A Much Needed Post

Wow, life has been busy for the past week or so. I have a lot going on a work right now which is new to me. I am busier, more involved, and working harder after 2 weeks of work then I ever did at my previous job. I am glad my job will be this way. I am constantly being challenged and people are starting to rely on me which I have seldom experienced. Aside from work, things have been busy at home. I have been trying to work out, which got interrupted by a few days of sickness, which was followed by a 3 day Easter weekend with Liz’s family. With all of that said, I have thought about posting every day, but kept running out of time to do so.

I have two separate projects to work on today that I hope to get finished up so I can be ready for to bigger projects I know are coming my way. Because of the work on my desk, this can not be the post that I want it to be. Tj, thank you for your comments and answering the first section of my questions. I have read through your response twice now and I find it to be a really good reply. I do have a couple of questions and debatable points, but I have not had time to fully develop them, and so they will have to wait. I have been trying to better understand the definition of the body, spirit, and soul. I have heard scriptural based arguments for differing definitions and honestly do not know what is correct. Either the soul = body + spirit or the person = body + spirit + soul. I intend to study this definition more thoroughly and then address the comments and questions that follow. In the meantime, my Uncle responded to the email I sent him with the same questions. He also addressed the first section, so I have information from two sources to consider.

While I am dabbling in the definition of the soul, I have a request for any reader out there that would like to defend the Jehovah’s Witness faith. This certainly includes you Tj as I have respect for your well worded biblical answers. Address the second section of my report from the previous post. I personally feel that any doctrinal or theological issue is important to consider and discuss, but some have more significance than others. To put another way, there is truth to be found in the definition of the soul, and I would like to know what happens to my body and sprit when I die, but my opinion on these matters will not make the difference of heaven or hell. Discovering truth in whether Jesus IS God, is A God, A Prophet, or A Lunatic is imperative for a Christian to understand. An error in your understanding of this point, I believe, could mean this difference of life and death.

Thank you to anyone that is willing to take on this challenge. I will be studying the other issues in the meantime. Good luck and God bless.

A full Jehovah’s Witness Post

In my previous post, I made mention of my Uncle who has expressed concern about the church I am joining that is not a Kingdom Hall. It was merely a small part of my post, but has sparked some comments, and so I decided to make a full statement. In reading some online articles and the website linked in a comment from my last post, it is clear that many people out there have a profound hatred for Jehovah’s Witnesses. I want to remind any reader that feels this hatred that we are called to love God’s people, even if they are your enemy.

The following is a portion of a report that I wrote last summer following a conversation with my Uncle. He was very busy at the time with personal matters and lost the email that I sent him. I intend to send the report again, but thought I may get some constructive thoughts through comments before sending it to a family member. The report addresses the issues of Spirit existence, Jesus’ deity, Justification by grace alone, heaven, and hell. I started with a list I found online about 100 questions to ask a Jehovah’s Witness. I weeded out the unimportant ones, and researched scripture concerning the questions I found to have some validity. The translation I used was the NWT so we would be on the same playing field and not have an argument about translation. I appreciate and comments and criticism.

Spirit existence:
Verse: Acts 7:59 And they went on casting stones at Stephen as he made appeal and said: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then, bending his knees, he cried out with a strong voice: “Jehovah, do not charge this sin against them.” And after saying this he fell asleep [in death].

Question: If the spirit of a man has no existence apart from the body, why does Stephen just before his death look up and see Jesus in heaven and pray to "receive my spirit"?

Verse: 2 Corinthians 5:6 We are therefore always of good courage and know that, while we have our home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, 7 for we are walking by faith, not by sight. 8 But we are of good courage and are well pleased rather to become absent from the body and to make our home with the Lord.

Verse: Phil 1:23 I am under pressure from these two things; but what I do desire is the releasing and the being with Christ, for this, to be sure, is far better.

Question: If the spirit of a man has no existence apart from the body, why does Paul say that when we are absent from the body we make our home with the Lord and that it is better to be released from the body and be with Christ?

Verse: Luke 20:37 But that the dead are raised up even Moses disclosed, in the account about the thorn bush, when he calls Jehovah ‘the God of Abraham and God of Isaac and God of Jacob.’ 38 He is a God, not of the dead, but of the living, for they are all living to him.”

Verse: John 8:56 Abraham YOUR father rejoiced greatly in the prospect of seeing my day, and he saw it and rejoiced.”

Question: When we talked, I believe you said that no one had gone into heaven before Jesus and that those are all dead in the ground awaiting resurrection. Why then does it say that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are all living to him? Why does it also say that Abraham saw and rejoiced in seeing Jesus’ day?

Question: Similar to the last question. How is it that Moses and Elijah appeared on the mount of transfiguration in Matthew 17? Shouldn’t they just be dead and in the ground?

Verse: Genesis 35:18 And the result was that as her soul was going out (because she died) she called his name Ben-o´ni; but his father called him Benjamin.

Verse: 1 Kings 17:21 And he proceeded to stretch himself upon the child three times and call to Jehovah and say: “O Jehovah my God, please, cause the soul of this child to come back within him.”

Question: If the soul dies with the body, how does it go out when Rebecca died and why does Elijah ask for the boy’s soul to come back in?

Jesus is God:
Verse: Isaiah 42:8 “I am Jehovah. That is my name; and to no one else shall I give my own glory, neither my praise to graven images.

Verse: Isaiah 48:11 For my own sake, for my own sake I shall act, for how could one let oneself be profaned? And to no one else shall I give my own glory.

Verse: John 17: 5 So now you, Father, glorify me alongside yourself with the glory that I had alongside you before the world was.

Question: if no one else can have God’s glory as he said in the OT, how is it that Jesus can ask to be glorified alongside of God if God will give no one else his glory? Why does Jesus talk about the past glory they shared?

Verse: Revelation 1: 17 And when I saw him, I fell as dead at his feet.
And he laid his right hand upon me and said: “Do not be fearful. I am the First and the Last, 18 and the living one; and I became dead, but, look! I am living forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Ha´des.

Verse: Revelation 22: 13 I am the Al´pha and the O·me´ga, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Note: If you read the whole passage, the “I” in the above verses is Jesus speaking.

Verse: Revelation 1: 8 “I am the Al´pha and the O·me´ga,” says Jehovah God, “the One who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.”

Question: How is it that both God and Jesus claim to be Alpha and Omega? They must be the same, or else are their two Alphas and Omegas?

Verse: Isaiah 9:6 For there has been a child born to us, there has been a son given to us; and the princely rule will come to be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Question: Why is the son born to us given the name Mighty God if he is not God? He is also given the name Eternal Father, how can the son’s name be Eternal Father?

Verse: Isaiah 44:24 “I, Jehovah, am doing everything, stretching out the heavens by myself, laying out the earth. Who was with me?

Verse: John 1: 2 This one was in [the] beginning with God. 3 All things came into existence through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into existence.

Question: Why is it that God claims in Isaiah that he created the heavens and earth by himself and that no one was with him if Jesus says in John that all things were created through him? Wouldn’t that mean that they were both around during creation and therefore God was not alone?

Question: If nothing came into existence apart from Jesus, how is it that Jesus was the first created thing? Was he able to create himself?

Verse: John 20: 28 In answer Thomas said to him: “My Lord and my God!”

Question: Why does Thomas call Jesus his God? If Jesus isn’t his God, why didn’t he correct him?

Verse: Matthew 1: 23 “Look! The virgin will become pregnant and will give birth to a son, and they will call his name Im·man´u·el,” which means, when translated, “With Us Is God.”

Question: Why does Jesus’ name mean “God is with us” if he isn’t God?

Verse: John 5: 18 On this account, indeed, the Jews began seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.

Question: Wouldn’t Jesus be sinning if he made himself equal to God and was not God?

Verse: John 5: 22 For the Father judges no one at all, but he has committed all the judging to the Son, 23 in order that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He that does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Most truly I say to YOU, He that hears my word and believes him that sent me has everlasting life, and he does not come into judgment but has passed over from death to life.

Question: Why does God want everyone to honor the Son in the same way they honor the Father? If Jesus in below God, then shouldn’t we honor the Father more than the Son?

Justification by grace alone:

Verse: Ephesians 2: 8 By this undeserved kindness, indeed, YOU have been saved through faith; and this not owing to YOU, it is God’s gift. 9 No, it is not owing to works, in order that no man should have ground for boasting. 10 For we are a product of his work and were created in union with Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance for us to walk in them.

Verse: Titus 3: 4 However, when the kindness and the love for man on the part of our Savior, God, was manifested, 5 owing to no works in righteousness that we had performed, but according to his mercy he saved us through the bath that brought us to life and through the making of us new by holy spirit. 6 This [spirit] he poured out richly upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that, after being declared righteous by virtue of the undeserved kindness of that one, we might become heirs according to a hope of everlasting life.

Question: You told me that you believe that we are not saved by faith alone, and that it is also based on works. Why does it say in Ephesians that we are saved by faith and not by works so that no man can boast? Why does it say in Titus that we become heirs by his mercy and not by out works?

Heaven:

Verse: Isaiah 51: 6 “Raise YOUR eyes to the heavens themselves, and look at the earth beneath. For the very heavens must be dispersed in fragments just like smoke, and like a garment the earth itself will wear out, and its inhabitants themselves will die like a mere gnat.

Verse: Revelation 21: 1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more.

Question: I think that a witness believe that after tribulation and everything that the witnesses will live on this earth because that is what God designed for us. Why does Isaiah and Revelation say that this Earth will wear out pass away?

Also see Psalms 102:25-26, Hebrews 1:10-11, Matthew 25:35, Mark 13:31, and Luke 21:33 for other verses that state the earth will perish or pass away.

Verse: 1 Thessalonians 4: . 17 Afterward we the living who are surviving will, together with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall always be with [the] Lord.

Question: What does it mean that those who are still alive at the 2nd coming will meet the Lord in the air? If we are suppose to stay on earth, why are we meeting in the air?

Verse: Ephesians 4: 4 One body there is, and one spirit, even as YOU were called in the one hope to which YOU were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;

Verse: 1 Corinthians 12: 12 For just as the body is one but has many members, and all the members of that body, although being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. 13 For truly by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink one spirit.

Question: If only 144,000 are destined to go to heaven while everyone else stays on earth, why are we all baptized into one body and it doesn’t matter where your origin is? Why then is the one body called into one hope if Witness’s say there are two groups of people that have different hopes?

Verse: Revelation 7: 9 After these things I saw, and, look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes; and there were palm branches in their hands.

Verse: Revelation 14: 3 And they are singing as if a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one was able to master that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand, who have been bought from the earth.

Question: The four creatures, the elders, and the 144,000 are all standing before the throne in Revelation 14. The great crowd is also standing before the throne in Rev 7. How is it that all these things are standing before the throne if the great crowd will never go into heaven?

Verse: Revelation 19:1 After these things I heard what was as a loud voice of a great crowd in heaven. They said: “Praise Jah, YOU people!

Question: Who is this great crowd that is in heaven?

Hell Fire:

Verse: Revelation 20: 10 And the Devil who was misleading them was hurled into the lake of fire and sulphur, where both the wild beast and the false prophet [already were]; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Question: If there is no hell fire, why does it say that they will be tormented day and night forever in the lake of fire?

Verse: Revelation 14: 10 he will also drink of the wine of the anger of God that is poured out undiluted into the cup of his wrath, and he shall be tormented with fire and sulphur in the sight of the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and day and night they have no rest, those who worship the wild beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.

Question: Same as last.

Verse: Matthew 18:8, 25:41, and Jude 7 all talk about the everlasting fire.

Question: Why must there be an everlasting fire if eventually all badness will be completely destroyed and fail to exist? Couldn’t the fire just last until the last of the evil are destroyed?

Verse: Matthew 13: 42 and they will pitch them into the fiery furnace. There is where [their] weeping and the gnashing of [their] teeth will be.

Question: How can there be weeping and gnashing of teeth in the furnace where people are simply destroyed?

Verse: Mark 14: 21 True, the Son of man is going away, just as it is written concerning him, but woe to that man through whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been finer for that man if he had not been born.”

Question: Why would it be better if Judas had never been born? If he is just going to be destroyed, isn’t that the same as not being born? It seems like he faces a worse fate.


Thank you for reading through this and any comments.

And From a New Location

Good day to you reader. I am writing today from my 4th work day at Taylor Wharton as a business analyst. I know it may be early to tell, but so far this job has been pretty great and I have good hopes for the future. I’m just a few days in, but I already have some good projects to work on, and I can say I’m fairly busy. Nothing I am doing right now is overly time sensitive, but I’m doing work that will help make co-workers’ jobs easier and I like that. I have two separate projects working with financial models to clean them up and make them more efficient. I have nearly finished one of them and I have to say that I am happy with my work. The other one is much more complicated and will take some more time and thought. The manager that assigned it to me suspected that it could take upwards of two weeks to create this model appropriately. That is just the kind of thing I like to do and I am very happy about that.

On my first day of work, one guy that I will be working with often took me around and introduced me to everyone in the office. He introduced me as an excel wiz that will be doing a lot of modeling and helping with special projects. He went so far as to say that my knowledge of Excel surpassed his own which surprised a lot of people. I thought it was a bit forward since he has never seen any of my work, but I appreciated the vote of confidence. These introductions have already increased my reputation in the office as two people I have never met have come to me with general Excel questions. I guess my role is just about set. I have high hopes for this new position and company… perhaps I could go so far as to change the theme of my blog in the near future. Maybe I am ahead of myself.

To completely change the subject, I was contacted by my Uncle Al this past weekend. He is a practicing Jehovah’s Witness and found out that I am joining a church. He asked me a few questions about the church’s position on some important points, and then warned me about Revelation’s talk of the people at end times following Babylon the Great. i.e. people in organized religions that are not Jehovah’s Witness. It was actually really nice to hear from him. I know he feels I have no shot at God’s kingdom without practicing his faith, so I appreciate him looking out for his family. Also, it has opened the lines of communication to discuss in greater depth our faiths and the difference and what that difference means. I am grateful for the opportunity. I have found that I really enjoy apologetics. If you think about it, can you pray for me to find answers to his questions and misconstrued thoughts, and that the Holy Spirit will give me the right words to say when the time comes to speak in person.
Thank you all.

I’m Outta Here

I am quitting ladies and gentleman! It has been a while since I mentioned how my job search was going, and guess what? It has gone very well!

I was offered a position with Taylor-Wharton as a business analyst in their finance department. I will be doing a lot of the same work I have been doing at my current job, except everything I do will be to benefit the company I work for instead of bouncing around to different projects at a variety of other companies. I am really excited for my first day which is next Monday. After I have a few days into the new job, I’ll post again with some better information about the company and what I am doing.

I thought it was necessary to make a post at my last day with Parente Randolph since I started my blog while working here and the premise of my page is based on how I often felt at my job. Time to move on folks!! I gave notice last Tuesday, took a few days off at the end of last week, and get 2 more vacation days tomorrow and Friday. I’ve been running like a mad man to finish up all of my work today and get some personal things done that I needed to take care of. Most of which included copying files from my work computer to my home computer that aren’t work related and deleting programs that I wasn’t suppose to install on my work computer. :p I am ready to go. In a couple more minutes I am meeting with my manager to turn all of my stuff over, and then I am packing up, and calling it a job! GOO – LAY!

Thank you all for your prayers related to my job. I’ll catch you on the flip side.

An Inspiration

Since I wanted to journal more things that are happening in my life, I found it important to make a post related to the funeral service I attended at the end of last week. On Thursday, February 28, 2008 we had to say our last goodbyes to Liz’s grandmother Marie Mehall. She died at the age of 75 and will be greatly missed by everyone who ever knew her.

I only knew her for the last 2-3 years of her life, but I can say that she impacted my life in a positive way. In part, she impacted me merely by being energetic and fun to be around, but mostly, I was inspired by her faith. This really struck me when we were at her viewing and I noticed a small sense of joy in the air. People were sad because she will be missed, but for many in the room, we were happy to know she is with our Lord. I realized that this was the first funeral I have attended where there was certainty of her faith in Christ. It was a good feeling to be at a service and have confidence that the deceased had nothing to fear in death. I was also interested to see the way that other Christians reacted to her death compared to those that weren’t Christians. Those that didn’t know the Lord were much more upset than those that did.

I want to tell a quick story about the first time I met Marie (or as I came to call her, Gram), and why she was an inspiration to me. The first time we met was out to lunch with Liz, Liz’s mom, and I. We had a nice lunch at she was very pleasant to spend time with. After lunch, we were riding in a car together and stopped to pick something up. Liz and her mom went inside leaving Gram and me alone. She wasted no time and started asking me about my faith. Perhaps she was testing me to see if I was a good fit for her granddaughter, or maybe she just wanted to talk about Christ with everyone she encountered. I gave here a brief history of the way I grew up in the Catholic Church, how I was saved, and groups and churches I was involved with at the time. She was really happy to hear me share my testimony, and I asked her about hers. I was surprised to hear a story somewhat similar to my own in up-bringing and the dramatic change from the Catholic Church to Christianity. She was a bit older than me when it happened which made the change even more dramatic. She had attended church for most of her life and never really got it. Then one day, she decided to start reading the bible to see God was all about. She kept reading, and God started to change her. Of course she began to develop many questions and decided to seek the wisdom of her priest. I’m not overly surprised by this, but you might be, the priest told her that the readings in the bible were not for her to understand (since she didn’t attend seminary) and kindly instructed her to stop reading the bible on her own. He was likely worried that she would find the truth and uncover the lies he had been throwing out from his pulpit over the years. This of course did not sit well with her, and she started to seek other congregations to worship with. She bounced around for a while and eventually found a home with the Presbyterian Church.

Why was she an inspiration? Because she was bold enough to find out that the people around her were not speaking truth, and sought it out on her own. As you can imagine, she faced some persecution for this, but didn’t care because God had changed her and set her on a mission. In time, she learned more about the gospel and started sharing it with her friends and family. It took a number of years, but eventually God used her to save many of her family members and friends. I am inspired by Gram because she relentlessly shared the truth with those around her because she was concerned about the glory of God and the eternal destination of those she cared about. I am in a similar situation with my extended family. Many of them are Catholic and don’t truly understand the Gospel. I hope I can learn from Gram’s example and share the truth with those around me that I care about. I want there to be a sense of joy in my death because those morning the loss are confident in my faith and know the Lord themselves. It was a pleasure to know Gram. She will be missed, and certainly not forgotten.

Thanks for reading.