Baptism is a core teaching of Christianity. Baptisim was explained by St. Augustine as a necessary step for eternal salvation. Babies that were not baptised were condemned to hell (or Limbo - not proposed by Catholic church anymore). JW follows this 1600 year old teaching of Augustine: baptism is a step to join the church/kingdom of God (John 3:5), bestowing salvation (Mark 16:16), and giving pardon for our sin (Acts 2:38).
Posts by kaik
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5Baptism
by Vindico inis there a scripture that states that our salvation is based on getting baptised?.
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46
Does Christianity Need The Bible
by Mat inchristianity began it's formation without the bible.
the bible, as we know it, is a collection of what were very old texts when they were assembled by christian leaders in the late second and third centuries because they were deemed to be inspired by god.. whether they really were inspired by god or not is now open to debate, but should they prove to not be, it should not undermine christianity as an establishment.. discuss......
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kaik
Christianity never was unified in its beliefs. Since the time of Apostles there were different churches and accusation of apostacy. Several hundred years later when Christianity became accepted faith of the Roman Empire came a need to unify various Christian text. What we have in NT is nothing more than what Roman administration had decided as acceptable cannon and what is not divinely inspired. What Christians believe is often an invention or explanation of Christian fathers like St. Augustine. For example St. Augustine came with the concept of the Original Sin. Bible itself contradict or does not give necessary explanation giving the rise of various denominations. If Bible is divine inspiration that it should have clearly say so matter the most to the people like is there a life after death, what happens when we die, what is a purpose of our life, nature of God, and why bad things do happen to good people, something that was debated already century after the death of Jesus known as Origenist contraversy. Every Christian denomination has own explanation on these questions.
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Is it common for Jehovah's Witnesses to turn to alcohol when they realize the Watchtower is a scam
by Watchtower-Free inbecause they don't know what to do and they want to numb the pain .
especially for bornins..
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kaik
In Czech Republic the consumption of alcohol is really high and one of the highest per capita in the world. But I know several JW there who suffered from liver cirrhosis and died from it. Women after book study were drinking as well especially hard liquior. My JW aunt and uncle were heavy drinker, my uncle had drinking problem and as kid he used to come to our place passed out because his JW wife would be screaming. That was common.
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85
Jesus had to die? Really?
by punkofnice ini admit i no longer believe in god and holy books.. thinking of the made up 'universal sovereignty' thing, surely if god existed in the way the holy books describe him then he could have thought of something better than humankind suffering thousands of years and the slaughter of jesus?.
couldn't god have said: 'well, satan is a very naughty boy but you all know how great i am so we can end it now.
i will lovingly kill satan and his mates and that's that.
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kaik
I always wonder why Jesus was so afraid to die. Why he was not smiling and laughing about his ordeal, telling Pilate and the others to shove it, because when he dies he will be resurrected, go to Heaven and return as a King to kick their butts. I wonder, why he was so scared? This always troubled me. I know it is a natural for human to afraid of death. People who went to execution often collapsed, but there are individuals who were brave like George Danton, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Jan Huss, and did not fear of death. Did Jesus expected to die? Was he afraid to fail his mission?
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Is it common for Jehovah's Witnesses to turn to alcohol when they realize the Watchtower is a scam
by Watchtower-Free inbecause they don't know what to do and they want to numb the pain .
especially for bornins..
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kaik
Yes, alcoholism was problem as far I remember. It was not only men's problem but women too. Alcohol helps JW to escape from reality and harsh life as JW. Alcohol abstinence is a foreigner concept for JW as Noe to Jesus drank alcohol.
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84
Want to know why people accept evolution ?
by snare&racket indo you have questions about or want to understand evolution?
it is a difficult concept to communicate and so if it is not explained well , it is understandable that we would dismiss it.. i sincerely want to talk with people who want to learn more or see what all the fuss is about.
we are all learning and increasing our knowledge all the time and it is good to go over facts with critical eye.. evolution we can discuss, looking at the foundational facts and evidence, one at a time for you to go and check, agree or disagree with and return.. no pressure to accept it, you can decide for yourself, also no mocking etc of what you have to say.. .
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kaik
Make Lemonade, trees are excellent source for preserving climate data. We can see from tree rings that climate cooled down 1816 (Year without summer), in the 14th century (staring little medieval ice age), or in the 6th century which coincide with the collapse of the Roman civilization in Europe. Previous changes can be traced to explosion of volcano Hekla in 1200BC and Thera in 1612BC. Each of these event is preserved in the tree rings. Once you put pieces together with other evidence like in glaciers and sediment, science can get very good picture about our environment. Further back in the geological times, the harder it gets, but science did not detect any global Flood in 2200BC or sudden origin of world 7000 years ago. World-wide we can from bogs and swamps locate decomposing trees and flora that can go back 10,000-20,000 years or more. There is not much difference if science pics Okefenokee swamp, peat bogs in Ireland or Finland, or dried trees in Tibet Plateau. Each of these pieces of trees will reveal climatic puzzle. We can overalay information from tree that grew 1200 years ago and overalap with tree rings that was around during the Caesar or Genghis Khan. Once we pass through timeframe defined by Genesis, we know that world is older than described by OT.
Bogs in Europe reveal burials of people that died 7000-9000 years ago. We can detect from the bogs the rate of deposits, decay, and growth. Since bogs and swamps cover 2.5% of land and due its acidity it preserves such details like human fingerprints or butter in the jars. Deserts climates that were lush with vegetation can preserve trunks as well for thousands of years. Some of them in Tibet are up to 2 millions years old.
Additionally, we can reconstruct flora which could not coexist, yet they appear at the same geographic location. As I had mentioned, mangolias used to be one the most common trees that were around during the age of dinosarus. Europe was covered by magnolia forests. Yet 5 million years ago, magnolias disappeared in Europe and most of Northern America during Ice Age. We do not see southern magnolia in Canada, New England or Great plains. Yet they used to grow there. Today southern magnolia originated from Caribbeans as the continental ice shield melted 12000 years ago. Each ice shield growth and retreat caused the change of the flora. Each trace can be again detected. Northern Hemisphere still rebounds from the weight of the Ice shield compression which generates localized, mild earthquake. The growth rate of the ice shield and its subsequent retreat can be again calculated. This can go back hundreds of thousand years.
I would say the best way to observe evolution is to go to the nature. Touring swamps, national parks, state and national forests, and wild life refuge.
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Want to know why people accept evolution ?
by snare&racket indo you have questions about or want to understand evolution?
it is a difficult concept to communicate and so if it is not explained well , it is understandable that we would dismiss it.. i sincerely want to talk with people who want to learn more or see what all the fuss is about.
we are all learning and increasing our knowledge all the time and it is good to go over facts with critical eye.. evolution we can discuss, looking at the foundational facts and evidence, one at a time for you to go and check, agree or disagree with and return.. no pressure to accept it, you can decide for yourself, also no mocking etc of what you have to say.. .
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kaik
Make Lemonade, have you been in Redwoods where trees grows for several thousands of years? Chestnuts, olive trees, lindens, giant sequoas can live between 1200-3500 years. We can still pick olives from trees that were planted by ancient Romans. Trees leave traces like trunks, pits, pollen for thousands and tens of thousands years. We can excavate pits from old fruits that were eaten up by pharaos. These trees were here much longer before date when Adam and Eve would be alive. It is not unusual to detect trees that did not decompose like from bogs, peat moss, or elsewhere that could be tens of thousand years old. We mine peat moss which cover up to 2.5% of Earth surface, and we can reassemble by the tree ring the years and climate going way back million years. But back to the tree rings, they indicate growth season which can be counted. Some trees mineralized or petrirfied, while other mummified. We can piece by piece build knowledge about climate of the past from them.
Some tree traces are mutually exclusive as they show a change of climate like during interglaciar period. For example magnolias exist since cretacous era (65 mil and more), they had disappeared from Europe during the Ice Age. Today you will not see forests mixed with warm climate magnolia and fir, yet we have fossils of both from the same area as the weather went back and forth in since K-T extinction event that whipped out dinosaurs. This indicate that our planet changed weather over the time when it was either much warmer, dryer, colder, or wetter.
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85
Jesus had to die? Really?
by punkofnice ini admit i no longer believe in god and holy books.. thinking of the made up 'universal sovereignty' thing, surely if god existed in the way the holy books describe him then he could have thought of something better than humankind suffering thousands of years and the slaughter of jesus?.
couldn't god have said: 'well, satan is a very naughty boy but you all know how great i am so we can end it now.
i will lovingly kill satan and his mates and that's that.
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kaik
I really love Terry and DD input into this topic. The Abrahamic religion, which includes Islam and Judaism sees salvation through sacrifices and suffering. It teaches that people as individual and as a collective being needs to suffer to achieve a better, brighter future.
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Want to know why people accept evolution ?
by snare&racket indo you have questions about or want to understand evolution?
it is a difficult concept to communicate and so if it is not explained well , it is understandable that we would dismiss it.. i sincerely want to talk with people who want to learn more or see what all the fuss is about.
we are all learning and increasing our knowledge all the time and it is good to go over facts with critical eye.. evolution we can discuss, looking at the foundational facts and evidence, one at a time for you to go and check, agree or disagree with and return.. no pressure to accept it, you can decide for yourself, also no mocking etc of what you have to say.. .
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kaik
Make Lemonade, the best book to explain evolution will depend on your interest. Some of them are rather complex. Do you like gardening? Rock science? Zoology? So it is easier to understand in topic you can follow and understand, and relate in your every day life. I went to college and studied several topics like oceanography, forest biome, and some naturally occuring radioactive decay material for papers. I can the most relate in my garden, trees, shrubs, and grass where evolution is for me the most visible. I traveled both Appalachians and Europe where I could see how flora was affected through past tens of thousand years. There are national and state parks which have traces of original flora of Ice Ages. The insects, bees, and birds also evolved with the flora in such simple things like pollination and berries consumption for wildlife.
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"This Generation" at the meeting today
by Batman89 init was really quite amusing 2day at the meeting when we got to the "this generation will not pass away" subheading in the wt.
the conductor spent very little time on the section and the comments that were given didnt at all make sense really.
you can tell its not understood by the majority of the friendsand will go over there heads, i was trying not to laugh lol.
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kaik
If WT wants, they can teach 1914 generation for many many decades. They just need to explain what is the lenght of the generation. They can utilize generation before deluge where average lifespan according to Genesis was several hundreds of years. So in theory they can push 1914 in 2814 as part of new light. WT does not have problem with twisting fact and their own teaching. They can care less. Look how long Christianity lasts since so called Second Return in the 1st century. 2000 years later, there is no universal concensus among Christians when Jesus return. Poor Paul, James, Peter and John, they all hoped that it will happen in their lifetime. Roman Empire survived them for another 400 years.