Hi Titus
I'm fine. I don't have much time for this site in my daily Schedule. but you still like it on here I see?
by southern.finesse 46 Replies latest jw friends
Hi Titus
I'm fine. I don't have much time for this site in my daily Schedule. but you still like it on here I see?
SF - From arguments and name calling to (starting Monday) presenting our views in a court case typesetting at our dinner table.
Wow, I would pay top dollar to see this! I think this could work for you. Welcome to the JWN.
welcome!
@ debator
Thanks for the welcome. I'm not much of a debator and will leave debate for debators like yourself. I consider myself very fair which is why I took the WTS advice and examined it. As I said in my orgininal post, the more I researched your doctrines/beliefs, the stronger I became in my own faith. I can name all the doctrines that left me puzzled but I'm positive you have seen them somewhere on this board already. I did notice your verse selection is something other than the NWT. For which at John 17:3 it states
(NWT)
This means everlasting life, their taking inknowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.
Why didnt you use the NWT verse that was searched and searched for by your organization to reveal the hidden truth to convey your point? Are we to take in knowledge or know the only true God AND Jesus Christ? Isn't it important that we also mention Jesus Christ as well since He is included in the same verse.
I'm pretty sure you may have forgotten to drag your mouse alittle bit further and hightlight ",and Jesus Christ" to make it bold as well. I truly understand, I myself make typoos/errrors all the tiem to.
welcome
Welcome SF My hubby and I will be praying for you both. You are in a good position as you are not viewed as a JW apostate and can argue your case with anyone in the congregation elders and publishers.
It is difficult to keep up with the everchanging doctrine of JW's but the two pivotal scriptures always to keep in mind when either studying the scriptures, or discussing scripure, is 'Acts 17 v 10-11' '1John 4 v 1' witnesses may encourage you to look at those scriptures to discredit other religions and the one you are in.
But once you start to swollow their doctrine they will treat you as disloyal if you apply those scriptures, once your wife is baptised she will be denied the freedom to question any doubts of doctrine or any so called new light that may come up. There is no Christian freedom of consience when discussing progressive light from Gods word, you either believe they are spirit directed or you don't there is no allowance for you to suggest that they may be only speculating. Even if later on that proves to be true you will still labeled as disloyal to the Org.
As hubby and I have recently learned most Christians when they read or study the Bible will pray for Gods holy spirit to give us understanding and elightenment, but we know that other Christians may not share that view and may feel it is just speculation on your part but will not deny you the right to ask God for his enlightening spirit.
Your wife will completely lose that right once she is baptised so make the most of encouraging her to do her homework now.
Best wishes our prayers are with you May Gods spirit guide you
RosePetal
SOUTHERN FINESSE. - Welcome to the board friend. Sounds like you have really benefitted from reading here ! Even though I don't pray( I'm agnostic ) I'll keep positive thoughts for your marriage to your lady. You're gonna need all the prayers and positive thoughts you can muster my friend. Look forward to hearing more from you. Hang in there
Welcome to you both! I wish you the best with your families. My thoughts are with you.
Thanks for all for the welcomes, prayers and positive thoughts @ Mr. Flipper.They are appreciated and encouraging to recieve. At times, I've felt alone in this so i noticed myself coming here alot. As I read posts here, I quickly began to realize my situation could be worse.
@ Rosepetal
That is the main reason why I want her to examine her/my views and beliefs before she is baptized. I know after she is baptized, it would be harder for her to think. If I understand your post correctly, how long were you & your husband in the org? What helped you guys leave?
Hi SF We are both in our early fifties I was a born in and my hubby started to take an interest when he was 19, he got baptised when he was 24. From the start I could see my hubby was a very keen Bible student. I was a born in and had some very bad experiences growing up as a JW but meeting my hubby at the kingdom hall, his enthusiasm for the Bible and his clear love of God made a deep impression on me, he helped renew my faith in what I still believed to be the truth at the time.
He encouraged me to be more study minded and always encouraged me to study beyond what the watchtower was teaching. It wasn't long before we started to see a lot of inconsistences regarding certain teachings also about policies and procedures that seemed very unloving and legalistic. But the teachings are so persuasive and alluring and you feel that every thing is down to human imperfection and that whatever wrongs that happen within the organisation will be put right in Gods due time and they convince you there is no where else to go.
Eventually things came to a head and we both felt we could no longer attend the kingdom hall untill certain issues had been resolved i.e. certain doctrinal discrepencies and the way our dear brothers were being treated. [in fact many things which we won't go into now].
We both agreed before we go back we need to do our homework and see if we could resolve many of the issues that had troubled us over the years. Finally after thirty years of being JW's and a lot of research being in the wilderness for a few years and prayer, we came to realise that the watchtower organisation was not Gods channel of communication. In the fall of last year we sent a joint letter of resignation asking that we no longer wished to be identified as 'Jehovahs witnesses' and no longer recognise the watchtower society as spirit directed. We made it quite clear that we considered ourselves as Christians and our love for Gods word and his promises were still close to our heart.
But for us to keep our Christian conscience which was being eroded by the organisation we knew to have any proper relationship with our Lord and saviour we needed to walk away and become born again. We realised they had been denying Christ being our direct mediator which is one of many of the issues we had with the watchtower. This is what helped us walk away.
Sending you a PM RosePetal