Encouraging scriptures for the day

by Kosonen 543 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Kosonen

  As a congregation member of the Watchtower society my understanding of John 3:16 was blurred. It reads in the Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC):

  “For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.”

  Some doctrines of the WT organization claim that God’s love for mankind was not his primary motivation to save mankind. But we should trust John 3:16.

  Also Jesus’ love for mankind is not enough taught within the WT organization. But apostle Paul taught it:

  Galatians 2:20 Indeed, the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and handed himself over for me.

  Jesus himself assures about his love for those who believe him. John 15:9 ASV:

  “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.”

  Apostle Paul again refers to Jesus Christ’s love for those who believe him.

  Ephesians 5:25 Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB): “Husbands, love your wives even as the Christ also loved the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} and gave himself for her,”

  Some interesting facts about the origin of the Greek word ekklesia that is mostly translated as church.

  https://biblehub.com/greek/1577.htm

  Strong's Concordance

  ekklésia: an assembly, a (religious) congregation

  Original Word: ἐκκλησία, ας, ἡ

  Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine

  Transliteration: ekklésia

  Phonetic Spelling: (ek-klay-see'-ah)

  Definition: an assembly, a (religious) congregation

  Usage: an assembly, congregation, church; the Church, the whole body of Christian believers.

  Thayer's Greek Lexicon

  STRONGS NT 1577: ἐκκλησία

  ἐκκλησία, ἐκκλεσιας, ἡ (from ἔκκλητος called out or forth, and this from ἐκκαλέω); properly, a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place; an assembly; so used

  1. among the Greeks from Thucydides (cf. Herodotus 3, 142) down, an assembly of the people convened at the public place of council for the purpose of deliberating: Acts 19:39.

  2. in the Sept. often equivalent to קָהָל, the assembly of the Israelites, Judges 21:8; 1 Chronicles 29:1, etc., especially when gathered for sacred purposes, Deuteronomy 31:30 (Deuteronomy 32:1); Joshua 8:35 (Joshua 9:8), etc.; in the N. T. thus in Acts 7:38; Hebrews 2:12.
• 

  SydBarrett

  
  
• 

  stan livedeath

  so why did god only have one son ? Seems a bit odd from a jewish point of view.
• 

  PioneerSchmioneer

  Kosonen:

  In the spirit of the Governing Body, you ignored all your errors of what you posted that I pointed out.

  You don't apologize for your mistakes, just like the Governing Body.

  Who cares that you can cut and paste. I would like to see you show more compassion than the Governing Body for once. Get back on track--the 22 books mistake you made when there are 24 books in the Hebrew Bible and the rest of the previous subject. Start admitting to us that you don't know what you are doing for once instead of gaslighting us by trying to start another subject.
• 

  PioneerSchmioneer

  stan livedeath writes:

  so why did god only have one son ? Seems a bit odd from a jewish point of view.

  If you've only been exposed to Watchtower religion, it might seem like the term "Son of God" is limited to the English expression: "male offspring of God." But it didn't mean that to the ancients. It meant an "incarnation" of a deity.

  For instance, during the same period of time the Greeks and Romans used the same type of expression that was common in the Semitic world and would apply it in their mythology and legends. Not only there, but their political leaders like Augustus also took this title, "son of god," and applied it to themselves, to declare that they were divine, namely an incarnation of a god that the people worshiped.

  This is because in most languages, the syntax structure of the term "son of X" means more than "male offspring of X" like it does in the English language (which did not exist in ancient times.) It meant "having the identical quality of X."

  You find it in Scripture a lot, such as when Jesus calls John and James "sons of thunder" (Mark 3:17) and Judas Isacariot the "son of destruction" or "son of perdition" as in most Bibles. (John 17:12) Neither thunder nor destruction can have a "male offspring." But these people were like or had the qualities of thunder and/or destruction.

  Thus the reason Pontius Pilate, who had no fear to have Jesus scourged one moment, suddenly does become fearful and rushes Jesus back into his palace for a private conversation away from the crowds to ask where he really comes from after he hears that he is known as the "Son of God."--John 19:7-8.

  The term means "God Incarnate," and Pilate feared he had just had the Incarnation of YHWH, the God of the Jews whipped. And now he had feared it was some politcal intrigue and jealousy that was delivering Jesus, this possible incarnate diety into his hands--and he didn't want to be responsible for any of what was to happen next. Romans were big believers in the myths of the incarnations of the gods.--Note John 19:12-14.

  So this is not a child of God but is supposed to be an incaranation of God. "The Word was God...And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."--John 1:1, 14.

  This is why in English they use a capital "S" when it is in reference to Jesus Christ as in "Son of God" because it in reference to the Incarnation.

  The idea of "son of X" is found throughout the Hebrew text as well. For instance, in Psalm chapter 2, in the Hebrew the ruiling king in the line of David is called the "son of God," meaning an "incarnation" or substitution for God on earth.

  Christians thus use Psalm 2 as a prophecy for the Messiah. It was the Jewish Christians, according to the writings of the Church Fathers, who first recognized this. The gospel of Matthew, for instance, opens with applying Isaiah 7:14, saying "Emmanuel" or "God With Us" is fulfilled in the birth of Jesus at Matthew 1:22-25. This gospel was composed by and for the Jewish Christian community.
• 

  Kosonen

  Nice and comforting to know why God sent his unique Son Jesus Christ to earth. It was because God loved mankind. The scripture is again very clear on that. So we can be confident that Jehovah God loves us. And He has granted his Son Jesus to be the Savior of the world.

  1 John 4:7 Beloved ones, let us continue loving one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love has not come to know God, because God is love. 9 By this the love of God was revealed in our case, that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might gain life through him. 10 The love is in this respect, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved ones, if this is how God loved us, then we are also under obligation to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we continue loving one another, God remains in us and his love is made perfect in us. 13 By this we know that we are remaining in union with him and he in union with us, because he has given his spirit to us. 14 In addition, we ourselves have seen and are bearing witness that the Father has sent his Son as savior of the world.

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• 

  Kosonen

  Sorry to hear your frustration, PioneerSchmioneer, I read your posts and thought a bit if I could write you a reply, but I don't feel any force to do that. The task would be too burdensome. So I suggest that we concentrate on nice and timely beneficial scriptures. I could just post such scriptures without comments so that there would be less to complain about. I actually did that for a while, but then some complained that the scriptures has no comments, so I started to add some comments to them.

  When I posted just scriptures I hoped that while people read them God's holy spirit would help them to see the value in them. That would be better than if I had to try to explain something about them. But I think some people experienced that too, because not everyone complained that I just posted a few new scriptures everyday. I tried to find mobile numbers to JW brothers and sisters and JW relatives and I found about 100 and I just posted them scriptures the WT literature seemingly have ignored for years or even decades. But that did not go well either. I got many angry demands that I stop posting them scriptures and they often misunderstood me in my view on Jesus. They deemed that I appreciated Jesus excessively much, when in fact it is themselves who don't appreciate Jesus enough, mostly because the organization and the Governing Body steals the spot light from Jesus Christ our Savior, and also because they are excessively jealous for Jehovah God. Quite similar to the jews who opposed Jesus because they said they were disciples of Moses and accused Jesus to be a blasphemer of God.
• 

  PioneerSchmioneer

  Kosonen says:

  Sorry to hear your frustration, PioneerSchmioneer, I read your posts and thought a bit if I could write you a reply, but I don't feel any force to do that. The task would be too burdensome...I could just post such scriptures without comments.

  But did Jesus merely give people Scriptures without comments? No. In fact when he would give detailed commentary and explain the meaning of the Biblical texts, as for example:

  "Everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms..."

  The gospels inform us that he just didn't give them lists of Scriptures to be explained on how these texts must me "fulfilled" in connection with him.--Luke 24:44-47.

  "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself."--Luke 24:27

  You are unlike Jesus if you are just tossing Scriptures in the air and expecting people to understand them on their own. For it is written:

  "Everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher."--Luke 6:40.

  And again, the Scriptures teach that you are expected to explain the texts, for have you not read the account in Acts of the Ethiopian eunich who was reading from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah?

  Did not the Holy Spirit use Philip to explain the Scriptures to him so that he might become a Christian?--Acts 8:26-38.

  If we are merely supposed to let people alone with Scripture texts, then would not the Holy Spirit have enlightened the eunich without Philip's help? Obviously you do not know that if you are to call yourself a Christian, then you are assigned to explain the word of God.

  The Church Fathers knew this. In fact, if it were not for the earliest Christians doing this, we would not have the texts you are trying to post today. Someone had to explain the texts because in the Roman world of the 1st century, few could read and write. There would be no canon of the New Testament if it were not for their hard work of studying and explaining the texts. And there would be no new disciples.

  “The [Church] Fathers were the first to face certain problems that Christianity was bound to encounter and continues to encounter, and they provided responses that are classic, if not canonized. The nature of God, God’s relation to the world, the humanity and divinity of Christ, the nature and structure of the church, the authority of Scripture, the moral obligations of the human person: these are among the issues that the Fathers first addressed."--Beginning to Read the Fathers: Revised Edition by James Boniface Ramsey, Paulist Press.

  Kosonen said:

  But that did not go well either. I got many angry demands that I stop posting them scriptures and they often misunderstood me in my view on Jesus.

  Then you need to rethink being a Christian. For Jesus himself said:

  "If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours."--John 15:19-20.

  Jesus told those who wanted to follow him to count the cost before they did. (Luke 14:28-29) It includes people getting angry at you--and worse.
  

  If you are not willing to deal with these things--which you just admitted you are not--then as you have just confessed to everyone here, you are not willing to go all the way for Christ.

  You will only follow Jesus, as long as it doesn't hurt.

  ____

  Scripture quotations are from the ESV Catholic Edition with Deuterocanonical Books.
• 

  Kosonen

  Thank you for 2 thumps up you gave me for the scriptures I posted last time. 🥰
• 

  Kosonen

  Let’s draw our attention to Jesus’ teaching that is a polar opposite to what people usually would prefer:

  Luke 6:26 “Woe whenever all men speak well of you, for this is what their forefathers did to the false prophets. 27 “But I say to you who are listening: Continue to love your enemies, to do good to those hating you, 28 to bless those cursing you, to pray for those who are insulting you. 29 To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away your outer garment, do not withhold the inner garment either. 30 Give to everyone asking you, and from the one taking your things away, do not ask them back.

  Think about religious organizations where thousands and millions of their followers praise their leaders and what Jesus said in verse 26 about it.

  Think also about how far we should stretch ourselves to be able to do what Jesus taught in verses 27 to 30.