Do most JW's belive their own private version of the religon?

by highdose 33 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  clarity

  This thread is spot on.

  Absolutely!
• 

  outsmartthesystem

  I agree that all JWs have some version of the "truth" that is different than what is on paper in their own heads. But here is what is so weird. ALL of my JW friends have at one time or another mentioned something they believe that is out of line with what the society preaches. For instance, the whole generation debacle. Some don't quite buy the latest explanation....but they believe everything else therefore 1) the new teaching just hasn't sunk in yet with them or 2) they think the society will change it back to somethign they can agree with.

  So ultimately......they believe something that is NOT taught by teh society. Therefore the only difference between them and an apostate is that they keep it to themselves. Somehow that still qualifies them for eternal life.
• 

  agent zero

  yep, definitely agree with this thread. i think in part it's to do with the fact that these days official doctrine is hard to come by in the magazines or at the meetings. now it's all about christian qualities, (but that's a different topic).

  when i was still mentally in, i often thought and said it too, that there may be things that don't make sense or seem contradictory, but that Jehovah doesn't ask of us that we need to understand or agree with it all, just that we do his will. gradually i became less vocal about it when i started seeing Adam and Eve as a symbolic account while still believing we had the Truth. i just thought we had certain details wrong but still had the right "big picture". :P
• 

  sd-7

  Absolutely. I certainly did. I didn't agree with turning people in to the elders. That didn't seem loving, to have a system in place that encouraged spying on each other.

  My mom believes we're not supposed to explore space, because God made the earth for us. So...unique ideas abound.

  --sd-7
• 

  agonus

  I agree with Donuthole. A great deal of WT doctrine has become so labyrinthine (*cough* abstain from blood *cough*) that the majority of JWs are probably unfamiliar with half of what they're supposed to believe/remember. Why else would we have studied that 360+ page abortion, the Revelation book - what, 3 times? 4 times? inside of a period of less than 3 decades, the last one with new-light-related "revisions" no less?
• 

  sd-7

  Come on, agonus--some people just can't remember that the four angels holding back the winds of destruction are actually four GROUPS of angels, okay? It bears repeating!

  --sd-7
• 

  kazar

  I do agree with all comments made. When I was in I encountered the same thing. Everyone had a different opinion of what something meant. It was very confusing to me because whoever I asked what something from the bible meant - it was a different answer. It never occurred to me there was fault in their reasoning or that they didn't know...it had to be my fault in understanding the answer. You can recognize the cultish self-punishment there.
• 

  WildeLover

  Love this thread!

  Breakfast of champions- I am so wiht your family on this one. i have heard a few people say that they dont feel 100% on certain things like the generation.

  i myself have so mnay views on things, i should be DFed. but i must keep them to myself; the consequences will be dire if not.

  i think what i want and i say very little!!

  WildeLover
• 

  Violia

  agree, there are a lot of privately held beliefs that are shared among close friends. The belief in demons attacking jws has always been strong but in the 80's they stopped putting so much of it in the mags. I was told by newbie jws that jws did not believe in all that . I told them to look at the mags from at least 60's onward. They said that was apostate now and we were not to look at the old mags and books. Crazy stuff. Privately many born ins do believe the demons are everywhere ready to attack jws. I knew a sister who used her daily text like a horoscope . a number of jws who are in higher positions doubt Armageddon reality, probably symbolic.

  what is said on the platform and what jws really believe can be quite different.
• 

  WontLeave

  Let's not forget that the Society is notorious for simultaneously playing every possible position on a subject. "We are/are not prophets" springs to mind. Depending on what most JWs want to believe, there's probably support for it, somewhere in the enormous collection of fallible, ever-changing human writings.