I dont believe they ever had the truth, how can an organization that calls itself "The Truth" lie so much? As for the core doctrines they have lied and misquoted secular sources to bolster their claims.-----If God is a God of love, then why would he create a religion that has caused so much damage in people's lives?
JW Discussion Forum Poll
by zarco 66 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
Stealth453
4, all the way.
-
crazyblondeb
None of the above.
I believe your spirituality is what you make it!
-
bikerchic
4- There is no spiritual truth
-
AuldSoul
zarco,
I do not in any way question your earnestness for pleasing God. You have zeal, plainly. But your zeal is like that of Saul of Tarsus in some ways. You have been blinded by traditions. You seek to please God through service for and dedication to an organization and its policies (although you likely tell yourself the same thing I told myself for 21 years).
As a preliminary exercise, I would like for you to examine and report back what is the time period during which you believe the Society/Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses was the channel for truth from God.
Without this basic proof I cannot agree with your assessment that they are the channel and have apostatized themselves. For this to be true they must have had it right at some point in the past. Like Israel. There must be some fixed time from which they apostatized true worship. I think you will find that such a time has never existed for this organization. That is what I found when I looked at their history without the nifty set of blinders they had given me as a child.
Examine 1 Peter 4:14 and John 15:17-21 and consider: Can you name any of Jehovah's Witnesses who has ever been persecuted or reproached on account of the name of Jesus? Please think very carefully about what the answer means, in light of plainly stated Scripture.
That said, I believe John 4; John 7; John 14-16; 1 Corinthians 2, 3; 2 Corinthians 3:1-6; Galatians 1-6; Ephesians 2; Hebrews 5-7; 1 Peter 2:21-25; 1 John 2:26-29 make a perfect case for dispelling the notion that any human body of men is required for God to convey His will to Christians.
The Governing Body have placed themselves in the seat of Jesus and have claimed to have all access to the Spirit, which belong to Christ, which teaches all things, which leads to all truth, which searches even the deep things of God, which liberates all Christians from slavery to men's rules, and which frees from any further need of teachers (see Scriptures listed for support for each of these statements).
The Spirit does not need human organizations. It is not bound by such fleshly constraints and concepts.
Respectfully,
AuldSoul -
Abandoned
I think everything I need to know about God, I learn by listening to a baby laugh, watching a kitty play, smelling a hot cup of apple cider, and staring off at a mammoth waterfall. Anything beyond these things and things like them are just another man's words trying to affect my thoughts.
-
AuldSoul
zarco,
I think you are tripping yourself up by looking so far back for your parallels to Christianity. NOTHING in the Old Testament systems has anything to do with the systems in place after Jesus came. You are looking to fleshly systems (Abrahamic/Israeli) to defend the need for a fleshly system (Governing Body), when Christ instituted a completely different system entirely. Christ was the means by which a spiritual system could come into existence. Christ had to die and be raised in order for the helper—the teacher—to come. It is because the teacher has come that we do not need the Governing Body. In fact, such bodies take authority Christ reserves to himself.
Look to the First Century and discuss where the centralized organization is. Paul didn't go to Jerusalem and meet with "those who seemed to be pillars" until after seventeen years of starting Christian congregations. Even then he didn't go seeking guidance; he went to set them straight. He said the men who were "sent by James" were leaven, calling to mind Jesus' comparison of Pharisees to leaven.
Christianity was unlike the Abrahamic and Israeli systems in many ways. Drawing parallels from those systems would be misleading.
Respectfully,
AuldSoul -
becca1
1- definitly NOT
2- I would like to believe this, but I really don't.
3- No
4- maybe
-
becca1
Abandoned: I second that point of view.
-
plmkrzy
none of the above...still waiting for the gap to close in.