Did the Society’s Literature Ever Make You Question or Doubt It?

by The wanderer 19 Replies latest jw friends

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  The wanderer

  Did the Society’s Literature Ever Make You Question or Doubt It?

  Think back to when you thought like a Jehovah’s Witness.
  
  Do you ever recall when a magazine, book, pamphlet or tract made you start to question
  or doubt the written material?

  The Revelation Book

  Do you recall the occasion in which the Watchtower tried to tie the prophecy
  in revelation to the imprisoned brothers in Atlanta, Georgia about the “dry bones
  being resurrected?”
  How about the Cedar Point Ohio convention as being one of the “blasting of the trumpets”
  in the book of revelation?
  
  This used to bother me because—it was just pure speculation.
  
  Did anything written cause you to doubt what was written or what was said?

  Respectfully,

  The Wanderer
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  moanzy

  I can't remember too many things that made sense to me while I was a witness. One thing in particular that made me do a double take was a watchtower where they said that those that quit reading the watchtower and went back to reading just the bible soon returned to pagan practices(something like that, can't remember the exact words).

  I remember thinking that what they said did not help their case as far as saying they had the truth.

  Moanzy
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  sspo

  I always had doubts about the Revelation book even as i was teaching it at the book study .

  The fact that things written 2000 years ago were being applied to this small group of people, especially being applied at some silly convention and declarations they made.

  Jehovah's name being sanctified-

  Universal sovergnity

  Where in the world did they get that? If it was so important why is it that no one writer talked about it in the bible?

  Yet we blindly beleived it and preached it.
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  vitty

  I had doubts about the revelation book but because it said at the beginning of the book that it wasnt infallible , I thought I would just have to have faith

  Then came along the Isaiah book.......................what a crock. The ships of Kitish (sp) come to mind. I even said to my witness sister that it was crap. I would never say that now though or shed be onto me :)

  I think it was that book that put real doubt in my mind but as usual I put the doubts to the back of my mind.
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  New Worldly Translation

  I could never understand the society's fixation with modern day parallels and correlating biblical texts with quite desultory incidents in their history and in the world.
  I remember having quite a few discussions with my dad about this and why Rev 11:7 should relate to Rutherford et al getting locked up, or why 1919 marked a release from 'Babylonish captivity', or why the 'generation' should apply to modern day when in context Jesus was talking about his day, or why JW's are likened to locusts and the signs in heaven are satellites or space shuttles.... There's loads and loads of attempts by the org to legitamize their phony book club by making biblical 'prophecy' point to them or things they've said.

  I think the creation book was a clincher for me though. When it was first studied I was a bit too young to question it but as I got older and gained an interest in science and re-read the book I could see it was nonsense. By age 17 I knew there was something seriously wrong with the org but it took me another 10 years to finally leave. I wish I'd been more brave.
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  JK666

  1995. Can you say "generations?" WTF!
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  avidbiblereader

  I have had many things make me question the WT, but the Rev book did it in, all these great prophecies and conventions, resolutions and literture was the fulfillment. Those took the cake and I went with it.

  abr
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  Gill

  I always thought the Cedar point conventions being tied to prophecys in Revelation were totally ludicrous and laughable!
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  HappyDad

  Since the 1970's there have been things that made me think a little. I guess it was TOO LITTLE since it took almost another 30 years to get out.

  The first things were the application of prophetic scriptures to just the JW's. These were many at the time! And all were in the books we studied back then. Books like God's Kingdom of a Thousand Years, Babylon The Great Has Fallen, etc. Most likely penned by fabulous Freddy!

  One that really turned my stomach was in the 1980's. This was the first time I read in print in one of the Watchtower studies that our individual salvation was directly connected to the preaching work we would do. I never could accept this because the Bible puts even MORE emphasis on showing love, and taking care of widows and orphans. Something the JW's have never done. They do no charitable works at all! But boy did they want us "selling" all the literature they could produce.

  This same theme of salvation being connected to our preaching surfaced again in the mid 1990's and got me angry again. Then shortly after this was the generation change. Then shortly after this my mind started fading and the internet helped it to fade more. It took my body a few more years to finally chuck it all.

  HappyDad
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  OnTheWayOut

  I was able to question the literature right from the start as a WT student. It just
  wasn't enough questions to get me out of there. It was mostly the science of WTS
  that I questioned. I remember questioning something early on about the physical
  location of Eden. The literature described the region, based on the Tigress and
  Euphrates River today. I asked, "Wouldn't the worldwide flood have completely
  changed the landscape, so we couldn't locate the area now?" "WHY YES, THAT
  IS QUITE POSSIBLE."

  I had the typical Dinosaur questions and "animals of Australia after the flood", how did
  they get there? I, often hated the analogy in the WT study article and questioned that.
  There were times I disagreed with the literature, followed the little scriptural help there
  was, and realized the WTS had scant evidence on their side, but usually I realized their
  scenario was the only one that fit their doctrine. By 1995, I was able to freely second-
  guess them, and eventually seriously looked into my questions.

  I had plenty of problems with 20th century fulfillment of Revelation prophecy, but it was
  so difficult to understand, who would want to try to tackle that doctrinal mountain when they
  were a young MS with a young wife, soon to be an elder?