Posts by bats in the belfry

not to say any one particular person never did well in life, but when they were studying and getting baptized, at that particular time in their life, were things going good for them?.

i'm trying to figure out if anyone comes into this religion, while life is going good for them.

bats in the belfry

sizemik >

The man I studied with was only recently baptised himself. ...When I was finally baptised nearly three years later ... he took myself ...

Whoa... your study took the plunge close to three years prior to you? They let you continue to be unbaptized publisher™ for that long?

18

C.T. Russell and 1914

by Quendi in

i'm sure there are those on this board who can help me with some research questions.

they concern charles taze russell and his infatuation with 1914 and were posed to me by a member of my own small group.

we call ourselves jwa for jehovah's witnesses anonymous.

bats in the belfry

Leolaia > Terminus for the "Gentile Times"

William Whiston, a contemporary of Sir Isaac Newton, in " An essay on the revelation of Saint John " (1706), writes about the times of the Gentiles. In " Memoirs of the life and writings of Mr. William Whiston " (1753) we find the expression "Gentile Times".

As for 1914, John Aquila Brown is the man. Without spreadsheet and PC down to 1917 AD - close enough:

2520 years to 1917 AD .

Linking the 1260, 1290, and 1335 "Days of Daniel" to 1844 AD, 1873 AD, and 1917 AD .

"Reign of the Messiah" in 1917 AD .

106

Is it possible for an apostate to get reindoctrinated?

by foolsparadise in

jw
friends

and if so why?.

bats in the belfry

WTS answer: "Go to hell, all you wicked apostates"

Apostates of the apostles’ day and their modern counterparts are not represented by the “weeds.” Yet the Bible shows that such apostates are “not of our sort,” have God’s disapproval and should be shunned by loyal Christians. Any who apostatize and do not repent by the end of this system of things will experience the same fate as the “weeds,” being “burned with fire” or destroyed completely.—Titus 3:10; 1 John 2:18, 19; 2 John 9-11.

w84 3/1 p.31

Since we have been warned that “some will fall away from the faith,” we should be ready “to put up a hard fight for the faith that was once for all time delivered to the holy ones.” (1 Tim. 4:1; Jude 3) But a distinction needs to be made between trouble-making apostates, as mentioned in 2 Peter, chapter 2, and Christians who become weak in faith and have doubts through lack of accurate knowledge. Jude makes this distinction. After warning against “murmurers, complainers,” who “are admiring personalities,” and against “ridiculers,” who “are the ones that make separations,” he says: “Keep yourselves in God’s love, while you are waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ with everlasting life in view. Also, continue showing mercy to some that have doubts; save them by snatching them out of the fire.”—Jude 16-23.

w80 8/1 p.21 par.19

In chapter two Peter champions God’s truth and righteous principles by speaking out strongly against apostates. These with counterfeit words seek to exploit their fellow Christians. Rightly they will suffer the same kind of fate that befell the wicked antediluvian world and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. But people of godly devotion will be preserved just as Noah and his family were. Those false teachers follow the mercenary path of Balaam. By their fleshly desires and loose habits they offer others greater freedom while actually they themselves are slaves of corruption. Having once known the truth and turned away from it, they are in a worse condition than they would have been had they never known the path of righteousness.—2 Pet. 2:1-22.

w76 10/15 p.639

4

Which Bible doctrines are incontestably established on scriptural evidence alone?

by bats in the belfry in

just asking: is it just the 10 commandments?

or jesus' teachings of the beatitudes?.

bats in the belfry

wobble > I've been coming across the phraseology "unscriptural teaching" on their WT CD quite a few times, i.e.:

...the majority of churches teach the unscriptural doctrine that man has an immortal soul that survives death and lives on in the spirit realm.

...it is perhaps a reflection of the perplexity that this unscriptural doctrine aroused that Limbo has been eliminated from the most recent Catholic catechisms.

...Jesus did not confine his works of physical healing to people with faith. (John 5:5-9, 13) So his activity gives no support to the unscriptural doctrine of faith healing.

...it gradually crept into apostate Christendom in the third and fourth centuries of our Common Era. Especially was this the case after the year 325 C.E. when the Council of Nicaea adopted the unscriptural doctrine that Christ was God.

...Protestants are also part of a religious system that includes in its theology the unscriptural doctrine of God-inflicted eternal torment.

...what about Christians today? The fact is that there is no Bible command for or against either burial or cremation. Nor usually does burial instead of cremation help to distinguish true Christians from believers in the pagan idea of an immortal soul; today some of the chief adherents of that unscriptural doctrine are found among churchgoers who normally bury their dead.

...further, the Socinians found the doctrine’s so-called Scriptural supports to be quite weak.

...it is incontestable that the doctrine cannot be established on scriptural evidence alone.

In contrast to which is deemed an "unscriptural teaching" by WTS , which Bible doctrine(s) stand on their own, without any elaborate reference works of heathen origin?