JW doctrine aside, where has your research of Christianity taken you to....

by evergreen 14 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  evergreen

  I felt i would ask this Question in the friends forum as it seems to get the most viewing.
  
  My question is this.
  
  
  Leaving aside your research of what you have found out about the organisation and focusing more on your research of the "Christian faith".
  
  
  
  
  
  
  What things have you discovered that you never knew before about Christianity?
  
  
  Do you feel that you are much more closer to God today than when you were a Jdub?
  
  
  Have you found another Christian denomination that you feel comfortable with and why?
  
  
  Do you feel that you are closer to finding the correct path or at least a path that you sense feels to be the right one? Why?
  
  
  and
  
  
  finally do you have a strong faith in the Bible or have you lost your faith in the Bible? and again why?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  At this time i have faith in Gods word. I know there are contradictions and things hard to understand and why God acted in certain ways throughout the old Testament, but i cant help being drawn to this book no matter what. It gives me personally, hope for the future; and without that hope, for me, there is nothing.
  
  
  So please write and tell me what you have learned through your own personal research and where your spirituality stands today.
  
  
  Thanks
  
  Evergreen
• 

  evergreen

  1
• 

  jgnat

  I never joined the JW's, but in self-defence, I went back and researched and reconfirmed my views. I am stricter at applying rational thought to my beliefs and the "commands" of the bible. I no longer consider the bible perfect, but I have not discarded it as a cultural foundation. I don't slavishly follow individual commands (cover my head in the presence of a brother) if it flies in the face of the higher law of love. Or just plain progress. Face it, the writers of New Testament books could not have concieved how far women have come with their personal rights.

  Closer to the truth? Always. Is there one answer? I doubt it. If I were you, I'd discard your search for the perfect church. They all have flaws. But there's good news, apparently God loves flawed humanity anyways. Find a place that is busting with love and good works and let the minor details slide by.
• 

  LittleToe

  I answered something similar here:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/118797/1.ashx

  As JWs we were trained to expect right answers, single solutions, and to take an all or nothing approach to beliefs. The reality of life is that there are grey areas, and this spills over into spirituality.

  IMHO religion and spiritual texts (of any flavour) are supposed to be tools to direct us to the Divine. By becoming preoccupied with the tools we miss the whole purpose of them. They are stepping stones, which might remain useful, but they become very slippery indeed if we continue to let them bear our whole [spiritual] weight.

  The best advice I can give to an exJW is to experience a wide range of religions, denominations, and sacred writings. This will break some of our previous taboos, especially stepping inside a church for the first time.

  Allowing ourselves to just "be" who we are, is fundamental to becoming whole. Let go of judgementalism, "know thyself", and let an awareness of divinity grow from there. It's summed up in heart experience, rather than head knowledge and rationale, however unscientific that might currently sound.
• 

  jgnat

  Though Little Toe and I diverge on our use of reason in our faith, I do find a common thread of independence and freedom in our exploration. I don't think either of us would hand our faith over to any man or organization, ever, after our brush with the Witnesses.
• 

  garybuss

  I carefully read the Christian Bible, then I made two verse by verse studies of the same texts. I enjoyed it very much.
  Then I read the Tanakh and the history of the Hebrew people. I studied the festivals, the manners, and the customs. I interviewed one Rabbi and I communicated with more. This was an extremely interesting study.
  Then I read the Qur'an in English translation and the Book of The Dead. All interesting reads.
  The religious texts inspired me to keep reading and sitting with sages and at the end of about a 5 year study, I had read over 200 books on every subject from Judaism to hypnotism.
  A sage told me one day that if I didn't know a subject well enough to debate both sides with equal competency, I didn't know the subject well enough to be talking about it at all. That was the best lesson of all.
  
  
• 

  LittleToe

  jgnat:

  Though Little Toe and I diverge on our use of reason in our faith...

  We're not as far apart as you might think.

  I've not arrived at this point on my path of spiritual evolution without applying rationale. My point is that all the rationale in the world is unlikely to open up the world of spirituality (though I don't preclude the possibility). There comes a point where you come to the end of yourself, let go, and leap off into the void. The leap of faith. Control feaks beware as it's not a comfortable ride, and I often liken it to riding a rollercoaster with the handbrake removed.

  Where you go next often involves the use of rationale to make sense of the experience, and thus various frameworks of belief are born. The difficulty comes when individuals' proclaim that their subjective expression of their experience is the only right way, with the ensuing chaos of manipulation and power-struggle.

  As you can see, these comments aren't limited in any way to the Christian framework, but I believe they are fairly generic. IMHO that is how it ought to be...
• 

  Midget-Sasquatch

  Where do you feel your research has brought you to at this point today?

  As far as available evidence goes, there's no way to know for sure whats "true" christianity. No way of knowing what the historical Jesus said about himself or did, or whether there even was a historical Jesus at all. Like people have been saying all along....alot of it can only be taken on faith.

  Do you feel that you are much more closer to God today than when you were a Jdub?

  I never felt close to God while growing up as a JW (nor did I believe most of what I was learning at catholic school). Exploring the concepts of God, divinity, and the nature of Jesus, on my own is very interesting. I can get enthused about it, and have always found the persona of Jesus in the Gospels appealing. So in that respect, I'm much closer. I've also only had subjective moments which I can only guess are akin to spiritual ones, when I was firmly out of the JW mindset.

  Do you feel that you are closer to finding the correct path or at least a path that you sense feels to be the right one? Why?

  I don't think there's any way of knowing for sure. Many religions have similar basic ethics though which I feel can work equally well in bringing us all closer to a kinder, more just society for all.

  finally do you have a strong faith in the Bible or have you lost your faith in the Bible? and again why?

  No. I never really had it either. I realized early on that I was naturally unbelieving about alot of things. Then learning more about how the Bible was all brought together, worked over for different agendas, etc. only gave me confirmation of my feelings. I'm only talking about the Bible here, as the Word of God. Some basic take home messages in it are certainly of value, but then so are alot of other religious writings. My folks should have named me Thomas. (My given name is sort of ironic considering what it means in Italian).
• 

  evergreen

  Thanks to everyone who replied to this thread. I am currently in conversations with an Aunt of mine who felt that she had read the bible through and through and came to that point wher she could no longer be a Catholic and has found what she believs to be her own spiritual path in life Although some of her ideas are a bit way out there, i do admire her conviction and honesty and has given me some food for thought. In my own personal way i feel i am getting closer to God because he knows i am honestly searching for him. He knows that i am making every effort to find him and then follow a path that i will know in my heart is the way forward. Through my study of the scriptures , putting faith in our lord Jesus is the key to finding God.
  Only through Jesus will we receive Gods grace.
  
  I do however feel that as some have already touched on earlier, that a person needs to be rational about what we believe. For a start i will not follow something blindly when my conscience is telling me "to hold on a minute", or my alarm bells are going off telling me that some doctrine doesnt sound logical or make sense. I will worship God by obeying his commands within the scriptures and use common sense in my day to day lfe.
  
  One of the things i feel i would like to eventually do is something similiar to what Ray Franz has been doing and have some sort of fellowship by having some form of bible dicussion with others ( even if there are minor differences). At least my association would be with people who have a love for the bible and genuinly want to understand it and upbuild each other. This hopefully will be something i will do in the near future. I often think of the scripture where it says "For where 2 or 3 of you are together in my name, there i am in their midst" Matthew 18:20
  
  I would have to say that i have found out a great deal more about God through personal research and will continue my research for as long as it takes. We know that God is not far off. I also know ( from the sciptures) that if we earnestly seek God, and p[ut faith in his son , we will receive Gods blessings.
  
  
  
  
  Evergreen
• 

  done4good

  While I would agree there is good counsel in some of the New Testament, it seems clear to me why most of Christianity does not focus on the OT. Too many contradictions, and the god of the OT appears to be someone very different from the one Jesus preached about. That inconsistency, was very troubling to me. A further examination led me to the conclusion the Christianity was little more than a reform movement for the Jewish system, (Pharisaical law was very oppresive). A few accepted it, most did not. It only became something "divine" when the gospel accounts were written some years later.

  Bottom line: It moved me away from religious beliefs altogether.

  j