Jehova's Witnesses

I guess that's the Mormons. The Jehovah's Witness do publish a Bible called The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures but you can bring any Bible to wish to the meetings. My mother used to sit down and compare verses from several translations (King James, The Living Bible, etc) and they pretty much all said the same thing. The only outstanding difference that I can remember of the Witnesses translation is that whenever say the King James would have Lord, the Witness' Bible said Jehovah.

 

so, basically you say God and Jesus are 2 different beings? It's hard in my mind to think they are the same, i always think of them as Father and Son but they say they are the same. But why when you pray, you are suppose to say "through Jesus Christ" but you are praying to God. does what i'm saying make any sense? cause i'm getting confused writing this. lol

 

fundimental differences in christian ideology, some religions believe in the holy trinity, some do not, like the pilgrims who are the current congregationalists. Unitarians began as a christian religion that did not believe in the trinity.

 

Most excellent question, JB, and I know the answer but will let someone on the board that believes in the Trinity answer it. I'm interested in their response as well.

 

The Trinity can be a very difficult concept to grasp, because most of the time it involves God being in two or three different forms in different places simultaneously.

Sometimes I think of it this way -- and granted, it's abstract at best -- if God is a body, Jesus would be His heart, and the Holy Spirit would be His hand.

 

The way I read JB's question was, if Jesus and God are the same (Trinity), then why the need to pray through one to get the message to the other? If they are one in the same, that isn't necessary. If they aren't, then the Trinity theory goes out the window.

 

Saying the words, "in Jesus' name" isn't a requirement for prayer to be heard. Christians might say they pray 'through' Jesus, but only because it was Jesus' sacrifice on the cross that reunited them with God. It's more of an acknowledgment than anything else.

 

I think you can pray to the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. I know I personally have gotten a lot out of sitting down with a Bible and as I was reading it praying to the Holy Spirit to show me stuff. If you have never done that it can be very enlightening. I think the reason many prayers end In Jesus Name is because its though His sacrifice on the cross that we can approach the Father at all. Its the only way we are pure enough. That doesn't mean we can't pray to all three bodies of the Trinity.

 

I think also because it sounds holier and makes the dogma seem less dogmatic.

 

That seems all wrong to me. What if the person needs help getting themself straighted out? I guess they (JWs) just leave that between the excommunicated and God. I can appreciate that, but if they have been excommunicated, they probably don't have that strong of a relationship with God, and in that case, a real live person looking them in the face could be helpful!