Is JW all doom and gloom?

by uninitiated 28 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  XQsThaiPoes

  Back in 1992 when I told my Witness brother that I was doing volunteer work with the Ronald McDonald house and answering calls on a crisis hot line, he got very angry and he said: "It's because of people like you trying to keep the world from getting worse that Armageddon hasn't come.". He said the world has to get soooo bad before Jehovah will murder everybody not a Witness and my efforts have kept it from dropping that last notch.
  
  I never realized I had that much power. :-)
  
  In my brother's eyes my doing good in the world was working against his best interests.

  Considering the everyone must willingly Join satan before God saves the JWs he is correct. It is the lunacy of this doctrine that allows that mind set to develope. Hmm ever worldy person I know hates Satan so the world must be way too good right now, and that means the paradise is a long way off (angry now).

  In reality if the jws are anything close to correct then they are going to be pissed that more people decide to stand with jesus than JWs.
• 

  jgnat

  Ah, well. I guess he will have to save that ring for a more fitting partner.

  Uninitiated, you are right to stand up for who you are. Why have all the positive things you do cut down as "unimportant"?
• 

  uninitiated

  I have a lot of respect for those of you questioning the authority of WT. I have tried to have discussions with my beau to no avail. I am wondering how a seemingly intelligent person gets roped into things that to me seem quite nonsensical. I am really coming from an ignorant standpoint as I myself have never belonged to any type of church, and therefore am not intending to offend only trying to understand.
• 

  metatron

  The overwhelming sterility of Witness life is disturbing. Everything seems set in concrete and prepackaged, with no

  creativity or adult thought needed. Furthermore, it's deepening and getting worse, with recent examples of dumbed down

  meetings and repetition that vastly exceeds anything they've done before.( See August KM on Circuit assemblies)

  It wasn't always so. Cult or not, at one time Witnesses had to think on their feet, know the Bible, and put together

  relevant meeting parts. That's all gone in most Western nations. Most of them want to be told what to do and what to

  think without question - and this is largely why they are rapidly gaining notice as a cult.

  metatron
• 

  Purza

  ..i doubt any woman will have the patients to deal with the brainwashing i suffered....

  Dear Mole:

  Have faith my fellow Californian! My boyfriend's birthday is today and I bought him a card, got him a cake and a gift. But. . . I could not bring myself to sing happy birthday to him when we went to lunch today with people from work. I just couldn't do it. He totally understands (that and other things) and does not hold that against me. He is very patient as I try to figure out my way through this "brainwashing thing".

  So. . . my point is. . . the are people/women out there who would "deal" with the brainwashing you have suffered through. Think positively. . . .

  Purza
• 

  DanTheMan

  Here's a quote from a 1894 issue of Zion's Watchtower (the name of their main publication has had several slight modifications over the years) that I find amusing:

  "Now, in view of present labor troubles and threatened anarchy, our readers are writing to know if there may not be a mistake in the 1914 date. They say that they do not see how present conditions can hold out so long under the strain..."

  As you may know 1914 is a pivotal year in Watchtower theology and it was *absolutely* expected to be the year Armageddon would come by the Bible Students (they didn't take the JW name until the 1930's). They've been dishing out the world's-gonna-end-any-time-now for well over 100 years.

  But the world can be a scary place, and JWism offers a mental refuge from the horrors of reality. That's how I got roped into it.
• 

  A Paduan

  Uninitiated,

  Aside from subjection of the constraining (imprisoning) lifestyle and self-focused spirit of jwism, neither be fooled by the biblical catastrophe of knowledge that you would be subjected to, especially considering that you don't have any background in it.

  Jws believe in a superiority of their own "biblical interpretations" above and beyond all before them and around them - and which to the average person may appear very well studied - but it is certainly not, and virtually the opposite of christianity.
• 

  Max Divergent

  Doom, gloom, fear, guilt, worry, sadness, self-righteousness... they're all emotions developed by believing what JW's believe and living their lifestyle. One result is the suspention of all critical reasoning capacity in regard anything related to JW anything.
  
  He probably really likes you (or is severly infatuated with you) to be getting so close, but chances are he'll either become an emotional wreak if he's caught out and disiplined*, or will just slink away from you at some point when he comes to a point where he feels he has no options. Leaving the JW's is generally not an option.
  
  Chances are that he'll pull away from you soon. In the long run, you may be well off to accept that if it happens.
  
  Ugly isn't it...
  
  Max
  
  * To be Disfellowshipped seems like being put on death row awaiting an inevitable death by God and means being excludued from all friends and family. You're not imprisioned, but might as well be. Any punishment short of that is nearly as bad.
• 

  XQsThaiPoes

  Dang if I ever get DFed I am totaly gona miss the point. That "spiritual death" musta slipped throught the cracks. Thats bueracracy for you.