BEFORE YOU LEFT......

by In_between_days 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Jewel

  1. The fossil record-as my daughter says when Grandma (who is still "faithful") talks about the 7000 year old earth, "They've got the rocks!!!"

  2. The attempt to control what I read/saw/learned about. I was a VERY good Witness girl except where it came to reading. I got in a bit of trouble from time to time about reading science fiction. I remember an elder telling me that I shouldn't have _I, Robot_ in my room because it didn't reflect the future that WE knew was coming. I even remember a talk in the Service Meeting once about how we should not watch Star Trek or go to see Star Wars...not because of immoral content or violence but because...why-I can't even remember!
  I remember arguing with my Mom that "Truth" should stand up to evaluation. I still believe that.

  3. When I went to college (1977-78), I was "marked". I had a very dear friend, we'd been like sisters, who stopped talking to me all together. Then I made some wonderful new friends at college (which is probably what they were afraid of) who seemed to accept me pretty much unconditionally. Coming from the Witness tradition, this was new to me. I kept thinking of the scripture, "By this you will know them, that they love one another." I thought that if love was the real criteria, the Witnesses weren't it.

  I said at the time that they'd change their tune here when they realized that they got better contributions from publishers who made more money. It makes me chuckle now when my Mom talks about different Witness kids who are in college.

  4. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I got tired of being harrangued from the podium about how we should NOT question the elders since they were directly anointed and influenced by the Holy Spirit. When some slip-up became public, we'd get talks about how the elders where human and could make mistakes. Seemed like it was not real logical for them to try to have it both ways.

  5. Like I posted on another thread, the last straw was when I saw a show about these horrible orphanages in the former Soviet Union. Children were living in misery with no loving care, little food, no hygiene or medical care. I remember thinking that if a human had the power to change the lives of these innocents and refused to do so I would consider him/her to be a monster. Yet I was supposed to accept that it was OK for an almighty and all powerful god to let these babies suffer so he could win a cosmic bet with Satan.

  Jewel
• 

  MoeJoJoJo

  1975

  I was never supposed to go to school in this system, so I was told. I now have kids in school.
  When I inherited a large WT library (about 3 yrs. ago), the 1st thing I did was search the books & bound volumes for the 1975 date. I became sick to my stomach when I found the date in print.
  I remember being told that 1975 was the year of the "great cleaning out of Jehovah's organization" of those lacking faith.
  I was very curious because I wondered how all of those people could come to the same conclusion about the same date all on their own. Also I knew how the organization felt about independent thinking and that if so many people had been expecting this date, the Society would have definitely corrected their thinking.

  I continued my research into even older publications and found that previous dates(false prophecies) had been set by the WT for the return of "faithful men of old" (1925), Jesus second presence (1874), etc.

  If I would not have found that date(1975) in print, I don't know where I would be today. Probably still in the org.

  -You can lead a fool to wisdom, but you can't make him think.
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  ChrisVance

  The issue of universal soveignty. Why should so many people suffer because adam and Eve ****ed up? Worse yet, how could jesus´ ransom supposed sacrifice make any difference? How was his life equal to that of Adam? I remember discussing this with a friend when I was about 20. She couldn´t understand it either. Since jesus supposedly was perfect, what was the big deal? In fact, I remember being told that when he was baptized he remembered his prior existence in heaven. This means he "saw the big picture." A little suffering with the understanding he had didn´t seem any big deal to me and if his sacrifice meant my sins were forgiven why did I have to continue to ask for forgiveness? Also, I couldn´t understand why so many had to suffer since Jesus had already cleared up the matter. After I married I expressed my doubts to my now x-wife. Later when we were talking to an elder about another matter, she asked him how one would explain the significance of the ransom sacrifice to someone. (She knew better than to tell him I had doubts.) He said you´d have to be pretty stupid not to understand it. For the next 20 years these doubts lingered, and when I decided to leave I threw off all the superstitious and mythical beliefs of Chrstiandom.
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  jwsons

  http://www.quotes.jehovahswitnesses.com/
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  revdrjohnson

  My mother and sister came to visit me for the summer district assembly; and stayed in the home of a special pioneer lady. I was going through marital troubles at the time, and this lady -- who'd never met me -- spent the whole time assassinating my character to my mother.

  I thought to myself "these people are supposed to be the world's examples of how to show love to one another -- and right about not I don't feel very much loved.

  That was the stuff that broke the bond (After all, I'd left and come back twice when I was in my teens). But even with that I still attended the first day and a half of the assembly.

  What caused me to leave was that I suddenly had my eyes open that what I was listening to that afternoon was the same tripe that I'd heard over, and over, and over, and over , and over, and over again.

  So on the second day of the convention - unemployed and estranged from my wife - my thoughts were heavy on the unfairness and unkindness of the Special Pioneer woman and of Jehovah's Witnesses, in general. I walked into the Gator Bowl so late that I could not get a seat inside the stadium. In fact the organizers had lined the corridors with chairs, and I ended up with a seat so far back that I couldn't even see inside. Didn't matter, I was really troubled about being there, in the first place.

  At 2:00 p.m. a new speaker took the stand to give a "Talk". (the Society's name for the lecture/sermons given from the pulpit by "mature brothers" - usually elders) I don't remember the subject of the talk, but right in the middle a mental image popped into me head, accompanied by a "still, small voice." The image was of a hand extending from heaven holding a small plate out to me (my immediate thought went to Acts 10 when God lowered a sheet down in front of the Apostle Peter and commanded him, "Rise and eat"). On the plate was what appeared to be a half of a standard can of tuna: no dressing, no lettuce, no bread, just TUNA!And not much of it

  The voice said, in essence "rise and eat," but also that "You are not being fed! This is the same stuff you've been hearing all of your life, just rehashed over and over again. Get out of here, before you starve to death!" I got up, picked up my briefcase, walked out of the stadium. I have never looked back..
  Excerpt from "My Calling Sure" -- a chapter in From Kingdom Hall to Kingdom Callhttp://www.revdrjohnson.com/out.html

  Keep the Faith
  RAY

  http://xjw-central.com/
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  LittleToe

  This time last year I was happily plodding along as a JW Elder, reaching out for Circuit work.

  I then had a "brush with God" resulting in the following issues coming up, in the following order:
  1935
  144,000
  Undeserved Kindness, not works
  Christ's position
  Christ's mediatorship
  U.N.
  Then everything else came tumbling apart.

  I'm still very much a Christian, but I left the borg in January of this year.