Thanks therevealer. Gotcha - and I understand where you're coming from.
THE WATCHTOWER ? JULY 1, 2012 19
by therevealer 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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WTWizard
What about those of us who realize the whole thing is a scam? We might use the term "Father" to refer to the Being that did so much to be our Savior, right there in Eden when Jehovah tried to enslave the whole human race. That term also refers to Father Satan.
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steve2
My earthly father was fine. As for my heavenly father, he was remote and judgmental and only wanted to be my father when I did right - he said I wasn't his when I did something wrong. Give me my earthly father any day... he was proud of me, warts and all...
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smiddy
Good point steve 2
smiddy
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smiddy
Hang on, doesn`t Isaiah say, according to jw`s" you are my witnesses says Jehovah" and wasn`t this something like 1000 years b4 Jesus Christ came to earth ? Yet the Israelites /jews between the time of Isaiah and Jesus were never called or identified as jehovah`s Witnesses . Think about it .
When Jesus appeared on earth did he instruct his followers to identify themselves as Jehovah`s Witnesses ? Nowhere in the scriptures is this indicated. The gospels, nor any other christian greek scriptures, do not identify followers of Jesus Christ as Jehovah`s Witnesses ,in fact we have the opposite as recorded in the gospels ,it was by " divine providence they were called christians " not jehovahs witnesses , but christians and this by divine providence .THINK ABOUT IT .
And just as an afterthought , the name" Jehovah "didn`t exist b4 the 13th century , it was a name thought up by a catholic monk in the 13th century after adding a couple of vowels to the tetragrammoton , the 4 consonants of the hebrew language.
So in reality JW`s are following on a tradition of the Roman Catholic Church started in the 13th century , in naming God.
smiddy
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yadda yadda 2
Jesus never once is recorded as addressing God in prayer by the tetragrammaton. It's very clear we should call him father, not Jehovah. YHWH was only God's old covenant name, the name associated with the Israelites. When Christ the amen and yes to all prophecy died on the cross, that covenant ended and all prophecy was effectively fulfilled, and so the tetragrammaton came to an end. Hence why the tetragrammaton is not contained in any extant NT textual evidence nor the oldest versions of the Christan Greek scriptures. Christians are God's sons, hence he is our father, which is not how we find God's relationship with the Israelites described anywhere in the OT. JW's do not understand this and are stuck in the OT.
Ironically, saying "Abba, Father" is a proof of the holy spirit's adoption, yet 99.9% of JW's say they are not born again. Scripturally, there is no such thing as a 'true Christian' who calls god 'father' who has not received of the holy spirit. So 99.9% of JW's are therefore not 'true Christians'.
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Finkelstein
Some of the reason why JWS don't use Father is because thats more of the way Christendom addresses god
and we all know how much the JWs are trained to not be similar to the religions of Christendom.
The Father, the son and the holy ghost etc.