by losthusband 53 Replies latest watchtower bible
I think its the kindness first shown and it is exciting learning something about the bible. I started to study at 12/13.....
The love bombing to help you as someone young you feel it is really sincere, and they really like you. It came at a time for me when my
father had left so it filled a hole in my life.
h4o
Reniaa,
If you were in the market to make a purchase, wouldn't you check the internet for critical information regarding the product.
3. What are the first steps for telling your partner they are nuts for wanting anything to do with the JWs?
Here's some thoughts. Tell them to ask the JW's what happens to those that leave the JW's after baptism?
What if my children decide it's not for them after baptism? Will I have to shun my own children?
Start reading some books to help out your loved ones. COMBATTING CULT MIND CONTROL and RELEASING THE BONDS by Steve Hassan.
Both can be found at freedomofmind.com or at amazon or perhaps your local library. CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE by Ray Franz, a former Governing Body member (leader) of the JW's.
1. What sort of things are involved in a "bible study" for a 10/11 year old?
Teaching them the WTS version of "what the Bible says" and how to be a "good, God-fearing JW". Either of these can be an improvement or a detriment: if a child is a rebellious hellion, making him scared of God might shape him up. If he's a well-adjusted kid, it might warp him towards fanaticism. In my experience, there are very few options in between these two, being scared God is going to destroy you or becoming a control freak over others. In any case, the child's head will be filled with what some would consider superstitious rubbish, what others consider the Word of God. I guess the parent gets to pick.
2. What is the attraction for a 17 year old girl to start "studying" and going to meetings....am I missing something?
Aside from the obvious hormonal stuff, there are plenty of teenagers honestly looking for Answers to the Big Questions - the WTS claim to have all the Answers. That looks enticing.
3. What are the first steps for telling your partner they are nuts for wanting anything to do with the JWs?
Making them aware that there is a huge group of people that are no longer associated and feel they've been deprived of a clear head, a whole heart and a full life while "in". Leaving a copy of Crisis of Conscience for them to read. Telling them you are concerned that the WTS looks a little like a Krazy Kult, that some of their beliefs are kinda far out there (transfusions, shunning), and that they will expect a great deal of life changes to stay in their club.
4. recieved cards stating she is "progressing well" - what the hell does that mean?
She (at least appears) to be becoming a "good, God-fearing JW" - she is doing what they want (witnessing door to door), stopping what they want (no more associating with "worldly" - non JW - friends), and can repeat back the dogma they expect her to be able to remember.
If she marries that JW boy and has kids and THEN decides she can't live up to her baptism...........She will have indoctrinated her kids (because she was brainwashed herself) the kids will act like she's EVIL. This will be reinforced by the congregation "Stand strong against the machinations of the Devil"
You should also note that most of us born in to this religion run screaming for the door in our late teens. We get out by any means necessary---BUT some of us lose ALOT.
If it was that great, the kids wouldn't run for the door.
I still to this day do not understand why people join as adults.
Remember this forum has mostly an anti-witnesses one. The information on here is mostly biased against them.....Reniaa
Reniaa is Anti-XJW..
Most of Reniaa`s posts are biased against them..
Many of us have JW family..
Jehovah`s Witness`s as individuals are not the problem..
Most of us have a problem with the WBT$..
The corrupt organization that runs the Jehovah`s Witness Cult..
The same WBT$ organization Reniaa has publicly admited to not following..
....................OUTLAW
Losthusband Welcome to the board
I was a JW for 25 years. I made 10 people JW's .For which I am truly sorry
It is a cult... Because I would not believe that Jesus came invisably in 1914
I was disfellowshipped/Which when that happens No Jehovahs Witness is
allowed to speak to them.So I have lost my daughter & my grand-daughter
Whom I love very much. But the WT tells their followers to SHUN any who
leave the organization.... So judge for your self is this a loving thing to teach?
I am 82 years old now..So Know I will not have the pleasure to cuddle my daughter
before I die...That should tell anyone who is involved with the WT to stop reading
their books it is NOT a BIBLE study it is their books..Just like Jim Jones,& Koresh taught
those who listened to them died ....It is a very sad outcome for the Jehovahs Winess
if they stop selling their mags, & books. .
By the way Rennia is a Jehovahs Witness ,so needs to count time as All JWS must do
A Bible Study sounds very alluring doesnt it? Very spiritual. Except in the case of the JWs, the Bible is just sort of a prop. What they teach from is their own man made materials which indoctrinate and subliminally brain wash, their students into THINKING they are doing something "for God". They "study" (read: read a paragraph, ask a question about that paragraph, re-state what you just read in the paragraph again...reinforcing it over and over and over) their own literature, love bombing the student, tickling the ears of the student, complimenting the student over and over about what wonderful "progress" they are making, doing things for and with the student, giving the student the idea that they are becoming lasting friends. When in fact...that relationship is based solely on that student continuing to become a JW. If they do not...the relationship ends like someone flipping a light switch. It is conditional and disingenuous.
As for a 17 year old being attracted to it..has she ever been exposed to any other religion but this one? Doesnt sound like it. And even as a 30 year old, I was DRAWN to the "closeness" of the JW community, which is part of the love bombing recruiting process. I was alone, divorced from a very abusive man, had no friends, and was RIPE for this and fell for it. And of course it all looked logical, and indeed in my very first study, I was told that my relatives and friends would try to stop my study and that was because Satan himself was making them do that to try to get me away from Jehovah. And when that HAPPENED...I was like whoooooooaaaaa....they MUST have the truth because THEY KNEW THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN! I was soooo naive and ignorant. And the problem was that I had no knowledge of either the bible or anything else to fight this "logic" and "reasoning from the scriptures" the JWs have down to a science. It is a VERY DANGEROUS CULT. And it will ruin your family if allowed to slide under your door.
Encourage your partner to look at both sides of this issue. If this is the TRUTH then it should by definition, hold up under ANY scrutiny. So tell her that she needs to ask questions, read nonJW literature. Talk to ex members. Come in here and ask any questions she wants to. Anything we tell her she can certainly go back and ask a JW or look in THEIR literature to get the other side. Make INFORMED decisions instead of falling for the Used Car Salesman's Pitch that the JWs foist on everybody to make themselves look good and appealing. And yes if you go along for the ride, you can ask the questions she doesnt. See how quickly the JWs force you out of the picture...because you threaten to derail their "progress" with their target.
Progress by the way, is just a way of saying they were on page 12 last week and now they are on page 18. Or " Gosh, its been an entire month that we have been coming here to see you and you never missed a study! What wonderful "progress" you are making! And by the way...you dont really want to use that nasty old King James version do you with that hard to read Old English in it? Here honey...I brought you a brand new New World Translation and it wont cost you a thing."
Its an insidious cult. We ALL know because we ALL did this to people and had it done to us. Do what you can to get your family the hell out.
By the way...welcome to the board Lost. Forgot my manners there. LD
Welcome to the board.
Just echoing what WuslovesDubs said. For them to offer a 'bible study' is misleading. What they will do is put one of their books into their hands and keep the bible as a prop.
All of their books are written by the men who run this organization. They are designed to indoctrinate people, young or old, with their UNIQUE teachings. THEIR interpretation of what the Bible says will be taught and not what the Bible actually says itself. Every JW is expected to 'believe' these teachings as if they were from God himself. The history of the organization is littered with changes and reversals of their teachings, and every time they change, each individual JW must accept and believe the change as the truth. But truth doesn't change. If it changes then it wasn't truth in the first place.
JWs are expected to believe everything they are told by these men at the top.......and they do,...over and above the Bible.
They dont really care what the Bible says, only what comes to them through the pages of books and magazines printed by the Watchtower org. In Rev 19 :1 It speaks of a 'great crowd' in heaven. The WT......says its not ! Every JW, is taught this and accepts it as true even though the Bible says its not the case. They are brainwashed into thinking these top men have 'better truth' and will accept this over what the Bible itself says.
They are a cult! They hurt and damage people! Do what you can to discourage any involvement!
I was 14 and my brother 12 when my mother started studying in the 80's.
It sounds to me as though your children are already involved in the religion. They have friends within the religion that they will lose should they decide to leave it.
For me, within a few months i was 'encouraged' to stop hanging around with school frineds and only mix with congregation kids. At that age you're impressionable, i looked up to many kids in the congregation, there was alot of youngsters my age and a little older. Eventually when all of your friends are JW's and both you and they are told to only mix with congregation kids by parents and elders then you are trapped and just can't leave.
I also believed at that age through bible study with JW's that i will die at Armageddon, which was coming shortly if i didn't carry on with my studies.
As a kid with a very high IQ i left school with no qualifications and did a menial job so that i could pioneer. But everything was great because all my friends were pioneers too, so we had a laugh.
Eventually as an adult once i realised that i had been taught wrong and wanted to leave i had to leave all those friends behind.
I hope you find your answers here.
