Posts by iwasblind

39

Are Elders experts on the Bible? Are they spirtually qualified men?

by John Aquila in

how many times have elders read their bible in its entirety?

these are the leaders that give counsel to married couples, to teenagers, to single girls and single boys on everything from marriage, education, sex, association, dress, and recreation..

how well do they know their bible?

iwasblind

I have been on shepherding calls twice with elders who did not bring a bible. Many times visiting the bros and sis without offering a prayer. Yes they are quick to "print out an article"

No true spirituality, No Jesus and No Holy Spirit.

164

California Supreme Court Case - S226656

by Gayle in

jw
friends

http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.gov/search/case/maincasescreen.cfm?dist=0&doc_id=2109889&doc_no=s226656&search=party&start=1&query_partylastnameororg=watchtower bible and tract.

started 5/27/2015.

iwasblind

This was one of the biggest things that rocked me in awakening.

How we could ever go to court and make the victims re-live their ordeal and see the abuser in court with all of the cross examining and junk that goes on.

If the WTBS was serious they would setup help groups, train elders to help these victims - but we all know that will never happen because $$$ are more important than people to them

41

If you found out TTATT at 80 and spent your entire life at Bethel, what would you do?

by John Aquila in

would you do a ray franz deal and write a book or keep quiet and live out the rest of your life in bethel?.

would you keep reading the watchtower magazine?.

It is so sad to contemplate - too sad. I think that is why all of the 70+ 80+ year olds now in (that I know) are depressed and clutching to this generation idea because they don't want to die in this system.

One relative of mine said she knows something is wrong, but knows its the truth still.

???????? Madness

10

Wanted to Share a Watchtower Quote with you

by FusionTheism in

just thought this was interesting and wanted to see all of your thoughts and opinions on it.. watchtower, november 15, 2014, simplified study edition, pages 11-12:.

9 let us examine the words of three brothers who for many years have worked closely with members of the governing body.

one brother mentioned: while this has indeed been a unique privilege of service, the close association has from time to time revealed that, although spirit anointed, these brothers are imperfect.

iwasblind

The GB have replace Christ with themselves.

People cannot separate Christ from the GB, or Jehovah from the borg.

It is one and the same to them.

So sad

25

Fornicate and keep quiet, is it possible for a Governing Body member?

by John Aquila in

do you think any of the members of the governing body have at one time in their lives committed an immoral sex act but never confessed?

remember leo greenlees.

fornication, adultery or something else?

iwasblind

Hey there was a CO who was disfellowshipped last year. That is true heard it first hand.

But he reason why was heard 3rd hand so it could be untrue. I have heard it from about 5 different third hand sources though so I suppose it is true (just like the Smurf stories of old)

Story was he was visiting a prostitute in his territory for his own purposes. She also was being studied with by a sister. Well when he visited the local cong this lady was invited to the Sunday talk. When she saw the speaker and told the sister (who knew this lady's profession) that she knew him, and that he was one of her clients - well that was the end of it.

So anything is possible!

20

Street Witnessing - did you ever do it?

by Muddy Waters in

i remember in our congregation, there were a few older pioneer sisters who would start counting their time early - even before the service arrangement - by standing at a street corner and holding the magazines up in front of them and hoping that any passersby might stop to take one on their way to work or whatever.

as a fresh, new dub, i had heard about this "street-witnessing" work, but there was only one time i ever actually saw one of these older sisters doing this.

and even then i was shocked and embarrassed for her.... because this poor old sister was standing there, all by herself, holding up the watchtower & awake magazines, yet looking as sad and depressed as she could possibly ever look, her whole mouth was turned down just totally sad as she stood there, observing all the "dead" people walking around, hurrying to catch buses, get kids to school, get to work, etc.

iwasblind

Yes used to do early morning street work. I remember I had a taxi driver say "I wouldn't wipe my bum with one of those" (meaning the mags) and I repied "Ohh no far too slippery, you would be better with one of these" and handed him a tract.

I can't imagine doing street work now.

74

Is Prophecy important?

by EA916 in

hello, i am certainly new to all of this.

i have recently been studying the prophecy's, and i was wondering if they are of any importance at all?

iwasblind

Cofty - the may have been written by different people, but the teachings came mainly from the apostles and Paul. Most of the apostles were unlettered. So if the writings are false, explain how it circulated in a non-internet society. It is noted by many scolars that you could not preach the resurrection of Jesus to such a degree if it were a lie in those times.

How did this man (Jesus) born of a poor family "pull this off". Birth place, silver coins...Impossible. (I will come back with specifics)

Yes you could find writings that apply to Prince Charles, but you could not find some 40 books written over such a period of time that could - with every parallel pointing to him. This is what I am saying about cherry picking. I could even find a prophecy applying to me I am sure maybe the wicked slave :-). But anyway look at the Hebrew writings as a whole and see.

I will come back but after the weekend, I am unfortunately caught up the weekend, to answer Viviane also with specific scriptures that relate to Jesus.

44

The JW religion has just cost me my marriage & my family life

by jambon1 in

jw
friends

after leaving the organisation 10 years ago i fought with everything i had to stay in my marriage and with my three children.

after a tumultuous number of years trying to maintain a happy family life while living in a divided home, it's finally over.

the religion is single handedly responsible for destroying my marriage and my family.

iwasblind

What could I have done differently? Well, that's a hard one.
I couldn't bear the divide in my marriage any longer. My wife refused over a period of ten years to look into one single issue that I had investigated and found to be corrupt, untrue or morally wrong. Not one thing. I found that very difficult to accept. I always thought that she might have a 'lighbulb moment' over matters like disfellowshipping or blood as she is devoted to her children. I always held a bit of hope that she would perhaps mentally leave the religion one day. I was wrong.

Hi Jambon

Totally heartbroken to hear this and the other stories of broken marriages due to this thing. Good people are being hurt.

As I read this something jumped inside of me, and it has been plaguing me for some time on this forum. I have seen tonnes of videos on how to "witness" to a witness but I too have not found it easy to open peoples eyes.

I think they are missing something (great intentions though) which led me to an idea.

Just a disclaimer first - what I say is not a judgement on what anyone should have done or has not done and also I am coming at this from the scriptural angle.

I have found that when we argue over doctrine, translation, even GB conduct - the "victim" cannot accept it fully. In their mind "this is the truth" - these things we argue about are some sort of aberation, lie from Satan, lie from mentally diseased apostates, etc - it can't be true because "we have the truth". Know what I mean?

Infact arguing over doctrine accomplishes nothing i.e- I could have a two hour conversation about the Cross / Stake discuss the greek, how the GB have misquoted scripture, etc. In all that nothing would be accomplished and you actually lose the "meaning" of what the cross meant.

Another thing is, the person cannot distinguish Jah from the WTBS, in their mind they are the same. They do not even equate Jesus in there. This is the biggest crime that they have replaced Jesus with this ridiculous notion of FDS. This is where we start.

Here is my idea and it is based on one scripture - 2 Cor 4:14-16, read it not in NWT. Basically when you turn them to Jesus the veil will be lifted. It is hard to put it all in writing and I know I will get hammered from the doubters, but that is ok

So as a husband with a JW wife (will get to the wives), when you find Jesus for real it will change you, your peace, your prayers. No doctrinal debates, just great teaching on Jesus (we have hours of stuff you can use from the NWT that you can use - no translatonal debates). She will see the Lord in you fall in love with him and the veil will rise. You can control this process by your actions.

With a wife of JW husband, the process is similar, but you are not able to control when he falls in love with the Lord as much - but for men - I found instead of struggling to "imitate" him, when I would let him dwell in me, this had a profound effect.

SO HERE IS WHAT I PROPOSE - I really want to help - as a tester we form a group of 3/4 people and work on stuff to say and do based on the principle at 2 Cor. We tweak and refine. I can supply the bible info, really great stuff I have found outside the borg that we can use the NWT with so no red flags are raise. We compare notes, meet regularly and see. If we crack it we could help save a lot of marriages in this horrible predicament. We can report our endeavours back to this group of wonderful people here.

Also, you will find the beautiful Lord I did not know for 40 years.

Anyway, it was a thought PM me if you are interest in throwing around this idea.

74

Is Prophecy important?

by EA916 in

hello, i am certainly new to all of this.

i have recently been studying the prophecy's, and i was wondering if they are of any importance at all?

iwasblind

Wow I woke up to this thread. Can I just say to Vivienne and Cofty that there is more than Isaiah that points to Jesus. Infact all of the writings from Moses to the Gospels point to him.

How can one man take all of the paralells relating to Esau-Jacob, Moses, Aaron, The Tabernacle, The Red Sea, prophecies relating to King David, heaps of stuff in Psalms - (the list is endless) fit into his life?

These passages all fit together. Then there is the issue of how the Jews could so easily kill Jesus for saying one thing but could not stop his apostles preaching a whole lot of lies? It was not possible in that time - a good video is "Case for Christ" - he does quite a good job investigating whether Jesus was real and the culture at the time.

Also, if these fishermen were such geniuses to understand the whole of the written word at the time and contort it to fit Jesus life - that would be a miracle in itself.

I understand there are people here that are hurt by this organisation and don't believe. But let's not make the same mistakes that the org made us do. Cherry pick one scripture and misapply it.

I went through the same doubts when my blinders where taken off - basically how can I trust anything. But as I began to deprogramme all of the crap and look at the bible as a whole, you can't deny that Jesus was the Messiah that was prophecied - it all points to him. It's quite incredible when that picture starts taking shape but it takes a while.

74

Is Prophecy important?

by EA916 in

hello, i am certainly new to all of this.

i have recently been studying the prophecy's, and i was wondering if they are of any importance at all?

iwasblind

Hi EA916

The prophecies relating to Jesus are important to me. If you google probability jesus fulfilling prophecies you will see University studies and the numbers are crazy.

That's what helped me, but the crazy JW fear-mongering obey now prophecies don't mean anything to me.