What would you have done? (page 4)

BrendaCloutier

Soledad, I believe Paul was a gentile and former roman soldier.

i'd be forgiving until it came to hiding pedophiles, killing children by not allowing them blood, disfellowshipping, making brothers count time and setting quotas, giving people titles such as pioneer, bethelite, circuit overseer, etc.

i would stay with them until they started trying to pinpoint when jesus would return.

i would stay with them until they started branding people as "walking dead" if they didnt accept jesus message.

i would stay with them until they started saying jesus died on a stake and not a cross... because they are obviously missing the point.

i would stay with them until they asked 101 questions just to get baptized.

i would stay with them until they stopped baptizing in the name of the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

i would stay with them until they took out the role of jesus christ and replaced it with an organisation.

i would stay with them until they said things like,

" Do not conclude that there are different roads, or ways, that you can follow to gain life in God’s new system. There is only one. There was just the one ark that survived the Flood, not a number of boats. And there will be only one organization—God’s visible organization—that will survive the fast-approaching "great tribulation." It is simply not true that all religions lead to the same goal. (Matthew 7:21-23; 24:21) You must be part of Jehovah’s organization, doing God’s will, in order to receive his blessing of everlasting life" (from the live forever book)

bethel

AllAlongTheWatchtower

Nobody can truely answer that, had I been born in the 1st century AD, I would most likely have had a level of education, social awareness, etc, of a person of that era. Having been born in the 20th century instead, I have a much higher level of education, different social views, etc. Also, I'm an atheist, but I highly doubt there were many of those around in that time, they all worshipped something, whether it was the 'god' of the Jews and early christians, or Baal, or Mars, or whatever. If you are assuming that in your hypothetical situation that I had actually seen and met jesus, saw him working miracles, etc...then I guess I would have believed, and no amount of screwing up on the part of an organization would have changed that, but I still probably would have left the organization when/if things got stupid. In the bible, jesus says "whosoever believeth in me" not "whosoever believeth in my publishing company and attends 5 meetings a week".

Darth Yhwh

Well said allalongthewatchtower. Had I seen Jesus Christ turn water into wine first hand I would have followed him.

Ingenuous

Whether I stayed in a congregation or not would depend on how well the congregations Paul addressed responded to his admonition.

Paul wished some men who were giving the congregations special trouble would get their 'nads cut off. [Gal. 5:12]

Clearly, Paul wasn't the type to tell anyone to "wait on Jehovah" when it came to problems. He regularly incited faithful congregation members against those who insisted on practicing un-Christian behavior.

He didn't hide what they did, but publicly advertised it (in the congregation he was writing to and to all those congregations his letters were sent to) and left it to the congregation to as a whole to address the issues. [And in Revelation, Jesus addressed the congregations, not a group of men at the top of a hierarchical pyramid, not the elders at the top of the congregation, as being responsible for the conditions in it. He went so far as to deal with specific individuals.]

So staying with a congregation would depend on how Christ-like it was in dealing with problems, not whether it had problems or not.

And, as bethel put it so well, all this presumes they haven't forsaken the basic Christian faith or displayed the "rotten fruits" Jesus described.

inquirer

Oh no.... this is that guilt-Witness thing... go-back-to-the-meetings trick. :(

Golf

If I were sitting on the Mount of Olives listening to Jesus, I've would have been thinking of living in the 21st century to witness what he was prophecying about, gee I am.

Golf

mkr32208

What would you have done back in the 1990's when Jesus returned as David Koresh started The branch davidians? Would you have became his follower? How about After he left the earth and branch davidianism began to spread by means of the Apostles, would you have been involved in the many Congregations that were started throughout the area? How about the Congregation started by Clive Doyle in California? If you answer yes to this, ask yourself as a Disciple of Jesus how would I have handled all the PROBLEMS that exist in that particular Congregation? The "holy writings" speak of MANY problems that exist within that Congregation. It has people problems. They were not acting as Christians. They would shun, discriminate, form clicks, allow blatent wrongdoers room freely within disrupting the peace and unity. People were backbiting, fornicating, teaching wrong doctrine and the list goes on and on. That is not the only Congregation that had people problems. Doyle's letter to the other churches ALL had to be addressed for problems. What would you have done? Would you have left the California Cong. to go to the Cong. in Waco? They too had severe problems unique to the area they lived in? Would you have concluded that this must not be Jesus Congregation? What would you have done?

I think that the edited quote above speaks volumes about MY stand...

willyloman

how would I have handled all the PROBLEMS that existed in that particular Congregation? The Bible speaks of MANY problems that existed within that Congregation. It had people problems. They were not acting as Christians. They would shun, discriminate, form clicks, allow blatent wrongdoers room freely within disrupting the peace and unity. People were backbiting, fornicating, teaching wrong doctrine and the list goes on and on.

I'd have concluded that Jesus wasn't too happy with this arrangement and I'd have walked away before he leveled it with a bolt of lighting. Which, come to think of it, is exactly what I did in 2003. I'm still waiting for the lightning but not building my life around it. It's extremely restful, defd. You should try it.

PointBlank

To be truthful, I've often wondered what my response would have been to the historical Christ. There's simply no way of knowing. We live in a different time with a vastly different culture. So lets fast forward to the present for a moment, because the present is what we have.

Questions for you, defd. What would YOU do if Jesus revealed himself to you NOW and SHOWED you that the JW's are not the embodiment of truth, and indeed have never possessed it? What would you do if he showed you that the truth is found in a person and not in religion....no religion? What would you do if he showed you that the body of Christ includes people of all walks of life, but that the body is mystical and not organized in the modern sense of the word except in the spirit? What if he allowed YOU to feel what he feels for the JW's? What if it wasn't approval, but tears of compassion for the whole multitude of JW's lost in darkness? What would you do? Would you still insist on supporting a religious sect that brings daily reproach upon the name of God? Would you cling like you do and rationalize away his direct communication with you? Or would you have what it takes to stand against darkness, feeling like such a simple character can't possibly make any kind of difference, but doing it anyway, simply out of the love and devotion you have for the Lord whom you know personally?

BTW, Jesus is alive today. We don't have to stay so buried in the Bible that we miss the Lord it reveals. His communication is ongoing...always has been. His relationships are individual, not collective, which means he saves individuals, not organizations or groups of people that make up organizations.

What would you have done?