Posts by digderidoo

24

For those with a personal relationship to God....How did you get there?

by digderidoo in

jw
friends

as some of you are aware i have been going to aa meetings since the new year.

the "god thing" linked to the aa was a real dilemma for me.. since this time i have researched well the jw doctrines and come to the realisation that to have a personal relationship with a higher power i do not need to believe in the witness doctrine.. i am at a point where i have been considering how i personally would interprate a higher power.. i have met someone within the aa who is an ex jw and have just had a conversation with him on the phone, which has got me thinking about this.. now he has said that his faith now has been built by replacing one brick at a time so to speak.

giving an illustration of his faith being like a building, he can replace an old brick with a new one until he gets a new building all of his own making.

digderidoo

There is lots of good info here.

For me i guess i am in a bit of a spiritual wilderness. I know there is a spiritual side to me that i want to explore, but don't know which way to turn. In rejecting religion, i guess i threw everything out, God, spirituality and all. Now that i have seperated the JW doctrine away from God it feels empowering.

Jamiebowers...I feel like you in that i do not need to go to church or a place of worship.

Elivelith....thanks for your post, but for me in praying to Jesus i do not know whether this sits comfortable with me at this present time.

Sacolten....i agree with you that it doesn't happen overnight.

Texman....thanks for your story, it really is touching.

Snowbird....Your comments have helped, your posts always do.

BTS.....Texmans comments was a good share.

A&G.....Thanks, i think the 587 thing for me is going to be one of those subjects i will always be learning about.

Koneal....Welcome to the board! For me i do not know whether it is the God of the bible, that i am looking for yet. Thanks for your kind words.

White Dove.....good point, i have considered meditation.

Octraine Prince....i can see what you're saying about nature. It kind of makes me feel insignificant.

JK666....i know where you are coming from, no one seems to understand me in AA, when i bring up the God issue. Many do not see my dilemma. It is good that there is another ex jw there, but whether his way will help only time will tell. But it is good to know that i am not on my own with it.

Voideater....I like you are starting with a blank slate. it has taken time to get rid of those doctrines taught, but it was well worth the effort.

Hillbilly....good point.

I know i would feel better looking at that spiritual side to me, instead of ignoring it like i have all these years.

Paul

24

For those with a personal relationship to God....How did you get there?

by digderidoo in

jw
friends

as some of you are aware i have been going to aa meetings since the new year.

the "god thing" linked to the aa was a real dilemma for me.. since this time i have researched well the jw doctrines and come to the realisation that to have a personal relationship with a higher power i do not need to believe in the witness doctrine.. i am at a point where i have been considering how i personally would interprate a higher power.. i have met someone within the aa who is an ex jw and have just had a conversation with him on the phone, which has got me thinking about this.. now he has said that his faith now has been built by replacing one brick at a time so to speak.

giving an illustration of his faith being like a building, he can replace an old brick with a new one until he gets a new building all of his own making.

digderidoo

Thanks for all your posts on this.

Texman, thanks for telling your story. It does help.

I came to a point about 2 months ago now where that craving for a drink just went, for me it was after about a month of trying to control it and realising that i was happier when i abstained completely. This feeling i had i would say was spiritual, there was no explanation of the ecstatic way i felt, when i just gave in to the idea that i was powerless over alocohol. Since then i have not had a craving for a drink, the only thing i miss is some of the good nights out with friends, but this i realise now does not have to involve alcohol.

I think the AA in the UK is very different to meetings in the USA, i think maybe your meetings are more religious or spiritual. So i can see why you would think that AA meetings could be like the dubs at times. Over here they tend to speak of spiritual experience, whether that be the God of the bible or other gods.

I don't agree that you can be shunned, i have found the door is always open for you to come back should you decide to leave. However, with the program being a selfish program, i personally would not want to associate with someone who admits to being an alcoholic, yet still drinks. This would be a threat to my own sobriety, which is the most important thing, however i would be there to help if that alcoholic wants it.

I do consider myself a spiritual person and i believe in God after trying to go the atheist route. So for me this is something i am looking at, at present.

Paul

29

607bce or 586/587 bce ? which is it?

by Number1Anarchist in

ok this is very difficult for me because i just started studing this question.

what i would like to know is what have you decided from your studies and does anyone know the statistics on how many beleive in the 607 dat and how many beleive in the 586/587 date.. the watchtower likes to say they agree with the 607 because that number is based on the bible when the 586/587 is based on secular history.. from what ive read so far the mojority thinks it to be 586/587 because most searches ive done give me that date.. what have you come up with in your research?

i feel like you almost need to be a scholar to figure this out.

digderidoo

I can hear 'Scholar' walking down the corridors of JWD. He ain’t guna be happy…

.....and i can hear JCanon walking from the opposite direction

Paul

29

607bce or 586/587 bce ? which is it?

by Number1Anarchist in

ok this is very difficult for me because i just started studing this question.

what i would like to know is what have you decided from your studies and does anyone know the statistics on how many beleive in the 607 dat and how many beleive in the 586/587 date.. the watchtower likes to say they agree with the 607 because that number is based on the bible when the 586/587 is based on secular history.. from what ive read so far the mojority thinks it to be 586/587 because most searches ive done give me that date.. what have you come up with in your research?

i feel like you almost need to be a scholar to figure this out.

digderidoo

Hi number1anarchist

First of all i'd like to say welcome, i don't think i have come across you before.

For me this is one thing that made me question every other doctrine the JW's came up with. I like you just accepted the 607 date without question.

It will take you time to research it properly. There is much info out there.

Basically JW's get 607BCE by counting backwards the 70 year Jewish captivity from 537BCE when they say Cyrus announced his decree. This is the only way they get to 607BCE.

So what you have to ask yourself first if you were to accept the 607 date, is whether the 537 date for Cyrus releasing the Jews is correct?

Jw's and scolars agree that Babylon was conquered in 539BCE, one of the sources for this is Ptolemy's Canon. However they then go on to estimate that it took 18 months or so for Cyrus to release the Jews bringing us to 537BCE date.

So therefore if the 537 date is based on an estimation, how sure can a JW be that 607 is the correct date? It could have been 538BCE or 536BCE.

There is much info out there as to how secular historians arrive at 587/6 BCE for the destruction of Jerusalem. There is also much out there how this can harmonise with the 70 year biblical prophecy too. One of them being that the rebuilding of Jerusalems temple was completed in 516BCE, another also being that the Babylonian Empire took hold with the defeat of the Assyrians in 609BCE and the end of the empire being 539BCE, therefore a 70 year rule. This however is something that you need to research as there is far too much information to digest in one thread.

It is a rewarding thing to do to look into this. But first of all it would be good to look at how JW's arrive at 607BCE, so to do that you need to look at the pivotal date of 537BCE. Ask any JW how they arrive at 537, you will find it is based on if's and but's.

Feel free to PM if you would like links on any info. There are many people here who have researched this thoroughly, it was well worth the effort in my case.

Paul

24

For those with a personal relationship to God....How did you get there?

by digderidoo in

jw
friends

as some of you are aware i have been going to aa meetings since the new year.

the "god thing" linked to the aa was a real dilemma for me.. since this time i have researched well the jw doctrines and come to the realisation that to have a personal relationship with a higher power i do not need to believe in the witness doctrine.. i am at a point where i have been considering how i personally would interprate a higher power.. i have met someone within the aa who is an ex jw and have just had a conversation with him on the phone, which has got me thinking about this.. now he has said that his faith now has been built by replacing one brick at a time so to speak.

giving an illustration of his faith being like a building, he can replace an old brick with a new one until he gets a new building all of his own making.

digderidoo

As some of you are aware i have been going to AA meetings since the new year. The "God thing" linked to the AA was a real dilemma for me.

Since this time i have researched well the JW doctrines and come to the realisation that to have a personal relationship with a Higher Power i do not need to believe in the Witness doctrine.

I am at a point where i have been considering how i personally would interprate a higher power.

I have met someone within the AA who is an ex jw and have just had a conversation with him on the phone, which has got me thinking about this.

Now he has said that his faith now has been built by replacing one brick at a time so to speak. Giving an illustration of his faith being like a building, he can replace an old brick with a new one until he gets a new building all of his own making. I thought to myself that this is a good way of looking at it. For me however, because i have been looking at doctrine over the last six months or so, i guess i have already abolished and destroyed that witness building and am now at a point of where do i go from here? Hope i am making sense.

There seem to be many here who have a new faith. What i was wondering is how did this happen? Was it gradual or sudden? Was there a confusion between witness doctrine and your new faith? Do the two get in the way of each other? Or do the two compliment each other? Basically, how did you get there?

Paul

18

I realize I am taking up space and your time but I appreciate it

by BonaFide in

jw
friends

i understand i jump around too much in my comments.

my add gets worse when i get nervous.

plus i know there are topics that could be more academic.

digderidoo

I will say to you that when your whole life and family and friends and beliefs and everything has to do with being a Witness, its almost like speaking against God himself. I still pray before every meal, when I wake up, before I sleep, and throughout the day.

In time if you are anything like me, you will come to realise that you can still pray throughout the day and God will listen to you. Witnesses do not have the monopoly on God that they claim. From your previous posts i get the sense that you have had some doubts with regards to the Watchtower society.

The problem for most of us when we first started having doubts was that we felt we were turning our back on God, when in reality we were turning our back on the Watchtower society and it's doctrines.

Paul

42

what is the best jwd thing to happen to you?...from another jwder

by oompa in

jw
friends

how good can it get here folks?...........many here care for each other....we need each other...but how much?.......how far??.....oompa.

btw...thanks all...many have made me laugh...and made me cry...and made me sober...(and some made me hor.ey).

digderidoo

The best thing i have found from jwders is others who are recovering alcoholics like me. It's good to meet people who are going through or who have gone through similar life experiences to myself.

Paul

34

cheating on you Feild service time

by Iwonder17 in

i'm curious how many people do this and what is the most that you ever wrote down that you didn't do?.

my highest was 12 when i only went out 1 hour .

digderidoo

I started off by "borrowing" hours from the following month. In feeling the pressure from pioneering, it culminated in reporting over 70 hours one month when i only did 20 something

I'm sure i will die at Armaggedon for it

Paul

43

im an atheist and i like the idea of being an athiest but its kinda hard

by Lotus65 in

jw
friends

im an atheist and i like the idea that comes with freedom of though and analytical thinking that follows being atheistic vs having a religion im just kinda in a jam because i need to try and find something to completely lose the thoughts in the back of my head that say what if im wrong and i "suffer" because of it.

i feel that if i can find something to destroy these thoughts i can be alot more comfortable with my views and opinions.

anyone have any thoughts on what i should do.

digderidoo

i like the idea that comes with freedom of though and analytical thinking that follows being atheistic vs having a religion

It isn't a question of atheism vs religion. Why does God have to come with religion? Being brought up a JW instills this thinking in us.

For me, i have tried to go the Atheist route but i can't. So what i had to do was to seperate God from religion, especially the JW religion, which involved hard work and plenty of research. Now i believe in a god, problem is i don't know which one, or who he is, i just call him the spirit of the universe, which works for me.

Paul

7

The Governing Body is stealing Ray Franz's ideas

by JimmyPage in

jw
friends

on page 267 of "crisis of conscience" ray franz made the observation that the '95 new light on "generation" came shortly after he described what the governing body needed to make the doctrine continue to work.

my copy of his book came out before this year's "new light" on "the generation".

however, on page 265 of ray's book another possible "out" for the society is given.

digderidoo

The "new light" on the term generation is not actually new at all. The generation was classed as the annointed many years ago, way before the literal generation idea came to the fore.

Within Ray Franz's book you will see that one member of the governing body, can't remember which one, was actually teaching this in some part of Scandanavia. It's not that the GB stole the idea from Ray Franz, but it's seems as though this interpretation has been branded about within the governing body for years.

Paul