DJPoetech

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Posts by DJPoetech

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  77

  I told my daughter I was leaving "the truth" this weekend.

  by whathappened in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  last week, i told you i was going to tell my daughter that i was leaving the truth this weekend and you all gave me sound advice.

  but, i cannot keep a secret this heavy from the person i love most on this earth, my only daughter, who is beautiful inside and out.. well, i have always had an open and honest relationship with my daughter, and i guess it paid off.

  this weekend i visited my daughter (who lives in another state) and i told her i was leaving "the truth.

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  DJPoetech

  Pleasantly surprised at the response. I so hope your experience continues to be exceptional.
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  26

  Hierarchical or Congregational?

  by TD in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  congregational polity is a system of church governence where each congregation is ecclesiastically autonomous.

  many protestant churches are organized this way and one of its advantages is that it protects the parent organization(s) from legal actions originating at the congregational level.

  one of it's disadvantages is that a minister in one congregation does not hold that same status in other congregations.

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  DJPoetech

  My experience has always been hierarchical. If elders run into trouble, they always back up on the "Branch" this or that. Whether it be true or not.
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  22

  Is A 'Moderate' Opinion of the Governing Body Possible?

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  radical circumstances push people into extreme frames of mind.. it seems to me that, for some time now, the governing body of jehovah's witnesses has been surrounded by increasingly more difficult circumstances and hardships.

  they have cut magazines, literature, sold off real estate, dumped long term bethelites, dumped paid subscriptions, railed against facebook, condemned college attendance, and begun to sell off branch offices.. a moderate, reasonable viewpoint of these changes is easy to come up with: the rank and file are broke, burned-out and dispirited.

  furthermore, the increasing depth of these changes would push any reasonable person to conclude that the organization is in quiet decline - far from any realization of heavenly intervention.. the above would logically push a reasonable person towards the conclusion that the 130 year doomsaying history of the watchtower society is a pious fraud at best.

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  DJPoetech

  I think the governing body knows the religion HAS to turn a corner.

  I think they know that not everyone is going to hang on during the turn.

  Maybe they know a smaller group or a reorganized religion is the key. Maybe they have a goal in mind and these are the first steps of it.

  Maybe the articles are purposely changing language to wake some up and dig some in.

  The family I have inside are without a doubt cheering on the stricter language cause they believe it will dig out the bad elements within the organization. I believe the opposite is true.

  I dont consider my family typical witnesses cause they haven't completely locked me out. They trust the lion's share of the doctrines but could care less about the backstabbing and chatty members of the congregation. They rely too much on the "food" that is being served to them without critically thinking about it. Sadly I know they are not the only ones.

  This religion HAS to change into something else and as much as I would like to see it disolve, most religions don't do that. They SPLINTER. I am hoping when that occurs that alot of folks will have the opportunity to become free; maybe with help from folks on this forum.

  That is the point that I am preparing for. Its not here yet but its coming.
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  50

  JC question: Do you accept the FDS as God's organization?

  by MrMonroe in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  my wife and i had stopped going to meetings in april; in december of that year we travelled interstate and stayed with the witness couple who had "brought me into the truth".

  we had already told them we'd quit meetings and there was a certain tension in the air for the first couple of days until sunday morning, when, over a breakfast that eventually lasted several hours, they began to interrogate us about why we had left.

  had we been stumbled?

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  DJPoetech

  i discussed this with my folks a couple of days ago.

  First off, everyone at home seems to think my decision to leave is due to some momentary lapse of judgement that will be corrected soon enough by "Jehovah". So my explanations and scriptural support falls upon deaf ears because I apparently have had a mental break. Its patronizing and I hate it.

  Anyway, anytime a deep point was made, like Mat 24 was a parable and not prophetic, it was over shadowed by some other issue that didn't relate directly with that. It was like their brains wouldn't critically think. I have flat out told them how I disagree with the interpretation.

  My parents are amazing thinkers and don't follow the doctrine 100% because they disagree with the shunning principle. That is why its hard for me to figure out why they cant think further outside the box.

  @black sheep: You are right, the FDS is the primary scripture used but it is a house built on sand. It is a parable. The context of the scripture gives it away. We even sat there and read the whole Chapter. Interestingly my mom was holding her watchtower notes and relating unrelated information.
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  139

  The Catholic Perspective

  by sabastious in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  in another thread, bts quoted this catholic doctrinal paraphrasing of adam and eve:.

  http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt1art1p7.shtml#390.

  god created man in his image and established him in his friendship.

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  DJPoetech

  If we believe death is the ultimate end result, life thus becomes the means to death.
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  38

  Restraining order against me from my JW Wife

  by karlosranson in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i should have posted this earlier for assistance.

  i left jw two months ago and since then my life has almost been a lifetime movie.

  long story short, my soon to be ex-wife believes i am full of the world, satan, etc etc.

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  DJPoetech

  OMG! I hate what this org does to families.

  Decided to have second child 10/07...

  Disassociated 04/08...

  Was served divorce papers 10/08...

  Its f'd up!
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  39

  No Need For EdenTree Unless God Knew An Angle was...

  by Sayswho in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  no need for eden tree unless god knew an angle was...going to try and foil his purpose for other life forms.this has always not added up for me.

  there is really no reason for the tree (s) unless god knew that he had angles that were already bad in their 'hearts'.

  so the questions i have on this are.... were the angles tested to see if they would remain faithful?were humans created to be the test for the angles?was it was 'fair' to have spirit creatures (millions of years old?

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  DJPoetech

  I love that WontLeave!!!

  Makes me think of God planting this seed for this potential tree in the ground. He knows there is a portion that will remain under the soil but also that there is this portion that will rise above it and eventually feel His light.

  The hardest part is the living plant breaking away from the dead shell.

  I guess he is just watering us now.

  DJP
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  139

  The Catholic Perspective

  by sabastious in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  in another thread, bts quoted this catholic doctrinal paraphrasing of adam and eve:.

  http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt1art1p7.shtml#390.

  god created man in his image and established him in his friendship.

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  DJPoetech

  PSac,

  I wish the act of choosing a different doctrine or no doctrine at all was met with such acceptance.

  When you have tradition intermingling with doctrine, its a coctail for authoritarian control.

  Leaving a set of beliefs and traditions could be similar to coming out of the closet for certain individuals.

  Seems easy to say but the cost to "do" is weighty and heavy.

  The reason I think more independantly thinking individuals find evangelicals so icky, is because of this very aspect of their approach. Almost this "resistance is futile" sort of attitude. Total lack of freewill although saying its all about freewill. Its hypocritical.
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  2

  To Verderner (Worlds Apart) on You Tube w/Eng Captions

  by cabasilas in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i don't know if this has been posted yet or not.

  looks like it's just been posted to you tube.

  a powerful danish movie about jws and shunning and its impact on families.

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  DJPoetech

  If anyone is curious as to how to record these youtube videos onto your computer just in case they stop serving them, you can do it with Firefox web browser.

  Download the browser

  http://www.mozilla.com/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.6.13&os=win&lang=en-US

  Then addon Downloadhelper

  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?q=download+helper&cat=all&x=0&y=0

  After that you should be able to download all of these movies so that it will never be taken away....

  Love this film by the way.
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  139

  The Catholic Perspective

  by sabastious in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  in another thread, bts quoted this catholic doctrinal paraphrasing of adam and eve:.

  http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt1art1p7.shtml#390.

  god created man in his image and established him in his friendship.

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  DJPoetech

  ^ I don't believe you can be a subject of another entity while at the same time being in "friendship." To me, friendship is an equality whereas Adam's relationship with God was not equal so I would not call them "in friendship".

  I kinda halfway agree. I agree its not a friendship. It was supposed to be like a father to children relationship.

  So God creates me with free will since I can "freely" choose to be in submission to him or choose independence. Then he withholds friendship, and all benefits that come with that, for not choosing to live in submission.

  This shows 1) a misunderstanding of freewill and 2) assumption you know all the in's and out's of the costs of a decision utilizing free will.

  1. Assuming we were "given" freewill, we were given enough of it to deny even the very fact that we "received" it. This is something many of us "choose" to excersise.

  2. Our human perspective leaves us sadly lacking in dealing with a possible spirit realm and the benefits/detriments there in. Some choose to believe that those benefits never existed. Some await it in some possible future state. If we assume we know everything then you close the door on the possibility of learning anything more than you can measure or count.

  Your feelings are valid but I have to "pump the brakes" when it seems as we are going down the same tired road of "self-realization". because we are still here and progressing as a species

  You show your hand in that statement. The question would be "Are" we progressing and in what sense. There are many things showing that we are not, but that is another thread. We are either at the greatest point of human history or we are setting ourselves up for the biggest fail ever known to man.

  Of course we prefer ourselves. The better we are as individuals the better we are as a collective.

  I solidly disagree with that statement. There is no guarantee to that. Human history shows that if an individual is "better", he is just better than some other lesser individuals. History also shows that as a collective, we have far more tradgedies than benefits. Where humans are concerned the math is a little different. 1 +1 doesn't always equal 2. Sometimes it equals 1.2.

  Humans are doing the best they can with the tools allotted and Original Sin discredits all accomplishment in the past 6000 years because we are all being "disobedient" and "only concerned with ourselves."

  ^ This, by far, is the most interesting statement of your whole post. On the one hand, we are doing the best we can with the tools allotted giving the sense we could be doing better with better tools. While at the same time considering the past 6000 years as amazing accomplishments not worthy of discrediting. All of which plays into the quoted "only concerned with ourselves". Which most of your post indicates that you would rather be concerned with yourself and your accomplishments... f*ck sin.

  ^The whole story of original sin is something that many humans attempt to verify or discredit and will for centuries after you and I have passed on. It hasnt been solved by us for thousands of years and won't for thousands more if left totally to us.

  For those that believe God has a plan, that little issue will be solved. For those that are believing otherwise, well the saga continues.

  I guess the point to your post was to indicate that Original Sin and the Adam and Eve story is B.S. ... thanks for the nicely worded opinion!

  I am not Catholic or in organized religion. I am a former Witness.