Do I have to believe in Jesus to be saved?

by unsure 119 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  jp1692

  Unsure: I don't understand the purpose of that last post.

  To acknowledge your response. You often don't respond and when you do I try to acknowledge it.
  

  Unsure: Is there something wrong with listening to both sides?

  Of course not. In fact, there is often more than just two sides to complicated issues. Thinking there is only two sides or viewpoints creates a false dichotomy or dilemma which is a common logical fallacy. The WTBTS loves to present things as if there are only two choices, and of course of the two they present one is obviously false leaving you--the unsuspecting prey--to pick the one they always intended you to pick.

  You walk away thinking you're so smart but you were played. It's Cult 101.

  Life is rarely this or that, black or white (or red or blue), one or the other. There are usually many options, all with various advantages and disadvantages.
  

  Learn to look for more alternatives than the ones presented. Think critically. Ask questions. Be skeptical of easy answers to hard problems.
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  unsure

  The more I think about it and the more I try to reason on it, the more it all just doesn't make sense. If you are a good person, you should be saved. It shouldn't be conditional on whether you beleive or not.

  It's like not saving your neighbor from danger because they don't want to be your friend. That wouldn't be loving.

  I still beleive there has to be something. It's a gut feeling based on nothing but faith, but if God is love, salvation shouldn't be conditional based on beleif.
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  jp1692

  Unsure: The more I think about it and the more I try to reason on it, the more it all just doesn't make sense.

  That's because it doesn't make sense. You can't make sense out of nonsense no matter how hard you try.

  Unsure: If you are a good person, you should be saved.

  Why?

  And who determines "good"? How "good" do you have to be? How far can you "fall short" and still be "good enough" to saved? What if you lost out on eternal salvation because of that towel you swiped from the hotel? Or the extra penny you got as change and didn't give back to the storekeeper? Or that scrap of paper you inadvertently dropped getting out of your car? Oh the horror!
  

  It's hopeless and you'll never get an answer that is definitive because there isn't one.
  

  And let's not forget my earlier question: Saved from what?

  When I asked you for clarification about that above, you answered: Adamic sin. But it is only the Abrahamic religions that even acknowledge the Genesis story as part of their culture, and not all of them accept it as literal. Do you not see that you are coming at this question from a distinctly Christian point of view? (And a particular "Christian" one at that). This severely limits your ability to see and consider other possible answers.
  

  Unsure: if God is love, salvation shouldn't be conditional based on belief.

  According to who? Your gut. That's what you also wrote in your last post.

  Do you really want to base your most important belief--one that can affect everything about how you live your life now and in anticipation of an afterlife that may or may not come true--on your "gut feeling"? That doesn't seem like a very sound way to make important, life-changing decisions.
  

  What if it's just gas or indigestion?

  What if God isn't love? (Where does THAT idea come from anyway?)

  And what if there isn't any God at all?

  
  
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  unsure

  I'd live my life the same regardless if there is a God or not

  I already pretty much live by the 10 Commandments as an example. Most societies value these rules anyways, 10 Commandments or not. It's a good measuring stick.

  There is a chance God is not love but most major religions describe God as such so here is to hoping.

  If there is no God, my actions don't really change. If there is a God they don't either.
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  jp1692

  Unsure, I think you're going to need to change your username as you seem less and less unsure of yourself with each successive post!

  PS: I'm glad to know you're not coveting my ox or my donkey!
  
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  unsure

  To believers: what evidence outside of the Bible help you have faith that Jesus existed?
  
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  deegee

  PS: I'm glad to know you're not coveting my ox or my donkey! -------jp 1692

  LOL that just had to be in the Ten Commandnents:

  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8xnZlJMl4J8
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  Vanderhoven7

  Anyone who sincetly asks Jesus Christ to save them is saved already. Jesus said that whoever comes to him he will never cast out. The universe would implode if God's son did not keep his word to sinners for whom he died.
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  deegee

  Unsure,

  Isn’t it strange that the only people why saw the Jesus guy ascending to heaven after his resurrection were a handful of his disciples? No one else saw.
  

  Apparently people weren’t in the habit of looking up back in the day. Even if you are not looking upwards and are looking straight ahead it’s still possible to see an upward motion rising towards to sky. Yet no one else saw Jesus’ ascension only a handful of his disciples did.
  

  Can you imagine if all those Jews saw Jesus being taken up into heaven? Instant conversion and the stories they would tell! Mission accomplished with ease!
  

  - after all didn’t Jesus say he was sent only to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15:24)
  

  - this would have been the perfect antidote to Jesus' lament that he often longed to gather the children of Israel together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings but they were not willing (Matthew 23:37,38; Luke 13:35)
  

  Imagine if there was a heavenly host with trumpets etc making a big announcement as Jesus ascended into heaven. Imagine the amount of persons that that one occurrence could have converted. This would have been a very easy opportunity for god to let everyone know about his son.
  

  There would have been no need for his disciples to preach after all of that.
  

  Strange how every eye will see Jesus when he returns yet only a handful of his disciples saw him when he was ascending to heaven (Revelation 1:7).
  
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  Vanderhoven7

  I don't think the number of people who witnessed the ascension matters too much. The ones that did see him ascend went to their death proclaiming His salvation. The ascension proves that Jesus didn't visit India or the new world, have children and set up an earthly kingdom in Britain.