Did doctrine matter to you? Does it matter to most dubs now?

by nicolaou 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • patio34
    patio34

    Dmouse said:

    It was my own personal issues with belief in God that did it for me, issues totally unconnected with the JWs. Once my belief in a supernatural deity collapsed all religion became irrelevant.

    Of course it also didn't help that I was deeply interested in general history and science so I knew the Society were lying about certain things (evolution, signs of the times).

    That was mostly my reason too, especially evolution. I decided to read some books by evolution scientists/teachers themselves for a change instead of WT interpretation and selective use of quotes.

    Pat

  • minimus
    minimus

    I do not believe in the doctrine of the Witnesses. I do not believe in the "faithful and discreet slave". If you don't accept that, you cannot accept JW doctrine.

  • freedom96
    freedom96

    I first faded away out of laziness, and just not really wanting to go to the meetings and out in service. Once I investigated the Witnesses for what they organization teaches, I refuse to go back over doctrinal issues.

    Secondly, the lack of love and the ongoing destruction of families only seals their fate for me.

  • DanTheMan
    DanTheMan

    I was one of those "mental permafrost" JW's. I understand the beliefs better now than I did then!

    Whenever they trotted out some article or another chastising the r&f for not "making their advancement manifest" or "pressing on to maturity" I would feel guilty because I never got into the "deeper things of God's Word".

    By the deeper things they mean understanding their bizarre interpretations of everything in the OT as prophetically pointing to their appointment as Jerhover's channel in "these last days". Or else it was water canopies and celestial chariots and crap like that.

    All I cared about was Armageddon. I definitely believed that part.

  • garybuss
    garybuss


    I paid attention to the part about the talking snake and the naked woman and I didn't read 30 Years A Watchtower Slave. All I wanted was delivery on a few of the promises made to me. Instead what I got was a threat of rejection and then I got the rejection. I just wanted honesty, good behavior, and no error in things taught from them. Instead, I got dishonesty, bad behaviors, and nothing but error. I don't think book publishing businesses make very good religions. GaryB

  • JT
    JT

    IT WAS THE ONLY REASON I LEFT

    AS minus stated once you knock down the FDS you have nothing left to support any of thier goofy dogmas

  • Piph
    Piph

    Doctrine didn't matter to me at all. Euph would talk to me about the things he was learning and discovering as false, and I would smile and nod. It had to get personal to make an impact with me.

  • LucidSky
    LucidSky

    Doctrine was my initial reason. My congregation was too "nice" for me to see the real problems. But I was curious, being raised in it. And once I learned about internet newsgroups in college I began looking deeply into things, much more than the average Dub.

    Eventually the first teaching I ended up disagreeing with was the "everyone (meaning 99% of the world) who dies in Armageddon won't ever be resurrected". It didn't make sense if nearly everyone before was resurrected. That led me to reading the Franz books, etc.

    LucidSky

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    Thank you for starting this thread. Doctrine definitely mattered a lot to me. I had read the Aid book cover to cover TWICE by the time I started high school. I was prolly the most frequent user of the KH library. My high school had a strong movement of Campus Lifers trying to convert JWs to their faith and I saw myself as an apologist defending the Witness doctrines on death, the trinity, etc. Eventually I got to learn more about the Bible outside of what the Society dished out, and I learned that I was quite a bit misled on such matters. But that wasn't what specifically made me leave. It was the Society's dishonesty. THAT is what convinced me that it wasn't God's organization. I learned that the Society was intentionally lying about the facts about crucifixion. I realized this firsthand from examining the very classical Greek and Latin sources the Society cited. Some of their "facts" were totally made up. The last straw tho was the Trinity broshure. By the time it came out, I knew very well what was said and believed by the church fathers. So when I read that broshure and read that page that outrageously misrepresented what Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, etc. taught about Jesus and God, I was so angry. I felt like that householder a friend of mine placed the Creation book with and when my friend returned for the RV, the householder told him he ripped the book up and threw it away because of its "scholarly dishonesty". I refused to go to the book study that page would be discussed, knowing I could not just sit there hearing ppl regurgitating its untruths without speaking up. So that was about the time I left. Also I had had a nasty encounter with the elders over my research about the cross.

    Another thing around that time was the Revelation Climax book, or the "cartoon book" as I called it. The interpretations were all so unbelievable and although most were already taught in older publications (like the proclaimations from the '20s being the great trumpet blasts in Revelation), I was shocked to read them all side by side and realize what a crock of **** it all was. Going to the book study when that book was considered as also felt to be a huge waste of time.

    Another big deal was this: I could not, no way could I I, go out in field service and say that such, and such, such was the truth, knowing it not to be the case. I could not go out to lie to people. So the doctrinal issue pretty much ended my "kingdom preaching" as well.

    About the lack of love, I pretty much chalked that up to human nature and thought that was how it was pretty much anywhere else.....I never ever bought into that "spiritual paradise" nonsense which I thought of as idealistic license, and not of a real doctrinal teaching....

    Leolaia

  • peacefulpete
    peacefulpete

    It was questions that put me intellectually outside, it was the subsequent slander that removed me emotionally, it was my disgust over hypocrisy that removed me bodily. I am glad that I'm out for what i consider "the right reasons". That is, my rational choice to leave was not simply a reaction to being hurt or wronged. Those who are DFd for conduct or leave for similar reasons often have lifelong doubts about their worth, secretly hoping for 'forgivness' but feeling powerless to return to the place of safety. The programming is not undone simply by removing ourselves from the meetings. It requires thoughtful understanding of what is happening in the minds of JWs, and why it is wrong, to be completely free of it. This site can be of help to anyone regardless of why they left.

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