JWs & Religion

by RevFrank 10 Replies latest jw friends

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  RevFrank

  One of the major things the watchtower teach is learning religions and how important it is to find out if one is catholic or Baptist or so forth.

  I can recall when I was studying with my ex-inlaws in the blue, "truth," book, there's a chapter on, "Why Is It Wise To Study You're religion." There you'll discover it covers just a few tibbits on most major religions. A few favorites are easter, christmas, and a few others. I knew where these things came from. I needn't need a jw to tell me about it. Then they'd go more into a person's religions.

  Now days when I counter a jw I just tell them I'm a christian. Since a jw doesn't understand what a christian is, they try to identify you by asking you about Mary, mother of Jesus, or do you believe in the spiritual gifts, or miracles. I've discovered that, that way they(jws) can identify what religion you are. Or they ask what church do you belong to.

  I just tell them that I may attend a local Baptist or pentecostal church. Or may attend a Calavery Chapal which is nondomination. Of course they might try to start a discussion on Baptists or pentecostal. I stop them from the start.

  I explain I'm nondomination and I have a deep loving relationship with Christ not a religion. Many religions may have their short coming and I don't get involved in their legalistic debates and Christ has no faults. Plus Christ will never tell you one way or another you're dead wrong. Christ tells us how to follow Him and explain His adversary. Then I explain that in order to never error, follow Christ.

  Of course trying not to error is a life time job, but at the same time if and when we do error we are christans and seek His face to repent.

  I have no religion. I have faith in Christ. And one of the main points on being a christian is, Christ told us to follow Him not a religion.

  So for those who study with JWs, you'll discover you're really studying the Watchtower principals with a few bible quotes. And if you ask them about it, they may say things like, " If you are going to become a citizen of a different country don't you study their ways?"

  You say yes, but isn't it more important to learn of Our Savior Christ Jesus and study the gospel, then a man made organization which is known to have faults? Of course they may fall back and tell you that many religions fall short. Then you can explain to them many of our christian churches may differ, but the messege is clear......Christ Jesus is our one and only Savior.
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  Balsam

  Yes we had to try to identify individuals religious believe's as a Christian to try and find some common ground on which to preach. I liked the positive ground rather than the negative ground. Tried never to attack a persons faith or confidence in their believe's or religious institution. I loved listening to over people express their faith in Christ, as I usually found my lacking. I deeply appreciate all those non-witnesses who were willing to talk to me in the door to door and share their love of the bible. They helped me wake up out my JW stupor. It also helped me to really see that perhaps my interpetation of the bible as taught by JW was not accurate.

  Balsam
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  jaffacake

  Do Jehovah’s Witnesses display the fruitage of love illustrated by Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan? To teach about love thy neighbour, Christ deliberately chose a Samaritan, a man of another nation, whose religion many of them despised, a man towards which many of them felt superior in their righteousness.

  Jesus practiced what he taught. He shared meals and was a guest in homes of people with whom the religious organisation believed He or they should never have set foot. For this he was vilified and denounced as a man gluttonous and given to drinking wine, a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Matthew

  In the years before the New Testament was compiled, the pagan Emperor, Julian worked hard to get his subjects to honour his gods, but failed. Julian’s ancient writings give us the best indication of how Gods early Christian witnesses behaved to their brethren, and also those non-believers. Julian referred to Christians as atheists and godless Galileans for they worshiped one invisible God and denied his gods. Julian wrote:

  Atheism [ie Christian faith] has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and for their care and burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.

  This account testifies that early Christians took Jesus Christs teachings and lived their lives accordingly. I know of many individuals or groups of Christians who dont distinguish between those inside or outside their own beliefs. They follow Christ’s example.
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  jaffacake

  Paul, in his letter to the Galatians was astonished that so soon they were turning to a different Gospel – not that there is another one. One of the people who Paul opposed to his face for straying from the truth of the Gospel was Peter himself. (Gal 2:11). Paul then went on to explain in Galatians what the truth of the Gospel really is. I then read Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and this contains the same consistent version of the revealed mystery of the Gospel. In the book of Romans, Corinthians and elsewhere in his letters, we find the consistent messages about the true meaning of the Gospel.

  This troubles me, because on those occasions when Jehovah’s Witnesses have rang my doorbell, they have preached a very different good news, as if the 2000 year old version is out of date. They tried to teach me what appeared to be a 20 th century updated version, with 1914 a central part of the good news of the kingdom. But the Bible talks of an everlasting good news which is the basis for 'the faith that was once for all time delivered to the holy ones'. Jesus prophesied that this good news of the kingdom will be preached to the whole world. Can any Jehovah’s witness read Pauls letters to the Galatians or Ephesians which explain the true meaning of the good news, and say that this is the this good news (Jesus’ words) that they preach on the doorstep? Remember, the book of Revelation was not even written, nor was the New Testamant when what Jesus described as This Good News was preached by the apostles in its unadulterated form. I therefore ask whether the typical door to door activity qualifies as an effective witness for Christianity, or is it more about putting time in and doing duty. Is the emphasis on quantity or quality, and what is the true motivation?

  If I turn to the book of Acts, and the various writings of Jesus’ Apostles, to see how they present the good news. The good news preached on doorsteps now by Jehovah’s Witnesses is in stark contrast, and I ask why? Their message to me was about negative world conditions and a new world directed by a new heavenly government. Yet I know that other Christian religions who have also rejected all that is wrong with Christendom, continue to preach the original Apostolic version of the good news to all the world in nearly 2000 languages, but they use a variety of methods, not just door to door activity.

  Have Jehovah’s Witnesses, like the Galatians, 'so soon turned to a different gospel – not that there is another? Paul then states clearly what the real gospel was and is. He repeats this in Ephesians, Romans etc. Yet it seems that the Watchtower president, admittedly prone to many errors, redefines the truth of the gospel to as follows:

  The Society's former president, Frederick W. Franz, in the morning Bible discussion for the headquarters family on

  The sole purpose of our existence as a Society is to announce the Kingdom established in 1914 and to sound the warning of the fall of the Great. We have a special message to deliver.
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  Mysterious

  It reminds me of a book my mother was lent once about two nuns that were imprisoned a tortured to give up their faith, I believe it was in the middle east somewhere and purported to be a true story. My mother was incredulous about how these people who didnt have "the truth" could stand firm..
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  Golden Girl

  I can just hear their reply now:..Yes but there are many so called roads to god..but there is only one TRUE road and we own that road!

  Snoozy... who loved your reply to the witnesses!
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  JamesThomas

  but isn't it more important to learn of Our Savior Christ Jesus and study the gospel, then a man made organization which is known to have faults?... Christ Jesus is our one and only Savior.

  Let me get this straight Rev., I believe I must except Jesus - or die; or, I believe I must accept the organization - or die. What's the difference?!

  They both reduce the Source of this infinite universe down to a finite and extremely conditional entity which requires devotion to only them or there is shit to pay. The difference is infinitesimally small and superficial. Two twigs on the same diseased tree of diminutive and painfully belittling beliefs and interpretations of God.

  Perhaps the True God is not so tiny and limited as to fit into a deity or religion. Perhaps the True God is too BIG to be owned by Christians, Muslims, Jews, or any other self-righteous and self-glorifying religious group or belief system.

  Is it truly honoring God when we make it small enough to own and think ourself special as a member of an exclusive club?

  Perhaps, when it comes to God, no one is special or excluded except within our own tiny mind.

  j
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  RichieRich

  I have a deep loving relationship with Christ not a religion.

  I got that from someone out in service not too long ago... I kind of snickered.
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  RevFrank

  let me get this straight JamesThomas Christ told us to follow Him to life.......Watchtower wants you to follow them to damnation. But then again it's faith that gets me through.

  Do I salute the flag? Sure.

• noun: an act of greeting with friendly words and gestures like bowing or lifting the hat
• noun: a formal military gesture of respect

Do I give worship to the flag? No. No man or living thing in this universe has that honor, but Jehovah God.

Would I die for my friends, family, or strangers? Possible. One needs to remember what Christ said.....no greater love has a man who gives up His life for His friends.