As a loyal JW, what made you to start doubting the Watchtower ???

run dont walk

I'm sure all of us were LOYAL at one time to the Watchtower, believing in all of it. (Some of us probaly hated it from day one as well but, )

What were some of the first things that happened or were said, that made you to start doubting it and beginning the loss of your loyalty to the organization ??????

What was going through your mind the first time (or early times) you started to question the organization in your head, did you believe this was Satan's doing ??????, did you think you were becoming an apostate ??????, did you feel guilty ??????

Eric

The Apocrypha.

It started me thinking. After that it was a landslide.

Eric

Dawn

I had a lot of questions, but when I asked the elders I got the old "you better be careful about your thinking" kind of talk. My questions were sincere so I didn't understand why they would react this way. I thought that if it was the truth - then couldn't it stand up to any scrutiny? Since they weren't answered they just started to grow and fester. I wondered:

* If all creation is only 6+ thousand years old, how do you explain dinosaurs?

* How can I be sure I have the truth if I don't research other religions and views? (I was raised a JW)

* If someone is DF'd and I know that they were DF'd wrongly - how come I can not talk to them? How come I can not make that decision for myself?

* How come you can't throw rice at weddings because it's from a pagan background - but you can have a wedding cake, bridesmaides/groomsmen, and wedding rings which are also all from pagan backgrounds

* Why can't I meet Jesus? Why am I 'second class' as part of the Great Crowd? If the bible was written only for the 144,000 then doesn't that mean that God doesn't really care about me or love me? I'm just an additional after thought?

* I was absolutely sure that I had the truth - but so was my coworker who was a Mormon. I would not read her material because I was being "faithful" and she would not read mine because she was being "faithful" - so would God really kill one of us when all we were trying to do is be faithful to him?

I could go on and on - eventually I got DF'd on purpose because I just wanted out. I felt like I was living in a prison and I wanted to be free - free to read whatever I wanted, free to choose my own friends, free to follow my heart.

I still have a lot of questions - but now I realize that it's ok - I don't HAVE to have all the answers. I just keep researching and learning - and the more I learn, the more questions I have - it's really rather exciting!

drwtsn32

After reading a science text on radiometric dating, I changed my mind about its accuracy. The WTS always had said that radiometric dating was quite flawed (unless it happened to agree with them, like with the shroud of Christ thing).

I knew science has found humans that were older than 6000 years. The only way I could correlate this with my JW understandings was to either say radiometric dating was flawed or the JW understanding of the Bible was flawed. I could no longer do the former so I started doubting that JWs had the complete truth.

I next analyzed the 1985 Evolution book and was floored by the blatant misquotes.

The wall of faith crumbled.

As it stands now I don't even believe in God let alone the Bible.

drwtsn32

BTW, the entire process took a few years for me. It progressed (degressed?) from believing the JW's 100%, to thinking they were right about almost everything but might have a couple details wrong, to believing that God may have used evolution, to believing in God but not the bible, and finally to not believing in God or the bible.

I basically questioned complex teachings first and went down to where I was questioning the most basic things (God, Bible).

Pistoff

This is easy to answer:

First: Lying elders and a corrupt CO. This caused me to distance myself from the rotten congregation I was in.

I drifted, feeling like I was a loser for a few years; slacker, not doing what I should, letting my family down.

In early 2002 I was making my way back slowly, albeit with some doubts, when a relative called me distraught over the Dateline special. I assured him it was renegade elders screwing up. Then I started researching, a lot. Turns out they really did hide it, and were still lying as well.

That was it for me; of all the things they could lie about, a core, jugular issue like child abuse???

I already doubted the blood policy after just reading Acts 15 one day and it hit me like a bolt out of the blue that this issue was about appeasing Jewish christians and was a dietary issue. But then I found out about the sly changing of the policy, and then about the 1934 yearbook letter, and finally about the 607 date problem.

So here I am; I don't believe a word of it and I go to meetings just to be with my family, who are still true blue believers.

hippikon

The difference between the writen word and the reality confused the hell out of me.

Leave it to Jehovah and he will sort it out. So why dosn,t Jehovah build the new KH.

rem

Reading about 607 vs. 587 on the Internet did it for me. Oh, and the science stuff too.

rem

OrbitingTheSun

The hypocrisy was what made me start to doubt.

This reminds me of Newton's First Law of Motion...

An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

You could say...

An individual in the WTBTS tends to stay in the WTBTS and an individual in the world tends to stay the world with the same dedication and in the same direction unless something or someone influences the individual to change.

larc

I left before the internet and before many books were written. What did it for me was reading the early writings of Russell and Rutherford, especially the old Great Pyramid doctrine. The religion way back then was far different from what I was taught. That shook me up. I took me seven years to leave after my initial shock.

As a loyal JW, what made you to start doubting the Watchtower ???

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