

In my country the term "Boolean" to describe such operations wasn't used. it was all algebra. Hence my ignorance of it.

Eden

90

Numbers don't lie :The End of JESUS...

by raymond frantz in

(1john2:22,23)who is the liar if it is not the one that denies that jesus is the christ?

this is the antichrist, the one that denies the father and the son.

23 everyone that denies the son does not have the father either.

EdenOne

I own a Mac

I knew there was a reason for me liking you!

Eden

95

You know you're getting old when...

by nonjwspouse in

...you can remember as a kid having to stand by the tv set in a certian spot, sometimes holding the antenna to get better reception.. yes, i was an antenna sometimes.

.

any more trips down memory lane for you oldies like me?.

EdenOne

... You know you're getting older when you start attenting more funerals than weddings in the course of a year.

Eden

90

Numbers don't lie :The End of JESUS...

by raymond frantz in

(1john2:22,23)who is the liar if it is not the one that denies that jesus is the christ?

this is the antichrist, the one that denies the father and the son.

23 everyone that denies the son does not have the father either.

EdenOne

So, if a Christian hears "Jesus" or "Christ", it has a totally different import than if he hears "Jesus Christ"?

It has if you're analysing statistically the number of ocurrences within a text. Doctrinal difference? Zero.

Eden