your personal favourite books that freed you from the JW's (page 4)

Mr. Majestic

Jehovah’s Witnesses proclaimers of God’s kingdom

The erotic pop up guide for the sexual dysfunctional……

FHM annual…..

Yearly subscriptions to Razzle magazine

Been a tough but worthwhile journey………

snowbird

1. The Book of John

2. Pilgrimage Through the Watchtower by Kevin Quick

3. Visions of Glory

4. Falling in Truth by Steve McRoberts

5. Crisis of Conscience - listed last because it was the final nail in the coffin that is WTS.

Ninja, I love you.

Sylvia

Mulan

this is the order I read them............they really helped a lot:

The Road Less Traveled

True Believer

Crisis of Conscience

Combatting Cult Mind Control ( fantastic book.................and the sequel, can't recall the name)

Years later I read The Age of Reason, by Thomas Paine, which opened a whole new window for me.

The Christ Conspiracy

For me, it started with a book called 10 Steps to Emotional Recovery After Being a Jehovah's Witness. It's not very long, but on every page I found emotions I could relate to and suddenly realized there was NOT something wrong with me, but it was what I was put through as a Jehovah's Witness that was not "normal". Then reading Crisis of Conscience made it impossible to ever believe it's "the Truth" anymore. Also, reading books on other philosophies and religions helped open my mind even more. I still have so many books I want to read, including the ones Ninja listed in the beginning (they are all real books; I checked). Ninja, this is a good thread. Hope you are doing well, mate.

detective

I was never "in" myself, but my beloved was...

Let's just say that both of Steven Hassan's books helped get my beloved "out". I used techniques in those books to slowly help my beloved see the light.

If you haven't read his books, I highly recommend them. Absolutely.

Seeker4

I read Visions of Glory years ago when I was still a JW elder. It got me thinking. Barbara and I corresponded for a few months just before her death.

What really took me out was reading the Bible. I have my last NWT reference Bible still, and there is a page at the beginning where I have this list of verses that didn't make sense that I compiled during my last years as a JW. It's a very full page. One aspect of it was that in the list was the fact that the phrase "the day of Jehovah is near" can be found in verses written thousands of years apart. I realized the whole concept was meaningless.

There was a science book by a Boston Globe science writer that helped, and Ken Wilber has a book about science and faith, can't remember the title, that was important to me. I remember that he wrote how science has doomed any literalist religion like the JWs.

After I was out, Crisis of Conscience was an eye-opener. Ray's tone and quality of work belied the angry, lying apostate stereotype. I had enough JW background, which included meeting Ray when he was on the GB, to know that his book had the absolute ring of truth to it.

S4

Peppermint

Without doubt "The New Believers" by David. V. Barrett. I found it helpful because it was not specifically about the Witnesses. It showed how the witnesses were just like so many others religions from history or even today. I found it very balanced and without religious prejudice or personal opinion, a failing in so many books.

http://www.thenewbelievers.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Believers

Mary

The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses
Visions of Glory
Crisis of Conscience
JWD (it's not a book, but I think it's probably helped alot who were doubting in the first place)....and ironically:
The Watchtower
the Bible

It was the Society's own literature plus the bible itself that first got me thinking that something wasn't right........

BFD

The first book I read critical of the WT$ was

Apocalypse Delayed by M. James Penton

then I read

CofC.

BFD

dinah

It was the bible. Reading without the "benefit" (gag) of any input from the Society, really flagged the flaws they teach. The more I read the gospels, the more the WT sounded like the Pharisees. Even Paul's letters were taken out of context. It also makes more sense to read an entire chapter, or book even, than to pick through and string several unrelated scriptures together.

By the time I read CoC, Ray Franz just confirmed what I already knew. There was no way they could be "God's sole channel". It was amazing to read about all the things that went on behind closed doors. The Malawi incident just made me sick.

your personal favourite books that freed you from the JW's