What do you believe about the bible?

by bethelyellowdollarbag 61 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Satanus

  The ot has ideas and literature worked in, that came from the egyptians, sumerians and others. Not strange, when you add the fact that the main patriarch, abraham is said to have come from near babylon. Some later parts of the ot were heavily influenced by the persians. So, the ot is, basically edited and repackaged history, legends w a sprinkling of philosophy from the area. Having gone through the jewish treatment, it has been pronounced kosher, fit for jewish consumption. That gentiles ran w it cannot be blamed on jews.

  The nt is a story of 2 conflicting streams of thought: those of jesus and his little flock, and paul w his big flock following. Paul was a roman and jesus was a rule following jew. Too bad that jesus remained passive and didn't write anything, himself. That fact, in itself, should tell you a lot about intents and purposes.

  S
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  OnTheWayOut

  We have another "prophet" in the makings. So does God lead people to the "lie" so that they can arrive at the truth when they are ex-JW's?

  Yes!

  So that is why God lets an operation of error go to them, that they may get to believing the lie,

  I am still not clear, Ablebodiedman.

  But if you are saying God deliberately led anyone to Jehovah's Witnesses, then He's a real a**hole.
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  Satanus

  God deliberatly lies to some people. Nice.

  S
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  kassad84

  God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong, but I can't. If a thing is free to be good it's also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata -of creatures that worked like machines- would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they've got to be free.
  Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently, He thought it worth the risk. (...) If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will -that is, for making a real world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings- then we may take it it is worth paying. - C.S Lewis

  God does not lie. It's people who lies and manipulates, and they can do it because God gave them freewill. And so suffering insues. But I like to believe that in all of this, God is in control, and that everything that happens is part of a universal, at the same time a personal lesson for each. Right and wrong, Good and Evil, joy and suffering, all this plays a part in the "lesson" each of us are learning.
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  Satanus

  Everyone has free will. God is in control. Hmmm. Are both statements true?

  S
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  smiddy

  Its been a tool used by rulers,either religous or secular to control the masses , not unlike other so called sacred texts that have come down through the ages in other religions and nationalities, doing the same thing.

  smiddy
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  smiddy

  Why would an almighty powerfull supreme being ,the creator of the universe expect humans created in his image ,after 6000+ years to rely on something that was written down by { uneducated people by todays standards }. at least 2000 years ago . And dont say faith is needed. Sheeeesh

  The founder of christianity Jesus Christ, obviously didnt think anything he had to say was of any benefit to future generations because he never wrote anything down . And if the Almighty thought he did, he didnt correct him .

  Jehovah , Yahweh , JHVH ,YHWH , or whatever/whoever you want to call him has had 2000 years to set matters straight ,instead he has left us with ambiguous texts that scholars debate endlessly over what interpretation correctly fits the text,resulting in the thousands of so called christian religions who all claim to be the truth.

  It certainly doesnt sound like a God of order to me, and does not inspire me to beleive that the bible is Gods word

  smiddy
• 

  Phizzy

  I take issue with the thread title, believing something is true or correct does not make it so, no matter how long one has held such a belief or how dearly it is held.

  So, my belief about the Bible or anything has no value to anyone, not even to me.

  I lead an evidence based life. So, what I trust is true has to be supported by testable facts, and the countervailing evidence must be small or non-existent for me to trust something is true.

  So, on that basis what do I conclude as to the Bible ?

  There is not one shred of evidence that it is "inspired".

  So, it is simply the writings of men of their time, with their agenda, and their limited knowledge because of when they lived.

  It is therefore to be read and interpreted with care and knowledge, knowledge of the times and mores when written, of the political and religious situation the writer finds himself in, and knowledge of Genre and much much more.

  For example, most people do not consider the fact that the O.T is written, entirely almost, by the Priestly class, the ordinary Israelite being illiterate in the main. So we only get the stories from the Priest's point of view. Many such arcane factors as this must be taken in to consideration when reading and understanding the Bible, and any ancient text.

  The word of god it ain't.
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  Dismissing servant

  One great eye-opener is Pauls writings in the 1 Corinthians chapter 7:

  27 Are you pledged to a woman? Do not seek to be released. Are you free from such a commitment? Do not look for a wife. 28 But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.

  29 What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

  Paul tells the christians in Corinth not to get married and have families, because the world was going to its end. This is exactley the same cultish bullshit we are familiar to from the JW. This was written some 1950 years ago. We can just speculate about how many of the first christians that were fooled by that doomsday expections. Christianity was a doomsday cult since it's beginning.
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  Witness My Fury

  After a considerable amount of research, that it's the biggest fraud perpetrated in the history of mankind....

  The Bible Unearthed parts 1 - 6 here:

  Youtube