:i'm having a hard time letting go of some of the traditions we grew up with
Ironically enough, I feel the exact same way.
Welcome to the board :).
GBL
hello, i'm new :)
by MRSJG 44 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
Cygnus
Your mother, family, and friends will all die forever at Armageddon which is fast approaching unless you follow your Christian responsibility to preach to them, and even then they may not live through the war of God.
Said another way, here's how the Watchtower magazine puts it:
***
w61 8/1 p. 469 Enlarging Your Privileges of Service ***
After God’s execution of judgment upon the wicked in his war of Armageddon, the earthly subjects of the King will have before them a world-wide cleanup program that will eclipse anything this globe has ever seen. Countless numbers of human dead will have to be buried.
***
w56 8/1 p. 464 Jehovah’s Message Against Gog of Magog ***So devastating that slaughter, the dead will cover the ground as manure spread over a field... In the wake of Armageddon’s carnage, disease and pestilence from the rot and decay would plague the survivors were it not for the fact that Jehovah sends forth an invitation to the birds and beasts to attend this great slaughter... This certainly shows the contempt in which Jehovah holds the proud and haughty of Gog’s system, letting the wild beasts and vultures feed upon them as worthless carrion!
*** w56 8/1 p. 464 Jehovah’s Message Against Gog of Magog ***
With such a glorious feast of victory concluded, only the bones, bones from one end of the earth to the other, will be left for burial. What a task that will be for the survivors, to cleanse the earth of every remaining evidence of Gog’s forces! Even with the work well organized it will take seven months, Jehovah says, just to bury the bones. Scouting corps will be sent out on a full-time basis to search the land thoroughly and, when bones are found, markers will be set up for those with the spades and shovels who follow.
***
w87 5/15 p. 6 What Other Benefits Flow From God? ***Who will survive the devastating global cleanup, or Armageddon?
***
w89 9/1 p. 19 Remaining Organized for Survival Into the Millennium ***Only Jehovah’s Witnesses, those of the anointed remnant and the "great crowd," as a united organization under the protection of the Supreme Organizer, have any Scriptural hope of surviving the impending end of this doomed system dominated by Satan the Devil.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three questions I recommend asking before getting baptized:
1 - if I ever come to vocally disagree with any teaching, will I be subject to censure or discipline? What form of discipline? Where in the Bible is the outline for the procedure?
2 - Why can a JW accept some blood parts and not others when 40 years ago no blood parts were allowed? Where in the Bible are such distinctions made?
3 - Why do JWs believe animal life began some 35,000 years ago, but accept that the earth is billions of years old?
see:
***
g82 11/8 p. 7 Science and the Bible ***The Bible record, together with verifiable history, indicates that the seventh day of that creative week covers a period of 7,000 years. Hence, each of the six preceding "days" would be of the same length.
Ask what "verifiable history" they refer to.
*** w87 1/1 p. 30 Questions From Readers ***the entire creative week would be 49,000 years long
*** Rbi8 Genesis 1:22-23 ***
With that God blessed them, saying: "Be fruitful and become many and fill the waters in the sea basins, and let the flying creatures become many in the earth." And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a fifth day.
The fifth day would have started about 20,000 years ago. Do you really think sharks, birds, plankton and even humans are that young?
-
freedomlover
I had to respond to your post. I am also brand new to this site. My husband has been on here for awhile, you may want to look him up and read his past entries over the past year. His name is - ITHINKISEE. He and I were both raised JWs and we are both deciding to leave now. I truly applaud you and your mind to examine things thoroughly. Keep that up! I don't want to speak badly about witnesses ever. I just have certain reservations about being a witness and I have decided it's not for me, not that it's not for other people. I would be happy to share those reservations with you if you wanted to at anytime. I am not in any way saying my opinions are right, they are just my opinions. I also have children, so I could give you some perspective on that issue as well, if you ever wanted it. I would suggest also that you talk to your husband about the reasons he "strayed" from the organization, and why he feels that now he would like to return. Sometimes, you have to just get right to the bone of issues, to make good decisions. I wish you much success in your personal journey of life! I would support any decision you make, as long as it is an informed decision! BYE!
-
TheListener
Hi and welcome Mrsjg.
Coming to this forum was brave and I applaud you for it.
Many witnesses are friendly and loving. They truly try to follow the Bible's admonition.
However, I do have some issues with specific doctrines. Things I'm trying to sort out for myself.
Please PM (private message) me if you'd like to talk in a more one on one environment. I'll be willing to share the good and the questionable with you.
-
daystar
MRSJG
- Soledad is correct. Defd gave decent advice above as well.
My full opinion would do little to help you. So I will be a bit easier than that. You will do yourself and your three, beautiful babies a great disservice that will effect the rest of their lives if you do not research both sides of the picture.
What I mean by this is that you should look into the stories of people who used to be members and are no longer as much as current Witnesses.
Read some of the stories here. There are stories by ex-Elders, ex-Bethelites, etc. Also, you might look into a book entitled Crisis of Conscience, written by Raymond Franz, who used to be on the Governing Body of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Please, please, please, know what you're getting into from all sides of the story.
-
jt stumbler
Welcome! By coming to this board you are showing real intillect. You show that you are open minded and willing to put forth effort in searching for the "truth". Stick around your on the right track.
-
willowmoon
Hi Mrsjg, I'm pretty new too, have read here for quite some time but just started posting, am new to the turth, have been studying and attending meetings almost two years. Coming here helps reinforce my faith and also helps me understand more about the Bible and the organization.
It's good to continue researching and learning, I'd only caution you to do so objectively. You'll hear many opinions and experiences, try not to let them influence what you feel and believe to be true and important. First and foremost, talk to your husband and pray to Jehovah, even (or especially) if there are things that disturb or confuse you, I think that honesty is vital to your relationship with Jehovah and with your family.
Find out if there's a qualified brother or sister in your congregation who can discuss and help you with your confusion about the blood issue, that's who helped me with it.
-
defd
Great advise from willow, please take it.
D.
-
Seeking Knowledge
Find out if there's a qualified brother or sister in your congregation who can discuss and help you with your confusion about the blood issue, that's who helped me with it.
Qualified how?? Because they are taught from a medical school as to the pros & cons of a blood transfusion?? Did they have MD after their name & a diploma to back it up? Or qualified as in someone who is a JW and because of that is an expert on the topic??
Everyone has an opinion....they are like belly buttons. Get armed with your OWN information and your OWN thoughts before you believe what someone else tells you regardless of why you are doing the research.
Good luck, you've come to the right place for information & belly buttons! Welcome by the way!
SK
-
Check_Your_Premises
Welcome!!!I can say that I have shared your experience. I remember when I first studied so much of it just made sense! It really was interesting.
Also, I couldn't say enough about how impressed I was with how serious everyone took their faith. It really did lend credibility that this was God's one true religion.
But then that last bit, "God's one true religion" got me to thinking about some things.
So I have some questions for you. These are the questions I began to have.
Isn't it amazing how many groups claim they are the "one true religion"!! There are the Mormons, the Way International, the Boston Church of Christ, the Holdemans, The House of Yahweh, The Nation of Yaweh.... The World Wide Church of God used to claim this, now they don't. I could go on and on. I mean, how do you know you have the right group? They all say they are the only ones interpreting the Bible the right way. I guess all those other people in those other groups are just stupid?
What if you change your mind about some of the things you learned were true? Would you decide that this isn't the "one true religion". How come everyone will stop talking to if you decide to disagree later, but they will talk to you when you don't agree with everything now?
If such facts did exist, would you want to know about them? Once you join, why do you have to be closed off to such facts? Is truth afraid of facts or information? I always thought that as long as there was a free exchange of information, the truth would eventually win out.
How is it that so many people can agree complex matters of theology, but you can't get three people to agree on where to eat lunch?
Isn't it funny how if you spend several hours a week with people who all think a certain way, that you start to become more accepting it? If all these folks think something is true, hey, it must be true!
Why do I feel uncomfortable answering a question like, "What group of one true Christians today are worshipping in truth, just like first century Christians?" with a given answer in the paragraph above? Is this what I believe, or am I just reading the answer I am expected to say?
If the guy on the torture stake next to Jesus didn't have to study and join the right group to have salvation, why do I?
How could a person read the bible, and decide that it is pointing to them as having the supreme honor of being the chosen servant of Almighty God, and not have their desire for that honor influence their decision to believe such a thing about themselves?
Is it possible to leave the JW as a matter of Christian conscience? Are all who leave motivated by a desire to sin? Are all how leave unhappy?
If my conscience tells me something different from the JW, do I listen to my conscience or theirs? If I am supposed to listen to their conscience, why did God give me one?
Once I started asking these questions, I started to come up with some better explanations for why things seemed to "make so much sense", and why all of these folks "seemed so dedicated". I didn't like what my conclusions seemed to indicate.
Remember, "you were bought at a price, do not become slaves of men".