Is apostate an appropriate term for us?

sleepy

How do you feel?Do you like to be called apostate ?

Apostate just means: Someone who renounces a former belief or principle.

To people who have never been witnesses it may not symbolise much.But to witnesses the word means a lot.In many of their minds it is synonymous with evil and perverted.

Since it JW's who will likely call us apostate not others the term almost always has a bad or negative useage.

But it does identify us as people who have completely rejected the religion.

So is it good for us to use it or not?

Hmmm

As you said, we'll be (or have already been) branded apostates by JWs.

On this site the term is used with no negative connotations, in fact it is used with a positive spin. I use it with pride--just not around my family.

Hmmm

FreePeace

I spoke to my dad yesterday. He asked me if I had talked to any apostates. I said, "No, as a matter of fact, I haven't talked to any Witnesses at all."

Then he told me that I can't go to anymore apostate websites or talk to any apostates.

Damn. Just when I was starting to make new friends, daddy forbids me to associate with them.

So, I'm sorry. I can't play with you all any more. My dad might get angry.

FreePeace

"The World is my country, and to do good, my religion." --Thomas Paine

Who Am I? -How to Reinvent Yourself After Leaving the WTS

TruthQuest: http://beam.to/truthquest

I suppose like everything, much depends on your definition. Of course, the WT uses the loosest definition of all so as to cast their net the widest. And they use the word apostate as a perjorative, like most people would use the word bastard.

I prefer to use the definition that apostates are those who have renounced the teachings of The Master. I have done no such thing. The followers of the WT Cult certainly have abused and abandonded the teachings of Jesus, but not me.

So in reality, THEY are the apostates. In fact, as noted by others, I take a certain amount of perverse pride in the fact that I am considered an apostate by the Witnesses. To be considered an apostate by an apostate can't help but be a positive thing. And we DO in fact serve a positive purpose for the rank and file, lock-step JW: we serve the same purpose to the JWs and did the Jews to the Germans. We are the objects of their group hate and as such, we serve as the glue that holds that loose association of directionless apostates together.

My two cents.

Francois

barry

I think apostate is used to liberaly in the witnesses because many people are still christians even though they leave the WT. Growing up in the Adventist church people who went against the company line were usually referred to by the leader of there particular group eg Brinsmeads were followers of Robert D Brinsmead, Fordits are followers of Dr Desmond Ford a theologian that was defrocked for his views. Barry

Prisca

I don't like the term apostate in terms of how the average JW views apostates, but I have found myself using it in a general sense when referring to fellow ex-JWs.

I am also using the term "apostafest" when referring to our get-togethers we have regualrly here in Oz, but it doesn't mean to say only apostates can attend.

I also don't like the term "apostate" because I don't believe I have apostafied (is that a word?) from God, rather I have left a man-made religion. I still have spiritual beliefs, and still believe in a Greater Being/Creator.

JosephMalik

How do you feel? Do you like to be called apostate ?

Sleepy,

No, it is not an appropriate term for us but we are mature enough to deal with such accusations. The ex-JW's for the most part are the true faithful and dependent upon our Lord for salvation while the witnesses are the faithless and dependent upon their association with the Watchtower for their salvation.

There is only one Christian faith in the world. It is broken up into many denominations but still they all together represent this one faith. The fact that the WT and many others are evil does not alter this fact. Our Lord will sort them out and judge each one as individuals when He returns. Some will be found evil, and counted as outsiders and drunkards with the rest of the world. Some will be found faithful especially the ones that get out as the ex-witnessed have in accord with:

Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

All of us that have been so falsely accused must bear up and continue the dedication we made so honestly and humbly so many years ago and preach the word. Expose the error and the evil men behind it. In this way we can fulfill this dedication to the glory of the one that called us in the first place.

Joseph

Matty

I understand your point of view Joseph - It all seems pretty clear to me now, but it's strange how one simple word can be so controversial. Prisca, yes, I agree, it's a question of whether its Apostasy from the Jehovah's Witnesses, or Apostasy from God himself. A Jehovah's Witness obviously sees them both as the same. It just makes me feel so silly now! The word "Apostate" used to make me recoil with horror. I considered apostates as Satanic, and as such I thought of them as quite threatening and menacing. It's strange how the witnesses misrepresent the English language. If apostate is someone who simply renounces a former belief or principle, then the vast majority of ex-witnesses are indeed Apostate. As far as their interpretation is concerned, it's only when someone actively pursues them and fellow witnesses to try and persuade them to leave the faith, whether it's by dropping leaflets, setting up anti-witness web sites or picketing conventions, it's only then that an ex-witness is referred to as an Apostate. An angry ex-Jehovah's Witness, that doesn't do these kind of things are just labelled as "opposed".

Amazing

The term 'apostate' comes from the Greek, 'apostasia,' and is not a title or label, but a simple verb form meaning to "stand away or apart from." A similar Greek word, 'Apostasion' mean to separate or divorce. In non-Biblical, contemporary Greek literature, the word 'Apostasia' was never used as a label, and is not commonly used at all. It is used in the Bible about 3 or 4 times in the New Testament... and all translations use the simple verb form, to "stand away from" or something close to that type of simplicity. Sometimes they use the term 'rebellion.' The only exception I have found so far is the Watchtower Society's, New World Translation, which uses the term 'apostasy.' They obviously do this to support their basis to create a noun (label).

Technically, we have "separated or stood away or apart" from the Jehovah's Witnesses. Technically, any person who leaves something, is an apostate. If you leave a building and "stand away" from it during a fire drill, you are an Apostate. If you leave your car and "stand away" from it on the sidewalk, you are an Apostate. If you leave the Republican Party and "separate from them," your are an Apostate. You do not necessarily have to join the Democrats or Libertarians. So, in one way or another, every person on earth has engaged in apostasy. Even Jesus Christ committed apostasy when he walked outside a city and "stood away" from it. Or when he told the Jews that their house was "abandoned to" them, he was in essense "separating from them" and committing apostasy.

It all seems silly. And if a JW were to ask me if I am an 'Apostate,' I would say no. There is no basis, either in language or in Christian theology to create such a noun or label. I repudiate and reject the term as nonsense, as a creation of a bunch of men engaged in their own selfish fantasies.

Edited by - Amazing on 14 June 2002 9:16:51

finnrot

sorry, I'm not as verbose as the rest of you. But I know what I like and in this this forum, the way apostate is used, I like it.

And I can't wait to attend my first apostafest!! Are there any plans for a northern or central California apostafest soon?

Is apostate an appropriate term for us?

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