Statistics seem to indicate increasing levels of anxiety among young people. There are so many things that seem to be responsible for this. For many, the fast-paced and demanding nature of their academic world is one cause. While in Zürich recently, I saw an example of this. Fabrice* and Oliver* were busy preparing to take the all important Swiss exam for entrance to the Gymnasium (High School).
Over the past two years, I have seen the increased work that has been thrust upon them in order to prepare them for this test. When I saw them both in May, they appeared skinny and pale. Fabrice and Oliver are two very different boys from two very different families that we are acquainted with in Switzerland. Fabrice is outgoing and athletic. He enjoys art, music and soccer. Oliver is less outgoing and artistic but enjoys hiking, video games and reading.
As different as they are, they both seemed to have much in common this spring. They both seemed pre-occupied and anxious over their upcoming exams. They seemed less like twelve year old boys and more like stressed-out grown men. Fabrice seemed hyper and over-wrought while Oliver was moody and angry. Perhaps there is something in this story which you or someone that you know can relate to?
Of course it is vitally important to oversee our children's education and be concerned with helping them build skills and knowledge, but have we gone too far? The Bible does indeed command us to "train up a child in the way he should go"-Proverbs 22:6. This does include veering that child on a course towards being gainfully employed.
However, since the Bible represents the deep wisdom and guidance of God it tempers that role with the concept that we should, "seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."-Matthew 6:33. Placing God first in our lives helps us find perspective on everything else and then things will naturally fall into place.
Helping our children develop a relationship with God and his son Jesus will help them get in touch with the God-given talent that they possess. Why do we stress so much about these things when in reality God has equipped us with everything needed to find our place in the work world?
As we introduce our children to their creator God the story of how precious and how loved they are can go very far to help them understand the value which they are imbued with by a God who pronounces His creation as good. This will help them to remain strong as teachers or even test scores seek to define them as something other than what God created them to be. Their friends or even family can sometimes pronounce and declare them to be a “failure” or not “good enough” to enter that school or that profession.
But,when our children have God in their lives they can see deeper meaning in events such as a Gymnasium Exam. Often, those around us can fail to see our children’s talent. Sometimes, that talent is just beneath the surface and not quite ready to bloom. Don’t you think that we are expecting our kids to grow up too fast? God’s timing is always right.
* the names are changed.
Sunday, July 29, 2018
Sunday, July 15, 2018
Me And The Witnesses
An interesting discussion occurred at a recent Bible Study in Zürich,Switzerland. This discussion caused me to revisit my experiences over the years with Jehovah's Witnesses and to explore some questions which have arisen. My husband's line of work has often brought him to Zürich. Sometimes,he travels alone but,when I accompany him,I am able to attend Bible Study while he is at work. What a blessing for both of us that we have found and attend the International Protestant Church while in the vicinity.
Whenever work takes us away from home or we are simply on vacation,finding a wonderful group of Bible believing Christians is always a marvelous thing.What a joy to worship God on His Holy Sabbath and spend time immersed in the study of His Word! It was at just such a group that I met Lily.* The Bible Study Group had already begun a study from the Book of Titus. The Book of Titus as I learned, gives us a lot of insight into the planting and establishing of churches, including some of the problems which can occur.
Paul had left Titus on the island of Crete to help the churches there in their next steps of Christian growth. Those steps included learning sound doctrine and installing mature Christian leadership to guide and teach the congregations. Paul, in his letter to Titus, detailed the polluting influences of mythology and other philosophies seeping in or being added to the Christian faith. He posits the importance of teaching sound Christian doctrine to correct these erroneous ideas.
As our groups explored some of the challenges of those early churches, it was very instructive of the challenges that still emerge in churches today and even within our small group. At every Bible Study you will find various people, some experiencing a challenge and all at differing levels of faith and knowledge. You see in microcosm just how important mature Christian leadership is in forming a mature and well-functioning body of Christ. Lily told me repeatedly that she considered small group bible studies to be the best place to ask questions. In point of fact, this was a day that Lily would prove that to be the case. The questions that emerged are of the type that I believe every Christian asks at some time or other. Lily was trying to clarify the concept of the Trinity.
One of the battlegrounds in the early Christian church was over the doctrine of the Trinity. Truly important questions emerged then regarding the very nature of who Christians were. Were they polytheists or monotheists? Is Jesus divine or just a man? Just where does this Holy Spirit fit in? These questions persist today and dramatically present themselves if you choose to explore the Jehovah Witness' belief system. Lily had done that at some point in her life, and I was able to see the challenges that she was facing as we studied without the Jehovah's Witness Bible, the New World Translation. I was concerned that some of those challenges might effect her salvation. I was very concerned. In my quest to answer some questions that she asked, I began to remember my own dabbling in the world of the Witnesses!
Jehovah Witnesses are mandated to spread their religion in a very regimented and demonstrable manner, namely door to door or on street corners. Their personal relationships, for the most part, are limited to only Jehovahs Witnesses therefore, for most of us, our only encounter with this group would be in that setting. I remember first encountering them as a child when my mother regularly took me out unto the big shopping districts of Brooklyn and Queens.
This religious group was especially plentiful in Brooklyn, and on many street corners you could encounter one or two people handing out their Watchtower magazine. My mother always took a magazine from them and would read it at home. As it was innocently lying on my living room coffee table, I often perused the story lines which included household tips, discussed family relationships and decried the ever-growing societal decline.
It would be in my early teen years that I would have my first personal encounter with a Witness when they knocked at my front door. My first impression when I opened the door was good as I saw two well-mannered and smartly dressed people smile cordially at me. It would be at this first meeting that I learned of the pre-eminence which they give the title of Jehovah above other names of God.
They immediately engaged me with conversation to ascertain the status of my religious beliefs. They listened as I told them of my faith in God and talked of the atoning death of Jesus. After hearing enough, they asked me why I did not call God by his real name? Having expertly got me to this point, I incredulously asked them what that name was? They told me the name of God was "Jehovah." They also informed me that He, i.e, God would not even hear my prayers if I did not thus address him. I knew this was wrong even as a young person and vigorously disagreed with them. That was the end of my first face-to-face encounter with a Jehovah's Witness.
Still, I continued as a teen to read their handouts and even books that would be left with us by various door to door encounters. I continued to be fascinated with this movement and sought to better understand it. It would be many years to come before I had a more indepth knowledge of their doctrine. That time would come following the death of my mother. As I felt that grief and depression that washes over you in times of loss, I welcomed that knock at my door. I told the two (now familiar Witnesses) of the recent passing of my mother. I invited them both to join me in the garden as I grappled with understanding the meaning of it all. It was at this point, that I began to study with them on a weekly basis.
Every week, I would be assigned a chapter to read in a small Jehovah's Witness book. Each chapter contained Biblical verses as well as commentaries on the topic. In one such study, I began to be aware that they did not assent to one of the basic tenets of Christian doctrine, the Trinity. The sense that something was terribly wrong began to descend upon me. I could not quite believe it though and asked the ladies if I had gotten something wrong because, 'it seemed like this study suggested that Jesus was not the Son of God.' They quickly assured me that they did believe thst Jesus was the Son of God. I further pushed toward exploring questions regarding the Trinity with the Witnesses and it was then that I began to get to the core of why I was never going to be a Jehovah's Witness.
Michelle* opened up her Bible to Colossians 1:15 and asked me to read. It said, "And He (referring to Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation." This was all to point out something that they believed that I had missed which was that Jesus was the first created being. I had to stop Michelle there and remind her that Jesus is God incarnate. She asked me "what would make me think that?" The first Bible verse that came to mind was John 1:1 which explains that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." That Word is Jesus I posited and He was there from the beginning of creation.
At this point, Michelle accused me of being a polytheist. That hurt! I told her that this simply was not true. I wanted to assure her that I believed what is revealed in Deuteronomy 6:4, which is that "the Lord our God, the Lord is one." I related to Michelle and Sami* that the Trinity means that God although One God, He chose to reveal Himself in the form of three persons: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
At this point, I asked them to re-read the two verses which we had just studied. This time I opened my own Bible to follow along. Perusing the footnotes, I discovered one key point that I hoped they would consider. It was concerning Colossians 1:15. Commenting on the translation of first-born it related the following. First-created in the Greek of the time would have been rendered as Protoktioti. Paul instead used the word Prototokos which can mean sovereign, pre-eminent or first-born.
In the Bible first-born is often used to simply connote pre-eminence. Another example of that would be in Psalm 89:27. "Also I will make him (David) My firstborn,the highest of the Kings of the earth." But, we all know that David was the youngest of Jesse's children when Samuel anointed him to be King of Israel. The second thing that became apparent when they read from their New World translation of the Bible was that their opening verse of John's gospel was very different from mine.
Now, who's the polytheist? I was stunned to realize that the Jehovah's Witnesses bible read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was a god." "Was a god!" It began to dawn on me that to make a case against the Trinity would require them to ignore vast tracts of the Bible. I began to think of examples like when Thomas the apostle who had previously doubted Jesus' resurrection came to understand the truth and was humbled. Jesus entreated Thomas to touch his wounds and examine them. Thomas after realizing how wrong he was exclaimed, "My Lord and my God."-John 20:28.
I felt that I had come in contact with the modern-day spirit of Thomas. What of Peter affirming in the early Church that the Holy Spirit is God? "But Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit...you have not lied to men, but to God!"-Acts5:3-4. Those Witnesses never came back to my home again. It was a pity because I genuinely liked them. It was like I got on some permenent "do not knock" list!
Something about Lily's questions that day in Zürich brought memories of these past Jehovah's Witness encounters flooding back to my mind and I desperately wanted to reach out to her and open a dialogue that might clear up some questions she had regarding theTrinity. I gave her my email and I told her I would be blogging on the topic. I pray she reads this and begins to explore this topic further. I hope we all do.
* the names have been changed.
Whenever work takes us away from home or we are simply on vacation,finding a wonderful group of Bible believing Christians is always a marvelous thing.What a joy to worship God on His Holy Sabbath and spend time immersed in the study of His Word! It was at just such a group that I met Lily.* The Bible Study Group had already begun a study from the Book of Titus. The Book of Titus as I learned, gives us a lot of insight into the planting and establishing of churches, including some of the problems which can occur.
Paul had left Titus on the island of Crete to help the churches there in their next steps of Christian growth. Those steps included learning sound doctrine and installing mature Christian leadership to guide and teach the congregations. Paul, in his letter to Titus, detailed the polluting influences of mythology and other philosophies seeping in or being added to the Christian faith. He posits the importance of teaching sound Christian doctrine to correct these erroneous ideas.
As our groups explored some of the challenges of those early churches, it was very instructive of the challenges that still emerge in churches today and even within our small group. At every Bible Study you will find various people, some experiencing a challenge and all at differing levels of faith and knowledge. You see in microcosm just how important mature Christian leadership is in forming a mature and well-functioning body of Christ. Lily told me repeatedly that she considered small group bible studies to be the best place to ask questions. In point of fact, this was a day that Lily would prove that to be the case. The questions that emerged are of the type that I believe every Christian asks at some time or other. Lily was trying to clarify the concept of the Trinity.
One of the battlegrounds in the early Christian church was over the doctrine of the Trinity. Truly important questions emerged then regarding the very nature of who Christians were. Were they polytheists or monotheists? Is Jesus divine or just a man? Just where does this Holy Spirit fit in? These questions persist today and dramatically present themselves if you choose to explore the Jehovah Witness' belief system. Lily had done that at some point in her life, and I was able to see the challenges that she was facing as we studied without the Jehovah's Witness Bible, the New World Translation. I was concerned that some of those challenges might effect her salvation. I was very concerned. In my quest to answer some questions that she asked, I began to remember my own dabbling in the world of the Witnesses!
Jehovah Witnesses are mandated to spread their religion in a very regimented and demonstrable manner, namely door to door or on street corners. Their personal relationships, for the most part, are limited to only Jehovahs Witnesses therefore, for most of us, our only encounter with this group would be in that setting. I remember first encountering them as a child when my mother regularly took me out unto the big shopping districts of Brooklyn and Queens.
This religious group was especially plentiful in Brooklyn, and on many street corners you could encounter one or two people handing out their Watchtower magazine. My mother always took a magazine from them and would read it at home. As it was innocently lying on my living room coffee table, I often perused the story lines which included household tips, discussed family relationships and decried the ever-growing societal decline.
It would be in my early teen years that I would have my first personal encounter with a Witness when they knocked at my front door. My first impression when I opened the door was good as I saw two well-mannered and smartly dressed people smile cordially at me. It would be at this first meeting that I learned of the pre-eminence which they give the title of Jehovah above other names of God.
They immediately engaged me with conversation to ascertain the status of my religious beliefs. They listened as I told them of my faith in God and talked of the atoning death of Jesus. After hearing enough, they asked me why I did not call God by his real name? Having expertly got me to this point, I incredulously asked them what that name was? They told me the name of God was "Jehovah." They also informed me that He, i.e, God would not even hear my prayers if I did not thus address him. I knew this was wrong even as a young person and vigorously disagreed with them. That was the end of my first face-to-face encounter with a Jehovah's Witness.
Still, I continued as a teen to read their handouts and even books that would be left with us by various door to door encounters. I continued to be fascinated with this movement and sought to better understand it. It would be many years to come before I had a more indepth knowledge of their doctrine. That time would come following the death of my mother. As I felt that grief and depression that washes over you in times of loss, I welcomed that knock at my door. I told the two (now familiar Witnesses) of the recent passing of my mother. I invited them both to join me in the garden as I grappled with understanding the meaning of it all. It was at this point, that I began to study with them on a weekly basis.
Every week, I would be assigned a chapter to read in a small Jehovah's Witness book. Each chapter contained Biblical verses as well as commentaries on the topic. In one such study, I began to be aware that they did not assent to one of the basic tenets of Christian doctrine, the Trinity. The sense that something was terribly wrong began to descend upon me. I could not quite believe it though and asked the ladies if I had gotten something wrong because, 'it seemed like this study suggested that Jesus was not the Son of God.' They quickly assured me that they did believe thst Jesus was the Son of God. I further pushed toward exploring questions regarding the Trinity with the Witnesses and it was then that I began to get to the core of why I was never going to be a Jehovah's Witness.
Michelle* opened up her Bible to Colossians 1:15 and asked me to read. It said, "And He (referring to Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation." This was all to point out something that they believed that I had missed which was that Jesus was the first created being. I had to stop Michelle there and remind her that Jesus is God incarnate. She asked me "what would make me think that?" The first Bible verse that came to mind was John 1:1 which explains that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." That Word is Jesus I posited and He was there from the beginning of creation.
At this point, Michelle accused me of being a polytheist. That hurt! I told her that this simply was not true. I wanted to assure her that I believed what is revealed in Deuteronomy 6:4, which is that "the Lord our God, the Lord is one." I related to Michelle and Sami* that the Trinity means that God although One God, He chose to reveal Himself in the form of three persons: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
At this point, I asked them to re-read the two verses which we had just studied. This time I opened my own Bible to follow along. Perusing the footnotes, I discovered one key point that I hoped they would consider. It was concerning Colossians 1:15. Commenting on the translation of first-born it related the following. First-created in the Greek of the time would have been rendered as Protoktioti. Paul instead used the word Prototokos which can mean sovereign, pre-eminent or first-born.
In the Bible first-born is often used to simply connote pre-eminence. Another example of that would be in Psalm 89:27. "Also I will make him (David) My firstborn,the highest of the Kings of the earth." But, we all know that David was the youngest of Jesse's children when Samuel anointed him to be King of Israel. The second thing that became apparent when they read from their New World translation of the Bible was that their opening verse of John's gospel was very different from mine.
Now, who's the polytheist? I was stunned to realize that the Jehovah's Witnesses bible read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was a god." "Was a god!" It began to dawn on me that to make a case against the Trinity would require them to ignore vast tracts of the Bible. I began to think of examples like when Thomas the apostle who had previously doubted Jesus' resurrection came to understand the truth and was humbled. Jesus entreated Thomas to touch his wounds and examine them. Thomas after realizing how wrong he was exclaimed, "My Lord and my God."-John 20:28.
I felt that I had come in contact with the modern-day spirit of Thomas. What of Peter affirming in the early Church that the Holy Spirit is God? "But Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit...you have not lied to men, but to God!"-Acts5:3-4. Those Witnesses never came back to my home again. It was a pity because I genuinely liked them. It was like I got on some permenent "do not knock" list!
Something about Lily's questions that day in Zürich brought memories of these past Jehovah's Witness encounters flooding back to my mind and I desperately wanted to reach out to her and open a dialogue that might clear up some questions she had regarding theTrinity. I gave her my email and I told her I would be blogging on the topic. I pray she reads this and begins to explore this topic further. I hope we all do.
* the names have been changed.
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