Thank you, cat. I'm glad you're on here too.
-Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it-
To Seven
by Frenchy 12 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Pathofthorns
I think Frenchy you summed up the wishes and hope and dreams of most people, and certainly most who became Witnesses.
The reality is that in order for such hopes to be realized, the whole of humanity would somehow have to be brought together in love and tollerance and respect. I don't think setting up any kind of "group" will work, because so many have founded themselves on the noble ideals you describe, yet all have failed. We need to stop thinking in terms of "a group", but that the "group" is all of humanity.
The beauty of Christianity and other religions is in the concept. It keeps us striving for an elusive reality, but makes us better for having worked towards it.
Humanity essentially desires the same things, yet what makes us human prevents us from attaining it. And if we did attain it, what purpose in life would remain?
As far as any comments you make on the WTS, you seem to exercise great restraint and balance and reason, as does everyone participating here.
This is what makes this place so special in that hate and destruction are not what attract people here, but the dream that remains inside all of us, and the realization that if we cannot have that, could we not at least have something?
Path
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Frenchy
Path: Agreed.
The beauty of Christianity and other religions is in the concept. It keeps us striving for an elusive reality, but makes us better for having worked towards it.
Very well put.
Humanity essentially desires the same things, yet what makes us human prevents us from attaining it. And if we did attain it, what purpose in life would remain?
I can't help but rationalize that we are in the development stage of our existence. I have long been intrigued by Heb 5:8 "Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered."
It would appear (to me, at least) that all of God's creation requires a 'growing' and 'testing' period. Exactly what is happening is still way beyond me and I don't pretend to understand it. But at one point did not the angels have to make a stand for their beliefs? I'm talking about the great war in heaven when Michael and his angels battled with Satan and his angels. There was a decisive splitting up of the heavenly forces there, choices had to be made, sides had to be taken. Humankind is still making its choices. Even Christ himself had to positioned so as to have to make a decision as noted by the above Scripture.
What will happen to us in the end? Who knows? Paradise? Perhaps but what will be the nature of Paradise? No one really knows. When we begin to speculate about specifics we begin creating paradoxes. I find that to be significant.
I'm reminded of an incident that happened to me while I was vacationing in Jamaica one year. We were rafting down the Martha Rae (river). Our guide let it be known that he was not paid to guide the raft and that his income was dependent upon the tourists buying his gourds and his tips. When I asked what was customary in terms of a gratuity he simply smiled and said in his heavy accent: "I know you will take care of me at the end of the trip." I can't get those words out of my head. I pray to God and often repeat the words of that man to Him. "Please, Jehovah, take care of me at the end of this ride, and yet not me alone but all of humankind."-Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it-