No worries, I always prefer discussion to squabble!
Absolutely.
The mystery and hiddenness of God again? Funny, that one always seems to come up when the really interesting questions are being asked!
There is no mystery and God is not hidden. Why do people say that?
He is not a visible being, so how how do people expect him to reveal himself to humans? We would not survive the experience. (Exodus 33:20) He sent a representative to earth once, but misguided and misinformed humans killed him.
He has demonstrated his existence by creating a material universe where creatures and beings who are made in his image were given an amazing home. Look at man, especially Jesus Christ, with his best attributes and moral qualities, and we can see who God is....not that man is a perfect reflection of his Creator right now, but we get the idea.
I think my experience of reality contradicts that, literally millions of people believe in Jesus, a fair chunk are probably just nominal Christians (they were brought up in the faith and never really give it much thought), but I'd contend that a larger chunk are sincere and devout believers. They don't go around with their fingers in their ears they are "seekers", but in your world they don't qualify as Christians?
Jesus himself confirms that just calling yourself a Christians and actually being one are two different things.
He tells us that "few" are on the road to life, which includes those who call him their "Lord". (Matthew 7:13-14; 21-23) He is the judge, not any man. It matters little what label you wear....it is completely dependent on worshipping God in the way he commands.
Catholics, Protestants, LDS, Greek Orthodox, etc. all going to be pointed out as 'goats' by Jesus? Despite their willingness and desire to know God?
"Weeds" come in all shapes and sizes. The "goats" are not those identified by us, but by the one appointed to judge them.
We are only the messengers and we are told to call on everyone with "the good news of the Kingdom" before God brings this system of things crashing down. (Matthew 24:14) The "sheep" are the ones "doing the will of the Father"...not the ones making excuses for why they don't.
What about the devout Muslims, of which there are a couple of billion? This is what I mean by Jehovah's poor communication skills. His voice seems very small in the great scheme of things, the devil has it in the bag!
When have numbers ever mattered to the Creator? His people have always been in a minority, compared to other nations, and they have always been guided and bound by his laws. They were blessed when they obeyed, and punished when they disobeyed. It isn't rocket science to follow the teachings of the Christ. Devotion can be given to anything, idols, humans, institutions...the level of devotion means nothing.
Even Muslims acknowledge Jesus as a prophet, yet they do not do as he says any more than the churches do. Christendom does not obey Jesus teachings.....in one area alone, most religions fail the test......they will spill human blood with no sanction from God....just sanction from their leaders or demanded because of their political affiliations. We are told to be "no part" of the world....including its wars and conflicts. (John 18:36)
Right, but a Baptist might accuse the Watchtower as being one of the false prophets Jesus talked about. Back to No True Scotsman!
Just like the Jews accused Jesus and his apostles of being false prophets.....what's new? False prophets lead people away from the truth.....I can assure you I was led to it.....and out of the mess that Christendom is and always has been. It was the best decision I have ever made in my life. One not regretted for over 40 years.
The gospel of John is very strong on the divinity of Jesus, but of course the Watchtower translation says the "Word was with God, the Word was a god" a rather convenient "a" for a group that denies the divinity of Jesus!
Have you ever done a thorough investigation into John 1:1? That convenient "a" is placed in almost every other verse where an indefinite article belongs because there is no indefinite article ("a" or "an") in the Greek language....there is only the definite article ("the"). Think about that for a moment.
At John 1:1 there are two occurrences of the Greek noun the·osʹ (god). The first occurrence refers to Almighty God, with whom the Word was (“and the Word [loʹgos] was with God [the·osʹ”]. This first "the·osʹ" is preceded by the word ton (the), a form of the Greek definite article that points to a distinct identity, in this case Almighty God (“and the Word was with [the] God”).
On the other hand, there is no article before the second "the·os" at John 1:1. So a literal translation would read, “and god was the Word.” Yet we have seen that many translations render this second "the·osʹ' (a predicate noun) as “divine,” “godlike,” or “a god”...not just the NWT.
The Koine Greek language had a definite article (“the”), but it did not have an indefinite article (“a” or “an”). So when a predicate noun is not preceded by the definite article, it may be indefinite, depending on the context. The context in this case is demonstrating two separate individuals, both of whom are divine in nature (theos, gods or mighty ones) but only one of them is 'the God". Remember that the Greeks worshipped many gods so there was no word that identified one god from another apart from their names. When the Jews stopped using the divine name, there was no way to distinguish between these "mighty ones" or "gods", (Jehovah and Jesus Christ.) The definite article was the only way to make the distinction.
The credentials of the translators of the Watchtower bible? Anonymous right? Not good enough Deeje!
If you had bothered to check the translation itself, instead of the biased critics of the work, you would see where the differences are and why they were made.
See:
Is the New World Translation Accurate? | FAQ
and
A3 How the Bible Came to Us — Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY
The approach was not to simply re-translate a translation but to consult the works of other accredited translators and scholars and research the meanings of the original language words.
"Based on his analysis of nine major English translations, Jason David BeDuhn, associate professor of religious studies, wrote: “The NW [New World Translation] emerges as the most accurate of the translations compared.” Although the general public and many Bible scholars assume that the differences in the New World Translation are the result of religious bias on the part of its translators, BeDuhn stated: “Most of the differences are due to the greater accuracy of the NW as a literal, conservative translation of the original expressions of the New Testament writers.”—Truth in Translation, pages 163, 165."
Most people are not aware of Christendom's efforts to distort the scriptures to support their erroneous teachings. All one has to do to clear up John 1:1 is read John 1:18, which says "no man has ever seen God" so, Jesus is not, and never was Almighty God. He is called "the only begotten god" in that verse and we know that the Almighty is not begotten.
I don't accept extraordinary information I read about without knowing the credentials of the author in my everyday life (I feel I can readily dismiss headlines about aliens landing in the National Inquirer because of the reputation of the authors) and nor do you I suspect. So why accept anonymous authorship as credible when you are wearing your religious hat?
I have studied many translations over the years and I am very aware of the errors that Christendom has passed off as Biblical teachings. You don't need to know what every counterfeit looks like to pick a fake....you just have to know what the genuine one really well.
There is still time to change your mind dude, all the different Christian groups cant
all be right, but they can all be
wrong.....come on in the atheist water is fine!
I'm not a dude and I don't like swimming......I agree, the multitude of "Christian" churches can't all be right, but we have the assurance that at the end of this period, there will be "sheep"...I will stay in this paddock thanks. The food is plentiful and the water is unpolluted.
Athiest water is fine?.....yep.....
Yeah right, JWs as an emergency service? Not if you've lost a lot of blood and need a transfusion to keep you alive dude!
Another misconception. What do you really know about blood transfusions?
This was posted on the Australian Government Blood Authority website.
Please listen carefully. I don't believe that blood is saving many lives at all. You might want to look up non-blood patient management. You might just be surprised at the number of hospitals all over the world that are dedicated to bloodless medicine. Its not all its claimed to be in our experience.
Thing is, the horse was already out of the barn, and as much as Christians hate facing the fact that their god has this ugly side to him, it is still there. And choosing those passages that paint him as Mr. Nice Guy, while purposely ignoring scripture that displays his more repugnant nature (this is cherry picking) doesn't make it go away. But go ahead and play Let's Pretend. You have an awful lot of company.
