some people didn't seem to get the message so i'll repeat it to make clear:.
posting off topics comments and general gibberish / nonsense is something i class as spam and will not be tolerated.. any posts found will be removed and if it's repeatedly by the same poster then they will be deleted as well.. thank you for everyone else who uses the forum for proper discussion..
Just to say "Thanks" for providing and maintaining a livingroom for us to talk to each other. I am glad you have limits to what is done and said to derail a topic.
Without someone to "bounce" we just would have to leave the space to anyone who can out-type, out-tech, out-crude us.
Thanks for allowng just a little bit of it too :-) We learn the limits sometimes from one another.
Maeve
no, he is not 5 years old, he is 59 today.
totallyadd like many of you was raised in the cult and not allowed to celebrate his birthdays.
he was always on the outside looking in, deprived of cake and comraderie.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
at the hieght of my jehovah's witnessness like most people it seemed that everything that i found joy in was always bookmarked with the "new system" that i was eagerly awaiting.
if i went on vacation and i was truly enjoying a moment in the sun and total peace the first thought out of someones mouth was always, "just imagine(i am sure everyone knows what is coming next) in the future when everyday will be like this in the new system!".
then there were those anniversary parties when you are so proud someone made 20 or 25 years and the next word out someones mouth inevitably was, "this is a great milestone... but just imagine in the new system when we will say how proud we are we made it to 1 million!!!!..
What can I say, soso?
You have expressed feelings from the life of a Witness that is so hard to understand, so hard to describe...
now they can mingle inconspicuously with the 'other sheep' without being 'made an example of' (for better or worse)..
Righton, Tornapart!
That scripture you note is one they NEVER EVER STUDY. All they study is the one before it--"Call no one on earth Father..."
They absolutely made themselves the authoritative Teacher above all others--including Jesus.
hi there everyone, looking for some advice on helping my sister who is studying the bible with a jehovahs witnesses to escape.
shes been studying for over a year now and attends meetings occasionally.
i have been looking for a way to help her for a while now and the answer fell into my lap last week, during her study last week she mentioned that her son was going to a birthday party.
Ask her if she knows of women who have dated a charmer. And then after she married him he turns from the sweet man she thought he was into a controlling tyrant. Can't see her family, friends or choose what clothes she can wear, etc. If only she had talked to his ex-wife or ex-girlfriends! But of course he would never let her near them.
A good thing to do would be to listen to others who the WTS "courted". See what happened after they tied the knot with the Organization. Is it the same after baptism as it appears before? NO!
She will never get to hear what will happened to her later if she doesn't listen now.
Good luck!
Maeve
my jw friend of 20 years, the first one i ever met, the one who got me into jwism in the first place, unfriended me from facebook without explanation.
other jws who have unfriended me at least called me names (apostate) and told me they were unfriending me, but they were no loss.
but someone who's been your friend since you were 13...and no explanation...i'd think 20 years- 20 years!
I'm sorry that it's happening to you, Julia. I remember how two of my very best friends would come and talk to me as I was going through the long process that ended in my own DA/DFing. One knew the particulars and the other didn't--didn't want to. At first I couldn't conceive of their shunning me. Ever. But as the process continued I could feel how mentally crushing the religion was. And I knew they would have to choose me or the religion.
Not a word from them in three years. And both of them know I have been going through a rough patch with cancer(non-witness spouse and daughter of one has kept in touch).
We helped each other through so much over the 22 years I was in.
Yet, not a word. It is a powerful and dreadful cult that can do this to friends. I can't believe this doesn't hurt them too.
I am happy that you are coming out of it. You are going to find wonderful non-JW friends I am sure. You are fun to have on the board and insightful.
Take care.
Maeve
so given the amount of focus on things that we can be angry or upset about, or how we have been wronged or abused.... i thought it was time for a bit of a change.. how about sharing some fun experiences?!!
ok, i will start.
i promised, in my opening post the other day, that i would share some that have happened over the years.
When my youngest daughter was about 12 years old we were going over the study article for the Sunday meeting "Fear of Jehovah--what does it mean?" or something like it.
The article wasn't very satisfying--couldn't make clear the difference of terror and reverence as it related to fear of God. at least I didn't think so. So I got to looking in my trusty Strong's Concordance for the word ''fear" and was thrilled to see two very distinct Hebrew words that were translated into english as "fear" but had totally different root meanings--very relevant to the study. So I told my daughter.
"No. No, Mom. You can't use it." She was really emphatic.
I pointed out how, living on the farm as I had, I knew how completely the knowing of those two words would set the matter straight. She rolled her eyes and just said "No" again. So I dropped it.
But on Sunday morning it was just as I feared: the boring repetition of re-worded paragraphs styled as answers--and nothing new. Nothing new.
Finally there came the paragraph that laid the moment for introducing those two Hebrew words. I heard a sister gave the proper paragraph paraphrase. Then a second boring response was given.It was so frustrating! I said a quick prayer that if it was to be, then it would be.
My hand shot up. My daughter gave a horrified glare and hissed at me "Don't!"
When the study conductor called on me I gave a concise description of the word ya-re: to fear, revere or reverence. The word was always in a context of worship.
But..... there was another word the Hebrew language had from its pastoralist past that anyone who was male and been afraid or seen stallions, bulls or male dogs fight would appreciate. Pach-ad described alarm, dread, terror. It showed up a lot in the scriptures in describing pending violence.
I tried not to look at my daughter's face.
"The Hebrews had to have two words for "fear" because pachad has nothing to do with worship. The root of the word means "testicle" and these herdsmen/warriors well knew that fear would draw up those parts on man or beast. In fights you can see them disappear when male animal fight or anticipate trouble. This is not a God who wants that kind of relationship with him."
Well, you could have heard a pin drop.
Maybe someone would have talked to us about that comment after the meeting, I'll never know. My daughter steered me to the door so fast nobody had a chance.
Maeve
jesus constantly called himself by the peculiar phrase son of man.. which man?.
joseph contributed no dna to jesus.. it requires 23 chromosomes from a male and 23 chromosomes from a female to produce a human being.. jesus could not exist with only female chromosomes.. **aramaic bar nasha idiom was a way of talking about one's own self as a human being.. it is an expression which is humble to the point of being unworthy.. job 25:4-6) 4 so how can.
mortal man be in the right before god, or how can one born of a woman be clean?
The Talmudic scholar and professor, Daniel Boyarin, wrote The Jewish Gospels(2012). His thoughts on the Son of Man are mentioned in a book review by Alan M. Shore:
"[The] Messianic role that Jesus fit was not, as many would have it, constructed after the fact by Christians who sought to portray him as such.Rather, it was an already-existing Jewish expectation that Jesus sought to fulfill. Working with in depth analysis such as Daniel 7, First Enoch and Fourth Ezra, Boyarin builds a case for a Messianic-divine"Son of Man" already embedded in Jewish thought and expectation."
The book gets us off the exclusive merry-go-round of Christian-only perspectives.
Maeve
peacefully after a short bout with leukemia.
she was 88 years old and the foundation of my life.
she will be sadly missed by me and everyone whose lives she has touched.. .
I hope you find a way to connect too. I miss my father very much. Some times i feel as though he is still here. But I do wish I could talk to him.
I'm glad you had so grand a person in your life that you feel for her as you do....
Faith destroying @$$holes! The last thing they encourage is faith. They HATE everything to do with honesty or integrity.
They don't even want a PALE IMITATION of faith showing up at their halls. They DF anything that vaguely resembles the small independence that faith requires.
Nauseating.
