by fortbethel 60 Replies latest jw friends
Mrs J, they want you to leave a perfectly good husband because he's not a JW? Good grief! They are definitely not about family! Even in my JW family they never advised a woman to leave a good man!
Sam, thanks for the Christmas countdown reminder! I don't believe in god, but I may put a tree up this year just to piss people off!
Serenity,
It's the time of the year I cherish the most... I wish all people hapiness all year long, but especially all of the little people in our lives that we love so much at Christmas.
Welcome forbethel!
There are good things I liked about being a jw. The peacefullness I experienced at the conventions and when visiting Bethel. I love the society's printing operation. I wish I could go see Bethel again: Wallkill and brooklyn especially. But I don't drive and have no one to go with.
The secure feeling I used to have as a witness-the paradise earth hope-...but that turned out to be a story. Nothing is black or white. I am not 100% against the witnesses. But too much is wrong.
It is a very judgemental and strict religion. If that does not bother you then you might be able to find happiness there. But if you talk to any one about your not accepting certain teachings-and the 144,000 is a MAJOR one, then you will be criticized and shunned. It is sad, but true.
My JW wife left me. She comitted adultry - but in the Watchtower religion - I was the evil person.
Do you know why?
Because:
Good luck with the watchtower. You'll either figure it out, or you won't. God, prayer - they can not do anything. They never do. Faith can not move mountains. Never could, never will.
Man, can and has moved mountains, via science and technology. It's not perfect - but it is real.
- Lime
Hi, Fort Bethel-
Welcome!
I am a Christian who loves the Lord Jesus. I was never one of Jehovah's Witnesses. Some years ago in a discussion with a staunch JW on this board I asked him if he really believed that I was going to be destroyed because I do not believe Jesus returned in 1914 and picked the Bible Students (now the WTBTS) to be God's sole representatives on earth.
When you studied with various denominations, even if you did not think they were for you, did you meet at least some Christians who had a vibrant, living faith and who were filled with love for Jesus and their neighbors?
It is my understanding that as a JW you will be required to believe that all of us who are not JW's but who love God, who study the Bible, and who try to live in peace and love our neighbors will be "bird seed," objects of God's wrath at Armaggedon. Is this really what you believe in your heart about me and others like me? Is that a message that you can in good conscience carry from door to door in the form of WT literature?
That doesn't sound like the good news of the king I know and love. Here's the good news about MY king ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzqTFNfeDnE
My heart goes out to you as you struggle with this decision.
Marjorie
fortbethal:
If you want to be in a cult, join WTS since that's what it is. It's conditional love that you see, one day you'll want to leave, you will loose all those people that supposedly love you, hell, stop your study now and 99% chance is that your "teacher" will also stop being your friends but will only call on you from time to time to get extra time in and to see if you're interested in re-starting your wts "bible study".
Do yourself a favor and examine their doctrinal evolution and see how many scandals they have in their closet within the short period of time they've been around. JWs are generally nice people but so are many church goers, and just like the other so called Christians, JWs also lie and cheat but they hide it better from others. If you want false friends, then you want JWs. It's all conditional, as long as you agree to conform to their ever changing teachings, and acknowledge governing body as being lead by Jesus and not question the teachings then you should be alright.
Oh BTW, did they tell you that Jesus isn't your mediator - so you want to be a Christian without Jesus as your savior? Funny thing is that most JWs don't even clue in that Jesus isn't their mediator - I didn't until I researched it. Fact is, that majority of JWs know very little about their own history but will repeat what the latest watchtower tells them which many times is stretched troof, or deception of facts. You have way bigger problems to worry about than 144k and a yearly memorial. I would recommend you check out jwfact.com for starters and then decide if we are too negative about wts.
BTW: Most of us don't have anything against individual JWs but it's the WTS that's the problem.
Thanks everyone. All of this feedback has been very very helpful.
Has anyone ever tried to start a splinter group from JW. One that isn't so controlling but that holds on to some core principles?
You don't need a group fortbethel . . . to hold on to core principles.
Principles are a matter for the heart.
Groups are more about rules.
If your heart is self-ruled by good and right principles . . . you are ready for God . . . if and when he comes. If your heart is right . . . of what are you guilty? . . . not listening to a man? "Beware of men" is the cojent warning.
You have my word on that . . . and that's as good as any other mans.
Hello Fortbethel,
Thanks for joining.
The Witnesses magazine The Watchtower 1st March 1953 page 143 paragraph 12 says
''Ask yourself now, Did Christ Jesus, who set our example and told us to follow his example to gain life, join any church organization in his day? No, God does not require us to do that; but he requires us to worship him, to preach the good news of the Kingdom, to be Christians, to follow the example Jesus set, living in unalterable devotion to Jehovah God; to praise God and respect his supremacy, to resist all efforts to turn us from decency and to endure in faith. We have the Bible to show us the right way. Certainly it is not necessary for a person to become a member of a church to gain everlasting life''
