How do people continue to buy into the Watchtower???

by integ 34 Replies latest jw friends

oompa

caedes: no reason to disrupt his home and family
I think this is a major point......it is a heluva disruption!...........oompa....it is an uncomfortable effort that is required
still_in74

dont you remember being one of them? i thought im a critical smart person but felt immediately guilty when i only spent a single thought on the possibility there could be something wrong with my religion. its not easy to allow yourself being critical in this case when you were once fully in.
Freeme, hows it going buddy? I totally know where you are coming from with this. I feel that guilt eventhough I know more about JW teachings than anyone in my cong. I sat at the Revelation study last night listening to the most rediculous comments you have ever heard. Not even the conductor was paying attention. One bro gave a completely wrong answer and the conductor said "yes" and then repeated his comment! It was as if nobody there even cared if they understood what was in the book, they were just getting through another study. I sat there in amazement of how rediculous that book is and as I analyzed the info I felt both angry and guilty. I feel guilty for not commenting cause the conductor is sitting there looking at blank faces, and I know ppl presume ' I ' am the unintelligent one in the room. That ' I ' am the one that is missing out on the "good things from Jehovah". Then I get pissed off about it and give an intelligent comment that is factual and scriptural, and contains words with more than one or two syllables. 3 brothers in the whole room, The conductor, the idiot, and me. Well guess who didnt say prayer or read? Yup, me. The conductor said prayer, the idiot read and also said prayer. Me, the only guy in the room that actually understood a GD word in that study, the only one in the room that actually gives a shit about what he is reading, the only one in the room that actually "examines" (Matthew 23:17) the wording and punctuation to actually "get the sense" (1 Peter 4:5) of the "flood" (Genesis 3:2-17) of doubletalk and manipulation of "life giving water" (1 John 1:3) that we are "drinking" (Rev 6:21) at the meetings (Heb 10:24,25). I am so sick and tired of this bullshit but I feel like I can never get rid of it!WHY? WHY? WHY?
startingover

Good question! After looking at some of the BOE letters in the compilation, it struck me that there are so many intelligent people that stop thinking and just follow directions. And there are SO MANY directions.
At the beginning of my journey out of the WT, I ran across this written by an ex-Methodist minister:
A sabbatical leave in 1934-35 gave me time to travel, study and rethink. Like most professional men up to my ears in work and busy with extraneous duties I needed to get away and see things in perspective. I was neglecting my reading. Too many college graduates make this sad mistake. Once they get their sheepskins they stop studying because of work pressure and social duties and club demands. Methodist ministers in particular because they change parishes more frequently, often are guilty of rehashing old sermons over and over. Let me emphasize my next sentence. HAD I NOT TAKEN THIS LEAVE WHEN I DID, I KNOW I WOULD STILL BE PREACHING. I would never have seen the light. I would have been blinded by the trees in the forest. THIS SABBATICAL LEAVE WAS THE TURNING POINT. Therefore I am glad I took it and I hope you will take one too. Not for a month but for a whole year. Ministers and professors are entitled to take one after ten years service. I had been preaching twelve years and would not have taken it then, had I not some private business to take care of. When I left on a tour to the west coast following a needed operation I had every reason to return if I chose, for there was nothing against me in the conference, and, I was on good terms with my b ishop the Reverend Francis J. McConnell. I carried this and other letters with me.
His whole story is here:
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/vincent_runyon/left_ministry.html#c3
I think he hit the nail on the head concerning so many intelligent people we see in the org. They are so busy it is very hard for them to see the big picture. I didn't see it clearly until I got away from the routine, and now it's hard to believe I didn't see it earlier.
Edited to add that I felt the same way as Still commented above me. I remember sitting at meeting just pissed off at what I was hearing.
Evidently

"But where would we go"........typing that made me throw up in my mouth a little.
M.J.

I was going to post my own thoughts on this, but I remembered how succinctly Check_Your_Premises put it once:

"We are a communal animal you see. We use those around us to verify and validate our perceptions and conclusions. It keeps us from getting to detached from reality. It keeps us from engaging in wild fantasies and self-aggrandizing delusions. That is likely to happen to any of us in the absence of that constant reality check from our peers. You see it is simply human nature (pride) to imagine that world thinks us a lot more important than we really are.

Unfortunately if you get around several people who share your delusions it can provide our fantasy with an illusion of reality! So much so, we are able to hold very tenaciously to those delusions."
sspo

Mostly likely is the message that might still make more sense than most other religions that beleive in hell and people burning for eternity.
No one wants to die, we all enjoy living on earth and so the hope that the watchtower provides, once again might be more appealing than going to heaven.
You still have in every congregations many older ones that have no idea how to use the internet and besides that they TRULY beleive that GB
is from God and can do no wrong.
OBVES

If you know my end-time chronology from my posts you have a good reason to accept Jehovah Witness organization as the only one that stands out from any other christian religious organizations. Bear in mind you have to put another christian group in place of Jehovah's Witnesses if you are against them. You will not find a one that is my understanding based on the Bible.
You would have to fit your organization into the end-time chronology which I have posted .Or you may try to come up with your own end-time chronology and we can compare which one is better based on the Bible .
You most likely would have to beat up Harold Camping in his explanations of the end-time in his two books: " Time Has an End " and " Wheat and Tares ". And also there is another serious contender Ronald Weinland with his two interesting books on the coming end : " The Prophesied End -Time " and " 2008.God's Final Witness ".
You may notice if you belonged to Jehovah's Witnesses and now you are out that you most likely have lost the way of the end-time predictions ,being disoriented what is going on .The fact is the true christians must be deeply interested in the end-time predictions.
Chances are that if you are not interested in the coming days at most and you have read my post you will be not ready for if the end comes. You have to know the time to watch - Luke 12.39 .And you can know the time by not what and when you think unless you are a true christian and it is given by the Holy Ghost .
It is not ye that speak but the Holy Ghost that is in you - Mark 13.11.
"Be ready therefore ,because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you think not ... but the Holy Ghost that is in you !"- Luke 12.40;Matthew 13.11,34-35;Isaiah 28.9-10
If the end is to come soon we must have had true christianity well for over 100 years or so . And the starting date is 1878 AD. We have 1879 AD,1884 AD,1891 AD,1914 AD that follow after.
106 AD + 1772 years = 1878 AD 119 AD + 1772 years = 1891 AD
Where did I get 1772 years ? From the number 2772 which comes from God's name : YHWH in the present alphabetical order in the Hebrew is like 11,6,7,6
11X6x7x6=2772 2772 = 2520 + 252 . Instantly I can see two times " 7 Times" here .
2520 years and 252 years . And also I can see this: 1772 years + 1000 years = 2772 years
We must have a period of 120 years passed for the end of the world to take place just as it was during Noah's days- Genesis 6.3.
1891 AD + 120 years = 2011 AD
Harold Camping came to the 2011 AD prediction in a different way.He calculated that the Noah's Flood took place in 4990 BC . 4990 BC+ 7000 years ( 7 symbolic days ) = 2011 AD
Note a huge discrepancy ! In my chronology the date is 2492 BC.The year the creation of Adam was finalized was 4027 BC.
4027 BC + 6000 years = 1974 AD + 37 years = 2011 AD
2011 AD + 23 years = 2034 AD 4027 BC - 2034 AD = 6060 years 2034 AD + 1000 years = 3034 AD 3034 AD + 10 years = 3044 AD The whole symbolic week for mankind is 7070 years ;each day 1010 years.
1037 BC + 3030 years = 1994 AD which can be detailed in this way: 3 years + 7 years + 420 years + 70 years + 2520 years + 7 years + 3 years . 7 times = 2520 years = 252 years = 420 years = 70 years = 7 years.
JH

They target people with problems
But if you have too many problems, you can't go.....
LongHairGal

I have also asked this question myself.
I think the biggest answer is because the religion has the magic name. They reason that because the divine name is attached to the religion it must be right. I mean, god hasn't reached down to destroy them yet so they must have his favor. Right??? So, they stick around because they think they are on the right team - no matter WHAT happens or goes on there or how twisted or ridiculous the teachings become. People who feel this way are not interested in past wrong teachings, new light or old light, etc. It's all about the name.
The second reason is because they have invested so much of themselves and they made so many sacrifices and their families are in as well.
The third answer would be the 'where would I go' syndrome.
Many feel it is just easier to stay there.
LHG
OnTheWayOut

I know this JW who was always the deepest thinker you could find.
He would analyze things until he figured out how to accomplish them.
He went back to school in his forties to become a webmaster for the
local government because he needed to change professions for his health.
They just don't make better JW's than him- because they are able to
think for themselves, and they DON'T. He never reads science or
pilosophical stuff that isn't printed by WTS. He is fully convinced.
His adult children all left the religion. He convinces himself that they are
mentally deficient with chemical imbalances, and other gobbledeegoop
like that- rather than say that they left because it is not the truth.
Another guy- he sees all the flaws in the elders and the organization.
He has read outside philosophy and theories and has questioned the
truthfulness of the religion, but he still refrains from examining the thoughts
of former members. He is sure that the men in Brooklyn don't know
squat about Science, History, Archaeology, etc., but they are guided by
God's spirit to get the preaching work done.
Yet another who doesn't care to even find out if the WTS is right or wrong.
He just knows it is right. He doesn't know what's happening in the world
and doesn't have time to find out. He goes to work and meetings, gets out
in the all-important work of magazine distributing as often as possible.
Here's what they all have in common- they are in a mind-control cult that
tells them how to Behave, Think, Feel, and what information to accept.
No matter what they allow themselves to do, there are certain lines they don't
cross until something blurs that line.
Fortunately, new people from the field circus are getting rarer and rarer. Fortunately,
more people are getting that line blurred. Still, as P.T. Barnum points out, there is
one born every minute.

How do people continue to buy into the Watchtower???

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