I am not trying to offend anyone here, but even with the points shared; I still se what I said to be the case. You left the religion and took one thought and replaced it with another.
Actually, the only way that you don't take one thought and replace it with another is:
(a) if you know you are absolutely 100% correct about that thought.
(b) you have stopped thinking due to massive substance abuse, brain damage, or death.
So, again, when you point a finger, there are three pointing back at you.
It is not with one thought that another should be perpetually replaced. We should all continue to strive for knowlege and truth. That striving never involves resting on our laurels pronouncing that we "now have the truth". We are to continually test our beliefs and readjust them whenever necessary. All true Christians, born-again, are admonished to do so. So should all who are not.
I guess I would be more willing to accept people who went in to a less "overly zealous" religious form, that was not as hard to swallow as the born again stuff.
Why would/should anyone be less than zealous for what they regard as life-saving truth? To do otherwise would demonstrate a lack of love for neighbor. What is so hard to swallow about the three Scriptural admonitions that one must be born again?
John 3:3- In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. "
John 3:7- You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'
1 Peter 1:23- For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
Where is the difficulty?
My sister is attending a local Christian church now, and used to be a Witness. She does not use any of that annoying language and phrases and just seems more down to earth. Which is what I kind of would expect from a person who left the religion, which is to see the nonesense in such comments and hard line of thinking.
Not sure what annoying language and phrases you refer to, please be specific. If it can't be found in the Scriptures, then it's not Scriptural. If it's not Scriptural, it's not Christian.
The only people I have ever known, who said they talked to Christ ... were nuts. I mean it, stone cold nut balls. So to then back down and say it is spoken too, when read in the Bible, does that mean God speak to you when he talks about murders, and killing people too?
If someone believes they spoke to Christ, yet can not demonstrate so by means of a miracle, prophecy that comes true, or some other means that would prove so, then it will/should be regarded as hearsay.
John 4:1- Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Anyway, the thing is, it seems so plain and simple to me to see that the born again and ultra Christian thinking, that I see in some former Witnesses, is a replacement for the Witness mind set and I am so glad every day; I never fell in to that trap and hope those who did, break free of it one day.
Labeling, stereotyping and hasty over-generalizations seem to be your mantra. What is "born again thinking"? How about "ultra Christian thinking"? Is there some common (presumably objectionable) set of thought(s) that in your mind define such people?
How is it that you are so certain that you have not fallen into a trap, and that you are actually a poster-child for the saying "there's none so blind as those who will not see"?
Although, I do understand, when you have fewer days ahead then behind ... what ever makes your mind feel good, go for it.
That should have little or nothing to do with our serach for truth and the meaning of life. Any of us could get run over by a bus before the sun sets again. Giving up out of apathy after having been led down the wrong path by men in Brooklyn is hardly a good reason for turning away from a loving Creator who simply desires acknowledgement of His grace that has been extended to all that will accept it.
BA- There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. - Proverbs 14:12
