Like my father would say " A PRICK HAS NO CONSCIOUS" In the last two years he has given me $1000. dollars, a coat, pair of boots, and a new cell phone. He gives more to the cong a year, maybe that's why he hasn't lost any priviledges. He prays, give talks, reader, greeter, toilet cleaner. As far as I'm concerned he is two slips of paper a check and time slip. The golden years aren't so golden. Can't travel no vacations anymore because of the advocate form. He might have to take them on vacation. Is your name of that form?
Is my marriage worth saving?
by sacdfan 66 Replies latest social relationships
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yknot
I still think we can salvage things as long as he stops listening to the WT and listens to me.
Okie Dokie....
This is where you are at present.
I can see no reason for him to consider your opinon if you aren't relevent to his spiritual life. Perhaps your best bet is to return to the KH by his side so that you have reason to study the WT and ask questions of his opinion and offer tidbits of 'troof about the truth'.
Bring up the college thing. For instance it was in 1941 that we started harping on college.....this was aimed at people who are now 85-95. Would a college education benefited them and the WTS, surely it would! Further the issue at hand in the 'Children' publication was evolution and later in the WT (Sept 1941) that Armageddon was 'months away'.
(if you find him sneaking off with her, yes you could leave him the lurch cuz he reaps what he sows!......and by skyping,emailing her like that he already left you in an emotional lurch)
Please consider looking into the 5-7 stages of grief........
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djeggnog
@sacdfan:
Is my marriage worth saving?
Long story - will make it short - I was a JW for 4 years.... Neither of us has 'cheated' in the fullest sense although he emotionally cheated with a student he went to college with 3 years ago. He used to [Skype] her for hours into the early hours of the morning and was always emailing her....
I am a Christian (it's what has kept me sane over past 2 years) and my faith is getting stronger. He is more brainwashed by WT than ever. Sometimes we get on well but most of the time we go our own way. I have my friends, he has his. He never comes with me when I meet up with my friends...,
We can't even go out on Saturday or Sunday for the day because he goes out on the service - so we don't do anything together.... Don't get me wrong, it isn't all bad. But we are drifting further apart.
I feel angry that we can't study the Bible together - why can't we go to a non-denominational service - if you can't worship together with your partner it is very serious to me. We can't even pray together. The phone is always going for him to do jobs on the kingdom hall, jobs for the congregation, jobs for the CO - the territory, sound system, literature etc... on and on.
I know that if we could study the Bible together it would start to bring us closer (I know the atheists on here would disagree, but this is what I believe) . What should I do?
It might seem as if you have a husband that doesn't love you as much as he loves himself, as much as he loves doing things with and for other people, and the only way he will come to realize what he is doing is for you to confront him about his behavior toward you, his wife. But in reading all that you wrote here -- and I'm sure there's more that you did not bother to explain in what you wrote -- it seems that you are presently being forced to make adjustments due to a loss of companionship with your husband, an adjustment that you never expected you would have to make unless he were, say, unconscious, in a coma, for months or years.
It bothers you that you see him daily and that you're right there with him, but he doesn't seem to know who you are, and that's tough, since one would expect a husband to behave as though he has a wife before he makes any decision, like maybe he should call her when stopping at the grocery store on his way home to learn whether she has already been to the store today, and bought the needed bread and milk that we realized we were in need of yesterday.
It cannot feel good to tell your husband on Monday that you want him to plan to take you to see a certain movie that had recently caught you attention at a matinee on the weekend, on Saturday, only to have him tell you that he had made other plans without consulting you about them, and that you will have to make arrangements to go see the movie without him instead of him apologizing for making these plans about which you obviously knew not a thing, and then offering to maybe take you to see the movie on Saturday evening or after you and he had attended the meetings you regularly attend on every Sunday. I'm nothing like the man you describe in your post, @sacdfan, although I'm definitely guilty of making plans without consulting my wife about them, only to have to make a call later to disappoint someone and tell them I have to reschedule before my wife had made other plans for me, plans that she didn't consult me in advance about either, <g> but if I had to choose, I choose my wife. I love her.
In my household, if I inform my wife about something I want to do and am planning to do -- either something long-term, like conducting a standing Bible study with someone for at least the next 12 to 24 weeks at a time certain, or something short-term, like playing agreeing to play basketball on a specific day and time at the health club to which my wife and I are both members, with one or two other brothers and some trinitarian Christians that seem to like the idea of God torturing sinners for an eternity -- these are "commitments" that I will only cancel in the event of an emergency or should she or I should get sick, which isn't very often.
In your household, you and he, over the past 25 years, seem to have let things slip into the "abyss" in which your marriage appears to be at this moment, with your husband having his own friends and you having your own friends, although, in my household, I like showing my wife off to folks, because she's almost as smart as I am, and definitely more intuitive about things in life, which is a quality that I don't ever expect to develop in this life.
I also like people asking my wife how it was that she decided to marry me, which is just another way of saying that they don't think I was the best choice she could have made (which is just an opinion since I was the best choice!), but I've met all of their wives, and while some of them can cook quite well, and some of them are just funny, some of them can sing well, some can play piano (btw my wife plays the viola, while I play alto sax and have played the trombone and keyboards), and some of them are quite good at breaking people down so that they are able to learn things about which someone may not really want to tell anyone. My question to you, @sacdfan, is how did you let your own marriage get into such an abysmal state? Both a husband and wife make a marriage what it is, and it seems to me that you, and maybe your husband as well, thought there was no need on your part(s) to do anything to make your marriage work, but is your marriage over? Is your marriage worth saving? This was your question.
Now I read some of the comments in this thread that you received as advice, one of them being that you should "stop beating a dead horse," advising that "a change" be made, and another one opined that your marriage "was over the minute he decided to stop valuing/loving you as his life partner." That phrase, "life partner," sounds like something that someone might say about a same-sex couple, but your marriage is not over. The man you married is still your husband, and, as such, you have a responsibility of your own to your marriage, even as he hasn't or doesn't want to own up to that responsibility.
Now you indicated being of the belief that were you and your husband to "study the Bible together it would start to bring us closer." What were you doing all of these years at the meetings you attended with him at the Kingdom Hall? That was sacred service, and yet your studying the Bible together at congregation meetings doesn't seem to bring "you guys" closer together, did it? Such "works" are not going to solve your problem.
You said that you are a Christian, which means that you should not be in any doubt as to whether your marriage is worth saving, since a Christian knows that "a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is alive, which is just another way of saying that marriage is for life, so the real question is this: Do you think your marriage would be better if you were to separate from your husband? This is one way you might confront your husband, for when his friends come to realize that the reason he is able to spend so much time with them is because his wife has had to let him live as if he were a single man, either he is going to want to make an appointment with you to discuss the state of your marriage or he will be in denial and become indecent with someone not his wife and give you grounds for divorcing him.
You see, when you became a Christian, @sacdfan, God had called you to peace. I cannot recommend you separating from your husband, but if you should decide to do this, living separately, doing things and making plans without having to consult him first, discarding food that is normally enough for the two of you when now there is only one of you, and planning social activities that don't include your husband in them is going to be hard on you. Making dates with your husband to have sex means he has to leave or you have to leave, since you're separated and no longer live together, which means your having to drive to see him or he having to drive to see you, which married couples should not have to do, but through this separation, you are confronting your husband over the state of your marriage. If you separate from your husband, the marriage would not be over by any stretch.
You want to pray with your husband, but to whom? You want to attend "a non-denominational service" with your husband and ask why it is you can't worship together? These folks at these churches aren't worshipping Jehovah, but you are free to worship who you wish, but you should not expect your husband, as unrighteous as he might already be, to blatantly engage in the worship of another god, other than Jehovah, which would be false worship, even idolatry. You do know that you can pray to Jehovah without your husband. The Hearer of Prayer is willing and eager to hear the prayers of his servant that worship him, but your prayers will likely be hindered were you to make petition to him while sitting at the table of demons, while the two of you are seated in the house of another god because you have to know that Jehovah is a jealous God. Jehovah will not put up with such duplicity from any of his servants.
The two of you have drifted apart, but you have as much responsibility to your marriage and your husband does, and so you can continue to do nothing, which is what he is already doing, and continue to be totally unhappy with the situation, or you can take reasonable steps to get your marriage working. One of you must do something to address these problems you have had to face in your marriage, so why not you?
I did read what you wrote about the cyber affair your husband had with someone using Skype and email, and such affairs can and do take an emotional toll on the spouses that are affected when they come into a knowledge of such cyber affairs, but should one of these cyber relationships lead to your learning that you have a real STD, not a cyber STD, or they lead to your learning that he has will become a father to a child by someone else, then it is that such a cyber affair has become a serious matter that you may or may not choose to forgive so that you will have to decide whether or not to divorce the man.
You describe your husband as someone that is always ready to work on projects associated with the Kingdom Hall, projects associated with the congregation, projects associated with the CO, DO or projects involving that pretty single sister with the little boy that is always complimenting him on this or that and whose kid likes you, or some other pretty single sister, but this does not meant that he has 'a passion for any of these women in his heart.' It may be that your husband isn't so much "brainwashed," as much as he has become fanatical in some of his viewpoints, in his desire for adoration, in his desire to be glorified and worshipped by others, and so this has made him unbalanced when it comes to respecting you and his marriage to you. Worship belongs only to Jehovah, but you can certainly compliment him, glorify him, but is your marriage over? Is your marriage worth saving?
Now I don't know your husband, but you do, and I believe you know enough about the man to be able to answer the question of whether or not your marriage is worth saving.
@djeggnog
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
sacdfan,
When I was an elder, I would have been under obligation to tell you to stay and work it out. The "world" is to blame. The end is coming soon. The two of you will rekindle your love as you pet tigers and pandas together after billions of peoples heads have been smashed by falling rocks. That would be terrible advice.
I've never been married, so I don't have a personal frame of reference. But since you ask a question like that, I think the answer is clear. Why should you be unhappy? Emotionally isolated when you could find real love, fulfillment, happiness elsewhere? I'm not going to go into length condemning him, what can you expect from him when he is passionately in love with a cult?
Good luck!
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Anony Mous
@djeggnog you're still full of shit. You're trying to protect the bastard? You're as bad as them, you're still in the cult and you're still brainwashed trying to make others do what the GB wants you to do. If you want to live according to their rules, do so, but then take all of it or else take none of it.
Marriages are not always worth saving simply because "you're a Christian". That's such a cheap shot it disgusts me.
All churches are the same whether they are JW or not, they're all there to take your money, your dignity and your freedom. Her husband and her could join whatever church they'll like, the prayers are going to be heard equally well by your imaginary friend: NOT AT ALL!
Your second to last paragraph utterly disgusts me, you're trying to blame her for having the idea that he might be getting attention from others? He's getting some on the side and that's it, I've seen the same signs and I've been hurt - I know exactly how it works among JW's and how to do it and hide it. JW's are good at hiding it but you're either stupid, naive or an extremely nasty control freak.
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djeggnog
@Anony Mous:
@djeggnog you're still full of shit
Actually, what I'm "full of" is love for people. Maybe you at any one time had love for people, too, but I don't think you have enough evidence to conclude that I am "still full of shit." What exactly does your use of the word "still" mean anyway?
You're trying to protect the bastard?
So, this man that @sacdfan married -- her husband of 25 years -- is now "a bastard"? And you know this how? I read the OP's post, but she didn't characterize him as being "a bastard," so what right do you have to characterize the man -- @sacdfan's husband -- in this way? In what way am I trying to protect the man? I don't know the OP's husband, so why would I want to protect him? Because I'm a man and her husband is a man?
Let me just inject in here something on which you should ruminate: I'm not just an adult, but I've acquired a lot of life experience since my birth and I have more than a few gray hairs. If someone is repentant, what is said to me in confidence is not heard by any other elder or my wife. If anyone is disfellowshipped for a failure on their part to exhibit repentance, the details will never come from me since I don't gossip nor do I call people names.
Now this is the kind of thing that goes on in "gossip circles" with one person saying things similar to what you said here in order increase the temperature gauge of those in the room that are gossiping about someone else, and the fact that you and others here are doing this now in this thread here on JWN disrespects the OP, who loves the man, has feelings for the man, has even married this man, so that she has come on here asking the question, "What should I do?" I'm not sure you caught that, but I love telling sisters what I am hearing when they go on a tear about someone based on their own speculation and gossip.
These gossipers really don't know what others are hearing or thinking, and not many elders would sit through such a session, but I'm only too happy to tell them what I'm hearing and what things I've come to learn from having listened to my wife, who happens to have much more experience being a woman and with dealing with women's issues than I do. I've actually been told by some that I'm a good listener. Let me ask you something, @Anony Mous: Did you read this?
The marriage has had its ups and downs - some terrible, some not so bad.
Or this:
Don't get me wrong, it isn't all bad.
Or this:
I love him like I love my sister - i'd do anything to [help] him - but this isn't a marriage, is it? ... I know that if we could study the Bible together it would start to bring us closer.... I would do anything to change things.... What should I do?
Your comments here are very insensitive, and it doesn't matter if you disagree with me; I'm 100% sure that right in this regard. @sacdfan is a woman that is in love with her husband, whose marriage, she feels, isn't working for her, and who is wondering if it is too late to effect a rescue of her marriage, to maybe keep it from shipwreck. You don't know @sacdfan's husband to say what you do here about the man. All you know if one side -- @sacdfan's side -- and, you don't have to believe me, but I'm telling you that there's always two sides. I make it a point not to take sides with anyone, because I cannot know what either party feels nor the details as they know them.
Some elders might try to right the course of someone else's marriage, but I won't do it. I don't have the wisdom of Solomon, let alone the wisdom that Jesus possessed, and he alone was given authority to do judging because of his name, and I happen to be someone that thinks it to be disrespectful of Jesus' name for anyone to pretend to have authority to do something for which they are not equipped. I don't know how I can help the OP, but I read her message and wanted to make a comment.
You're as bad as them, you're still in the cult and you're still brainwashed trying to make others do what the GB wants you to do. If you want to live according to their rules, do so, but then take all of it or else take none of it.
I might still be in the cult, but pejoratively I think maybe you are like that Samaritan woman in the Bible, because you are just like that woman, fleshly in your viewpoint, worshipping what you do not know. If I say "Jehovah," you know to whom I'm referring, you know I'm talking about the Jehovah the Spirit, the Creator, but you don't know him at all. You think your way of life, which is your religion -- don't get it twisted, my religion is my way of life -- and your outlook on life is what you have chosen for yourself, and I cannot judge you at all, @Anony Mous. But why be insensitive to the OP or to me? Jesus could have told the Samaritan woman:
"The man with whom you are now living isn't your husband and yet despite knowing what Jehovah commanded in the Samaritan Pentateuch, that as long as your first husband is living, you aren't free to remarry, you've given yourself to six men and yet you want to boast in your flesh over your lineage to Jacob, asserting yourself to be on the same footing with Jews like me since we also trace our lineage back to Jacob? Believe me, woman, you don't worship Jehovah."
But Jesus didn't have it in him to be insensitive to the woman. He could have judged her and said not a word to her, but he struck up the conversation with her, felt her out, to see if this Samaritan woman would be reasonable enough to have a conversation with a Jew. But Jesus was the Son of God, and in every way, he was like his heavenly father. Neither will I be insensitive to you.
Marriages are not always worth saving simply because "you're a Christian". That's such a cheap shot it disgusts me.
I don't think saving someone else's marriage to be a proper subject for discussion by me. I think a person's marriage is personal and if one of the parties to the marriage should begin to take their spouse for granted, the marriage may experience a few storms over several years before the storm clouds leave and the skies are blue again or shipwreck, whichever occurs first. But I didn't say that because the OP is a Christian that her marriage is worth saving. The OP indicated that she has only been one of Jehovah's Witnesses "for 4 years," but she may have gotten baptized for the wrong reasons, because she loved the man she married and wanted to be his wife. This happens a lot, maybe more than you realize, @Anony Mous.
There does seem to me to have been many successful marriages between folks that are not Christian, so someone being a Christian isn't at all relevant to someone making a determination as to whether their marriage is worth saving. A marriage commences, not with the proposal, but with the marriage vow itself, which is permanent. For Christians and non-Christians alike, Jehovah is involved in that threefold cord, even if the parties themselves do not acknowledge God in their marriage. If anyone already married should being to associate with the Christian congregation, Christians will both honor and acknowledge the solemnity of the marriage. I don't make 'cheap shots.' If you are disgusted with someone, think about if that "someone" is me, and then tell me what it was I said to the OP that so disgusted you.
All churches are the same whether they are JW or not, they're all there to take your money, your dignity and your freedom. Her husband and her could join whatever church they'll like, the prayers are going to be heard equally well by your imaginary friend: NOT AT ALL!
I don't believe @sacdfan said a thing about she and her husband joining another church; the idea of "[going] to a non-denominational service," was the OP's, not her husband's idea. The OP describes her husband as being an auxiliary pioneer that "hasn't missed [a meeting] in 20 years," so I'm speculating that he's not about to join another church. If anyone wishes to donate some of their money to Jehovah's organization or to UNICEF or to the American Heart Association, that would be their choice to make, but neither one's dignity or freedom is involved; just the money you give to the charitable cause. I've donated money to the AHA because the work they do has helped, I believe, to save the lives of some, especially mothers with young children. But I cannot argue with you that all churches are the same; they will "take your money." Any money donated to Jehovah's organization would certainly be put to very good use.
However, were you to give me some of your money, I would take it as long as I knew that your gift was made when you were of sound mind and not as a result of mental defect (i.e., like Alzheimer's). Depending on how much you gave me, I'd probably buy another gadget. I have three iTouch devices, and I prayed for none of them, one of which I "inherited" from my wife, with the release of the fourth generation iTouch that gave us Facetime, and so I bought us both new iTouch devices, after which I bought an iPhone 4. Jehovah knows I have a problem with gadgets, but I won't pray about it since he knows I'm in denial about my problem in wanting to learn how they work and wanting to learn what they can be made to do that won't make me as dependent on one of my PCs to do.
My wife doesn't want to give up her phone because she's afraid she will lose some of her contacts (and some of these contacts have pictures associated with them), but I had previously bought an iPad that I use daily, and, so with your money, I would probably buy the iPad 3 when it is launched in March(?) or whenever, one for my wife and one for me, even if she is delighted with her notebook. Jehovah isn't my "imagination friend"; he's a Spirit and having made a study of my wife over the years that we've been together, I'm sure that he's as real as she is real. It's too bad you are like that Samaritan woman was in not knowing him.
Your second to last paragraph utterly disgusts me, you're trying to blame her for having the idea that he might be getting attention from others? He's getting some on the side and that's it....
And you know that the OP's husband is "getting some on the side" how? Maybe he did "[get] some on the side" only to realize his stupidity and stop, but the question the OP asked was, "What should I do?" What do you think she should do under the circumstances? I think she should confront her husband over the things that she has been feeling. I also think she might want to consider separating from her husband for a time so that she can regain some measure of her composure and peace of mind. If she wants to have sex with her husband, let them do so by appointment, so that he realizes what position his lack of balance in the congregation has done to his wife. Maybe they will eventually resume their marriage, but she's hurting emotionally and I was only trying to give her a few ideas to consider. I don't think the marriage is over, because as long as they are married, there is a chance that things will get better, but I'm talking about the two of them putting in some work. I believe it is up to the OP to decide how she's going to handle her own marriage.
I've seen the same signs and I've been hurt - I know exactly how it works among JW's and how to do it and hide it. JW's are good at hiding it but you're either stupid, naive or an extremely nasty control freak.
For whatever reason, you have begun to discuss something that has occurred in your own life as a wife, but how can you be here projecting your own bad experiences on someone else? You don't know what the OP's husband is doing, if anything at all. You don't really know if the OP's husband is hiding anything from his wife, do you? Are my choices "stupid, naive ... control freak," or "extremely nasty control freak"? I wish you offered "amazingly intuitive control freak," but you didn't, so I'm going to go with "stupid, naive ... control freak," if that's ok. Now what?
@djeggnog
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venetian
sacdfan
Many words from djeggnog and make of them what you will. But remember one thing. No matter what you and your husband believe, he is WRONG not to put his marriage first, but the fault lies with both the WT society AND your husband.
WT is putting pressure on him to "put the kingdom first" (an often used phrase when they want the followers to do more). Couple this with his desire to be approved by the congregation and his delight in finding the "truth", leads him to enthusiastically spend his time doing what they want him to do. He believes that if he does this, it'll ensure his survival into the paradise earth.
Basically you are losing your husband, not to a religion or to God, but to a cult.
Yes you're marriage is worth fighting for. Whenever you do spend time together, reminisce, laugh, bring him back to you, reclaim him. Fight.
Good luck x
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Fernando
Hey sacdfan!
Sorry to hear about the struggles. Sadly typical methinks.
Great news that your faith is getting stronger!
What about getting him to see the light by means of the Watchtower library itself!
Remember they claim to be "publishers of the good news"! (This phrase appears 257 times in the 2010 wt library – single and plural publisher/s)
My dear hubby, how many years have you been a "publisher of the good news"?
20 years you say! Wow you sure must know the "good news" quite well by now my dear?!
If someone in the field asked you to explain what the "good news" is in one word how would you respond my dear? (it's a "message" but let him struggle with this so that he can repent of his ignorance and of following spiritually blind humans instead of Jesus)
If we searched in the Watchtower library on computer how many times do you think we would find the phrase "good news" in the Bible my dear? (±152 times, must use quotation marks when searching, then select "Bible" to display only search results in the Bible)
How many of these references to the "good news" are by Paul my dear? (±85, ie more than half!!!).
How many times does Paul refer to the "Kingdom" in the same sentence as the "good news" my dear? (ZERO!!!! search string using sentence scope - "good news" kingdom)
If someone in the field asked you to explain what the "good news" according to Paul is how would you respond and which of the ±85 instances would you use my dear? (he'll be blank and has to wonder why this is the case after 20 years of door knocking to publish the "good news"!!!!)
My dear can you please help me explain from the heart what is "legalism" and its exact opposite? (appears only once in entire wt library in a great article that condemns this prolific Watchtower practice - g79 6/8 pp. 27-28)
My dear how can I understand the difference between the "good news" (Rom 3) and self-righteousness attained by "legalism" - following a set of supposedly "right" rules (Matt 23, whitewashed graves, clean outside of cup)?
Now you know that the male brain is wired as a "problem fixer". Use this to your advantage with the above questions - let him do the running and fixing he was built to!
This obviously and sadly is a process that can only proceed within his pace - most likely months.
However there is undeniable power and purpose hidden within the full, true and unabridged "good news":
"The spirit of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah is upon me [Jesus], for the reason that Jehovah has anointed me [Jesus] to tell [the] good news to the meek ones [sheep or wheat]. He has sent me [Jesus] to bind up the brokenhearted [spiritually deprived and unregenerated], to proclaim [spiritual] liberty to those taken [spiritually] captive [by religion/ists] and the wide opening [of the spiritual eyes] even to the [spiritual] prisoners [of religion/ists]" (paraphrase of Isaiah 61:1).
Greetings and blessings on the journey
Your brother Fernando
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djeggnog
@Fernando:
Great news that your faith is getting stronger!
How do you figure that the OP's faith is getting stronger? Oh, wait: It was when you read the words in @sacdfan's post: I am a Christian ... and my faith is getting stronger, right? I read her post, too, and I concluded that her faith is being tested by what she perceives to have been her husband's untoward actions that have affected her marriage.
What about getting him to see the light by means of the Watchtower library itself! Remember they claim to be "publishers of the good news"! (This phrase appears 257 times in the 2010 wt library – single and plural publisher/s)
So to the question asked by the OP -- What should I do? -- you would suggest that she spar with her husband over his knowledge of the 2010 WT Library? Really?? Why that one? I have the 2010 version on my iPad and on my iPhone in iSilo format, but why would you not be suggesting the 2011 WT Library since it's the one that is now in circulation? Hmmm.
If someone in the field asked you to explain what the "good news" is in one word how would you respond my dear? (it's a "message" but let him struggle with this so that he can repent of his ignorance and of following spiritually blind humans instead of Jesus)
What makes you think someone that has been one of Jehovah's Witnesses for 20 years wouldn't be able to describe the good news "in one word"? Very recently, in another thread, I posted the following description of the "good news" based on Romans 3:24, but using instead the word "gospel":
"The gospel is the message from Jehovah God that began to be preached by the Lord Jesus Christ as to how the whole world of mankind that had been born into a world in which they have had to learn the dire consequences that flow from sin would eventually be brought into the way of righteousness and given the privilege of securing for themselves the opportunity afforded us by the ransom paid by Jesus Christ, which not only pardoned us, but satisfied justice as well, and now enables all mankind to enjoy eternal life."
If we searched in the Watchtower library on computer how many times do you think we would find the phrase "good news" in the Bible my dear? (±152 times, must use quotation marks when searching, then select "Bible" to display only search results in the Bible)
I actually didn't need to find out how many hits I would get were I to search for the words, "good news," in the 2010 WT Library or in the 2011 WT Library); I've been proclaiming the good news for more than half of my life as an ambassador (or envoy), publishing it to folks young and old, both inside and outside the congregation without the need to do a word count. I don't believe the OP's question -- What should I do? -- can be satisfied by a word count. This is my opinion. I don't know what it was about this thread that made you want to dazzle the OP by letting her know how adroitly you are with the 2010 WT Library, and I'm amazed with the prowess you evidently have with doing such proximity searches with this cdrom. However -- how would Jesus say this? -- this thread isn't about you, Peter @Fernando. So what do you opine as to the OP's question?
Do you happen to have any suggestions as to what the OP might do to salvage what's left of her marriage that might maybe help her to get it back on the tracks and prevent shipwreck? (I love mixed metaphors.) @sacdfan has been one of Jehovah's Witnesses for four years and yet she's thinking that reserving a seat at "the table of demons" could possibly save her marriage. Other than word counts, do you have any ideas to share with the OP as to what she should do?
@djeggnog
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Ucantnome
Just a thought on the Good news. The Apostle Paul said this.
The Resurrection of Christ
1 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.
2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.
6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.
7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. (1 Cor. 15:1-8 NIV)
He also said this.
No Other Gospel
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!
(Gal 1:8)
In the book Jehovah's Witnesses Proclaimers of God's Kingdom on page 119 "A real milestone was reached, therefore, in 1925 when The Watchtower of March 1 featured the article "Birth of the Nation." It presented an eye-opening study of Revelation chapter 12. The article set forth evidence that the Messianic Kingdom had been born-established -in 1914, that Christ had then begun ro rule on his heavenly throne, and that thereafter Satan had been hurled from heaven down to the vicinity of the earth. This was the good news that was to be proclaimed." This established kingdom also includes the beginning of the resurrection to heaven shortly after 1914 as the144,000 make up the kingdom. Further down on the same page "The good news of God's Kingdom continues to be central to the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses. Since the issue of March 1, 1939 their principal magazine, now published in over 110 languages, has been borne the title The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom." I think that this is different to the Good News that the apostle was preaching but maybe I'm wrong.