by Terry 98 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Cofty, I did say that spiritual abuse leads to a greater number of atheists.
But what I said is both a fact and a theory.š 1) It can be statistically demonstrated. 2) It is predictable.
While you can say that some have logically drawn a conclusion that God does not exist, the fact remains, that as a class, spiritual abused people become atheists. Primarily, it is a trust issue.
How utterly misleading the Bible is.
Why base your life on ancient stories written for the illiterate by authority figures? So much better not to have had your life snagged and stunted by believing in talking snakes, invisible beings and saviours from heaven. These are called myths not facts...myths are not real, just in case you wondered.
Better to get a proper education and study life's realities instead. Our lives are too precious to throw away on childish fairy tales.
And yes mythical people like Jesus can't write but as in any story, they can have words attributed to them.
the liberator:
Childhood indoctrination leads to a greater number of (insert anything you want here).
dear Half banana...
the WTBTS tells people to put education and life on hold. I don't know of any mainstream denomination that doesn't value education and a fulfilling life for congregants.
You'll find that outside the WT people generally study want interests them. There are christians (and people of other faiths) that are scientists, dentists, doctors, auto mechanics etc. too, you know.
love michelle
Jesus as the prophetically espoused Messiah by the Hebrew Israelites and his supposed teachings and directions for mankind were better and socially more appealing than what the Roman civilization had, that's most likely why this faith or belief system was eventually adopted into Roman society.
Jesus was a true people lover who cared for the plight of humanity much more than any other god preceding him.
Constantinople's mother must of had a compelling influence for she was first to adhere to this derived belief of the Jesus God, from that moment in time Christianity grew and flourished throughout history.
dear Terry...
you said, "The point of this Discussion is so simple.
JESUS is the whole of Christianity and yet we must depend on other people's words about every single detail. Christians see treasure in the Bible and yet each has a separate and distinctopinion about what it says and means."...
You know the NT writers' words (so that you get a sense of the complete person and mission) about Jesus varies little. They are all witnesses to the same person. "JESUS is the whole of Christianity" is YOUR statement!!! You've argued AGAINST just about everything written about Him in the bible on this forum and so saying, essentially, YOU can't know about Jesus (and His salvation) based on other peoples descriptions is disingenuous. Now, if you'd displayed hand wringing angst for the last 11 years I might be more inclined to believe you genuinely CAN'T form your decision for Christ and your salvation.
love michelle
Sorry to appear brutal for the things I am going to say; but I wish someone else had informed me of these when I was a young JW.
It was due to the political demands of the ruthless but superstitious Roman Emperor Constantine the Great who for political gain declared the Jesus cult to become the state religion. This was because his mother (as Finklestein alludes) came from the peasant class and had adopted the rustic Jesus cult. Constantineās authority established the Catholic faith as the official religion with its chosen texts which later came to be called the Bible. All modern Jesus-belief, including JWs and yours Michelle, sprang from this Roman source.
There never was a primitive uncorrupted Christianity, there never was a real person called Jesus.
He was the saviour- god-man character of pagan theatre. The Jesus story evolved from paganism and was politically managed as the central figure of the establishment religion of Imperial Rome in the fourth century CE.
If you believe that Jesus is the son of God, you are parroting the Catholic church and ignorant of the pagan origins of Christianity. Besides how could anyone know who the invisible son is of an invisible father?
Constantine did not care a fig about the teachings of the Bible, as I said, it was for him a superstition; it brought him āgood luckā in warfare. The fusion of all pagan belief in the new Roman Catholic Church; politically united the pious in a cosmopolitan Roman Empire. This religious and political unison was a platform of strength for the emperor. As it turned out, as history shows, the new religion out-lived the Roman Empire.
The Catholic fusion of beliefs in the fourth century Rome involved taking the folk literature centred on the universal astrological stories and clothed them in reverential language. The figure or character of a god-man saviour was recorded from the earliest writings in Babylonia and Egypt. Thousands of years before Jesus, Osiris (also called Krst) healed the sick, raised the dead, was born of a virgin mother called Meri, had twelve disciples, walked on water and raised his āfriendā Lazarus from the dead. Space does not permit me to list the rest of similarities.
So why not have Osiris in your heart as your saviour instead of one of his later imitations? Perhaps you might like the sound of Dionysus āThe true vineā was born of the Virgin in the stable with oxen in midwinter, who turned water into wine at the wedding feast, was crucified went to the grave and was resurrected after three days. Or perhaps you might prefer the Virgin-born Great Shepherd Mithra, symbolized by a cross who was crucified and whose body and blood was commemorated every year at the spring equinox by a ritual last supper.
Christianity is pure pagan belief dressed up in a literary confection to obscure its origins. Jesus is just an imitation of the older God-man beliefs. There is no concrete evidence, no first hand eyewitness account of him...and my goodness! if a man could raise the dead he would have immediately become known and celebrated for his remarkable skills in the interconnected and literate Roman world.
Alas! True resurrectionists have always been a bit thin on the ground.
Since therefore Jesus is a literary figure not a literal one, the likely-hood of Jesus being a real person is at the same betting odds as Harry Potter becoming a breathing human being in the future and doing all of the things written about him. Please think about it.
Why didnāt somebody tell me these things when I was at school?
dear cofty...
I've made an observation about how Terry has spent some of his time here. How is that nasty OR vindictive?
