any of us who were jw's fell for one kind of fraud.
(faithful and discreet slave/governing body).
we were perfectly sincere.
I always had a healthy scepticism about all the stuff Terry lists, I have never been sucked in to any of it. I did not even believe the claims of the GB of Jw's to be fully true, I took them with a shovel full of salt.
I do believe in faeries though. Especially the Beer Fairy.
unless you're still searching for "the truth", are you happy to know this "truth" is not even out there?.
I don't worry that there are questions I don't know the answer to, and may never know.
I am enjoying learning many new things, some of which may turn out to be false, but so what ?
I do not put my trust in anything that I cannot see satisfactory proof for, so if something nebulous turns out to be wrong, who cares ?
It didn't affect my life, because I did not put faith/trust in it for lack of proof.
"The Truth" is probably unnatainable, and overrated.
this thought has been crossing my mind frequently lately.
jw have undoubtably not always been correct in their interpretation of the bible.
yet, the wt claims that they are the true religion.
607BCE, the year nothing happened (Google it) 2,520 years , a period not in the bible anywhere, 1914 a year that has no significance as far as the Bible is concerned = 1919, the year Jesus did not choose anybody as his religion/FDS.
= The Governing Body of JW's are self-appointed liars, JW's are the fools that worship and follow them.
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in another thread i wrote: i didn't left the jw's and don't plan to do so.
I faded, it worked for me. I wanted to keep the lines of communication open with my JW family, that has happened so far.
There is no way I could remain associated with the WT/JW's .
My conscience, Bible trained, would not let me.
I really do not understand people who, through fear, deny themselves, who they are, and what they stand for, for the sake of contact with mind-controlled cult members who happen to be family, but they care more about the cult than you.
O.K , you can say I have been lucky, my family treat me as though i am an unbelieving relative, which, by Christ, I am.
They do not shun me, they just never mention religion, which suits me.
The point is, if they decided they could have nothing further to do with me, there is no way I could go back, it would be to lose any integrity and self-repect I had to go back to that lying deception that is the WT/JW's.
Get a backbone and leave.
theology is the study of religion and religions are human systems of spirituality.
it could then be said that theology is the study of the applications of human spirituality.
human spirituality is a chosen way of life.
I used to think that Godrulz was someone playing a joke on us, pretending to be an ignorant stupid fundie.
You know, Outlaw or someone like that, with an outrageous sense of humour.
But I think the bloke really believes the utter tosh he writes on here.
May God have mercy on him.
i believe the wts has completely misapplied matthew 24:1-35. .
i believe the scripture is quite clear that jesus was speaking to his own generation and not some obscure future or 1914 generation.. if you happen to be a jw and/or futurist, what makes you believe jesus was talking about events that would transpire in the 20th/21st century?.
vander.
I do not qualify to answer according to your criteria above, and await answers from those who do with interest.
Here is my 2cents: it is my opinion that Matthew was written in the decades after the 70CE destruction of the temple, and the words we read were put into the mouth of "Jesus" to make him seem prescient.
We are not even reading a prophecy for the first century,we we are reading history spoken by a fictional character, the "jesus" of Matthew,supposedly before the event, this is not to say that there was not an historical Jesus.
"Matthew" was concocted in a smokey room in late 1st century Palestine to further the growth of the Cult of Jesus, the Temple being gone, the prophecies of the Jewish Scriptures, temple centric as they were, needed new interpretation, and a messiah, to extend the Jewish religion.
well i have been lurking for the past couple of weeks and have finally decided to create an account.
just wanted to introduce myself and relate my life story in the borg, specifically from the past few weeks- which i think has been a lot easier than many on the board.
anyway, my mum began to study when i was 10 (2005) and since then has been babtized; she strongly believes it is the truth.
Welcome Iseenow !
I am in the U.K, i live in Mid-Kent, I was born-in in 1950, baptised at 12 and stayed in until 2008. as you can imagine I am a bit of an authority on JW's and the WT organization.
I assure you, I have never come across a prophecy that they actually made that came true. not one. I have had Elders tell me all sorts of things, but they are simply not true, they are repeating the half-truths they have been fed.
Do not do the work yourself, say to this Elder that you want him to show you actual copies of their prophecies. Say "You don't want me visiting those dodgy sites again do you ?"
As to 1914 for instance, look at what was actually said and it is nothing like they pretend, the same with the U.N popping up after WW2, the first instance of a mention of this is by N.H Knorr the president of the WT at the time, some months after it was announced in the press !
And so on, please investigate it all before giving them power over your actions and very thoughts.
If you want to know anything more, post here, or P.M me
Welcome again !
announce was made this week that the assembly halls in london, ohio and indianapolis indiana will be sold and a new 3000 seat assembly hall will be built in southwest ohio.
the assembly hall in london ohio was built in the 70's and is in fine shape - nothing wrong with it.
the new one will cost around 8-9 million.
Who gets to see the real Accounts for this process, who audits to see that no $$$ are siphoned off ? The Elders? don't make me laugh, I have seen the glazed look in their eyes as soon as accounts are even mentioned.
Surely the poor suffering rank and file will only be asked to finance the difference?
You may see a lot of silent protest in the form of not donating as much, if anything, from those who don't go along with this.
seems to me that we're playing into the society's hands here.. 'apostate' is the most evil and vile word for jw's.
i suspect it's even more of a terrifying trigger word than 'satan' or "demons", for them.. the society gives us that label which they have negatively loaded in order to make it impossible for jw's to hear us or have anything to do with us.
the word is associated with other words like "poison" and "toxic", "disease" and "filth".. so what sense does it make to use it and allow the society to have it's way?.
I do think there is a distinct possibility that the almost celebration of being an Apostate that we see on here could drive a searching J.W away.
But if they are still that much in thrall to the Org. then any of the opinions expressed on here could do the same thing, so I don't think we need worry about it.
Interesting that one of the defining points they identify about an Apostate is that they "wish to draw others away after themselves" , this was said in the D.C talk about Apostates.
I don't think any of us on here who are Xjw's fall under that category, I know I don't want anyone to follow me, I have enough trouble with the Taxman following me !
I do want any who are in the WT/JW religion to examine its teachings, its practices and its history with an open mind, and collecting all the information they can from as many sources as they can.
This site is a good place to start.
it's good that y'all are here.
please stay for a while.
syl.
BIG WOBBLE WELCOME !!!
And to those just reading on this site so far, WELCOME as well, why not join in the fun ?
