Only Jehovah's Witnesses (page 3)

NewLight2

Hi and welcome to JWD!

Stick around and join in on some of the threads that interest you.

You might want to check out these web pages:

Jehovah's Witnesses: A Critical Analysis

A Bible Study Outline

These two contain many links to important information regarding the Watchtower Society.

NewLight2's Links Page

Johannes Greber's Home Page

Here is one that deals with Mind Control and Cults
Mind Control - The BITE Model

NewLight2

fairchild

havent seen the woman i study with since i started posting on here. but i see her on Tuesday, and have a long list...........

(Holly) 1914 and 1975 for starters, i know there are other dates i cant remember them
changes in baptism questions
not being allowed to ask questions without fear of disfellowshipping
disfellowshipping in general - sounds awful, especially friends and family not being allowed to talk - tragic

Wow Holly, nice going. Please let us know how it went. You might want to start up a thread about it on Tuesday so that I don't miss it. I am very interested. I too was studying with JW's, but stopped a few weeks ago when I discovered this website.

AK - Jeff

Yvonne-

Welcome to the forum. There are all sorts of persons here. Most have some background in the witness religion. My wife and I were 'dyed in the wool' witnesses for well over 30 years baptized. We love the witnesses as people - but we had to leave based on conscience. We were left with a 'loving congregation' of friends that 'shun' us publicly, and gossip unfairly behind our backs, call us 'apostate' because we dare to think now. When my mother died a few months ago, not a single witness dared to show at the funeral. I could not find the 'love' in that. And in our case - we haven't even been disfellowshipped! We are friendless in the typical sense of the word now. We spent our whole lives avoiding friendship with all that were not witnesses, so now we are quite alone. I do hope that some we have met here we can consider friends - digital ones at least.

We do not feel malice toward the 'brothers' themselves. They are just following the watchtower script, and we did the same for three decades. I feel ashamed to say that. We turned our back on our DF'd daughter for some time due to the watchtower directives, but not any longer. We now read all we can about things that we feel are critical to spiritual understanding. As witnesses we would not be allowed that learning experience.

The witness religion has hurt a lot of folks here. You may see some bitterness. You may see more of that than you wish on some threads. But you will also see honesty, integrity, decency and genuine love of others here. Most of these people started just as you did - they became witnesses - then they discovered the real 'truth' about the witness teachings. Yes even the lies and misrepresentations that have been promulgated thru the witness literature. They are mostly good people, in various stages of healing from the effects of a high-control sectarian religion.

I hope you stick around and listen to what is said here.

Just my opinion

Jeff

rebel8

apostates who would do anything to ruin Jehovas reputation, that they were full of lies, twisted and bitter...instead of seeing bitter twisted people just out to ruin Jehovas name, i found people with some pretty tough experiences, people with all sorts of backgrounds and tales to tell. Normal, ordinary people. many of whom just have a bad, or many bad experiences of being involved with jws.

No offense taken, holly! :) I am almost proud to be the subject of their name-calling--it shows I am a reasonable, intelligent, thoughtful person.

High control groups have various techniques to reduce the amount of independent thinking and outside contact their members have. The JWs use the denigration of non-JWs, especially ex-JWs, as a main method. Applying a negative label (apostate) is especially effective in getting their members not to listen to them.

I always say: If "it's the truth", then it will surely stand up to scrutiny and objective evaluation. There should be no fear of re-examining their practices and beliefs.

IT Support

Welcome Yvonne!

You're still young and have your whole life in front of you. I'm now 51 and regret having wasted my life in the WT (pioneer, Bethel, elder, etc). When I was your age, I wish I'd known then what I know now. Don't make the same mistakes I made!

There's an enormous amount of information on this site. You might be interested in these threads:

Newbies! Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask

Also the 'Best of...' series.

lonelysheep

Welcome, Yvonne! I hope you'll stick around.

All I can say is RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH! Do it for yourself using non Watchtower information and see what conclusions you draw without being told what is truth. For example, why not to come here? What is their reasoning behind it? I needed more than just "stay away because the unspoken clergy says so". What's really so bad about apostates??? I found the answer to that last question is Nothing!

I was studying for 4 years and had wanted to get baptized this year. The longer and more deeply I studied, the less sense things made. Please feel free to ask questions here without fear of being labeled.

Jaypeeto

Welcome Yvonne !! You will find many interesting people here, all with different experiences and different points of view. I myself am an ex-JW and am now a happy Catholic. There is a lot of good info on this forum. I'd echo some of the other folk's here's advice: be very careful and studious before you commit to the JW religion. It is not what it seems, and I can tell you in all honesty that it is not what it claims to be, namely, a revival of the faith of the early Christian church. The early Christians had never even heard of the doctrines the JW's teach. The JWs claim that the early church was a JW organization which slowly apostasized after the death of the last apostle. But a reading of the early church fathers reveals that nobody, and I do mean NObody, in the early Christian church, ever held to the unique doctrines held by today's Jehovah's Witnesses, so there really was no apostasy.

Enjoy your time here & God bless you,

Love, Jaypeeto

beebee

unless she's lurking..it appears y'all have scared the poor girl off. I hope she is still reading. I find it so sad that someone not even in would be afraid to read, research and think before jumping head first.

Yvonne A

I'm really sorry you all feel that way. I did a lot of comparing before I started studying with the witnesses and I believe that Jehovah is god and that anything that contradicts the bible or his will is disallowed for our benefit.

I was going through a terrible experience when something made me pick up the bible.I Come from a family who believe in evolution so this was not something i ever had any inclination to do. I started reading and praying. Things started to improve immediately.Something I never thought possible, I read the preface and it said God's name is Jehovah but for the purpose of this edition we will call him " Sovereign Lord ". I realised the truth, wrote to the society and haven't looked back since.We must all choose our own path.I choose this as mine, please don't try to discourage me..

I don't keep well enough to have children so only have myself to choose for on the blood issue.

Valis

I did a lot of comparing before I started studying with the witnesses and I believe that Jehovah is god and that anything that contradicts the bible or his will is disallowed for our benefit.

And I feel sorry for you that you could swallow this. When you become involved with the Witnesses you will no longer be able to make those descisions about what is "disallowed" yourself. Old men thousands of miles away have a life of misery planned out for the rest of your life. All those evil things like holidays, birthdays, voting, charitable works, etc... DISALLOWED. Enjoy!

Sincerely,

District Overbeer

Only Jehovah's Witnesses

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