few weeks ago, i invited my jws daughter for a formal dinner.
i asked her to bring her closest jws friends, including an elder from her kh.. i let her know that i didn't have any hidden agenda on my part.. that i just wanted to have a good time with her and that i wanted to honor her friends.. she asked me how many she could invite; i said no more than six.. she invited three.
like i said, including an elder.. my husband cooked a delicious meal for them... but just two days before the event, i started to get 'cold feet'.
"so they can start thinking, "after all, the worldly people are not monsters".
So very true. If some one left the congregation, everyone including me used to think that they were going away to practise some dark sin .
I have since come to realise that people are just people, mostly nice whatever their belief
the 144,000 must all be selected first!
in another thread, entitled the ransom paid, its author raised a most important question -- a question that surely every person ought to be determined to know the answer to.
im posting this also as a reply in that thread, but i feel that its such an important issue that the answer (as i see it) be given the widest publicity possible here on this forum.
AGUEST.
Stop making it up as you go along... Anyone can fantasize.
Friday
quote:
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I personally don't think that any women were ever chosen. Only males will be priests and kings with Jesus, even as the priests of Israel were always men.
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Come on ! you are contradicting the basic teaching of the WTBTS , whom I suppose you believe to be the faithful and discreet slave, and you discount the named women in the Greek scriptures , some of whom showed "Gifts of the Holy Spirit", and all those sisters prior to 1935
You are just not making sense.
i have been reading all the stuff i see on this place for a while.
i am a jehovahs witness in good standing in my congregation.
i just need to come on in here and ask for a little advice from anyone who might know what i am feeling.
MBST, hello and welcome.
Like others I am not convinced that you are genuine.If you are a sincere dub , I guess you wold talk to the elders
But lets give the benefit of any doubt, and I apologise if I have misrepresented you.
Anyone that has gwown up in the "Truth" as we did, cannot imagine anything else . To deny it is like denying Newton's law of gravity or other established facts . But you have to stop and think. Yes THINK. Imagine you heard it for the first time. Clear your mind , be brave enough to think the unthinkable
The WT doctrines then seem crass, ungodly and founded on thin air and broken promises
PS read Crisis of Conscience by Raymond Franz
hello everone who clicked into this message.. well, my story is pretty much about "shaken faith".
to keep this short, my mother died in 1990, leaving behind 5 children.
therefore, my aunt marilyn waldron took all 5 of us into her home, and together with her son, raymond, we became her 6 children.
Hello Rashawn
I am moved by your story , it reads like something that should not happen in this day and age. good luck and take now.
what an interesting group here!
i have a question to toss out to those of you who were once active jw's that are now born again.. i was a "zealous" jw - raised as one and was an aux pioneer, etc.
my whole family is jw's (elders, etc.).
Lets put a word in for Christianity.
it is the message that has moved mankind above all others. I believe that is truth,, Why? because it makes sense ,it is a beautiful concept that stikes chord with me . So yes, it is my choice and I have to stand by my own judgement. At the end of the day that is what we all do . The atheist sees nature as a triumph of evolution, I see it as a wonder of creation - a personal choice decision.
If Dawn is happy and fulfilled in her new church, then fine! I am sure Christ is satisfied with her worship. I could never trust any one organisation that said it had the exclusive hold on salvation.. not again!
it was great.. me and my freinds + brother stood at the back with our dffd freind talking, smiling and laughing at the po.. we then went to the pub, and go drunk.. brill.. josephus
I gave one once. It was not my best talk, I was a bit nervous , the occassion of it all and I had had to spend the build up time talking to attendants,arranging car parks etc . I did try and put something into it . I tried to emhasise the MEANING, rather than the actual record of what happened and the dire warning of taking an emblem, that seems to take up most of the outline.
That was in the early 1990's , I dont know if it has been updated since then.
now i understand completely that most in this forum are 100% against jws and the watchtower.
what i don't understand is the disrespect that has been shown for such a sacred occasion that is the memorial (last supper).
whether you agree with jws or not, the fact is that the last supper has a lot of meaning for christians.
O K, I admit that I went to the memorial , same as ever and some thought the numbers were down . I went to please my wife , no other reason, and I do not see anything wrong with that.
I accept that board covers all shades of opinion and I also believe that the Christ is broadshouldered enough to take insults without my having to get upset about it. Personally I do believe deeply in the teachings of Jesus and therfore the meaning of his death. I spent most of the meeting reading scriptures of what Jesus said rather than the listening to the speaker.
Let's keep the free speech alive.
sharon like her sister janet was also raised a jw.
she left the religion three years ago just about the same time as robert and janet.
her husband is not a jw but did attend the occasional meeting.
Words are insufficient when one reads of the trauma and tragedy that you have experienced. But may I add my own indequate expression of love and heartfelt sympathy.
We are all with you and, as you are reported as saying, you cannot help feeling for that man driven to despair and with no one he felt able to talk to.
If you want to join us on the board, we are hear to listen.
dear post reader.... i was that young and pretty sister you may have seen...the one with "all those kids".
the one who stuggled to raise her children alone.
the one who was rarely considered as "wife material" because she was "damaged goods".
Anne Marie,
I really wish that I could deny that the type of elder you describe exists, but I cannot. It is all too typical of the blinkered, unloving,ham fisted individuals who sit on commitees today.
I am so very sorry - and my heart goes out to you and I salute your courage.
"I tell you this because I had to learn what every departing witness has to learn...that our lives DO depend on Jehovah. That His son, Jesus, died for us and is our mediator, and means of salvation; not man, or an organization"
Well said... keep posting..
how do you cope?
i don't even vaguely remember.
i've been browsing through some more pln threads, and they all have one aspect in common - they are so empty.
I know this thread seemed to end a couple of days ago, but I must say how perfectly the post captured the life of a J W
Everything has to be said in the W T speak. Behind a painted smile.
Even at elders meetings one was never able to speak ones mind naturally. My wife says sometimes now when I reminice "Why didnt you tell them .........! . I say"Its just not like that"! you have to be theocratic.
To speak your mind and criticize an article would be "Independant thinking". If it does not make sense "Just wait a while and the spirit will make it clear" and if you entertain the idea enough you come to accept it ...
You're right about this board, sometimes rough, sometimes silly, but alive!.. and some absolute gems from real live people!!
