3 years of study, Just found out!

by impala63rag 137 Replies latest jw friends

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  Faithful Witness

  Forgive them. They don't know what they are doing.

  ...and probably think they might have been able to save your life, in time. (blood guilt is real to JWs)

  People who belong to high-control groups often don't realize that they are being manipulated.

  I have watched my grown, thinking parents become blindly obedient JWs, who parrot WT doctrine as "Truth."

  There are a lot of really good people being controlled by the WT Faithful & Discreet Slave today. Those same people will look you in the eye and deny it.
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  WhoYourDaddy

  yes. years and years of being lied to, ambient abuse, jw's no longer trust their own judgment even if they could....
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  kaik

  Apognophos had a good point and I agree that JW are master of deceptions. JW will tell you one thing but will deny it later. When I was in KH we were taught that it is acceptable to lie to decieve enemies and Satan. JW and their literature shamelessly decieve and lie all the time, even about their past. They whitewash incorrect dates, prophecies, and events. They will deny what was published 20, 30, 50 years ago. People were DF for things they were taught in the past and when the light changed, the rest had to accepted or to be accussed for apostacy. JW will always put priority on their publication than Bible. I find it strange and unheard that after 3 years you will not be introduced to their publications. People were, are, and will be DF for reading Scriptures and if they disagree (it could be very little) with publication and Bible, they will be DF right out there. Once you become JW all Bible reading cases and family or small group bible studies were banned as far I remember in the 1980's. Majority of JW do not even know what is written in Bible. They only know selective chapters and verses, especially dealing with Armageddon. Anything else that does not fit into extremist ideology is blurred, whitewashed, or outright skipped during studies.

  At the end as I had said, you have free will and it is up to you joining man made religion. If you think you can escape later, than you need to consider all the issues that you will leave behind that will never get fixed again. Your family, happiness, children, career, education. JW cult damaged my relationship with my father who never accepted it and eventually died estranged from rest of JW family. It is something that NEVER can be redone and fixed. It is lost forever. My eldery parent (and my adoptive father) never prepared for old age and saved for the inevitable to be condemned to live in poverty and my monetary support because the big "A" was just behind the corner. That I heard 40-30-20 years ago. Go ahead and join, but be warned of the deception. There is no happiness on joining man-made religious publishing house and expecting serving a God.
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  Apognophos

  I agree that JW are master of deceptions. JW will tell you one thing but will deny it later. When I was in KH we were taught that it is acceptable to lie to decieve enemies and Satan. JW and their literature shamelessly decieve and lie all the time, even about their past.

  Yes, and sadly JWs are so good at deception that they fool even themselves. The example used commonly on JWN is that of 1975. JWs who lived through that era will claim today that the Society was not pushing 1975 as the year Armageddon would come, which is maybe 90% of a lie. It's true that the Society never wrote "1975 will be the end", but they did everything short of saying it.

  Where else could the JWs have even gotten the idea from? It was from the publications that pointed to 1975 as the end of 6,000 years of human existence, and thus the beginning of the Thousand Year reign. This was all based on an assumption of 7,000-year creative days, and a chronology promoted by the Society that placed man's creation at 4026 BCE. No JW would have come up with this on their own, and if they did, they would have been ignored or silenced.

  But if you sit today in the KH during a part with audience participation, and 1975 comes up, the JWs who are old enough to remember it will deny that the Society has any culpability. They're not even saying this for the sake of someone in the audience who might be visiting; they're honestly convinced that they are telling the truth. That's what makes it kind of scary.

  Additionally, there's a certain well-meaning aspect to it when a study conductor glosses over the less palatable parts of the religion. It's like a girl introducing her boyfriend to her parents, and fretting over what they'll think of him. She really really hopes they'll like him, so of course she does everything she can to paint him in a good light. Her interest is not in representing him fairly ("Well, these are his strengths, but these are his weaknesses"); she is biased in favor of wanting their approval of her relationship. So it's dishonesty that occurs without intending to be dishonest.

  I think that impala63rag has already gotten the point, but I just wanted to paint a fuller picture of what the JW mindset is like. No one who's been on the inside can reasonably claim that there is a Machiavellian intent to purposely trick others into joining the religion, because we all sincerely tried to bring people in without realizing that we were part of something resembling a multi-level marketing scheme. It's very Truman Show-esque when we finally learn that we've been hawking a product without even meaning to, instead of helping people attain "the real life" in a new system.
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  kaik

  My JW family will outright tell me that it is not important what was published 20-30-40 years ago and they do not care about it because they have a new light, and new truth. Even when I had sit in the KH and heard speculation that the big "A" will happen in 1989 because it was 70 years ago that Jesus choose them as his representative group. That was freeking 25 years ago, where entire new generation was born and other experienced significant life-based decisions. Problem with end time cults that they will run out of time and dates; therefore, they need to deny what they had prophecised, or to invent new date for justify its existence. JW managed to do both.
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  Gentledawn

  Yes, and sadly JWs are so good at deception that they fool even themselves. The example used commonly on JWN is that of 1975. JWs who lived through that era will claim today that the Society was not pushing 1975 as the year Armageddon would come, which is maybe 90% of a lie. It's true that the Society never wrote "1975 will be the end", but they did everything short of saying it.

  Oh, they said it alright. And they wrote it in a handful of publications, too. 1975 audio speeches given before October 1975: vice pres. of Watchtower Fred Franz and District Overseer Charles Sinutko

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaXbBVVoeEQ

  It also shows 1975 in books and other publications before the actual year. Think they started banging the drum around 1966 or so.
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  Apognophos

  Yes, I know what they said. Sigh. How did I know someone was going to object to my statement? I called it 90% of a lie, wasn't that good enough? All that the Society gave were strong hints, which is why you simply can't show any specific quote that says "1975 will be the end". Anyway, that was wasn't really my point, so I'm not going to argue over it.
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  Faithful Witness

  The writers of WT literature are masters of manipulation. They use deceptive and "suggestive" language, to make it sound like they are saying something, but not really saying it. They lead the reader to draw "their own conclusions," as long as they agree with what they are reading. They are very slick in their publications.

  Observation from my BS of 3+ years (on and off). How to win someone new over to the "Truth":

  1. Convince student that everyone else is lying, therefore we are evidently telling you the truth. 2. Warn student that people will try to convince you not to listen to the Truth, because they would not want to admit they have been fooled their whole lives. 3. How does it feel to know YOU have been lied to your whole life?? (direct quote from my BS teacher) 4. Where else can you go?

  Conclusion: JW's have the Truth... Do you want to be "In the Truth," or would you prefer to join the Great Harlot of Bablyon?

  Oh yeah, I almost forgot... The world is ending soon, so you'd better make the right choice, before it's too late!
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  abbagail
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  LisaRose

  The Watchtower used loaded language, selective quotes, hints and innuendo to cause the faithful to jump to a conclusion. This old system is doomed, things are bad and getting worse (even if it is not), and of course Armageddon is just around the corner. They are good at this, why not, they have been doing it for well over 100 years. They are careful to not put specific predictions in the pages of the Watchtower, except in a few cases, but are much more specific in talks and sometimes in the "our Kingdom ministry". They also pass verbal predictions through the circuit and district overseer visits. These nuggets of wisdom are latched onto by the faithful. My mother said to me once " Brother tiddlywinks said Armageddon is coming soon, and he must know because he is an elder!" The idea that any elder knew the date for Armageddon was absurd, it shows how desperate some are to believe . After a while, they can pretend they never said those things, it, memories grow dim, old magazines get tossed or filed away, and the faithful are pretty well conditioned not to question anything. We bought into the whopper that it was our fault we thought the end was coming!

  And really, it is hard to question things. Not only will this get you a quick visit from and elder, if not a judicial committee, but you would have to admit that you were gullible, were in the wrong religion, you had been had. Most people are not honest enough with themselves to admit to that. Easier to believe the explanation, no matter how absurd. I know, I was one of the "stay alive till 75" bunch. I got suckered into the lie in 1969. 1975 was "significant" , the end of 6,000 years of man's existence, time for the 1,00 year rein of Christ. I wouldn't have time for a career in this system of things. It had to end before those alive in 1914 passed away.

  Despite all this I didn't leave until 1999. I have no explanation other than the fact that it's a religion that uses cult mind control. I grew up, got married, had children, had a career (despite the prediction) but my brain was stuck in the third grade logic of the Watchtower. Where will you go? Who else teaches the truth about trinity and hell fire? I honestly didn't know. I didn't want to loose friends and family. I loathed it by then, but didn't have the strength to leave. The end of my marriage was the catalyst to force me to leave. Best decision I have ever made.