OntheWayOut said: "Nobody will answer your questions better than your own informed self."
A simple and powerful recipe! Cult, propaganda, "group think" and mind-control busting too!
Don't know where to turn, Don't know who to trust
by BrotherPrince 58 Replies latest jw experiences
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TheSilence
Any advice or anything would help, thanks.
This works for me:
What do I believe?
I believe that we make our own realities in this life.
I believe that I am a good person.
I believe in respecting someone until they give you a reason not to.
I believe in being good to and being there for the people in your life.
I believe in standing up for what I believe is right, even if it is the harder road to follow.
I believe that if there is a *loving* God then s/he/it understands and accepts where I am spiritually.
I believe in letting others find their own path and accepting them and the path they choose, as long as that path does not tread on the rights of others.
I believe that if someone has an issue with me it is their issue, not mine. It is only mine if I choose to let it be.
And, oh, a myriad of other things... things you'd probably have to ask me more specifically about.
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tec
Welcome, BrotherPrince (not the symbol). You are getting lots of good advice that I don't need to add to, and I want to reiterate that jwfacts.com is a great sight for... well... the facts. Just the facts.
But I wanted to comment on one thing that you wrote:
Jehovah is the only way to eternal life and there is no one that can convince me otherwise
I realize that this might seem nitpicky... but it is an important point because of the way the WTS cuts Him out.
Christ is the Way. Christ is the Life.
No one gets TO the Father without the Son. I wanted to bring it up simply because the WTS tends to ignore Christ, and go straight to God, themselves. They cut Him out as the Way, as the narrow path, the door, the one mediator between man and God... and then they assume His place instead.
You want to know where to turn; who to trust?
Well, there is not a 'where'. There is only a 'who'. Look to Christ and follow Him. He is the way to eternal life.
Peace to you,
tammy
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Flossycat
Hi BP. If you like to read true adventure stories, take a look at my website: jehovahsmysteries.com I was your age when I began to play up, left the JWs but still believed in them.
Glad you're opening your eyes and questioning. (The height of selfishness isn't doing what you want to do. The height of selfishness is expecting others to do as you say without question.)
Look forward to hearing more from you here.
Best wishes from Flossycat.
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Perry
ditto TEC's comments. Jesus said," I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the father but by me."
Why did the WT assume a common title "the truth" when Jesus claimed that as his title? Jesus is the truth, not the WT. If you want to get right with Jehovah, you will do business with the Son first.
JW's do not want to do business with the Son. I could never quite fathom what part of "all" do they not understand? "All power has been given me in heaven and earth" .
You'll find submission to Jesus very comforting & liberating, and unlike anything you'll experience in allegiance to anyone or anything else.
"Come unto me ... and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." If you'll do that, Jesus will climb up under whatever particular cross you must bear in this life and see you through it".
I finally did this about 7 years ago after putting it off for years. Looking back, I only regret having put it off for so long.
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designs
The Jesus of the Gospels like Saint Paul were charlatans and once a person educates themselves with Judaism (not the Wt' or christian revisionistic versions) they see clearly the fraud perpetuated on the unsuspecting public.
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panhandlegirl
Welcome to the forum Brother Prince. You have already received valuable information and advice from the others. You can learn much from the experiences of these members and the sites and books they have
recommended. I see that you don't know too much about the history of the world in general. We, the world in general, may be having bad times but conditions in the past have been much worse that what we face
today except for maybe a nuclear war. You need to educate yourself and make your own decisions. Forget about when the end will come. If/when it comes, it comes. My advice is to live for today because that is all you
have. As for what the WBTS has to gain, as the others have stated, Money and Power over these millions of people are great motivators.
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outsmartthesystem
"People are struggling all over the world just to aquire daily necessities, even in the richest and most powerful country, the USA."
Yeah.....we're at the tail end of a pretty bad economic recession. It happens. Let me ask you a question. Would you rather live in the "bad" times we live in today.....or would you rather live during the dark ages when there was no religious freedom, the average life expectancy was about 40 and a family of 14 shared a one bedroom hut with the local plague infested rats?
People make statements like "I can tell we are nearing the "end" because times are getting bad" yet all they have to back up their claims are emotion and misleading statistics. JWs do this consistently. Is this sytem really "running out of time".....or do you simply WISH that was the case?
Apocolyptic thinkers like to focus on the bad and overlook the good. They like to point out that murders have increased in XYZ city the last 50 years....but like to ignore the fact that overall population has increased as well....and that the murder per capita has actually not changed. They like to point out that world wide natural disasters have caused record amounts worth of $ damage.....but they ignore that with standard inflation and increased standards of living for the civilized world....of course the dollar losses are going to amount to more than they did years ago! They like to point out that cancer is causing more deaths in the U.S than ever before......but again.....they don't consider it PER CAPITA......nor do they realize that there is also a record number of cancer SURVIVORS in the US than ever before........due to the result of modern medicine.
Yes, some things are worse (kids these days like to listen to listen to that rackety rap and rock & roll music with immoral lyrics), but some things are better too (I happen to enjoy air conditioning and the modern light bulb). The point being.....if a person wants to believe that the world is "getting worse".....then he will find a way to make the belief a reality. He will misuse statistics. Or he will selectively choose which statistics to focus on. Or like most witnesses, when he can't find the right stats.....then he'll just say "I just FEEL like things are definitely getting worse".
The power of belief carries more weight than the power of fact
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outsmartthesystem
What makes you think God has to have an organization or group of people?
The best way to live is to "take care of the widows and orphans". Volunteer. Give your time to help those less fortunate than you. If God would really rather I spend my time preaching what MY beliefs are (who knows if they are correct).....rather than truly helping people......then that's not a God I want to serve.