i suppose part of the fascination i have with this board is, the exotic nature of those making up the member population.
i say exotic because, as you yourselves will agree with, folks such as yourselves don't hang around the christian congregation for long upon making the decision that truth is not for you.
(rom 1:25) this "fading" thing spoken of here likely plays a role into why christians such as me find the average ex-jw to be a bit fascinating.
They do so during a phase that I'd like to label, The Murmuring Phase. The whole thing is quite sad to me too considering the de-evolution process of such ones that go from being content True Christians, into bitter murmerers.
Ooooo, someone's been reading his or her Watchtowers?
after some considerable thought i have decided that i will no longer post on this forum because i want to return to jehovah.
thank you for all the kindness and many interesting discussions over the years.
i wish you all well in the future and the decisions you make.
Okay, wow, I was surely expecting an April Fool's comment or something. SBF is the last person I would've suspected to go running back to the religion. But hey, in the spirit of his post:
I have decided that, after careful research and study, that the witnesses do indeed have accurate knowledge of the truth and that they are the only proclaimers of the true God. I believe Jehovah is the true name of God and that His Son is the Archangel Michael. I wish to study more and show myself approved for baptism and stay away from apostate literature. You know things like the History channel unless they are showing films that speak of the Bible as God's Word and not as a book assembled by priests.
Ah forget it, now I am rambling. See you at the meetings, SBF!
my personal opinion is we all harbor some irrational ideas.
even the most careful of us have some small thing totally at odds with logical thinking.. i'll grant you, few people care about being rational!
and that in itself is a bigger problem.. but, i do make an heroic effort to avoid mindless beliefs, attitudes and thoughts.
I may as well carve all our initials on a big oak someplace!
I think about what will happen to me when I die too. Both physically and what happens next (if anything), where will I be buried? Do I prefer to be cremated? My wife wants to be cremated if she goes first and put on our fireplace mantel. Otherwise, we wish to be buried together. Funny, just a pile of bones laying in the dirt next to each other.
january 2014 watchtower study article.
let your kingdom comebut when?.
this generation will not pass away.
Oh Dear God In Heaven
They just won't let that go will they. I guess I am still amazed at the number of seemingly intelligent people that swallow this tripe. I suppose most of them don't really pay attention anyhow.
with halloween fast approaching, it struck me looking back how ironic it was when the worm turned every year on halloween, when jws turn off the porch light, draw the curtains, stumble around in the dark, etc.
when the worldlies come to knock on their door, lol!.
on the other hand, i remember the family escaping from the fortress at dusk to go to a movie, bowling, etc.
Gary, my kids went trick or treating every year when young (dad did not join jw's until later) and I can tell you from personal experience the kids have no interest in any attached reading material of any kind when going through their goody bag.
Can't say that I ever found them in my bag when I went trick or treating as a kids. Nor do my kids get them in their bags when I take them out trick or treating. That said, my friends and I use to read them with great interest. My favorite was "This was your life." Still though I am not endorsing the site, just pointing out how witnesses can use this holiday in a tongue in cheek kind of way.
That chick.com site is scary, as it shows that some Xians are willing to exploit the scariness of Halloween in order to push the fear of Hell. I guess a small publisher has to make sell their publications if they want to run with the big dogs.
Yes, indeed, some of those tracts are quite scary. I also like the parody chick publications site. Here is my personal favorite.
with halloween fast approaching, it struck me looking back how ironic it was when the worm turned every year on halloween, when jws turn off the porch light, draw the curtains, stumble around in the dark, etc.
when the worldlies come to knock on their door, lol!.
on the other hand, i remember the family escaping from the fortress at dusk to go to a movie, bowling, etc.
Jehovah's Witnesses are missing a grand opportunity on Halloween. I keep telling my wife that they should make it a witnessing event the way many fundamentalists churches do.
http://www.chick.com/seasonal/halloween/2013/
Here's an excerpt from this web page:
http://www.chick.com/seasonal/halloween/ways_to_witness.asp
"Over the years, we've learned a thing or two about sharing the gospel Halloween night. Before meeting Jack Chick, many of us would hide in the back of the house with the lights off! But we knew in our hearts that sharing Jesus with the kids was the right thing to do."
emphasis mine
the jws stopped by my house a couple weeks ago on a saturday morning.
i knew that with others most likely waiting for them out in the car they probably did not then have much time to engage in any serious conversation.
so i let them talk while i feigned interest in what they had to say.
I loved it.
This is something I wish I had come up with. Will certainly mark this for future reference.
since 1935, the watchtower had been categorically teaching (for over 6 decades) that the heavenly calling of the 144,000 anointed christians had ceased in 1935. this teaching was especially significant to older jws (especially those who spent much of their lives serving the watchtower as pioneers, elders, missionaries, bethelites, etc.
) because many of these would eventually turn their attention to the aging governing body members and feel a sense of relief knowing that the end was drawing ever so near.
in other words, as more governing body members (who were born before 1935) passed away, the closer they would get to their long-awaited reward of surviving armageddon and living on paradise earth where they would finally hug grass-eating lions near a waterfall while marveling at snow-peaked mountains in the distance.
Lol! Handing out bible tracts to trick or treaters and they love it?? For some reason I'm skeptical.
the annual meeting seems to boil down to an opening talk about an "exciting new" bible museum and a closing talk about an "exciting new" new world translation.
sandwiched in between were the wt summary, a talk about indoctrinating the children fast/furious, and some "trip down memory lane.".
why would this "spiritual feast" seem to be anticlimactic?
My wife is going to that annual meeting tomorrow. Appears that they can only go by invitation and she seems real excited. So it appears that they are getting a new word from the vatican. That was what I said at least.
