Which of the goodly unGodly sent the Jehoves Witnesses to my door this morning?

[sandyRoe]

You may think it a great joke but it isn't really funny to have to stand and humour a couple of clearly deluded women.
I know I should have invited them in and explained that my faith was the true way but wasn't feeling up to it this morning.

[goodlife]

By now you must realize: You cannot please everyone.

This suits Satan’s purpose. He deluges the mass mind with anything and everything but God’s truth. To keep minds from doing godly thinking Satan keeps them busy with thoughts that are either trivial or ungodly. It is tailor-made thinking, and the tailor of it is the Devil. Minds work, but in the way that a horse is led. Independent thinking is difficult, unpopular and even suspect. Thought conformity is the order of our day. To seek solitude for meditation is frowned upon as antisocial and neurotic.(Rev. 16:13, 14)
That all for today Naomi bye bye.

[Batexia]

Naomi:
//I assume you are not a Jew.//
No did you not actually say “you are not a Jew”, but as to my reading what you wrote, you obviously did not read what I said, I said, “you are presuming – I am not a Jew”, or did you deliberately ignore my meaning.

//I don't believe he was who you think he was,//
I take that to mean you do not believe in him as the son of God. Same thing in my book. You either believe in him or you don’t.

Birdie:
//As you seem to like quoting biblical texts//
Unless I’ve missed something here and have misread something I have written, I have only quoted Acts 10 v 34 & 35.
They say birds of a feather flock together, obviously it would not do for any of you to stand on your own two feet - do you feel you have to back each other up?

As to my beliefs, I am a Christian. What else is there to say to that? I believe in Almighty God and his son, Jesus Christ. I don’t believe in Allah, or Buddah, or Confucious, Evolution or anything else. I try to be a good Christian and follow the steps of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Does that satisfy you?
With regard to Jesus. I am not referring to Jesus as a man. There are many men named Jesus in the Spanish territories. I was referring to Jesus as the Son of God and if as you say - you are atheists, then you are hardly going to believe that God has a son, are you?

I have strong beliefs in my convictions and I am not afraid of speaking what I believe. I am 100% sure of my beliefs, I have looked at other beliefs and compared them. I am not of the religion I was born into and I changed, even though it caused a lot of problems to a lot of people. So, I say to you as I said to Naomi – “don’t be presumptious and think you know more about me than I do!”

[naomi24]

Goodlife, //By now you must realize: You cannot please everyone.//

You don’t appear to understand the implication of that statement, I get the distinct impression your preaching is pleasing no one here – nor, indeed, impressing them. How many converts have you gathered?

[naomi24]

Batexia, as far as I'm aware I haven’t ignored anything you’ve said, but I think you got your wires crossed and are now trying to back-track. I actually said ‘I assume you are not a Jew’ – meaning I get the impression you are not a Jew – to which you responded ‘Again, you are presuming - I am not a Jew. How you do come to that conclusion?’

So what conclusion are you talking about?

//Same thing in my book. You either believe in him or you don’t.//

Fortunately your book isn’t the only one in existence.

//you are atheists, then you are hardly going to believe that God has a son, are you?//

According to your book your God had sons long before Jesus arrived on the scene.

//“don’t be presumptious and think you know more about me than I do!”//

What on earth are you talking about? You're making it up! I certainly haven’t claimed to know more about you than you do, and the only presumption I’ve made is that you’re not a Jew – and I was right – you’re not.

And incidentally, in answer to your question to Birdie, we don’t feel we have to back each other up – in fact we sometimes openly disagree on these pages – which is more than can be said for any of the religious people here who do indeed back each other up – even though they silently and entirely disagree with the other’s philosophy. And you talk about double standards? ;o)

[naomi24]

Batexia, an afterthought.

//As to my beliefs, I am a Christian. What else is there to say to that?//

Looking at this enormous list of different denominations, there’s probably quite a lot to say to that. Being a Christian is clearly not such a simple matter.

http://en.wikipedia.o..._by_number_of_members

[Batexia]

Naomi,
Just shows you don’t read fully what is written. My comment about knowing me was not directed to you but to Birdie.

As to your link. I assure you, I do not belong one of any of those. To me to be a Christian is all there is to it. I acknowledge God as the Father and Jesus as his son. These so called denominations are all break offs of the original religion.

But as to God having sons before Jesus. Well, I am sorry to say this to you, but you are 100% wrong. He did not. Jesus was the first begotten son of God. The very first creation, and then together, they created the other angels, then the rest of creation.

[naomi24]

Batexia, //Just shows you don’t read fully what is written. My comment about knowing me was not directed to you but to Birdie.//

I think not.

//So, I say to you as I said to Naomi – “don’t be presumptious and think you know more about me than I do!”//

//But as to God having sons before Jesus. Well, I am sorry to say this to you, but you are 100% wrong.//

I’m not.

Genesis 6.2.

‘that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.’

Genesis 6.4

‘when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them,’

[birdie1971]

Batexia -

You seem very angry towards me about revealing your faith. I find it strange that you bothered to try and be obtuse about it in the first place. All I did was ask for some clarification and I made some assumptions as to your faith based on the evidence of your previous posts. Evidence is interesting isn't it? Anyway, it turns out that my assumptions based on evidence were quite correct and that you are in fact a Christian. It's nothing to be ashamed of so why the angry response? You're acting as though I have 'outed' you in some way.

As for me not being able to stand on my own two feet in a debate, I would politely suggest that such a comment is rather foolhardy coming from someone who has been a member here for less than one month. For your information, I've been an active member of this website and a regular contributor to the R&S section for over seven years and I have seen your arguments for a Christian god many, many times from many different posters. They come and they go but their arguments always boil down to one irrefutable fact: all religions are based on the unquestioning adherence to a philosophy based on no evidence whatsoever. They also often reject empirical evidence which contradicts scriptural tall-tales.

All of the above being said, I must congratulate you for one thing – and I mean this most sincerely. At least your posts are you own words and are not randomly copied and pasted as are most of the posts from Goodlife. It's refreshing to debate with someone who can actually form coherent sentences without resorting to plagiarism.

[naomi24]

I'll second Birdie's final paragraph there.

[goodlife]

Naoim we do not convert, you got to convert your self.
But, again, there is no reason to be dogmatic on this point. God’s people —do preach and make disciples. (Mark 13:10)

Britons are swapping religions at a faster rate than ever, with about 1,000 converting every week, reports The Sunday Telegraph. “Anglicans are becoming Roman Catholics, and vice versa, Jews are becoming Buddhists, Muslims are becoming Anglicans and Roman Catholics Jews.” Islam, Buddhism, New Age movements, and paganism are gaining the most converts. Dr. Ahmed Andrews of England’s Derby University, himself a convert, says: “There are between 5,000 and 10,000 white Muslim converts in this country, and most of the ones I know are former Catholics.” Jews make up 10 to 30 percent of converts to Buddhism. Anglican conversions to Catholicism peaked after the Church of England decided to ordain women. According to Rabbi Jonathan Romain, “people feel a spiritual vacuum so they look outside their own religious backgrounds.”

So when you look around at conditions in the world, the increase of crime, the unrest among youth, the unhappiness among families, it is painfully evident that the majority of mankind needs to know about the good things that Jehovah recorded in his Word, the Bible. However, the question asked over nineteen hundred years ago still echoes today: “How, in turn, will they hear without someone to preach?” (Rom. 10:14)


And at Armageddon, God will cause all “the wisdom of the wise men” to perish. He will shove aside all “the intelligence of the intellectual men” who made predictions of how their new world order would bring better conditions for mankind. “The war of the great day of God the Almighty” will incinerate all the sophistry, philosophy, and wisdom of this world. (1Revelation 16:14-16) The only ones who will survive that war and gain life in God’s new world are those who obey what this world calls foolishness.

[seadogg]

You do not convert?

We had a lady in our parish who was often seen with a wicker basket with a cloth cover taking good thinks to the old and sick. She was courteous and welcoming to callers. The local JW's regarded this as an invitation to send the heavy mob to have meetings with her. In spite of her being a much loved member of the Anglican Communion they filled her mind with doubt.

A week or so later she died and we know she died in turmoil. At the funeral were her many friends of different denominations and some of looked to see if any of the JW's were there. Not a one, and believe me their faces are well known. This is an affluent area and they are always knocking on the doors of wealthy and vulnerable old people.

My wife was too kind to them but when the rolled up in force I answered the door and that's the last we saw of them.

[naomi24]

Goodlife, of course you convert! If you didn't go harrassing people they'd never be subjected to what you have to say.

Seadogg, how very sad.

[LazyGun]

There is something ghoulish and repellent in the almost orgasmic pleasure with which JWs, as typified by Goodlife, relish bad news, and look forward to armageddon.

This is what they recently posted;
"So when you look around at conditions in the world, the increase of crime, the unrest among youth, the unhappiness among families, it is painfully evident that the majority of mankind needs to know about the good things that Jehovah recorded in his Word, the Bible. However, the question asked over nineteen hundred years ago still echoes today: “How, in turn, will they hear without someone to preach?” (Rom. 10:14)


And at Armageddon, God will cause all “the wisdom of the wise men” to perish. He will shove aside all “the intelligence of the intellectual men” who made predictions of how their new world order would bring better conditions for mankind. “The war of the great day of God the Almighty” will incinerate all the sophistry, philosophy, and wisdom of this world. (1Revelation 16:14-16) The only ones who will survive that war and gain life in God’s new world are those who obey what this world calls foolishness."

So the JWs, love the idea that "sophistry, philosophy and wisdom of the world" will be removed - because that is the only way a JW is ever going to win the argument of ideas.

Contrary to your doom and gloom laden assessment of the future, crime trends are down. "The Youth" are generally better off than they have ever been. Most families experiencing hardship are not doing so because of some existential angst - its because of economic or personal circumstances.Humanity does face some big challenges for the future - population growth, food, water and other resources and their distribution.Religions offer nothing in this regard.

Religious conversion rates are meaningless, largely because the methods of gathering the statistics are so imprecise. And in any event what it represents is essentially believers swapping their particular brand of belief - for agnostics, atheists etc it matters little. Its rather like watching people swap from bovril to marmite when you hate both.

The best news of all is that your particular brand of religion remains marginal and is considered a joke by most people. Your delusions gain no traction here.

[goodlife]

Yes your right lazy, of judgment day does sounds like a joke yet you read It, and I think your in a dream world.

[LazyGun]

Perhaps you might wish to repost that last comment, goodlife, in english, so we can comprehend its magnificence?

[naomi24]

LG, your first paragraph sums up precisely my feeling when reading Goodlife and pals posts. Chilling - and somehow quite unhealthy.

[naomi24]

Goodlife, if you don't mind me asking, is English your first language? And if not, what is?

[goodlife]

汉语

[naomi24]

Thank you. That explains it.

[mikey4444]

I really can't understand all this fuss with religious nutters knocking on your door.

Number 1....don't open the door to them. Of course you may be unsure if they ARE religious nutters or not, so here's a quick quide :::

If there are a quite a lot of them knocking doors in your street, and they are all dressed as most ordinary people dress for family weddings, AND they all carry briefcases, they are Jehovah's Witnesses.

If they aren't Jehovah's Winesses, they are probably Mormons ( look out for young men that appear to be aged about 13, wearing dark suits and white shirts, even in the height of summer ) They may very well have American accents as well. Around my neck of the woods, they can also appear on mountain bikes. It should easy to see if they have arrived on bikes, as they will be very red-faced and sweaty, due to aforementioned unsuitable for cycling formal attire.

Number 2. If, despite following the above, you DO open door to them, say NO THANK YOU very quickly, and slam door. If a foot is placed in the door, slam door again, this time terribly hard. You may find using some more colourful Anglo Saxon phrases more pleasing, and certainly more saitsifying, although the end result will be the same.

Under no circumstances engage in any conversation whatsoever with these nutters.

If all else fails, set dog on them.

See, it isn't so hard after all !