Everything I once knew as a JW, is now wrong.

by fulltimestudent 12 Replies latest jw friends

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  fulltimestudent

  Just had 2 nice witnesses at the door. Without boring you with all the to-ing and fro-ing. I invented a friend who became a witness back in the early 1950s, This friend tried to get me to become a witness, because his teachers father (a leader in that congregation) told him that the big A was coming in 5 years (which was true)

  Oh! says the nice witness, that person should not have said that.

  Why?

  Because the bible says no-one knows the day or the hour.

  I then got to 1975?

  Now it was a matter that men may have said that, but the organisation would never have said that!

  Then I was told that Jehovah's true organisation is not dogmatic, but is always changing. (Umm! Ezekiel's chariot I guess).

  I decided to let that pass.

  So then I'm asked if I believed the bible?
  

  When I answered that its rubbish. the nice witness asked me how I explained bible prophecies.

  Give me an example, I asked, expecting the usual Matt 24 routine.

  But no, I get an assertion instead. Isaiah the prophet, said that, God hangs the earth on nothing.

  Well, Ok, strictly speaking that's hardly prophecy. Its a statement.

  But I let it pass and suggested that ancient people knew quite a bit of what we now call science. For example, the ancient Greeks had calculated the circumference of the earth (and were remarkably accurate). Did you know they could do that? I asked. (Check it at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes

  So then they brought up Matt. 24 and WW1. I pointed out that WW1 may be called WW1, but it was really a European war. Other parts of the world were only involved because the Europeans had been colonising the world. Which I was able to demonstrate quite easily.

  I then tried to go back to other biblical statements about the earth in genesis 1. i wanted to point out how close it was to Egyptian beliefs about the creation of the earth.

  So that's when they decided they just had to go....

  But I did learn something - lots of what I used to teach (and believe) is no longer true.

  But I already knew that anyway.
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  days of future passed

  It was a "God" send that WW1 happened and it got fit into the 1914 scenario. That was always a big point for me so I understand why most JW's would have a hard time letting that go.
  
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  Gorbatchov

  Yep, jw’s live in their own bubble. They did in the past and will do in future. Just like a scifi thing, their oen truth.

  G.
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  Drearyweather

  fulltimestudent,

  Your title says,

  Everything I once knew as a JW, is now wrong.

  and at the end of your post you say:

  lots of what I used to teach (and believe) is no longer true.
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  BluesBrother

  Welcome to the club.... the dubs have the doublethink ability to say that the truth is always true but they change belieifs at the whim of the G B .... Even older ones within are confused . My lot ,family, just stick to what they always believed. .....

  NB. Yes the core beliefs of God, Jesus, Kingdom remain ... but the unique interpretations of times, prophecy etc. Are all regularly altered
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  punkofnice

  Fullers - I don't envy you having to go thru all that awful Jobo nonsense.

  The Earth doesn't 'hang', I'd have pointed out. The bible got that wrong.

  
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  DesirousOfChange

  I’m fully convinced that at least 90% of JWs have no idea what they believe. JWs have resorted to mindless, pre-scripted iPad presentations at the door because they are incapable of explaining even the basics of their beliefs.

  All they “know” is “We have the Troof!”
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  tor1500

  Hi,

  Before I became a witness, I was told that The JEWS were chosen & still are....came to be a witness and found out they were cut off...but when I read the scriptures they are not completely cut off, God is just mad at them at the moment but they ain't cut off at all...We are grafted into the branch...the branch is the Jew...Romans 11:11:So I ask, They did not stumble and fall completely, did they? Certainly not! But by their false step, there is salvation to people of the nations, to incite them to jealousy.11:17-21:However, if some of the branches were broken off and you, although being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became a sharer of the richness of the olive’s root, 18 do not be arrogant toward* the branches. If, though, you are arrogant toward* them,r remember that it is not you who bears the root, but the root bears you. 19 You will say, then: “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”s 20 That is true! For their lack of faith, they were broken off,t but you are standing by faith.u Do not be haughty, but be in fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.

  Now I find, God ain't finish with the Jews just yet....It's like when a parent gives you a gift & you don't appreciate it so they give it to someone who will & then the one that first got the gift is now jealous, so maybe if given another gift they would appreciate it more...

  There is so much JW's teach that are only their teachings....at the time they began they sounded different from other religions. People were tired of having questions and the clergy telling them God is a mystery so the JW's jumped on it...but they went past the scriptures...

  Tor
  
  
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  OnTheWayOut

  Is it something of a miracle that every last frigging thing they once believed was wrong and every last thing they changed is completely different but somehow still wrong?
• 

  fulltimestudent

  punkofnice : Fullers - I don't envy you having to go thru all that awful Jobo nonsense.

  Yeah! Once I used to lose my temper with them (thinking of all the trouble they've caused me as the relationship was severed). Then I chose to ignore them. But this is the second time I've chosen to initiate a conversation. I was interested the first time, because the JW lady used an ipad (or whatever) to show me biblical texts. An intriguing development. This one didn't, and didn't even open the bible in her hand.
  

  Her opening question was the oldie we were using way back in Nathan's days (anyone else recall the 4 to 10 minute sermons?), "Do you think the bible is relevant?" And when I said it was all rubbish, she opened a way for me to tell her that I'd spent the last ten years studying the thought and history of Asia and reeled off a list of relevant study units I had undertaken.

  I liked your Sagan quote. A need to believe! Apt isn't it? Not just for the JWs but for most if not all religions.

  DesirousOfChange: I’m fully convinced that at least 90% of JWs have no idea what they believe. JWs have resorted to mindless, pre-scripted iPad presentations at the door because they are incapable of explaining even the basics of their beliefs.

  Absolutely agree. In my experience (In at least 6 different congregations in Aus.) understanding of doctrines broke down something like this. 5-10% could understand and discuss a wide selection of doctrines and beliefs. another 10 to 25% understood and could discuss a limited range of doctrines and beliefs. And, the remainder found it difficult to go further than limited statements. Probably 50% plus of the JWs in the congregations that I was part of. had limited cognitive abilities and found it difficult to understand WT study articles.

  Does anyone remember studying the old Babylon book in cong, book studys? We were supposed to get through about 10 pages at a time, but were often lucky to get through 3 or 4. I think the dumbing down of literature has something to do with that problem. And, we shouldn't blame the ranks of believers. In the fifties and sixties last century, most of the witnesses who were born early in the 20th century would have had limited schooling (in Aust. likely only six years) and very little cognitive ability.

  Of course, for most going to the KH for meetings was not too different to going to church, plus a few more hours a month H2H. The rest of the time life was not too different to the general population. But if you were stupid enough (like me) to take it all seriously - your life could be seriously f**ked-up!

  Drearyweather

  Yup! I exaggerated!

  Quote: From an article on literary devices;

  Exaggeration is a statement that makes something worse, or better, than it really is. In literature and oral communication, writers and speakers use exaggeration as a literary technique, to give extra stress and drama in a work or speech.