We Left the WT After 25 Faithful Years....

by Tower Man 18 Replies latest jw friends

  • Tower Man
    Tower Man

    JT,

    I believe Neon was correct.

    Since we (Christians) do not believe in annihilation, that man will cease to exist, we do believe that unsaved mankind will spend eternity apart from God. I do not necessarily believe that hell is a place of burning fire where God gloats in roasting the damned. This is an area of scripture that is open to several interpretations since we are not given all the details. Unlike the WT, Christians can actually have different opinions on grey areas of scripture. Every Christian, however, does believe that hell is a literal place that people will end up in. We would also agree that it is a terrible, aweful place that is endless and permanent. Some believe hell consists of literal fire, others believe that Jesus was using imagery related to the garbage dump, gehenna, to stress that the place of Hell is a terrible, ungodly place. It is obvious in Scripture that God wants no one to perish (2 Pe 3:9). It was created for the devil and his angels (Mt 25:41) I believe that Jesus used imagery (unquenchable fire, outer darkness) to convey the idea that eternal separation from God is the worst possible thing that can happen to a person.

    So, I believe that since God respects mankinds freewill, He will grant them what they wanted all their lives: To be separate from Him and live life apart from His fellowship. Those who reject Gods offer of salvation in Jesus Christ will ultimately face this consequence. God doesnt send anyone to Hell. In reality they choose to go there themselves by rejecting His offer. God will not force anyone to live in His presence who doesnt want to. That would be, in a sense, Hell for an unbeliever.

    I know this is a very difficult teaching for JWs or exJWs to accept, however, it is what the bible teaches, therefore, it must be taught.

    In Love,

    Tower Man

  • apostate
    apostate

    It is time to realize that the problem is not with the Watchtower or with the Born Agains. The problem is with the Bible. It wasn't meant to be understood. It was written to mess people up.

  • Undecided
    Undecided

    It seems God didn't do too good with his creation. The spirit creatures didn't listen to him too well and soon as he made the first human he listened to a serpant(even animals took part in rebelion and God made the serpant crawl and eat dust). Either he wanted it that way or he didn't know the end from the beginning, or the bible is a bunch of crap. I go with the last part.

    Ken P.

  • UnDisfellowshipped
    UnDisfellowshipped

    Apostate said:

    It is time to realize that the problem is not with the Watchtower or with the Born Agains. The problem is with the Bible. It wasn't meant to be understood. It was written to mess people up.

    The Bible is extremely clear on THE most important subject of all:

    Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God, came to Earth and was Born as a Human (while keeping His Deity), gave Christians 3 LAWS to follow (Love God, Love your Neighbor, and Treat others how you want to be treated), Died for the world's sins, in order that everyone who believes in Jesus Christ may be saved and receive eternal life with the Jesus, and Jesus was raised from the Dead and Ascending into Heaven to be with the Father.

    That is the Gospel of Salvation.

  • NeonMadman
    NeonMadman

    let me make sure i got this right, there are some BA who will take the bible and show that hell is 
      real place and other BA who will take the same bible with the same verses and say that Hell is 
    not a real place
     
    That's right, because unlike the JW's, we aren't a conformist organization where everybody is 
    required to march in lockstep. If we were, I'm sure you'd attack us for that, too. Every Christian is free to 
    interpret the Bible as he sees fit. The Holy Spirit, not some organization or set of dogmas, is our 
    instructor. There is no overall organization. Everyone can read the Bible as he sees fit, and 
    accept or reject whatever he wants. Whether his beliefs and actions are pleasing to God are 
    between him and God, and are not up to anyone else to judge.
     
    I'm not sure what to think of you, JT. We've had this sort of conversation before on this forum, 
    and I'm having difficulty figuring out where you're coming from. One possibility is that you're still 
    locked into the Watchtower mindset that you think that all believers who are associated need to 
    be "united" into mindless conformity. If so, you are really unable to appreciate the concept of 
    Christian freedom, and that's a shame. Jesus said the truth would set us free. The other 
    possibility I see is that you are so consumed with a hatred of all religion that you'll attack no 
    matter what we say. If we all march in lockstep, that's no good. But if we have freedom to 
    exercise our own conscience and intellect, then that's no good either.
     
    for a dogma as serious as Hell Fire and one that has such Life Eternal effects on a person - you 
    would at least think they could get this one right- going to Hell to burn forever i don't want folks 
    getting this dogma wrong
    Whatever hell is, the real believers aren't going there. The focus of our message is that Christ 
    died for our sins, and rose on the third day. So we can have eternal life by believing and 
    accepting his sacrifice. Believers will argue up and down about whether hell is literal, but the idea 
    is to avoid it in either case. What are you saying, that if hell is only annihilation rather than 
    torture, you'd be happy to go?
  • Sentinel
    Sentinel

    TowerMan,

    Thanks for this web site. I could not listen to the audios here at work, but the documentations look very interesting.

    Sentinel

  • LovesDubs
    LovesDubs

    Thank you!!! I loved listening to those talks. I listened to Bob and Amy..very moving. Im going to listen to more. Hugs to all my friends at PA>..i miss them

  • Tower Man
    Tower Man

    Dear Apostate,

    I am grieved that I see so many people on this forum, like yourself, that are so upset and turned off with the bible. I can understand why. You went through a lot of garbage and were spit out feeling depressed and bitter. However, the bible was not written to mess people up. Quite the contrary. The bible was written so all of us messed up up people could be straightened out and live forever in God's presence. It's not the bible that messes people up, it's the way people handle the bible that causes harm. The bible will never lead you astray, however, some people's handling of it will. I encourage you to take a fresh look at it again. Read it like you are reading it for the very first time. I know this is hard for you but God is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him.

    Love

    Tower Man

  • Country Girl
    Country Girl

    Serpents don't eat dust. They eat insects, rodents, fish, humans. Whatever they can get their hands on. <grin>

    CG

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