Thanks FayeDunaway!! I remember sitting there, listening to this pastor talking about the Sadducees and the Pharisees and it just hit me BOOM!! Like this ton of bricks came crashing on my chest...honestly made my chest tighten and all of these thoughts started just flowing and I realized at that moment that what I had been taught for the first 39 years of my life was all lies. Kind of made me a bit sad, but at the same time thankful for being open to TTATT!!
confuzzlediam
JoinedPosts by confuzzlediam
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Who were the Sadducees and the Pharisees?? Are there similarities between them and JW's??
by confuzzlediam inlast month, i had the privilege of traveling to jamaica with a study abroad group from my community college.
while there, we went to a place called my father's house in which severely disabled children lived when they had no one else to take care of them.
as part of their day, they hold worship in a small, outdoor meeting place.
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Try Other Religions
by Sofia Lose insometimes i get a strong curiosity to start dabbling into other religions, other faiths, you know?
really different ones such as islam, judaism, hinduism, etc.. has anyone here looked into something else?
has your spirituality been satisfied by any other than christianity?.
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confuzzlediam
I get the same way as well. My issue when it comes down to putting faith into something else, is most religions/faiths are based on what another human says we should believe. Make sense? Who's to say any ONE religion/faith has it right. Maybe they ALL do...maybe none of them do. Right now I'm at a point in my life where I just want to be a good person and do so because it is the right thing to do, not because someone tells me I need to do it or I won't receive life after this one. -
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Who were the Sadducees and the Pharisees?? Are there similarities between them and JW's??
by confuzzlediam inlast month, i had the privilege of traveling to jamaica with a study abroad group from my community college.
while there, we went to a place called my father's house in which severely disabled children lived when they had no one else to take care of them.
as part of their day, they hold worship in a small, outdoor meeting place.
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confuzzlediam
Last month, I had the privilege of traveling to Jamaica with a Study Abroad group from my community college. While there, we went to a place called My Father's House in which severely disabled children lived when they had no one else to take care of them. As part of their day, they hold worship in a small, outdoor meeting place. I was a bit apprehensive about going to worship as I am not sure where I stand with the whole God thing yet. But, I attended out of respect for the group that I was with.
There was a visiting pastor, a woman, who blew me away! I could have listened to her ALL day. She was passionate about the scriptures and about having faith in God and in Jesus. Her sermon dealt with forgiveness and was quite moving. One thing she mentioned in her sermon was how the Pharisees and the Sadducees lived and they were known to be ones that were showy in their way of worship to God. I wish I could remember exactly what it was that she said that got me thinking that this is how the JW's live. They brag about how many hours they spend in the field service, about how many publishers they have, about how clean they are, how they are NO part of the world...etc. I was reading a post on a FaceBook group I am in where someone talked about how at every assembly, they brag about how clean they leave the convention centers that they meet in every year and how they are complimented by "worldly" people on their upstanding behavior in contrast to "worldly" events held at the same facilities. Essentially JW's say that their lives are SO much better because of following the WT's rules on how to live.
SO how does this make them any better than the Sadducees and the Pharisees that Christ rebuked? I have included info below my post that I found on a website describing who the Pharisees and Sadducees were and what they believed. If you look at the Pharisees, a lot of what they believed or taught sounds a LOT like what the JW's believe and teach!!! The Sadducees remind me of the wealth and power that the WTS holds.
Any thoughts on this? Every once in a while I have these AH HA moments that make me go hmmmm....
Question: "Who were the Sadducees and the Pharisees?"
Answer:The Gospels refer often to the Sadducees and Pharisees, as Jesus was in constant conflict with them. The Sadducees and Pharisees comprised the ruling class of Israel. There are many similarities between the two groups but important differences between them as well.
The Sadducees:During the time of Christ and the New Testament era, the Sadducees were aristocrats. They tended to be wealthy and held powerful positions, including that of chief priests and high priest, and they held the majority of the 70 seats of the ruling council called the Sanhedrin. They worked hard to keep the peace by agreeing with the decisions of Rome (Israel at this time was under Roman control), and they seemed to be more concerned with politics than religion. Because they were accommodating to Rome and were the wealthy upper class, they did not relate well to the common man, nor did the common man hold them in high opinion. The common man related better to those who belonged to the party of the Pharisees. Though the Sadducees held the majority of seats in the Sanhedrin, history indicates that much of the time they had to go along with the ideas of the Pharisaic minority, because the Pharisees were popular with the masses.
Religiously, the Sadducees were more conservative in one main area of doctrine. The Pharisees gave oral tradition equal authority to the written Word of God, while the Sadducees considered only the written Word to be from God. The Sadducees preserved the authority of the written Word of God, especially the books of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy). While they could be commended for this, they definitely were not perfect in their doctrinal views. The following is a brief list of beliefs they held that contradict Scripture:
1. They were extremely self-sufficient to the point of denying God's involvement in everyday life.
2. They denied any resurrection of the dead (Matthew 22:23;Mark 12:18-27;Acts 23:8).
3. They denied any afterlife, holding that the soul perished at death, and therefore denying any penalty or reward after the earthly life.
4. They denied the existence of a spiritual world, i.e., angels and demons (Acts 23:8).
Because the Sadducees were more concerned with politics than religion, they were unconcerned with Jesus until they became afraid He might bring unwanted Roman attention. It was at this point that the Sadducees and Pharisees united and conspired to put Christ to death (John 11:48-50;Mark 14:53;15:1). Other mentions of the Sadducees are found inActs 4:1andActs 5:17, and the Sadducees are implicated in the death of James by the historian Josephus (Acts 12:1-2).
The Sadducees ceased to exist in A.D. 70. Since this party existed because of their political and priestly ties, when Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70, the Sadducees were also destroyed.
The Pharisees:In contrast to the Sadducees, the Pharisees were mostly middle-class businessmen, and therefore were in contact with the common man. The Pharisees were held in much higher esteem by the common man than the Sadducees. Though they were a minority in the Sanhedrin and held a minority number of positions as priests, they seemed to control the decision making of the Sanhedrin far more than the Sadducees did, again because they had the support of the people.
Religiously, they accepted the written Word as inspired by God. At the time of Christ's earthly ministry, this would have been what is now our Old Testament. But they also gave equal authority to oral tradition and attempted to defend this position by saying it went all the way back to Moses. Evolving over the centuries, these traditions added to God's Word, which is forbidden (Deuteronomy 4:2), and the Pharisees sought to strictly obey these traditions along with the Old Testament. The Gospels abound with examples of the Pharisees treating these traditions as equal to God's Word (Matthew 9:14;15:1-9;23:5;23:16,23,Mark 7:1-23;Luke 11:42). However, they did remain true to God's Word in reference to certain other important doctrines. In contrast to the Sadducees, they believed the following:
1. They believed that God controlled all things, yet decisions made by individuals also contributed to the course of a person's life.
2. They believed in the resurrection of the dead (Acts 23:6).
3. They believed in an afterlife, with appropriate reward and punishment on an individual basis.
4. They believed in the existence of angels and demons (Acts 23:8).
Though the Pharisees were rivals of the Sadducees, they managed to set aside their differences on one occasion—the trial of Christ. It was at this point that the Sadducees and Pharisees united to put Christ to death (Mark 14:53;15:1;John 11:48-50).
While the Sadducees ceased to exist after the destruction of Jerusalem, the Pharisees, who were more concerned with religion than politics, continued to exist. In fact, the Pharisees were against the rebellion that brought on Jerusalem's destruction in A.D. 70, and they were the first to make peace with the Romans afterward. The Pharisees were also responsible for the compilation of the Mishnah, an important document with reference to the continuation of Judaism beyond the destruction of the temple.
Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees earned numerous rebukes from Jesus. Perhaps the best lesson we can learn from the Pharisees and Sadducees is to not be like them. Unlike the Sadducees, we are to believe everything the Bible says, including the miraculous and the afterlife. Unlike the Pharisees, we are not to treat traditions as having equal authority as Scripture, and we are not to allow our relationship with God to be reduced to a legalistic list of rules and rituals.
Read more:http://www.gotquestions.org/Sadducees-Pharisees.html#ixzz3ejzlYZUI -
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A Renewed Friendship After 10 Years
by confuzzlediam ina little background first....i have been dating my boyfriend for a year.
both of us are disfellowshipped.
we attended the same congregation 7+ years ago when we were both married.
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confuzzlediam
Thanks for reading it through and responding!! That is SO very true!! I hadn't thought of it that way. One of the reasons I am so excited about this is because they have a former friendship in common in addition to a former belief system. Both together will hopefully strengthen their bond! -
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A Renewed Friendship After 10 Years
by confuzzlediam ina little background first....i have been dating my boyfriend for a year.
both of us are disfellowshipped.
we attended the same congregation 7+ years ago when we were both married.
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confuzzlediam
A little background first....I have been dating my boyfriend for a year. Both of us are disfellowshipped. We attended the same congregation 7+ years ago when we were both married. He ended up divorcing his then wife, then getting disfellowshipped some time after. He would attend meetings once in a while after that, but stopped going all together.
Fast forward to a year ago. I had recently (three months prior) left my husband of 25 years and had joined an online dating site for shits and giggles. Within a week or 2 of joining the site, I found him and messaged him to say hello. We met up that night as I had a fire going in my back yard and ended up talking till 3am. We have not stopped talking since!! BTW...I had always had a small crush on him, but of course i kept that to myself, because we were both married.
Since we have started dating, he has mentioned to me that he really doesn't have any guy friends that he can talk to or hang out with. There are a few at work that he talks to and has gone out once with one of them. I have a small group of friends (4 of us total) that plan to get together once a month or so for a girls night out. Last Saturday was my girls night out. We all got tattoos!! It was a blast! The next morning, my boyfriend mentioned that he needed to find a friend that he could hang out with and that he missed his best friend from years ago because they just got each other. Something he has mentioned on and off since we started dating.
WELL....later that morning, he received an email from that friend, whom he had not spoken to for about 10 years!!! WOW!!! I was SO excited that he was wanting to get in touch with my boyfriend! How crazy we were just talking about him needing to find a friend AND talking about this particular friend and how much he missed their friendship!!! His friend left his phone number saying he would like to talk. My boyfriend ended up calling him and they talked for close to two hours!!
My boyfriend still holds on to some, not all, of the JW beliefs. I don't question his beliefs, but make sure I am clear with mine. While he was talking to his friend, who had recently been disfellowshipped, his friend started talking about the things he was finding out about the WTS!! My heart was full and I couldn't help but think that maybe his friend would help him see the BS that the society is filled with and maybe change his mind about some things. IF there is a God...which I am sometimes doubtful, then this friend was a God send to my boyfriend. It makes my heart happy to see him and his best friend reunited!!! I look forward to them talking more and getting together with each other. When my boyfriend talks about his friend, he has a smile on his face and that means the world to me.
Thanks for sticking around and reading this far! I know this was a long post, but I don't have many I can talk to about this who would understand why this means SO SO much to me on different levels!!
MAYBE this friend is on this site and reads my post... If so... thank you for reaching out!! As I said earlier, it means the world to me to see my boyfriend happy to have connected with you once again!
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watchtower not following 1st and second commandment because they are ostrasizing and shunning fellow humans
by poopie inshunning violates the law of love that is principled love agape.
you can never justify shunning another human made in gods image no human has the god given right to completely shun another human by giving them the silent treatment.
its also a form of bullying which the watchtower condems on its own website.
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confuzzlediam
Yes, it goes against everything we are taught Jehovah and Jesus to be, that is showing unconditional love for one another and showing forgiveness towards one another as we have been freely forgiven by Him. Unfortunately, they see it as an act of love for the brother or sister who has been disfellowshipped. By shunning, love is shown by not talking to them to bring them back to Jehovah thus ultimately saving their lives. -
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What are the current rules about vaping from the GB?
by purrpurr ini mean e cigs and vaping.
not even tobacco inhaling but inhaling other stuff like herbs etc.
is this allowed?
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confuzzlediam
"electronic cigarettes that contain nicotine"
SO does this mean that one could vape with NO nicotine in it? Or would that be considered as "other products"?
My guess is vaping, even with no nicotine, would be a no no. Possibly because they would say that it could lead to using nicotine in the vape OR could lead to smoking cigarettes OR as Punkofnice pointed out lead to other sins! There is also debate on whether or not vaping is even much better than smoking as you are still inhaling something into the lungs, which could be considered a defilement of the flesh. Not to mention it would be doing something that those in the "world" do, so would want to stay away from it.
My son vapes and I smoke. I have not done much research on vaping, but am not convinced it is a whole lot safer than smoking. Still inhaling a substance into the lungs. BUT we do it anyways...
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How do you manage to keep JW friendships after you left the organization?
by Bonsai init seems incredibly difficult.
those who leave the org.
(or fade) no longer have anything in common with jehovah's witnesses, nor do they want to stick around to get radiated by the fear and guilt that saturates every aspect of a witnesses' life.. i've lost all but one of my jw friends quite simply because i can no longer condone the evil things that they condone.
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confuzzlediam
I was disfellowshipped 5 1/2 years ago. All but one of my JW "friends" stopped talking to me. The one who would still talk to me and get together with me was a family member on my soon to be x husband's side. Even then, we don't talk very often. She and her daughter are on my facebook, but I privately message them if I have something to say about their post, because I don't want them to get into trouble from family and from the org for still having anything to do with me. I know that my friendship with her will never be what it was, but I can live with that. We don't talk about religion, with the exception of when I tell her she just needs to come over to the dark side with me and get disfellowshipped!! LOL I know that she has a LOT of issues with how those in the congregation act, she sees the hypocrisy, but she still believes in the core beliefs and is unwilling to look into the false teachings that she holds as truth.
It makes me very sad for her because she has no friends in the "truth". Her only friends were myself and my x-SIL and we are both disfellowshipped. When her youngest daughter (who is active and married another JW) got married a few months ago, very few attended the bridal shower or her wedding and it broke her heart. If my x-SIL and myself were still in, we would have done all of the planning and helped with both the shower and the wedding.
I don't know what to tell you to do to keep your last JW friendship. Maybe hanging by a thread, as I am with my friend, is the only way you will be able to keep them. I'm ok with it...for the most part. I would be heartbroken if what we have left would come to an end. SO I take what I can get from her and hope that one day she will see the org for what it is and leave. Until then...it is what it is and I'm ok with it.
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Jehovah's Witness woman refuses blood, then dies.
by Lee Elder inanother jehovah's witness woman has died while giving birth due to massive blood loss and refusing a blood transfusion.
she leaves nine children behind.
she finally consented to the transfusion but it was too late to save her.
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confuzzlediam
This is so heartbreaking to me. But sadly, I would have done the same while I was in the org as I thought it was disgusting to take another human's blood into my body (after years of being told about all of the disease that could be in tainted blood). About a year or so before I was disfellowshipped, there was a young brother in the cong. (about 22) that lost his life due to a bleeding ulcer. I remember going into the room and seeing his pale, wax like skin that had lost all blood flow to it, shortly before he died. Walking out of the hospital with his mother was something that I'll never forget. How she had the strength to walk out of that hospital without her son, all because they refused a blood transfusion, i don't know. After his death, she had a hard time even driving past the hospital where he died.
I think about it now and the hospital did EVERYTHING they could, besides force a blood transfusion, to save his life. The nurses were devastated when his mom just sat there and watched the blood flow out of his body into a bag on the side of the bed. I would NEVER sit back and watch my child die if there was something as simple as a blood transfusion that could save their lives. SO happy they disfellowshipped me and I was able to see the light finally!!
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Undue influence - other areas in life
by DavidG inafter gradually waking up to ttatt im finding myself with this question:.
since it is so easy to be indoctrinated with jw beliefs, are there other areas in my life where i'm also under influance of other false beliefs?
from the culture i've grown up with, school etc?.
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confuzzlediam
Phizzy and StrongHaiku I just completed a Critical Reasoning class at my community college. I had NO idea what I was getting myself into when I signed up for the class. All I can say is I wish EVERYONE could take this class. My teacher told us that it would be one of the most difficult/challenging classes we would take and she was NOT lying!! But she also told us that by the end of the course, we would NEVER think the same again and she was correct!! I busted my ass in that class and achieved an A, which not many in the class were able to achieve.
I have a hard time explaining what it has taught me, other than I am now open to fallacies, bad arguments and can actually decipher bullsh*t now! lol In the beginning of the class she had us read the Allegory of the Cave and my upbringing as a witness all came to light after reading it. It was like this HUGE aha moment for me and I realized that I lived 39 years of my life in that cave, in the darkness. We are taught that the WT has the light and those outside of it live in darkness. WELL after reading it, I realized that I had been living in the dark, only seeing the shadows for what I was told they were. It was not until I was df'd did I begin to see the light!!
I have to say that while I can be fairly gullible, believing much of what I hear or see to be true, I have also begun really questioning everything and thinking for myself. I too wondered because I fell for so long of what the WT had to say, did I do that with other things in my life. I have to say that yes, I believe I did. Doesn't everyone to a certain extent? Believe till proven otherwise?
Going to watch the TED talk!! Thanks for the link!