Damn bro, that was long! But I read every word of it. Isn't a funny thing when the real world starts to open up to you? It's like a color blind man seeing red for the first time. It's like a person with only one eye seeing in 3-D for the first time. It's a whole new dimension that was repressed from you and subconsciously you knew it was repressed. Thank God for your friend Mr Sinfull! Great story man! Loved it!
crinklestein
JoinedPosts by crinklestein
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55
Repost: My Two Week Consulting Trip to Bethel
by Hunyadi insince half of them ended up at my house on friday and saturday nights i was given a very shining report card.
he then told me that he would knock on my door bright and early in the morning to take me to breakfast with him and his wife.
a couple of them told they enjoy the articles i write in the art magazines and they were really happy to meet me.
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24
How far to bend over backwards??????????
by concerned mama inmy husband and i are part owners of a company.
the company christmas party is this weekend.
we do not call it a christmas party, we call it the "holiday gathering".
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crinklestein
Let me ask you this...if one of your Christian workers decided not to go to the party would you feel he/she was entitled to a doorprize? No, because they chose not to go. Doorprizes are for people that walk though the doors. :)
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Solve this problem you dumdums :)
by JH inmy nephew sent me this problem that his teacher gave him.
you have to go through each line only once and come back to the starting point.
start wherever you want but you have to come back to that starting point without missing one line.
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crinklestein
The lines they say are missed are not missed at all. They were crossed. The top line that makes the top of the box was crossed on the right side. the line on th left was crossed twice. If they wanna argue semantics you could point this out and win. :)
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Jesus and the two criminals dying beside him.....
by sandy ini have been watching a couple of the movies retelling the life of christ and i was wondering about the words jesus said to the criminal who asked him to remember him.. the king james version reads: and jesus said unto him, "verily i say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise" luke 23:43. the new world translation reads: and he said to him "truly i tell you today, you will be with me in paradise.
" luke 23:43. the movie i was watching quoted or at least was closer to the king james version.
maybe i am wrong but the same scriptures seem to imply two different things.
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crinklestein
What I forgot to point out is that the "law" that was quoted in Romans was not man's law but God's law. The Mosaic Law. That's why it was connected with Abraham and why it was refering to following the law in order to redeem one's self as righteous. Following Man's laws would never come close to doing so and it would be rediculous to even suggest that following man's law will clear you with God. I just hope no one thought that's what I was refering to.
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Jesus and the two criminals dying beside him.....
by sandy ini have been watching a couple of the movies retelling the life of christ and i was wondering about the words jesus said to the criminal who asked him to remember him.. the king james version reads: and jesus said unto him, "verily i say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise" luke 23:43. the new world translation reads: and he said to him "truly i tell you today, you will be with me in paradise.
" luke 23:43. the movie i was watching quoted or at least was closer to the king james version.
maybe i am wrong but the same scriptures seem to imply two different things.
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crinklestein
To add to all of this I would also like to add the parable of the Prodigal Son. The Witnesses love this story as do most people because it illustrates God's freely forgiving spirit. But what I would like to point out is at the end of the story the prodigal son returns to the father and begs for forgiviness. The father instantly forgives him, orders his servants to clean him up and to prepare a large feast in honor of his return. This story was told by Jesus and NO WHERE does it show that the prodigal son EVER had to perform any works to earn his forgiveness. He didn't have to rake the leaves, tend to the cattle or crops...NOTHING! What is interesting is that Jesus never points out how the ever-faithful son took his return. He never says if he welcomed him back freely or if he was resentful that his brother lived a life of sin and came back and was given everything back that he threw away. If this was a true story I think the chances of that faithful brother being resentful would be high. How dare he come back here and have everything restored to him when I have been faithful all along and don't get this kind of feast! If this were the case I would have to say that the Witnesses would be like this brother. Faithful at first but growing ever resentful of the FREE GIFT OF LIFE that the Father gives to everyone else while the Witnesses slave away at their work. I think this is what led to their seperationist ways. Because they are jealous of everyone gaining salvation that lived a life of sin but the Witnesses feel they have been ever faithful and don't get any special treatment.
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Death wiping away you sins
by crinklestein infrom what i remember one of the dubs most important doctrines is that when you die your sins are wiped clean because the wages of sin is death.
so when you die you can no longer be judged on your sins because you have paid the price for those sins with your death.
if this is the case i have a couple of problems with that.. #1: they are placing the value of your death above the value of jesus' death.
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crinklestein
I no longer have any of the publications but that is the gist of what I understood on the subject. That if you are a sinner and you die because of your sins then you have, in essence, paid the price for being sinful. And if you paid the price there would not be anything more to pay. I am very certain this was taught, at least in my hall it was. That is the reason that they say that, during the resurection everyone would rise from the grave (even those who dies thousands of years ago), because their sins were covered by their own death and now they would be given the chance to prove themselves during the 1000 years. So if you had to be a JW in order to achieve a resurection then how could everyone else be resurected if they lived before they existed? They could be because they said their death wiped the slate clean. I remember using this teaching to prove there was no hell too. Why would you go to hell if your sins were wiped clean at death?
Maybe they changed their doctrines yet again and now make it so that your sins aren't wiped clean after death and you could still be judged and deemed not worthy of a resurection.
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Jesus and the two criminals dying beside him.....
by sandy ini have been watching a couple of the movies retelling the life of christ and i was wondering about the words jesus said to the criminal who asked him to remember him.. the king james version reads: and jesus said unto him, "verily i say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise" luke 23:43. the new world translation reads: and he said to him "truly i tell you today, you will be with me in paradise.
" luke 23:43. the movie i was watching quoted or at least was closer to the king james version.
maybe i am wrong but the same scriptures seem to imply two different things.
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crinklestein
The JW's say that they believe that we are all worthy of death because of sin. And that if it wasn't for Jesus dying we would all be dead REGARDLESS OF WHAT WORKS WE PERFORMED. So if before Jesus died we were totally without hope of salvation and that no amount of works would cover the original of Adam then why would ANY AMOUNT OF WORKS help add to our salvation AFTER Jesus died?
The scriptures I quoted in Romans say that faith alone is what saves us so as to give full credit to God's grace. To say that ANYTHING WE DO helps save ourselves is taking credit away from God and His Grace and giving ourselves credit that we do not deserve.
When I was in the organization I remember alot of teachings that we are sinful because Adam sinned and that no amount of animal sacrifices could ever atone that sin. It would take an equal sacrifice to cover the original sin. You could sacrifice every animal on the planet and you would not be saved. It wouldn't be enough. And sacrificing a human would not be enough because that human would be a sinner. So nothing you could do would EVER hope to save you. And this was taught at the Kingdom Halls and it is actually true. No. It would take an equal sacrifice to pay back what was lost. It would take the sacrifice of a sinless man to earn back what was lost by a sinful man. And that NOTHING ELSE EVER would help. Only the sacrifice. That came through Jesus. So if there was absolutley nothing we could do to save ourselves before Jesus died...why would there be anything that we could do AFTER Jesus died? To say that anything other than Jesus' death helps add to our salvation is to say that Jesus' death was not enough to pay back Adam's sin. And if it wasn't enough from Jesus then it DEFINITLEY wouldn't be enough from us because we are sinners. Jesus died for our sins to show that our salvation only comes to us from the grace of God and his death is to bring glory to His grace. To say that WE HAD ANY HAND in our own salvation is to take away from what was to glorify God's Grace and be using it to glorify ourselves. We are to share in absolutely none of this glory!
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Jesus and the two criminals dying beside him.....
by sandy ini have been watching a couple of the movies retelling the life of christ and i was wondering about the words jesus said to the criminal who asked him to remember him.. the king james version reads: and jesus said unto him, "verily i say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise" luke 23:43. the new world translation reads: and he said to him "truly i tell you today, you will be with me in paradise.
" luke 23:43. the movie i was watching quoted or at least was closer to the king james version.
maybe i am wrong but the same scriptures seem to imply two different things.
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crinklestein
Then, with all of these scriptures that you quote and all of your reasonings on work being the only thing that will save us then you have failed to explain what the purpose of Jesus actually dying was if his death doesn't save us, only our works. If his death has never saved us and it's only works then it's funny that no man has ever lived his life by the Mosaic Law completely and fully. If there were any works that we could do to gain salvation it would be living by the Mosaic Law to its fullest. Yet the Bible is clear that no man has ever done that. So that proves that works are pointless since the only work that we could do has never been accomplished successfully. The Mosaic Law was established partially to prove to us that there is NOTHING that man can do to earn his salvation. That the only way we can be saved is through Jesus.
So if sin seperates us from God and prevents us from having a relationship with Him....and Jesus died for those sins and removed them....that would mean that we now have a relationship with God and we are one with Him...so why the need for other things being added to this? If our sins were removed by his death what else do we need to prove? There is nothing that we could prove to God because is son did all the work for us. We only need to accept that he did this work and that, if it wasn't for him, we would be screwed.
Romans 3:21-31(NIV)
21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, [1] through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. 27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29 Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.Romans 4:1-3 (NIV)
1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about--but not before God. 3 What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."Romans 4:13-15 (NIV)
13 It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, 15 because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.So what is being said here is that, like Abraham, our salvation can not be justified by works because from works comes boasting of works. Only through Abraham's faith that God would do what He said he was going to do did Abraham do what he needed to do. Therefor Abraham's works were only as a result of his faith that God would keep his promise. So faith moved him to do what he needed to do. He did not perform his works to PROVE his faith! His faith moved him to perform his works! And that his works had NO HAND in earning his salvation. Abraham was credited as being righteous not through his works but because "Abraham believed God", aka FAITH! We are to be like Abraham.
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Were you happy as a witness?
by JH inthe few years that i was an active witness, i can't say that i was very happy.
i really didn't mind missing a meeting.
i always felt that a meeting every 2 days for the rest of my life was a little exaggerated.
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crinklestein
I was truely happy when I first started but the more I was in the more I had to base an opinion on. And the more contradictions I saw the less happy I was. When guilt started to seap its way into my brain over things that don't even matter I lost all happiness in being a dub. I kept thinking that God disapproves of me and hates me simply because I wasn't going to meetings and going out in service. But after some time I realized that God is not like this and once I made up my mind and realized the things that I was doing wrong and the things that the dubs are doing wrong then the guilt started to wash away. I am happier now being away from them than I ever was being in them, even during the best of times.
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Death wiping away you sins
by crinklestein infrom what i remember one of the dubs most important doctrines is that when you die your sins are wiped clean because the wages of sin is death.
so when you die you can no longer be judged on your sins because you have paid the price for those sins with your death.
if this is the case i have a couple of problems with that.. #1: they are placing the value of your death above the value of jesus' death.
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crinklestein
From what I remember one of the dubs most important doctrines is that when you die your sins are wiped clean because the wages of sin is death. So when you die you can no longer be judged on your sins because you have paid the price for those sins with your death. If this is the case I have a couple of problems with that.
#1: They are placing the value of your death above the value of Jesus' death. The reason for this is because while you are alive, if you sin by say...I don't know...get a blood transfusion or get raped and don't scream (depending on the current views of this ever changing policy) then they say that it can and will affect your relationship with God and you will get disfellowshipped. Being disfellowshipped is a death sentence because they think that if you are not part of God's organization at the time of the big A then you are dead. So by this logic they are saying that Jesus' death is not good enough to cover ALL OF YOUR SINS! But if YOU die then ALL of your sins are washed clean. YOUR DEATH HAS MORE VALUE THAN JESUS'?!
#2: In studying up on their articles involving the blood issue and rape I have seen many occasions where they say that if you don't scream when you're getting raped then you are consenting to it and are guilty of fornication. And if you die during the rape you MAY NOT HAVE THE HOPE OF A RESURECTION! Well if you die while comitting a sin and death washes all your sins away then why would you NOT be resurected according to their doctrins? Either death (yours or Jesus') washes all of your sins clean or it doesn't! Which one is it?!