so i hooked into meeting via phone this week to listen in and was shocked at the absurdities mentioned in the study article (2016 may watchtower: "go,..and make disciples of people of all the nations").
the answer is obvious—only jehovah’s witnesses.
the answer the missionary priest gave in no way proves that jws are the only ones "preaching the good news".
Is there a scripture where Jesus addresses hundreds of his disciples with the commission to tell the good news?
Just wondered if anyone had it handy?
I'll have a search in mean time.
so glad I don't have to read through those self praising Watchtower articles.....the last few years have got worse and worse.
in case you read my other thread regarding my existential crisis and how it was making my life miserable and left me feeling hopeless, purposeless and joyless i though i'd share what's recently happened to me and my way of thinking and have i've for the time being resolved my existential crisis.
i write every day in a journal.
i've been doing this for years.
Well, you are in good company of all sorts of men, from the great, from brilliant minds to the small and simple - for many, God just is...
Keep strong :-)
sometimes it's hard to know if our own experience of jws was typical and what features were peculiar to our own area or the individual jws we knew personally.
i was wondering if others experienced this among jws:.
a few times on the ministry, when we were working wealthy areas with large houses, some brothers and sisters would make the comment that they look forward to taking ownership of one of these big houses after armageddon, when the worldly people have vacated them.
@Old Hippie.
A few times out on ministry I witnessed Seasoned JWs jokingly talk about 'leaving their songbook' in the letter box by the gate of a desirable property - in order to have first dibs after Armageddon....their explanation, not mine....
This occurred in two different countries, and no-one looked shocked but laughed at the 'inhouse' joke....we're talking elders and pioneers here....a quaint little custom in these English speaking lands apparently.
I was a foolish little 'convert' - the stuff I heard, I should have ran, ran, ran.
Many were also obsessed also with what they wanted for an improved body.....and we are talking cosmetic here....
sometimes it's hard to know if our own experience of jws was typical and what features were peculiar to our own area or the individual jws we knew personally.
i was wondering if others experienced this among jws:.
a few times on the ministry, when we were working wealthy areas with large houses, some brothers and sisters would make the comment that they look forward to taking ownership of one of these big houses after armageddon, when the worldly people have vacated them.
Yes. I've heard that kind of conversation a few times in different countries - how very spiritual, ahem - last time I heard it, was the last time I went out in field service.
unbelievable paragraph in yesterday's watchtower was "encouraging" the sheep to not have kids.
most of their growth comes from the born ins and they are still on about not having kids?.
then it went on to "encourage" those that do have kids or grandkids not to spend to much time with them and instead to spend their time serving kingdom interests!.
The Society seriously does your head in.
This paragraph extolling those who make sacrifices by putting off children, not spending valuable time with family but 'building' buildings - and then only a little while ago they acknowledge that such suggestions in the past have gone beyond scripture.
Enough.
...is an epic triumph is emotional manipulation.
bringing together all of the stories they told thus far and placing them int he "new world" complete with the little boy who was killed in a car accident coming back from the dead.. i have a good friend who is stuck in with family and plays the role.
he said everyone was crying, and the people next to him rated the videos by how many tissues they needed to dry their eyes.
I just watched the video.
If I were still in the 'religion' I'd be suffering so badly right now - I was getting progressively mentally sicker and sicker when I was in ....fast forward to these days.... the org has morphed Into what would feel like an even darker nightmare for me, personally.
Why? Because I know in my heart that none of my sound minded believing/non believing family or friends would ever be attracted to such obvious emotional manipulation....and if I still believed this organisation actually represented the ONLY way to God, I'd be distraught.
the issue of whether beards are acceptable or not is addressed in the september 2016 watchtower - well sort of.
it is as clear as mud as to whether they are allowed in places like australia, usa and britain.. 17. what are some factors that may affect whether a brother wears a beard?17 what about the propriety of brothers wearing a beard?
the mosaic law required men to wear a beard.
Just imagine having to sit through this, read this and actually walk away feeling joyful and light in heart and spirit.
Just reading the excerpts feels like applying a spiritual vice to my mind.
Madness. It's madness.
i had a couple of jw sisters call at my door today.. they started with the bizarre "can we read you a scripture" and read about "death being no more" and asked what i thought of that.. i said it sounded like a mix of disney and dumb.. they then launched into how god was going to put an end to death and wasn't that wonderful?.
i said it would have been more wonderful if he'd not created death in the first place.. they thought man created death by disobeying so i questioned why god couldn't have just forgiven them.
apparently "because he loves us" is supposed to be a satisfactory answer to why he kills us.. i asked how loving it was to kill hundreds of thousands of children in tsunami's, disease and so on.. at this point, they gave up on the 'god is love' and switched to the bible being true no matter what because it was an old book and moses had written the first chapter (says the book).. when i suggested it really wasn't that old and that most of the bible myths were copies of older stories from before it was written they questioned if i studied the bible and theology.. then i told them i was brought up as a jw so knew it was all crap.. now it was game on, they immediately switched to play defence questioning why i'd left (and i think they'd already taken a step back away from "the evil" obviously emanating from me).. not much time to say much before they cut and run so i told them i'd left because i found out it was all based on lies and that the watchtower was corrupt and covered up things like child abuse.. oh no, you're thinking of the catholics one of them said (some disdain in how she said "catholics" as though "we're so much better than them").. "well, i challenge you to do a search for the australian royal commission and you'll see the testimony the watchtower leaders gave and the damning evidence that they covered up abuse and reported none of it to the police.".
Quite disturbing that the 'it's all lies' claim appears so many times - I WATCHED it LIVE - I heard the way the leaders tried to mislead the ARC representatives, under oath and in a court of law - there was very little that was open, candid or transparent in their demeanour and choice of phrasing - although I had already heard and detected 'manipulative' speech and underhanded phrasing through the literature, it really bowled me over to hear such words come from the actual GB member and of course senior Legal Personnel/Brothers from the Society.
I felt a little sad for the elders under question - they were absolutely out of their depth in the face of honest and forthright questioning.....so many 'oh my goodness' moments - I'm glad I had already 'seen' the light, if I had watched the ARC proceedings in state of absolute trust and faith in the organisation, I'd have had a breakdown.
Oh wait a minute - I DID have a breakdown, but that was a couple of years before the ARC rolled out. Sheesh. I was heartbroken.
i believe it to be a waste of time talking to, reasoning with, jw's if you expect any kind of quick result.. many of us when we first wake up think that 'coz ttatt is blindingly obvious to us, it will soon get through to our jw loved ones.. this simply isn't so for a couple of important reasons.
the first is that, if someone believes something is true, or the truth, to them it really is, without doubt, true.
so whatever you say must be wrong somehow.. the second problem is that jw's simply do not have to use, or pay any attention to facts and logic.
This past weekend hubby and I bumped into a couple of witnesses in our age group on two separate occassions in very relaxed circumstances (unplanned) we chatted, laughed and enjoyed each others company over coffee - we've shared some good times in the past and in the past shared some fellow feeling over life's problems, I love these people - but really, as I reflected overnight, their world is tight, they are supported, their children and lifelong friends are an essential fabric of their lives.
We didn't talk about religion. I miss the freedom to have people like these in my life - without the GB breathing down our necks, publishing articles and broadcasting pronouncements which are designed to agitate and separate.
i was going over the type / antitype articles that were released in last year's watchtower articles and i've just realized how ironic it is those very articles can serve to demolish some of the most fundamental jw teachings.. take for instance the "questions from readers" section of the march 15, 2015 magazine.
after mentioning some "far-fetched" interpretations that others have applied to bible events, they go on to say:.
if such interpretations seem far-fetched, you can understand the dilemma.
The different anti-types seemed so plausible at the time....
BUT the Revelation book never sat well with me when they 'squished' ancient prophetic scripture to fit in with a chain of events surrounding the society and early WT characters .....I was totally devoted during the times we studied that book - but each time I felt tingles of discomfort reading certain paragraphs.
It's so sad, looking back. If anyone had stuck their hsnd up and said 'this doesn't sound right, it feels entirely wrong' - the problem would have been theirs, not the writing departments.
To understand and accept the teachings was a sign we had 'spiritual insight'.
As I started waking up - I had to wonder, exactly who or what inspired the writers to publish so many false teachings and interpretations?
The problem was that we had no choice - so we couldn't grow at our own pace, but got dragged along with the thoughts of 'men' who were actually invisible strangers to us at the time - and still are, despite the public broadcasts.
