xero

Last question answered 1st. Yes God uses secular organizations. He also uses religious organizations and families were designed by Jehovah as the base of organization. The questions YOU and we all need to answer are: Is God using this/or that organization, like I might use a stick to get some crap off my nikes after a trail run, after which I have no use for the stick? Does this organization assent that it is being used by Jehovah? Does this organization have Jehovah's approval? An organization or even a person can be USED by Jehovah AND that person may be approved by Jehovah or disapproved by him. Jehovah can use a person/organization like a Judo master might use the weight of his opponent against him.

Let's cut to the chase. Opposers can go pound sand. Opposers wouldn't know squat about the Bible if there wasn't an organization to superintend its preservation and transmission to the present. Opposers wouldn't have known enough to bother with learning about the Bible were it not for organizations existing to push doctrine. Opposers can't exist without an organization to oppose. So nothing is useful about opposers. These exist as parasites feeding off the real or imagined deficiencies of organizations. For them to become useful is to become yet ANOTHER organization from whom will rise yet more opposers. But opposers are ultimately cowards and lazy as it's easy to complain and point out real or imagined deficiencies, but these either can't or won't do anything to do better. We used to play a game called "smear the queer" (in the UK it's called British Bulldog) at lunch and only the cowardly kids would refuse to play by taking the ball and running w/it. Opposers are like that.

He was just another guy who Jehovah used to Jehovah's ends. What he thought then about anything was and is immaterial. Now if you have some scriptural point to make on topic (that God uses or doesn't use an organization), then make it.

What opposers refuse to acknowledge is that Jehovah has always used organization to further his will and purposes. (they wouldn't even know anything at all without these organizations whom they've chosen to oppose and criticize) Sometimes these organizations are listening and responding as they should in our eyes and sometimes not so much. The question to answer is which organization is he using, or which organizations and to what end. Clearly the nominally Christian organizations have been used to one degree or another over time (wheat and weeds growing together). The individual (you and I) with our God-given conscience and our own responsibility have to determine which organization we will associate with and justify our choices in this regard. Suggesting that organization in unnecessary is just unscriptural idiocy.

He presents a false dilemma. It isn't organization vs conscience. On the other hand Jesus was right. Opposers simply want to weed the congregation out of existence. " If, though, you keep on biting and devouring one another,+ look out that you do not get annihilated by one another.' -Ga 5:15

So you simply want to disobey Jesus and go on with your unauthorized weeding. You left the organization because you wanted to weed it. Guess what? Not your job. Not only that, you wouldn't know what you know about the bible w/o it.

That reminds me about watching people at conventions. I don't know why it tickles me to see people nod off when they're trying to stay awake. If I'm ever feeling sleepy, seeing someone else start to slip wakes me up and I find myself quietly amused.

Even an atheist recognizes the need for organization, however opposers who have lost their reason imagine that they would have knowledge of anything biblical w/o the organizations they carp and moan about. It's like they simply refuse to acknowledge Jesus when he's asked about uprooting the weeds, they want to uproot all of it. Jesus on the other hand said "knock it off, you presumptuous people, you have nothing to do with weeding, it's going to grow together until the harvest and the weeding won't be done by you and your mouth, it'll be done by angels". So YOU as a professed Christian simply must choose an organization with which to associate. No you're not going to agree w/everything, but that's the deal.

I've had arguments with myself and others about all of this. I am, by nature a supremely independent person who would never, ever want to lord anything over anyone or corral them in any way. I am also not particularly gregarious. I'm also quite critical of myself and everyone else on planet earth. I work with a Calvinist and when he mentioned to me the "Doctrine of Total Depravity",https://babylonbee.com/news/i-am-a-depraved-wretch-says-calvinist-smugly I had to laugh and agree at the same time. So organizations and groups are not things I gravitate towards. It always seemed that groups trampled individuals. Yet how would we have a Bible, or have anything else even nominally known as Christian or even know of the history of the world (beyond vague forensic investigations) without people organizing themselves to worship God? I had to admit, that if everyone was like me it would never have happened. Fortunately enough people are not like me and these formed organizations. Fortunately there are a myriad of these from which we can look at and compare with regard to doctrine and also the broader consequences to the individuals and groups as a result of their adherence to these groups. Like the scripture said "whether in pretense or in truth, the Christ must be preached".

If I'm wrong, name just one group that behaves better as it gets together in groups than Jehovah's Witnesses. I don't see this as true in any other denomination.

I'm sweet on the sister on the right with the blonde hair at .38 sec

I don't fault other denominations for trying, but I think the mercenary nature of their clergy w/the emphasis on college over spiritual and scriptural qualities and the clergy/laity distinction where individuals can offload their moral responsibilities to others (yup, people in JW's try to pull that crap too at times and elders should NEVER reinforce that) but I just haven't seen anything like JW's anywhere.

I was an atheist visiting the KH w/my gf who was studying, and I observed them for months and also went to a day of a district convention when it struck me what was most different about JW's was that their behavior improved to the extent that they got together as a group. This I contrasted with every other group I'd been with. To the extent the group grew in size, to that extent it became unruly and more badly behaved.

When you get older, you have to prioritize on what's actually important.

I don't much care about the others. Mormon theology is wrong and the rest are into the trinity.

That would be your prerogative. You are also welcome to believe in the immortal soul, hellfire and anything else you'd like. Try not to waste other people's time.

https://answersingenesis.org/adam-and-eve/genetics-confirms-recent-supernatural-creation-adam-and-eve/

Then I suspect the "stance" is that to understand this verse you read it and then accept it in the context w/in it's written.

How about you go to jw.org and look it up?

No but this might help... https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Ftraducaodonovomundodefendida.wordpress.com%2F2020%2F12%2F29%2Fe-daniel-muito-velho-segundo-a-cronologia-baseada-em-607%2F

The physicist (Neil) was right. You can tell evil as it feeds on itself w/it's ideas and expressions. Spiritual autophagy produces progressively predictable response patterns as these have chosen themselves as their own root.

You can jaw on as you like, but you're still squirreling around doing your best to avoid God's name - Jehovah. Another thing that convinces me that Jehovah is right, is the kinds of people and their specious and inconsistent arguments against using Jehovah. It's like in the movies when the vampires shrink back at the sight of a cross. Gods name just freaks them out and they have to, like a startled octopus ink up the room w/junky inconsistent arguments.

At the risk of beating the drum. I'm always suspicious when people avoid using "Jehovah". The argument about not knowing the exact pronunciation would then apply to Jehoshaphat, Jehoram or pretty much any name in the Hebrew scriptures, but for some reason the punctiliousness is applied only to "Jehovah". The reason is that God's name tastes bad in their mouths.

<sarcasm>I love how he 'knows' Jehovah's view on things</sarcasm>