I converted to Jehovah's Witnesses

[Thomas]

What are your thoughts? Doesn't everybody come from their own unique experiences and reasons for believing what they believe?

Not everybody. Most everybody is schooled into it.

IMO Even if we believe differently than the other person, but we ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ wouldn't that be a powerful and positive foundation for the world?

For sure.

Loving the ones like ourselves is easy. Loving those who are not like us at all is harder.

 

[walter]

Berean Standard Bible
But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, Luke 6:27

 

[walter]

So why do we do what Jesus commanded us? Answer: Because Jesus asked us to and the other scriptures confirm this.

Matthew 28:20, Hebrews 5:9, Luke 8:21

Jesus gave us Salvation He paid the price in the first place, it is not from anything we do, it is a free gift, it's all about what Jesus did!

 

[TheLightWithin]

Read it a dozen or more times and perhaps it will sink in.

Unless you change your attitude,

reflexively offering ad-homimens is not an efficient way to evangelize or explain your beliefs.

@Alter2Ego you seem annoyed with others.
I agree with @Clear on this

 

[Alter2Ego]

Go back and read Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 again. Read it a dozen or more times and perhaps it will sink in.

I suggest you read it, and read the whole Chapter, and indeed the whole Book, and yes, perhaps then the meaning will sink in, because reading verses out of context, as you have done here, leads to erroneous conclusions.

I would draw special attention to the phrase "under the sun", which occurs no less than 28 times in this book.

Thomas:

I don't have to go back and read Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 again because I'm not the one REFUSING to accept that only dead people require resurrection. I'm not the one making the fallacious claim that despite being dead, "some form of consciousness to hear and respond," remains.

Definition of Resurrection
"the act of bringing something that had disappeared or ended back into use or existence."

resurrection

1. the act of bringing something that had disappeared or ended back into use or…

dictionary.cambridge.org

POST 568 -- The last paragraph.

I converted to Jehovah's Witnesses

In context, yes ... taken alone, they could well be completely misunderstood. So if we can't use "the context" in the scripture, are you suggesting we listen to [ advice or context ] not found in the Bible? Didn't Jesus and the Apostle Paul tell us not to listen to the traditions of men who...

www.interfaith.org

The fact that the dead hear and respond to Jesus in John 5:25 and 28-29 implies, I rather think, that they have intelligence, emotion and cognisance – some form of consciousness to hear and respond, some to the "resurrection of life" and some to the "resurrection of judgement".

Never mind that your belief that the dead are still "conscious to hear and respond" is debunked by Ecclesiastes 9:5.

Ecclesiastes 9:5​

"For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they have any more reward, because all memory of them is forgotten."


Because you REFUSE to be corrected by scripture at Ecclesiastes 9:5, you came up with Jesus' parable aka illustration of the FICTITIOUS Rich Man and Lazarus as proof that, to quote you: "some form of consciousness to hear and respond" continues to exist in dead people. Below are some questions for you, along with scriptures. Your answers must be either YES or NO or else TRUE or FALSE.


"And Jehovah God formed man [Adam] of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7 -- American Standard Version)

QUESTION #1 to Thomas: According to Genesis 2:7, the first man, Adam, became a living person AFTER Jehovah breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. TRUE or FALSE?


QUESTION #2 to Thomas: Even after Jehovah formed Adam out of the dust so that Adam looked like a human, did Adam have "some form of consciousness to hear and respond" BEFORE Jehovah God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life? YES or NO?

Genesis 3:17​

"And to Adam he [Jehovah] said: “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree concerning which I gave you this command, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground on your account. In pain you will eat its produce all the days of your life.

Genesis 3:18​

It will grow thorns and thistles for you, and you must eat the vegetation of the field.

Genesis 3:19​

In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return.”


QUESTION #3 to Thomas: When Jehovah God told Adam he would return to the dust (which is how Adam started off prior to Jehovah forming him into a man and breathing into him the breath of life) is there any mention in that scripture that Adam would have "some form of consciousness to hear and respond" after he returned to the dust? YES or NO?


"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

QUESTION #4 to Thomas: According to Romans 6:23, Death is the opposite of Life. TRUE or FALSE?





_________________
"That people may know that you, whose name is JEHOVAH, you alone are the Most High over all the earth." ~ Psalms 83:18

 

[Thomas]

Hi @Alter2Ego –

You do realise this is a discussion forum? You do realise this is a place, first and foremost, to share and compare?

If you're going to get annoyed with those who disagree with you, perhaps this is not the right forum for you?

Either way, I am not here to be lectured in such hectoring tones, so please mind your manners, else we'll have nothing more to say to each other.

I don't have to go back and read Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 again because I'm not the one REFUSING to accept that only dead people require resurrection.

Did I actually say that? I'm sure I didn't ... that's quite deep in my theology and I wouldn't wish any of my deeper insights on you.

I'm not the one making the fallacious claim that despite being dead, "some form of consciousness to hear and respond," remains.

No, I am making that claim, and it's not fallacious, as far as I am concerned.

The Bible seems to imply, in multiple places, that the soul has some form of continuance, after the death of the physical body.

Because you REFUSE to be corrected by scripture at Ecclesiastes 9:5 ...

I do not refuse to be corrected by Scripture, I refuse to be corrected by you.

Your answers must be either YES or NO or else TRUE or FALSE.

You are a very rude ... has anyone ever told you that?

QUESTION #1 to Thomas: According to Genesis 2:7, the first man, Adam, became a living person AFTER Jehovah breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. TRUE or FALSE?

True.

QUESTION #2 to Thomas: Even after Jehovah formed Adam out of the dust so that Adam looked like a human, did Adam have "some form of consciousness to hear and respond" BEFORE Jehovah God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life? YES or NO?

No.

QUESTION #3 to Thomas: When Jehovah God told Adam he would return to the dust (which is how Adam started off prior to Jehovah forming him into a man and breathing into him the breath of life) is there any mention in that scripture that Adam would have "some form of consciousness to hear and respond" after he returned to the dust? YES or NO?

Void question.

QUESTION #4 to Thomas: According to Romans 6:23, Death is the opposite of Life. TRUE or FALSE?

True.

So here you have asked four questions:

A1 is 'true', and A2 is 'no' – any other answer would be irrational.

Q3 is actually a false question, because you are asking for a yes/no answer, from the text, to a question the text does not address.

Q4 is 'true'.

So what does this show?
I have no idea. I don't know what point you think is self-evident here, but I don't see one.

The issue with your Q3:
God forms a body from the dust of the earth. God then breathes life into that body, and that body becomes a 'living soul'. When the living being dies, the body returns to the earth from whence it came. What happens to the soul? Genesis 3 doesn't say.

 

[moralorel]

I feel we would get a more complete understanding of what The Bible intended for us to understand when we include all the scriptures we can find on that Bible topic.

Someone please give me a scripture that seems to explain all people automatically after death get everlasting life in heaven or hell?

I know of none. I have put people to the same challenge for years. None pulled it off.