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I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses. Should I keep out of the thread or stay to answer questions?
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Apr 2, 2015 23:16
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 17:05 |
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Wall of text time: I started going to meetings when I was 12 but waited until I was 29 before getting baptized. I read the Bible all the way thru before getting baptized and made sure there wasn't some hidden section that had never been refereed to that invalidated what I learned. There wasn't and most of the Bible had been touched on somewhere along the line. There was a weird section in the book of Judges that I hadn't read before but Judges is where you find some of the odd stories. I thought a lot about it before decided that it was the best bet to be the truth. I've thought a lot about whether there was a creative force, aka.. evolution vs creation. The complexity and refinement of biologic designs, not just once but all the time, make more sense to me if there's something intelligent pushing the changes. There are a lot of leaps in design and they're leaps that have be made in one go. Everything evolves. Cars evolve, computers, phones, etc.. and there's a pattern to those change that echos the way that life has changed. I don't know if this sounds odd but it's almost a comparison of mathematical odds, which is more likely. The Bible is the kind of message that someone capable of designing living systems would make. There's an active intelligence there. The other religions seem more to have grown out of philosophies rather than as a direct message from a creator. There's three things that stand out to me of the beliefs of JW's that make them unique, and these beliefs agree with the Bible. No belief in a trinity, Jesus is constantly referring to his Father being greater than himself. The idea that they are separate makes so much more sense than a triple being. There's a really amazing verse I ran across a couple of months ago at Proverbs 30:4. It is talking about God and then says "What is his name and the name of his son—if you know?" Which is the only Old Testament verse that I know of that talks about God having a son. No belief in an immortal soul. The idea that when you die, you are dead and there's no separate part that wanders off or hangs around. The hope that's mentioned (repeatedly) in the Bible is resurrection. It means "standing up again". No belief in hell as a punishment. When Adam was warned in the Garden he was told the punishment was death, not an afterlife of torture. If he hadn't erred then the original plan would still be in effect, he and his wife and their children filling the earth. There was no "once you do this you're done here" in the original instructions. Once you strip out the crap, there's a design to the Bible that is really unique. You can take verse and compare them with others and it "bounces off" of other verses and the meaning opens up. It's a big book but it's also really compact. There's very little mysticism. There's prophesies but I don't worry as much about interpretations being perfectly on. That kind of stuff is best understood after anyways. Before hand it's always Best Guess as to meaning. The three things I mentioned I think are rock solid on. TLDR: the logic of the Bible and of the beliefs of JW's seem to be the most correct of what's out there. I came to SA for Photoshop Phridays and stayed because I liked the community. SA has at times been Grand Central Station for the internet. Everything from someone posting a thread about dragons screwing cars to finding out news from the Middle East days before it hits the news. GBS kinda went to pot but the subforums are still fantastic.
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Apr 3, 2015 02:24
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DontMockMySmock posted:If you don't believe in Hell, what are verses like Mark 9:43, Matthew 13:50, Matthew 25:46, and other verses mentioning "eternal punishment" or "eternal fire" or whatever actually talking about, in your theology? I'm not going hit everything you brought up but I will talk about this. A lot of the criticism I've seen of the Bible is really about the use of language. It uses symbols and illustrations widely and in ways that can cause problems if you want to force a literal understanding on everything. Genesis talks about the creative days. 24 hours days? Gen 2:4 talks about the day that god made the heaven and Earth. If you demand that everything be taken literal, you have a conflict in the first two chapters of the book. If you use the "conflict" as an opportunity it opens up a different meaning and it tells you something you didn't know before, the use of day in the Bible is flexible. It can mean eras of immense time. Romans 6:23 says "the wages sin pays is death", verse seven says that "the one who has died has been acquitted from his sin" There's an equivalency between sin being the crime and death being the punishment. There's a conflict there with the idea of being tortured after death. What solves the conflict is the other scriptures that talk about death being a time of inactivity - ECC chapter 9, Job 14, Jesus telling his disciples that Lazarus was sleeping. So "eternal Fire" and "Eternal Punishment" have to mean something else. Jude 7 talks about Sodom and Gomorrah "undergoing the judicial punishment of everlasting fire." Those cities aren't still on fire, but they were destroyed completely and haven't come back. So fire has to be symbolic of destruction. This is one of the things that I find remarkable about how the Bible is written. If someone is going to be unbending and insist on absolutism, they won't understand the book. E: I'm going to try and keep my replies short. Darth Brooks fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Apr 4, 2015 |
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Apr 4, 2015 04:58
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Drighton posted:Back on topic - Darth, how many congregations have you been to, and how long did you attend? How would you characterize the one you attend now? One in Minnesota when I was a kid, one in Missouri since then. Congregations do develop a personality and I've been in the one in Missouri long enough to see it change a few times. Currently the elders are a good mix. This congregation has always seemed to trend older but there's a few young couples. There's been a real jump in the use of tablets and smart phones. It's a group of absolutely normal people trying to do what they think is important work. For the most part they've known each other for decades so you get these little fusses and hen pecking in along with the genuine concern. There are parts of the territory that are very "I''m a good Baptist" and parts that are very wealthy (and never home) and some parts are at poverty level. There's bits and pieces of interest here and there and occasionally you find someone whose really interested. A Spanish language congregation serves the Hispanic population that's moved in over the last decade and a half.
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Apr 4, 2015 07:29
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The common sense answer is the right one, it was cheaper to build without windows. Construction costs, heat loss, etc. They've made a change for the most part in new KH's. A few years ago we built a new one and it has windows. One window was busted by a mower and a couple of crows decided they liked looking at their reflection in the front door. That would have been OK but they left remnants of their meals across the entrance while admiring themselves. I got some frosted material from work and put it across the bottom. Then they got up on the handle for the same show. When winter came they left and didn't come back. E: Jeremy_X, sorry about the kids being jerks. Darth Brooks fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Apr 7, 2015 |
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Apr 7, 2015 04:50
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Dr.Caligari posted:What would happen if a member were to get caught or confess to a problem such as drug addiction? Would they be offered support, or shunned? It depends on their attitude. If they argue about it, try and defend or be evasive about something serious enough then they could be disfellowshipped. If they come and say "I've made a serious mistake and I want help in stopping" then probably not. In the bible King Saul tried to justify himself when told he had sinned, King David took responsibility for his sin. Saul was removed as king, David was forgiven for something that was far worse, although there were still consequences.
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Apr 7, 2015 20:58
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Jeremy_X posted:d I always get this nasty look from however many people are gathered around the door. That's the only time Witnesses bother me, when they give me grief for being polite and helpful to one of their own. I have no idea why they do this.
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Apr 10, 2015 20:56
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 17:05 |
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No to both questions.
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Apr 15, 2015 03:34
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