'Christianity' Doesn't Believe...JESUS?

[theQuestion]

Of course not, otherwise it wouldn't BE Christianity!
It's CHURCHianity (Mainstream Churches) that doesn't!

Consider~

Jesus said his father is the ONLY true God- Churchianity adds him and an imaginary, nameless Ghost.
Jesus said we should be no part of the world, and to seek first GOD'S kingdom: Churchianity has its people kill each other in wars, vote, and run for political office.
Jesus said the meek would inherit the Earth; Churchianity- the Earth will be destroyed, and they go to heaven.
Jesus COMMANDED his followers to preach the Good News; Clergy are paid to do that in Churchianity.
Jesus foretold a Day when the dead will be resurrected & judged; Churchianity says that happens when your BODY dies- YOU never die, since we are 'IMMORTAL souls' housed in these bodies...
Jesus said we must honor God's Name; Churchianity HIDES it, pretending its lost, often claiming its the name "Jesus".

And there's so much more: I've yet to find one thing they teach that's true- except that the Bible is God's Word- which is belied by the fact
they really don't BELIEVE it!

[Purple Knight]

Jesus said we should be no part of the world, and to seek first GOD'S kingdom: Churchianity has its people kill each other in wars, vote, and run for political office.

So did Jesus take his own advice? Or did he topple moneychangers' tables in the world, preach to people in the world, and die for the sins of others in the world?

If people in 30AD need someone to show them The Way with capitals T and H, why don't people in 2021AD need that message imparted to them, too?

If they do, that means people to print Bibles, and that means money to pay for the people and paper and printing presses. That means Churchianity and being a part of the world.

[Difflugia]

John 17:21 autoi (they) en hemin (in us).
So are the disciples part of God?

Maybe? I don't know. John's weird and ambiguous (I think intentionally). If I want to try to figure it out in English, though, I want a translation that's as faithful as possible to the author's Greek rather than one paraphrased into something else to match the theological predispositions of the translators. The NASB is close.

[theQuestion]

[Replying to Difflugia in post #13]

We are IN the world- so that is NOT 'the PART' he was talking about.

[bjs1]

Sorry, Overcomer; I thought it rather obvious- since we JWs are the only ones that honor God's Name and actually BELIEVE what Jesus said....

Doesn’t this attitude worry you?

If I were part of a small group that thought that we had figured out the truth and everyone else was wrong, then I would be deeply concerned that my group was mistaken.

If I were part of the small group of modern people who believe that the world is flat while virtually everyone else believes that the world is round then I would be deeply concerned that I was wrong. The popularity of an idea does not make it true. However, when everyone is looking at the same evidence and 999 people say, “The world is round,” for every one person who says, “The world is flat,” then it is far more likely that the 999 are correct.

In the case at hand, a relatively small group of people (less than 9 million) say, “We actually believe what Jesus said….” At the same time a massive group (more than 3 billion) say, “We believe what Jesus said, and it is something different than what you claim he said.”

Both groups are looking at the same evidence. The overwhelming majority of people who believe that the Bible is true, as well as the overwhelming majority of people who say that Bible is false and got this wrong, all agree that the Bible says that Jesus is God. Again, the popularity of an idea does not make it true. However, when everyone is looking at the same document then I would be deeply concerned if I thought that the document said something that virtually everyone else in the world insisted it did not say.

[theQuestion]

BJS!- I'm sorry you take it that way; if I am mistaken, please point me to a Church that honors God's Name and believes what Jesus said- and actually believes he (not just his body) died!

[bjs1]

BJS!- I'm sorry you take it that way; if I am mistaken, please point me to a Church that honors God's Name

You mean the name YHWH? The vast majority of them.

If you want specific names: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, American Baptist, Southern Baptist, Independent Baptists, Methodist, Reformed, Anglican, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Pentecostal and Lutheran Churches, as well as the Church of God and the three branches of the Restoration movement, and many non-denominational churches.

and believes what Jesus said-

I suppose that in practice we could do a lot better. But in theory again my answer is: The vast majority of them.

and actually believes he (not just his body) died!

That’s kind of a strange thing to get hung up on. Virtually everyone would say that if a person’s body has died then he died. The Eastern Orthodox Church says that after his death but before his resurrection Jesus descended into hell. Is that what you are going for?




But again, if you believe that nearly everyone who has read the Bible didn’t understand what they were reading and that you are part of a tiny select group who are the only ones capable of understanding the words as they are written, then shouldn’t that worry you?

[theQuestion]

I am here to talk to the sincere: NOTHING in that post is true.

[Difflugia]

Sorry, Overcomer; I thought it rather obvious- since we JWs arethe only ones that honor God's Name and actually BELIEVE what Jesus said....

This is the part that baffles me about the fundamentalist attitude. The Witnesses claim to anyone that will listen that they "honor God's Name," but instead of making a good faith effort to learn everything they can about that Name, they do exactly the opposite and just circle the wagons around their favorite tradition.

It's the same attitude as in the "reading the Bible as it's written" thread. If one wants to impart a particular theology onto the Bible before starting, that's fine, but I don't understand the benefit of pretending that one's doing something entirely different. In the same way, if the Witnesses want to keep calling God Jehovah out of tradition or even just plain old inertia, that's also fine. It seems odd to me, however, to then claim that it's the Name that they're honoring, while ignoring virtually all of the research that exists on the subject.

[bjs1]

I am here to talk to the sincere: NOTHING in that post is true.

This brings us back to the question that I have asked in every one of my posts in this thread and which you have yet to address.

You seem to be claiming that your small sect are the only people who believe what Jesus said. There are billions of Christians in the world who all say that they believe what Jesus said, yet your tiny group says that everyone else is wrong and that your tiny group are the only ones who really understand.

Doesn’t that worry you?

If such a massive majority of honest and intelligent people disagreed with me then I would be searching the scriptures to understand what they saw that I didn’t. In such a circumstance the most likely explanation would by that I was mistaken and I would be desperate to understand how.

[2timothy316]

I am here to talk to the sincere: NOTHING in that post is true.

This brings us back to the question that I have asked in every one of my posts in this thread and which you have yet to address.

You seem to be claiming that your small sect are the only people who believe what Jesus said. There are billions of Christians in the world who all say that they believe what Jesus said, yet your tiny group says that everyone else is wrong and that your tiny group are the only ones who really understand.

Doesn’t that worry you?

So let's clear something up here. Just believing what Jesus said is not the center of the controversy. Doing what Jesus said is the center of the controversy. Yes many say they believe what Jesus said but only a small percentage actually do what he said to do. Take the protest that happened in Washington, taking the following scripture into account. "However, I say to you: Continue to love your enemies and to pray for those who persecute you, so that you may prove yourselves sons of your Father who is in the heavens, since he makes his sun rise on both the wicked and the good and makes it rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous." After reading those words from Jesus. How many of those protesters do you think would say they believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ yet after their actions on January 6, 2020, how many of them do you think actually do what Christ says to do?

Also, people that say they are the only ones that actually follow Jesus Christ and by their actions I can see they do, doesn't worry me. Those that say they do know the teachings of Jesus but their actions do not show it, those are the ones that worry me. In the Bible, faith is closely linked with obedience. A lack of faith is linked with disobedience. (Heb 3:18, 19) Since people put faith and belief as one in the same, it can be said that some people don't believe in Jesus Christ based on their actions and not what they say.

If such a massive majority of honest and intelligent people disagreed with me then I would be searching the scriptures to understand what they saw that I didn’t. In such a circumstance the most likely explanation would by that I was mistaken and I would be desperate to understand how.

The number of people that disagrees with us shouldn't be what triggers searching the scriptures. I search the scriptures for every single person that has disagreed with me. Let me tell ya, when you search the scriptures that many times, one really comes to love the Word of God.