by winnie 17 Replies latest jw friends
Just wondering, all who have left, are leaving, or are still 'in' and no longer believe.
JW's have the hope of living forever...paradise...etc.
What is your hope for the future?
Do you still think there is the chance of living forever...paradise...etc.
I'm not deluding myself.Life is painful and it seems humanity has a abuilt in self destruct button. Our only hopes will come from common sense, and good triumphing over the evil within us. Reality is ugly, but if you fill your head with anything other than that you will have no tools for the real world. Beleive me I love fairy tales too but I need facts. It seems the biggest problems today are caused by bullshit religion. Our own minds will take us to our collective destiny whatever that is. It is something we cannot know. Let love and logic rule. Do not worry about the rest.
I believe that it will get much worse before getting better, like the bible says. You know, the great tribulation and Armageddon before paradise...
I keep faith in God, and still hope to live eternally.
Yes I still have a hope and it is stronger than ever, I use to think of this hope of living forever on paradise earth but when you are in the Witness frame of mind you always doubt the hope, as the meetings and literture always makes you feel that you can never do enough, that you are serving a God who cannot be satisfied. Only after reading the Bible do I get the sense that no we can never really do enough but unlike the Witness I put my complete faith in the Blood of the Christ, and as the Bible puts it in Romans and many other places ch 10 vss 9-11
9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. 11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” [
we cannot earn life it is a gift for those with faith as the Bible says
As far as the place or where and when, again the Bible says in 1 Cor 2:9 9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
for those who love him.
also in Romans Paul says that God's judgements and ways are unsearchable and who can know His mind. I don't know the specifics and I don't think it is really all that important, but I do believe that my Lord died for people like me and I know that I am a sinner worthy of nothing but only because of God's underserved kindness through His Son am I assured of life by faith not works, yes this is my living faith and my living hope. I believe this with all my heart and no I don't think JW's have the license on God and they are the exclusive ones to Chist's blood. That has always been a sore spot with me as far back as I can remember, that is arrogant and haughty thinking.
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For the longest time, I had a hope for the future. After I left the tower, I studdied the bible and entertained the idea of going to heaven. For a time I even knew I was going to heaven. But as I studdied the bible I found so many contradictions and inconsistencies that I realized for me Christianity was another version of Jehovahs witnesses. It's been 23 years since I left the organization after 31 years in the organization today I kind of think and hope that we are eternal beings and this life is either the begining or one stop of an incredible journey. I am the sum total of all my previous experiences. I cant buy that we evolved from the primordial sea, although I can see that there is a form of evolution which some call adaptation. I doubt the bible is the word of God. It may be inspired of god in that the people who wrote it are writing of their understanding of a supreme being or they are trying to explain the unknown and unknowable. I am not even sure their is a God as bible readers believe. Do I thnk there is a chance of living forever in paradise. Yes, based on my readings about quantum physics and parralel and alternate universes. I dont think I want to live in a paradise with a bunch of jw's. I think it is possible that what you do and think about in this life can influence where you spend your next life or eternity. I am hoping for a better class of people and circumstances than the jws for my next life. Regardless I say eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die. If there is eternal conciousness I have been a good person. If we evolved and this life is all there is than eternal sleep doesnt scare me.
In the short term on a global scale - not really. I'm too brainwashed into thinking global warming, species extinction, pollution and political corruption will chart our progress beyond the capacities of the silent majority. In the long term hell yes, I think mankind has faced great perils before and survived then thrived. I see space as our next great challenge and the wonder of exploring out there. In teh meantime if God does turn up and sort stuff out His way then fine and dandy but in the meantime I've got stuff to do before they chop all the trees down.
ditto what Jaguar base said.
I guess what we are really saying is that we just don't know what the future brings but we hold out hope, and I think that's true of all of us. No matter what we profess to "believe", we are really just holding out hope.
RV
I try to be a better person today than I was yesterday. I feel that I have a social responsibility to you and everyone else to give my best.
I will die someday; I will donate my organs; I will be cremated. That's it. Nothing but a memory. Everyman basically. Afterlife? Worm food.
I don't believe a word JW say. Yes earth can be paradise if we gave up on industry and everything. Science can reach one day point where they'll be able to extend human life and according to some medical research journals I read recently they seem to be on the brink of it.
In any case all that indicates to me that my future is firmly in my hands (which I believe anyway) and to an extent in hands of people around me.
I still believe the JW's have got many things right from the Bible. I still believe in God, Jesus, the bible, etc, so I still have the hope of living forever. I just have no faith in the Watchtower Society or the organisation as a whole. It is about as much the true religion as the Pharisees were when Jesus walked the earth. The Pharisees didn't believe the trinity, an immortal soul, hell, etc.
