Please excuse the length of this, but you raised many good points.
That is what the Jews believed But Christians are not Jews.
The leader of the Christian faith was born and raised as a Jew. He died as a Jew and all his apostles and other Bible writers were Jewish.
Jesus did not come to start a new religion. He came to clean up and improve on the old one....to take them into new age. It was not a different God he was teaching about, but one that the Jewish people had lost sight of. As a result, the people themselves were lost and Jesus came to find those "lost sheep of the house of Israel". His preaching was to be concentrated only on the Jews who would accept him as Messiah. Only a remnant would respond.
God probably does not change. but what men believe about him is constantly changing.
And therein lies the problem. It is men who change God into something he is not and never has been. Jesus worshipped the God of Israel, but Israel changed him into a nameless deity who had such strict laws, that no one had a hope of keeping them. They were a weighty millstone around the necks of the common people and they simply gave up.
What was Jesus' appeal to them?
"My yoke is kindly and my load is light"....just the "refreshment" that these humble ones needed.
Jesus was more than Just Jewish he was the Son of God.
The Jewish nation could never come to terms with that notion. Even claiming to be God's son was blasphemous to them. They reject the idea to this day.
But do you see what Christendom then did with that idea? Instead of leaving it at the "son of God" they turned Jesus into "God the Son", making him into a deity equal with his Father. This is truly blasphemous. Nowhere in scripture does Jesus ever claim equality with his own God.
God knows these things He does not have to wait to find out.
Look what Jehovah said to King David...
"I will give you insight and instruct you in the way you should go. I will give you advice with my eye upon you. Do not become like a horse or a mule, without understanding, Whose spiritedness must be controlled with a bridle or a halter Before it will come near to you. (Psalm 32:8, 9)
He is observing all of us to see if we will do as he commands without being forced. Obedience is all he has ever asked of us since the beginning. He gives each one an opportunity to get to know him, not as he is painted by some religious system, but how he is represented by his perfect son.
We only know what our Birth and society teaches us. That includes the JW teachings.
That used to be true once, but not now. People have at their fingertips all the information they need to make informed decisions. Add to that the global preaching of the good news in obedience to Christ's commission (Matt 24:14; 28:19, 20) and the whole world has no excuse NOT to know the truth. This "witness" is the basis for judgment. (2 Thess 1:6-9)
Jesus said we would 'know the truth' and that it would 'set us free'. What was the freedom that he provided to those Jews of the first century who followed him? Freedom, not from the yoke of Rome as they had been mistakenly led to believe about their Messiah, but freedom from religious falsehood that acted like shackles around their feet, preventing them from identifying the true Messiah and what his kingdom really was.
If I was to ask you to tell me, what is the kingdom of God? How would you answer from the scriptures? Can you tell me plainly and without ambiguity what God's kingdom is and how it "comes"? (Matt 6:9, 10)
How we worship is how we have been taught, it is all we can know.
Not any more. Jesus proved that a religious system that claimed to worship the true God can be gravely in error. Jesus also stated the same of many of his own followers when it comes time for the judgment. (Matt 7:21-23) obviously they judge themselves as Christians, but he tells them he has never known them. They were never acceptable to him.
While God is true, all else is supposition either by us or previous generations.
JW teachings are no different and derive from the same source works.
No we do not derive our teachings from the same sources at all.
In harmony with Dan 12:9, 10...
"Then he said: Go, Daniel, because the words are to be kept secret and sealed up until the time of the end. Many will cleanse themselves and whiten themselves and will be refined. And the wicked ones will act wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand; but those having insight will understand."
We believe that in this "time of the end" God has refined and cleansed a people to whom he has granted understanding because they accepted the cleansing and refining with humility and obedience. They meticulously went through every doctrine of Christendom and compared it to what the Bible actually taught. They were amazed at how many false doctrines the church had introduced over the centuries.
The wicked, God said, would continue to act as they always had. These would understand nothing.
How we live our lives is important to God's purpose.
It is reasonable to suppose he would favour protecting the Earth and all that is in it.
Has God protected the earth? Look at all the natural disasters and weird weather events of the past few decades. Look at the toll that pollution of the oceans and the land has taken on Mother Earth. She and her creatures are groaning as never before. :sad4:
Is it a coincidence that John in the Revelation says that
"...the nations became wrathful, and your own wrath came, and the appointed time came for the dead to be judged and to reward your slaves the prophets and the holy ones and those fearing your name, the small and the great, and to bring to ruin those ruining the earth." (Rev 11:18)
Interestingly, the human race did not have the capacity to "ruin the earth" when that was written. They sure do now.
It is also reasonable to suppose that he would approve of us improving our minds by learning and endeavour for the benefit of the world. I am sure the minutiae of Jewish and Christian law is as nothing to him.
I am sure he cares not at all which church we follow.
This world is ruled by the devil. Jesus could have fixed it up when he was here on earth, but he never interfered with the politics of the day, nor did he instruct his followers to pursue higher education. Neither Jesus, nor any of his 12 apostles were graduates of the rabbinical schools. The Pharisees balked at this. (John 7:15) Only Paul was 'educated'. Even then, there is no admonition to benefit the world in any other way, than by offering people the good news of God's kingdom.
For JW's we do not see pursuing higher education as guaranteeing a successful career. Here in Australia, so many university graduates cannot get jobs because there is little work available in their chosen field and they are overqualified for other work opportunities.
Material benefits in life can never equal the spiritual benefits that come with dedicating yourself to God's service as a full time minister. We do not see this world surviving so to sacrifice spiritual things to better ourselves materially in this life is a bit like upgrading to a better cabin on the Titanic.
There are very few Direct commands taught by Jesus.
To be baptised and to join in taking bread and wine in the Eucharist when ever we come together in remembrance of him are the most certain.
Absolutely. But to add to what is written is dangerous. (1 Cor 4:6)
We also celebrate his birth death and ascension, to honour God and remember what he has done and provided for us.
This is how we worship God.
You are free to include whatever you want in your worship, but whether or not those inclusions are acceptable to God or not, is really what this thread is all about.
The point is, one can do any of those things you mentioned in one's own heart without grafting a festival over an existing celebration that was originally used to honor a false god. The fact is there are no false gods, but the one who invented false religion gets the worship he seeks through it.
Paul wrote:
"Look at Israel in the fleshly sense: Are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers with the altar? What, then, am I saying? That what is sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No; but I say that what the nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers with the demons. You cannot be drinking the cup of Jehovah and the cup of demons; you cannot be partaking of the table of Jehovah and the table of demons." (1 Cor 10:18-21)
To us, its a case of partaking of the table of the demons whilst believing that we are eating at Jehovah's table. You can't have a foot in both camps. :no:
