As of today, I will no longer be one of Jehovah's Witnesses. (page 5)

It is hard when you are under emotional pressure to keep your balance. They fire one thing after another leading you down a yes path to suck you back in and it is incredibly difficult to stick to your guns.

The arguments he used do not stand up when you have time to actually examine them quietly without the constant barrage. They make assumptions that there is only one true religion, that God is using that specific organisation, that everything outside their religion is bad, that you must choose a religion, that anything critical of their religion must by definition be bad. They will not accept that they must be wrong or that their doctrines must be incorrect . A staunch JW elder is a brick wall they are not interested in your point of view merely how closely your point of view matches theirs. They will look for the tipping point at which you can no longer be saved.

You did well under the circumstances and at the end of it all they could not really convince you not because you have been poisoned by apostates but because they could not provide evidence that supported their point of view. Saying something is right does not make it right.

Black Sheep

Typical JW behaviour. Jumping from topic to topic, keeping you off balance and the conversation in a place where they are comfortable and you are not.

If you haven't got the skills to control the conversation it will usually go badly. The stauncher the bOrgite, the worse it gets.

Congratulations for standing your ground. Just remember, next time:

Control

Cheers

Chris

sabastious

He kept pursuing the bigger picture. I ended up acknowledging that 1.) no matter how good worldies are, it's very difficult to find someone you can trust, 2.) in the "bigger picture" I hadn't seen in any other religion what this one does.

You shouldn't have caved on this.

The whole design of the Watchtower is to get everyone thinking the same thing so they will trust each other (which happens in ANY like minded group, btw); then play on that trust. You basically admitted that "not being able to trust a stranger" is somehow the same thing as like minded people trusting other like minded strangers.

It's just a Secret Club Phenomenon here and the Watchtower's "secret handshake" is Bible doctrine and classic religious fundamentalism! Don't let them paint themselves with such a rose colored brush.

-Sab

moshe

I hadn't seen in any other religion what this one does.

Yeah, like no public charities for the poor, widows and orphans,

mentallyfree31

Congratulations. I will have to agree with the Andy Dufrain picture. Nothing like freedom.

-MF31-

Nickolas

As far as the "what other organization" argument, a valid question, "when has there ever been an organization that has remained faithful?" Technically, a christian ought to be prepared to be a christian all alone and stand up against a church like WT with an authoritarian clergy like the GB that has a consistent history of false prophecy. Jesus never said that the narrow and cramped road would be followed by one "organization", it says "few". That means individuals would be approved, not people that were being misled by arrogant self-aggrandizing Watchtower zealots. The head of the man is Christ, not some self-promoting printing corporation. This dude is just a Watchtower pawn that eagerly whitewashes over crumbling JW 19th century theology.

Bravo, Billy. One of the best left hooks I've read. Added to my arsenal.

umadevi

I am glad that you didn't change your stand. I expect another elder will come along anytime soon. Come to think of it you really don't owe them any explanation. Best of Luck!

Knowsnothing

I have some serious updates. My mother was unable to sleep last night, because I informed elder 2 I would not accept the elders' help, which meant that my DA decision was final. My mother cried up a serious storm. I've never seen her so devastated, and to be honest, I don't know how much longer I can hold out.

Even though I don't really believe in any of this, there is that very strong conviction in her, and on the back of my head, it's always "What if this is the real deal?"

However, this morning she awoke me @ 6:45 to show me in "Insight on the Scriptures" the meaning of apostasy. She thought that my DA was not that severe, but she looked into this that I was essentially an apostate and would therefore have no means of ever coming back.

I started telling her, not just that I didn't believe in the organisation, but why. She began to reason, and actually calmed down. She saw that some of the things I told here were legitimate. Ex. False dates that were categorically stated as the end of the world such as 1914, 1925, and insinuated in 1975. This would prove WT false prophets. I also showed that the WT would then parallel Harold Camping’s May 2011, for if Camping was a false prophet for announcing a date that never came, then so was WT.

However, for this I would have to find an article that stated it first as categorically, then white-washed it into possibility or turned its interpretation around. I know jwfacts has this info, but I would like to get a legitimate copy, and not simply a quote. That ain’t so easy.

I also reasoned with her on the Bible, on subjects like 2 flock hope.

With the “Organized to do God’s Will” book, I showed that baptism was being done in the name of an organisation, which clearly went against Scripture in Matthew 28:19.

Ultimately, I told her outright my feelings that everything I have been “fed” has been from non-other than the organisation. I also reasoned with her that I was baptised at 10 and essentially was forced to do it, for fear of being wiped out at Armaggedon and to please her. Expressing how I truly felt about all this helped her a great deal in seeing the reality of the situation. She was beginning to understand.

But, then the cult-persona came in again. Seeing she was losing ground with me on reasoning and was beginning to doubt herself, she told me to address these questions with the elders.

I stupidly accepted. I am in the mouth of the wolf here. She is out to assembly now, while I stay home for the weekend.

What do I do now? Do I tell her I changed my mind, don’t want to meet with the elders, and that I have simply made up my mind? Or do I go all out with a bang, prove the WT is a false organisation, and possibly even shake her enough to come to reason?

If I have a chance to save her from this damned religion, it would be tremendous.

As of today, I will no longer be one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

cantleave

cult classic

nugget