I wanted to bring this back up to the top for all the newbies.
This thread started out discussing Idol Meat and turned into a deep discussion on the WTS blood doctrine and a logical way to refute it.
could gentile christians eat idol meat or what?.
acts 15 says avoid things polluted by idols.. 1 cor.
8 says it's ok but for the sake of others forego it.. 1 cor.
I wanted to bring this back up to the top for all the newbies.
This thread started out discussing Idol Meat and turned into a deep discussion on the WTS blood doctrine and a logical way to refute it.
i see some posters still aren't 100% sure that the jehovah's witness religion might not be "the truth"....was there a moment when things became very clear for you regarding this religion?.
do you still think, maybe----jws aren't all that bad??
?.
Not the truth?? what are you talking about??? say it isn't so, please, just say it isn't so.
It took me some time to really believe it wasn't the truth. I was scared about being destroyed for a long time. This board and Ray Franz's books really helped me get over the hump of belief.
has any one heard the word s or somthing like them?
"we can take my car but my tank is empty.
so if you want to ride in the jw mobile all riders need to chip in.
My wife has told me that fewer people want to drive in service and that several people are carpooling to the DC and CA now. Everyone is trying to figure out how to do more with less.
The dubs have done phone and letter witnessing for years. But, in most places it always carried a laziness stigma (sorry for any who did it for real health reasons but the friends have never really respected phone and letter writing). Now, it is becoming much more mainstream.
Also, my wife told me that many more are doing informal witnessing while they're out doing errands.
She sees less and less people at the meeting for field service but everyone is still getting their time in - which means they are either liars or they're doing alternative forms of witnessing.
Just my news from the front line (well, one person back from the front line).
spoke to an elder and mentioned i had some concerns that need addressing.
he asked if it's about the organization and i answered with a simple yes.
it's something i don't want to do, but for some reason the better half thinks it's necessary, as if i need a different perspective on my research and maybe he'll be able to shed some light on my doubts.
spoke to an elder and mentioned i had some concerns that need addressing.
he asked if it's about the organization and i answered with a simple yes.
it's something i don't want to do, but for some reason the better half thinks it's necessary, as if i need a different perspective on my research and maybe he'll be able to shed some light on my doubts.
i go back and forth everyday.
one day i'm like, "suppress your gay feelings and what you think is wrong about this organization and keep going forward because you want eternal life and all of your friends are here and it's as close to the truth as it can possibly get so just deal with it.
" others i'm like, "live your life.
When I first admitted to myself that I didn't believe it was the truth anymore I panicked. I felt for sure that each major world catastrophe was going to be armageddon. As sad as it sounds I would lie awake at night during thunderstorms and be afraid that the end was coming. It was a horrible experience.
But, I realized that this was happening because I hadn't really convinced myself it wasn't the truth. I mentally knew it but my heart hadn't accepted it yet. So I began to intensely study the issues that I felt were out of whack with reality. I chose a handful of doctrines that I knew were wrong and studied them until I could convincingly explain them to others - not a believing dub though, nothing convinces them.
Studying what I felt were glaring doctrinal flaws allowewd me to see how messed up the religion really is. It has also helped me steer my kids and wife toward the exit very very very slowly (hope hope hope).
Good luck.
spoke to an elder and mentioned i had some concerns that need addressing.
he asked if it's about the organization and i answered with a simple yes.
it's something i don't want to do, but for some reason the better half thinks it's necessary, as if i need a different perspective on my research and maybe he'll be able to shed some light on my doubts.
Good luck Megawatt.
My wife wanted me to write the GB and talk with the local elders too.
I told her that there wasn't any information they could share with me that wasn't already in print - and we have access to everything in print.
She accepted my argument and dropped the subject. I think she decided it was better that I fade and be left alone than get disfellowshipped and become an activist.
Of course our carefully non-verbal agreement to this affect could topple at any time.
i made a big effort to get to the watchtower study today.
i have not been to the meetings much for months, but i figured this was a pretty historic "study" and i wanted to see reactions and how it would go down locally.
well a few things struck me as a bit odd in the study itself, and in the audience response as well.
The GB already have all the power in the organization.
It doesn't matter to them if 4,000 or 24,000 individuals partake.
They can allow 144,000 to become figurative and still make no organizational adjustments whatsoever.
while sorting through old papers and files in my closet getting ready for a move, i came across a bunch of papers and forms from bethel.
a lot of them are outlines and directions for the first few days and weeks while at bethel.
in addition, there are some typed notes from the 2002 annual meeting (the kind you're not supposed to post in the interwebz), a few letters from the gb to bethelites (mostly telling us how to dress and so forth), and some other random junk.
I believe I even have my old phone bills. I'd have to black out some numbers but it could be a good thing to have online somewhere.
I'll spend some time over the next several days looking over my crap and see what's postable.
while sorting through old papers and files in my closet getting ready for a move, i came across a bunch of papers and forms from bethel.
a lot of them are outlines and directions for the first few days and weeks while at bethel.
in addition, there are some typed notes from the 2002 annual meeting (the kind you're not supposed to post in the interwebz), a few letters from the gb to bethelites (mostly telling us how to dress and so forth), and some other random junk.
I believe I have a lot of my old forms as well.
Stuff like dish duty assignments, night watchman stuff, even a couple copies of Dwelling Together in Unity, the pre and post 1990 versions. I even saved my old bethel phone directory - it's hopelessly out of date by now. I also have some GB letters to bethelites
I'll think about blacking some stuff out and scanning it as well.