Posts by NowImFree

16

Another Milestone - Christmas Eve Services.

by AK - Jeff in

headed out the door and looking forward to it.. jeff .

NowImFree

Hi Jeff,

I was raised as a JW and just disassociated about 4 years ago because I figured out they are liars. I was really nervous the first time I went to a church service and was very pleasantly surprized. It was more uplifting and spiritual than anything I had ever experienced at the KH. And the first Christmas service I went too made me very emotional, I pretty much cried throughout the whole thing. I still do. Same with the Easter celebration as it was all focused on Christ's victory and rescurrection and it was actually an amazing celebration. People were really singing and cheering, it was actually joyful. I never saw anything remotely close to a joyful celebration at the KH. All churches and church services are definitely nothing like what the Watchtower accuses them of being. It was very eye opening.

NowImFree

22

Is the Watchtower really this decietful? Say it aint so. Really?

by icocer in

i found this page that list what they believe are their top 10 deceptive quotes in the "should you believe in the trinity" booklet.

the site is trinitarian.

my itention is not to prove or disporve the trinity, it is to find out if the watchtower is really this decietful.

NowImFree

Yes, I found this out too. They are really that deceptive. I realized when I researched the Trinity brochure that their "mistakes" could not have been unintentional, the stuff was so blatant and twisted. There is the page in the Trinity brochure that supposedly quotes the early church fathers and also quotes in the middle of the page that "none of the early church fathers believed in the concept of the Trinity". Well, then I actually looked up the actual writings and quotes from the early church father's writings and I couldn't believe what I found out. The Trinity brochure had totally misquoted them, or left sections out to make it sound like they were talking about one thing when they were actually talking about something else. And these church fathers are dead so of course they can't defend themselves, and the Watchtower must think most JWs will never research and they are right, most will just take what they print at face value. Another thing they do just like someone already mentioned, they use quotes from people who are anti-Christian or anti-Trinity and then they (Watchtower) represents these people they are quoting as orthodox, which is a total lie.

The Watchtower also makes it very difficult to figure out where they get their information and quotes, they are so sneaky. Their footnotes are pretty much non-existent so they make it really difficult to figure out where they are quoting from.

It was after researching the Trinity brochure that I realized the depth of the Watchtower's deception and I pretty much couldn't get out of the organization fast enough.

NowImFree

37

Scriptures the Org never quotes in talks or publications.

by wanderlustguy in

i just read a post today that caught my attention, and gave me an idea.. name off some scriptures the society rarely or never quotes and the subject they pertain to.. job 1, 1-3 and job 3, 1-5, birthdays..

NowImFree

Oh wow, you are right about Ezekiel 23:20. I never knew that existed and it's pretty graphic let me tell you.

NowImFree

37

Scriptures the Org never quotes in talks or publications.

by wanderlustguy in

i just read a post today that caught my attention, and gave me an idea.. name off some scriptures the society rarely or never quotes and the subject they pertain to.. job 1, 1-3 and job 3, 1-5, birthdays..

NowImFree

dvw,

What in the heck are you talking about, that is hilarious, but if it's actually in the bible, I will be shocked.

NowImFree

17

The JW fall campaign about false religion

by NowImFree in

i just wanted to find out if any of you have had strange experiences confronting jw family members about this brochure.

i am asking because there have been two case of child molestation in my family both perpetrated by jw elder's sons and then covered up.

we have also had a suicide in my family - my oldest brother killed himself after been disfellowshiped and shunned for years.

NowImFree

Does anyone have a scan of it? I had seen it on here I think a while back but I can't find it now and for anyone who hasn't seen it, they may want too. And if someone posts it and you look at it, then go over to the Silent Lambs website which I think is www.silentlambs.org or something similar and you will see how hypocritical the JW brochure is. Silent Lambs is the organization lead by a former JW elder who is fighting against the Watchtower's cover up of child molestation for anyone on here who doesn't know about them. Their website is very interesting and helpful. Our story is posted on their site, under the personal experiences tab at the top of the site, and then under abused lamb stories. Our story is a few stories down signed Anonymous in Illinois. Anyway, after being in my family and experiencing this stuff first hand, this new JW brochure makes me want to throw up. Sorry, but I'm fuming about it, wouldn't you be?

NowImFree

17

The JW fall campaign about false religion

by NowImFree in

i just wanted to find out if any of you have had strange experiences confronting jw family members about this brochure.

i am asking because there have been two case of child molestation in my family both perpetrated by jw elder's sons and then covered up.

we have also had a suicide in my family - my oldest brother killed himself after been disfellowshiped and shunned for years.

NowImFree

I agree Avidbiblereader. There are bad apples and bad policies in all groups, we all have to look at ourselves instead of others. I have heard many church leaders admit they have made mistakes and admit they made some bad decisions, but I haven't really heard any humility coming out of the Watchtower. For those of us who have been victims and who have had family members abused or dead because of their policies, we need to warn others.

NowImFree

17

The JW fall campaign about false religion

by NowImFree in

i just wanted to find out if any of you have had strange experiences confronting jw family members about this brochure.

i am asking because there have been two case of child molestation in my family both perpetrated by jw elder's sons and then covered up.

we have also had a suicide in my family - my oldest brother killed himself after been disfellowshiped and shunned for years.

NowImFree

Hi Woodsman,

I know, it angered me almost as much as when I saw the Dateline program about JWs and their cover up of child molestation. The brochure also says something about how other religions don't promote happy families or some garbage like that. I couldn't believe it when I read that considering all the shunning that has gone on in my family and the family members that have not spoken in years due to the JW beliefs. As I mentioned at the beginning, my brother is dead from suicide and I totally believe that if he had had his family - mom, brother and sisters to support him when his wife was leaving him, he may be alive today. Instead he had nobody and he was shunned by my mother, brother and sister for years, they had not spoken. And even though I had not gotten baptized yet as a JW, because my family told me it was the "loving" thing to do, I didn't talk to him much either. After his death we all felt horrible, but now that I have left the JWs, my sister is totally shunning me as we;;, my brother will only talk to me about family business and my mother, bless her, is rebelling against the Watchtower Organization and talks to me even though she's not really supposed to. But she talks to me because of her guilt about my brother, at least she learned something.

But for the Watchtower to accuse other religions of not promoting happy families when they themselves have promoted and caused so much pain and ruined families is apalling.

NowImFree

17

The JW fall campaign about false religion

by NowImFree in

i just wanted to find out if any of you have had strange experiences confronting jw family members about this brochure.

i am asking because there have been two case of child molestation in my family both perpetrated by jw elder's sons and then covered up.

we have also had a suicide in my family - my oldest brother killed himself after been disfellowshiped and shunned for years.

NowImFree

I asked my mother how she could even hand that thing out to people knowing what she knows, I tried to say it in a nice way but she knew exactly what I was getting at. She didn't respond when I asked her that. I was just trying to get her to think about the hypocrisy of it. She then said "well, the organization isn't covering up child molestation anymore, they have changed their ways". I said no they haven't, they still use the two witness rule to get out of reporting cases or molestation, and even if they had changed their ways, due to all the recent scandals, they definitely have no right to judge any other organization or denomination. If you look at Silent Lambs website, there were more JW molestation scandals coming to light during the JW campaign than I have ever seen in a 1 month period. I personally think that was God's timing to bring all these JW molestation cases to light during the false religion campaign as a wake up call to JWs who may not be completely blind. Thanks for your responses, it sounds like a lot of JWs are uncomfortable/embarrassed about this brochure.

NowImFree

17

The JW fall campaign about false religion

by NowImFree in

i just wanted to find out if any of you have had strange experiences confronting jw family members about this brochure.

i am asking because there have been two case of child molestation in my family both perpetrated by jw elder's sons and then covered up.

we have also had a suicide in my family - my oldest brother killed himself after been disfellowshiped and shunned for years.

NowImFree

I just wanted to find out if any of you have had strange experiences confronting JW family members about this brochure. I am asking because there have been two case of child molestation in my family both perpetrated by JW elder's sons and then covered up. We have also had a suicide in my family - my oldest brother killed himself after been disfellowshiped and shunned for years. My family has had soooooo many terribles things happen and it has been so disfunctional, many of the disfunctions come from some members being JWs and other not, or due to some family members leaving the JWs. Anyway, I confronted my JW mother about the shameless hypocrisy of the "End of False Relgion is Near" campaign. I let her know that I knew all about how the brochure condems other religions as covering up child molestation and condems other religions for causing family problems. This is a huge example of the pot calling the kettle black. At first she looked at me with a blank stare and did not want to acknowledge the brochure, then when she knew that I really knew about it, she basically looked at her feet, looking very embarrassed. I could tell that she knew how hypocritical it is and she was ashamed by it. I also have a friend who is an X JW and she is married to a JW elder. She also confronted him about the brochure and he too, was embarrassed and didn't want to talk about it.

What kind of reactions have you had? Have any of you had similar reactions?

NowImFree

23

How did you come to be a Christian?

by BlackSwan of Memphis in

jw
friends

obviously this goes out for the christians on the board regardless of denomination or lack thereof as the case may be.. why am i asking?.

i'm just curious.. i'm always asking myself, "what the hay am i missing?".

i know what the bible says.

NowImFree

Thanks for asking. I am a Christian which happened around the time I disassocated from the organization about 4 years ago. I find it completely, completely different than being a JW and I proved to myself through research that the JWs did tell many lies about Christianity. Don't get me wrong, there are true Christians and false Christians and good and bad churches too. There is no perfect church or perfect people and I don't really feel like I am in a "religion" the way I was when I was a JW. This is more like a faith because my ultimate guide and authority is Christ. When I was a JW, even though I didn't realize it, my ultimate guide was the religion itself. Sure, there are Christians who are more interested in being followers of men than Christ, just like the JWs follow men. But I also know many Christians who's real faith is in Christ. That is the truth I found, only in Christ himself. I do believe he is God, in flesh. I found way to many parellels between Jehovah of the old testament and Jesus, but I had to really dig to find all the parallels. Once I did, I was shocked about how I had missed all of them while I was a JW, but they shy away from all those parallels of course. Some scriptures seems to point to his manhood, and some point to his divinity, but when I came to believe he was both and had to humble himself leaving his glory behind in order to be the perfect human sacrifice, it started to make sense to me.

I have received flack from alot of people who do not believe. It seems like a lot of ex JWs on the boards either lump Christianity in with the JWs or they believe what the JWs said about Christianity. Or they don't believe the bible anymore. That's OK, everyone is entitled to their opinion and beliefs, I just wish that some wouldn't seem angry or sarcastic that I do believe because I don't do that to them for their viewpoints. I haven't really had that happen much on this board but I have on another one, this board seems more open minded. I personally have found my new faith to be so different from being a JW, there is no comparison. When I researched and found the JW org had told so many lies or had twisted so many things about "Christendom" they painted it as all bad and condemned all the main doctrines. But the funny thing is, when I started reading the bible without the Watchtower literature, the bible kept showing me the doctrines of Christendom, not the JW doctrines. When I would really research something and cross reference and look up the Greek and so forth, I found almost all of the time, the JWs had taken something out of context and twisted it, or mistranslated it. They try to use one scripture to prove their doctrine, but you can't do that, you have to put it all together to get the full picture. But most cults do exactly the same thing the JWs do, they will focus on one scripture in many cases to make their point and then misuse it. Just like the JWs ban on blood. They don't look at the whole picture, like that the blood ban in the old testament was about eating blood, it was a dietary requirement, it was not a life and death medical situation. Taking blood into your blood steam is not taking in nutrition. Then they miss the fact that Jesus proved by healing on the sabbath and letting his followers eat the wheat when they were walking through the field. He did this because the well being of the people was more important than the law. He said the law was supposed to be used to benefit man. So the witnesses are twisting a scripture and putting the blood ahead of the life itself causing thousands of needless deaths.

If you want to talk more, PM me.

Thanks,

NowImFree