Posts by Alive!

8

A First Stepping-Stone For Bethelites & Lurkers?

by The Searcher in

for potential new-arrivals: .

if you are one of the many who are facing expulsion from bethels around the world in the near future - or simply a sincere j.w.

acts 13:31 - "who are now his (jesus') witnesses to the people.

Alive!

In the year I was starting to really squirm and feel a tightness of breath about the ongoing declarations coming from 'our leaders' - I took to reading the bible even more.

A thought I kept in mind, was something that is often said amongst witnesses 'we are the only ones who use jehovahs name'

Every letter in the NT is begun prayerfully - 'to God our Father......." Etc.

The name of Jesus, his title as Lord or Christ is used liberally.

One afternoon in service with a lifelong pioneer, we were talking of the scriptures and the promises, the forgiveness and so on. I deliberately sprinkled my comments with the phrase 'our Lord Jesus Christ' and 'God our Father' (not overly to the point of weirdness!!)

At one point I finished a comment saying something about our Lord Christ Jesus ( having not mentioned Jehovah once) and my pioneer friend giggled "Alive! You sound like one of those born agains!"

I laughed too. I said actually, I was just following the pattern and language of the scriptures and letters from the apostles.

I started up the car and quickly said 'so where next'

My own words haunted me!!!!

22

Overlapping generation pushed me to the brink

by Anator in

jw
friends

hello, i haven't posted for a number of years.

i've been struggling for years of wrestling in my mind regarding the organization.

i guess the big thing for me to push me over the edge is the generation overlapping thingy.

Alive!

Great point Pete.

If I should take a 'believers/biblical' point of view - I'd have to scrutinise what came out of Rutherford's mouth. He prophesied that the ancient prophets would be resurrected and built a mansion for them - this 'prophetic' and 'inspired utterance' was made well known throughout his world - including an article in NY times.

This isn't a light error - if I hear this with 'Christian believing ears' I have to filter it through the word of God's cautions - if the utterance isn't from God ( and it isn't if it isn't true) - who is it from?

So - here is a man who made many claims and speeches that have been entirely misleading - not just a wee miscalculation here and there.

That's fine. That was his problem.

Our problem is do we trust the sayings of a man which were obviously tinted with misleading 'lies'....ridiculous prophetic utterances that surely 'hurt' Jehovah's name? Not just then - but now.

I walked away, I had to - this man's sympathisers and collaborators still carry on the same pattern today....and behave and talk in the same pattern.

I wasn't prepared to draw people to God via these men who do not have a pattern of honesty or transparency - but worse, a pattern of unscriptural 'utterances' which detracts from the true message.

95

Template to dump Special Pioneers

by avaddohn94 in

"downsizing" has reached special pioneers.. this is the template mexico is using to get rid of many of its special pioneers.

see how cold and unloving is the language they use.

a translation attempt is as follows:.

Alive!

Speechless. Is this for real?

21

Would Jesus have been disfellowshipped by the "Elders" of his day . . . . . .

by Dunedain in

i bet jesus would have been df'd by the "elders" in his day.

lets think about it, jesus hung out with "worldly" people.

his closest friends were known prostitutes, money collectors, men of "prominence" in the world of that day, non "beleivers" of the "faith" like samaritans, and many others that todays "elders" would have deemed "unworthy".. jesus spoke against the "organization" and "elders" of his day.

Alive!

Just to add - that's not a judgement call re Rutherford or Russell - their journey, not ours. The issue - do we follow this very specific sect which does not allow for mutual dialogue / or keep searching and knocking?

21

Would Jesus have been disfellowshipped by the "Elders" of his day . . . . . .

by Dunedain in

i bet jesus would have been df'd by the "elders" in his day.

lets think about it, jesus hung out with "worldly" people.

his closest friends were known prostitutes, money collectors, men of "prominence" in the world of that day, non "beleivers" of the "faith" like samaritans, and many others that todays "elders" would have deemed "unworthy".. jesus spoke against the "organization" and "elders" of his day.

Alive!

Lol.

The character of Jesus has absolutely nothing in common with the religious culture of The Watchtower.

So - back in the mid to late 1800s, a man called C.T. Russell went 'searching' - he worked with numerology/pyramid mystic key points - nice foundation for the 'real Christian congregation' ahem.

Wonder how Jesus would have felt about 'judge' Rutherford consulting with demons?

I can't understand how a man ( Rutherford) can excuse himself from making such false prophetic statements - 1) the resurrection of the ancient patriarchs to live in his purpose built mansion - obviously he was listening to the wrong inspirations - certainly didn't come from 'Jesus'.

Why wasn't Rutherford disfellowshipped - surely spritistic false prophecy is a gross sin? He made Jehovah's name look foolish at that time - in the worst possible way - and he didn't get disciplined?

Oh - I forgot. He was just a dear imperfect 'annointed' brother - hmmmmm.

14

How did your close JWs react when they found out you know TTATT?

by ivanatahan in

jw
friends

i'm not sure if this topic has ever been posted (surely, i believe it has), but it would be interesting to revive such a topic and hear your stories!.

when my parents heard my first rant (after they told me to be home schooled when i was caught kissing a girl) they entered into a long depression that continues to this day.

my father suffers knowing his once amazing family is now divided, and my mother is equally angry.

Alive!

Certainly, it became clear - you cannot question a darn thing.

Its been said here before - to question the very existence of God is acceptable to a degree within the JW religion - that is a cause for empathy, encouragement and support - but question our 'annointed brothers' = the GB aka 'The complete and final FDS of seven' Νever!!!

Well, you know what - I wouldn't want to bring any human being into such a stranglehold - I don't want to 'study' the bible with anyone with the kind of manipulative training we've all had, the 'tricks' we learnt in the KM school, the so called 'conversation stoppers' - decades and decades of this intense 'selling' - and turned around in a blink of an eye to visual appeasement with feel good videos end cartoons.

14

How did your close JWs react when they found out you know TTATT?

by ivanatahan in

jw
friends

i'm not sure if this topic has ever been posted (surely, i believe it has), but it would be interesting to revive such a topic and hear your stories!.

when my parents heard my first rant (after they told me to be home schooled when i was caught kissing a girl) they entered into a long depression that continues to this day.

my father suffers knowing his once amazing family is now divided, and my mother is equally angry.

Alive!

After years of me offering myself as a constant listening ear to her vitriolic venting re how she and her family were treated by elders and 'High profile' witnesses and their families, supporting and encouraging her to go out in service (Yeah OK - I know :-( ) giving her financial help, lending money for her children's medical bills, paying for lunches, dinners and more -well, when I voiced my despair re obvious lies and inconsistencies, she accused me of being ungrateful to Jehovah.

I sent her stuff from our publications - with question - what are we saying????? How can we print this???

She's an intelligent woman.

She has cut me out of her life - I was her only true friend for years. Seriously.

Sad.

23

What was the strangest off-the-cuff remark you ever heard from and elder or higher appointee?

by donny in

i showed up for saturday morning field service and i was partnered with an elder who had transferred to our congregation in the dallas, texas area from michigan.

i told him about a recent embarrassing moment where i had played a "worldly" song during the sunday meeting due to someone replacing the cassette i had placed in the cassette player late friday night that had the correct "kingdom melody.".

out of the blue he said "about 4 years ago i was giving the sunday talk and i kept sporting a boner from time to time which was bizarre since being horny and teaching about jehovah is typically not something one associates with one another.".

Alive!

Lol - the thing is - I know that these kind of stories are true - not nasty little apostate lies.

What I'm trying to say - is that even if THESE stories were made up - any 'apologist' JW reading here would have more than a few terribly uncomfortable stories too!

It's global.

The bad mad stuff that comes from the 'platform' and the stuff the comes out of the mouths of those 'appointed by holy spirit' not to forget - we are ALL 'ministers' and 'ambassadors of Christ' - and as a religion we've had the bare faced cheek to mock and deride other Christian based churches.

Madness.

64

E-Mail, Just recived. About Bethell adjustments.

by DwainBowman in

i just read an email from a friend, and she shared some very interesting emails from her friends about information on changes now happening at the bethels around the world.

here is the email: .

---------------------------------thanks sally, jesus is directing the org and all decisions and instructions to us may not seem practical from now on, neither will we understand the reasonings behind many of the changes that the organization makes.

Alive!

Bethelites being deployed and sent out to live in the territory as regular pioneers, paying rent and trying to make a living.

Will the GB be amongst the first to willingly forgo their bethel accommodations?

Will the Governing Body follow brother Paul, John's and Peter's example now? Living in the community, earning their own crust ( bit of tent making perhaps?)

No need for them to be living in centralised accommodation, in just one place.With today's technology, they could each have an iPad/ laptop and communicate globally at the swipe of a screen - and do all this from a run down bedsit whilst living amongst their other brothers and sisters. How wonderful to have the self proclaimed anointed living amongst us like Christ, like the apostles and the early disciples.

Hmmm.

45

After leaving did the feeling go away?

by committeechairman in

the feeling that you're never good enough.

the feeling that you're wicked and evil.. .

because i'd give anything not to feel this way.

Alive!

I was not raised as a witness.

It seemed to me, over the years, that the culture of the org was to keep us 'looking at eachother' and measuring ourselves against eachother.

So many sermons about not comparing ourselves to our brothers - and yet there played out the constant 'comparisons' through parts in assemblies, the signing up and announcing of pioneers, the marking, shunning.... The marking of ones character according to meeting attendance and answers at meetings ..the assignment of simple things like carrying the mic - or worse, being taken off this 'privilege'.

At a time when I was seriously digging hard in my 'soul' for the best treasures to manage a horrible ongoing and private situation, daily making Christian sacrifices - I slipped off the heartily approved by JWs scale as my meeting attendance wasn't 100 % and I couldn't face those insane JW social get togethers....

It seriously messed with my head, heart and soul.

In recovery :-)