The 1995 generation change is what got many of us questioning the borg. We grew up with 1914 being rammed down our throats every time we turned around. How many times did we hear "the generation that would never pass away!" By changing that teaching, they showed themselves to be false prophets. The 1995 district convention was the last one that hubby & I attended.
Posts by Dixie
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9Generation Change
by greenie inhi all,.
i've heard several reference to the "generation change.
" some of you have said they've revised this several times, including in 1995. onthewayout, i've heard you mention it a couple of times.. can anyone explain to me what this is, or where to find more information on it?.
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If you pray, do you say 'Jehovah'...?
by wantstoleave injust wondering of those that pray and who have left the organisation, do you still address god as jehovah?.
i think i'm currently in that awkward stage where i'm neither in or out, yet don't feel i should even address, or have the right, to talk to god (jehovah) until i decide where i sit.
so i'm wondering if it's hypocritical to pray and use his name.
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Dixie
Amen Mouthy. I have hard time believing anyone would throw rocks at you.
I use Father, God or Lord. I think of God as my father so calling him by his (assumed) name seems weird to me. The word Jehovah just still kinda skeeves me out a bit. It took me while to be able to enjoy singing that song "Days of Elijah" because they say Jehovah about 50 times in it.
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Did being JW help you cope with death?
by KDubbz ini was thinking about this today.
i remember when i attended meetings and conventions with my parents when i was growing up, i would run into some jws who said they were able to cope with death of their loved ones better due to the fact that they will be resurrected in the "new world" which gave them hope.
i find this partially true because they were given a false hope of being in the "new world" and seeing their loved ones again.
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Dixie
Yeah the JWs view cheapens life and leaves uncertainty. One never knows if they had done enough work for the Gov Body to be approved to make it into the kingdom.
I think that's the thing that made death difficult for me as a JW. You never really knew if they were going to be resurrected or not. Sure you put on the happy face & say that you'll see them in the new order but there is always that little doubt in the back of your head. I also felt like I couldn't grieve. I had a friend die when I was about 11. I was crying really hard at the funeral and an elder said something about it to my mother. My mother then told me that I was making a spectacle of myself.
I find death much easier to deal with now as a Christian. When my grandmother (a lifelong Baptist) died, I took a lot of comfort in knowing that she was with the Lord. My church also had grief counselling & support groups which helped me a lot. The people there actually seemed to be concerned with how I was feeling & grieving. Witnesses tend to just read you a scripture & tell you about the hope for the resurrection. You get that feeling that JWs think that by grieving you are showing a lack of faith or something.
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Earthquakes in one place after another!
by YoungAmerican inmy mom just called me from back east to tell me that she just heard of a 3rd big earthquake within 24 hours, this time in peru.
samoa, indonesia..... she is freaking out..... we better all get ready .
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Dixie
I wonder if all the panicking JWs will be upset enough to send aid or will they just shrug it off because few, if any, JWs died?
That area is prone to severe earthquakes but it's still really sad to hear about villages being flattened & people losing their lives.
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Other Religions Compatible to JWs
by greenie injust wondering, are there any religions that exist that might be palatable to dubs?
i realize all of their teaching goes against this, but i'm wondering from an outside or neutral view, can you think of any that would work for someone who was/is a jw?
southern baptist?
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Dixie
greenie,
I would suggest that you visit several different churches in your area. That's really the only way to find the one that fits you. If you have any church-going friends, ask them about their church. Christian churches are not like the KH. You will be greeted warmly but no one will love bomb you, ask you to study the bible with them, ask for your personal info, judge you, etc. If it's a larger church, you will be able to blend into the crowd easier. I usually picked larger churches for that reason when I was searching.
Many churches now either have their sermons podcasted or will stream the services on the internet. You can find some in your area that do that and watch them 1st and see what they do & if it's a church you would be interested in attending. Another suggestion is to attend a Thanksgiving or christmas service 1st, that you you will be in a large crowd of many newcomers & visitors.
I would avoid any cult-like groups like Christadelphians, 7th Day Adventists, Toronto blessing groups, anything to do with Todd Bentley, etc. You might as well stay at the JWs instead of wasting your time at another cult group. CARM has a good list of cults & questionable groups here http://www.carm.org/religious-movements/-religions-list
My personal preference in a church is Calvary Chapel. I like them because they have this as their philosophy: "in the essentials, we have unity. In the non-essentials, we have liberty." What that means is that when the bible is not expressly clear on something they leave that open to the individual. They also do a very good job on teaching the bible verse by verse. They don't pick and choose scripture like the JWs do, CC reads the bible in context, the way it was meant to be read. I learned more at 6 months in a CC than I did in nearly 20 yrs at a KH.
Whatever you do, don't pick a religion because someone pressures you to. Faith is a very personal thing and it has to be your decision. If you attend a church and the pastor is pressuring you to join then I would look elsewhere. Whatever you chose, it has to be a place that you feel comfortable at.
Best wishes on your search.
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Polanski moral equivocation makes me sick...
by avishai inhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-z-shore/polanskis-arrest-shame-on_b_301134.html.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/09/the_outrageous_arrest_of_roman.html.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/aleqm5jsliygp7jjrlsryfva5vj_hzhlsgd9b0f3503.
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Dixie
Polanski is nothing but a child rapist. It disgusts me that people are actually defending him. It's amazing that the columnist co-founded a women's equality group. How someone can stand for equality and civil rights while condoning a child rapist is beyond me.
Narkissos - Most states, even those with 18 as the age of consent, don't prosecute for teen sex. Usually the law is that if you're over 18 you can have sex with a younger person as long she's no more than 2, 3 or 4 years younger than you. The law is to prevent young people from being taken advantage of.
Ada, is it possible that there is more to your friends story? According to Washington state law there is nothing criminal about a 17 yr old & an 18 yr old having sex. The age of consent is 16 with these exceptions:
RCW 9A.44.093
"(1) A person is guilty of sexual misconduct with a minor in the first degree when the person has, or knowingly causes another person under the age of eighteen to have, sexual intercourse with another person who is at least sixteen years old but less than eighteen years old and not married to the perpetrator, if the perpetrator is at least sixty months older than the victim, is in a significant relationship to the victim, and abuses a supervisory position within that relationship in order to engage in or cause another person under the age of eighteen to engage in sexual intercourse with the victim." -
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Do You Need to Learn Hebrew and Greek? (WT 11/01/09)
by Midget-Sasquatch ini'm sure quite a few of you on the board remember the km that discouraged learning the biblical languages.
well, here are scans of this newer article from the nov public wt.
very boring read with little direct prohibitions (understandable since its for outsiders), but still a bit of an eye roller with their reasons for not bothering to learn them.
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Dixie
This is such a contrast to the churches that I have attended where the pastors actually encourage you to study biblical Greek & Hebrew. The languages that the bible was written in are so much more descriptive than the English language so a bible scholar (or really any Christian) is really missing out by not studying those languages. I took a class in biblical Hebrew and I found it to be absolutely fascinating and it really enhanced my understanding of certain scriptures.
I think the WT discourages JWs from studying those languages because anyone with a true understanding of biblical Greek & Hebrew would see right through the NWTs inferior & misleading translation. I challenged my mother once about why JWs don't study those languages and she actually said "we don't need to because those guys at Bethel are pretty smart and they translate the scriptures better than we could."
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FRIENDS VS Theocratic FRIENDS - Gag Alert!
by Girlie ina jw associate emailed this to me.
exudes of typical jw smugness towards "worldly" folks.
has this been your experience in the borg?.
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Dixie
Thanks for the laugh undercover! I'll have to print that out & save it.
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FRIENDS VS Theocratic FRIENDS - Gag Alert!
by Girlie ina jw associate emailed this to me.
exudes of typical jw smugness towards "worldly" folks.
has this been your experience in the borg?.
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Dixie
Theocratic Friends will drop you if you get into trouble.
Sad but true!
I received the exact same email a couple months ago except it was called Friends vs. Southern friends. That one actually made sense.
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Is Christianity a form of mental disorder?
by John Doe intake the average born again.
they begin their day imagining a powerful imaginary friend, and then go around mocking rational people and daring them to disprove the imaginary friend exists.
some even hear voices from their imaginary friend and claim he exercises magic for their benefit.
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Dixie
PSacramento, I agree. Like, passwordprotected I am not ignorant of some of the bad things that so-called Christians have done. But the fact is that no one is perfect and people, religious or not, are capable of doing bad things. There are good people & bad people regardless of religion. Sitting in a church doesn't always necessarily make you a good person.
Just because a Christian does something bad doesn't mean that every Christian is a bad person. But the newspapers sure do love to print things like "Baptist caught with prostitute" but you never see "Atheist assaults wife" or "Non-churchgoer molested children". I think it's because most people have the incorrect perception that Christians think we're perfect & better than everyone else. It's actually quite the opposite, we know we're sinners and bound to screw up.
It's unfortunate that ones like Fred Phelps, the JWs, etc take the bible out of context and twist Christianity into something that it's not. They focus on what they perceive as sin instead of focusing on Jesus' command to love and forgive our fellow man.