i have always thought that the members of the governing body are just a decorative elements in the visible cusp of the organization.
i have read conspiratorial topics about who really rule, but they are not visible.
the shareholders of the corporation?
I agree here with the point of crisis of conscience. We all read the book, ray franz was in the middle of it all and made it very clear the governing body ran things. Remember that was back when the governing body had all the leadership positions in the corporations of the watchtower as well. They changed that so they protected themselves legally.
no Freemasons, no behind the curtains share holders.
i know of several examples of ones that "left the truth" for up to 20 years, only to suffer through the reinstatement process and feel like they are finally back on track.. how does this happen?.
i personally know of one example where a father of three, leaves jws, abandons wife and family, lives as a gay man then comes back 20 years later as a partaking member of the anointed..
Because MOST people don't leave because they stopped believing or don't believe in the religion. Most people leave because they want to have fun, party, have sex, drink, and so on and are tired of the rules. Some completely wreck their lives...actually a lot of people completely wreck their lives just like the watchtower said they would. They think to a time in their life when things weren't so messed up and all they have was when they were still a JW. Also they start having kids and don't want their kids to do the same things they did. Many years later they come back because all a long they never stopped believing it was the truth.
did you really believe in things as ;- the earth is only 6000 years old- the 144.000- 1914, based upon the destructiono of jerusalem- harmagheddon or the end of the world coming soon???
?i married a jw when i was an interested person and studying with the jw's ( not the way they wanted) but i told my wife before marrying her that " most probably " i would never have been a jw.she accepted me as i was and married me.
after that i had interrupted the study for one year, i started all over again with an elder of my wife's cong.
I believed everything as I was born in. I used to carry things in my pocket so that if the great tribulation started and I wasn't home I would have the particular item I wanted with me.
My first realization that something was wrong was when I was 13. I was sitting during the watchtower study and it was the one that the generation that saw 1914 wouldn't pass away was changed. I sat there thinking, they changed it because time ran out, not because there was anything revealed to them. The first apostate web site I ever went to was freeminds.org as an apostate in an AOL chatroom sent a link to it to the whole room. I was too curious to not look. Even then I didn't buy into a lot of what was said, but some of it held true. As time went on I would read different web sites that JWs posted on but they usually argued with apostates such as H20 I think it was called.
who told you that the world should be free from suffering?.
do you find any value in suffering?.
do you think it is possible to experience all the beauty and goodness and pleasure the world offers without also experiencing the bad?
I'll take a crack at this while I do not profess that I am atheist...yet. I find the hardest part for me to swallow is a believer saying they prayed to God to help them decide what job to take, find their car keys, get a promotion, while there are literally MILLIONS of people who starve to death while praying to God for help. There is no rational and loving explanation to say that indeed God helped someone do something so meaningless as get promoted, while allowing someone to die.
I will give an example of our CO talking about the power of prayer. In the 90s a little girl prayed out loud when she was about to be killed in the genocide in Rwanda. After her prayer they let her and her family go. He was pointing out how the power of prayer caused Jehovah to save their lives. So I looked up and noticed in JW literature, over 400 witnesses were killed in the same time period in Rwanda. I am sure everyone of them was praying to Jehovah, and their prayers went unanswered. So why did Jehovah decide not to spare them?
I believe most of your questions are irrelevant to an atheist since you are asking them to pretend to believe in something that they say they do not believe in.
psalms 17:14 rescue me with your hand, o jehovah, from men of this world,* whose share is in this life,+ those whom you fill with the good things you provide+ and who leave an inheritance to their many sons.
15 but as for me, in righteousness i will see your face; i am satisfied to awaken in your presence.
*+as a jw i was always under the impression that prior to jesus death, all those who died had an earthly hope of resurrection.
I have found some ambiguous reference that it was david saying he would awaken in Jehovah's favor but another scripture I always wondered about was Psalms 90:10
The span of our life is 70 years,
Or 80+ if one is especially strong.*
But they are filled with trouble and sorrow;
They quickly pass by, and away we fly.+
Away we fly..fly where? Two references in psalms that sure seem to indicate heaven to me.
psalms 17:14 rescue me with your hand, o jehovah, from men of this world,* whose share is in this life,+ those whom you fill with the good things you provide+ and who leave an inheritance to their many sons.
15 but as for me, in righteousness i will see your face; i am satisfied to awaken in your presence.
*+as a jw i was always under the impression that prior to jesus death, all those who died had an earthly hope of resurrection.
psalms 17:14 rescue me with your hand, o jehovah, from men of this world,* whose share is in this life,+ those whom you fill with the good things you provide+ and who leave an inheritance to their many sons.
15 but as for me, in righteousness i will see your face; i am satisfied to awaken in your presence.
*+as a jw i was always under the impression that prior to jesus death, all those who died had an earthly hope of resurrection.
psalms 17:14 rescue me with your hand, o jehovah, from men of this world,* whose share is in this life,+ those whom you fill with the good things you provide+ and who leave an inheritance to their many sons.
15 but as for me, in righteousness i will see your face; i am satisfied to awaken in your presence.
*+as a jw i was always under the impression that prior to jesus death, all those who died had an earthly hope of resurrection.
As a JW I was always under the impression that prior to Jesus death, all those who died had an earthly hope of resurrection. While sitting at the meeting in boredom yesterday this scripture was read to promote not pursuing riches in this system. When I read verse 15 it gives me the impression that the belief was that once you die you would awaken in the presence of God, which I take as in heaven. Any thoughts on this or did I miss something?
so in the early 90's when i was about to get baptized the elder asked me a million questions and one of them was: .
who is the faithful and discreet slave?.
my answer:.
i just read about this on the ex-jw subreddit.
link to the video (10m06s).. skip to 7:35 where he says: "another way we can contribute to the oneness - rejecting false stories that are designed to separate us from jehovah's organization.
as an example, think about the apostate-driven lies and 'dishonesties' that jehovah's organization is permissive toward pedophiles.
