Internet Search Engines And Some Of The First Things I Typed

by Brokeback Watchtower 10 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Brokeback Watchtower

  It was back in mid nineties 93,94 or 95 before it became what it is today. Anyway they had a bunch of search engines and the first thing I typed in it was Jehovah witness, then Jesus Christ, next came LSD, Magic Mushrooms, nude pictures. I think in that relative order.

  I remember reading a different story about JWs in Germany during the Nazi era, not anything like the 74 yearbook's depiction. The famous bike of Albert Hoffman the first time he tripped on his 25th derivative of LSA (LSD25). For that moment on I was becoming addicted to this instant information at you finger tips. Sadly due to many years of indoctrination it took me until 2001 to fully grasp the Watchtower corporation was all bull shit.
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  kairos

  My indoctrination was strong and the feeling of 'being right' wouldn't allow me to research dubs until 2013, when I left. 25 years too late...
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  slimboyfat

  Among my first Internet searches in 1999, using AltaVista, were "Doug Harris" and "Reachout Trust", followed by many years of arguing with him about JWs on his Reachout forum. I can't argue with him any more, since he died a few years ago, too young. After that I think I read most of what there was on the Internet about JWs: everything on freeminds, Watchtower Observer, H2O, here, Greg Stafford, Jehovah's Witnesses United, Beyond Jehovah's Witnesses (anyone remember that?), Channel C, dozens of yahoo groups, later Watchtower Information Service, Johannes Wrobel's website, JW Studies by Ken Raines, and much more. That was when pretty much everything on the Internet was text based. Does anyone actually read websites any more, instead of watching videos or short forum messages?
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  nicolaou

  Slimboyfat: Does anyone actually read websites any more, instead of watching videos or short forum messages?

  I'll join you in that lament Slim'. Call me a curmudgeonly old git if you like but it does seem like so many folk want to be 'spoon fed' their apostasy these days.
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  JeffT

  • Call me a curmudgeonly old git if you like but it does seem like so many folk want to be 'spoon fed' their apostasy these days.

    I'm liable to call you a lot worse than that. When my wife and I left in 1988, would had to do all our research at the public library. Talk about the opposite of spoon fed. We had to read entire books to get the information we needed. And that was after walking barefoot through the snow to get there. It was up hill both ways.

    How's that for being an old curmudgeon? Now get off my lawn.

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  cofty

  I never went near any internet information about the cult until long after I had left.

  All you need is the bible and some determination.
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  Phizzy

  I was like most JW's wary of the Internet. I sat down and read the Book of Daniel one day and realised that 1914 simply was not in Daniel or the Bible. Of course the whole House of Cards that is JW "teaching" fell apart there and then.

  So then I did a search for 1914/607 and was amazed to find that far from being alone in my conclusion many had got there long before me. I came across a guy called Greg Stafford and his Site, he was a JW at the time, but was aware that most of the JW Doctrines were awry. It was a gentle introduction to the "Apostate World".

  I soon found other Sites, and then this one. I am so pleased that the Internet is here for any JW's making the same journey as us.
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  Xanthippe

  I never went near any internet information about the cult until long after I had left.

  All you need is the bible and some determination. -Cofty

  Surely you said you went to an evangelical church for about ten years after leaving the cult? Perhaps you needed more than the Bible after all?
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  cofty

  Xanthippe - The evangelical church played no part in my working out the cult was wrong. First I did research, then I spent a year or more trying to resolve my questions with letters to the branch and Brooklyn, then I got Dfd and began associating with the local Baptist church.

  All you need to work out that things like blood, eschatology and the Great Crowd are in error is WT publications and a lot of time and effort.

  After I joined here I discovered that Alan F. had reached the same conclusions about the parousia for exactly the same reasons.
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  Xanthippe

  The evangelical church played no part in my working out the cult was wrong.

  You misunderstand me, I meant you needed more than still believing the bible was the word of God. You have said yourself that mistake kept you as a theist long after leaving the cult.

  We left pre-internet and we found Bible encyclopaedias useful, particularly for the 607-1914 teaching. Also an interlinear of the Old and New Testament in one because it put such a different slant on familiar scriptures. The public library saved our lives, also it's where we found CoC.