From 'Everlasting Life' to just a few more years. How did you handle the realisation that you WOULD die? (page 3)

nicolaou

Just wondering if many here actually believe they will have 'everlasting life' in heaven. Did that belief take hold before you left the Watchtower? Can you at least see the possibility that perhaps you simply substituted one dream for another?

Nic'

south african beef

Hi Nic,

Good post.

I for one grew up with the knowledge that I would not leave school / get married / have kids etc etc in this system.

Now in my late forties, with three grown up children it certainly gets to you sometimes that you are indeed going to die! None of us wants to die, but I aim to enjoy my life as much as possible, alongside those that mean a lot to me - my wife and lovely children.

My parents have not spoken to me since I was df'd and I know they must be going through torment as they always said they were glad that the big A was coming before they would die. They are desperate to live through Armageddon as they want to live forever together as man and wife.

How sad the whole situation is!

Regards

SAB

Steve_C

Nicolau, I'm like some of the others who've posted: I was a born-in who was supposed to see the "new world" before I finished high school. I firmly believed that I had a chance of never dying. After getting out a few years ago--at around age 40--I finally had to face my mortality, and it was a shock to me. I haven't replaced my former beliefs with any other afterlife hope, so sometimes I do get scared of dying, thinking about what I might miss out on (grandkids, further learning, etc.).

However, when I'm feeling ill with a bad flu or something, and I just want to lie in bed and go to sleep so my body will stop aching, then I understand how so many old people accept death and are ready for it. So now, while I do fear dying 'before my time,' I think I'll be ready for it when I've lived a full life and my broken down body wants relief.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

I still have the hope of an afterlife in the back of my head.

I guess I'd be agnostic that no existing organized religion knows the truth about an afterlife, and we won't know until we get there. I would try to live the kind of life and be the kind of person that if, say, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is choosing angels, I'd be one he/she would want to bring along to the heavenly party.

B the X

oompa

yes nic.......a mindfluck........i was/am angry too

not afraid of death...but gettin old???????hate it...fear it....oompa

yadda yadda 2

Well, it doesn't worry me because I still believe there is a God and I believe in the spirit realm so I still think there is a hope of something beyond this mortal coil.

TheOldHippie

I cope with it poorly - or perhaps it is better to say "not at all".

Sorry, I'm a coward when it comes to this - cannot possibly imagine NON-EXISTENCE .............

As a child, I said I wanted to have my electric train with me in my coffin, so I could have something to watch while I lay there. I don't think I have prgressed much in maturity since then ............ I have lived in fear of dying, in death pain, from the age of 6-7 onwards.

StoneWall

Oh Crap!

You mean we're all going to die?

Just like all the millions that came before us and all the billions that are now and the ones that will come after us.

I didn't sign on for this. I was assured that as a young one I wouldn't have to worry about death. That it would

be a thing of the past.

Of course the ones that assured me of this also said the end would be here in the late 1800's,1914, 1925,1975

etc. etc. Hmmmm something tells me I'd better start thinking about writing out that "Will" that we won't need since

the end is so close now.

shopaholic

Oldhippie, I'm with you...I can't imaging non-existence. When it first hit me that all of this being a lie meant that I would die and cease to existence I was in a severe funk for several days. It was pretty bad then it finally dawned on me to make the most of right now.

Quandry

Yes, I too was terribly dissilutioned when I found out that I would be dying some day, after all. The things I could have been enjoying for over thirty years instead of dragging myself to "one more door!"

One poster said:

I've been thinking of my own funeral a lot, off and on. I definitely don't want it to be in a Kingdom Hall with the smarmy, one-size-fits-all infomercial at the end. Neither does the rest of my immediate family. So, what will we do when that time comes? Don't know...not affiliated with any church at the moment and may not be any time soon...whoever's left will probably have to stand up to the relatives still in, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

When I first left the witnesses, it hit me that all of my friends had been witnesses, so who would speak at my funeral, or come to it? I have since realized that I would rather have a small grave-side service with a few people who actually cared that I had lived, rather than hundreds coming, not to remember me, but to hear about why all in attendance should do more, more, more.....

From 'Everlasting Life' to just a few more years. How did you handle the realisation that you WOULD die?

Share this