definitely mentally and more than likely physically.. i have read on a few posts and freeminds about an increase of mental illness amoungst jws of between 2 and 40 % and it seems understandable considering the amount of stress being in the borg puts on people.. but what about physically?.
what are your experiences since leaving the borg?.
do you feel well and fitter than ever before?.
Our MIND can live in a fantasy world and easily. But, our poor body always lives in the REAL world.
AMEN!!! I still get sick when I remember how I honestly sought advice in the spiritual paradise of the WTS to solve my real problems. As a witness you really have to be cynical enough to ignore WTS advice to avoid serious problems with mental and physical health. It is usually those who take it seriously that suffer most.
Pole
so many things come to mind to show how silly jws sound in reality.
for example, being allowed to pass the microphones is a big deal, especially to a young brother.
or being given the "privilege" of cutting the grass or working on a "quick-build" is really something special to a jw.
The "return visits" column in the service report form.
I once had a visit from an elder after a CO had reviewed congregation files and pointed out that I'd only made one return visit in six months.
On the other hand - he didn't advise the elders to visit us and comfort spiritually when my father-in-law was in a coma and dying for 8 months.
I guess the latter fact wasn't allowed for in the congregation files. What a formalistic religion.
Pole
i am a rather newly minted christian.
i have been exposed to many different beliefs besides the jw, but i tend to take more of a "mere christianity" view of salvation.. here is a summary of that view.. i believe there is a god, evidenced by an innate natural law that most understand, aspire to, and expect from others.
laws require a lawgiver.
M.J.,
Take a thesaurus, look up a word and find an antonym of this word (a word that has the "opposite" meaning - whatever the opposiotion might be). If you try hard enough you can go from almost any word to its antonym in less than 5 or 6 steps by picking immediate synonyms at each step.
Semantic borders are fuzzy. If you really want you can cross them and reconcile two fairly opposite concepts of salvation that can be found in two different Bible passages.
I personally think it's much more honest to put those differences in a historical perspective and admit that different writers of the Bible had different views of salvation. This seems to be a natural explanation when you take into account the variability of views different Christians have today.
On the other hand you can assume that there was an angelic editor supervising the not-so-obvious uniformity of the Biblical message. To defend this view you need to get ready for some semantic gymnastics, though.
Here we go, using my dictionary of synonyms:
believe - admire - worship - obey
Or as you put it:
By knowing you cannot truly be perfect according to God's law, and believing that Christ died for you because of this, you come to know him and are transformed in a way that manifests itself in doing God's will, which can include obedience to spiritual direction.
I'm sure you can go from God to Satan this way too. Isn't it just more honest to admit that Early Christian groups differed (sometimes categorically) in their views?
Peace,
Pole
i am a rather newly minted christian.
i have been exposed to many different beliefs besides the jw, but i tend to take more of a "mere christianity" view of salvation.. here is a summary of that view.. i believe there is a god, evidenced by an innate natural law that most understand, aspire to, and expect from others.
laws require a lawgiver.
Synoptic Gospels: if you want to be perfect, leave your family, get rid of all your belongings, go and preach the good news relying on God's providence. Otherwise, keep the OT commandments, loving everyone in a non-judgemental way, and support those who follow the perfect way. Keyword: do.
John: listen and look to Jesus as the ultimate revelation of the Father, until you realise that you are children of God, already saved and beyond any judgement; then remain in that revelation and love one another as children of God. Keyword: know.
Paul: just believe in Jesus and unite to his death and resurrection in baptism and the Eucharist. Keyword: believe.
Pastorals: stick to the received doctrine, stick to your social position and be submissive to the church leaders. Keyword: obey.
This thread will likely illustrate how much effort it takes for a person to reconcile all of these 'keywords' (and many more, I'm sure) in order to save the idea of the theological uniformity of the Bible.
Pole
jehovah's witnesses do not believe or teach some of the very basic tenets of christian doctrine.
1. the trinity.
2. the omnipresence of god.
The Bible Teaches the Truth...
Where did I hear that before?
Pole
since i have so many brits and uk types in one place, i was wondering if you all could classify or tell me the names of the different british accents.
i think most in the states could be grouped by region and then each region divided into regular folks and folks with cash.
for instance in thestates, you basically have north east which is can be characterized by your classic new york or boston accents.
UK accents have been studied and classified by phoneticians for over 100 years now. Here is a good book to begin with:
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/accents.htm (It covers world-wide English, but includes a few British ones too - a good starting point though to put British accents into perspective)
Pole
i've been having several outbreaks of conspiracy theories lately and a wierd one that came to mind was if anyone has ever met minimus in person before?
think about it....what better way is there to gather intel on a rather large group of ex and current jw's than to ask detailed questions on every facet of your life?
typically, someone that has over a few thousand posts has been to a meetup of some sort, even a small one.
Oh yeah you can tell he's is a sly WTS spy by the secret messages encoded in some of his posts:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/91690/1.ashx
Then the old dog died because of his licking of his testicles and the word spread through the camp that the old dog did indeed die. This caused a great uproar and all the townspeople began to mock the Baal dog worshippers and chant, "Who let the dogs out? Who let the dogs out?" And the people trembled in fear for they knew not what was going to happen to all the other dogs for their iniquities and bestial sins. Then the LORD GOD'S anger blazed against all the female dogs for their perversions and the LORD GOD destroyed all the little girls under the age of six.
I haven't figured out the one about the old dog yet, but he definitely sounds like a Jaracz-approved mole. How many of you seriously think the WTS writing department helps him write some of his stuff. ;-)
LOL.
Best wishes,
Pole
hey has anyone seen this website that has a recording of a jw researcher from watchtower headquarters that calls this baptist pastor?
the baptist pastor records the conversation.
it's really good.
Despite the JW being a jerk, he was successful in pointing out the ambiguity of the nature of God in the Bible. And the arrogance one must have to assume they have been revealed the truth.
Touché!
.
so far, no human trials have yet been conducted, but the vaccines have proven 100% effective in protecting monkeys from infection against the two diseases, which are among the deadliest in the world.. http://www.physorg.com/news4399.html.
sng
which are among the deadliest in the world.
I wonder what was the "biotic message" that Jehovah imprinted in these wonderful works of creation? Stay away from monkeys? LOL.
Pole
hey has anyone seen this website that has a recording of a jw researcher from watchtower headquarters that calls this baptist pastor?
the baptist pastor records the conversation.
it's really good.
A friend of mine likens this kind of conversation to debates about who is tougher, Superman or Batman.
I can't see much room for an argument here. Batman doesn't even begin to compare with Superman.
BTW - the battery argument was actually made in the recorded conversation. (SIGH)
Pole
