Where are the liars now?

by spiritwalker 13 Replies latest jw friends

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  SanFranciscoJim

  I started studying with the JWs in September of 1974. I was baptized on July 4, 1975 at the age of 18. The elder I studied with had me utterly convinced that Armageddon was going to occur in 1975. The air in my Kingdom Hall was so thick with anticipation you could cut it with a knife. One elderly sister refused life-saving medical treatment because she was so certain that Armageddon was on the horizon. A brother in my congregation refused dental care for the same reason. One of the university-educated elders in my congregation refused a high-paying promotion, opting instead to quit his job and instead take a part-time minimum wage position so he could devote more time to pioneering.

  While I was encouraged to study and get baptized as quickly as possible to save myself, I also believed I was being handed a sacred trust -- that by going door to door, I was handed the God-given blessing to dispense immortality to others. I took my commission seriously, and preached at every opportunity.

  I feel pity for those (like me) who fell for the 1975 prediction hook, line, and sinker. The ones I knew were genuine in their desire to help others attain immortality, as well as save themselves and their families. We had no idea we were being duped, so strong was the Society's mind control methods.

  I hold the WTBTS accountable for the lives lost or ruined by their demand that we believe their false predictions. The blood of the countless individuals who lost their lives in false expectation of the coming of the Great Tribulation is on their hands.
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  Frannie Banannie

  Yeah....but there's more supporting evidence for Santa Claus than there is for a paradise earth and life everlasting....more benefits, too...

  Frannie B
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  lovinlife

  Wow, do I know what you all mean. There was a couple that studied with my parents, George and Dottie, and "brought them into the truth". They were old even then, I was 8 and now I am 41! Recently, George passed away. They were one of those couples that truly loved each other. They still held hands at the hall etc. They were convinced that they had to survive together since according to the dubs death breaks the marriage bond. So Dottie became a health nut and George died anyway. She was so distraught when he died, at least that is what I heard, because she knew she would never be married to him again in the new system. It just seems that even more heartache was upon her because of the lies!

  When I was 8, they were also the ones that got my parents in because of the "urgency" of 1975. My dad so believed it that he did not even want to get the braces on my teeth when the Dentist told him I would have to have the braces or lose my teeth. Years later, at age 16, I did get the braces so that I would not loose my teeth--it was a crisis by then!

  How sad it is that I was blinded that way....and my parents still are!
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  Sassy

  All our lives things were put off because Armegeddon was around the corner. Even now when I admitted to family and close friends my choice to stop association and living the JW life, all i heard was, the end is so close.. now is not the time to leave. And a small part of me thought, am I picking a time to stop only to find out sure enough it was that close and I picked wrong time? Being brainwashed for so long you don't know what to believe. I know I don't. I just look back on all the years of sacrificing so many things and what has it gained me?