Do YOU Consider Yourself An Apostate?

by Golf 42 Replies latest jw friends

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  Lo-ru-hamah

  Apostates are included among those who show their hatred of Jehovah by revolting against him. Apostasy is, in reality, a rebellion against Jehovah. Some apostates profess to know and serve God, but they reject teachings or requirements set out in his Word. Others claim to believe the Bible, but they reject Jehovah’s organization and actively try to hinder its work.

  They seem to have two definitions here, one is that those who reject Jehovah are apostates and the other is that those who reject "Jehovah's Organization" are apostates. Personally, I have not rejected Jehovah and therefore do not consider myself an apostate of Jehovah.

  However, if by finally thinking on my own and realizing that this organization is self proclaimed from Jehovah and yet lacking all the evidence of being chosen then yes, I am apostate. I do not follow men!!!

  If everyone will remember Jesus Christ himself died an apostate. So, if I get to be labeled in that catagory then that is the best thing that could ever happen to me.
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  jwfacts

  I had a fight with a brother the other day who is trying to get me d/f for being an apostate. Of course I am not. Every comment of his was "you are an apostate, every comment of yours is against Jehovahs witnesses."
  My argument is that the word apostate is not even in the NT. The great Apostacy that it talks about are religions that turn away from the words of Jesus. I never berate the words of Jesus so how can I be an apostate.

  JWs can not seem to separate Jesus from the Organisation, or the WTS. No I will never let any JW label me an apostate.
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  Honesty

  No.

  I left an apostate religion that claims to be the voice of God:

  *** w57 6/15 370 Overseers of Jehovah's People *** It is vital that we appreciate this fact and respond to the directions of the "slave" as we would to the voice of God, because it is His provision.
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  Dune

  Nope, i dont think i'm an apostate just yet.
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  Jeffro

  
  The word "apostate" is one of many that the Watchtower Society attaches superfluous significance and stigma.

  In the strict sense of the word, anyone who leaves a religion, political party, etc is, by definition, an 'apostate', and the word does not on its own indicate whether or not such a deviation is justified.

  However, the Witnesses use the term in a derogatory way to demonize people who leave their religion to discourage other members from associating with those who leave, and the implication is automatically negative regardless of the reason for the person leaving. Because of that, their applying of the term to any individuals who leave is tantamount to slander.

  For that reason, I object to its use.
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  IP_SEC

  Yes and proud of it.

  Witnesses make apostacy out as such a crime. I like to think of it as a brand of honour. I think, they are not thinking. If thinking makes me an apostate... well cool.
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  oldflame

  The scriptures teaches that an apostate is someone who leaves God, I did not leave God but I left an organisation. I was told by my witness mother one time that I was an apostate because I left the organisation, I told her that an apostate was someone who left God. She stated that since I left the organisation that I had left God. I told her that was absurd thinking and that she should study her bible a lot better.
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  blondie

  No, because I left an apostate organization. I am no longer an apostate.

  Blondie
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  Jeffro

  oldflame

  The scriptures teaches that an apostate is someone who leaves God, I did not leave God but I left an organisation. I was told by my witness mother one time that I was an apostate because I left the organisation, I told her that an apostate was someone who left God. She stated that since I left the organisation that I had left God. I told her that was absurd thinking and that she should study her bible a lot better.

  The word "apostate" occurs 11 times in the New World Translation (all in the Hebrew Scriptures), and none of those occurrences has a definition attached. It is the Watchtower Society that says that an apostate is someone who leaves God. In actuality, the word refers to anyone who leaves a group that involves some change in the way of a person's thinking and attitude toward that group. Technically, you are an apostate, but it has nothing to do with God, and it has no legitimate negative implication that the Society (or your mother) attaches to it.
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  Frannie Banannie

  Like Blondie, I left an apostate organization. I consider myself now to be enlightened.....saved......from a hell-on-earth existence as a jdub. When I come to think about it, leaving the WTS is kinda like being resurrected to a real life.

  Frannie