'Where else is there to go'? Thoughts I had this morning--and evening...

by sd-7 33 Replies latest jw friends

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  sd-7

  I was just thinking of something this morning. When presented with the possibility that the Witnesses could be wrong, the typical response is 'Where else is there to go?' In short, 'If not us, who?' In that question, however, lies an assumption, based on a belief that was taught to us by those wishing to reinforce belief in their organization--or really, that belonging to the right organization is what matters most. Ultimately, there's a major implication in that belief: Find the true organization/religion, and find the true God. The real question that this reasoning demands is: Which one are we actually looking for?

  I would think you're more likely to succeed if you find the true God first and go from there. The men of faith in Hebrews 11 were individuals, many of whom were supposedly in 'God's organization', yet stood out from their contemporaries because most people 'in the organization' weren't doing the right thing, especially those taking the lead! Therein lies the major problem: the Watchtower organization, by its own law, denies you the right to do the right thing! If a belief is wrong, there is no option to simply refrain from believing it or teaching it to others. If a rule is wrong, there is no option to exercise your personal conscience and disobey it. If injustice happens because of a rule, there is no option to speak out against the injustice.

  I wonder if Enoch, Gideon, or any of the others mentioned as men of faith were content to wait for some group of men to do the right thing. In Gideon's case, they were all Israelites, they had the Law. Why didn't he 'wait on Jehovah' to move the priesthood to stop the idolatry? Wasn't he 'running ahead'? Apparently not, as God supported his desire to do the right thing. Would God expect us to wait for someone else to decide what's right, and then obey, or for us to look to the guidance he has already given in the Bible and obey?

  Jesus warned about those who stumble others. But he didn't say that those who were stumbled by others would get a free pass. That being said, rather than saying, "Where else is there to go?", I said, "I better go elsewhere." Because I'm responsible for myself. The organization is not loyal enough to me to take responsibility for my fate, so why should I be loyal enough to it to take responsibility for its misdeeds?

  --sd-7
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  LostGeneration

  Though I'm not much of a bible fan anymore, it certainly does not advocate the mindset of sitting around on your can and waiting for someone else tell you what to do. The average JW has it easy when it comes to thinking things through-simply parrot their masters, the GB.

  Funny how all of their literature praises the prophets who spoke out against the bad Israelite kings, but the second a JW speaks out against injustice in the KH or their WT leader, they are kicks out on their ass.
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  JW GoneBad

  "Where else is there to go?" ------------------------------------------>Blondie!

  By the way Blondie, we've been craving your reviews for the past couple of weeks.
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  No Room For George

  Therein lies the major problem: the Watchtower organization, by its own law, denies you the right to do the right thing! If a belief is wrong, there is no option to simply refrain from believing it or teaching it to others. If a rule is wrong, there is no option to exercise your personal conscience and disobey it. If injustice happens because of a rule, there is no option to speak out against the injustice.

  For years I used 2 Tim 3 as a way to support the belief that we're truly living in the last days. The crazy part was that I never realized how much it applied to me, which by extention applied to the organization, particulary verse 3 where it states that one of the symptoms of the last days would be people "not having natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self control, fierce, without love of goodness." The difference between the WT and by extention JWs, and many other people is that there is no way to, agree to disagree. There's plenty of topics and situations that will not cause me to hate you because you simply disagree with me on whatever subject. Often enough even when I disagree with someone, I still gained something from them in the way of a perspective different than mine. There's no reason to hate them over it.

  It's funny to me how you can take those symptoms of the last days, and jibe it with the Watchtower. Paul said in verse 3 that men would be.........

  1. Not having any natural affection-- who prides themselves in destroying families? Who puts pictures up of children that have died over an erroneous and unscriptural view of blood transfusions and then brags about it? Who gets all giddy over the potential destruction of anybody that doesn't recognize a publishing company as God's chosen mouthpiece? That's not love of neighbor, that's not even love of God. What that is love of death and destruction, not to mention a lack of humility. I wonder if the reason the WT looks poorly upon charities is because they're concerned JWs might provide their neighbors with practical assistance rather than peddling the WT's literature.

  2. Not open to any agreement- Think about all of the murky subjects that the WT forces upon JWs, where if any JW were to have a different belief, they can be disfellowshipped. One WT article or old letter states that by a JW not even verbalizing a different belief, but keeping a different belief to themselves, its still apostacy and they should be disfellowshipped!! They're talking thought crimes for crying out loud! Now how do they justify that when it comes to key doctrines where the evidence is overwhelmingly NOT in favor of the WT? 607 vs 587, Blood Fractions, vs Whole Blood, This Generation, The Faithful & Discreet Slave, Korah and his followers being resurrected or not, The Flood being global, and a ton of other beliefs and doctrines where if you don't maintain the "current" party line, you could very well be Disfellowshipped.

  3. Slanderers- Mentally Diseased anybody? NonJWs=Bird Food? Married to an unbeliever AKA a NonJW= Married to a corpse? Other denominations=Babylon the Great? World Goverments=Wild Beast? The funny part about all of those slanderous views they have about nonJWs, is that the JWs and the WT sure do benefit from all of the good that those nonJWs, and Satan's system of the things have done.

  There's more, a lot more, but you get the point. Despite so much in life not being black and white when correlated with the Bible, the WT still forces you to accept their "current" teachings under the pressure of potentially losing your family, friends, even way of living. It's dispicable.
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  ziddina

  EXCELLENT opening post, sd-7!!

  And an excellent point...

  I've avoided doing extensive bible reading, because it still brings up unpleasant cult memories, but I do recall several bible characters who definitely didn't "wait" for "jehovah" to "fix" things...

  Like the woman who drove a tent spike through the head of a pagan king...

  Zid
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  00DAD

  Clearly Jeremiah, Daniel, Elijah and Elisha were all apostates. And of course the biggest apostate of them all was Jesus Christ! Why do you think they put him to death!!!
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  mrsjones5

  When I left I wasn't worried about if there was anywhere else to go I just knew I wanted out of there.
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  Crisis of Conscience

  Well said sd-7!!
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  sabastious

  The Watchtower doctrine is a "have their cake and eat it too" kind of thing. Since their was no written law at the time they will say Enoch, Noah and Joseph are all part of God's organization because of their faith and deeds. Then they will say the 1st century Christian's were part of God's organization because they didn't forsake the gathering of themselves and preached the good news with boldness.

  The fact is that God has always worked through people's passion. So, if you are passionate about something, think it over really well and if the passion doesn't subside then start moving forward with it. That's when I believe God is with you the most.

  -Sab
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  144001

  Where else is there to go? How about to a place where one no longer strives to answer the unanswerable, and instead of wasting our time on futile exercises, try to improve the planet and the civilization that we do know exist?