I simply don't believe they have "The Truth".
Ex Jehovah's Witnesses, Why Did You Leave The Watchtower?
by Tired of the Hypocrisy 32 Replies latest jw friends
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snowbird
I left because I was sick and tired of their pushing Jesus into the background.
Then I learned about the perversion of the sacred Scriptures, the UN affiliation, the bogus no-blood doctrine, the prejudice against Black people. The list goes on and on ...
The Jesus I've come to know and love wouldn't spit on an organization such as that.
Sylvia
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saklunch
hmmmm, where do I begin. It is true as others have stated that you are kept so busy you have no time to think about the "truth" of what you are doing, however at about age 40 after shunning my beloved sister for 20+ years, which troubled me daily, my brother was then df'd and so I began having, shall we say "doubts". I began the forbidden task of researching this organization using informaiton other than published by the WTBTS. I wanted to know if othered suffered as I was, if they felt they were emotionally dead and wanted to die rather than live another day as a JW. What I found was both enlightening and terrifying. I hadn't really "bought into it" shall we say, but having the utmost faith in my parents did not question how I had been raised, I knew nothing else. I was a 4th generation JW from a high profile family AND I was the last remaining child of this family to be a JW AND I had indoctrinated my children in this religion not realizing there was life without it. I found the UN connection, I found life stories mirroring mine, I found the Rothchild connection, I researched the history of this organizaiton and the leaders, Charles Taze Russell, etc. I found out about the child abuse that is covered up and I experienced frsthamd the elders looking the other way as my brother suffered 12 years of physical abuse (being thrown down stairs etc) by his wife who to this day is in "good standing" as a JW. The elders were called in by me at one point and they saw the blood running down my brothers face and she said, I know just when to stop. She was never even reproved. Even after all of that, in typical JW fashion I tried to explain it away, wait on Jehovah, all the b/s you are condidtioned to think when these things are brought up. Then the very friends who told me if I did not shun my brother, since he was df'd, they would cut me off - well that elder committed adultery with his best friends wife and they ran off together destroying two families, 4 kids and devastating two others, his wife and her husband. That was it, the hypocrisy was more than I could bear and it all came crashing in and I no longer could attach my name to a group that so blingly followed and most don't even know why, they just do! I searched out my cousin, and my sister and my brother and reconnected and in the process learned that my father, an elder for 50 years in this "pillar of the church" family was himself a child abuser. I was done. Fortunately my husband and my grown sons were as well. We sent a letter of disassociation and have never looked back. We are happier than we have ever been. It was a long lonely road, but it has been SO worth it!
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Jeremy C
1. Within the religion, there is a subtle form of idolatry that is promulgated toward the organization. The leadership is constantly demanding its members to give "allegiance to", "obedience to", and "sacred service" to the organization. The organization is presented as the only means for salvation; whereby Christ Jesus is inseparable from the organization. There is absolutely no precedent in the Bible anywhere to give allegiance to or to put one’s salvation into an organization. The organizational concept is something that is post-apostolic, and post-Biblical.
2. Jehovah’s Witnesses are commanded to place complete trust and obedience into the printed pages of the Watchtower. Although the Watchtower makes no claim to be "inspired" or infallible, the organizational leadership commands JWs to treat it as such. If a member disagrees with the Watchtower; they are viewed as disagreeing with God. Again, this is a concept completely foreign to the Scriptures. Nowhere in all of the Scriptures will you find any precedent for placing uninspired writings on an equal level with the inspired Bible. The organizational leadership also claims that one cannot be blessed with Holy Spirit if they do not regularly study WT publications. This concept of Holy Spirit operating through uninspired writings is also totally foreign to the Scriptures.
3. The Watchtower organization uses several methods of mind control in order to maintain absolute unanimity within its ranks. Unity is something natural, organic, and flexible. That is what makes unity so strong and durable. Unanimity on the other hand is manufactured, rigid, and enforced through punitive methods. The "truth" is able to stand upon itself without having to be propped up with methods of manipulation, coercion, and mind control. The "truth" should be able to stand up to any scrutiny. It does not have to hide, gloss over facts, or shield itself from scrutiny. The Watchtower’s claim to exclusive truth is betrayed by it’s very tactics of coercion, manipulation, glossing over the facts, forced unanimity, and shielding itself from scrutiny.
4. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society originally borrowed many of it’s core doctrines (1914 chronology, the concept of "new light", etc.) from the Second Adventists. Why didn’t Jehovah just direct the Adventists to readjust their thinking and doctrines to conform to his "truth"? Why did Jehovah have to cause C.T. Russell to split off and start up a whole new movement that had most of the same doctrines anyway? The core foundation of the Watchtower organization as "God’s exclusive organization" is built upon contradictions, delusions, and wishful thinking.
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lovelylil
coffeeblack (((hugs)))
You hit on a lot of the same reasons why I left. When I learned that at one time organ transplants were forbidden but then the policy changed, I often wondered how many people died because of the old policy. I then began to wonder if the blood policy would change and really it did! Now you can have certain fractions while before you could not have blood in any way,shape or form.
When I contemplated the blood change to accepting fractions, I began to think of all the JW children whose parents martyrd them for the Tower and how terrible that was. I tell you, I cried for a long time over that.
Anther thing is we did not have many kids in our hall and since we were not supposed to let our kids play with nieghbors kids, my kids started to feel isolated. This affected my daughter even more because she is older and had to live in that environment longer than her brother. The result was she had severe depression by the time she was 10. I eventually stood up to my husband about this and allowed to kids have friends and this caused many to label us as poor association. And it put a rift in my marriage with my husband because I was sneaking the kids in when he was at work and an elder's wife who lived on our street ratted me out.
I also did not see the so-called love at all. I saw lots of gossipers and backbitters and people who were always judging others in the congregation. Funny when I grew up in the Catholic church, I never saw any of that and always felt part of a real brotherhood. And if anyone was in need financially or otherwise, the catholic church always helps them out. This got me thinking about why the so called "true" religion did nothing for anyone, and not even in the community. Where were their food pantries, homeless shelters, etc?
The final straw was when I put down the boring WT mags and picked up the bible itself. Especially the New Testament. In their I found the real Jesus and his words spoke to my heart and soul. I wanted to turn my life over to follow him and not the organization. And as promised, his load was very kind and light. That is when I became a born again.
Looking back, I was always a little different from the rest of the dubs I knew and I feel its because I had a real conscience and love for people that the Tower could not take away. Thank God for that because I never became hard and cold like a lot of dubs do. Been out more than 5 years now and we are all doing well. My hubby had a hard time at first and we almost divorced over it , but we now go to church together and are doing well. We also went to some marraige counciling which helped a lot. My kids, both of them have a big social life and lots of good friends. We observe the holidays with family every year, and as a matter of fact we are having a huge sweet 16 for our daughter tomarrow! She is doing fine now. She still has some bouts of anxiety but nothing like she did when we were witnesses.
All in all, we are doing so much better and are so much happier in our lives. Peace, Lilly
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AudeSapere
Response posted.
-Aude.
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BluesBrother
Once again Jeremy C hit the nail on the head and said what I think, only said it better...
Put it simply - we always called it "The Truth" so it has to be truth. and how do you measure that with religion and faith? ..My progression to where I am today was to have niggling doubt that I could not suppress. I could see during the nineties that they were obviously extending the "generation" because their prediction had failed. As we approached the Millennium I got curious as to how the calendar got to be adopted so I started reading and found that the chronology based on 607 BCE to 1914 CE was just too simplistic and would not work out. - another nail in their coffin.
I realised that it was a fair question to say "Where has Armageddon got to?" I was not showing lack of faith or selfish interest by asking what had gone wrong with the expectations.
I then got to think about the "end" and pondered as to why God would slaughter perfectly normal families who lived regular lives, and then resurrect past generations who had lived worse? It did not add up.
Finally the penny dropped and I sat all afternoon mumbling to myself "It's not true, none of it - it is just not true" . From then on I have never doubted for one moment that that conclusion is correct. Everything I have learned, and I have learned a lot from this board confirms that it is just not true...
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OnTheWayOut
Doctrinal change of "this generation" in 1995 proved to me that the WTS is
not "the truth." This led to an examination of everything they teach. That made
me discover that I was in a mind-control cult.If the 1995 change just left me doubting, the 2008 change of that same doctrine again
would have pushed me out. -
leavingwt
I questioned whether or not the governing body of the JW was all members of the annointed. They said "Oh yes" NOT!!!!
I don't understand your statement above. Being of the anointed class is a requirement to serve on the GB.
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w067/15p.20par.6FocusontheGoodnessofJehovah’sOrganization***The ‘faithful slave’ is represented by the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a small group of spirit-anointed men serving at the world headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Brooklyn, New York.
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Tired of the Hypocrisy
Thing about the blood though, my aunt just died of septic shock from a transfusion
Sasha I am sorryt o hear about your Auntie.