Jws are you all 100% sure that watchtower is God’s only, true slave, channel, way to salvation?
Please don’t use Noah and the Ark as it seems that noone had grasped the concept of floating on water since there were no mention of other boats, or rafts, or canoes or fishing boat??! So clearly no confusion about who had some special news.
And what was the idenifiying marks of true religion in Jesus day?
That leaves Seven Day Adventist, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christadelphinians,
Oh be sure the same can be said of you =3
Vot seems to be the only JW regular on here now.
The “Watchtower” is simply a magazine.
Do you mean the “organisation of Jehovah’s Witnesses”?
Then Yes.
Jehovah has placed Jesus as the Head of the congregation. God would not use a group of people who hold on to pagan doctrines and practices like the Trinity, immortality of the soul, idolatry, Christmas, Easter, etc. God has ALWAYS insisted that his people keep their worship pure.
Jehovah has always used ONE UNITED GROUP of worshipers in the past.
(Sorry, but it is relevant) Noah and ONE ark
ONE nation of Israel
ONE Christian congregation
In each case, if anyone wanted to receive God’s approval, they had to COME and JOIN God’s established group.
People had to come to join Noah in the Ark.
Proselytes had to come join the nation of Israel.
Jews and Gentiles had to come join the Christian congregation.
Jehovah has never used the “one man for his own” method.
Identifying marks of true worshippers in Jesus’ day:
- They did not join the military and politics
- They did not join in Emperor worship (equivalent of today’s flag salute)
- They did not eat blood
- They obeyed the laws of Caesar
- They preached from house to house and in public places
- They avoided all forms of idolatry, immorality and greed.
- They were known for their love for each other.
I’ll get you quotes for the above statements in a jiffy.
==================
1) They avoided war and politics
“Early Christianity was little understood and was regarded with little favor by those who ruled the pagan world. . . . Christians refused to share certain duties of Roman citizens. . . . They would not hold political office.”—On the Road to Civilization, A World History (Philadelphia, 1937), A. Heckel and J. Sigman, pp. 237, 238.
“The Christians stood aloof and distinct from the state, as a priestly and spiritual race, and Christianity seemed able to influence civil life only in that manner which, it must be confessed, is the purest, by practically endeavouring to instil more and more of holy feeling into the citizens of the state.”—The History of the Christian Religion and Church, During the Three First Centuries (New York, 1848), Augustus Neander, translated from German by H. J. Rose, p. 168.
2) No Emperor worship
“Christians refused to . . . sacrifice to the emperor’s genius—roughly equivalent today to refusing to salute the flag or repeat the oath of allegiance. . . . Very few of the Christians recanted, although an altar with a fire burning on it was generally kept in the arena for their convenience. All a prisoner had to do was scatter a pinch of incense on the flame and he was given a Certificate of Sacrifice and turned free. It was also carefully explained to him that he was not worshiping the emperor; merely acknowledging the divine character of the emperor as head of the Roman state. Still, almost no Christians availed themselves of the chance to escape.”—Those About to Die (New York, 1958), D. P. Mannix, pp. 135, 137.
“The act of emperor worship consisted in sprinkling a few grains of incense or a few drops of wine on an altar which stood before an image of the emperor. Perhaps at our long remove from the situation we see in the act nothing different from . . . lifting the hand in salute to the flag or to some distinguished ruler of state, an expression of courtesy, respect, and patriotism. Possibly a good many people in the first century felt just that way about it but not so the Christians. They viewed the whole matter as one of religious worship, acknowledging the emperor as a deity and therefore being disloyal to God and Christ, and they refused to do it.”—The Beginnings of the Christian Religion (New Haven, Conn.; 1958), M. F. Eller, pp. 208, 209.
3)They did not eat blood
Tertullian (c. 160-230 C.E.): “Let your unnatural ways blush before the Christians. We do not even have the blood of animals at our meals, for these consist of ordinary food. . . . At the trials of Christians you [pagan Romans] offer them sausages filled with blood. You are convinced, of course, that the very thing with which you try to make them deviate from the right way is unlawful for them. How is it that, when you are confident that they will shudder at the blood of an animal, you believe they will pant eagerly after human blood?”—Tertullian, Apologetical Works, and Minucius Felix, Octavius (New York, 1950), translated by Emily Daly, p. 33.
Minucius Felix (third century C.E.): “So much do we shrink from human blood, that we do not use the blood even of eatable animals in our food.”—The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, Mich.; 1956), edited by A. Roberts and J. Donaldson, Vol. IV, p. 192.
4) They preached from house to house…
Jesus foretold for our day this work: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” He also instructed his followers: “Go . . . and make disciples of people of all the nations.”—Matt. 24:14; 28:19.
When Jesus sent out his early disciples, he directed them to go to the homes of the people. (Matt. 10:7, 11-13) The apostle Paul said regarding his ministry: “I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house.”—Acts 20:20, 21; see also Acts 5:42.
5) Avoided vile practices
1 Cor 6:9-11 (especially v.11)
What! Do YOU not know that unrighteous persons will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men,
10 nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit God’s kingdom.
11 And yet that is what some of you were. But you have been washed clean, but you have been sanctified, but you have been declared righteous in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the spirit of our God.
(Notice- some HAD practiced these things before but they STOPPED and it was not condoned)
6) They loved one another
John 13:34,35
I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.”
Hope that helps. OvO
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