Posts by LisaRose

44

Decrease of numbers in Jehovah's Witnesses via Deaths, DFings, or Turning Inactive

by flipper in

jw
friends

so i'm sure a good number of us saw the chart that i believe the poster splash put on another thread of figures since 1990 regarding how many baptized and % of increase each year .

i started analyzing it ( and i know some referred to it briefly on the other thread ) and guessing of reasons the % of increase didn't match the number of newly baptized.

and of course common sense tells us that either jw's leave the cult each year through death, fading into inactivity, or getting dfed.

Decrease of numbers in Jehovah's Witnesses via Deaths, DFings, or Turning Inactive

by flipper in

jw
friends

so i'm sure a good number of us saw the chart that i believe the poster splash put on another thread of figures since 1990 regarding how many baptized and % of increase each year .

i started analyzing it ( and i know some referred to it briefly on the other thread ) and guessing of reasons the % of increase didn't match the number of newly baptized.

and of course common sense tells us that either jw's leave the cult each year through death, fading into inactivity, or getting dfed.

LisaRose

Current mortality rate in the U.S. is 821 per year per 100,000. So you could multiply the population times .0821 to get a rough estimate of how many died.

51

hi, i just joined the board and wanted to present myself.. i'm active, in fact very active in congregation activities serving "where the need is great" in a foreign language congregation somewhere in western europe.

as a young brother, i'm seen as an example as i'm doing all a good witness should do.. i had doubts years ago but i decided just to ignore them and move to another congregation to preach more.

that worked for some years but i'm now at the exact same point.

LisaRose

Welcome, your English is very good, so don't worry about that. Your comment about the lack of love is correct, there is no love in most congregations. Jesus said that the way to identify those who are true followers is that they have love among themselves, so what does that tell you about the Jehovah's Witnesses?

The Watchtower makes the preaching work all important, totally ignoring caring and love. How much time is spent talking about the preaching work at the meetings compared to time spent talking about helping others? They record and track hours of preaching, but not hours spent helping each other, or even other people outside the religion. Those who are going through problems are told to pray, study and go to the meetings, things that are of no help to people going through depression or other problems. If Jehovah Witnesses are the only true religion, why are so many going through depression and struggling?

As to what to do or where to go, don't worry about that for now. For now you just need to know whether or not the Watchtower has the truth. Once you figure that out you can start thinking about where to go from there, it will take time to figure it all out, so don't rush into anything. The Watchtower demonizes other religions so that you think they are your only option, don't fall for it. There are decent churches out there, not going to church is also a option. You have been lied to and manipulated, it will take some time to get over that.

These are some things to think about:

The Watchtower uses the date of 607 for the fall of Jerusalem to calculate their last days/Armageddon chronology. Try to prove that is the correct date without using Watchtower sources.

Try to prove, using the Watchtower literature, that Charles Russel predicted the last days would start in 1914 and that Jesus was to return invisibly.

Research the meaning of the word "generation" and show how "this generation" could ever actually mean overlapping generations or more than one generation.

Google "Beth Sarim".

Look into the Austrailian Royal Commission and Jehovah's Witnesses and Child sex abuse, and learn how this religion covers up for pedophiles. Also Google Candace Conti.

Well, that's enough to get started. Thanks for posting, so glad you found us.

Lisa 🌹

30

70 inch t.v.'s on stage

by dbq407 in

so the other night we had a resolution to purchase two 70 inch t.v.

's to hang on either side of the stage.

and also a smaller t.v.

LisaRose

I say let them go for it, that way they can see the governing body up close and personal, because they are doing more to drive people out of the organization than we ever could. Can you imagine rubber lips Lett on the big screen in all his glory?

35

Saddest thing about being DFd

by kairos in

jw
friends

i always enjoyed being kind.

when someone genuinely needed a hand or what not, it felt good to help family or friends.. i don't really miss them anymore.

i faded over two years ago, so they long ago shunned me.i think about them less and less and have even forgotten some names.i did enjoy some of the friendships and the association.

LisaRose

The bible says that the identifying mark of true followers of Christ is that they have love for one another. The Watchtower is so focused on the preaching work they fail to teach their followers this very basic principle. While there are some caring people like you in the organization, most are not because it just isn't talked about or encouraged.

37

Why does Antoine Leiris' powerful tribute to his wife, killed by ISIS in the Paris attacks, bother me so much?

by nicolaou in

here is the translation of monsieur leiris' words;.

friday night, you took an exceptional life - the love of my life, the mother of my son - but you will not have my hatred.

i don't know who you are and i don't want to know, you are dead souls.

LisaRose

I admire him for knowing that he has a child to raise and that to define his life by what these evil people did would be to give them another victory. Let the government pursue justice

19

Can a baptism be annulled?

by angel.face in

i joined this site about 4 years ago and life was very different to say the least.

i was a jw and started the process of 'waking up' after experiencing life threatening blood loss due to complications of a pregnancy.

i was married with two kids (husband was an ms) and was a stay-at-home mom.

LisaRose

It's just common sense, and a valid legal defence that a child is not capable of entering into a contract. Unfortunately the a Watchtower makes its own rules and they will never annual a baptism, even if the child was six years old at the time of baptism. In fact, I think they encourage child baptism for that reason, once you are baptized you cannot leave with out losing your family. They know this and use it to their advantage. They already have the lowest retention rate of any religion, if they allowed young people to annul their baptism they would lose even more young people.

31

The Thief of Always

by YinzerDad in

prologue... .

a brief precursor about myself.

i've been lurking around for almost 2 years.

LisaRose

What a very moving opening post, my heart aches for you. I have two adult children, actually older than you. Neither one ever got baptized, but I knew that their JW past still affected them, there is no getting around that fact. I have apologized to them for bringing them up in a cult, for robbing them of what they might have been. It's not just the children that stayed in the organization that have been been affected, it's also the ones that left, but that left with a missing piece of themselves.

Thanks for sharing your story.

Lisa 🌹

27

Evolution and Creation—both are stories!

by lsw1961 in

there are number of nobel laureates and other great scientists in both the camps defending their respective theories of evolution and creation, which means both are just stories, and both suffer from having no eye-witnesses.

if either of them were true, all scientists would have accepted it unanimously as they do with rest of the laws such as law of gravity..

this does not mean that there is no god.

LisaRose

No, No and No. There is a mountain of proof for evolution, the DNA encoded in your genes tells a story, but a story that had been proven. The creation myth is just that, a myth, and a myth that directly contradicts the evidence that we have.

You are willfully ignorant.

7

Jehovah went from love to fear--when?

by gma-tired2 in

when i was a child and teen jw in 50s and 60s jehovah was always referred to as our loving god now we are warned not to fall in the hands of a god to be feared.

when did jws change god from loving to a cruel god?

LisaRose

It's the carrot and the stick approach, they reel you in with the carrot, that Jehovah is a loving heavenly father who will make a paradise for you, then once they have you, out comes the stick, if you don't do everything right he is the vengeful God who will strike you down at Armageddon.