Doubting Bro

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Posts by Doubting Bro

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  13

  "Bearing Thorough Witness" book and Jason David BeDuhn quotes

  by sd-7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the beduhn book, truth in translation, finally arrived today at the office.

  here's a comparison with what the faithful slave says and not even the half of what beduhn says:.

  bearing thorough witness about god's kingdom, box on page 105:.

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  Doubting Bro

  Interesting but not surprising. Thanks for supplying the reference.
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  110

  wife took it pretty well i guess...it's over...

  by oompa in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i guess it only took three years, but they were hell in so many ways for both of us...she was not happy and lived in denial as much as possible...i was not happy and lived in a bottle as much as possible and glad that is over for me....but it was one of the saddest things i have ever experienced in my life....as was the visit to my parents before i told her....but yes...she said she kind of expected it...was thinking something was going to happen soon as she noticed i had more and more trouble saying i love you back to her when she said it on the phone at the end of goodbyes...and when i was leaving the house...i had noticed it for over a year and it was killing me..... i told her how sorry i was for changing so much again....and that she still walks on water...and is a great person and so pretty....and that she will be ok because she was happy single before me for many years and had all she needs for that again...her closeness to jehovah and her freinds in the congregation...she is very close to both and will be ok i hope...it was very surreal....very calm...very sad.

  my bitterness and disdain for wt rules came through when talking to my parents and i was very open about how i feel as to their upcoming shunning of me, and how it feels to my son since he was just 17....and how the fear of losing them had kept me trying in my marriage for the past few years...dad was firm in his position of future action....mom said they will still always love me...and will still talk to me until i get dfd.....oh how this hurts.....dad said there is a name for people who only live for themselves and deny god but could not think of what it was....i told him i was not living just for myself...that i am a good person and there are values from him and the bible i hope i always have....i cry so hard as i type this and tell you just so you can know how painful this is....i told him i so loved the rule of treating others how you want to be treated and have always done that...even allowing myself to be wronged on so many occasions to keep peace....... he said that was a good rule....i agreed and said it was a big one too....and that while i could do it...treat him the way i would like to be treated...he would not be able to!.......left as i became emotional...big hug from mom, but i just barely put an arm on dad............oompa.

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  Doubting Bro

  Just wanted to add my best wishes. So sorry it ended up this way but things will get better.
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  80

  To Current and Former Elders

  by Styxx in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i wanted to say a few things to current and former elders.

  it was really a post by alltimejeff on 10/1/2009 that got me thinking about this and i address a few things that he says here.

  but i dont want to single him out because i really think that he is typical of many, and he did in fact apologize for his actions at the end of his post.

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  Doubting Bro

  No leadership, no wisdom, just a channel available to the GB to control, manipulate, and guilt people into staying.

  And that's exactly what they want. They don't care about the flock or any individual JW. They don't care about the elders they have that are trying to be sheppards, trying to provide support the folks that they think God has entrusted to them. The GB cares about control and money. It didn't take long for me to figure that out. It did take much longer to realize that reform was not possible.

  I always got the sense that the GB really didn't like the elder arrangement and COs in particular REALLY don't like most of the local elders. But, as you pointed out, they have to have them to keep control.
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  15

  WHY DO ELDERS LABEL THOSE EXPOSING ERROR AS APOSTATES?

  by Fernando in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  first topic posted - sorry if it is a bit too long.. why do elders accept this absurd teaching of demons: "anyone rejecting what is not of god, is rejecting god"???.

  evidence that these elders - not their victims - are apostates (wolves, weeds, the man of lawlessness, the antichrist, practicers of spiritism).

  having gone through extreme adversity and consequently deep spiritual waters our family has come to understand apostasy to fundamentally mean the following:.

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  Doubting Bro

  Because its easier to attack the person than to attack the problem.
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  80

  To Current and Former Elders

  by Styxx in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i wanted to say a few things to current and former elders.

  it was really a post by alltimejeff on 10/1/2009 that got me thinking about this and i address a few things that he says here.

  but i dont want to single him out because i really think that he is typical of many, and he did in fact apologize for his actions at the end of his post.

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  Doubting Bro

  Styxx,

  Really appreacite your sweaping generalizations and judgement. As others have stated, when you are a born-in male, you are told your entire life that Jehovah wants you to be an elder. I can't tell you how many times as a kid hearing in meetings the point that every male should be holding this out as a goal. It's not so much ambition as it is wanting to be used by God.

  How can being told that holy spirit picked you NOT go to your head a little? If you're a true believer, then you accept that you were chosen directly by Jesus to take care of his flock. That's what I believed and I'm sure the others felt the same way.

  You need a certain amount of ambition to get anywhere in life. I took being made an elder as validation of my previous hard work. I tried to made a difference. I certainly was a jerk at times and was judgmental. I realize now that it was because of my cult training, not because of my true personality.

  Remember that power corrupts. I've seen it all too often. The organizational structure is condusive to pushing those with the biggest egos to the top.

  In the immortal words of Ice T - don't hate the playa, hate the game.
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  30

  Re-cap of my wife's awakening last week.

  by Open mind in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/experiences/176622/1/update-from-open-mind.

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/members/private/177326/1/point-of-no-return-had-the-f-d-slave-talk-with-my-wife.

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/members/private/178025/1/my-jw-wife-is-looking-at-jws-on-the-net-wahoo.

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  Doubting Bro

  OM - that's terrific and I must add that I'm a bit jealous!!

  Mrs OM - welcome. Waking up can be a little overwhelming at first but it does get better.
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  17

  what level of movies would you watch when a jw

  by rockmehardplace in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know some jw's who only watch movies with specific ratings.

  some will watch only pg and g. others will watch pg-13.

  but i know which ones i can watch these with and which ones not to.

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  Doubting Bro

  PG13 was the worst. Never R.
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  20

  Round here we stay up very, very, very, very late I cant see nothing, nothing round here Catch me if I'm falling . . .

  by nicolaou in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  step out the front door like a ghost into the fog where no one notices the contrast of white on white.

  and in between the moon and you the angels get a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right .

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  Doubting Bro

  Exactly. Sometimes musicians can express thoughts and feelings that we can't express for ourselves. There are several groups that have put out either songs or in this case entire CDs that really sum things up for me. This particular CD is one of them. There was also a group out around the same time (early 90s) called the Gin Blossoms that really spoke to me. Over the last couple of years, 3 Doors Down has been one of those groups for me.
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  20

  Round here we stay up very, very, very, very late I cant see nothing, nothing round here Catch me if I'm falling . . .

  by nicolaou in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  step out the front door like a ghost into the fog where no one notices the contrast of white on white.

  and in between the moon and you the angels get a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right .

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  Doubting Bro

  These train conversations are passing me by

  And I don't have nothing to say

  You get what you pay for

  But I just had no intention of living this way

  I need a phone call

  I need a raincoat

  I need a big love

  I need a phone call
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  40

  Proof Jehovah's Witnesses have been declining for nearly 20 years? (At least in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand)

  by slimboyfat in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  see the tables on pages 124 and 125 of this book:.

  http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=mtw90ykkb3gc&oi=fnd&pg=pa117&dq=scientology+jehovah%27s+stark&ots=0-yvd6jk_o&sig=vualoe-l3bxezaqktnbfhpsdj8u#v=onepage&q=scientology%20jehovah's%20stark&f=false.

  admittedly these statistics don't measure the same thing official watchtower statistics do (i.e.

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  Doubting Bro

  Thanks for the link sbf. Interesting reading. I do agree with your assessment that it is quite interesting that the census figures are showing a much different trend. I don't know what the US census questions will be next year, but if they ask to identify with a religion I certainly wouldn't mark down JW. And, as far as the local congo thinks, I'm an active supporting member who turns in a fs slip. I only go so as not to lose family relationships, yet I give no money and don't believe much of what they teach.

  I wonder if this reduction on such a confidential form is really an indication that there are way more folks in my situation than the WTS believes? I do agree with the statement that there are way fewer walk away believers than before, likely because of the information available debunking the believe that the WTS is God's chosen organization. I'm sure that has a big part in the census results since before people who were df'ed would still identify as JW even though the WTS considered them birdfood.