A question for the Christians... (page 3)

ellderwho

LT, of the "considering starting a reading comprehension class" class

Amen, bro.

Little side note that I always thought was funny. Jesus said, "pray then this way..." and the dub's say "pray like that, but not exactly like that." Which is it? Pray this way or not exactly this way? The more I continune my journey, moving away from the dub's, I'm starting to question all religions.

Narkissos

Jesus said, "pray then this way..." and the dub's say "pray like that, but not exactly like that."

Good point Jula71.

JWs (and others) plainly miss the fact that the "Lord's Prayer" was actually recited (thrice a day according to the Didache) by many early Christians.

When I attended churches after leaving the WT I once gave a sermon on the Lord's Prayer in a fairly Pentecostal Latino-American church. At the end of the discussion I said "why not, just for once, say the Lord's Prayer". It was quite interesting that those people who used to read aloud chapters of the Bible were very uneasy saying those verses although they had no avowable objection -- probably a rest of unthought anti-Catholicism.

jula71

The thing is, JW's claim they are the only ones that literally and totally follow the bible, but then they pick and choose what is and what isn't to be taken literal.

the_classicist

JW's claim they are the only ones that literally and totally follow the bible, but then they pick and choose what is and what isn't to be taken literal.

All churches do that to an extent. There is no church that truly follows the bible (of course, is every part of the bible meant to be followed? etc. etc.).

hmike

JWs (and others) plainly miss the fact that the "Lord's Prayer" was actually recited (thrice a day according to the Didache) by many early Christians.

This was the first prayer I learned--from my German Lutheran mother, in German.

This prayer is recited by the congregation at every Roman Catholic mass I've been to, but not in Baptist churches, or any non-denominal church service I've been to.

The version I originally learned had added on, "for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen." Possibly added by Luther?

Narkissos

Possibly added by Luther?

No, the final doxology in various forms is already in the Didache and many Greek mss of Matthew (at least from the 5th century onward).

Here's the Didache version in context (ch. 8):

But let not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week. Rather, fast on the fourth day and the Preparation (Friday). Do not pray like the hypocrites, but rather as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, like this:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily (needful) bread, and forgive us our debt as we also forgive our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (or, evil); for Thine is the power and the glory for ever..
Pray this three times each day.

hmike

Thanks Narkissos. I was surprised when I heard the Catholics leave it off the end.

I've heard Christian pastors teach that this prayer is only a guideline and not to be prayed literally. I think this is done to get away from prayers that are memorized and repeated the same way every time, the way the Catholic church does. Those who teach this presume that this kind of prayer loses its meaning, since it can be made without giving any thought to it. They want to distance their congregation from that practice, and have their prayers be more spontaneous and personal.

So if the WT teaches this, I think it's done to distance itself from "traditional" Christian churches, primarily the Roman Catholics.

A question for the Christians...

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