What woke you up? (page 4)

HereIgo

it was a multitude of things, mostly small things I noticed shortly after baptism as a teen, questions I would ask myself and one day I decided enough was enough. I questioned not the existence of God himself, but whether he backed the organization and also the man made rules that the Org created. If Jehovah's holy spirit appointed MS and elders, then how does the CO have the power to sway a decision or delay an appointment? (personal experience). Why is there an unwritten time limit that must pass before a DF person can be reinstated? Why can men even DF a person in the first place? Why isn't the word "disfellowship" in the bible? Why isn't "judicial committee" in the bible? Why must a DF person be punished by men when more than likely God already forgave him? He forgave King David instantly? Why is a man in the United States considered non spiritual if he has a beard? Why do we have to read several man-made books and answer questions before an Elder before we can be baptized? Why cant we just accept Jesus like the Ethiopian Eunuch did and become baptized instantly? There are countless others, but I knew there was something afoul with the organization and I knew I had to make a decision. Leaving was the best thing I could have done.

Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho

Good on you, @HereIgo. You asked all the right (or from the Witness standpoint, "wrong") questions that led up to your awakening. Takes a special kind of brain within the organization to dwell on the points you raised.

Schnufti

Since I underwent a surgery in 2009, certain questions popped up in my mind:

Why wouldn't Jehovah forgive me if I accepted blood because I was in mortal fear?
Why does Jehovah put himself in a bad light by the blood doctrine?

Then I took a further education course. For two years, week after week, I was panicking that I had to out myself as a JW. It became clear to me that I "didn't had enough faith". I knew I needed to research things like:

How can I be sure that humanity is only 6000 years old? And why hasn't there been anything in the publications about it since the 80's?
Who decided which books belong to the biblical canon?
Why is there so much cherry picking which scientific findings are true?
Why do we assume that the bible is true without really going into detail?
Why am I scared to research outside Watchtower publications?

I repressed all these questions that were bugging me. I was ready to wake up, but couldn't do it by myself. Then finally last year, my husband opened up to me that he researched and doesn't believe anymore that it is the truth. I broke down and cried and didn't know how we could go on with our marriage. But one week after, I woke up too.

NoviceLocs14

I was a die hard staunch born in JW, regular pioneer, in the foreign language field, you name it. I was still believing when I actually started fading. The reason for my fade was the guilt I felt for living a "double life" by secretly dating my now husband who was not a JW.

Even when I literally ran away from home with the clothes on my back (yes, I was pushing 30 and still living with the parents) to elope with my husband, I still believed the BS and continued to be racked with guilt.

I was immediately bombarded with emails full of guilt trips by my family and elders (I had changed my phone number). The elders, unsatisfied with me not returning their correspondence, looked up the number to my new job and proceeded to call my job several times a week. I finally contacted them back by email and told them I would prefer to meet the local elders in the area I had moved, so that I could have an objective viewpoint on my situation. They proceeded to tell me that I needed to follow "God's arrangement" and meet with them. I felt like a criminal fighting extradition lol...

For some reason, that was the straw that broke the camels back. I began to see the hypocrisy and lack of love. I then decided to research the religion I had spent my whole life in. All I did was google "Jehovah's Witnesses". I was able to weed out the logical arguments from the illogical ones. A major discovery was finding out that the translation of the Bible I had based my beliefs on, the NWT, was influenced by a spiritist. (That got to me personally, since I still identify as Christian.) I also discovered Crisis of Conscience, and reading that book pretty much sealed the deal for me. Literally less than 2 months transpired between my initial research and sending my DA letter. It was only then that the elders stopped harassing me.

Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho

@NoviceLocs14: "A major discovery was finding out that the translation of the Bible I had based my beliefs on, the NWT, was influenced by a spiritist." Whaaaat? Do elaborate on your discovery, please.

My Name is of No Consequence

I always had certain doubts and questions that I could never get satisfactory answers to. It wasn’t so much the actions of people as it was doctrine. Overlapping generations finally did it for me.

Steel

I read a book called " the two powers in heaven" by a man named Allan Sagel.

Without going into to much detail it basically explained who new testament writer thought Jesus was , using the old testament and intertestmental books as reference. It wasn't even anti watchtower. It was just basic bible theology.

Its really quite simple. It's doesn't matter if you are Christian or not.

The watchtower was essentially the nonsense after that. It's just a complex twisted bamboozle to disprove easy concepts.

Mind you I was only a study.

NoviceLocs14

@Wake me up before you Jo Ho First off awesome screen name lol. But yeah, google Johanes Greber (sp?) and NWT. (I know a lot of folks on this forum aren't religious or are into the Bible, and I respect that.)

One of the major scriptures that shows his "influence" is John 1:1 where it says in the NWT "The word is a god". Virtually all other Bible translations don't have the article a in that verse and capitalize the noun God, which would pretty much support the concept of the Trinity belief.

There are actually scans of letters from the WT Society to the Greber foundation asking for additional copies of his "Bible translation". I'll see if I can find the links and edit my post accordingly.

ShirleyW

I was a born-in, but never bought into it, they way I was treated by my the majority of my peers in the Cong, never being invited to the teenage gatherings, etc.,but the sentence below from NoviceLocs14 makes my blood just boil:

The elders, unsatisfied with me not returning their correspondence, looked up the number to my new job and proceeded to call my job several times a week

I would've cursed them all out and reported them for harassment, how do these assholes think they're so high an mighty !!

freemindfade

The goat herders guide to the galaxy aka The Holy Bible

What woke you up?

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