a lot of people, ex-jws, believers and unbelievers alike, think that jw's are just a somewhat kooky brand of christianity.
is it possible to "try and follow jesus" and not be christian?
what exactly makes someone a christian?
Jesus Christ has always had people since the time of the apostles who experienced Salvation through faith in Christ alone.
Did you know that in all of scripture the only place where faith saved and alone are used in the same sentence is...
James 2 KJV
24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
i know there is a lot of people on here that will say it is pure make believe but i am interested if anybody has had any real concrete things happen such as something moving or something appearing in the mirror etc.. anything just post it up here even if it wasn't much.
please give a little context as to the situation..
rip van winkle.... I am very sorry about your mom. That must have been very difficult to go through.
However I don't think your story is that similar to mine. I have worked with people with traumatic brain injuries, mental illness, and cognitive disabilities. I have seen some very crazy things when working with this type of people... however none of it ever effected me how the experience with the Lady did.
When you have some sort of trauma in the brain... The symptoms tend to be with you most if not all of the time and the symptoms tend to be progressive. With this lady there was NO symptoms till she was prayed over and very few symptoms afterwords.
i know there is a lot of people on here that will say it is pure make believe but i am interested if anybody has had any real concrete things happen such as something moving or something appearing in the mirror etc.. anything just post it up here even if it wasn't much.
please give a little context as to the situation..
I took a lady friend to a Pentecostal Church one time. While being prayed over she manifested demons. Everyone was escorted out of the Church but the elders. After a while they called for me because I was the only one who knew her.
First of all she was a really big lady. When I came back into the Church she slid all the way down the pew and all the way back. I have never seen her move so freely. Then I saw her face.... it changed in a way the disturbed me greatly. You know how you feel if you smell vomit? How just the smell can make you sick? Looking at her face was the same thing. It made my spirit sick. As a matter of fact this feeling stayed with me for awhile afterwords. I don't even want to talk about her voice changed and all the crazy things that came out of her mouth.We prayed with her for probably and hour or more and she found some relief.
I don't know what I saw. It wasn't staged, and this lady had no expectations prior to going to Church as a matter of fact she seldom went. Maybe all I saw was a physiological disturbance... but what ever it was disturbed me greatly.
a lot of people, ex-jws, believers and unbelievers alike, think that jw's are just a somewhat kooky brand of christianity.
is it possible to "try and follow jesus" and not be christian?
what exactly makes someone a christian?
For me there is two answers... first you have the trinity (big debate and don't want to go into that right now) and secondly you have the Lords Supper.
The Bible is VERY clear Christians eat the bread and wine in remembrance to him. It IS the new convenient. It takes the place of Passover for Christians.
If you partake you are Christian.... if you don't you aren't.
take five minutes to learn something new today.... here is a very brief introduction to epigenetics with an interesting practical example.. ....
Don't want to distract the conversation to much but....
I have had a hard time imagining 6 billion letters of genetic code having evolved over the last 5 billion years... actually it is worse than that... Scientists would say modern life as we know it only goes back 500 million years. The complexity just boggles my mind.
Another thing that is fascinating to me... As far as I know genetics is digital NOT analog. The implication is that the information came first. DNA is just a representation of that information. If it was analog it would be much easier to say the DNA came first then the information came second.
jesus: the gt will be cut short for the sake of the "chosen ones" the sealed anointed).
unless those days are cut short no flesh will be saved.
how can you be saved without being a chosen one, be a chosen one without partaking?.
John 6
48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
In all of the new testament nobody ever left Jesus because his teaching was to difficult... until you get to the teaching about the last supper. Never in all of the new testament does Jesus EVER repeat himself except in this passage and he says the same thing over and over like 6 times. Also of note... this is the first evidence of Judas turning away from Jesus.
Jesus very clearly says my flesh is real. If you eat it you will live forever, if you don't you won't.
let's think about this for a bit.
adam was tempted and sinned by eating of the fruit.
he missed out on immortality by being denied the tree of life.
jws... the way I see it, Jesus didn't die to sate God's wrath, God is in need of nothing.
Jesus had to die for US. We had to see the humanity of God. It was done to woo our hearts. It is the answer to the question "why do good people suffer". It was to give value to suffering. God could not partake in something that has no good. Simply by Christ suffering... our own suffering also becomes a redemptive act.
God looked down at humanity and saw the suffering he was moved by pity and decided to join himself with our suffering.
let's think about this for a bit.
adam was tempted and sinned by eating of the fruit.
he missed out on immortality by being denied the tree of life.
CalebinFlorida... thank you for the well thought out response. I learn a lot from your posts.
Yes those passages have a different meaning for Jewish people. However, are you certain that the understanding that the Hebrews had was a complete understanding? Maybe the passage was meant to have one meaning for the people of the day... but then a much greater understanding at a later date?
If you believe in divine inspiration, is it crazy to think that a passage of scripture was meant to have a different meaning for different people?
let's think about this for a bit.
adam was tempted and sinned by eating of the fruit.
he missed out on immortality by being denied the tree of life.
Bonsai have you ever read C.S.Lewis? He has some great thoughts on this in his space trilogy. His claim is that God sending Jesus was a much greater plan than just eliminating sin. It is only because of our sinfulness that we can truly know Gods mercy. Our curse of original sin became a blessing, through the redemptive work of Jesus.
let's think about this for a bit.
adam was tempted and sinned by eating of the fruit.
he missed out on immortality by being denied the tree of life.
CalebinFloroda...
You say there is no mention or prophesy of a personal savior in Hebrew texts? How would you interpret these passages?
Isaiah 53
Psalms 22
