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I see where you are coming from, you think it man's spirits, right? Still doesn't quite cut it in relation to the principalities etc. How can we be principalities ? This is certainly not something I can say that I know....But I am always wanting to learn..
from a logical pov this is correct imo, but i suggest that even there in those passages, the differences exist for a reason, and they were likely installed on purpose to call attention to a spiritual concept. If you were to mention an apparent contradiction, we could explore it and see, not that we will be providing or revealing any "proof" or "facts," but we will be able to explore other points of view @ those passages.
sure, i understand you. That same feeling is why i am driven to contemplate perspectives other than the religious ones, that suggest some kind of magic or whatever was possible in Bible times that no longer obtains or whatever. Hence the reflection of the addict.
this to me speaks to the pov of the addict, which is i guess why that analogy worked for me (at least for now). Obviously Jesus did not come to torment anyone, right, and so i remember being an addict, and knowing that my salvation lied in Not Being Addicted--essentially another name for Christ iow--but at the same time also resisting, and feeling that i was being "tormented" by social workers or whatever, like that, "before my time," because i wanted to keep using of course, and quit "tomorrow."
well, staying within that analogy, imo what had to be done was to stop accusing them, or stop listening to the accusations, and dismiss court, or recognize that court has been dismissed, and then give them the Good News. But of course we are all mired in law, swimming in it, we are no different from the Israelites, because human nature has not changed, until a human changes their nature, right. It's just so much easier to dial 911 than to be responsible imo. I'm talking for like cats in trees or whatever there, for most people, although i can't imagine what i would be calling 911 for myself.
another valid perspective here is, who told one that anything had to be done for these people? Outside of "feed my sheep" iow. Now if one is led to provide some services to people in need then i am all for it, don't get me wrong, but we are a codependent nation of people now, rather than being interdependent, and i'm sure you have had some experience with "helping people?" Iow JW's coming to your door are as legitimate a helper in this sense as any one attempting to alleviate the spiritual suffering of anyone else. Of course the dynamic is different if someone is asking, rather than being braced, but the point is that people also often take advantage, and "service" can easily become codependent enabling, or essentially "works of the law," people doing things to please God instead of actually serve others.
ya, if he answers google will be edified too lol
i pretty much agree with all that, but a word about this uniquely American pov of "the days getting darker..."
ha, but once you see yourself as a person who prefers to plow their own ground, rather than shepherd others, you realize you already know what they talked about, imo. If only people were sheep, right? Shepherding people is more akin to herding cats, and of course Scripture puts it that way TIC, but also because there is truth in it, that is only realized after say someone sees that someone else who might be being quite evil to them, yelling at them or whatever about some issue or concept, is really also just a scared little kid on some level. From there one's responses may be examined to see whether they are really "shepherding" in the way of Abel (completely ignoring the evil and yelling, and recognizing the fear) or plowing their own ground in the way of Cain (i don't have to take that, i have a degree, and i am the one can help you, recognize my authoritay, etc)
another good way to put it, ya. It still describes me, no matter how you slice it imo
Exactly ! I have surely had much more action with people I have met, who were at the 'lower' end of our society. Ones who may have heard about religious things and rejected them. But speak to them normally and speak of His unconditional Love, and they actually do listen, or at least most of the ones I have encountered...
I have no problem with the written account, but I refuse to replace the real one with these written accounts.....I love the Bible, it tells us of Jesus and our loving Father, but it is a mistake turning it into some other written in stone rules.
Thankfully being restored to our Father has nothing to do with what we deserve, thank God for that...Whatever that place was, the only reference I was able to connect it to years later, when I got hold of a Bible for the first time, is where it talk of an 'outer darkness' ??? Have a really hard time believing in a place where the spirits of people are tortured in flames by the devil and demons for the rest of eternity....it just doesn't fit with anything of what I have experienced with Jesus or anything that He has said......Utter destruction as if a person had never lived, now that, I can equate with Love, and only those who flatly refuse to be reconciled with Him, as they are the ones choosing that fate....
Surely I agree with you on all that, except me being pure hearted ??? I know that He certainly is, but I have not had a pure life, the way some would call pure..........Strangely I did find out that my name is the female form of the Latin word 'pious', which the priest who baptized me ( oh yes they did do that part in Denmark, but it was more of a tradition than anything ) suggested to my very young unmarried mum....I had to laugh, when I found that out, but now it just makes me love Him even more...also my mum had tried every single thing she could have, to try and abort me, it didn't take lol
