by choosing life 21 Replies latest jw friends
Gumbster said:
I'm like Gary and wasn't aware of it till I was leaving a convention and some apostates were holding up signs across the street that said
..."Jesus is not your Mediator" and it quoted which Watchtower that it was stated in. I wasn't offended when I read the article because their explanation made sense to me at that time. I was content that he was at least my 'High Priest'.
I was the same way about apostates. We were told that they are like poison.
This was the issue that drove my wife from the WTBS. She had been brought up as a Christian and could not square this with what she knew the Bible said.
Question:
Wasn't this the core issue of the Great Apostasy at Bethel, circa 1980? The clandestine Bible discussions after Monday night WT study? I read, but have not yet found the means to verify, that there is a Gnostic ritual in which the participants say NO to the body of Christ. Any clarification for the above would be appreciated.
Always questioning,
CoCo
No, as I never knew another Christian religion and that was just the way it was. Now, I am still not offended, as I am not a Christian.
I find it offensive, and I do not believe it.
However, the vast majority of JWs do not even know that is the belief. Last week, at bookstudy, there was a paragraph that taught that we pray TO Jehovah, THROUGH Jesus. A brother went off in his comment how Jesus is our mediation, yada yada, yada, and then the bookstudy conductor took up the same line of reasoning and ran with it.
After the conductor finished, I raised my hand and simply stated: "Jesus is not our mediator." I paused to let it hang; you could have heard a pin drop. Then I went on to explain the WTBTS's position. There were lots of surpised people commenting on it after the meeting. If it gets them researching...that's a good thing.
Justitia
Yes!
and then the bookstudy conductor took up the same line of reasoning and ran with it.
Good for you Justitia, I know that most Elders would be unable to pass a test on current WT dogma. It doesn't really matter what a JW believes internally as long as they nod in agreement to all that is said and follow the rules with no complaining- quiet muttering is OK. I used to get almost spastic in my early years trying to keep all the new light-old light straight in my mind, modern antitypes, chronology,etc., it was enough to make my head spin, so, I finally Zoned it out and after 5 years ceased seriously updating what I had been taught. I think that is what got me out- I was stuck in the past and the new teachings stood out from the old, just too much to ignore.
>>I had no problem with it because I knew I wasn't going to heaven. That was aside from my belief that Jesus died for all mankind, in that the redemptive value of his blood covered ALL mankind. These were two different issues in my mind and I had no problem reconcilling them.
Yeah, that's where I was on it. Jesus' role as a mediator was one of many roles he played. He wasn't my son, he wasn't my carpenter's apprentice, he wasn't my mediator in a contract I felt I had no part in. He WAS my ticket to shucking off inherited sin and getting into paradise. That's all, but it was enough.
I understood this as a JW, and it was no big deal.
But I was a JW. If they told me Jesus didn't like me, but tolerated me because he liked my car, I'd've bought that too, and liked it.
Dave
I can't believe after all this time my jw still doesn't get that! So, I'm trying to inform him. Once again, where's that 'unity' issue again? How he doesn't know that Jesus is not the mediator for him, or that even I and his children and all he loves will be 'destroyed' and made nothing more than bird & worm food is beyond me. He just claims that I and all of you are just taking things out of context. That's the reason you are all apostate.
I wasn't offended, because I believed they had that one wrong and was certain new light was due on the subject. When a JW prays, he concludes by saying "... through Jesus Christ I (we) pray. Amen." So that makes Jesus the Mediator of all prayers, doesn't it?
How big of a crime did I commit by thinking this way?
