Posts by garyneal

103

JW and the Sabbath

by Andromeda in

hello brothers and sisters and truth seekers,.

i am an active jehovah's witness.

i don't believe in 1914 and i'm tototally against their way of dealing with abuse cases.

garyneal

And perhaps I would be blessed on your eyes if I told you not another person in my family is a JW. Which is in fact truth so I wouldn't have to face harsh consequences as others would in that regard.

I get it now, you chose to be a Jehovah's Witness and therefore it is your belief by choice. I can respect that and I can relate as I too never had any family that attended church regularly and chose to become an Independent Fundamental Baptist early in my Christian life.

If I may ask, are you married? If not, do you plan to marry "only in the Lord?" For you, that means only Jehovah's Witnesses as for me it meant only other fundamentalist Baptists. Being someone who does not see the WT as the only source of truth you may end up, much like I did, find information from those who even your religion deems as untrustworthy to be factually correct. If that happens, you may find it difficult to support a religion like yours that, similar to my old church, promotes a very limited and narrow minded world view.

If you end up marrying (assuming you're not married) outside the witnesses you may find, much like I did when I married a witness, that they have a sincere faith in God and may find that difficult to reconcile with WT teachings that all non-witnesses are not serving God (much as my IFB church said of all other churches).

Good luck to you, keep on searching for truth and following the evidence. To quote CT Russell, "...seek truth where ever you find it, no matter what it contradicts."

fwiw, I am an atheist though I do appreciate and respect a lot of Christian teachings even though I no longer consider the Bible to be the inerrant word of God. I'm not really sure if a deity exists but if one does I cannot imagine that this deity is so concerned with petty things that man made religions concoct in order to show outward devotion. Remember what Jesus said about the Pharisee who put on a display of their devotion to God. I see many Christians, and JWs in particular in their outwardly showy displays of devotion, in the same light.

18

Do you think this would work?

by LisaRose in

.

garyneal

Our neighbor has this sign on his front door.

103

JW and the Sabbath

by Andromeda in

hello brothers and sisters and truth seekers,.

i am an active jehovah's witness.

i don't believe in 1914 and i'm tototally against their way of dealing with abuse cases.

garyneal

Andromeda

I can appreciate your position in regards to your faith but I cannot help but to think that it will only get increasingly difficult for you to stomach the meetings. According to your personal testimony:

I'm a JW but by no means I am blinded by their mistakes. I do, however, agree with their bible teachings as far as some doctrines. In fact I agree with most of them. But at the end of the day I don't seek approval by a religious organization but by Jehovah himself. He is the source of life and salvation. I am a JW but by no means I will follow them blindly. It is just a place for me to have a connection with people who believe in God and have akin beliefs. I follow the bible first and foremost. Is the JW God's organization? The bible is clear "the WHOLE world lies under the power of Satan" the whole world. No where in there it says "except Jehovah's witnesses"

What I see eventually happening is that you will find that you will always have to put on some mask when you are at the kingdom hall. Witnesses will no doubt say something that you will not totally agree with at some point. The speaker will preach something that you disagree with and you will find it difficult to answer some of the questions during the WT study honestly.

I recall finding myself in a similar predicament when I really began to try to run away from my doubts while still attending church. I remember some Christians making comments that I did not fully agree with anymore. I remember finding it increasingly difficult to teach Sunday school as I was no longer sure about what I was teaching.

When I finally left the church and began fully examining what I believed, why I believed it, and began following the evidence I was finally free to be my authentic self for the first time.

12

Jehovah’s Witnesses do not seek truth and prefer to follow their hearts...

by garyneal in

it’s been a while since i posted some thoughts of mine concerning the jehovah’s witnesses and the watchtower babble and trash society.

okay, i will be respectable and say it right, the watchtower bible and tract society.

i do, however, think about the doctrines quite a bit as well as the overall doctrines from christianity in general.

garyneal

Thanks also for your response, Outlaw.

12

Jehovah’s Witnesses do not seek truth and prefer to follow their hearts...

by garyneal in

it’s been a while since i posted some thoughts of mine concerning the jehovah’s witnesses and the watchtower babble and trash society.

okay, i will be respectable and say it right, the watchtower bible and tract society.

i do, however, think about the doctrines quite a bit as well as the overall doctrines from christianity in general.

garyneal

The Searcher

Would you say whether or not the religion has some unwritten rules regarding how people in the congregation should handle faders? I hear so much about how spiritually weak individuals should be approached with caution that I would imagine that any active publisher will approach such a fader with his or her guard up.

Thanks for the response.

12

Jehovah’s Witnesses do not seek truth and prefer to follow their hearts...

by garyneal in

it’s been a while since i posted some thoughts of mine concerning the jehovah’s witnesses and the watchtower babble and trash society.

okay, i will be respectable and say it right, the watchtower bible and tract society.

i do, however, think about the doctrines quite a bit as well as the overall doctrines from christianity in general.

garyneal

annointed1

I looked up that passage and as I recall, what Peter said afterward is the most infamous response Jehovah's Witnesses have when they begin seeing that the WT teachings could be wrong.

John 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Except the way they say it, it goes, "Where else can we go?"

12

Jehovah’s Witnesses do not seek truth and prefer to follow their hearts...

by garyneal in

it’s been a while since i posted some thoughts of mine concerning the jehovah’s witnesses and the watchtower babble and trash society.

okay, i will be respectable and say it right, the watchtower bible and tract society.

i do, however, think about the doctrines quite a bit as well as the overall doctrines from christianity in general.

garyneal

Well, I must admit, this has been somewhat enlightening to say the least. Perhaps, maybe I am viewing the witnesses in my life the wrong way when I conclude that they are following their own heart.

I just simply drew the analogy concerning why a witness, when shown the evidence that contradicts a major teaching of their faith, will either double down and support the lie or try to dismiss it by saying, "We do not serve for dates," as if to suggest that 1914 is not a major teaching.

smiddy

I certainly agree that witnesses simply follow the GB and are not allowed to question even when they do a reversal on a major teaching (say the generation teaching). I can only imagine how demoralizing that could be to have a teaching you defended just get changed to something nonsensical. I had a conversation with a JW elder who I nicknamed scholar when I shared our exchange over this very topic. He seemed eager to embrace this new teaching in spite of him not being able to explain it.

I remember also when he tried to explain the erroneous 607 BCE date to me after my wife and I went to the library and found not a single encyclopedia supporting this teaching that he told me that he had the same experience not finding it in any encyclopedia. He simply researched it using WT literature and was convinced that the society had it correct. This, in spite of, evidence (those darn encyclopedias) to the contrary.

I cannot help but to see parallels between what he, my wife, and other witnesses she knows are doing and what they accuse Christians of doing. My wife told me of a talk she heard from a visiting speaker who said that he encountered a householder who, when confronted with a biblical passage that contradicted her beliefs, went to her pastor to clarify only to be told by this pastor that they must "read between the lines."

There's a who LOT of reading between the lines to get 1914 out of the Bible. Given scholar's embracing of the WT theology concerning the erroneous date and my wife's dismissal of it with the whole "We do not serve for dates" rebuttal, I cannot help but to think that they are simply clinging for dear life to an ideology because it suits them.

Of course, as others have pointed out, there are other reasons why people stick around even if they no longer believe a lot of the nonsense.

67

Recent mistakes of the Governing Body contributing to the decline of JWs

by slimboyfat in

they have made so many strategical mistakes it's hard to keep track.

some changes within the last decade or so that are contributing to declining numbers of jws:.

1. elimination of book study groups, the most informal, enjoyable and sociable of the jw meetings, contributed to loss of sense of community among jws.. 2. policy of consolidating kingdom halls.

garyneal

Are the Jehovah's Witnesses actually in decline? I remember a few years ago that their worldwide numbers tallied up to 7 million publishers. Now they claim to have 8 million publishers. Of course, according to Aron Ra, the Mormon religion counts even individuals who are no longer active in the Mormon church to boost their numbers. Perhaps the WT is doing the same?

To look at my wife and her family, there is no indication that they're losing confidence within the religion.

12

Jehovah’s Witnesses do not seek truth and prefer to follow their hearts...

by garyneal in

it’s been a while since i posted some thoughts of mine concerning the jehovah’s witnesses and the watchtower babble and trash society.

okay, i will be respectable and say it right, the watchtower bible and tract society.

i do, however, think about the doctrines quite a bit as well as the overall doctrines from christianity in general.

garyneal

It’s been a while since I posted some thoughts of mine concerning the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Watchtower Babble and Trash Society. Okay, I will be respectable and say it right, The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. I do, however, think about the doctrines quite a bit as well as the overall doctrines from Christianity in general. I remember during the six years I used to study with the Jehovah’s Witnesses how they like to quote the passage in the Bible that states that the heart is treacherous.

“The heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate. Who can know it?” – Jeremiah 17:9

I don’t recall whether or not Jehovah’s Witnesses used this verse to get me to question my beliefs and consider whether or not any of them were wrong. I do, however, recall my wife using it on me a few times when I sometimes would say that when I was not sure about something I would simply follow my heart. As I did begin to consider their arguments I could not help but notice that they were not as receptive to any arguments outside of their own beliefs. This became even more apparent when I began discovering facts about the misdeeds of the WT leaders of the past and some of their erroneous teachings, a few of which persist to this day.

After all, it is easy to see why someone would choose his or her own beliefs even in the face of contradictory evidence if such a belief system feels good to him or her. In this person’s heart, the beliefs must be right and confirmation bias being what it is it was only a matter of time before this person found something to justify this belief. I remember feeling the constant need to reexamine my own beliefs often as I did not want to be guilty of just “following my heart” instead of following the facts. Indeed, if my beliefs were wrong and the Watchtower (or some other religion) had it right, I needed to know this and adjust my position accordingly. However, I noticed that in spite of the witnesses’ own claims to be lovers of truth, they resist even the most glaring evidence that contradicts their own belief system.

I’ve spilt ink over this subject before but I still think it is a very good analogy to show the double standards and doubling down witnesses do to avoid the conclusion they might have to face should they consider the facts. Witnesses love to point out to Christians that December 25th is not Jesus’ birthday and make a lot of hay regarding why Christians will either double down on the position that it is indeed His birthday or simply acknowledge it but see nothing wrong with celebrating His birth on that particular day anyway. I’ve personally had a witness tell me that this information is available in any encyclopedia and therefore I should accept this because of this fact.

Fair enough but mention this about 1914 and the year that marks the beginning of the 2520 year seven times period, which the Watchtower erroneously places at 607 BCE, and the response is surprising to say the least. Similar to how Christians respond to the whole Jesus not being born on Christmas Day fact, witnesses will either double down on the erroneous date by attempting to discredit the evidence that supports 586/587 BCE or they will simply try to dismiss the whole argument by saying something like, “We do not serve for dates.”

That last response should be particularly troubling because these same witnesses will insist that Christians who see nothing wrong with celebrating the birth of Christ on Christmas Day, in spite of knowing that it is not His birthday, are simply being dishonest and just trying to justify their own traditions in spite of knowing the truth about them. In other words, they’re simply following their hearts. Yet these same witnesses do not seem at all troubled about attempting to ignore the evidence concerning 607 BCE by attempting to dismiss the whole argument by saying, “We do not serve for dates.” It is a glaring admission that these witnesses are not interested in truth and prefer to keep with their own traditions. In other words, they’re simply following their hearts.

81

No! No! No! This can't be true? brexit? No!

by purrpurr in

it seems britain has voted to leave the eu in a move of total madness!

the markets are already in free fall and the moronic bigots who campaigned for this are celebrating the demise of our country .. i can't see how a 49-51% split can be democratic?

there is still the postal vote to come in, maybe there's hope in that?

garyneal

Yeah, I really don't think it is going to be as bad as everyone is making it out to be. Sure, there'll be adjustments and any "bad" things that come out of it will be used by brexit opponents as fodder for staying but I really do not think it is all doom and gloom.

Let's leave the doom and gloom at the kingdom halls please.