Posts by Piercingtheveil81

67

Why do you think Jesus never wrote anything down?

by journey-on in

jw
friends

if his message was to be followed like a rule book, wouldn't he have written down some things with his own hand?.

Piercingtheveil81

Q Document is believed to contain the original saying of Jesus recorded by his followers during his earthly ministry. Many scholars believe this document was the source that the writer of mark used in his gospel and then just filled in the narrative by himself and by what others had said.

I don't believe that Gospels to be accurate reliable sources of Jesus life and teachings. The books themselves do not contain the writers names. And they are written from a second hand perspective. Their stories do not fit with a Jewish prophet living under such conditions.

67

Why do you think Jesus never wrote anything down?

by journey-on in

jw
friends

if his message was to be followed like a rule book, wouldn't he have written down some things with his own hand?.

Piercingtheveil81

I agree with you onthewayout. In recent times they have been discovering many writings that were viewed as authentic by the early believers. These just didn't fit the image of the Jesus that the Church wanted to portray.

Many are now suggesting that Jesus was probabely a revolutionary type being the main reason why the romans tried to kill him. Considering the time in which he lived it is ridiculous to think that Jesus as a God fearing, Law upholding jew would have acted like some sort of hippie that just loved everything. For him to say that there was only one God worthy to be worshipped and obeyed was in direct conflict with roman belief in regards to cesar. That church, wanting to appease the romans, made it look as if Jesus got along with the them and didn't care about their ruthless occupation of Judah. May God deal justly with those who have created lies about Jesus, the Prophet of God and upholder of the Law.

Has anyone heard of the Q document said to contain the original sayings of Christ?

Piercingtheveil81

47

Have you joined a new religious organisation since leaving the JW's?

by Wee John in

since leaving the jw's did you actively seek out another organisation, or did it find you?.

.

have you found yourself apathetic to all religions?.

Piercingtheveil81

I accepted Islam and am now Muslim. The Belief of Tauheed (absolute oneness of God) appealed to me greatly as well as other aspects. Although I didn't believe many of the crazy teachings of the WTS I also didn't feel that the trinity doctrine was correct either I also had many doubts about the inspiration of the NT in particular (Bart Ehrman's books are awesome). All of this lead me to investigate Islam which I accepted.

24

After you left JWs, did you join another organized religion?

by Albert Einstein in

jw
friends

if yes, how did you choose it?.

if no, why?.

albert.

Piercingtheveil81

When I left I embraced Islam and am now a muslim.

Once I knew that I was going to leave the organization I began to be more open about considering mainstream christianity. I found that there was much that I felt had a good biblical basis for belief. However the trinity doctrine was hard to accept so I started studying different viewpoints and I read books from persons like James White and R.C. Sproul that give detailed explanations about the trinity. I felt that their arguments were very weak. I really tried hard to accept it I even prayed to God to help me accept it but I just couldn't.

around the same time I read material from Bart Erhman and others regarding the trustworthiness of the new testament writings as being inspired of God. I read a book from Douglas Del Tondo "Jesus Words Only" which proved that Paul was indeed himself a false prophet twisting the old testament writings to fit his theology much like the WT Society has done. I felt at that point that I couldn't trust everything that was in the current bible. I did However believe in the God of Abraham and all the prophets including Jesus( Peace be upon him).

While taking a course on religious studies in college we considered Islam so I made a visit to a local mosque. After doing more study about the beliefs of Islam, the Qur'an, and the Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) I made the decision to embrace Islam.

It's clear to me that God through Muhammad(pbuh) was reestablishing the monotheistic faith of Abraham to all humanity. The reason why there is much similarity in both Judaism and Islam. Just as God gave specific laws through Moses(pbuh) for the nation of Israel God has also given laws to all humanity through the Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) for all that would accept it.

This is of course a short version of how I came to Islam.

Piercingtheveil81

41

Have any of you just handed the book COC to a jw friend or relative?

by cawshun in

jw
friends

if so, how did it go over, good or bad?

.

Piercingtheveil81

When I DA'd myself an inactive friend called my up wanting to know what happened and he didn't mind talking to me even though they had already made the announcement. We talked for a few hours afterword he agreed to read COC. He sent me a text message the next week saying that he was shocked and now knows why the Org. is afraid of apostates. Although he is already inactive he is not going back for sure now.

70

How long were you a member of Jehovahs Witnesses?

by Quirky1 in

jw
friends

me, about 7 years...

Piercingtheveil81

I was not raised a witness. I started studying at 15 and was baptized 9 months later. I spent 11 in the org. was a pioneer and MS for 8 of those till I was awakened to their falsehood and dillusions while I was the book study conductor in the revelation book. DA'd myself a month ago.

I'm so glad to be out!

Piercingtheveil81

18

The Trinity: God the Father and God The Son

by BlackSwan of Memphis in

i had been discussing the trinity with someone the other day (hence the topic on i am) and this person alluded to the idea that jesus was saying he himself was jehovah.. well, it occurred to me last night:.

in the doctrine of the trinity, isn't jehovah considered god the father and jesus is god the son?

or am i not understanding the doctrine properly?.

Piercingtheveil81

No. In many discussions I've had with trinitarians and in some books I've read on reformed theology Jehovah is the name for God as an entity. The father, the son and the holy spirit are three distinct persons that form the one entity of God. I know its confusing.

While I don't believe in the trinity I do believe that the watchtower society has given witnesses a false picture of what the trinity is exactly. So many of the points they use in the reasoning book and trinity brochure actually don't have to do with the trinity doctrine. They seem to confuse the trinity doctrine with modalism as do many christians who profess this belief.

Piercingtheveil81

36

How did you feel about attending another church?

by digderidoo in

jw
friends

this question is for those who have attended another church since leaving the jw's.. i have considered attending a local church, firstly out of curiosity and secondly because i do enjoy discussing the bible with people and learning new thoughts on scripture.. the only thing that stops me though is crossing that line.

i guess it was a bit like when i first posted here, it took me ages to pluck up the courage and now what was the big deal?.

did anyone else have this feeling before attending another church, that feeling of crossing the line of no return.

Piercingtheveil81

While I was still serving as an MS I attended a Presbyterian Church. I liked it all the way up until they started talking about Jesus as God in the flesh which made me feel very uncomfortable. Because of a lot of consideration about the authenticity of the bible, in particular the new testament, I felt very disillusioned with Christianity in general so I attended a synagogue and later a mosque.

If fact one friday I attended a sermon and prayer at a local mosque and later that day I went to an elders/MS meeting for the CO's visit. I wanted to laugh on the inside just thinking if only they knew what I was up to earlier that day. hehehehe..

Piercingtheveil81

45

i am 20 minutes away from a sheparding call........

by oompa in

jw
friends

first one in at least 5 years.......wife does not want to sit in and i just told her if she does not, then i am not either.....this loss of faith thingy has really been rough on our marriage.......i have decided to not bring up a single issue i have........i will relate to them my illustration of the taxi driver who keeps giving out bad directions i posted yesterday.......i think what will surprise them maybe is that my loss of faith goes way beyond wt.......i have lost virtually faith in the bible and god......one has already told the "first place to start is to get going to the meetings again!"....lmao!!!.........

i hope their programed brains can grasp that maybe you need faith in a god first.....then find out what method (or book) he is using to educate us if he wants to....and then if you feel the need....look around to find out if there is a group of folks who all have similar beliefs.........this should be interesting...........oompa.

Piercingtheveil81

Good point flipper.

When I was going through the process of disassociating myself I had about 5 different meeting with the elders and each time they tried these tactics I could see how someone could easily fall into their reasonings. For me though I could see through them. Every time they mentioned some of these scare tactics I would just say that I'm sure every other religious group says the same thing to their members when they leave. I mentioned how when many enter the organization it was because they had an open mind to listen in the first place just as I was having an open mind accepting the historical and biblical facts that the organization is wrong.

Those meetings were awesome and satisfying. No one could answer any of my questions and there would be pauses of silence. The elders in the end just said they didn't agree with me.

I don't know much about your situation oompa, I'm kinda new here. I know its very difficult and everyones situation is different. But what is holding you back from cutting ties completely?

38

Greg Stafford no longer a JW

by My Struggle in

this may be old news to some while most won't even know who he is.

in case you don't know him, he was a jw that defended many of the jw doctrine publicly.

he did this mainly in the form of two books, jw's defended and three dissertations on the teachings of jw's.

Piercingtheveil81

Hello Everyone!,

I had an opportunity to have lunch with Greg Stafford about a year ago to discuss some of the issues in the watchtower society. At that time I was pretty confused as to what step I should take as far as leaving the organization. From what he told me is that he technically wasn't disfellowshipped yet although he was having ongoing meetings with a local body of elders. I'm guessing that the elders probabely haven't taken such action because of fear that many will follow him out. I'm sure they know that many respect Greg as I still do, although I don't see things the same way now. I hope that things are going well for him and his family.

By the way I'm new here! I just dissassociated myself a month ago after 11 year in the Borg. Maybe some day I tell you all about my story.

Piercingtheveil81