Ever closer, but never attaining. It took me twenty minutes to find the graph I wanted, but I think this is what it looks like in math terms: A hyperbolic cosine, where the minimum is "0"
How did I conclude it was not the 'truth'?
by jgnat 56 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Fred E Hathaway
Like love, happiness is not something we can find by searching for it.
The picture that the Watchtower paints of God is that of some kind of wrathful, demanding deity who requires everything we have to give, and still isn't satisfied, a God who wants to interfere with every aspect of our spiritual and personal lives. It would be difficult to have a close relationship with that sort of God, and none too desirable.
The reality is that we all have a relationship with God, whether we believe in him or not. The nature of that relationship, whether we love, hate or ignore him, will dictate how we conduct ourselves in our everyday lives.
Actually, Jehovah is love, and the happy God. As we study the Bible each day, we begin to assimilate that love and start doing things in life in such a way that attracts love and happiness to us.
The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7) starts with a list of several "Blessed are ..." or "Happy are ..." depending on the translation.
So, if we look to incorporate those things in our life, happiness will result. Not that we won't feel grief or whatnot, but knowing that we're working on fulfilling Scripture produces happiness in itself.
If the Watchtower or another publication paints Jehovah as "some kind of wrathful, demanding deity ..." (whether in word or in illustration) it is these concepts that Jehovah's people work at debunking. I, for one, certainly don't see Jehovah as wrathful and demanding when I look at things correctly, from a spiritual (God-directed) view. That having been said, I have sometimes been very selfish and even wrathful and demanding myself. At those times, I probably could see Jehovah that way. There is, as the Bible accurately states, a war between the spiritual way and the fleshly way, whichever side we pick.
The final paragraph that I clipped from your post is very well put. I couldn't say it better myself. Reality is the best place for us all.
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penny2
I don't come from the context that life is a struggle. That is a Witness concept.
It took me a long time to realise this.
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Fred E Hathaway
We all struggle with many questions. Once we have them answered, there will probably be new questions that we are struggling with. That's my experience. To me, if there aren't questions to struggle with, we're probably dead, at least spiritually.
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iamfreenow
If the Watchtower or another publication paints Jehovah as "some kind of wrathful, demanding deity ..." (whether in word or in illustration) it is these concepts that Jehovah's people work at debunking. I, for one, certainly don't see Jehovah as wrathful and demanding when I look at things correctly, from a spiritual (God-directed) view
I don't see God that way either.
However, the Watchtower has repeatedly informed it's members that only they will survive Armageddon, and then only if they keep meeting Gods' requirements, as outlined by the Society, who purport to speak for him. This includes the wholesale slaughter of six billion or so human beings.
To me. that is not the act of a God of love and justice, more a God of veangeance.
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AK - Jeff
Interesting - but I would have answered completely differently jgnat, having been a Jw myself for my whole life [till age 48].
I, unfortunately believe you have missed much of the substance, due to perspective. I must go so cannot comment fully at the moment. But thank you for a 'different perspective' here.
Jeff
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jgnat
Thank you for your continued interest, Fred. A spirit of open enquiry is very good, and I am happy that you join our discussions.
To me, if there aren't questions to struggle with, we're probably dead, at least spiritually.
Me, I find the society's answers to life's questions too pat, too easy. They do the research for you. They come to conclusions, well wrapped-up and presented. They will even re-interpret apparent contradictions in the bible in order to fit their conclusion. Me, I am content to leave more questions in the air.
To be sure.
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AK - Jeff
I don't come from the context that life is a struggle. That is a Witness concept.
Just one comment. This statement is ludicrous in the least. Sorry to be so harsh, but Google 'life is a struggle'. I got 55,000,000 hits on that, and scrolling through them did not see any indication that this was a 'Witness concept'. It seems to be a universal concept. I have certainly encountered hundreds of people in my life that were not Jw's who 'struggled with life', understood the concept of that, and used the phrase regularly, and none of them 'borrowed' the concept from Jw's.
As a Jw I never adopted this view of life and the world, and certainly never assumed other Jw's to have done so as a conceptual model of our religion.
Jeff
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jgnat
Well, maybe I see things that way because I am a natural optimist, and my husband eats up CNN waiting for the end. I see the word struggle peppered throughout the Watchtower literature. Congregation members come up to me and ask how I am coping. AK-Jeff, this is an interesting discussion in itself. Perhaps we can start a thread on it.
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nvrgnbk
I once read, perhaps it was here: "I'd rather have questions I can't answer than answers I can't question."
The simple fact that the society discourages indepedent thinking should call into question their teachings.