an idea i have been exploring for a while is the possibility that god is dreaming, and that we are all part of it.
mystics that strayed into pantheism, if there were any on this board would have input.
i hope to hear from pagans and buddhists as well.
I have a number of friends in the scientific field (nuclear). A while back one of these friends told me that atoms tend to phase in and out of existence. I found that strange - they're not ALWAYS there - they kind of come and go. So WHERE do they go & come back from?? Interesting when you start to think about that in connection to a spiritual belief.
Perhaps we don't really exist anywhere except in God's mind.
truth book (1981), page 52:.
of the resurrection to heavenly life, the bible says: it is sown a physical body, it is raised up a spiritual body.
*** the watchtower, march 15th 1954 issue, page 187 ***.
THANK YOU!!
I cut/pasted this into my wordprocessor and printed it out. It will come in handy as I will be having some discussions with my family soon.
this is the tale of a young man that had a bright future as a cellist..he was only sixteen and things were looking bright if not for the very one that was supposed to be the head of the household.
we'll call him jack...short for jackass btw.
jack was a violent man, living and conducting himself as an upstanding jw in the eyes of the congregation...he beat his wife, married his 16 year old daughter off to some cretin, mistreated his other daughter, and finally took much aggression out on his sons...well jack did a real good job of beating the hope out of the prodigal one...he gave up playing cello and ran away from home to join the navy during vietnam...the rest of his life was hard and being rather tall, even for a prodigal one, his body got tired after a hard life...congenital lung disease, several bad motorcycle wrecks/suicide attempts imo, he's dying now..on a respirator...to complicate things, his wife of more than 15 years died today of congestive heart failure and complications from open heart surgery....you see, he never went home because there is not one to go back to...his mother died of cancer , jack left his first family and moved on to abuse two others while remaining a jw (not one now as far as i know) and has not been heard from for years.
((((((((((Valis))))))))))))
It is so hard to loose someone - even harder when they have been so mistreated. I am sorry for you and your Uncle.
for me, it's the "faithful and discreet slave class".
The stupidest thing I believed was that if I did enough (service, meetings, study, etc) I would be saved. I just about ran myself into the ground trying to get saved so my son wouldn't die at Armageddon - all I ended up doing was getting sick, depressed, and disfellowshipped.
What never occured to me is........"If I can get there on my own by doing enough good things, what was the purpose of Jesus' sacrifice?". Of course I can't do enough to get saved - noone can. Once I finally realized that and accepted Jesus into my life I started to heal.
Oh......and..............If I'm raped and don't scream I've committed a sin
.
how long can you go without drinking one drop of alcohol, beer, wine, whatever contains alcohol?.
in my case, it must be 5 years
Ok - this thread is making me thirsty. Time to go get a beer
.
i have been doing a lot of contemplating on this statement by jesus.
i have some ideas on what it means - and how it affects my feelings towards jw's and all other belief systems.. but i'm curious what you guys think - have you thought about this statement?
I have been doing a lot of contemplating on this statement by Jesus. I have some ideas on what it means - and how it affects my feelings towards JW's and all other belief systems.
But I'm curious what you guys think - have you thought about this statement? What does it mean to you?
and would you personally, be able to make a clear explanation as to why the witnesses are so wrong??
?
Here's one approach. (typical response shown in red - I've tried this before) Ask them how important it is to know that the bible you use is an accurate translation (well very). Then ask them how someone can research to be sure the bible they use is an accurate translation (uhm........) Perhaps by researching the language background and education of the translators, to make sure they didn't pick up a "Learn Greek in 20 days" manual and go from there (yea....that would be good). Open their NWT and ask them how they could do this with their own. (well, the names aren't there because we don't give credit to any one person, only Jehovah) Ok - but it was a "person" that translated it - so how do you know that he was knowledgable about the hebrew and Greek languages. (some comment now to get off the topic).
It's a baby step - gets someone to start thinking. Some of these same questions entered my mind and started my path to freedom.
i got this email earlier:hi, did you know that you may not publish the kingdom ministry at any way?
please remove that page.. didn't think it would amount to much - just another dub throwing his weight around on an apostate site he shouldn't be visiting.
however, i just received a demand from my web host to remove the kms or lose my website.
Damn! Just imagine what would have happened if God copyrighted the Bible.
I guess the "truth" isn't meant for everyone eh?
back when i joined the site i had lots of concerns and i was given some great advice by some special people here.
i'll miss you.
but the time has come for me to move on.
LB - I will miss you. I understand how you feel. There is a lot of anger in posts here right now - but I think it is because so many new ones have joined on and they need to vent.
I just log on once or twice a week now, scan through the topics and read only those that appear interesting or uplifting. Perhaps after a break you will feel like coming back and joining us - I sure hope so. I have really enjoyed your posts - and especially your sense of humor.
Best of luck to you and your family.
i've been doing some research using the "kingdom interlinear translation of the greek scriptures" - you remember that one with the purple cover?
it has the greek language on one side and the nwt on the other.. i'm trying to find all of the scriptures where worship or obesience was used.
of course, i have noticed a very obvious pattern - although the same greek root word is used in all instances - if it applies to jesus it is translated obesience, but anywhere else it is translated worship.. now i've been told all my life that jesus did not allow people to worship him - hence, he couldn't possibly be god.
I've been doing some research using the "Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures" - you remember that one with the purple cover? It has the greek language on one side and the NWT on the other.
I'm trying to find all of the scriptures where worship or obesience was used. Of course, I have noticed a very obvious pattern - although the same greek root word is used in ALL instances - if it applies to Jesus it is translated OBESIENCE, but anywhere else it is translated WORSHIP.
Now I've been told all my life that Jesus did not allow people to worship him - hence, he couldn't possibly be God. Yet - I find NOWHERE in the New Testament where he refused worship. The only thing I find is that by using the New World Translation it would not be so obvious that he was worshiped because the word is translated OBESIENCE - all other translations use the word WORSHIP.
So my question - obviously the translator of the NWT had his own doctrinal bias hence the reason he translated the word as OBESIENCE instead of WORSHIP. Has anyone else done research on this issue? I would like to follow up more on the OBESIENCE v WORSHIP topic.
