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According to the poll, it seems to be evenly split among pollsters when considering JWs to be part of Christianity or not.
I know many people that have heard of JWs but they have no clues of what JWs believe in. It is the same case for me that I have heard of the Lutherans but I have no idea about their beliefs. I do know that the Lutherans broke off from the Catholic Church to follow Martin Luther and all the Catholics declared them heretics.
Ask JWs where the body of Jesus Christ is? Because they do not believe in a physical resurrection but only a spiritual. They will tell you one of two things; that God hid it in "outer space" (^:, but of course they have no verse for this! Or they will say that the worms eat it, which is blaspheme, the Bible said " But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption" "He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption." (Acts 13:37 and Acts 2:31) This belief is essential for salvation! "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:9 & 13)
So what? Who cares what Paul allegedly said about anything?
You said that Colossians wasn't introduced as scripture. I pointed out that Paul's writings (he wrote Colossians) were considered scripture. I thought the point was obvious.
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Plenty of sects of early Christians didn't believe Jesus was God. That was arbitrarily "decided" centuries after Jesus' death.
Then they weren't Christians. Jesus himself claimed to be God, as recorded in the Gospels, and Revelation.
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Not for hundreds of years they weren't. Not until The Church arbitrarily made that call hundreds of years afterwards.
As pointed out prior by me, Paul's writings were considered scripture. He soundly defended the notion of Jesus' divinity.
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Nope, but yet it has happened all through history and continues to happen today. Particularly in the three Abrahamic religions.
So? It's not a tenet of Christianity.
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Not really. Not at all. In fact, you could not be more incorrect. Jews and Muslims all worship the same god that Jesus did--the God of Abraham. Neither Jews nor Muslims believe Jesus is of one substance with God, yet they worship the same god as the one from the Old Testament.
Then they aren't really the same God. If my God is Trinitarian in nature and your's isn't....we can call him by the same name, but it's not the same one.
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The Bible itself as we know it today was formulated by committee and also quite arbitrarily. Some books (including supposed gospels) were considered worthy of inclusion; some were discarded. Some of the discarded texts were in use by very devout early Christians well before the accepted canon we know today was in use.
Your point?
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But you should already know all of this.
I do, yes. I've done plenty of study on it. I've had a few classes on stuff like this. I realize you're a skeptic...it's in your nature to find a reason to doubt. I get that.
I realize you're a skeptic...it's in your nature to find a reason to doubt. I get that.
As a skeptic, it is in my nature to seek; not doubt or dismiss out of hand.
Unlike you, it is the skeptics who gain and gather knowledge and understanding rather than pointing to a collection of ancient manuscripts and saying "All the answers are right here! No need to use my brain or think about anything!"
As a skeptic, it is in my nature to seek; not doubt or dismiss out of hand.
Unlike you, it is the skeptics who gain and gather knowledge and understanding rather than pointing to a collection of ancient manuscripts and saying "All the answers are right here! No need to use my brain or think about anything!"
REALLY? At what point would you say "ya know, Vizio....you're right. God exists"?
REALLY? At what point would you say "ya know, Vizio....you're right. God exists"?
I guess I'd say that if there was any evidence to show that God or gods exist.
As it is, there has never been any evidence whatsoever that any god from any culture throughout history and across the globe has ever existed. None. None whatsoever.
However, as I've said many times before, I can certainly understand a person looking at the complexity and diversity of ife on Earth and the grandeur and mystery of the Universe and concluding that there must be some kind of God or Creator or some type of imaginative, intelligent being or force behind it all. I can understand some people declaring that evidence enough for them.
It may be that it is the case that there's a god. Whether or not god(s) exist is simply more than any human knows, and there isn't any evidence that it/they actually exist.
I guess I'd say that if there was any evidence to show that God or gods exist.
As it is, there has never been any evidence whatsoever that any god from any culture throughout history and across the globe has ever existed. None. None whatsoever.
However, as I've said many times before, I can certainly understand a person looking at the complexity and diversity of ife on Earth and the grandeur and mystery of the Universe and concluding that there must be some kind of God or Creator or some type of imaginative, intelligent being or force behind it all. I can understand some people declaring that evidence enough for them.
It may be that it is the case that there's a god. Whether or not god(s) exist is simply more than any human knows, and there isn't any evidence that it/they actually exist.
Well, I've been a believer before, though I wasn't brought up in a church or any religious tradition. I came to it myself later in life.
I will say I really don't believe in an interactive, personal god, and I don't believe there is any "reality" to any gods ever worshipped, written of, idolized or spken of by humans.
But I stop short of saing that there absolutely, positively are no gods or any beings of any kind that we might view as gods. This is just more than we know.
Maybe all the cultural religious traditions in the past and all the gods humans have imagined are actually reflections of some greater reality or God or Godhead or what have you Maybe there is some being (or bings) or force that has made itself known to humans in different ways.
I don't default to that belief, but who knows?
I just like to discuss the issue with people who are so indocrinated or biased or opinionated regarding their personal belief system or religion.
It seems absurd to me--so many people talk about an omniscient, omnipotent God whose mysteries surpass human understanding and who is all-loving, etc. bu then they proceed to hobble that god and put god into a little box--"God will reward this behavior and punish that behavior...the only way to appraoch god is through these particular doctrines and rituals...there is only one path and one way to a relationship with god...if you dont follow these rules and believe these things, then you are wrong, wrong, wrong!" and on and on.
It seems like any "real" god that exists in any fashion would be for everyone, not just some people in a velvet rope society who feel they have "the answers."
Ask JWs where the body of Jesus Christ is? Because they do not believe in a physical resurrection but only a spiritual. They will tell you one of two things; that God hid it in "outer space" (^:, but of course they have no verse for this! Or they will say that the worms eat it, which is blaspheme, the Bible said " But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption" "He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption." (Acts 13:37 and Acts 2:31) This belief is essential for salvation! "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:9 & 13)
As one of Jehovah's Witnesses I would not say either of the things you claim.
Any thing out side the things Jesus hmself taught is questionable.
If a man calls Jesus Lord ,but the statment is untrue in his life ,it is a lie God is not obligated to defend. Matthew 7;21,22,23
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