Since you either left the organisation or started to objectively examine WTS doctrine.
Has your relationship with Jesus changed?
by Honesty 35 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Satanus
When i left the org, i passed into christianity of the pentacostal flavor for about 2 yrs. During that time, i changed to praying to jesus instead yhwh, because i felt a comraderie w him. I also felt faggy about some of the professed praise, love and worship toward him that was encouraged. Then, i found out that the bible wasn't inspired, wasn't true, etc, etc. Jesus disappeared just like tinkerbell disappears when you stop believing in her.
S
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PointBlank
Yes, most definitely. I actually HAVE a relationship with him now. He really does reveal himself to those that come to him. It's a far cry from the pseudo-relationships that JW's imagine.
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SeymourButts
After leaving dubbie land I went on a quest to find christ and prove to myself what was true and what wasn't. Then, I actually started reading the Bible...ALL of it. From then on it was all down hill. The more I studied, the more I realized that the Bible was nothing but a story book based on fantasy and myth. No matter how I tried to prove otherwise I always came to the same conclusion.
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freedom96
It certainly has changed. The Jesus of the WTS seems different than the Jesus that is from the bible. Other Christian religions teach that it is all about Jesus.
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Narkissos
My exit from the WT was entirely Jesus-centered.
Strangely enough it all started with a friend of mine telling me, right in the (French) Bethel library, that she had never understood why Jesus had to die for us.
I was quite puzzled and stupidly went through the whole "ransom" argument (which she perfectly knew of course), while she kept smiling.
This was the start of a great series of free conversations and fresh readings, most of them spinning around Jesus. A few months later I resigned from Bethel, resumed pioneering with another friend, gradually dropping the WT literature and using mostly the Gospels.
A few months later we were summoned by the local body of elders because "we had been speaking too much of Jesus" (sic) and were eventually df'd for apostasy.
Saved by the Christ myth ?
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LittleToe
I'm one of those rare birds that had a spiritual experience before I left the JWs.
Since it involved "Jesus", my worldview turned on it's head.I spontaneously gained a voracious appetite for reading (especially the bible, but also apocryphal works and others) and my strongly held WTS doctrines fell apart before such simple things as the gospel and episltes of John.
I also spontaneously gained a "love" of Christ, and didn't care if it "felt faggy" sic S
The transformation was so accelerated that I knew I'd be leaving the JWs after about two months, and finally left after about six months. As a Book Study Conductor it wasn't hard to arrange to work alone of Field Service, so I used the opportunity to have encouraging chats with people, and my literature placements dropped off.
I recall, on the day before I DA'ed, doing my route calls with a magazine that had an article about Jesus being "Michael the Archangel". I dutifully handed over the magazines to the householders, explaining that I wasn't going to be coming anymore, and why, before drawing attention to what I perceived as heresies in the article
As I continued to study I came to recognise a core of "spiritual experience" from the authors of the books of the bible, but could also see that it would be difficult to retain the idea that it was personally dictated by God. The only thread that seems to come through is that God acts personally and individually in people's lives and that. being a subjective experience, people have a habit of interpreting it in a variety of ways and recording it accordingly.
Years later, I also continue to have an active "mystical" life, which validates my original "experience".
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El blanko
As I continued to study I came to recognise a core of "spiritual experience" from the authors of the books of the bible, but could also see that it would be difficult to retain the idea that it was personally dictated by God. The only thread that seems to come through is that God acts personally and individually in people's lives and that. being a subjective experience, people have a habit of interpreting it in a variety of ways and recording it accordingly. Years later, I also continue to have an active "mystical" life, which validates my original "experience".
Yep - I can relate to that.
An active mystical life certainly helps keep a persons faith ticking along nicely.
BTW Littletoe, I don't know if you remember the LONG thread a while ago regarding my friends unusual experiences - well, they are still happening
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LittleToe
I recall, though I've lost it and wouldn't mind re-reading it.
Do you have the URL to hand?Cheers,
Ross. -
El blanko
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/77039/1.ashx
There are some really good points on that thread and boy it got one or two hits