Was it EX JW literature / WT's or the BIBLE which woke you up? Post scriptures if any....

by EndofMysteries 52 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  whathappened

  Wow, some of these experiences are really moving, especially the post by feathermiss (I have a sister who I love dearly also).

  When we studied the Revelation Climas book the last time, I couldn't believe it. Not only did they have to revise and update it (what, the Watchtower changing scriptural interpretation again?), but I realised how preposturous the whole book was. It slammed the Catholic Church so bad, but had such a holier than thou theme to it. Some of those scriptural applications were so far fetched, you wondered if the writers were on drugs when they came up with that stuff.

  Then of course, the blood fractions, the baptismal vows changing, the generation change (Armageddon is never coming is it?). I have been attending meetings since I was a small child and the message is getting tired.

  The final clinker was the self righteous attitude of just about every try hard Jehovah's Witness in my congregation. They noticed every little tiny thing everybody did that was wrong. I bent over to pick up my songbook one Sunday after the meeting and the sister behind me gasped and said, "sister, I just saw your cleavage!" WTF, turn your head and look away then, you old, ugly bit**. Then they said that sisters should not be showing cleavage no matter what they are wearing and no matter what the posture. This is absolutely crazy. I am built with a generous bossom and I would have to wear turtlenecks all year round. It just started to lose all credibility, slowly, but surely.
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  Aunt Fancy

  I kept saying to myself, you will know my people because of the love among them but I wasn't feeling that love and hadn't for many years. I just felt something was terribly wrong and I was so unhappy. None of my family are JW's and they are such good, honest people who never gossip or hurt others and I thought there is no way Jehovah is going to destroy them when they act better than many of the ones I know. I got on Amazon and started researching books and read a lot of books about the witnesses and I knew my hunch was right! There were so many signs over the years that were right in front of my face but I never did the research until this year and what a year it has been!
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  everchangingworld

  I never remember having any doubts until a few years ago. I was a true believer, although I do remember feeling really uneasy whenever I'd hear someone had become an "apostate". I did wonder if they knew something I didn't, and then I would chase that thought out of my mind.

  I don't know why it wasn't until my 30s that I started noticing the inconsistencies, in the Bible and in the WT publications, but once I started noticing, it was hard to shut off. I shoved those doubts aside for another couple of years. I turned to super intense study of WT publications and bible reading to reconcile my doubts, and that's when it all fell apart very quickly.

  Things that had bothered me: disfellowshipping arrangement, secret judicial hearing, the arbitrariness of the decisions (I realized that if you could appeal, then their judgment could be wrong the 1st time, yet we weren't allowed to ever question the elders' decisions), "encouraging" young teenagers to baptism, Old Testament's Yave orders to kill women and children and to not feel sorry, treatment of women like 2nd class citizens, Paul's writings and the inconsistencies, the dogmatic statements made in the WT, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. And, then when I started reading about "apostacy" in the WT, I realized something was really wrong - it really sealed it for me.

  When I approached my husband, who was an elder, about my concerns that the GB was self appointed and that there was absolutely nothing to back up their claim, he tried to "help" me. But a few weeks later, his own doubts after having been an elder and observed that the a**hole with the strongest personality, if he happens to be the P.O., makes the decisions, and that there was never any evidence of god's spirit on these meetings or decisions.