BEFORE YOU LEFT......

In_between_days

Hi all,

Another question.

This one is for all those that began doubting the organisation when they were an obedient JW.

Although I am sure you rarely shared it with anyone, what was the one problem you had with a certain JW only doctrine?

What I mean is, what little gremlins lurked at the back of your mind? What were the doubts that you kept hidden and what made you finally act on them?

Basicly, just what was your problem?

Although I do respect and totally understand the people who left because of personal wrongs done to them by fellow JW'S, I would prefer to hear from those who could just take no more of a certain beleif or doctrine, and decided to investigate or question it further.

Think way back, before you had ever heard of scandals or cover ups instigated by the organisation.

I would appreciate your response

Thanks

(p.s - im sure you've been asked this millions of times by now, but hey, im new and curious as hell)

cellomould

Hi In_between,

When I learned that JWs borrowed heavily from fundamentalist sources in supporting the flood and creation myths, that just about did it for me.

I started reading the books I otherwise would have avoided. I wasn't just getting other opinions, I was also getting facts hidden carefully and obscured by the WTBS.

Good question.

By the way, I always (really since I was a young child) hated the phrase "the Truth". It was never used grammatically besides. For example, 'raised in the Truth'. Geez, I truly hated that.

I am sure I am not the only one.

cellomould

"You're crying 'why am I the victim?' when the culprit is YOU" Stevie Wonder

larc

Reading Russell's teaching about the Great Pyramid, and his interpretations of Revelation.

Simon

I started investigating the WTS view of dinosaurs and the flood and found so much stuff that could not be correct scientifically and so many misquotes and quotes from dubious sources in their books that I started investigating more.

Everything I looked at fell apart.

I found the lies about 1914 were very shocking - I had grown up for years believing that the society 'foretold' 1914 as the year Christ returned as they kept repeating this line as often as they could (I can still see the WT covers). Of course they never did and just twisted their beliefs to fit some events after the fact.

I have copies of the WTS books printed in the 1920's where they are still claiming he came in 1874.

In the end, instead of looking for lies they had told I was trying to find anything true that they had ever said.

A shame that such a 'truth loving' organisation would be such a compulsive liar! And we know what 'god' thinks of liars dont' we ...

mouthy

I never could believe that we could say with surety that Jesus returned in 1914( invisable of course)Even when I got baptised I did not believe it-But because they admitted making a mistake about Jesus not having a beard- I figuered Jah would put 1914 straight.But then when they said I MUST believe it( I said I couldnt) they kicked me out. I still believed it was the truth for over a year & a half after I was ousted....Until I met some more Apostates- who set me on the path to THINKING,CHECKING,Using my brains------

Beans

All the HYP about the end of the world! I remember one meeting an announcement was made that something big was coming and could not be revealed until a certain date, I was about 10 years old! I was certain that it was the announcement of the end as I thought at that time, if the Watchtower told me the moon was made out of Blue Cheese it was true!

As I sat in my chair the day of the revelation it turned out to be a fricken book! I was so dissapointed!!! The other thing was how much they preached about being such great people and everyone I knew was having sex drinking and smoking drugs!

And the clincher, the elder who sexually abused my sister was not disfellowshipped but was only required to step down.

WHERE IS THE LOGIC?

Most of these people are still in and as I call it "BOUND BY ASSOCIATION"!

Beans

City Fan

Hello there In-between !

I'd been born and raised a Witness, had no "personal wrongs" done against me and generally enjoyed the company of those at the hall.

By the age of 13 I had bible studies going with school friends and believed all of what I was told at the meetings. Over the next 4 years everything changed.

Several things made me begin to doubt. As I grew older I began to see how horrific and violent some of the old testament stories were. I could not reconcile these with a "loving creator".

All scientists were treated as liars who made up evidence to back up their theories. But scientists who agreed with the society were quoted endlessly in the books/magazines. All quotes generally had bits missing from the quotes. I always thought this was suspicious but only discovered more about these quotes years later.

Having been a JW for the first 20 years of my life I already knew of certain doctrinal changes. People who saw 1914 had to be of an age of understanding (10 - 14 years old in 1914). Then as time went on it was people born just before (5 years old). Then it was people born in 1914 !!
When I finally left (in 1991) I remember telling my mother that the society would have to change its doctrine re 1914 because time was running out. Four years later when she told me of the "new thought" from the society about the generation doctrine I felt slightly vindicated.
By the mid eighties just about everything made me doubt - I remember the new song book coming out with 100+ new songs and thinking they were all crap, I mean really bad. If they were written by Gods' earthly organisation surely they had to have some kind of inspiration, didn't they ?
I had doubts about the flood, number of earthquakes, age of fossils and dinosaurs, just about all their teachings really.

If you have a gut feeling that all is not right with the Watchtower then get out !!

JBean

Believe it or not, the "marry only in the Lord" thing, where "the Lord" meant only JW's never really sat well with me. Other than that, I never paid much attention to the "little details" : ) until: I read Crisis of Concience and the link with the UN became known. I will NEVER reconcile with that. That was the proverbial "straw". Jbean

borgfree

Hi in_between_days,

I had some problems with teachings as I was growing up, but serious doubts started when I was much older. I started reading the bible every day, I was determined to be a much better witness. I could not find scriptural answers to support 1914, or 144,000, or 1935 being a date Jehovah closed the door on heaven.

Later I heard about Ray Franz's book telling about the inner workings of the governing body. I was told we were not to read the book, but I thought to myself, the whole world can read about what goes on in OUR governing body, but WE, who are in the organization, cannot. So I ordered the book and read it.

After reading the book I could not accept the differences in the way the WT dealt with Malawi and Mexico. Also, I could not accept, that the witnesses in Mexico, had to pretend to be a cultural group, to keep WT property, instead of being a religious group as we were, in the US. Then many doubts started, as I researched more and more.

Borgfree

"Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training." -Anna Freud

Liberty

Hi In-between-days,

Like many others have mentioned, the Watchtower Society's general anti-science stance and complete cluelessness about the real facts concerning the Flood, the Tower of Babel, and Evolution were all a real let down to me. The Society brainwashes you into thinking they are experts on everything so it is a shock to discover what hacks and boobs these "experts" really were once the real evidence is presented.

They are not even experts on the Bible, which they should be at the very least, one would think. For example, as someone else mentioned, when I was a kid many years ago the Society said that Jesus didn't have a beard and illustrated him clean shaven in thier old literature. I seem to remember them speculating that he belonged to some Jewish sect that didn't grow beards, however, I once saw an Amish spokesman who plainly knew more about the Bible than the Watchtower writers because he pointed out to a skeptical reporter that the Amish wore beards because the Bible clearly said that the Romans pulled Jesus' beard and spat in his face. How such an obvious biblical reference could have been missed by the JW "scholars" for years ever since Rutherford's day astounded me. The Watchtower eventually changed their stance on Jesus' beard (though it remained ridiculously short trimmed in modern style) because the evidence was so overwhelming that such an influence of personal taste (Rutherford hated beards) could finally be revised years after Rutherford's death. The JW "unofficial" rule against beards was also influenced by this personal and extra-biblical bias. I, like many others, was "councelled" by the Elders for having facial hair. This was just another in a whole ridiculous set of Watchtower rules which had nothing to do with Christianity or the Bible (like having to wear a tie).

Another big problem for me was knowing how few people in the Middle East and Asia had been reached by the "Good News", and yet knowing that the Society said Armageddon could come at any moment. This was an obvious contradiction to me since Jesus said that his word would be preached to the ENTIRE inhabited Earth before the End could come. Their lame explainations for this gross contradiction of logic failed to instill much confidence in me.

I could go on but these were enough to really make me question the validity of the rest of their self serving grandeous claims. But what do I know? I'm just a grumbler seeking to elevate myself above the brothers because I can't wait on Jehovah.

BEFORE YOU LEFT......

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