Greetings! From an Existent JW!

by Ethos 103 Replies latest jw friends

  • Phizzy
    Phizzy

    Welcome Ethos ! I hope you stay and contribute and fight the JW corner !

    The problem with the previous JW Apologists "Recovery" et al was that they were all ,to a man ( or woman), dishonest in debate, which kills true debate.

    Their dishonesty took the form of simply ignoring a question or some facts or assertions when they had no satisfactory rebuttal or answer, they would carry on as though the posts did not exist.

    Then in a later thread they would still present the WT/JW view as though it had not been squashed !

    I look forward to seeing you in action in honest debate, and hope you can become a regular and welcome contributor here.

    It is so good for lurking JW's to see their beliefs and ther faith put up for inspection. If whatever is presented is in fact Truth, it will survive all attacks and all scrutiny, Truth never fails.

    The Lie, though, or a collection of lies and false beliefs, fall like a House of cards in no time.

    Enjoy the ride !

  • FWFranz
    FWFranz

    Hi Ethos

    Welcome to JWN. I am happy to hear that you are fearless about open minded debate and exchanges of ideas. I would like to ask you a question about the supposed appointment of "the slave". There is an aspect of this teaching that didn't show up in Rays book "Crisis of Conscience" or Don Camerons book, "Captives of a Concept". And it certainly didn't show up in the Proclaimers book! The WTS claims that their appointment was merited because of teaching correct doctrine. I think all JW's would agree that the doctrine of atonement achieved through Christs single, and one time sacrifice, is a foundational belief. I believe that the WT's current teaching on this is correct and I am assuming you believe this. Are you aware of the fact that this understanding of the atonement was not always taught by the WTS. At the time of their supposed inspection and appointment in 1918/1919, they taught something that you and I would acknowledge as utterly apostate and heretical. At the time of the"slaves" appointment they held an utterly false belief regarding Jesus sacriice and its atoning value. How so you may ask. Have you read the book published by the WTS in 1881 called "Tabernacle Shadows". Bro. Russell wrote this book. I would highly recommend reading this. All Bible Students at the time accepted this as "the truth" on the doctrine of the atonement. In a nutshell it taught that Jesus sacrifice at Calvary did not result in a finished work of atonement. According to Russell there was much more work to be done. Russell's doctrine of the "sin offering" is something that is in addition to the ransom sacrifice that Jesus provided. This "sin offering" would take the entire gospel age and would be finished when the last body member had died faithfully. The value of that "sin offering" would be presented to Jehovah just like Jesus sarifice. Bible Students today teach this doctrine as they hold to Bro. Russell's writings almost to the letter. Again I would highly recommend you reading Tabernacle Shadows. Its available in its entirety online. You will see why the WTS doesn't talk about this doctrine in their literature. Its embarrssing to say the least, and it would out them as not understanding the most fundamental doctrine of Christianity, the atonement achieved through Jesus sacrifice. So, I ask you this question. Do you think that Jehovah and Jesus would choose a group that embraced and taught a heretical teaching on the most fundamental of all Christian doctrines.

    FWFranz

  • Ethos
    Ethos

    I will address that in my thread today. Thanks.

  • Vidiot
    Vidiot
    simon17 - "From your diction and vocabularly, its obvious you're bright and eager for "intellectual stimulation." You don't get that from Jehovah's Witnesses."

    I know all about that.

    As much as I loved some of 'em, I lost count of how many times I felt like I was living the plot of Idiocracy.

    As I was fading, just having the intellectual freedom to let my sense of logic and reason determine what I believed felt fantastic.

  • TD
    TD
    I love discussing the blood issue as well.

    Greetings!

    I am married to a JW and would be most interested in your thoughts on that subject as I think it's the single biggest problem with the JW faith today. I have engaged scholarly minded JW's on the subject of transfusion medicine in the past and have observed that their arguments are marred by technical flaws.

    A typical example would be basing an argument on a morphological feature of blood that is unique to the family hominidae

  • notjustyet
    notjustyet

    JWfacts said

    " I do not see the point debating with people with that mindset. When a person wants to know the truth about the Watchtower religion, my site has everything they need to realise it is wrong. Until they want to be honest with themselves, debating achieves little, except for onlookers."

    ----------

    I agree, everything a JW needs to see that this is not a religion that would be chosen by a God that wants truth seeking members that have the ability to look beyond the curtain, is located in that "one site".(www.JWFACTS.com

    I think other points that would prevent a person from being able to "click" is possibly the embarrasment of actually being wrong about something so important. The "longer in","higher up" in the Organization or the level of "pride" that an individual has would also be determining factors in deciding whether or not a person can take that "hard swallow" and say to themselves "OH MY GOD, I HAVE BEEN WRONG!!! I HAVE BEEN DUPED!!! I ADMIT IT!!!"

    Do you know what it feels like to be wrong? Your probably thinking "yes, of course I know what it feels like to be wrong" but,... you probaly are thinking that I'm asking "What does it feel like to REALIZE that your wrong?" You know, that sinking feeling that makes us swallow real hard, the swallow we try to hide when around others when we REALIZE that we've been wrong is not what I'm talking about. What I'm asking is "Do you know what it feels like to be wrong?" It's an entirely different question. Being wrong feels the same as being right. Even when we're wrong, prior to realizing it, it FEELS RIGHT, it FEELS good doesn't it? It FEELS exactly the same as being right. That is where we think you are at the moment, you have not made it to the point where you REALIZE that you are wrong (hey, we were all RIGHT there where you are now, this is not a slam lol) and we hope that you are able to make that swallow , no matter who is looking and come to REALIZE that you are, well wrong about this at least.

    Another thing that would, In my opinion, prevent someone from recognizing "the truth about the truth"(TTATT) is the inability to "unchain" yourself from "the carrot", "The prize" IE: everlasting life, never getting sick, no pains, dead loved ones living again, all things good ALL the time, big bowls of fruit, playing with dangerous animals, no hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis, earthquakes, flooding, solar flares, meteors hitting us, vocanic eruptions that would affect us in a negative way, falling off cliffs, cheating mates, wrinkles, bad breath, corns and bunions, arthritis, psoriasis, coughs due to the common cold, sore throats, piles, as it were. (you get the point, I'm sure lol) Evidently there are those that cannot do this and continue to "keep their eyes on the carrot" to the point where they are not TRULY unbiased when examining the evidence about this religion. The WTBTS has not not only encouraged you to "keep your eyes on the prize" but it has also demanded it. They also demand that you wear blinders to help you "keep your eyes on the prize" But what if the "prize" is just a lie? What if the ones that are telling us to keep our eyes on the prize, the ones that are holding the keys to the lock that allows us to actually recieve the "prize" have been known to be wrong in other things that they told us and our parents and their parents and so on? Would it not be wise to examine the history or scoreboard of "being correct VS being wrong" of a corporation that is promising us something so important? I would think that doing anything OTHER than making a unbiased examination of the WTBTS would be considered insane.

    Really, what good is examining evidence if we are to remain biased toward a certain point of view. If we are to dismiss the other sides evidence as soon as we notice that it "threatens OUR carrot" then are we truly benefitting ourselves? Are we REALLY examining the evidence if we can't be balanced in acknowledging both sides? If not then that's confirmation bias at it's best. Some are known to look for and acccept only things that "shore up their beliefs" as it makes us feel that we DID make the right decision, yes we ARE on the right path, everything is going to be okay. Usually a JW will "shelve" the conflcting information to prevent dissonance. They will "Wait on Jehovah" to correct it in his own time. We are admonished to "not run ahead of Jehovah" as these thought stopping comments have seemed to work for many and they put their head down and keep peddling and soon forget about the evidence to the contrary that almost woke them up. Almost waking up is not good enough for this crowd just as it is not good enough for the ex Mormons and other members of similar groups that have decided not to shelve these alarms and decided also not to hit the "Snooze" button anymore in their BS alarm clock.

    ------

    I think that we should try to mimic the jury selection process where the attorneys try to find jurors that are unbiased toward the case, especially if they feel that they have evidence to prove their case because they have the confidence that an unbiased person would be able to see the evidence for what it is for.

    We, the ones that already have heard the evidence for both sides, WANT the other side to give their testimony as it's THEIR evidence that we are actually going to use to prove that they are guilty, as it were. Not something that we fabricated, their OWN EVIDENCE, their beliefs and publications, their track record of being continually in error or getting it wrong a VERY HIGH percentage of the time.

    There is no doubt that you have a "carrot" blocking your view of the TTATT, we all did. We are not smarter, better we have just gained the ability to put that "carrot" aside for a bit while examing the information.

    We were able to recognize the fact that to make a truly informed decision, WE MUST put that "Carrot" aside while examining the evidence. We MUST VIEW that "carrot" as inconsequential when deciding what is truth and what is false.

    We need to view the evidence as someone off the street that has never heard of the Jehovahs Witnesses and therefore does not have a "carrot" that would sway them one way ar another.

    I contend that if you take ANYONE on planet Earth that is sound in mind and has no preconcieved ideas regarding the WTBTS and arrange for a bible study with the best JW pioneer that exist and allow someone like JWFACTS to have equal time with that person using ONLY things written by the WTBTS that this person would not become a JW. (I think that you know that inside already) The only way a person can become a JW is if they are prevented, early on, from learning anything about the, how can I say this delicately, underbelly, failed prophecies and lies emanating from the WBTS over the last century. They have to "hang that carrrot and get them focused on that carrot PRIOR to anyone showing them the history of the WTBTS" This thought is brought out in the book "Captives of a Concept" by Don Cameron. This book ALONE would , if you are truly inbiased, make you see the light about the WTBTS claim to have authority from Jehovah. It's available to download also.

    I really do hope that you are able to wake up and see TTATT, and I feel if you are able to get that "carrot" out of the way while you read JWFACTS.com with a balanced view, there is nothing else you can do but wake up. If you do not wake up, then you did not REALLY remove the "carrot" as required.

    We don't "writhe our hands" hoping to draw away JWs from the "truth" thinking that we have prevented another human from serving Jehovah. We are doing the responsible thing that a loving person would do when they realize that people are being duped, we are spending our time trying to make others have a chance at the real life vs being entrapped into a "High Control Group" aka cult. Mormons, Moonies, etc all have EX members doing the exact same thing for current members that are trapped. We are doing exactly what ex members of a cult do for current members, we try to get them to think for themselves and wake up.

    Anyway, my computer is telling me that I have used my alloted quotations and captions for the day and that I need to take a break for a bit. I do truly hope that you continue to come back and whatever you do, please don't let the dissonance get to you as this is common for a person waking up to the fact that they have been duped. Let us know the point where you "let em drop" and realize that what we are telling you is true.

    Notjustyet

  • panhandlegirl
    panhandlegirl

    so it probably took a lot of mental juggling to cobble together a "proof"/rationalization for your beliefs. But now what? I think its time to unravel it all

    I love that senence and how you used the word cobble. I love words. I have just bought a book "How to Write a Sentence and how to Read One." I haven't had the oppotunity to read any of it yet, but an anxious to do so. Your sentence is concise and provides great imagery.

    In a nutshell it taught that Jesus sacrifice at Calvary did not result in a finished work of atonement. According to Russell there was much more work to be done. Russell's doctrine of the "sin offering" is something that is in addition to the ransom sacrifice that Jesus provided. This "sin offering" would take the entire gospel age and would be finished when the last body member had died faithfully. The value of that "sin offering" would be presented to Jehovah just like Jesus sarifice.

    FWFranz, I did not know this. That is a crazy and unscriptural doctrine. I will also read the book you mentioned. These discussions should prove to be interesting.

    PHG

  • Ethos
    Ethos

    TD -Thats interesting. Im glad you have a knowledgeable experience with the blood doctrine. Perhaps I can learn from you. Im currently completing a PA program and have acquired a great deal of hematalogical dynamics. I look forward to discussing this.

  • simon17
    simon17

    I love that senence and how you used the word cobble. I love words. I have just bought a book "How to Write a Sentence and how to Read One." I haven't had the oppotunity to read any of it yet, but an anxious to do so. Your sentence is concise and provides great imagery.

    Thanks :) I think ethos can get some of the credit. When writing to someone who clearly loves words like you and him, I tend to be less lazy and write better!

  • panhandlegirl
    panhandlegirl

    Im currently completing a PA program and have acquired a great deal of hematalogical dynamics.

    Ethos, this will make it imperative for you to decide what you believe about the blood issue. As a PA, you will likely, at one time or another, have to order blood/blood products for your patient. Medical emergencies don't give you time to decide what you believe. The decision has to be made prior to facing the emergency. It is difficult to make this decision when you have doubts. A nurse may call you at 0200 and awaken you with bad lab results and/or tell you your patient is bleeding out and his/her blood pressure is falling. You are on call for the MD. What are your orders?The decision is yours to make.

    PHG

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