I just wanted share a little more about my background and what I believe now, in case anyone is interested:
I was basically brought up to be a “Social Justice Warrior”, in a rather liberal Christian environment. As a teenager, I campaigned energetically for “Third World Debt” to be dropped, taking part in protests and political action and other charity work… I even travelled to Genoa, Italy for the G8 protest in 2001 and I was also present at another large international protest in Geneva, Switzerland and London, England…
I had been told that I could “change the world” and help bring an end to poverty and injustice, but as the years went on, I started to feel more and more disheartened and discouraged… I saw that our human efforts to bring positive, lasting change were always limited by our own brokenness and inadequacy…
At that time (from around 1999 to 2004) I firmly believed that the church was Christ’s “hands and feet” and that it was our job to bring God’s Kingdom to earth… However, as you can imagine, trying to carry that out was extremely exhausting and frustrating, because I saw that the church itself was riddled with corruption, apathy and general disorganisation…
By around 2005-2006, I was thoroughly disillusioned with my naivé, idealistic ideas about “changing the world”. I was at such a vulnerable, lost stage of my life, with quite a lot of family trauma and baggage that I ended up joining a cult…
But despite this, I am extremely grateful for God’s mercy and grace through all of that, and especially the fact that he showed me the truth of his Kingdom, that He has promised to establish on earth through his Son, our Messiah, Yeshua. I will NEVER let go of my STRONG conviction that this planet will be redeemed, restored, renewed and cleansed of all the toxic injustice, corruption and pollution that it is infested with, when Jesus comes in glory to put everything right.
This is the only thing that brings me real hope when I watch the news and am tempted to despair at the current state of the world.
I know that not everyone here shares my convictions, and that’s okay. I don’t wish to start a debate here or stir up controversy, but simply to “come clean” about who I am and where I’m coming from.
If there are others here who also share in this Kingdom hope, please don’t be afraid to admit it… The fact is that not every single detail of what we were taught in the Organization was lies; now the challenge is to sift through all those teachings with the Scriptures and see which ones we can continue to cling onto, and which ones we can let go of