When you were fully in, did you believe that you would not die?

by TTWSYF 66 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  TTWSYF

  I know that it must seem silly to ask, but my brother and his family think that the big A will arrive before they die. I tried to explain to my brother that everyone else who has ever lived in the past has died and only Jesus has [physically] rose from the dead.

  It is amazing that anyone could buy that line. What crazy cult culture that could make people believe such nonsense?!

  Looking back, it must be kinda funny for most here, but as my brother and his family are still fully in, I am truly perplexed by the lack of reasoning that this cult surpresses.

  The Truth Will Set You Free

  TTWSYF.
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  ttdtt

  Yes I did - and I am still having a very hard time adjusting to the idea that in the not very far future I will blink out of existence.

  Being cheated out of decades of a life of my choice doing things I would have enjoyed, making a contribution to humanity, is a hard pill to swallow.
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  Je.suis.oisif

  Nope, and I got some funny responses from the "glazed eye brigade".

  In the 32yrs that I struggled on, it just didn't sit right with my whole being. I convinced myself that I'd die before the big A? Then I'd be ressurected into the new system. That was the only way my brain could rationalise the hype.

  I'm at this moment in time undergoing some major emotional maturing. At 60, I feel strange dealing with emotions & thought processes that should've been put to bed by now.

  Watch this, I'll finally calm down & it will be goodnight Vienna.
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  Wait For It

  I never truly believed it personally and never really liked talking about it for that reason. It was this thing I grew up hearing but couldn't be fully invested in so I rarely thought about the future. I always thought it would be far more likely that I would live out my life and die of old age and (hopefully) be resurrected when everything was over. To be honest, that's what I hoped for because the thought of living through Armageddon/the great tribulation really terrified me.

  My dad was/is definitely a believer and would always tell me that "this system probably won't be around by the time you finish school." I even had an elder say "we never thought you guys would get this old in this system." Well, I graduated a decade ago and it's still here.
  
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  Doubting Bro

  Absolutely! I think any true JW believer is pretty sure they won't die. Sure, its crazy and has no basis in fact. But, that's one of the biggest selling points of the religion.

  Coming to the realization that I will die and that there's no special group that won't was a bit difficult. But, I also realize that man has always been looking to cheat death. That's part of being self-aware.
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  ToesUp

  I never bought into it fully. I always looked at those who have money, who are famous, who are successful and beautiful/handsome people. No matter the circumstances in life, we all die. No matter how rich/poor, beautiful/ugly, in the end we ALL die. I am looking at the older JW's faces (in the 70's, 80's and 90's), they all have that defeated look on their faces. They are not supposed to still be here. They are having to face the prospect of dying for the very first time. I believe some of them are questioning their decisions in life (staying single, no children, no home, no career, no college and most importantly NO savings). Do they wish they could do it all over again and do it differently?

  You get one shot at this life, make the best of everyday!
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  stuckinarut2

  It always seemed better to die before the Great Tribulation, and just come back "in paradise".

  That would save the stresses of the "persecutions" that would come on every witness...

  But seriously, as we look back now, how did we not see the fact that EVERY PERSON WHO HAS EVER LIVED HAS DIED!?
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  tiki

  I believed I'd be killed off at Armageddon and my plan was to do myself in before the sh!t hit the fan. In retrospect pretty awful that a religion would set a kid up to thinking that way.
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  StephaneLaliberte

  When I grew up, I was told I would not have the time to finish high school before Armageddon would come. This to me, was presented as a hard fact. Something as obvious as a lighting in the sky.

  Then, I graduated and one of my family members died in a car accident. All of a sudden, I understood death was real and close. The Generation teaching became laughable and I started to rationalize things by telling myself that the new system was close, through my own death or Armageddon, one way or another.

  Still, it seems I never expected to get to 40! To be a full blown adult… far from childhood, slowly getting old. And now, my parents and their generation are literally starting to get old and die. The next generation to go the same route is mine… death is real. It’s odd that you opened up this topic as I was precisely thinking of this while driving to work this morning. I was reflecting on the resentment I have towards the Watchtower for teaching my family that doubting that Armageddon was always a few years away was in fact, a lack of faith. That this lack of faith itself was almost deserving of death along with all the others for that had no faith at all.

  What strikes me even more is how these same observations could have been done by the 40 years olf who lived in the 80s. They had seen plenty of diehard Christians grow old and die, including their parents. Many of them grew up in the truth and were fed the same thing: You and your family won’t grow old. Yet, there they were, a few failed prophecies away (1878, 1914, 1925, 1975) and still, they convinced themselves and their children of the very same lie. And if they didn’t believe it themselves, well, for the very least, like parrots, they kept repeating it and preaching it over and over again. And plenty of new members and children grew up believing it.

  Frankly, I don’t know if I fear death more than others who never heard such teachings. However, it seems that lately, I am more concerned by the death of those that I love even more than mine. Perhaps the fact that JWs are in denial of death makes it even harder for me to properly grieve; I don’t know. All I know is that they should not carry on with this teaching as I certainly feel betrayed today.
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  Tameria2001

  When I was fully in and completely believed what they were telling me....I did not think I was going to survive the big A. Even when I was a regular pioneer, putting in 90 plus hours, a member of the electrical crew for building kingdom halls (did that for a number of years), giving talks (the ones they allow for sisters, you know those 5 minutes ones), and doing my all, I still did not feel like I was going to survive. As a JW, I could never forgive myself for things I had done way in the past. You might be wondering what I had done, well it was nothing more that what things kids do, nothing that would require any attention from the elders, but still, I would feel guilty about stupid stuff.

  I remember going from door to door, and I would have several people tell me (and these were people who weren't JWs), that the past is the past and I just need to leave it there, because there is nothing I could do to change the past. The past is dead and gone, and it was time to move on. It was only after I left the JWs was I finally able to do that.