I've been studying JW for 6 months. Please help..

by fb130 59 Replies latest jw friends

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  milligal

  Well you've already gotten a lot to think about and I'm not even sure you will read this far, but if you do:

  Welcome; you are smart to investigate. I was raised JW and never questioned any of it, as I was taught until I saw things happen that could not be reasoned away. You will grow as a person through your association with JW's but what you will sacrifice in order to acheive that kind of growth will be your personal freedom to choose any number of lifestyles or ideals and ethics that you might hold dear.

  You can find personal growth in many ways, JW's are not the only ones offering you something more....
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  White Dove

  I was raised as a JW and am a 4th generation. I was retarded socially by it. I could not have friends who were not JW's, celebrate anything that might appear on a calendar, visit any other churches to find out about them, read anything that had criticisms of the WTSociety. I could not vote, stand for the national anthem, take blood if I or my children were dying. I could not give to charity. I had to shun and never get to know my disfellowshipped grandparents and aunts and uncles.

  Their endless rules for behavior and conformity make them cultish Pharisees.

  Look up cults and remember what you've learned by now about the Pharisees.
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  JimmyPage

  Do not get baptized! I wish I hadn't. It puts your life under their control.

  There are so many points you need to take a thorough look at before committing to anything and none of them will be brought up in your study. For example:

  The 607 vs. 587 controversy.

  The child molestation policy.

  The UN ngo scandal.

  False prophecies about 1874, 1878, 1925, 1975, and so on.

  The blood issue- do the Bible verses really apply to transfusions?

  There are many more but this board is a great place to get started doing research.
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  sacolton

  I respect your decision if you decide to continue studying to be a JW, but please - please - please ... do your homework on this religion. This will be the ONLY TIME you can do it freely without the fear of the organization breathing down your neck. Ask MANY questions here. Everyone on this forum has been a JW and we have all survived the clutches of the WTBTS. Again, I beg you, research everything this organization is about - it's history and it's teachings. Most of the hardcore dogmas aren't introduced until after you are baptised and then it'll be too late.

  Again, if you decide you want to be a JW ... it's your life.
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  DaCheech

  I'm a witness.

  I want to leave

  I cannot leave............. why?

  If I leave my family will be taken away from me.

  when you are disfellowshipped, mates can divorce you and children will no longer associate with you. my biggest fear!
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  sacolton

  Being baptised into an "Organization" rather than the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:19). Jehovah's Witnesses entering into baptism are asked the following questions:

  "1) On the basis of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, have you repented of your sins and dedicated yourself to Jehovah to do his will?

  2) Do you understand that your dedication and baptism identify you as one of Jehovah's Witnesses in association with God's spirit-directed organization? (The Watchtower, April 1st 2006, pages 21-25)

  It is incredible (and shocking) that such a formula can be proclaimed when one considers Jesus' words to baptise in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at Matthew 28:19 and to blatantly go against this. One can only assume that part of this refusal to follow Jesus' words is: 1. Because the formula of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit simply sounds too Trinitarian for the Watchtower to follow 2. The Watchtower formula basically has the Jehovah's Witness dedicating him or herself to an Organisation rather than simply to God alone. This inclusion of the organisation is in line with the wider emphasis and allegiance that Jehovah's Witnesses give to the Watchtower organisation in many other areas of their lives too.

  The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society replaces the Holy Spirit with themselves.

  Just something for any Christian to think hard about.
• 

  Quandry

  fb130

  Welcome. I will add my thoughts. I was not raised in this religion, but was a Bible study. I have been a baptised witness since 1973 and not disfellowshipped.

  NOW is the time to do research, as was mentioned. Yes, please ask questions.

  I did find it odd, after being baptised several years, that the Witnesses discourage you from going far back into their history. If you have the CD rom, you will not find references dating way back, although there is archival storage for all the information to be on the disk.

  But the bits and pieces that I did hear or read about from time to time were interesting. Russell taught that God lived in the Pliades star system. That the pyramids were "God's witnesses in stone." The measurement of the steps in one of the pyramids led him to the 1914 date. Your study conductor may not know about this, and probably will not want to know.

  Later, WT president Rutherford taught that the "ancient worthies" such as David and Abraham, would be resurrected in 1925 and even had a mansion in Southern California deeded to them. He also had two 16 cylinder cadillacs that I suppose they could have driven, and I doubt your study conductor knows about this, either.

  Aside from the research, there is another important factor for you to contemplate. We are all imperfect, and should you ever commit an infraction of the rules, you may have to face a group of men that may look upon you with humiliating disdain, ask intensely personal questions, and if they assess you as not repentent,(or even if they do, just needing punishment) deem you worthless in God's eyes. Yes, if you are baptised, you give them this power over you.

  Please, slow down. They will tell you that time is of the utmost, that the end will come any day. Well, they have been saying that for years and years, yet they themselves are planning new building projects at this moment. I think you have some time. It is yours. Please take it.
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  lavendar

  Ask your Bible study teacher: Has there been ANYTHING in the WTS 's 120-year history that was prophesied that CAME TRUE? The answer is NO. Every single prophesy of their's failed. Why? Simple.....the reason is they are FALSE PROPHETS.

  If your teacher tells you, "well, at least we are willing to admit our mistakes". Ask him: Since when does simply admitting your mistakes make you LESS of a false prophet??

  False prophets in Biblical times were taken outside the city and stoned to death. That's how serious a crime it was back then.

  I sincerely hope you realize what the WTS really is........

  All the best to you,

  Lavendar
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  sacolton

  Better yet, has the organization ever admited of false prophecizing?

  Yes, look at this court transcript:

  Jehovah's Witnesses claim to be the prophet of God at this time. 1 However, in November 1954, the Douglas Walsh trial was held in the Scottish Court of Sessions, in which the Watchtower Society tried to establish before the British court that certain of its members were ordained ministers. High ranking leaders of the Society testified, including vice-president Fred Franz and legal counsel for the Society, Haydon C. Covington. Covington's testimony before the attorney for the Ministry of Labour and National Service included the following admissions:

  Q. Let us follow that up just a little. It was promulgated as a matter which must be believed by all members of Jehovah's Witnesses that the Lord's Second Coming took place in 1874?

  A. I am not familiar with that. You are speaking on a matter that I know nothing of.

  Q. You heard Mr. Franz's evidence?

  A. I heard Mr. Franz testify, but I am not familiar with what he said on that, I mean the subject matter of what he was talking about, so I cannot answer any more than you can, having heard what he said.

  Q. Leave me out of it?

  A. That is the source of my information, what I have heard in court.

  Q. You have studied the literature of your movement?

  A. Yes, but not all of it. I have not studied the seven volumes of "Studies in the Scriptures," and I have not studied this matter that you are mentioning now of 1874. I am not at all familiar with that.

  Q. Assume from me that it was promulgated as authoritative by the Society that Christ's Second Coming was in 1874?

  A. Taking that assumption as a fact, it is a hypothetical statement.

  Q. That was the publication of false prophesy?

  A.That was the publication of a false prophesy, it was a false statement or an erroneous statement in fulfillment of a prophesy that was false or erroneous.

  Now, how many false prophecies are we talking about here? Check the link below ...

  http://www.bible.ca/Jw-Prophecy.htm
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  garybuss

  Talking to an active, believing Witness can actually be fun as a demonstration of study in the research of sales methods, linguistics, hypnosis, high control group tactics, methods of persuasion, and the use of straw men and red herrings.
  
  Witnesses are slick and they borrow from all the low arts. It used to be Witnesses were the used car salesmen of religions. Now they're the junk dealers of religion . . . everything they have has been used and thrown out by someone else.