what are you going to do when you get judged before the lord.... romans 2:12 .
"for all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.".
revelation 20:13.
Logical, buddy, love your answer!
What are you going to do when you get judged before the Lord...because you will be, for your sins.When I am before the judgement seat, it will be too late to do anything. I live my life now under the wings of His love and forgiveness, which I accepted many years ago. I leave my life in His hands. I trust Him.
i've been a witness for as long as i can remember.
cannot remember ever celebrating a birthday or any holidays.
my grandmother introduced my parents and siblings to the religion.. it hasn't been a bad experience at all, except for the time when my hormones kicked in at 18 years old and i fornicated with my first boyfriend (it was awesome really!
Welcome, Skeptically Yours! I also, appreciate your refreshing style and hope you will continue to post here. Nevermind minimus. He was trying to be funny. Indeed, the double life seems to be the best way to enjoy yourself and still remain within the organization.
for years i've been reading and talking to people who are out of the organization either by being df'ed or da'ed themselves from the so called "truth".. my main concern is that once the former jdubs are out, they start to reverse their thinking from everything the jdubs had learned that is considered a "no no", ranging from sex, satanism, getting into pornagraphy, drugs, alcohol, rock music, smoking, reading ouji boards and anything else they can get their hands into that was considered forbidden by the wt.
even some decided to reverse their thinking from believing "there is a god" to "there is no god".. while i can understand the anger and bitterness that has resulted from realizing how they have been deceived by the wt for many years.
i am concerned about the destructive behavior that ex-jdubs are getting themselves into.. sure it gives ex-jdubs a sense of total freedom and go wild on everything that was forbidden to them.
Yizuman, I think only a portion of xJW's go the extreme route. And, yes, it can be a reaction to years of suppression. My guess would the that the most likely ones to do this are those raised in the "truth", and were never given the choice to come or go, and never underwent normal teenage self-determination and independence. (There is no independence allowed in the WTS).
Consider what happened in Russia when the totalitarian regime was lifted. Some people went wild in the freedom. Those of us raised in freedom have learned to control ourselves through little lessons throughout our life. Jesika's spring illustration is perfect.
Some, like Amazing and Ozziepost, leave the organization with faith intact. Within the framework of their own independently acquired faith, they are moral and balanced. I believe most xJW's eventually build their own belief system and live consistently within it. Even athiests believe strongly in their framework of reality.
life is tough regardless of whether we were ever jws.
my own life has taken some twists and turns i did not expect or like ... and i have to focus all my attention now on getting my badly needed open-heart surgery or face death in about six months ... so in the next couple of days, i am making the last of three posts for a while ... then all my efforts will be aimed at getting better, and facing some issues in my life and making the best decisions possible for me and my family.
i decided to limit many activities because i tend to do too much and neglect some things that i should not ... this is not a good-bye post, but more of a long vacation post.
Amazing, I hope all goes well with the surgery and recovery. You have contributed so much to so many people recovering and healing mentally after leaving the JW's. I think it is a good choice to take care of your old bod for a while. My best prayers are winging their way to you right now.
can anyone forward me an actual quote from the borg...with the words "theocratic warfare" in the text?.
no heresay or that's what they meant stuff...i need to have the words "theocratic warfare" and a point of reference...has to be genuine...thanks.
I don't have access to the CD at the moment, but here is a quickie off Quotes' website;
*** Watchtower 1960 June 1 p.351 Questions from Readers ***
From time to time letters are received asking whether a certain circumstance would justify making an exception to the Christian's obligation to tell the truth. In reply to these the following is given:
God's Word commands: "Speak truth each of you with his neighbor." (Eph. 4:25) This command, however, does not mean that we should tell everyone who asks us all he wants to know. We must tell the truth to one who is entitled to know, but if one is not so entitled we may be evasive ... As a soldier of Christ he is in theocratic warfare and he must exercise added caution when dealing with God's foes. Thus the Scriptures show that for the purpose of protecting the interests of God's cause, it is proper to hide the truth from God's enemies.
[Emphasis Added]
in a way this thread is related to the one on why the fixation with the nazis i started last week - http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.aspx?id=41752&site=3.
anyway, the public talk on sunday was the one persecution, cant remember the exact title but i am sure many will recall it.
the speaker was excellent and made the talk very lively but somehow missed what i would consider the major point.
Sure, I might just have my finger down my throat when I say it, but the WTS did win some landmark cases about religious freedoms. Which other Christian churches enjoy today. Let's not rewrite history just because we don't like it.
i joined this site last week hoping to meet people that would steer me back to the organization.
instead the people i have talked to her are all trying to tell me too see the light and get out of the organization.
in my opinion, not that it matters, i really think that if a person had the truth deeply ingrained in them, they would never leave the truth.
Zolensky, I know you are young, so I am making allowances. Consider that not everyone here is the same or believes the same. You said,
the witnesses may have done a good job on me...but the job the world has done on a lot of you out there is even worse. instead of blaming the people in the organization, all you critics of the truth are blaming the organization for all the mistakes of a few. humans are not perfect, and a few hide behind the mask of being witnesses when they are wrong. that doesnt make the organization bad...it makes the people in it bad.There is no all you here. This is a discussion board. All are welcome, but everybody has a different opinion. Come out with a criticism about all you posters out there, and you are going to get a reaction.
i have a been a little jehovah witness from the age of five years old to the age of eighteen and i still can't find a way to appreciate the life.
now i'm nineteen years old and i don't know what to do with this life and i'm almost always at my computer, in my bedroom.
why the hell do i don't go outdoor to do some funny activities?
Nicholas, by the time I was thirteen I was trying to figure out what kind of purpose my life could have. I did not like the kind of life society and my parents had mapped for me. College, marriage, house, kids. That suburban future seemed so BOOOOORING. And it wasn't mine. A whole bunch of circumstances later, I had more purpose for my life than I could shake a stick at. You said,
I don't know what to do with this life
Boredom is a signal that your life can be improved upon. And at nineteen, you have an amazing array of choices for improvement (even if you haven't thought of them yet). Look at some of the old fogies who have responded to your thread, how they have come up with hobbies and interests that really have meaning for them. To give my daily life meaning and focus, I have goals. I start with a dream, "Where do I want to be in 5 years?" I write it down. Then I figure out some of the things I have to do to get there. What could I do right now? I write down those goals, with deadlines.
If you are a procrastinator like me, share a goal or two with a trusted friend (you don't have to share the whole thing. Goals can be very personal). Nothing like the fear of embarrassment to put the fire under my butt.
last time i set foot in a kingdom hall was in december 2001. it was sunday morning and i sat in the back as usual.
a handfull in the congregation greated me when i came in.
since it was the watchtower study, i needed a watchtower magazine to follow, but nobody had a copy for me.
Have you seen the quality of the animated videos???? Disney they're not. I could put cartoons on a stick and match the animation of their Noah story. Definitely produced on a budget. Kids of this generation will not be fooled.
in a way this thread is related to the one on why the fixation with the nazis i started last week - http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.aspx?id=41752&site=3.
anyway, the public talk on sunday was the one persecution, cant remember the exact title but i am sure many will recall it.
the speaker was excellent and made the talk very lively but somehow missed what i would consider the major point.
Great point, eyeslice. In Canada, I saw an episode on the History channel on how the Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted in Quebec. Yes, the Catholic church was livid over their proselytizing, and publishers risked being mobbed in the street. The announcer made the simple comment that the JW's brought some of this hostility on themselves by publishing anti-Catholic materials that would be classed as Hate literature today.
Am I grateful that the JW's spurred the creation religious freedom laws that protect us all today? Yes. Did the JW's get there by pure and innocent motives? Hardly.
