Jehovah's Witnesses are moving in

Ask Stella about the "in-crowd". :lol:

 

Actually, I think I know now what you mean by "in-crowd." There are some people on here that have known each other a long time and have a lot of history. It's understandable. Oh, and also ask Stella about being "thick skinned." :lol:

 

According to Wikipedia, many different meanings:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian

What is a Christian?

The American Heritage Dictionary defines a Christian as "one who professes belief in Jesus as Christ or lives the lifestyle based on the life and teachings of Jesus; one who lives according to the teachings of Jesus."[5]

A wide range of beliefs and practices is found across the world among those who call themselves Christian. Some of the most generally accepted beliefs among Christians include:

that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
Jesus is not only the son of God but he is God
that Jesus is the Messiah promised in the Old Testament
that God sent his Son to earth to save humanity from the consequences of its sins
that Jesus gave his life on the Cross (the Crucifixion) and raised from the dead after the third day (the Resurrection).[1]

It also lists Jehovah's Witnesses as Christian, but says Mormons consider themselves part of Christianity. No, not really trying to start a debate. I am under-informed on the matter, hence my quotation of Wikipedia.

 

Actually I find that it doesn't, you become a project.

Speaking of which did you hear about the new reality show in Turkey? A Holy Men in the Muslim, Christian and Jewish Religions are awarded prises if they they convert an atheist to their religion. I think the atheist should be given a shot at prizes also.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2009/07/03/turkey-gameshow-religion-atheists.html

 

Well, to me --and like you said, I'm not really interested in a theological debate--but if one denies Jesus' divinity as God, its not really a profession of acceptance, because Jesus proclaims himself the Christ and the Bible propheises that God and Christ are one and the same. Jesus himself made statements to the people (not just to disciples) such as "before Abraham, I am." God refers to Moses within the burning bush as "I am." When Moses questioned whether the Hebrews would believe that God had sent him, God told him to tell the people I AM had sent him.

Obviously, even traditional Christian denominations have divisions in belief, but not major differences. The Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are not Christians (to me) if they deny that Jesus is God Incarnate. Now that doesn't mean that I dislike them for their beliefs. I just do not adhere to their "prophets'" teachings.

 

Oh wow. Just when I'd heard it all on reality shows. Very true about the prize for the Atheist for making it through that. :cheers:

 

Right. The title of this thread along with your fear of them disturbing your quiet peaceful neighborhood just screams 1st Amendment

Which is why you said this:

Do these people go door-to-door with briefcases, with "watchtower" pamphlets here? Do we need to go out and purchase "no soliciting" signs to keep them off our property? We are a bit disconcerted about this new addition to what we consider a peaceful, quiet neighborhood...

I can see how them walking on the sidewalk would great a cacophony of noise.

And you didn't bring that up in your original post, why? And what do you when kids selling candy knock on your door? I'm sure the dogs bark then. Or are your dogs trained to only bark at visitors with briefcases? If solicitors knocking on the door peddling candy hasn't prompted you to put up a No Solicitng sign already, the only reason you could have for putting one up now would be to keep that particular group off of your property. That is absolutely your right, but don't try to hide your feelings in a cloak of noise reduction.

Except this is all about noise, right? :roll:

And how do you know that they'll do that? I've had JW's come to my door before. I listen politely for a minute or two and then tell them that I am not interested. If they hand me a pamphlet I take it. Big deal. Oh and by the ways, keep in mind that the root word of prejudice is "prejudge"

But that's not really what this thread is about, now is it?

So what you're saying is that you should be able to come to this forum and vent about your new neighbors without anyone providing an opposing view? If that's the case then you should have found a "We Hate Those Noisy Jehova's Witnesses" website to post on. You're posting your thoughts and I'm posting mine.

I'm not either. Welcome to the out-crowd.

Ahhh, I see. You can tell from the way I type that I am a southerner. Oh wait, I know what it was! When I told the story of my 6th grade teacher you caught on. "Stashonski" being a common southern name and all. Just because I disagree with your prejudice attitude doesn't make me a prejudice southerner. BTW...born and grew up in Michigan, moved here 10 years ago. And just so you know, I've never had anyone tell me to move back. Have you?

No, what you need to do is stop prejudging people and try having an open mind.

 

:hurray: That about sums it up

 

I am not prejudging anyone; think what you want. I think I prefer when my posts were ignored. Carry on with your criticism...I have better things to do. I hope your day gets better for you.

Have a great day, everyone!

 

If you do not wish for commentary or suggestions then why do you post?

By the way, I am confused, am I part of the "in crowd"?

 

You don't have to be part of an "in-crowd" to recognize a fraud and call it.

 

I've learned that when you post something that might be controversial there will be ... well, controversy! With controversy, comes criticism. If you want to avoid it, avoid most discussions on religion and politics.

 

I was wondering the same thing. 8)

 

Is this high school?:lol:

 

I am assuming the former rather than the latter since we all know the "in-crowd" in this area has to lean more conservatively than Hught.... :mrgreen: :jester:

 

Have you read some of the posts? This is more like grade school .... :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

I normally do not post, but I have association with this topic so I thought I would let you in on my insight.

First let me state that I am a Free Will Baptist. I'm a Christian JUST like Jehovah Witnesses are.

My husband's family, (mom, dad, and two younger sisters) are Jehovah Witnesses (his mom is a witness, but the others haven't been baptised). My husband grew up as one starting at age 3 (he's 21 now). I had never given the religion much thought growing up because there weren't any Kingdom Halls around Four Oaks that I knew of so I never saw any witnesses.

Once I became involved with my husband, I was curious about their religion. Being a Christian, Baptist at that, I find NOTHING offensive about their religion which is Christian also. His family has NEVER pushed the religion on me, like some say do.

I have been to their Kingdom Hall a few times, around Easter because they do Memorial, and it actually is a LOT like my church minus the choir and offering plates. The people are actually some of THE most friendly people I have EVER met. Even friendlier than some in my own church.

The only differences that I've noticed regarding their religion and my own is, they use Jehovah instead of God, Heaven is seperate from the Paradise (they have two, we have one), they don't celebrate holidays. There are a few other minor things too, like not giving blood transfusions - which I totally understand because 1) there are other ways and 2) blood can be dirty.


I'm not saying I will change my religion, esp. since I love holidays, but most of their stuff does make sense to me, for the few exceptions. My husband and I do holidays but he does talk religion with his mother but he goes to church with me and I go with him when we go out of town to see his family.

I don't think there should be anything wrong with a Kingdom Hall being built in Johnston County. We live in the land of the free, and have freedom of the religion. If you don't like them, then don't associate with them. I just get mad when people (I know it's your opinion) degrade something that they don't know that much about. I know some people aren't going to like what I write, but I'm an outsider on the in, actually seeing what this religion is like first hand - and I don't care what people think.

Just remember, Jesus and his apostles when door to door - like the Witnesses do. Would you act the same way to them?

 

You make a good point here. According to the Bible, we Christians are supposed to witness to others. How we do it varies. There are some door-to-door Baptists and Methodists out there too. I think it's a more common practice for the JWs.

I found this. It might be helpful in understanding JWs:

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-r005.html

 

Why not ask the Jehovah's Witnesses themselves what they believe, instead of relying on interpretations by outsiders?
http://www.watchtower.org/

What do they believe?
http://www.watchtower.org/e/jt/index.htm

 

This is a major difference in belief here and not merely something concocted by a website. I cannot recognize a religion that claims to embrace Christianity and then denies the essence of Biblical scripture and Christ's teachings. Jesus makes it clear that He is both God and a man. To deny that, means losing perspective of what the entire Bible is leading up to and that is a need for God to intercede on behalf of man to defeat sin and death. This, in turn, means that man can find a relationship with God once again simply based on faith that Christ was the Savior and that as the Old Testament states, is one and the same with God.

Like I stated, I will be polite, but firm in my dismissal of such as one example of which the Apostle Paul warned Christians against.