-Removed-no, for that is between them and the Christ, we were asked not to comment upon the
worship of others, which is their business, but on ours, that is whether we thought one
needed to be part of Jehovahs Witness organisation in order to be termed a Christian, to
which we replied in the affirmative. If another thinks their worship authentic, then
that's their business, they need not subscribe to our point of view nor we theirs.
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-Removed-what you are asserting seems to me to be prejudicial and we will have no part of it. We go to all
persons, religious, non religious, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, it matters not to us.
Whether they shall become a Christian brother is not yet determined, is it, but they
certainly have the potential and if as the Christ states, they are a friend of peace,
we shall soon know of it depending upon their reaction to the good news.
(Ecclesiastes 11:6) . . .In the morning sow your seed and until the evening do not let
your hand rest; for you are not knowing where this will have success, either here or
there, or whether both of them will alike be good.
the gift of discernment in the spirit? do i send out a mind ray, kind of like a wifi
detector and hope that it shows up someone spiritual? what is that? the gift of
discernment of the spirit?
-Removed-yes indeed, now here comes the crunch,
Love never fails. But whether there are [gifts of] prophesying, they will be done
away with; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is
knowledge, it will be done away with. For we have partial knowledge and we
prophesy partially; but when that which is complete arrives, that which is partial will
be done away with. . . . .Now, however, there remain faith, hope, love, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.
Paul clearly states that these things were to be of a temporary nature. One may
liken them to the scaffolding upon a building, its never intended to be a permanent
feature and when the building is finished it gets removed, thus, these things merely
helped to get the Christian congregation established, after it was, it was intended
that they cease. I have only ever met one person who claimed to have a gift, the
gift of tongues and even here i noticed that it was fraudulent, because the scripture
states that persons who spoke in the gift of tongues spoke specific languages, not
some unknown language.
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-Removed-Perhaps if you addressed the actual scriptures, you might do better, we after all, did
not make them up. Indeed I find those type of born again Christians who put
emphasis on these elements to be particularly unstable when discussing their faith, for
what seems to happen is, they think they are filled with spirit and head off on some
kind of ranting monologue and as its essentially an emotional response they are
unable to reason. This phenomena i have encountered many times. Paul clearly
states that the defining characteristic of Christianity is love, not gifts of the spirit which
have ceased.
Please note, we do believe that they were real, only that they have ceased as the Bible
clearly demonstrates would happen.