When you were a JW true believer, what were you most afraid of?

by under_believer 21 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  lovelylil

  I was most afraid of disapointing God and not being faithful enough. And secondly on abusing his "sheep" in some way. I tried to be positive with my bible studentss and could not make the org. out to be more than it was. That is probably why no one I studied with became witnesses, although I have retained them as friends even today. I could not scare them into the org. I felt this was spiritual abuse - as my dad did this to me as a child with hellfire.

  I don't know why but I never believed you had to be a JW to make it through the big A. I never taught my kids that either. Although my hubby did. The kids never bought it either.
• 

  james_woods

  1. I was always afraid that the other kids at school would find out we were JWs. Really.

  2. I was also afraid that my parents would find out I saluted the flag because of fear #1. I rationalized it because the bible says nothing about the flag salute.
• 

  puck

  i was afraid of demons, too -- still have a residual fear of them even now.

  also, that i would die at armageddon. and, being raised in the "truth", i guess i still worry about that, although not nearly to the degree that i once did. at one point, when i had a judicial commitee hovering all the time, i was worried that everyone would know what i was doing -- which was a well-founded fear as it turns out, because everyone did. so much for the confidentiality they talk about so much.
• 

  under_believer

  Welcome to the board, puck. I have a suspicion that I know who you are. :)
• 

  serendipity

  Hi puck and welcome!

  I was most afraid of being tortured or seeing my daughter tortured or killed at Armageddon. I was also afraid of being imprisoned or being deprived of a job (ala Nazi treatment of Jews). I was a bit afraid of demons.

  When I was younger, I was afraid that someone would say "you're a bad JW because you do XYZ."
• 

  John Doe

  Being imperfect.
• 

  BecauseImBroken

  2. Big time. But hey, there's no hell right? It could be worse than just that.
• 

  misspeaches

  I was terrified of being tortured. We were told to expect it and it was graphically explained the types of torture applied to witnesses in the past.

  It is horrible of a so called christian organisation to scare young children with thoughts of torture for a religon they had the misfortune of being born into!
• 

  Kudra

  Being tortured during the great tribulation
  
  Committing the "unforgivable sin" WTF that was who knows.
  
  Displeasing Jehovah
  Hearing "apostate" information that would shake my faith in Jehovah.
• 

  penny2

  Being tortured, or worse - having to watch family members being tortured. I still can't watch torture scenes in movies.