Posted on 04/25/2013 2:16:56 PM PDT by count-your-change
"Unlike Jews and others targeted by the Nazis, the Witnesses were prisoners of conscience. They could have bought freedom by signing a declaration card that renounced their faith and pledged allegiance to Hitler. Few took the offer. Most stayed, and many died.
Why Hitler bothered to single out such a minor group - and the tenacity with which the Witnesses resisted him - is what makes their story significant, says Michael Berenbaum, director of the Research Institute at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington. "The Jehovah's Witnesses were literally the only martyrs of the Holocaust," Mr. Berenbaum says."
(Excerpt) Read more at centralprint.net ...
My point is that none of us really understand God as much as we wished we did...
I just don’t like the fact that some on this thread are that Christians will meet God in heaven.
God is great. His love extends to all those who don’t reject him.
I'm assuming you mean here, "I just don’t like the fact that some on this thread are that Christians won't meet God in heaven." Otherwise I don't understand why you wouldn't "like it" when someone doesn't go to heaven.
Moving forward with my assumption above: God is, as I said before, "Just", so it cannot be said those who actively rebel against Him can go to heaven. It's the reverse of the situation I described earlier.
He is a just God; He cannot change from that, which means those who follow Him will be rewarded and those who don't will be punished. Without this assertion, He just becomes some other bland, worldly god that has no real power at all.
It is sad when some reject Him but its their choice ultimately. Best to pray for everyone on a regular basis.
Sorry for the typo. I meant to say that some of this have suggested all NON-Christians will live eternity without God. I disagree with them wholeheartedly. There’s plenty who label themselves as a Christian and who were baptized, yet they live completely immoral lives. There’s also plenty who aren’t Christian who live moral lives, defend the innocent, and follow Jesus’s teachings even if they don’t know Jesus. I believe the second group will be welcomed into Heaven. The first group...not so much.
Huh? Where did I post either slander or misquotes?
It’s not a matter of rejecting God. It’s a matter of sin.
Our sins have separated us from God. We can only be reconciled with Him through the death of Christ on the cross.
Since all are by default alienated from God because of our sin, then it takes an active acceptance of Him and the forgiveness He offers to make us His children.
It’s not a matter of it being ours unless we choose to reject Him, it’s a matter of it not being ours unless we ask for it.
I tiptoe around nothing, bro. I stated clearly how I feel about their theology, and any other that eschews Christ’s Eternal Church to worship their own twisted interpretation of the Church’s Scripture - including those who believe Scripture is the means to salvation in and of itself (just as preposterous a notion.)
My greater concern is the relative nonchalance you show toward these victims of the holocaust. Intentionally or not, you give the impression that they deserved the torture they received at the hands of the Nazi regime. That, my friend, is something you need to address within yourself before you go casting stones.
But since you ask...
John 1:1 In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god. New World Translation AKA the JW Bible.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ESV (Considered to be a very literal English translation)
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (The New American Bible, Revised Edition, an approved catholic Bible)
Note in the JW bible the Word, aka Jesus, is identified as "a god." This is how they attempt to fracture the Trinity. The second and third Bibles, identical in content on this verse, shoe that Jesus is God.
“Note in the JW bible the Word, aka Jesus, is identified as “a god.”
As he is in Ben. Wilson’s Emphatic Diaglott and Robert Young’s Concise Critical Commentary, published in 1977 by Baker Book House.
I dare say neither was a JW.
That's a new one to me. Who teaches that Scripture is a means of salvation in and of itself and just how would that be accomplished? In what way would Scripture save anyone?
Oh, and what's Christ's Eternal Church? Never heard of that denomination.
Greek Interlinear
http://interlinearbible.org/john/1-1.htm
Strong's
http://biblos.com/john/1-1.htm
Problem is, the first commandment says.... Exodus 20:3 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me."
If Jesus is another god, then going through Jesus to get to the Father is putting another god before God, which immediately violates the first commandment.
There's also the need to explain away Jesus own words here in John 14:8-10 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
One comment about the Trinity, though. Anyone who claims to understand it is full of it. Our mortal, finite minds are not capable of comprehending the immortal and infinite.
If you use a Greek/English interlinar I suggest getting some background on the articles the/a and how they are expressed in the Greek and added to the English translation.
And John 14?
And Exodus 20?
WOW! But not surprised at that statement!
There are no good people.
There are bad people and there is Jesus.
Humans look at others and judge people based on outward appearances.
God looks on the heart and judges rightly based on that.
Humans classify sin as better or worse than other sin, mortal or venial.
God says that the soul that sins, dies.
Our judgments of others are based on relative to each other.
It’s only when you get to the word of God and think like HE thinks, that you realize that there are no good people, everybody sins and is going to hell unless they’re forgiven, not because of good works relative to others.
*See, God, I’m not as bad as ______.* isn’t going to cut it on Judgment Day because we’re not as good as Jesus.
You are right! But not surprised to read a catholic believes the lie they were taught while rebelling when The Truth is represented to them. And a ‘devout catholic’ admitting they believe getting to heaven is done by their deeds - is no shock either. But I still say ‘WOW’!
See, God, I’m not as bad as ______.*isn’t going to cut it on Judgment Day
And when they see Jesus, they won’t be able to talk and there won’t be a defense; they will see what GOOD looks like. They were given HIS WORD on earth and will be judged by it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xwzItqYmII
I think the subject was how John 1:1 was translated. How does Ex. 20 and John 14 fit into that question?
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