by Billy1000 83 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Hello Billy,
I believe that you are the first Christadelphian that I have ever corresponded with. It is nice to know someone from a different fork splintering from the Millerites. For us the "Great Disappointment" keeps going on in perpetuity.
I am glad that I found an exit. I am now an atheist, and am much happier now that I do not believe the apocalyptic fear mongering anymore.
Good luck in your journey.
JK
Religion is a social technology of a bygone era. A left over of our imagination. God is a place holder simply for things we don't understand yet, born out of fear and ignorance.
You need to take a serious exegesis look at the bible, outside of any organization religion. You will find it is:
And welcome
I think a distinction can be made between organizational and relational exclusivists. One says you must belong to a particular church group to be saved; the other, it does not matter which group you belong to as long as you know Father and Son. And I believe most Protestant denominations fall into the second category.
Billy, I thought Christadelphians were exclusivists. I guess I was wrong then. Oh and yes, welcome to the forum.
I have to admit i am a little confused, probably 80% of the people who have replied seem to be atheist or agnostic. Yet frequent a JW forum.
I believe the way to salvation is through God, and to those who have said it is a contradiction that to get eternal life you have to be baptized.
To that i would say this.
In any religion does partaking in the bread and the wine get you any closer to God... the answer is NO
It is what it reminds us of, the sacrifice of Christ to save us. The bread and wine is simply the catalyst to remind us of that fact and without remembering Jesus in our life taking the B & W is moot.
Just like baptism, does being dunked in water do anything to save any of us... the answer is NO
However it is a symbol of the fact that we have dedicated our life to serving God, his Son and his teachings.
So i believe if any man or woman dedicates their lives to God, Christ and his teachings even though they have not been physically "baptized" the effect is the same, because it is the mental and spiritual baptism which is important.
To others who say that they no longer believe because there is no proof, to that i would say you were wrong.
For me i only need to look at the prophecies of Daniel. In which it is outlined the passing of the torch from one super power to the next first in Daniel 2 then expanded on in Daniel 7 and then even further later on in the book.
Even Roman scribes have mentioned Christ often referred to as Christus... corroborating that he did exist.
There are a lot more i could go into.
The blessings whatever you may believe they will be are not for one group of people or one religion but for those who believe and love God and his son and follow the teachings
I hope i have explained myself
Yeah, you won't get many converts here Billy. Although you may get more willing to listen and debate sensibly than you would on a site of active believing JWs.
Just on the 'proof' thing, using the bible to prove the bible doesn't really work for anyone but those who already believe in the bible. And the (non-biblical) evidence for Jesus is at best that a man lived, a man was executed, and a bunch of people said lots of things about him after he died. I don't argue that he lived, nor that he was executed, but if I accept that he did miracles and got resurrected and there was a zombie apocalypse (Matthew) etc etc, then I've got to accept similar stories for a whole host of other semi-historical characters too. Which then makes Jesus less extraordinary. Or I can just reject all those stories, and Jesus becomes much more mundane.
In any case, regards and good luck with your own personal search for truth.
Even Roman scribes have mentioned Christ often referred to as Christus... corroborating that he did exist.
Sure, maybe he was here. And he said he said plenty of things about himself that didn't come true. Kinda makes him a false prophet, don't you think? Or just a delusional hippie who had a few followers.
For me i only need to look at the prophecies of Daniel. In which it is outlined the passing of the torch from one super power to the next first in Daniel 2 then expanded on in Daniel 7 and then even further later on in the book.
But that is just your personal interpretation of those texts after the fact. If god wanted to impress us with prophecy he could have done much better.
Even Roman scribes have mentioned Christ often referred to as Christus... corroborating that he did exist.
For example?
Billy, I encourage you to be more observant. This is a forum for ex-JWs and/or those who are in the JW organization but are questioning it at some level or who in some way are "connected" with jw.org (e.g., through family ties).
There is probably no much for you to gain from preaching to those of us on this forum. Most are simply over it and find belief in a loving God a difficult concept given the violence of both the Old and New Testaments.
It is also worth keeping in mind that many here are neither babies or ignoramuses when it comes to discussing the kinds of issues you automatically fall back on.
You are most welcome to continue posting but when you ask questions, make sure you really want top know what people think and are not simply waiting for answers so you can tack your own beliefs on them.
Don't get me wrong i am not preaching but seeing where my own beliefs line up with the people and religions around me.
I was not coming here to convert anyone but merely have a discussion
Obviously everyone here has made their mind up as to why they no longer believe, and that is something that needs to be investigated also.
Steve2 i find that quite insulting as i never insinuated that no one here knew what they where talking about.
The reason i started to do this was so i could gain opinions and beliefs other then the ones i have been told all my life, is that not fair enough.
How can a person really decide their path in life, without ever looking around. Instead of the path someone has been pushed onto.
