followjj wrote:
Revelation is not Jesus words. If you go to the Homepage of the website. On the left side, about 4 items down...
It's probably around here that the JWO website lost me, when I visited it some time ago. Initially I thought that its premise was good, but found it irritating that the writer used it as an excuse to constantly dismiss the prophets. It seemed to me that he was so committed to rejecting Paul, that he went from one extreme to the other, to create a theology which is a kind of mirror image to hyper-Paulinism. This is much too restrictive for my liking, due to it's rejection of those prophets who provide the foundation for the teachings of Yeshua.

As for Revelation, it's ingenuous to reject it, because it does contain the words of Yeshua. It also presents some very important prophecies about things that are unfolding before our eyes, encourages us to remain steadfast, talks about the coming of the Messiah and the age to come, speaks about the final judgement and the arrival of perfection, and so on.

Moreover as an affront to Paul, it says nothing about grace and everything about the commandments and good works. No wonder there's been such a strong push over the years to discredit it.

Of course Yeshua spoke wonderful things, which on their own provide an excellent basis for living. But as Molly said, his words possess additional _layer_s of meaning, which for those who bother to dig deeper, are just as edifying as the plain literal meaning.

Remember that "it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter" (Prov 25:2); "Get wisdom! Get understanding!" (Prov 4:5); and "fools die for lack of wisdom" (Prov 10:21).

To understand why Yeshua said what He did does not detract from His message; it only enhances it.

Shaun