We have a saying in the church that states in essentials unity in non-essentials liberty....
What is “non-essential” in your view? And, are these things “non-essentials” in God’s view?
How do you know? Look at the laws God gave Israel....was anything non-essential? Was anything left up to them to decide?
We also agree with Paul that we all know in part, and that for any one human to grasp the whole counsel of God is impossible.
They knew “in part” back then....but this close to the final judgment, do you honestly believe that at this juncture, God would leave his servants without guidance and direction concerning the coming events?
Who is the “faithful and wise slave” whom Jesus appointed in this time of the end to provide spiritual nourishment to his household? (Matthew 24:45) You think God speaks with a forked tongue? Does his spirit tell one group of people one thing but something else to another?
Non-denominational churches simply gloss over their differences in order to appear united..... but is it true unity? Or do you just agree to disagree on certain issues? You can make all the excuses you like, but your disunity and lack of agreement betrays you. (1 Corinthians 1:10)
You have the watchtower society that declares it is the source of Truth
Can I just be clear here....The Watchtower is a Bible Society.....a legal entity used by Jehovah’s Witnesses to print and distribute Bibles and Bible literature in large quantities......we are not “the Watchtower”....we are Jehovah’s Witnesses because printing Bibles and literature is not all we do. We were instructed by Christ to...
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20 -ESV) This is what we do, and have done all through this “time of the end”.
Christendom has been MIA all that time......when has a member of any church called at my door with “the good news of the kingdom”? The answer is NEVER. (Acts 5:42; Acts 20:20)
We have the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth that leads us into truth. The very first thing the Holy Ghost reveals to us is that Jesus is God incarnate, and at the confession that Jesus Christ is THE Lord We can test the Spirit who is of God and who is not....(1 Corinthians 12:3)
Well, the first thing the The Spirit of Truth should reveal to you is that there is no such thing as a “Holy Ghost”. This German word (Geist which means “spirit”) was adopted because it made the Holy Spirit appear to be an entity....a ghost of a figure to conjure up images of personhood.
The Holy Spirit is not a person, and is hardly even mentioned along with the other two inseparable persons of the supposed godhead. (John 17:3; 1 Corinthians 8:5-6)
We have assurance of this fact and do not need to point to uncertainties of translations, or to theological arguments. That is the thing J.W.'s lack is assurance, and why the doctrines of the watchtower have changed over the years and even contradict each other.
Of course you have no need of having discrepancies in translation or theological arguments brought to your attention, because you can never agree on how to answer them. Ignorance is bliss apparently. You ignore what you don’t think is important.....everything is important.
The one thing that JW’s
do have is absolute agreement on all of Christ’s teachings. If the Bible does not support the trinity...(and you have been shown countless proofs from scripture that there never was a three headed god worshipped in either Israel or in the first century Christian congregations) then what “spirit” is actually telling you something to the contrary? If inference is all you have to go on, without a single direct statement that God is not “one” as the Bible says, but “three” (a teaching that was not adopted as official doctrine until over 300 years after Christ’s death) then I believe it is the trinitarians who need a rethink.
You all act as if the devil could not mislead you.....he is the sower of the “weeds” that Jesus spoke about.....and deception is his craft. Think about it......if Jesus said that “few” are on the road to life, then the “many” who accept this central foundational doctrine are kidding themselves. It was never a central foundational teaching of God’s son.....so where did it come from? The Holy Spirit.....or an unholy one?
We all have the choice about what to accept as our truth....but accepting the path is also accepting the destination. (Matthew 7:13-14)
What you and other J.W.;s are under is known as Milieu Control, and Mystical manipulation.... read the first two parts of the following link if you do not know what these things are....
Mind-Field: Eight Ways to Identify Religious Brainwashing (Part 1 of 8) | Liberty for Captives
LOL....here’s a thought.....what if that is describing you and your own fellow “Christians” who have swallowed an unholy lie and staked your lives on it? Would God let you know your error? Would he prevent you from believing the lies?
Some just have no love for truth, and.....
“for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie”. Modern translation brings out the meaning more clearly, showing that Jehovah does not deliberately delude them, but merely allows Satan to delude them, since they take more pleasure in lies and unrighteousness than in truth and salvation.....
“The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 - ESV)
You see, God is choosing us as much as we think we are choosing him. When he sees a receptive heart...one that is not afraid of the truth, but in actual fact desires it in spite of what that means in dispensing with what is
not truth.....then he will “draw” that person as Jesus said....
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. . . . .And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:44,65 -ESV)
You see we can believe whatever our hearts want to believe, but we are judged by it without us even knowing. When Jesus said...
”you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free”.....I didn’t understand that freedom until I left the errors of Christendom.....no longer shackled to fear of hell or to doctrines that alter the nature of God into something his people were never taught....true spiritual freedom comes with the truth.
It’s not until you divorce yourself from Christendom’s doctrines, (adopted centuries after Jesus died) that you see how far they have strayed from Christ’s teachings. Jesus found this to be true of his own people in his first mission on earth as a teacher, when he castigated the religious leaders for their false teachings (Matthew 23) and he will encounter the very same situation when he returns as judge. The “goats” will be shocked to learn how he and his Father view them. (Matthew 7:21-23)
Let’s all hope that we are surprised rather than shocked when “the end” comes. Only then will we know for sure that we worshipped the right God, and taught his truth to others.
And look...not a single NWT quote in the whole post.....