Do You Believe The Majority of JWs Believe Everything They Are Taught?

by minimus 28 Replies latest jw friends

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  Quandry

  Blondie says:

  Can the average jw explain about the trinity, hellfire, 1914, etc., at the door of the people they call on or do they have to run home and call an elder or pioneer or someone else who is one of the few who really understand the doctrines. Can they explain why they can take blood fractions but the bible says that blood must be poured out, not stored.

  This is true. But believe it? Yes, I believed all. Even though I lived in fear that someone would ask me to explain these things and I knew I couldn't, I thought it was because of my own lack of faith and that I wasn't spiritual enough to really understand. Did not have a "spiritual eye" to see things. Now I know that the others just saw the same naked emperer but wouldn't admit that he had resplendent clothing on.

  How do you open a Bible-any Bible-and explain 1914? Hellfire, maybe, trinity-well, the word isn't there, but the blood fractions part? Yes, I always feared that I would have to explain to people at the door that I was unqualified, and that I would have to return with a more knowledgeable person who COULD explain.

  I will have to say, though, that the change in generation in 1995 was very unsettling, and I just don't know how I would have reacted if I was sitting there trying to muddle through the most recent change to the generation only referring to the annointed.......
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  cognac

  I was 6 years old when I started having doubts because I didn't believe God would really kill everyone who wasn't baptised...

  I think any person that thinks even a little bit must have some doubts...
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  minimus

  A lot of people believe in God but couldn't explain why without resorting to accepting faith.
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  NewYork44M

  The average JW doesn't understand most of what the society teaches. They have advocated their responsibility of justifying their beliefs to a real estate developer. So, what ever the real estate development corporatation says, they believe.
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  mouthy

  Welcome to Olins Ghost.... Nobody else welcomed you. That is because we were taught to look at invisable things & believe we saw them

  Do You Believe The Majority of JWs Believe Everything They Are Taught?

  Why would they stay if they dont?

  All I can say is I believed everything except the beard & 1914. then when "MOTHER" explained about the beard I only quarrelled with 1914...But when one day I told" MUM "that she kicked me off the "ARK".
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  Robert7

  Every active Witness I've talked to has doubts of some sort. Many really have issues with the intricate details of 1914/1919 and the history of the JWs as described in the Daniel book & Revelation book. Many HATE going out in service.
  
  They all throw it under the rug, since this is "the truth". This worked for me for a while...
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  The Oracle

  I believe that many Jehovah's Witnesses believe the whole thing - hook, line and sinker.

  However, there are some - let's have some fun and estimate 20% or approximately 1.5 million people - who realize that much of the doctrine, policies and rules etc is pure horse-sh*t.

  The formula is a simple one, I believe...

  you need to have one or more of the following in varying degress in order to crack that 20% group...

  1) have at least some mild intelligence, the brighter you are the better chance you have of coming to this realization

  2) have some balls (courage) to have a peek at some opposing views (ie the internet etc etc) and to think for yourself

  3) greatly value your personal time - enough to question and look for the reasons behind the huge time commitment you find yourself giving in order to be dub

  Cheers,

  The Oracle
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  stillajwexelder

  They accept difficult to dispute doctrine - e.g Trinity; Fornication, Hell fire etc. I think many are dubious of all the other stuff which is not directly scriptural. Chronolgy, bedroom matters, blood fractions
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  willyloman

  No, but few will acknowledge that except in private.

  Prior to CO visits we'd meet and review the "condition" of the congo and that meant going over the reports and categorizing the male membership into those who were reaching out and those who weren't. This led to inevitable conclusions about the number of really "serious" dubs compared to those were were less so. The latter included a large number of what were sometimes called the walking wounded.

  For many years these three groups were more or less evenly divided in the typical congo: 30% were "true believers," another 30-40% were there for social, family or business reasons and were conditional in their acceptance of "Bible truths" as dispensed by the WTBTS. Another 30% were there for a miracle - and increasingly pissed about the fact that no miracle had occurred.

  The first group has dropped to about 20% of the typical congregation now. The other two "classes" (to use a word the Society loves) make up the rest.