by leaving_quietly 26 Replies latest watchtower bible
Cofty: excellent letter to the branch. I came to the exact same conclusion six years ago when I decided to think for myself. I agree with everything you pointed out. This organization is an entity of itself. Even if those who read your letter can see the truths in it, they are too in deep to get out
Too much at stake!
With Loesch rambling on its hard to say. He said the dead were those resurrected. Then he backs up to the scripture about "the rest" of the dead as proof. Well, the rest of the dead come to life AFTER the 1,000 years.
They just make stuff up as they go along. People are either so enraptured or bored that they don't notice the massive inconsistencies.
DD
" Matt.24 does use parosia and comming interchangeably-vs.30,36,37,42,44,50."
Yes. Technically speaking - from a strictly linguistic standpoint - there is a difference between presence and coming. However, this techinical difference is mostly irrelevant since the presence starts with christ's coming. This is why the NT writers use the 2 terms interchangeably. Watchtower is making much ado about a technicality that is irrelevant in the context of the NT.
Also, contrary to Watchtower's claims, the events that Jesus mentions in Matthew 24, indicate, not that his presence is here, but that it is near.
"Likewise also YOU, when YOU see all these things, know that he is near at the doors." - Matthew 24:33
Jesus often illustrated/compared his return to that of a person (a master, a bridegroom or a thief) who returns/comes to a house, unexpectedly. His disciples are always pictured as the ones inside the house - as slaves or as virgins of the bridegroom. With this in mind, when is the visitor (Jesus) actually present? Is it not when he enters the house? Obviously so. When he's not in the house with the others he is absent. The expression "near at the doors" used at Matthew 24:33 appears to be an implicit allusion to one of these house visitation comparisons that Jesus often made. If he is near at the doors he is still outside and therefore not yet present - but just about to be. Thus contrary, to what Watchtower claims, Matthew 24 gives events that would indicate that Jesus' presence is near - not already here.
All end time delusionists have it wrong .You all need to look at the timeline of the staements and who were speaking. Now if that statement was not meant until over 2000 years later.Then acording to what is written the APostles are still alive waiting,which of course they are not. It has all been fulfilled there are no more types or shadows they ended with CHrist
According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that WE (those there at the time, not us or any future generation) who are STILL alive, WHO ARE LEFT until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, WE WHO ARE STILL ALIVE and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so WE WILL be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words
SO either Jesus was lying in Matthew 24 (which were about the destruction of Jeruslaem in 70ad not the end of the world) or misled them. Or the other which is IT HAPPENED IN THEIR GENERATION 2000 YEARS AGO.
Checkout the proof of which
http://youtu.be/3H_bYlO-WoM?list=UURMYv_rQ9Cmd7MYwbpj9acQ
http://youtu.be/Z21UMfu3KJg?list=UURMYv_rQ9Cmd7MYwbpj9acQ
http://youtu.be/QH-fVO3pd-8?list=UURMYv_rQ9Cmd7MYwbpj9acQ
So that means ALL churches who proclaim the end are false teachers.What is left is Christ ruling since the1st centruy.The Kingdom is within it cannot beseen nor made with human hands it is within you Christ lives in you, the mystery of the ages revealed to the gentiles see galations 1:27. THe bible is the writtne testimony of Christ but the living word within bears testimony to him living in beleivers. The relaization of whichmost have not perceived due tofollowing false teachings of man
check out my youtubechannel there are over 70 videos sharing how Christ is in you. Get out of the counterfeit kingdoms of the world and enter into Christ
my youtube
seekchristwithin
check out my youtubechannel there are over 70 videos showing you how Christ is in you.
That sounds rapey.
The sudden "depature" or rapture or 'snaching away" of Christians in not a new teaching. The rapture is taught in the NT and was believed by early Christians:
Ephraim The Syrian
Ephraim (306 AD – 373 AD) was made a deacon in the church in Syria in 338 and later became the bishop of Nisibis. Although he was made a “saint” in the Roman Catholic Church, he was not involved in Catholicism and did not even live in the Roman Empire until the final years of his life. The book Pseudo Ephraim was one of his still existing works. It was called “Pseudo” because of later dispute over authorship. However the book’s one reference to the rapture is very compelling:
In his work, On The Last Times 2, he wrote:
“Why therefore do we not reject every care of earthly actions and prepare ourselves for the meeting of the Lord Christ, so that he may draw us from the confusion, which overwhelms all the world? .....
Or do you not believe unless you see with your eyes? See to it that this sentence be not fulfilled among you of the prophet who declares: “Woe to those who desire to see the day of the Lord!” For all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins.
Cyprian
Cyprian (200 AD – 258 AD) – Cyprian was Bishop of the church in Carthage. During his short stint as leader of the church, he guided the flock through intense persecution at the hands of the Roman Empire. In 258 AD after spending seven months of confinement to his home by order of Roman authorities, he was beheaded for his faith. Several of his works still exist today.
In Treatises of Cyprian he wrote in describing the end times Great Tribulation:
“We who see that terrible things have begun, and know that still more terrible things are imminent, may regard it as the greatest advantage to depart from it as quickly as possible. Do you not give God thanks, do you not congratulate yourself, that by an early departure you are taken away, and delivered from the shipwrecks and disasters that are imminent? Let us greet the day which assigns each of us to his own home, which snatches us hence, and sets us free from the snares of the world and restores us to paradise and the kingdom.”
The sudden "depature" or rapture or 'snaching away" of Christians in not a new teaching. The rapture is taught in the NT and was believed by early Christians:
Try reading what people write. I wrote that the current fundamentalist view of the rapture is a modern invention. Neither of those people you quote (one of them out of context, BTW), says anything like what the modern whacko crazy Fundamentalist Jesus freaks believe.
