What was your eye opening moment? (page 6)

060702015

how nasty JWs were to me is when I begin questioning the religion and Jehovah God. That was a stupid a reason tho. I begin looking at youtubes recently about the religion that made question the actual doctrines. However, I remember back in high school, years ago, I a came across a website that described the Jehovah Witnesses as a CULT. I tried to block that information out of my mind.

Simon

What made me know for certain was when the elders came round to "shepherd" me (set me right) and they couldn't answer any of my questions and it was obvious. Part way through I realized - I know way more than these clowns! They resorted to threatening me not to talk to anyone else about any of it otherwise they'd "take action".

Yeah, I don't respond well to threats. I started a website.

Introvert 2

For myself the constant grind of busywork, meeting attendance and just not fitting into the norm. I run my own business and trying to keep up with everything became too much after a while. Am the type that gives my all when I decide to do something which led to suicidal depression and burn out. Just when I was ready to examine spiritual matters again a good friend of mine that had a similar experience shed me some light on TTATT and followed up with research finding Beroean Pickets, Parimeno and Jordly.com which confirmed what I had always suspected.

kairos

I began to see that many local elders and JWs were breaking the law regularly, it was common knowledge.

I tried to "deal with this" by speaking to the elders and two different COs.

Nothing happened except more law breaking. I confronted an elder about the issue while we were out in service. He told me, "as a body of elders" they had decided to "ignore the situation". His words.
I was furious. It took every bit of my self control to stay out in service that day. I was SO ready to go home. I was very angry. JW elders hide illegals in the congregations.

I resigned as a MS very shortly after that and then did an accelerated fade.

Then I found the "apostate web sites". Game Over.

daringhart13

I was an elder for eleven years; a MS for another 5-6.... and these thoughts, couple with experiences, continued to haunt me:

1. If everyone that dies this side of the Big A get a resurrection, what's the point of field service. Wouldn't you be more loving to walk around shooting people so they had a better chance of living in paradise?

2. We can take blood fractions; but not volunteer our own (the whole blood doctrine was stupid to me)

3. I could conduct a Bible Study (saving a precious life), go commit fornication, be privately reproved, bring my Bible Study to the meetings..... my 'student' could comment at the meeting, I could not due to restrictions.... but I could keep teaching them the Bible. HUH???? ummmmmmmmmmmm......

NewYork44M

I was a highly discouraged witness that wanted to prove that my life was not a waste. In the process I was in a debate with someone on an AOL chat room and the individual proved unequivocally that what I was taught was a lie.

I remember the exact moment when it clicked. I felt very ill and sat on a chair in the family room and was overwhelmed with sadness.

I remember just feeling overwhelmed. Even to this day, 25 years later, I remember this feeing.

Ding

Simon,

Actually I think that your starting up of this website was a very good response to the elders' threats.

kaik

I had doubts, but I grew up in it. My mom got baptized around 1975, but my dad said after yeas of study, that much of the theology in WT does not make sense. He said that WT just invented too much things, but nothing is based on Bible. After couple years of constant pressure from JW relatives, he quit to study and never got baptized.

After my dad's death, I believed that the negative influence on my JW thinking was gone and I was attending like crazy, been on conventions, did field services, etc, but doubt were there. We eventually started to study book Revelation, and I just could not reconcile most the BS in that book with Bible. For example we were talking about pouring of wrath from Rev 16:1 and they said it was some convention in Ohio around 1920. Everyone around me was, awesome - me what BS. I just could not reconcile the book study with what I knew and suddenly came to me that if the material is BS, than the religion is BS. After the book study, I never returned to KH.

WT believes that their existence is outlined in the dooms prophecy; and the best way to justify a prophesy, is to prophesied the past.

Splash

I had many things come through my mind that didn't add up, and I always pushed them back thinking that it was me, or that things would become clearer. After all, my mother got the 'truth' as a 1975'er and I was still in single figures.

- Later on I couldn't understand how we have to refuse white blood cells, but babies breast feeding and eating white blood cells is ok. There was simply no logic to this.
- I was told that Bab the Gt fell in 1918 but here it still was, with billions of adherents.
- The UN NGO thing simply amazed me and started me discussing things with others.

I started researching and saw that the "Millions" campaign was an obvious sham, and concluded that in 50 years time todays' campaigns will be seen as obvious sham's also.
I also learned about how wrong 607BCE was.

My 'wake up' website was Perimeno which I read over and over.

The final nail in the coffin was not any teaching, but it was the attitude of the WT in that they were never wrong and you could not question them, when it was patently clear they were frequently wrong. It was as if they were hiding a secret that everyone knew, but no-one was allowed to talk about it. Their subsequent flip-flop history on just about everything they ever taught made me realise you can have no trust in them whatsoever.

Now when I listen to talks on their website or talks at the Hall I see them for who they are - deceivers.
Actually, the modern day GB have completely lost the plot and will ruin the religion. The vast majority of faithful ones are the elderly, and they won't be around for ever. They ridiculed the churches for having an old and decrepit membership, but they will suffer the same fate.

Xanthippe

It wasn't just a moment with me it was a build up of things. I couldnt take on board the ransom sacrifice teaching at sixteen. Human sacrifice always revolted me, surely there must be another way.

Being told at an assembly we couldn't study just the Bible with people anymore, it had to be a WTS publication. That rocked me so I asked a friend in another circuit. She treated me like an apostate just for asking her what they said at her assembly!

The treatment of women. An elder took an instant dislike to me. At meetings for FS he used to ignore me when asking for comments and giving out territory as if I was invisible. My husband, following Matthew 18, went to see him so many times and talked to him about it but he just let my husband buy him drinks and said it was a misunderstanding, then he carried on doing it. Finally my husband invited him to our home so he could confront me. He looked me in the face and said 'I swear in the the name of Jehovah I have nothing against you'. I remember going cold because I knew he hated me but he said that before God. When my husband went in the kitchen to make coffee he was vile to me again. We knew then most of the elders were liars and hypocrites. My husband already knew from sitting in elders meetings how they talked about the congregation and dismissed people who were in need.

It was 1989 and the Berlin Wall was coming down. All the papers were full of the news and they kept saying the words 'peace and security'. That was supposed to be the sign the big A was near but when we excitedly told the congregation what the papers were saying nobody cared. We started to realise it was all a sham. We DA'd that year.

What was your eye opening moment?

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