Easy. My "Aha" or "OMG" epiphany moment that made me realise I'm just in another false religion like everyone else was when I first saw these changed two masthead statements from the Awake magazine next to each other:
What was your "Aha!" moment?
by Hortenzie 52 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
Ucantnome
we were discussing John 1:1.
i stopped preaching some years earlier because of something in the Watchtower and gradually it led to a meeting with some elders and me ceasing to attend.
later my daughter had some discussions with a baptist girl about the trinity and we discussed it. i had little time for it. then a short while later the elder visited and it was how he viewed Christ. i'd for some reason never felt that way. hard to explain but i was surprised how I felt.
-
Bruja-del-Sol
My 'aha'-moment was when the elders came to my ex-husband to tell him that he had to keep our children away from me, the evil DF'd woman, since I was 'a danger to their mental and spiritual health'. He kicked them out of his house and never went back to the hall again. My ex called me to tell me himself, and he said he would never let anybody come between me and our kids, even though he was mad at me at the time because I had left him. But he still respected me as the mother of the children. That was the basis for our friendship today, we respect each other and we'll always be part of each others family because of our history together and our children.
Later I learned about the UN NGO affair on a Dutch forum... after that I started reading CoC and then I knew for sure it was a cult. So glad that I got out and that my ex and kids are out as well!
-
Jeffro
What was your "Aha!" moment?
When I was about 8 and being asked stupid questions like, "What [wild] animal would you like to have in the paradise?"
I had to go along with it for a while after that though.
-
Robert7
I had a lot of various dissonances and conflicts building up over the years. The major one was Governing Body worship. They would say in meetings how giving excessive attention to something, like sports, is idolatry. Then I see how virtually every WT, study, and prayer included mention of the GB. Isn't giving excessive attention to the "discreet" GB a form of idolatry? This really bothered me.
The other thing that really bothered me was all the talk with Consentration camps in WWII. JWs are so proud with the JW stance and how thousands died. I remember articles discussing this, even parts in assemblies smugly bragging about it. Well, yes thousands or JWs died, but MILLIONS of Jews died! What disrespect to brag about the thousands but ignore the millions who had died!
So one service meeting night in December 2007 one brother commented about the brothers in WWII, yet again, and literally that moment switch was flipped, and I had that "a ha" moment. It was then I realized I was no longer a JW. I signed up for JWD that night and told my wife a few days later. I've been only to a few meetings since, but have otherwise been out ever since.
-
ablebodiedman
First started while contemplating what it might be that distressed Jesus Christ regarding his baptism:
Luke 12:49-50
γ"I came to start a fire on the earth, and what more is there for me to wish if it has already been lighted? 50 γIndeed, I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and how I am being distressed until it is finished!
Then started trying to understand the full depth of audacity and presumption it would take for someone to re-invent Jesus Christ's baptism.
Anyone bold enough to re-invent his commandment MUST think they are better than him!
2 Thessalonians 2:4
γHe is set in opposition and lifts himself up over everyone who is called "god" or an object of reverence, so that he sits down in the temple of The God, publicly showing himself to be a god.
Everything that has happened in the years since my first "aha moment" continues to cement that original and life changing conviction!
I have been emancipated from a truly reprehensible situation.
abe
-
flipper
Injustices committed by elders towards me and others in the congregation told me there was no way in hell these guys were appointed by the alleged " holy spirit ". The veil fell from my eyes immediately and I left cold turkey 10 years ago walking out of the kingdom hall taking my books off my chair and walking out the door- never to return. Been the most peaceful 10 years of my life
-
steve2
Ray Franz was my "Aha!" moment.
He articulated most of the doubts I had had at that point and it was like I was finally face-to-face with something I could no longer ignore.
My moment of truth had arrived. I will go to my grave thankful to Ray that I stopped living a lie and started working towards a life worth living outside of the organization.
-
Bella15
final blow when I discovered the child sexual abuse coverage going on in that org, wow they have the guts to denounce other denominations while they were and continue paying million of dollars and putting gag orders.
-
crmsicl
like others, i always had doubts that I would not allow myself to examine. Then I read the first paragraph of CoC, that my husband left laying around for me and I said quietly, well I guess he wants me to read this. I could see from Ray's hearfelt disclosure upon introducing himself that this man had it together and was not to be feared.