hello, im new to the site here. and would like to meet true and honest friends..i am a single mom and am attending the kingdom hall of jehovahs wittnesses, along with a dear sister who has regular bible studies weekly with me.i attend the meetings with my 3 children. and would really enjoy getting to know friends who are jehovahs wittnesses, hope to hear from you also at [email protected]
wanting true friendship
by ninamarie 8 Replies latest jw friends
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mrsjones5
Have you read through this site dear? I suggest you do. Though I might add true friends are possible to find here - just not the kind you may be thinking of. Josie -
forsharry
So...should we tell her?
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JamesThomas
Hello, Ninamarie, and welcome.
Have you ever watched CSI? If so, have you noticed that the more open, honest and sincerely diligent they are in their research, the closer they get to the truth they seek. I suggest you leave no stone unturned and inquire honestly, openly and earnestly into the Watchtower, Bible and Tract Society, and the Jehovah's Witnesses, before you hand them your life. Before you allow them to do all your thinking for you.
Make sure of all things. Perhaps God, is not so limited and small as to belong to a man made organization as they would like you to believe.
This is the best advise a true friend can give.
I wish you the best.
j
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GetBusyLiving
Welcome to the board, you can make lots of real nice friends here.
GBL
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stopthepain
I hate to be blunt ninamarie,but the jehovahs witnesses robbed me and my family of happiness.After my parents 20+ years in this cult,they both admit how wrong they were,and how they mentally and emotionally hurt there 5 children.Please ,look into this cult for you and your kids,they are not true,and run there buisness thru guilt and fear.I hope you think twice before getting involved with this CULT.If you do decide to get invoklved,leave your kids out of it,if you really love them.Please read more of this site,and look at the facts.I wish you and your family the best.
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Confession
Hi, Nina...
By now, if you've read the replies you've received, you must be at least a bit surprised. If you mention these replies or this message board to the sister with whom you are studying, she will no doubt tell you that those who come here are "apostates." She will further tell you that we are somehow bad people, and that you should not listen to us.
I suspect that you will decide to listen to her. I used to believe the same things about the sort of people who come here--until I discovered certain profoundly troubling things about the Watchtower Society. So follow your own conscience, Nina. Do what you think is right. I ask only this: if certain troubling things about the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses present themselves to you, please listen to your conscience then too.
If you do so, I believe you will find that the Watchtower Society is not what it purports to be, and that (as hard as this may be to understand right now) it is actually a vey dangerous organization in several ways. The wonderful people you've met at the Kingdom Hall are probably wonderful people. They just don't know everything we know (although they think they do.) Promise yourself you will be the sort of person who will always look at ALL the information--rather than ONLY what the Watchtower Society tells you to look at.
My Love,
Confession
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YoursChelbie
would like to meet true and honest friends..
Wanting honesty and acceptance is something every human desires. If you are just starting to study with a Sister maybe you are not aware that serving God and being part of the Watchtower Society are not the same but they will try to convince you that they are. If you ever question that one point you will be told to get your thinking straight and you won't have any "friends" in the Kingdom Hall.
In fact, if you doubt anything they tell you will be called an apostate and disfellowshipped (if you ever reach the point of getting Baptized into their organization.) This means that everyone who is nice to you now will shun you. These things are not revealed to people early on. Once you are on the "second book" they may tell you more about how they control people. Be open to more than one point of view. Read as much as you can here and question everything. The REAL Truth should stand up to any scrutiny, wouldn't you say?
And remember you don't have to belong to a "group" to have a good standing with God. Feel free to post here as often as you'd like. You'll have many views from people who have been Jehovah's Witnesses for many years.
YC
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Honesty
Hello Ninamarie and welcome to the board!!!
By the way, I hope you consider the follwing questions and comments that we as earnest Bible students have been waiting on answers and comments from the faithful discreet slave:
I am waiting for any Jehovah's Witness to offer support in Scripture of these four articles of faith:
(1) the Faithful and Discreet Slave is a class of people,
(2) that the holy spirit directs organizations in addition to individuals,
(3) that the Faithful and Discreet Slave is responsible for revealing "new light" (as opposed to "food at the proper time") to anyone, and finally
(4) that Jehovah deals with individual other sheep differently than the little flock.
Where is the Scriptural support for any one of these teachings? Can they be established Scripturally without uninspired human interpretation?The bible introduces us to many of God's faithful and discreet servants of times gone by: Enoch, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Hosea, Habakkuk; the list goes on and on. When a person reads the writings of those prophets of old, or even the writings of the leaders of the early Christian congregation, NOT ONCE do you find any prophet saying of an earlier prophet that the earlier prophet was WRONG.
Yet that is ALL YOU FIND with the Watchtower "prophets." Charles Taze Russell was WRONG according to Joseph Franklin Rutherford and everyone since, Joseph Franklin Rutherford was WRONG according to the two-headed Knorr-Franz, Knorr-Franz was WRONG according to the anonymous cowards who today won't even associate their names with their "New Light."
For millenia Jehovah was pretty much consistent with himself, but this past century of two he's been acting a little schizo. Maybe its age; maybe he's gone off hhis meds. Something is wrong in the invisible neighborhood of Alcyone, that's for sure.
It's almost as though a bunch of pretentious frauds were trying to pass themselves off as Jehovah's Faithful and Discreet Slave class.
The WTBTS says Jesus is the Mediator only for the anointed.
*** w79 4/1 31 Questions from Readers ***
At a time when God was selecting those to be taken into that new covenant, the apostle Paul wrote that Christ was the "one mediator between God and men." (1 Tim. 2:5) Reasonably Paul was here using the word "mediator" in the same way he did the other five times, which occurred before the writing of 1 Timothy 2:5, referring to those then being taken into the new covenant for which Christ is "mediator." So in this strict Biblical sense Jesus is the "mediator" only for anointed Christians.
Remember who is in charge and who is directing the information, the Anointed Governing Body!!!
*** w79 11/15 26 Benefiting from "One Mediator Between God and Men" ***
20 What, then, is Christ’s role in this program of salvation? Paul proceeds to say: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men [not, all men], a man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all."-1 Tim. 2:5, 6.
Notice the part [not, all men], that was inserted in the scripture quoted, by the "Anointed Governing Body".
*** Worldwide Security 1986, p110 The "Prince of Peace" Turns to Those Outside the New Covenant ***
And in our time, millions of the "other sheep" are already benefiting from the ministry of the new covenant, as rendered by the anointed remnant under the Mediator, Jesus Christ.
So the Anointed are rendering to the other sheep instead of Jesus directly.
** w89 8/15 30 Questions From Readers ***
Clearly, then, the new covenant is not a loose arrangement open to all mankind. It is a carefully arranged legal provision involving God and anointed Christians.
*** w89 8/15 31 Questions From Readers ***
The people of all nations who have the hope of everlasting life on earth benefit even now from Jesus’ services. Though he is not their legal Mediator, for they are not in the new covenant, he is their means of approaching Jehovah.
Hum...
***Worldwide Security 1986, p10 The Desire for Peace and Security Worldwide ***
Jesus Christ, is not the Mediator between Jehovah God and all mankind. He is the Mediator between his heavenly Father, Jehovah God, and the nation of spiritual Israel, which is limited to only 144,000 members.
According to the Society Jesus is the mediator only for the 144,000.
*** w89 8/15 31 Questions From Readers ***
Consequently, 1 Timothy 2:5, 6 is not using "mediator" in the broad sense common in many languages. It is not saying that Jesus is a mediator between God and all mankind. Rather, it refers to Christ as legal Mediator (or, "attorney") of the new covenant, this being the restricted way in which the Bible uses the term.
Trying to explain this one by using the term "attorney"!
*** w89 12/15 30 Do You Remember? ***
• In what sense does Paul use the term "mediator" when referring to Jesus at 1 Timothy 2:5, 6? In this text, Paul uses the Greek word me·si'tes for "mediator," which term has a legal significance, so he is not using this word in the broad sense common in many languages. Hence, Paul is not saying that Jesus is Mediator between God and all mankind. Rather, he is referring to Christ as legal Mediator of the new covenant, which laid the basis for Christ’s anointed followers to share with him in his heavenly
Kingdom. (2 Corinthians 5:1, 5; Ephesians 1:13, 14; Hebrews 8:7-13)-8/15, pages 30, 31.
Is this what Paul said? I don't see that in 1 Timothy 2:5,6.
*** w93 1/1 5 New Creations Brought Forth! ***
Jesus became the Mediator of a new covenant between God and a select group of men. Each of these has become "a new creation," begotten by God’s spirit to a heavenly hope, with the prospect of ruling with Jesus in his heavenly Kingdom.-2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 Timothy 2:5, 6; Hebrews 9:15.
Oh I get it, it's getting clearer with the brighter light. The Anointed Governing Body!!! Am I right?
*** w84 7/15 14-15 Organized to Serve Jehovah ***
There must be agreement among all true Christians, a unified message, if people are to hear what is correct, put genuine faith in the true God and call upon Jehovah’s name with the prospect of being saved. Moreover, one spirit-directed organization must be used in connection with the sending forth of those truthful preachers of the "good news."-Romans 10:11-15.
Oh so we need the organization, kind of like our mediator?
But something that bothers me is in Romans 10:13, the JW bible inserted the name "Jehovah" instead of "Lord" which refers to Jesus. Get out your "JW Purple Bible 1969 the Interlinear" and go to Romans 10:13 look at the Greek word "Kupiou" it says "Lord", now go to 1 Corinthians 11:26 and 2 Peter 1:2, the same Greek word "Kupiou" is there and it refers to Jesus. There are 237 instances where the name "Jehovah" is inserted instead of "Lord" in the original Greek writings of the New Testament. The Greek word "Lord" had several different ways of spelling it such as , Kupiou, Kupiw, Kupios, Kupiov & Kupios. The word "God" is "OEou" in the Greek writings. Don't believe me, get out that Bible and take a look for yourself, start around Romans chapter 10, and you will see that the Anointed Governing Body has changed the Bible. After you do your research take to heart the scripture below:
** Rbi8 Revelation 22:18-21 ***
18 "I am bearing witness to everyone that hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone makes an addition to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this scroll; 19 and if anyone takes anything away from the words of the scroll of this prophecy, God will take his portion away from the trees of life and out of the holy city, things which are written about in this scroll. 20 "He that bears witness of these things says, ‘Yes; I am coming quickly.’" "Amen! Come, Lord Jesus." 21 [May] the undeserved kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ [be] with the holy ones.
When the word "Lord" was used in the original manuscripts, what would possess the Society to insert the name "Jehovah" where it did not belong. There are numerous other changes from the original manuscripts, such as the word "worship" to the word "obeisance" in Hebrews 1:6, check all of the JW Bibles and you will see. Read the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:9 below, even Jesus referred to Jehovah as Father in all his recorded prayers.
*** Rbi8 Matthew 6:9-10 ***
"YOU must pray, then, this way: "‘Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. 10 Let your kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also upon earth.
Shouldn't we follow Jesus' example and use the name "Father". If the Society has manipulated the Bible in these few instances, what else have they done?
*** w57 6/15 370 Overseers of Jehovah's People ***
It is vital that we appreciate this fact and respond to the directions of the "slave" as we would to the voice of God, because it is His provision.
The voice of God? Hum...Did God get the Anointed Governing Body to make up predicted dates for Armageddon? Or could it be that God never has used them as they claim?
The Society predicted the following dates as the battle of Armageddon.
1. Zion’s Wt,1/15/1892,pg1355reprint,..."battle" is definitely marked in Scripture as October, 1914.
2. The Time is at Hand1908,pg101,....the "battle of the great day of God Almighty" (Rev.16:14) which will end in A.D. 1914, with the complete overthrow of earth’s present rulership, is already commenced.
3. The Finished Mystery 1917, pg 398,399,485........the people who are the strength of Christendom shall be cut off in the brief but terribly eventful period beginning in 1918 A.D. A third part are "burned with fire in the mist of the city." .....After 1918 the people supporting churchianity will cease to be its, supporters, be destroyed as adherents,...Also in the year 1918, when God destroys the churches wholesale and the church members by the millions....
4. Vindication 1, 1931,pg146,338,339,....years 1914,1918 and 1925 ..... they also learned to quit fixing dates for the future and predicting what would come to pass on certain dates....
5. Wt,9/15/41,pg288,...in the remaining months before Armageddon.
6. Wt,5/1/68,pg273, Chart of dates 1975 end of 6th 1000-year day...2975 end of 7th 1000-year day....
7. Aw,1/22/69,pg16, Other Bible prophecies clearly foretell God’s purpose to bring this wicked system to an end in a few years.
8. Aw,5/22/69,pg15, If you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things. .....all evidence in fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years. ....as a young person you will never fulfill any career that this system offers. If you are in high school and thinking about a college education, it means at least four, perhaps even six or eight more years to graduate into a specialized career. But where will this system of things be by that time? It will be well on the way toward its finish, if not actually gone!
9. Wt,10/15/69,pg622,623,.....seventh millennium from man’s creation by Jehovah God would begin in less than ten years.
10. The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah,1971,pg 216, Shortly, within our twentieth century, the "battle in the day if Jehovah" will begin against modern antitype of Jerusalem, Christendom.
11. Wt 89 1/1/89,pg12, The apostle Paul was spearheading the Christian missionary activity. He was also laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our 20th century. (This quote was later changed in the WT bound volume to: He was also laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our day.)
12. In 1995 the generation of 1914 that would not pass away has changed to a contemporary generation.
*** Rbi8 Matthew 12:36-37 ***
36 I tell YOU that every unprofitable saying that men speak, they will render an account concerning it on Judgment Day; 37 for by your words you will be declared righteous, and by your words you will be condemned."
This very clear, you are accountable before Jehovah.
*** Rbi8 Deuteronomy 18:20-22 ***
20 "‘However, the prophet who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. 21 And in case you should say in your heart: "How shall we know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?" 22 when the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word does not occur or come true, that is the word that Jehovah did not speak. With presumptuousness the prophet spoke it. You must not get frightened at him.’
The Bible clearly says Christ Jesus is our Mediator.
*** Rbi8 1 Timothy 2:5-6 ***
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all-[this is] what is to be witnessed to at its own particular times.
This is very clear, very understandable.
*** Rbi8 1 John 2:26-29 ***
26 These things I write YOU about those who are trying to mislead YOU. 27 And as for YOU, the anointing that YOU received from him remains in YOU, and YOU do not need anyone to be teaching YOU; but, as the anointing from him is teaching YOU about all things, and is true and is no lie, and just as it has taught YOU, remain in union with him. 28 So now, little children, remain in union with him, that when he is made manifest we may have freeness of speech and not be shamed away from him at his presence. 29 If YOU know that he is righteous, YOU gain the knowledge that everyone who practices righteousness has been born from him.
The anointing from Jesus is teaching you.
*** Rbi8 John 10:7-9 ***
7 Therefore Jesus said again: "Most truly I say to YOU, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All those that have come in place of me are thieves and plunderers; but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the door; whoever enters through me will be saved, and he will go in and out and find pasturage.
Who has come in place of Jesus? Hum
*** Rbi8 John 10:16-17 ***
16 "And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; those also I must bring, and they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock, one shepherd. 17 This is why the Father loves me, because I surrender my soul, in order that I may receive it again.
All the sheep listen to Jesus' voice, not just the anointed have this privilege.
** Rbi8 John 14:6-7 ***
6 Jesus said to him: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.7 If YOU men had known me, YOU would have known my Father also; from this moment on YOU know him and have seen him."
Again, very clear, Jesus says that No one comes to the Father except through him. Not even the Anointed Governing Body.
*** Rbi8 Ephesians 4:4-7 ***
4 One body there is, and one spirit, even as YOU were called in the one hope to which YOU were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all [persons], who is over all and through all and in all. 7 Now to each one of us undeserved kindness was given according to how the Christ measured out the free gift.
Just one hope, not two as the Society teaches.
** Rbi8 Matthew 18:20 ***
20 For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst."
They are talking about Jesus, he will be there as our mediator.
Now who do you follow, Jesus or the Society ? The scriptures in the Bible have made it very clear. If you don't follow what the Bible is saying, are you following the explanations of what the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society says?
I also urge you to ask if the Jehovah's Witnesses will baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit should you decide to join their religion. Ask them if they will actually say the words of Jesus at Matthew 28: 18-20 when you are baptised. Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember,I am with you always,to the end of the age.”
Did you notice that Jesus said to baptise them and then teach them?
The Gospel about Jesus is very simple. So simple that even a very young child can understand it. Is the good news that Jehovah's Witnesses bring to your door the same Gospel that the first century Christians brought to people in the market places and public squares? Gal 1:6-9 I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called you by the grace of Christ, [and are turning] to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another [gospel], but there are some who are troubling you and want to change the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! 9 As we have said before, I now say again: if anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!
Paul preached from house to house not from door to door. The early churches were mainly found in Christian's homes.
The churches of the Asian province greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord, along with the church that meets in their home. I urge you to compare the scriptures in their context with surrounding scriptures before you commit yourself to any religion that claims exclusive ownership of God. Sincerely and in Christ, Bob Evans Walland, TN