Truth about the "Truth"???

iamwhoiam

How and when did you first realize that the truth was not the "truth"?

The moment finally came when I read a passage out of "The Finished Mystery" (1917) where the authors of the book (CJ Woodworth and George Fisher I think) took a text out of Nahum and gave the application that it was speaking prophetically about a railroad train. For those who have never read Ray Franz's "In Search of Christian Freedom" (Shame on you!) I'll reproduce a part of it here:

Nahum was the next one of the holy Prophets; and after prophesying in the last verse of the preceding chapter about the coming of the King with His good tidings of peace to the sin-burdened earth, he next tells (Nahum 2:3-6) of an interesting thing that will be a matter of common everyday experience at the time the Kingdom is established. He describes a railway train in motion [not an automobile, as some think], and if we will be at the trouble to put ourselves in the Prophet's place we can see just what he saw in his vision and what he has so interestingly described. First the Prophet stands looking at the engine coming toward him, and then says, "The shield [the thing ahead of this great warrior-the headlight] is made red [shines brilliantly], the valiant men [the engineer and the fireman] are dyed scarlet [when the flames from the firebox illuminate the interior of the cab at night, as the fireman opens the firedoor to throw in the coal]. The chariots [the railway coaches] shall be with [shall be preceded by locomotives that, at night, have the appearance of] flaming torches, in the Day of Preparation."

As Ray points out, the above-quoted material is not an exception; the whole book is filled with that kind of nonsense. The same goes for much, if not most of the literature produced around the turn of the century. To think that Jesus was pleased with such insanity and consequently chose the Watchtower organization in 1919 to the exclusion of all other religious groups is even greater nonsense.

still thinking

When I found out about the WTS involvement with the UN...hypocrates! That got me looking to see what else was "not the TRUTH"

AllTimeJeff

3 stages

1) My brothers suicide in 1998, (drug addicted and mentally ill) where I was actually praised for shunning him in his hour of need.

2) 9/11/01, where I saw what Armageddon would look like, and got to actually question whether or not this was bat shit that Jehovah would destroy everyone for not believing like "us" at the Kingdom Hall.

3) Gilead, class 119, when we hit 2 Kings and to get the answers on the test right, we had to write that Elijah = Rutherford and Elisha = Knorr. That was the first time I said to myself, "This is crap, this isn't 'the truth'!"

What happened to my brother opened my heart for the first time. 9/11 opened my mind and caused me to start really thinking about what I was raised to believe.

thetrueone

When I was 8 or 9 years old I was informed that I couldn't eat Hot Dogs any more because they contain blood fillers or remnants of cow blood.

At the same time we were having are Sunday roast I noticed blood juice running off the carving plater, I knew then that something was fucked up here.

This is just one an example of my questioning what I was been taught, from the simplest and earliest of times growing up in this religion.

The pretentious and maligning lies involving 1975 and the 6000 years of man's existence, sealed the deal for me, that this isn't coming from god's

holy spiritual guidance and direction, it was coming from a bunch of guys running a publishing house in New York.

ShirleyW

Thetrueone -

Along with being a publishing house (probably one of the largest in the country) they're also a rather large real estate agency as well.

paulnotsaul

When my 90yr. old grandpa died last august. He was remembered at his memorial by how proud he was that he placed 3 books for the society. What? are you for real! 90 years and thats it,huh? Not to mention how my jw family acted. No public viewing. The PO came to my grandma's house and didn't even console me or other family members he didn't know. I refered to him as 'asshole' to my elder bro-in-law. This began my spiritual journey into "the truth" about the truth. On my journey I started with 'Taze' and the founding of his version of religion. It was all reveiled to me from that point on. This Organization is a joke! But I wasn't laughing. I love my family and would do anything for them, but they got to get out of this cult. I came out still a believer. Just not a believer in JW theology BS. PeacetoAll paulnotsaul