Posts by Hondo

35

How the Watchtower Perverts Compassion

by metatron in

jw
friends

this what jesus said about mercy (matt.

"hence when you go making gifts of mercy, do not blow a trumpet ahead of you, just as .

the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be glorified by.

Hondo

Loveis

Your below post is typical JW dribble.

"But while helping others in a physical way, Christians never want to lose sight of their primary obligation, preaching the good news of God’s established Kingdom. That Kingdom will soon rid the world of all sickness, poverty, and need. How gratifying to be able to assist people to gain life in a world where the word "pity" will no longer need to be used. Could you possibly love your neighbor in a way more practical than that?"

The answer to your state above is an emphatic NO! I Couldn't disagree with more. Read John 3:16 again. It's plain and simple. Work (going door to door) does not lead to faith and grace. It's Just the opposite, faith and grace lead to works. Pope John Paul II did not go door to door during his twenty five years as head of the Catholic Church, nor did priest, bishiops, and cardinals, yet during that period of time, 250 million new Catholics joined the ranks of the church.What did the the JW's do during that 25 years going door to door? Mother Theresa, prior to her death, roamed the streets of the poorest neighborhoods of India, not going door to door lieing and deceiving, but helping and feeding those in need. Because of her efforts; because of her faith and the grace of God, not because of a "free bible study", millions, again, as with the Pope, join the ranks of Christianity, simply because they did good for those in need. None of these new Christians were told that they would be shunned if they decided later to leave, or that they would have to commit suicide if given the chose between accepting, or not accepting, a life saving blood transfusion, etc., ect.

Remember, Jesus did not go looking for people, they came to him. He did not go knocking on doors, but people came to him. He was the pinnicle of faith and grace and because of this there are over 1.2 billion christians in the world today helping those in need.

As a rep of my local church, I assist at homeless shelters and visit local hospitals distributing toileties, etc. I do not preach, or try to push my religion on anyone, but am amazed at the number of homeless and patients that, because they know who I am, want to talk about Jesus and his words. It's a fulfilling feeling. And it's not just me, there are many, many volunteers that do the same thing.

Remember, telling a hungry person that the end of the world is coming soon (an erroneous statement espoused by the JW by the way. They have said the end is coming soon for the last 120 years and havn't got it right yet) does not do anything for their hunger. Instead of living for the end, as JW's do, help end the hunger and destitution around the world and encourage living as best as possible. The end will come, when the end comes, and now one knows when this is, but when it does, all eyes will see.

That's about it.

76

Question for Christians

by Ticker in

ok i just have a few questions ive always wanted to ask.

this is open to non christians as well.

can christians actually somehow communicate with the lord like ive heard and read so many times.

Hondo

Rex

The Pope himself does not claim his is infallible. The fact that he is the Pope enables this selected person, as head of the Catholic church, to act in a infallible manner in matters encompassing a very small part of what he does, that is, in the area of faith and morals (this misunderstood by both Catholics and non-Catholics alike). All other matters of a Popes life are just like you and me. He's a man, and as such makes mistakes. There have been, as I'm sure you are quite aware, some pretty bad Popes over the last 2000 years. Some had families; some were crooks. Don't get infallibility and impeccability mixed up. A very small part of what the Pope does involves infallibility. Most of what he does falls under his ability to be as impeccable (this means being a good person by the way. Mother Theresa was an impeccable person) as possible. Even Peter, the first head of the "Universal (Catholic)" church, had his problems (he had his butt chewed out by Paul on a couple occasions), but in matters of faith and morality he, as most other Popes (260 of them so far) did, understood their place.

Keep in mind, the infallibility part of the Popes role is rarely used, and when it is, is not solely his word alone, but includes the thoughts and ideas of a Echumenical Counsil. Oh, and by the way, the Pope does not talk to God, and if you were to chat with him, he would probably tell you so. And finally, don't even try comparing the GB, who claim to be prophets and talk to angels, with the Pope, or what he does. No comparison! None whatsoever! Read the Patristic writings of the church (It will take you a lifetime to do). In these documents, the early founding fathers, from about 100AD onward, kept a very concise record, starting with the infancy, and onward eventual growth, good and bad, of the Catholic Church; from the development of the first bible, and what was to be included in it, to many other historical decisions and aspects. Some that still affect our lives today, directly and/or indirectly.

Take care. Have a good day.

17

How/Why were the Jehovah Witnesses chosen?

by Hondo in

i am not a jw, never have been, but lost my wife (a japanese national) to them in 2003. i have been in and out of some of these forums trying to learn as much as possible about what drove my ex-wife to, for the most part, reject me and take her jw congragation as her new family, her new counselors, her new best friends, etc.

a jw doctrine that has always bugged me is the belief that jesus came to earth in 1918/19, or there-a-bouts, and chose them as his one and only representative orgainization on earth (i think i have it right).

some may take this the wrong way, as it may sound a bit glib, and i apologise in advance if this is the case and i offend anyone, but my ex-wife truely believes, no matter that she can't explain why (and maybe this is my answer.

Hondo

luna2

You could be my ex-wifes double. Everything it looks like you participated in to eventually become a JW, my ex (I think) did as well. Before she became active she was interested in learning the bible. I help her in this regard by getting her a Japanese language version of King James. Our marriage, although pretty strong, may have been lacking something, although I don't know what. I was in the Navy, on a ship, and away for 2 and 3 month stints at a time. Maybe she was lonely, home alone, kids (a boy and girl and not JW's) in school etc., etc....and the knock came. I could tell during the last year of our marriage (2003) that she blindly followed the WTS teachings, without question, WITHOUT QUESTION!!! I would show her a blatent falsehood, implicit lie, or something the WTS had kept from her (she knew nothing about the home in San Diego that Rutherford eventually took as his home. I told her that is was suppose to have been for several prophets that were predicted to return to earth back in the 20's, but never did. I Told her Rutherford was a drunk, womanizer, etc. I showed her pictures and other "proof". She believed nothing I said or showed her. Her comment(s) was something along the lines that someone had just made up the story to make the JW's and the WTS look bad). She would clam up and fold in on herself and become very quiet and silent (her eyes became very dark). Rather than argue, and lose, she would say nothing. I'm sure she reported to her elder(s) that I had become, or was becoming, a spiritual danger to her.

I sympathize with all the Ex-JW's on this board, and don't claim to feel or understand what you have gone through leaving an organization you may have been associated with, perhaps for you entire life. I've read a lot of posts and it seems there is a lot of pain associated with this, more for some than others. I don't want it to seem like I'm snivling, or even try to compare myself to any of you, you are very strong people in my eyes, but there are some folks like me who, although not JW's, have felt the brunt of their disgusting beliefs in other ways, as in my case; a 20 year marriage and family destroyed. I will be truthful, I am having a hard time. Every day since 2003 (Sept) Many times I get home from work and just sit at home and ask why. I look at pictures of the good times. I still love my ex, and always will. This is not the way I had intended us (we talked about our future many times before she got involved with this cult) to move into the future. Prior to her getting involved our priority list was, 1) our marriage and family, and 2) ensuring we lived (including spiritually) the best life possible. After her exposure, she, not us, set priorities as, 1) WTS (as far as she was concerned this her God), 2) meetings, 3) meetings, 4) service time, 5) cleaning KH's (a lot) and, 6) her children. I was relegated (this is the way I felf) to the end of her list. I have tried to excape from this hold on me of past memories. It is very difficult. I have even questioned from time-to-time my religion, to a point of asking myself why, what is the point is of trying to believe in God. Hopefully time will allow me to understand.

Thank you for your post and the links to other sites. I am guessing you are not active any more. I wish you the best.

Take care

17

How/Why were the Jehovah Witnesses chosen?

by Hondo in

i am not a jw, never have been, but lost my wife (a japanese national) to them in 2003. i have been in and out of some of these forums trying to learn as much as possible about what drove my ex-wife to, for the most part, reject me and take her jw congragation as her new family, her new counselors, her new best friends, etc.

a jw doctrine that has always bugged me is the belief that jesus came to earth in 1918/19, or there-a-bouts, and chose them as his one and only representative orgainization on earth (i think i have it right).

some may take this the wrong way, as it may sound a bit glib, and i apologise in advance if this is the case and i offend anyone, but my ex-wife truely believes, no matter that she can't explain why (and maybe this is my answer.

Hondo

DY

Not trying to get on the wrong side of you, but I think you are wrong. Granted, brothers and sisters of a congregation may have never mentioned to my wife that she was married to a "non-believing mate", or maybe they did, I don't know. I do know that my ex had two distinct personnalities between pre and post JW's. The way she related to me prior to and after she became "hooked" was totally different. Things that her and did together before she joined now became lower on her priority list; going to meeting, and meetings, and meetings, became tops on her list. If I wanted to go to dinner on a meeting night, guess what, I lost. Things like this were subtle at first, but became worse the more she "studied." Whomever provided her with her free 'bible study" did a very good job.

If she had not answered the door that day in Japan a few yers ago, when the ship was gone (I am retired Navy), and the kids were in school, we would still be married today. This is a fact! The JW's, whether directly, or indirectly, played a very large role in the breakup of my marriage, and life as I had planned for.

25

Names and dates in Bible code reveals the future?

by Panda in

according to a friend of mine she saw on some christian channel (she's born again)... anyway there was this supposed jewish math wizard scholar (i'm thinking kahbahla?

) he claims that there are names like george bush dates disasters etc.

all the code is broken down by the number 49+1=50 (right then i'm holding in my laughter and thinking what would the amazing randi say?

Hondo

You can take just about any book and come up with predictions similar to what the bible code came up with. I saw a similar show (maybe it was the same one mentioned in earlier post) that used the book by Herman Melville, Moby dick, and did the same thing. The person giving the demonstration came up with numerous past occurances/predictions that were similar to what those researchers paging through the bible came up with; Call it the Moby Dick code??? All it takes is a good computer script/code that can look at a book page from many differ directions.

17

How/Why were the Jehovah Witnesses chosen?

by Hondo in

i am not a jw, never have been, but lost my wife (a japanese national) to them in 2003. i have been in and out of some of these forums trying to learn as much as possible about what drove my ex-wife to, for the most part, reject me and take her jw congragation as her new family, her new counselors, her new best friends, etc.

a jw doctrine that has always bugged me is the belief that jesus came to earth in 1918/19, or there-a-bouts, and chose them as his one and only representative orgainization on earth (i think i have it right).

some may take this the wrong way, as it may sound a bit glib, and i apologise in advance if this is the case and i offend anyone, but my ex-wife truely believes, no matter that she can't explain why (and maybe this is my answer.

Hondo

I am not a JW, never have been, but lost my wife (a Japanese National) to them in 2003. I have been in and out of some of these forums trying to learn as much as possible about what drove my ex-wife to, for the most part, reject me and take her JW congragation as her new family, her new counselors, her new best friends, etc. A JW doctrine that has always bugged me is the belief that Jesus came to earth in 1918/19, or there-a-bouts, and chose them as his one and only representative orgainization on earth (I think I have it right).

Some may take this the wrong way, as it may sound a bit glib, and I apologise in advance if this is the case and I offend anyone, but my ex-wife truely believes, no matter that she can't explain why (and maybe this is my answer. she believes "just because" she was told to believe), that Jesus did come to earth and chose her new found group as "the group." We would argue this topic and I would raise what I though were some pretty valid points, such as, how do JW's justify this? How do they know that Jesus came invisibly (if he was invisible how does anyone know he came) and just happened to choose them? What do JW's think the process was? Did Jesus go check out the Catholics first, then the Lutheran's, then maybe the Baptist, so forth and so on? Did he check out every established religion on earth? As most religions at that time were probably more well established; more well organized than the JW's, it would seem if Jesus were going to pick an organization to represent him it would have been one of these. After all, the JW's (they weren't even known as JW's till 1931 I think), at this time, had just come out of a couple of failed end-of-time prediction dates (1914, 1915), and should have been condemed according to the bible, were in a good deal of disarray with Russel recently passing away in 1916 (I think), and Rutherford (when he wasn't drunk and rablerousing) running ruffshod over the remaining members of an apparent broken organization. What do present day JW's think Jesus saw in all this mess 85 years ago. Maybe he felt sorry for an organization as screwed up as it was ans would give them a chance? Maybe he though that they were still a young group and would get better with time (new light)? What???

Note. I am not trying to imply that only the JW's have stange doctrinal thoughts and ideas. Other groups certainly have their share of stange beliefs. I am specifically addressing the JW's however because I want to learn about what makes them tick. I believe they were primarily responsible for the breakup of my 20 year marriage.

Thoughts/comments

Thanks

21

Why cant JWs celebrate Holidays again?

by Mary Phooty in

what is the dumb reason behind that?

is it satanic too like horoscopes and thanksgiving?

Hondo

blondie

I am not a JW (lost my wife to them in 2003 and have since tried to learn as much as I can about them), and am probably wrong, but didn't JW's do just about everything a normal, or semi-normal, Christian would do up to 1926 or there-a-bouts? Celebrated Christmas/Easter, smoked, believed Jesus was God, could join the military, etc. In fact, weren't they know as something else other than JW's up until 1938, I think.

Thanks

100

Can you refute these?

by Mary Phooty in

1. are jesus and michael the archangel really the same person?.

one of the most peculiar of the wtss teachings is their assertion that jesus is actually michael the archangel.

" in acts 10:19-20, this "impersonal force" considers himself to be a person.

Hondo

GloFishy

Just about every group or organization in the world, from a small 3 man (or woman) run shop to, yes the catholics, the lutherans, the baptists, ...etc., etc. exhibit cultish tendancies, some more than others. The JW's just happen to exhibit just about every cultish trait known to man (identified in Steve Hassan's book, Releasing the Bonds). McDonalds's can even be labeled a cult. They exhibit more than half of the traits (Oh, how holy art thou Ronald McDonald...!!!). The Vatican has no more control over world catholics than any other large organization, religious or non-religious, has over its believers or employees. The don't shun. They don't kick someone out for smoking. They certainly allow criticism, of any doctrine (don't think the JW's allow this). I have had numerous "heated" discussions with priests on biblical doctrine vis-a-vis catholic rules and guidelines.I liked John Paul very much. I'm not sure about the new guy. So far he has not impressed me; he seems too condescending, unlike John Paul. He might grow on me, but for now, he just rubs me the wrong way.

I don't understand you statement that you were "involuntarily baptized a catholic as a baby"... Did you have a choice? Were you involuntarily fed as a baby too? Had you diapers involuntarily changed, or would you rather have done this yourself? Were you involuntarily force to go to kindergarden at age 5? or, did you have a choice? Parents, for good or bad, made your decisions for you, as they did mine. I certainly don't hold it against them. I too was baptized a catholic (I'm more of an agnostic now however, but am thinking of getting back into catholocism) and may be on some obscure listing, but I doubt it, in some, probably long gone, catholic church. I don't think my name is listed on a cultish master listing in the archives of world catholics in Rome, as you seem to imply. If it is, so what.

Take care

45

List of things banned to JWs

by AllAlongTheWatchtower in

my wife is involved with jws, and i want to find out what they believe, things they do or will not do, that i can present to her in the hope that it will convince her that the jw lifestyle is not for her.

i found out a few things already, like blood and yoga which i told her about, but she was unphased.

("i've never needed a transfusion before anyway, and besides, they told me that doctors have blood substitute now".

Hondo

AllAlongtheWatchTower

I was in your shoes a few years ago and eventually lost my wife to the JW's (we were divorced in 2003). Had I known and was able to work with her in her early stages of her "free bible study" I think I would have been able to help her come to her senses. I was in the Navy at the time, at sea quite a bit, and just was not able to sit her down and tell her the facts of life. When I was able to finally wholeheartedly confront her it was too late. In fact, the event that brought everything to a head was when she refused to go with my son, daughter, and myself to visit my family on Christmas. Her response was that she was not allowed to anymore, which just about floored me. Everything went downhill from there. Our everyday conversations were basically arguments. Where in the past were were able to chat about everyday things and events, now the things that she learned as part of her study interlaced our every conversation. Of course she tried to get me to "join the club", on several occasions, claiming that we would be a happier family if I did. We talked of all the other restrictions and banns the JW's have to endure and she pretty much had a justificatiion (the JW canned answer) for each and and every one. She was like a robot. If there was an issue that got her to think, or where she had to form her own opinion, she usually clammed up and said nothing. She literally just looked at me with a blank stare like she did not understand anything I was sayhing. When I wanted to take her to dinner (I did try to love her as much as possible during our last couple years together) on the same night as a meeting, guess what, I lost out, the meeting took priority. On one occasion I was able to talk her out of going to one of her meetings. She said she had to call someone to let them know she was not be attending. 5 seconds after she got off the phone she bolted out the door exclaiming that she was going to die, or words to this affect.

I could go on and on, but won't. I hope everything works out ok for you. There was nothing I could do to "SHOCK" my now ex-wife back to the real world. The WTS/JW's packaged and wrapped her real well. She only lives about 20 mins from me now and I see her from time-to-time. Because I'm not her husband anymore she refused to even acknowledge me if we meet on the street. It appears she will do anything they want her to do, and she looks it. The last time I saw her, about a month ago she looked like she'd aged significantly (she is 57 but looks 65). It was almost hard to recognize her.

Take care and best to you.

35

My Mother died...

by david_10 in

jw
friends

it happened one year ago today.

june 4, 2004. they say these things take time and that recovery gets easier as time goes on, and i suppose that's true.

but then again, some things leave a hole in your heart that will never go away.

Hondo

david_10

I am so very sorry to hear of your loss. My parents are fortunately alive (Dad is 85, Mom, and mother (both of them good Catholics by the way) to 14 kids (all single births), is 84). We have a good strong family, holding a family type reunion every Christmas and keep in contact with each other numerous other times during the year. I know I'm not making your grieving any better by telling you all the good things in my life, but there is so much love and friendship between all of us, I just wanted to pass it on.

I am not a JW, but have been in and out of this forum since I lost my wife to the cult (we were divorced in 2003) a few years. I am responding to you because of your speculation that your mothers involvement with the JW's may have had something to do with her death. I bring this up because I have watched my ex-wife (she only live 20 mins from me and I see her from time-to-time) grow stronger and stronger in the ways of the WTS/JW's to a point where her whole life is virtually totally dedicated to them. She joined at the rather old age of 49 years and is now 57; she is 57 but looks 65+. She has gone from being a very beautiful woman to someone well used, who is totally immersed in the JW's, to the detriment of her own well being; she is not well, but was when we were married and happy. Quite literally, the JW's are running her ragged! She will do anything for them, at the drop of a dime! After she had joined up with them, and we were still together, she was always away cleaning a kingdom hall, or running around doing other numerous things for them, like giving rides to someone who did not have a car, plus attending meeting and doing her service work. I saw very little of her, which was one of the major factors leading to our divorce. I briefly saw her the other day (we did not talk. She refuses to associate with me anymore, even on a friendly basis) and she looked very old; much older than her age. I'm sure she is still at the WTS/JW's beckon call.

Won't ramble. Just wanted to pass on my condolences again, and agree, as sad it it may seem, that I am seeing similar circumstances that, who knows, may be leading my ex-wife down a similar path as you mother. I pray not.