This is sad. But so true. JW love is based on conditions and that extends and includes love for your family. I have been shunned by my kids, mother, siblings and any person that I thought was a friend - being a lifer and over 50, it really leaves you at a loss when you are tossed out in the world and you have no coping skills. No friends, no family and a lot of apprehension about existing in the 'world'. It also makes you wonder why JW's should even get married and have children - their love is based only on the condition that you all remain in the 'truth'. Once that's broken so is the bond. That isn't love. Facing that is difficult.
sammielee24
JoinedPosts by sammielee24
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20
Exit from the JWs
by KAYTEE inmy exit from the jws, was roughly as follows-
our final letter to the congregation was in the form of a resignation.
we made at least 15 to 20 copies and sent the majority of them to so-called friends, 2 days later we sent the original to the body of elders.
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Who can and can't a JW sit next to at the hall?
by JH in.
there are so many unwritten laws, but most witnesses know when it's wrong to sit next to someone.. name a few cases, when it's ok to sit next to someone, and when it's not ok?
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sammielee24
I never ran into this before - did it happen to you?
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Karma
by sammielee24 innow that you aren't in the society, do you feel like there is karmic influence at work in your life?
or do you at the very least recognize it?
i think a great many of us sitting in the kh chairs were without a doubt pharisiacal hyprocites, judging and condemning while not comprehending the unrighteousness of our actions toward others at the time.
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sammielee24
Now that you aren't in the society, do you feel like there is karmic influence at work in your life? Or do you at the very least recognize it? I think a great many of us sitting in the KH chairs were without a doubt pharisiacal hyprocites, judging and condemning while not comprehending the unrighteousness of our actions toward others at the time. Hard to admit but being a servant of the Watchtower means prejudice and apathy at so many levels and acting on those things in order to elevate ourselves to a higher status we were guilty of such poor behaviour. On the outside we have the ability to accept others and live embracing hope and joy instead of fear and guilt. Do you now believe that instead of karma being a thought of satan, that it truly does exist in the promoting, sharing and receiving of good thoughts and deeds toward others and that in turn, not only will you have God in your life but that your positive energy will be returned to you tenfold?
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Divorcing
by sammielee24 in.
how many people know of someone in the truth that committed adultery for the sole purpose of divorcing?
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sammielee24
When you heard people tell you this was the reason for them committing a sin, what were your thoughts? Was a typical JW twist of 'Jehovah would have taken care of it'?....if Witnesses would only THINK...I mean, if fornication = divorce and is the only absolute way to remove yourself from that life then we now force people to commit sins. Then to add to that whole issue is the issue of scriptural divorce - the JW notion that the innocent party must marry first or else the other party is forever guilty of adultery if he/she engages in another relationship. Very interesting but pathetically stupid path toward righteousness when people move around a lot - therefore, the innocent party decides to screw someone or marry another person without the other person knowing so that poor fool spends the rest of his/her days alone and miserable - all in the name of what? ...oh..and then there's the 2 witness rule to that scenario thrown in for good measure.....
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Divorcing
by sammielee24 in.
how many people know of someone in the truth that committed adultery for the sole purpose of divorcing?
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sammielee24
How many people know of someone in the Truth that committed adultery for the sole purpose of divorcing?
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DF'ing: Why shun child, but not spouse?
by AlmostAtheist inthe bible has precious little to say about shunning.
write a scripture on each finger and you'll still have one clean hand.. but the watchtower has managed to read into it a myriad (are non-jw's allowed to say "myriad"?
) of rules about who to shun, how much, under what circumstances, etc.. one that caught me sideways a day or so ago was the fact that a wife with a df'd husband doesn't have to shun him.
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sammielee24
There's no scriptural basis for any of it but the 'reasoning' is that the spouse has to return home and the children do not. (the word reasoning is used tongue in cheek since quite obviously any JW has lost the ability to function in this manner)
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WT speaks out on phone sex!! LOL!
by rebel8 ini was reading the "mobile phone" thread and then found the article below on the official wt web site.
i'm surprised they don't tell people to empty the garbage and polish their shoes when they get horny rather than engage in phone sex.
why the wt feels the need to comment on these topics is really beyond me, but it's good for a laugh.. http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2004/2/22b/article_01.htm.
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sammielee24
Phone Sex was a disfellowshipping offence when I left a year ago. When the CO told us this, we were told that it was considered a practice if it was done only once and therefore, the practice became a disfellowshipping offence. There was never anything said publicly at that time so anyone doing it never knew they could be disfellowshipped for it.
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607 Again!
by sammielee24 ini am trying to prove that jeruselum fell in 586/87 thereby making the witness date of 607 an error.
i sent my jw sister in law the chart of dates that prove chronologically the date of 607 is wrong using the insight book and the babylon book.
i told her i was 'troubled' by this find and asked her to help me out by showing me where i can find proof in the literature that would line up with these dates.
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sammielee24
Thanks...I'm exhausted trying to prove a point to a Witness when to my way of thinking, they should be the ones who should prove it to me! Let's face it, if service is showing love and that's the whole focus of their existence - bringing we non believers into their trooth - then they should be able to prove and without a doubt, their doctrines and reasoning. I just get frustrated banging my head up against a cult door but if I don't try, I get just as frustrated because what good is knowledge if you don't use it to expand and enlighten, debate and discuss. I will be going to the library tomorrow to look for the book....
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607 Again!
by sammielee24 ini am trying to prove that jeruselum fell in 586/87 thereby making the witness date of 607 an error.
i sent my jw sister in law the chart of dates that prove chronologically the date of 607 is wrong using the insight book and the babylon book.
i told her i was 'troubled' by this find and asked her to help me out by showing me where i can find proof in the literature that would line up with these dates.
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sammielee24
I am trying to prove that Jeruselum fell in 586/87 thereby making the Witness date of 607 an error. I sent my JW sister in law the chart of dates that prove chronologically the date of 607 is wrong using the Insight book and the Babylon book. I told her I was 'troubled' by this find and asked her to help me out by showing me where I can find proof in the literature that would line up with these dates. Her response was to instruct me to read the KC book and the Insight book again - the chapter below was her instruction. I'm getting really ticked off right now and really frustrated - anyone have any ideas on how I can respond on this? grrrrrrr.................
*** kc 188-9 Appendix to Chapter 14 *** Yet those who rely primarily on secular information for the chronology of that period realize that if Jerusalem were destroyed in 587/6 B.C.E. certainly it was not 70 years until Babylon was conquered and Cyrus let the Jews return to their homeland. In an attempt to harmonize matters, they claim that Jeremiah’s prophecy began to be fulfilled in 605 B.C.E. Later writers quote Berossus as saying that after the battle of Carchemish Nebuchadnezzar extended Babylonian influence into all Syria-Palestine and, when returning to Babylon (in his accession year, 605 B.C.E.), he took Jewish captives into exile. Thus they figure the 70 years as a period of servitude to Babylon beginning in 605 B.C.E. That would mean that the 70-year period would expire in 535 B.C.E.
But there are a number of major problems with this interpretation:
Though Berossus claims that Nebuchadnezzar took Jewish captives in his accession year, there are no cuneiform documents supporting this. More significantly, Jeremiah 52:28-30 carefully reports that Nebuchadnezzar took Jews captive in his seventh year, his 18th year and his 23rd year, not his accession year. Also, Jewish historian Josephus states that in the year of the battle of Carchemish Nebuchadnezzar conquered all of Syria-Palestine “excepting Judea,” thus contradicting Berossus and conflicting with the claim that 70 years of Jewish servitude began in Nebuchadnezzar’s accession year.— Antiquities of the Jews X, vi, 1.
Furthermore, Josephus elsewhere describes the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and then says that “all Judea and Jerusalem, and the temple, continued to be a desert for seventy years.” ( Antiquities of the Jews X, ix, 7) He pointedly states that “our city was desolate during the interval of seventy years, until the days of Cyrus.” ( Against Apion I, 19) This agrees with 2 Chronicles 36:21 and Daniel 9:2 that the foretold 70 years were 70 years of full desolation for the land. Second-century (C.E.) writer Theophilus of Antioch also shows that the 70 years commenced with the destruction of the temple after Zedekiah had reigned 11 years.—See also 2 Kings 24:18–25:21.
But the Bible itself provides even more telling evidence against the claim that the 70 years began in 605 B.C.E. and that Jerusalem was destroyed in 587/6 B.C.E. As mentioned, if we were to count from 605 B.C.E., the 70 years would reach down to 535 B.C.E. However, the inspired Bible writer Ezra reported that the 70 years ran until “the first year of Cyrus the king of Persia,” who issued a decree allowing the Jews to return to their homeland. (Ezra 1:1-4; 2 Chronicles 36:21-23) Historians accept that Cyrus conquered Babylon in October 539 B.C.E. and that Cyrus’ first regnal year began in the spring of 538 B.C.E. If Cyrus’ decree came late in his first regnal year, the Jews could easily be back in their homeland by the seventh month (Tishri) as Ezra 3:1 says; this would be October 537 B.C.E.
However, there is no reasonable way of stretching Cyrus’ first year from 538 down to 535 B.C.E. Some who have tried to explain away the problem have in a strained manner claimed that in speaking of “the first year of Cyrus” Ezra and Daniel were using some peculiar Jewish viewpoint that differed from the official count of Cyrus’ reign. But that cannot be sustained, for both a non-Jewish governor and a document from the Persian archives agree that the decree occurred in Cyrus’ first year, even as the Bible writers carefully and specifically reported.—Ezra 5:6, 13; 6:1-3; Daniel 1:21; 9:1-3.
Jehovah’s “good word” is bound up with the foretold 70-year period, for God said:
“This is what Jehovah has said, ‘In accord with the fulfilling of seventy years at Babylon I shall turn my attention to you people, and I will establish toward you my good word in bringing you back to this place.’” (Jeremiah 29:10)
Daniel relied on that word, trusting that the 70 years were not a ‘round number’ but an exact figure that could be counted on. (Daniel 9:1, 2) And that proved to be so.
Similarly, we are willing to be guided primarily by God’s Word rather than by a chronology that is based principally on secular evidence or that disagrees with the Scriptures. It seems evident that the easiest and most direct understanding of the various Biblical statements is that the 70 years began with the complete desolation of Judah after Jerusalem was destroyed. (Jeremiah 25:8-11; 2 Chronicles 36:20-23; Daniel 9:2) Hence, counting back 70 years from when the Jews returned to their homeland in 537 B.C.E., we arrive at 607 B.C.E. for the date when Nebuchadnezzar, in his 18th regnal year, destroyed Jerusalem, removed Zedekiah from the throne and brought to an end the Judean line of kings on a throne in earthly Jerusalem.—Ezekiel 21:19-27.
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The Bible Fraud
by sammielee24 inhas anyone read the bible fraud?
it looked like an interesting read and just wondered if any of you read it and what you thought of it.
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sammielee24
Thanks for that link - I haven't read the Da Vinci Code as of yet but the Truth and Fiction sounds more interesting. The Bible Fraud may be far fetched, but it too sounds interesting as far as the man who wrote it spent 12 years full time on the research. There is a web site which is I think www.thebiblefraud.com
The book is written by Tony Bushby and it apparently has recorded the genealogy of Jesus and the coverup in the early church in regards to the written documents of his life.