| thanks for all the welcomes and advice., i especially liked jcanon's line of biblical only reasoning, also thanks to mrsjones and that great link to the K.I.S.S. approach of alleymom.... a little background info for those interested. i am 55 yeras old and was raised as a roman catholic, i went to catholic schools for 8 years. all my relatives are catholic. when i was 29 i got my 1st bible and thus began my journey. a friend who introduced me to the bible was an evangelical so i started with them and started to learn basic bible knowledge, after a couple of years with them and a switch from the king james to the nasb and niv i started corresponding with the assemblies of yahweh where i learned about the sacred and holy name of god, but they were into keeping the holy days of lev chapter 23 and the sabbath, etc. so i parted with them. for the next 5 years i studied with several fundamentalist groups, but was not satisfied. i then found the "churches of christ" and thought i found the true church of jesus. i was baptized by them after professing faith in jesus christ and repenting of my sins, i thus became a member of christ's body! i remained with them for about 12years, i finally had to leave , with great sadness of heart, because i couldnt stay in agreement with them about their belief in an eternal hell of torment, i was also politically neutral and could not support war. i still liked and did use god's name for all 12 years i was with them and this got under the skin of a couple of elders, so i left so that i wouldnt be a source of divisiveness and because i couldnt follow the counsel the elders were giving me about my doctrinal problems.after that i read a couple of books on the history of the n.t. canon and found that there was much disagreement about which books should be considered scripture ( i still have some serious questions about this ), the 1st 27 book canon the same as our current canon wasnt listed until 367 ce by athanasius. i found that in some christians didnt accept all of our 27 books, some accepted10-12 books others 22 books, some 24 books and some had additional books which are not part of our current canon. i concluded that it was impossible to know which books are inspired by god and which are not. i subsquently lost faith in the bible, but was becoming depressed, because i knew i needed god in my life. i then came into contact with the jehovah's witnesses and started studying with them. at first to show them that many of their beliefs about the bible were wrong. but as we studied, i found i was liking the people and they had some bible beliefs that i hadnt heard before and found to be very interesting, so we have been studying for 8 months now. i am considering becoming an unbaptized publisher, but have some concerns about the early history and teachings of russelll and rutherford. there are many teachings i dont understand yet but i have been blessed by what i have learned. i have been helped by many of the posts on this forum as well as other forums. i'll keep studying and prayinf to jehovah for his help. ..thanks to all....ron | |
607bce ? thanks and my background info
by adversary 7 Replies latest watchtower bible
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adversary
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MerryMagdalene
Welcome, Ron~
I hope you will continue questioning and seeking information from a variety of sources.
Please consider, if you will, that, however good some of their teachings might seem and whatever great idea with which they may have begun, when it comes to any organization that has been around for a while "...the organization develops a self-interest which has no connection and becomes inimical to the idea with which it began." Therefore, "We should accept no such commitments as would prevent our leaving it when circumstances make this necessary. We should reckon on being in almost perpetual rebellion within it. Above all, we should regard all loyalties to organization as tentative and provisional....We must be Servants of the Spirit, not Prisoners of the Organization."--W.P. Brown, MP
It appears that your past commitments have not prevented you leaving an organization when you felt it necessary, but JWs are a very high control group. The more commitment you make to them, the more they will attempt to exercise control over every aspect of your life. And if you leave, any friends and family you have there will be told to shun you. They will not tolerate any attempts to take the good and leave the bad when it comes to sorting through their teachings; whatever they say goes, right or wrong, good or bad. They will not want you to trust the promptings of Spirit which may come to you directly, through prayer or meditation on the scriptures, but only that which THEY claim to receive and the dispense through their many books and magazines.
Best Wishes to you on your personal journey!
~Merry
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Legolas
My name is Yvonne and and what I am about to say will be some of the BEST advise ANYONE will EVER give you. RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN AND THEN SOME "AWAY" FROM JEHOVAH'S WITNESS!!! There are two books that you HAVE to read, they are "Crisis Of Conscience" and "In Search Of Christian Freedom", both are writen by 'Raymond Franz' a former member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses. He exposes them for what they are, nothing but an organization FULL of false prophesy's and a brainwashing cult, who control EVERY aspect of your life. I disassociated myself last month after I learned of the "hypocrisy" of the Society's involvement with the UN ( which blew me away). Then I learned of the false date of 607 B.C.E ( again it blew me away). That's when I started going on the 'apostate' pages and found out many many more things about them, then I biught the two books mentioned earlier ( which really helped me). I hope for your sake you will heed this warning so that you can save yourself alot of pain in your life. If you mention that you where on these pages you will be told to stay away from them that what we say are 'all lies', but they are not. They don't want you on them because WE have the TRUTH about THEM and ANYTHING we say CAN BE PROVED!!! Here are two links about the date 607 http://www.geocities.com/osarsif/gentile2.htm and http://user.tninet.se/~oof408u/fkf/english/furulirev1.htm. So the next time you see the Witnesses ask them out the society's involvement with the UN, but they probably don't know but here are a few links to them http://editorials.arrivenet.com/rel/v_message.php?aid=4515&post=1 and http://www.globalpolicy.org/ngos/ngo-un/rest-un/2001/1030j.htm and http://www.watchtowerinformationservice.org/ngo2.htm and http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2919/wtun.html. There are many many more if you what them, just write back and I will give them to you.
Thanks Yvonne
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JCanon
Thanks for your kind words, Adversary. This is just a research note for you since you were interested in the canon..
.after that i read a couple of books on the history of the n.t. canon and found that there was much disagreement about which books should be considered scripture ( i still have some serious questions about this ), the 1st 27 book canon the same as our current canon wasnt listed until 367 ce by athanasius. i found that in some christians didnt accept all of our 27 books, some accepted10-12 books others 22 books, some 24 books and some had additional books which are not part of our current canon. i concluded that it was impossible to know which books are inspired by god and which are not. i subsquently lost faith in the bible,
There is de facto Bilical canon implied by the cross-quoting of the NT Bible writers of books in the original canon. Of these, as noted by JWs, 3 books in the current cannon are not quoted from which as Esther, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.
I believe to resolve doubts about authenticity, even though other bokos might have been truthful and accurate those that would be included in the Bible were quoted from, thus those excluded considered non-inspired. In that regard, Esther and Song of Sololom are definitely not inspired based upon their own contextual reasons. But having noted that, you should be aware that some of us (as myself) do not consider Esther, Ecclesiastes or Song of Solomon part of the "Apostolic Canon" estabilshed by cross-quoting. You might want to consider eliminating or questioning these books as part of the inspired canon since the Apostles and Christian Bible writers excluded these books, but consider the others as inspired.
JC
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greendawn
The jws love bomb all newly interested people in order to seduce them into their organisation but after one gets baptised they drop them like a hot potato.
Think that you will not have the option of disagreeing with them on anything once baptised otherwise you will get thrown out and all jws will refuse to even say to you hello. Even many families got ruined in this way when a family member got expelled. -
amen
Be carefull The JW's are very good at seducing new ones.
Every member knows what to tell a new member to keep you in. You will see the beautifull things only.
Think that the congregation as a sting or comploting to get you in only.
amen
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stillajwexelder
I agree - Crisis of Conscience is a must read before you make any big commitment
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Kenneson
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/32/78491/l.ashx I don't know why this link is not working.
For Rutherford:http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/32/77958/1.ashx
By the way, there is a Catholic ex-Jehovah's Witness site you might want to look at. The link is: