Where to start?

nonamegiven

Hello all. I was DF'd about 2 months ago and decided to take this time to explore the teachings I have spent my life spewing to others. Well, it took very little time to discover it was a bunch of crap. I have learned about the lies and inconsistant teachings and what not. I feel it's time for me to stop looking for falacies in the JW religion and start really looking for the truth about what's inthe bible. My question to you all is, where do I find it? I don't know what bible I should read, who I should believe or where I should look to for answers. I have prayed long and hard for help from God (who ever that is) but I think I lack trust. I am reluctant to listen to friends because I don't trust religions or men anymore but a search for the truth about what's in the bible kinda has to start with the bible and I think I need to start trusting.

What bible to you read?

Where do (did) you look for answers?

Any suggestions?

vitty

I started to have doubts about the WT when I bought a living bible. It was so easy and enjoyable to read, and you certainly get a different outlook of the NT.

I gave mine away and tried to buy another one but the book store said it was out of print. But if you can get one id recommend it

Gopher

It takes time to find your spiritual / philisophical center after being led down the wrong path for so long.

You have stepped back and seen that the Watchtower teachings do not constitute the ultimate answer. They are just one religion offering their answers to life's mysteries.

There still may be some comfort in the Bible because it is so familiar. But after a while, you may even find yourself seeing that even the Bible itself is not infallible, and that the jealous and angry Jehovah of the Old Testament is just one of many ancient, warring gods among many of that era. The Bible may be seen as just one book offering answers (from a Middle-Eastern viewpoint) to life's mysteries.

The ultimate place to look for what is believable may be within yourself, knowing that some things are known to be true, and there are some answers we may never obtain during our brief life on earth.

As has often been stated on this forum, "I'd rather have questions I cannot answer than answers I cannot question."

kwintestal

Just take your time. Becareful you don't jump from the frying pan into the furnace. After I left the JW's my family and I started looking at other churches and so on and that was fine, but the whole time I was reading not just religious books, but books about religion in general, religious history, biblical history. I'd recommend doing the same, because when it comes down to you the history of your religion (Christianity, Islam ect.) is just as important as the type of that religion you follow.

Kwin

jgnat

Here's a thought. Instead of coming in with an agenda, why not work from a fair study method? I recommend the inductive bible study.

http://www.intervarsity.org/biblestu/gospels/daily.php

I also suggest you start with a NT book.

garybuss

Why limit the search for truth to the Bible? What if truth is in the Koran, or the Book of Mormon? Or Encyclopedia Britannica?

Instead of searching for "truth", why not learn facts and let the facts speak for themselves without interpretation?

I had to learn the English language form scratch and look up every word I was using. I had to challenge every one of my assumptions at every crossroad and I had crossroads every day. I didn't know the language I spoke. My Witness parents who taught me, were extremely superstitious and ignorant, my public school lessons were wrong on many levels, and my religion was a printing business prone to error. All in my life that I relied on was defective and unreliable.

jayhawk1

The most brilliant man I know is a Weldor/Fabricator. He is a very religious, christian man. I asked him one day why he never goes to church. He said, "Why bother, the church is within him." He went on to explain that his church is his weld shop, his truck, his house and his land. Biblical truth or any religion is what you make of it. The truth is universal. Jesus taught us the greatest commandment is to love your fellow man. What a fine example to follow! With that one teaching, what else do you really need?

So my opinion is, stretch out, learn about other religions, find the similarities among them (there are many similarities according to my father-in-law who has traveled the world) and you will find the truth you seek.

Honesty

Do you believe the Bible is God's letter to humans so that they be reconciled to Him?

If so, why would we need to be reconciled to God?

Is it because we commit sins because we are sinners from birth or is it because we are sinners because we commit sins?

If it is because we commit sins because we are sinners then no amount of searching the scriptures will reconcile us to God. The Watchtower Society is proof of that.

According to the Bible there is only one way to be reconciled to God.

But first, one must recognise that he/she personally is responsible for Jesus going to the cross and that Jesus did it for him/her personally since He has known you since before He created the universe.

Here is Scripture for you to really think about:

But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God John 1:12

And you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. John 5:38-40

When someone offers you a gift it is not automatic that it is yours. You have to accept that gift by reaching out to the gift-giver. The same is true of the gift of eternal life.

When you accept it, it is yours to have forever:

The one who has the Son has life.

The one who doesn’t have the Son of God does not have life.

I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

1 John 5:12-13

Woodsman

What Gopher said.

Woodsman

P.S, Try to have fun. It is so much more enjoyable to have the freedom to explore all possibilities. Don't try to figure it all out all over again. The best lesson I learned from being in and then leaving the WTS is that no one knows the truth and better men than me have been trying to find it ever since man began to think.

Where to start?

Share this