Is becoming a witness the right thing for me (page 2)

silentWatcher

marketman,

welcome. I was raised a JW, and have since left. While it is ultimately your own decision to make, I will give the following advice: Make an informed choice. Choosing a faith is a big decision, and you should know all the facts. Look around on this site to get one perspective.

Also, be sure to ask questions of the person you are studying with. Lots of them.

take care,
silent

Satanus

Perhaps you need to understand the church better. What became the catholic church decided what went into the bible, thus finished creating the bible. Also, many of the rituals have spiritual purposes. For instance, rosery use has the purpose of getting the mind into a meditative state. This state can be used to access the spiritual. If you dislike the spiritual, by all means carry on w the witnesses. They abhor anything of a spiritual nature. Also, if you are tired of thinking for yourself, the witnesses would be good for you.

S

Ps, you obviously don't understand the trinity definition, even as the witnesses do not, and refuse understand. It is not three gods. Only one. That is defined very plainly, yet the witnesses lie about that.

jwfacts

Welcome Marketman.

I was raised a JW but my mother converted from Catholicism. Here is an interesting article on why Catholics feel comfortable with the Watchtower Society; both can exert high control over peoples lives. http://www.bible.ca/cath-JW-converting.htm

The Watchtower Society is a high contol religion that uses persuasive coercion to influence people, so be careful. I would strongly recommend reading information on cults such as Steven Hassans Combatting Cult Mind Control. The Watchtower Society use all the major principles practiced by thousands of controversial religions and cults to manipulate people.

Christianity is about faith in Jesus. Look closely at the Watchtower literature. They spend less time than most religions discussing Jesus and a lot more time discussing the "organization", laws and doctrines. How much time did Jesus spend discussing doctrine? How much time did the NT writers? They constantly directed people to Jesus and the Ransom as the end of the law.

You need to know the history of the religion to determine if it is directed by God so I recommend looking at http://jwfacts.com/index_files/5min.htm

Another critcial aspect is that the Watchtower Society teach Jesus in NOT your Mediator, again a teaching common with cults, as they can then say that you need to be closely aligned to the organization and the leaders in order to have a relationship with God. http://jwfacts.com/index_files/mediator.htm

From what you have said about your wife, converting to being a JW will greatly increase the chance of marital problems. Is an organization worth loosing your family over?

greendawn

I also agree that the JWs are a cultish organisation that are better left alone, they have nothing good to offer to their members despite their many claims about being a necessary part of salvation. They lie profusely and have little if any real love for their members.

dido

One of the reasons i would say NO is that they allow paedophiles to remain in the congregations, i know of several in different congregations that i attented. That is the reason why i will never go back, so one piece of advice i can give you is, study the history of the JW`s before you study the bible with them, you will be shocked to find out that the founder Russell himself was a paedophile, he molested a 10 year old girl.

greendawn

Dido in fact that idea was not true though it came due to the efforts of the WTS to present Russell as a loving stepfather that innocently kissed a little girl goodnight every evening.

In fact Rose was around 20 years old at the time and Russell had undue intimacies with her that eventually led to his divorce.

Earlier he himself offered to divorce his wife (giving her some property as a compensation) to marry Rose. So his wife claimed.

dido

Greendawn, this is where i found out about Russell, http://www.geocities.com/heartland/2919/russ3.html and http://www.geocities.com/heartland/2919/russell.html. It did say that she was 10 years old, he was still an adulterer, so would god use a man like that to found a `true religion`? Someone who was involved with pyramids and the occult?

fullofdoubtnow

Hi marketman, and welcome to the board.

As others have said, the decision whether to become a jw or not is for you alone to make. I am a former jw, and would not advise anyone to join the wts. They have a way of making themselves attractive to newly interested ones, but all is not what it seems when you are committed.

I advise you to keep reading on this and other sites, such as freeminds. By doing so, you will be able to make an informed choice as to whether you want to become a jw or not.

darth frosty

Welcome to the board enjoy the ride. Time for me to be the dark lord of the Sith. This, as most have said, is a decision only you can make for yourself. But if you decide to join, it will be the last decision you make of your own cognizants. All your future decisions will be based on the WT's creed. If you got fed up with the catholic churches ritual's, wait till you get immersed in the JW's busy work they got for ya.

It feels right to you now for 2 reasons. First your the new flavor of the month at the KH. They are so happy that there is a new face at the hall there puting there best foot forward. The second reason is you do not know the right questions to ask. You are getting their pre-scripted answers and explanations to bible questions 101. What you want to know is how being a witness will effect the life of marketman. What happens if you want out? what if you want to interview someone who left the org and find out why they left? How do they view information that disagrees with their teachings and viewpoints? There are more questions others will probably share with you, but this is a start.

Now when you share this with your witness friends and ask such questions, they got the script ready. 'Your family or friends wont like your decision is proof that we have the truth'. 'Jesus said his true followers will be hated'. etc. JW's have this game down to a science for new recruits. The key is to ask the right questions to find out how joining the religion will affect you. Most at the start dont know the right question to ask till they are to far in. What can the religion do for you or to you.

I know this may sound harsh or come off heavy handed, but this decision is a serious matter. Its all rosy until you dry off and start to realize the demands that are going to be enforced on you under pang of death (unless you haven't heard the end is right around the corner according to them for the last 100 years.) Ask questions and demand a solid answer ( none of that lets ask an elder or thats something we have to wait on jehovah for.) hope I helped and didn't scare you off just some food for thought.

carla

Do you want to stay married? or continue having a real and normal marriage? if yes, then do not join this cult.

Are you ready to let your children die for this publishing company? Are you ready to let men make your decisions regarding what you watch, read, how you dress, how you can have sex with your spouse, no holidays, to abandon your family, to spend nearly every moment of life in jw activities, your make-up, who you may or may not talk to, weddings you may attend, funerals you may attend, business decisions, and the list is endless. Basically to hand your brain, personality, individualality, life and soul over to them. Then by all means join up.

If you are interested in God, research, study, and learn. At any rate you should research this organization completely before you hand them your life.

Is becoming a witness the right thing for me

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