Why did you get out of JW?

WorldsEyeView

Why did all of you guys get out?

I have a friend who is a JW, and I don't think she is right at all. Do you guys have any convincing arguments on why JW is wrong??

LB

They've called themselves prophets, yet haven't gotten one right.

They protect child molestors.

Christ said you'd know his followers by the love shown among the brothers, didn't see much of that.

They use emotional blackmail to keep you in. You want to leave? You'll lose everyone you love.

I drifted away because of the coldness of the congregation. Everyone was busy inflating their service records and no one had a genuine love for others in the congregation. It took me a while to realize that their teachings bore little resemblence to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus said that his disciples would be known by the love amongst themselves.....it doesn't exist among JWs

God also required that his organization be a clean organization. After the revelations of child molestation and the Watchtower Society's involvement with the UN; it was clear that they were not the clean, holy organization they claimed to be.

False prophecy, misinterpretation of the scriptures and the horrendous practice of shunning opened my eyes to the cult-like structure of this organization. I'm glad to be away from them!

Warrigal

WorldsEyeView

Wow, thank you guys so much!

Now where are you "religiously"?

Warrigal

I'm not in a hurry to substitute one religion for another but I feel that I have a good relationship with God and Jesus Christ.

I feel free to pray to them at any time and can examine the bible without a cult interpreting the words. I can enjoy God's creation from the tiniest flower to magnificent mountain views and be thankful for the gorgeous planet that he has given us.

There are no quotas to meet and no nitpicking rules to follow. Love God with your whole soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself is my religion now.

starScream

I was in the b-ORG all my life. I left because i had more questions than answers and asking questions was not encouraged. In particular, during one book study I kept reading past the scripture that was looked up and ended up reading the rest of the book. The first time I ever just read the bible unmotivated, I ended up very confused because It was totally different than what we were studying and saying.

We were at the time going through the Revelation-climax book. I read the last few chapters of revelation and was just shocked. I remember feeling this hot wave go across my body, like fear. I remember that I was thinking to myself that the watchtower teaching on this subject, the second resurrection, is WRONG!!!

I could no longer rely on a second resurrection for salvation as a matter of fact I started to question whether I could rely on the watchtower. Unless I lived up to THE perfect standard of rightousness I was lost. I knew that it was impossible to be perfect. I tried many times to be perfect but was always aware that I was a sinner. I had no hope. So I stopped carring. That is why I left. I realized that working for the love of God was pointless.

Eventually I stopped carring whether or not god existed then denied it outright.

When I saw the light, Jesus ripped my heart to pieces. I never knew Jesus in the Watchtower. I hated jesus in the watchtower. Jesus was boring. Jesus was just another reminder of how I was lost because I couldn't be perfect. I don't think I ever cracked the Greatest man that ever lived, book. I didn't want to hear about Jesus, that would make me puke.

Jesus is so amazing to me I can't even describe it. It not so much him claiming to be God that blows me away but the way he does it! Then the fact that he is God opens up a whole other world of amazement.

I hate how the watchtower systematically denies Christ. All her crimes are trivial when compared to that one. They spend so much time and energy subverting the simple truth of Christ. Oh man I can't wait FOR JUDGEMENT DAY, AHAHAHHAHAHAHHAh, I hope Judgement Day lasts a billion years. I tell you I will be holding up that trinity broshure for much of THAT day.

crinklestein

I was in it for about 5 or 6 years. I left because, the more information I absorbed, the more comparisons I could make with that information. After learning so much I began to compare to everything else I had learned and I realized that there were inconsistancies. There were things that they say are wrong to do yet CT Russel and Rutherford did the exact same things at the founding of this crack pot religion. Such as Never rely on your own understanding. They push this alot! But that is exactly what Russel did before he founded the Bible Students: He read the bible as if for the first time, throwing away all knowlege he had been tought before. He gave the bible a fresh insight and relied on his own understanding of it. Yet we arent supposed to?

There were alot of things that didnt jive with me and when I started mentioning these things to other brothers the elders took me in the back room and told me to stop. I asked them, "Why should I? I have questions that need answering and I was asking experienced brothers for their input."

The said I was spreading demonic and apostate thoughts into their heads. I said, "No. I'm thinking independantly and comparing what I've learned to what has been done in the past. And I deman explanations for these inconsistancies." They refused. So I said, "Well, I can rely on my own understanding, which you say is wrong to do, or I can rely on your understanding, but that would require you to answer my questions. So what shall it be? Are you to shirk your responsibilities as so-called spiritual leaders because you fear simple questions or shall you tend to your flock?"

That's where it went downhill and much was revealed during that conversation and a rift opened that would never be closed. I clung on in confusion for a few years after that but I let it go eventually.

neyank

Why did all of you guys get out? When you find that what is taught and believed to be true and then find that it's not A choice has to be made. Do you stay in and pretend to not know what the truth is about the WTS or do you leave it? I left it. I could not stay and listen to their teachings. (which constantly change) I could not go out in field service teaching the teachings that I knew to be false. neyank

DanTheMan

Many reasons -

More than anything, I stopped believing that the 99.99% of humanity outside of the Watchtower is deliberately rejecting God and that soon God is going to kill them. (Witnesses will use the word "destroy" instead of "kill" to sanitize this slightly.)

Also, I was so tired of being considered to be "spiritually weak" (The Watchtower notion of what makes a person spiritual is hours reported on a time slip and unquestioning submission to the organization). There is no room in the WT for individuality. If you're a single guy like I was and not "reaching out" (getting a title) well you might as well be dead to them.

Man, there's so much more than those two things, such as the blood issue, lack of love, the exhausting treadmill of meetings, conventions, field service, etc. These are the things that contributed to my initial cognitive dissonance. Then when I gained the courage to start looking on the internet (between the magazines, talks at the KH and conventions, I'm sure I was "warned" about the internet at least 100 times in the year before I left) I started learning the real history of the org, all the things that were hidden from me when I was a JW.

WorldsEyeView

Is there any way I, as a Christian that is totally against what JWs and WT are teaching, can help a friend who is a JW see the truth??

She told me on Friday that she was a JW, and I literally got sick over it and was at the point of tears. I've never ever experienced that before over someone that was lost. It was weird. The conversation went something like this...

Me: What do JWs believe?
Her: We believe lots of things. Ask me something.
Me: Ok... What happens when you die?
Her: We believe you just go into the ground <pause> but we also believe in the resurrection. We believe everything the Bible says and use it as our standard.
Me: What about when Jesus told the thief on the cross next to him, "You will be with me today in paradise?"
Her: Oh, we don't believe that Jesus died on the cross, because the Bible never said he did.
Me: Well, my Bible says Jesus died on the cross.

Then we had to take a final exam. Is there anything I could say that would make her question her beliefs? The thing I don't get is how people can just believe in a religion because one day some guy says I don't like what the Bible says because I don't understand some of it (trinity) and I don't like the idea of hell. So he up and makes his OWN religion. What makes him right?? What has this Russell guy ever done to prove that he was a man from God except INCORRECTLY predict Jesus' second coming??? Russell's never done anything for anyone, yet all these people believe he's right. (????)

Another thing... people can't question their religion??? That's like communism isn't it??? If I could not openly question my religion to the leaders in my church I would really question my beliefs, what are they hiding from me? If JW was really the TRUE religion then there should be no fault and they should be able to question and not fear being DF'd.

Am I right? How would I get this accross to her??

Why did you get out of JW?

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