Posts by NowImFree

43

What do you believe now?

by NowImFree in

i have been out of the jws officially for over 3 years now, since disassociating.

after researching the history of the organization and reading the bible (without) the watchtower, i am now a christian.

i am just curious what happens to most ex-jws as far as their beliefs go, after they leave the organization.

NowImFree

Doofdaddy,

A dollop of James Thomas? Funny!

NowImFree

17

Who's name are Christians persecuted for?

by NowImFree in

i have had the following realization before, but it just hit me again last night.

i am reading this book called daughters of hope, it is about christians being persecuted around the world and their stories.

in reading this book last night, it hit me again, all these people were being persecuted and killed for the name of jesus, not jehovah.

I have had the following realization before, but it just hit me again last night. I am reading this book called Daughters of Hope, it is about Christians being persecuted around the world and their stories. Some of the most horrible stories are from North Africa, Sudan and the middle east. Anyway, the thing that always amazes me, is that in the new testament, it says that Christians would be killed and persecuted because of the name of Jesus. Jesus himself said this would happen and that it would be because of HIS name and following HIM that God's people would be persecuted. In reading this book last night, it hit me again, all these people were being persecuted and killed for the name of Jesus, not Jehovah. Over and over again, these stories talk about people being told to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ or else.

How come I never saw the discrepancy with the JW beliefs? Did anyone else not see this glaring difference until they got out or am I the only stupid one that didn't notice this major item until later?

NowImFree

64

The other sheep: Looking for an apologist to offer an explanation

by IP_SEC in

a verse constantly plucked from context by witnesses is john 10:16. they use it to prove that there are two classes of christian.. and i have other sheep i have other sheep, which are not of this fold: those also i must bring and they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock, one shepherd.. the this fold say witnesses are anointed christians and the other sheep are christians with an earthly hope.. read the text carefully and in context, and i challenge anyone to be able to prove that.. in chapter 9 jesus heals a man born blind.

this infuriates the pharisees who then attack the healed man and threaten him with being expelled from the synagogue.

the man will not recant and is thrown out.. jesus finds him and asks him to be his follower.

NowImFree

When I started researching the organization and really reading the bible, this jumped out at me, that the two flocks becoming one flock under Jesus as the one Sheperd were Jews and Gentiles. It is very clear in scripture. And to top it all off, the bible says the two flocks will become ONE. So why do the JWs say there are two separate flocks with two separate destinations? Their teaching makes absolutely no sense to me, which is why I'm out.

NowImFree

15

LETTER I got from somebody who read my story on FREE MINDS

by Terry in

jw
friends

to: [email protected].

sent: sat, 14 jan 2006 08:44:47 -0800 (pst).

subject: your article on freeminds.

NowImFree

You know, I feel sorry for that JW. I have to remember that I was blind too. It is the fault of the Watchtower leadership, most of the members are either thoroughly deceived, or they see big problems but don't know where to turn if they leave. My mother is similar, she knows they are so wrong about so many things but she thinks the light will keep getting brighter. She doesn't know where else to turn so she sticks with them. I on the other hand, was thoroughly deceived, I believed pretty much what ever they said. I can't believe now that I was so gullible.

NowImFree

43

What do you believe now?

by NowImFree in

i have been out of the jws officially for over 3 years now, since disassociating.

after researching the history of the organization and reading the bible (without) the watchtower, i am now a christian.

i am just curious what happens to most ex-jws as far as their beliefs go, after they leave the organization.

NowImFree

By the way, how do I correct a spelling error once I have posted. I just noticed I spelled poll as pole. Oops. But how do I correct it?

Thanks,

NowImFree

43

What do you believe now?

by NowImFree in

i have been out of the jws officially for over 3 years now, since disassociating.

after researching the history of the organization and reading the bible (without) the watchtower, i am now a christian.

i am just curious what happens to most ex-jws as far as their beliefs go, after they leave the organization.

NowImFree

I have been out of the JWs officially for over 3 years now, since disassociating. After researching the history of the organization and reading the bible (without) the Watchtower, I am now a Christian. I am just curious what happens to most ex-JWs as far as their beliefs go, after they leave the organization. How many become Christian? How many become atheists, pagans, agnostics, other non-christian religions such as eastern religions, muslim, etc. What do you believe? This is just kind of my own pole because I have been wondering about this ever since I left the JWs.

NowImFree

26

"Misquoting Jesus" - New Book by Ehrman

by sir82 in

this book was just published in the last month or so, i'm about 1/2 of the way through it.. the author describes the difficulty in discerning what exactly really were the original, right-from-the-pen words of the original writers of the new testament.

basically, the oldest surviving manuscripts were written decades, in some cases centuries, after the originals.

all copies were made by hand by untrained amateur copyists for the first 3 centuries after the books were written (until professional scribes started copying).. by comparing the thousands of ancient hand-copied manuscripts that still exist, there have been found anywhere from 200,000 to 400,000 distinct errors in the copying process.

NowImFree

I'm going out on a limb here, being totally honest about what happened to me. I have always believed in God since I was a little kid. I was raised as a JW and in my late 30's I started seeing things in the organization that just didn't seem right to me. Something just didn't "feel" right. I had been on and off inactive and the whole child molestation scandal really shocked me. It was then that I really started asking God to show me in his word if I really had the "truth" or not, and if I was believing the correct teachings about Jesus. I totally thought that by reading the bible, it would solidify my faith in JW teachings. Instead, the bible exploded everything I had ever believed. I now believe the bible more than I ever did as a JW because the more I read it, the more I realized that it is supernatural. When I would ask God to help me understand something or to show me the answer on something, the next time I would open up my bible, the answer would be right there. People can say over and over again, that these things were all just coincidences, but this happened to me over and over and over. I tell people that the bible is what deprogrammed me and got me out of the JW organization. I am now a Christian and no human taught me, the Holy Spirit taught me, my conversion happened strictly from reading the bible. Also, I know that I feel different when I read the bible. I never felt that way when I read the Watchtower literature, even though I thought I should feel that way when I read their stuff. It is hard to put into words, but I really believe based on my own experience, that God's Spirit is present in his word. This may sound dumb to most of you but Sir82 sincerely asked what makes us have faith so I had to tell my story, even if alot of you don't believe.

NowImFree

29

a look to Isaiah.

by mdb in

thus says the lord [yhwh], the king of israel,.

and his redeemer, the lord [yhwh] of hosts:.

besides me there is no god.. isaiah 44:6. how many persons are speaking in isaiah 44:6?

NowImFree

But Star,

How do you explain the things I mentioned? If you believe the bible, how do you explain that the same titles that are applied to Jehovah in the old testament are applied to Jesus, like Creator, Savior, First and Last, etc? Just curious.

NowImFree

29

a look to Isaiah.

by mdb in

thus says the lord [yhwh], the king of israel,.

and his redeemer, the lord [yhwh] of hosts:.

besides me there is no god.. isaiah 44:6. how many persons are speaking in isaiah 44:6?

NowImFree

I have a question for those of you who do not believe in the deity of Christ. Don't you think it is possible, since the Watchtower Organization has lied and deceived it's members about sooooooooooo many things, that the greatest lie of all would be for them to mislead people about the identity of Christ? Doesn't it seem strange to you that they don't allow all their "believers" to take communion? Doesn't it seem strange to you that their members are not "allowed" to call on the Savior for salvation? Think about it, I mean really think about what is going on there.

Thank about the fact that both Jehovah in the old testament and Jesus in the new testament are called creator. They are both called Savior. Jehovah in the old testament says he is the ONLY Savior. In the old testament, it says every knee will bow before Jehovah. In the new testament is says every knee will bow before Jesus and confess him as Lord. They are both called the First and the Last. They are both called King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In the new testament it talks about being filled with the spirit of God and the spirit of Christ in the same paragraph. It says of them both that their kingdom will never end and they will rule as King for ever and ever. They are both called Mighty God, yes Jehovah is called Mighty God also in the old testament. If there is only one true God and Jehovah in the old testament says there is none like him and no other Gods forms before him or after him, how can Jesus be called God in various places? Does that mean he is a lower god when there is only one true God. He would either have to be a false god or he wouold have to be one with Jehovah, which only makes sense by understanding the Trinity or that God has manifested himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Nothing else makes sense. How can their be all these parallels, what was he trying to show us? The mystery is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus calling himself Son of Man and Son of God was him showing that he was both human and Divine united, the one and only unique Son. The same substance as the Father, indivisible from the Father. It is hard to understand but if you think about the fact that the bible says Jesus emptied himself and made himself NOTHING, leaving all his glory behind. He had to come in the form of a servant and fulfill the law in order to set us free. In order to fulfill the law, he had to submit to the Father in order to be a perfect human sacrifice and set us free from the power of sin and the curse of the law and condemnation.

Sorry to ramble, I love talking about this.

The JWs deceive in the ultimate way.

NowImFree

18

What does "born again" mean?

by Country Girl in

to most of the people on here, the term "born again" reminds them of fanatical christians who try to impose their beliefs on all other people, have an agenda (which is sometimes co-mixed with politics), and want to convert the rest of the world.

to me, born again is of a different nature.

it's different from my understanding of it as a jehovah's witness, and it's different from my understanding of it as a baptist.

NowImFree

Hi Country Girl,

I am fairly new here within the last week or so, but your post interested me. Since leaving the JWs I too consider myself a born again Christian, but I don't always say that phrase. It turns a lot of people off because of people like Pat Robertson and Bush who wear their "christianity" like some kind of political flag. That totally turns me off too, it embarrasses me and I don't want to be connected to that type of christianity at all.

For me, being born again meant turning everything over to Christ, my sin, my problems, everything and realizing that I could never pay for my sins or do enough to save myself, I knew it was only through him, not my own efforts. I had a complete change in authority, my authority used to be the Watchtower Org, now my authority is Christ. It was very freeing and gave me a peace like I never knew as a JW. When I was a JW, I always felt like I was never good enough, like I could never do enough, be perfect enough to satisfy their God that "they" have made. None of them are good enough, most JWs feel condemmed, that is why so many are so depressed, I was one of them. I was always terrified of Armaggedon because I never thought I would be good enough to make it through it. And if I did make it through, I started getting more and more depressed about being a JW forever. It sounded alot like slavery, it certainly didn't sound like heaven on earth when you really thought about it. I used to think about a world full of kingdom halls, with all of the elders being "princes" when most of them were so cold and arrogant. And of course, there is the huge mess we would all have to clean up and the birds would have to eat all the dead bodies. It sounded more like hell on earth to me the more I thought about it. But I am rambling, sorry. Anyway, to me being born again is a faith that doesn't leave you, it is a spiritual birth, it is not a religion. It is feeling like Christ is with you and in your soul, which is very hard to explain to anyone that has not experienced this. And one of the evidences of this birth is love for your fellow man and reaching out and really loving people like Christ did, unconditionally. I did not see this type of love in the Watchtower, I did not see that self sacrificing type of love or that unconditional type of love so I started to see that they were not really followers of Jesus. I have seen that in many people outside of the organization though, people the organization would call "worldy". I would want them as friends any day.

NowImFree