Do JWs Still Feel The Need To Understand Their Teachings Or Have They Pretty Much Abandoned That Idea? (page 3)

a watcher

Much of what the slave teaches goes over my head, and I let it go :-)

My main purpose in being one of JW's is to nurture a loving, intimate friendship with Jehovah and his Son.

Everything else is secondary.

Interesting....so whether they are speaking the truth, it's not all that important. They tell you that you ONLY can get Jehovah's approval if you follow whatever they say. The scribes and Pharisees said the same.

JW GoneBad

There have been too many updates and new understandings to JW doctrine and beliefs in recent years. As a result, many if not most JWs are hard pressed to defend their faith because of not understanding the changes and/or are just not able to keep up. They may feel the need to understand but can’t; frustration is beginning to take over due to Mother and her mood swings! Even the Elders are feeling the pinch!

NeverKnew

I will never forget the night I was at a friend's house asking he and his family members about 607 BC. With each question I asked, I watched as "this book" was retrieved from the third floor and then "that book" was retrieved from the second floor and brought down. The "other" book was in the kitchen, ... or was it in the living room?.... "check the living room!" The table was piling up with everything from searchable CDs stuck in laptops that were slower than a herd of snails travelling through peanut butter to huge dusty books that were as old as Caesar.

I sat there with just my ESV Bible and watched the show. If I didn't know and love them, it would have been a Saturday Night Live skit for sure. Instead, I felt really badly for them.

As one of the party was running from floor to floor, I entertained my tablemate with questions about Christ being "a God" but not a true God or a False God and not a God that was made before the True God or after but kinda after cause He was some "other" god... but not the Almighty God. I made the mistake of pointing out the label of Almighty in reference to Jesus in Isaiah and Revelations... that prompted more books. I'm talking BOOKS - not those flimsy magazines... straight-up bonafide hardback BOOKS! WITH AS MANY PAGES AS THE BIBLE!

I honestly couldn't believe the fiasco. And yes, when the Bible didn't support the teaching?... ALL one had to do was find the book so that *we* could understand why my understanding of the Bible verse was jacked...

Forget what was in the Bible, THEY JUST HAD TO FIND THE BOOK!

Band on the Run

Looking back, the Witnesses in my KH and my JW relatives could only parrot WT literature. They could never explain in their own words. Witnesses supposely study all these topics. Even at family affairs, the content was never discussed. It was just praise for the "truth." There is no quality. Obedience is valued, not understanding.

They are robotic. Their exposure to reality is very limited. My own father could not explain the doctrine. What he could do was study to fight Roman Catholic doctrines. He spent countless hours preparing for battle. His employer said one more incident and you are fired.

Perhaps the original Bible Students were different. When you read the old lit, though, I wonder how anyone could believe such things.

minimus

Russell's writings and his friends were really weird!

garyneal

My wife just goes through the motions simply because she does not want to die.

DesirousOfChange

They don't really expect to have to defend their teachings, except on the most elementary level.

That's because if anyone is smart enough or knowledgable enough to question the JW teachings/doctrine, they just conclude it must be coming from an apostate and they do not need to refute it -- no casting pearls before swine. Thus they never really have to know anything. If YOU know it, YOU shouldn't know it unless you're apostate.

Doc

NewChapter

When I was a JW, I did. But I wasn't born in, so that may make a difference. I could explain 1914 without a reference book, and I used to read the Insight books in my spare time. Yeah, I know, pathetic. On the plus side, all this deep research led me out---so it wasn't totally wasted.

Band on the Run

I went through the futility of having local Witness call on me because of the wife beating WT article and the quotes from a Nuremberg convicted theologian.

What popped out to me did not to them. They were not being nasty. In fact, these were recent articles and were studied in the KH.

Reasoning with them does not help. JW doctrines are goofy but I imagine a lot of the doctrines my present church puts forth are goofy. It is the lack of independence that scares me.

Do JWs Still Feel The Need To Understand Their Teachings Or Have They Pretty Much Abandoned That Idea?

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