Posts by lovelylil2

70

Does anyone here believe that Jesus never existed?

by Newborn in

jw
friends

if so...why?.

i don't know what i believe so i'm just curious.

/newborn.

lovelylil2

Nathan,

Thank you for your response. I do not know if you noted the statement in one of my posts about Josephus which was "if you accept this writing to be true" but the reason I said that is that I am fully aware that there is a controversy about whether or not what is written in the book of Josephus about Jesus really was written by him or by a christian interloper at a later time.

I've read a lot on this subject and have found that the evidence is probably stronger that while Josephus did give a very generic account of a man named Jesus living during that time in history, someone else added more details later on about Jesus being the Christ. I came to this conclusion by reading lots of commentaries about this book as well as looking at evidence provided by the earliest copies of manuscripts of Josephus' writings.

Believe me my friend, I take nothing at face value any more and have no problem looking at evidence that goes contrary to my belief. If I do not do this, how can I learn to defend my beliefs with non believers? The evidence has not swayed me in any way because part of belief in Christ is based upon Faith and not how much was written about him, or how many people believe the testimony of him. It is simply a personal decision I have made in my life, after wieghing the evidence, to accept Jesus as the Christ.

The fact that non believers either do not have the same belief in Jesus existance or do not give Jesus the same authority or esteem in their lives than that of being a mortal man is not surprising at all to me. Why would they anyway? Jesus means as much to them as Budha means to me which is nothing at all.

But I am not going around trying to disprove Budha and wonder why so many try to disprove Jesus? The NT is a collection of letters written by and for people of a certain faith belief and WE (who belong to that faith) have to determine how much wieght to give it in our lives. It really should not concern non believers in any way unless of course you have nothing better to do with your time then try to dismantle other peoples belief? I just do not get it. Life is too short to spend time argueing about a book you do not believe in anyway.

Wishing you peace, Lilly

12

so I was listening to christian radio this morning. . .

by John Doe in

jw
friends

yeah, don't laugh.

anyway, they went on and on nonstop about how we should all be grateful and how we are a bunch of spoiled brats and how it personally offends god if we are not grateful.

i couldn't help but chuckle.

lovelylil2

John,

They sound negative to me.

I personally enjoy the christian radio programs put out by Plain Truth Ministries. You can listen anytime online. Here is the link www.ptm.org Just click on radio and then click on the program you want to listen to. They have a new 30 minute program on a different topic everyday. And you can download mp3s for free.

Also on Sundays, if you click the link for "worship online" you can hear a 30 minute sermon. They even have a hymm book so you can sing a song before the sermon. It is an online church, non denominational. I've been enjoying this for a while now as I work overnights on Saturday and am too tired to go to a physical church building on sunday mornings. So when I get up around noon, my husband and I listen to the program together.

I think you may enjoy it becuase they do not push their views on you and are not negative at all. The point of all thier programs is to upbuild people in the faith not remind them how sinful or unworthy they are. Peace, Lilly

50

New sex offender in my hall

by Iwonder17 in

just found out that there is a sex offender in my hall.

the "brother" that i was with said " the brothers will make sure that he is not put with any kids in service".

wtf !!!!

lovelylil2

Is this guy a child sex offender? If so he cannot go out in service at all because he will come upon homes with children in them and is NOT allowed to be around kids. He is breaker the law and could be jailed immediately. I would call the local police and turn him in.

If he is not a child sex offender but is a danger to adult women, I would go to the local paper and have them do a news story on this. You will need to show them proof of his sex offender record along with proof he is going door to door, so you may want to do a stake out, or have a friend do it for you. Stake out the kh during field service and follow his group, just snap a photo of this perve so you have proof.

I am sure the community will be thrilled with JW's to see them allowing this guy to knock on their doors.

This same thing happened to my family in the Hingham MA congregation about 7 years ago. That is why we abruptly left this hall after 10 years. A sister came to my home one day and told me that the elderly gentlemen that just moved to our hall, and that my husband and I had been speaking with several times at the meetings was a convicted child rapist. I guess his pleasure was raping little boys. At the time my son was 6 and since we had been in that hall since he was born and before that and knew everyone, we allowed him to use the restroom by himself. The sister came and warned us after she said she hung up with an elder who she pleaded with for an hour to come and tell us because our son could be in danger. He declined and told her to mind her own business.

Anyway this elder was more concerned about it getting out in the community because it would bring reproach on Jehovah then protecting the smallest most vulnerable sheep in the hall. Well, I went and warned all the other parents with young children and most of them were totally outraged by this. But this one lady actually told me that I could be accused of slander for spreading this around and that we did not know if he was repentent or not but was reinstated so we should leave it in Jehovahs hands. She was not concerned at all and was the mother of TWO boys, ages 6 and 3. I could not believe her reaction.

Another thing about this elder, he had a young son at the time too. But you see, since HE was privy to the information about this guy, his son was never in danger. What a A**hole.

12

Strong Meteor Showers tonight

by lovelylil2 in

jw
friends

anyone planning on staying up till crack of dawn for this?

http://english.cri.cn/6909/2009/11/16/2001s529680.htm.

i am going to try to see some of it from my rooftop.

lovelylil2

I was disapointed too. I stayed up until 2 am and did not see anything. My hubby got up at 4 am to go to work and he saw nothing at that time either. I really think you have to be totally away from people, like in an open field somewhere. Come to think of it, this is the best way to see UFOs too.

Maybe next meteor shower, I will head to Roswell. Lilly

12

True Faith Jehovah's Witnesses

by RR in

some of you may be aware of the jw offshoot in the 1940s after the judge died, they call themselves true faith jehovah's witnesses and are essentially jw's in every way, shape and form, wiwth some minor differences.

found this on you tube, from one of their conventions:.

http://www.youtube.com/user/vestitorulimparatiei#p/u/18/fjijgwv5m9w.

lovelylil2

This group must be wierder than the JWs we know because they are sticking to the very old "light" material. And we all know the WT in the past printed even more wierd stuff than today.

This reminds me of the bible students groups who still reprint Russell's old material with gems in it like leviathan of the bible is the locamotive train or that the measurements of the pyramid of Giza fortold the date 1914. They even call it God's great "stone" witness.

My husband and I soon after leaving the tower got invited to a bible student meeting in CT. Anyway it was in a Masonic temple and before the meeting began, one of the elders stood up and hung on the wall some wierd pyramid chart that was a replica of the one in Russell's study in the scripture books. I swear to God it was so wierd my hubby and I thought any minute there was going to be a sacrifice on an alter or something. We were like "what the hell does this stuff have to do with the bible?"

We never went to another of these "bible" meetings.

Peace, Lilly

66

Did you Exit the Witnesses Gradually - Or Exit Suddenly - Your Reasons ?

by flipper in

jw
friends

i thought it would be good to discuss it to understand what caused some of us to exit suddenly, or some to exit gradually .. myself , i had been in 44 years , had mentally had doubts for years before exiting - but injustices by the elders and my doubts about the " generation " doctrine led me to exit suddenly one night before a meeting.

the elders pissed me off , i went to my seat, picked my books up and walked out - never going back.

so what is your story and reasons ?

lovelylil2

flipper,

Thanks for your kind words.

For anyone thinking of leaving like I did;

it was not easy although it may sound that way by my posts. I am now 7 years looking back so the pain of the experience is gone but I was really scared to tell my husband. At first he tolerated it pretty well. I think he thought I would come to my senses but then I didn't. Anyway, when I did not change my mind after a week, he had the mother of all melt downs in our kitchen one night, right in front of our two yound kids. My husband is HUGE. He is 6 feet tall and 250 pounds of pure beastly strength. He has huge hands, legs, arms, etc. Everything about him is BIG. I am 5 ft tall, mini italian lady ok.

Anyway he screamed so loud at me, calling me names and banging the chairs around and I thought he was going to hit me in the face and completely knock me out. My kids were screaming and crying. he literally yelled for about 2 hours. Telling me the kids will die because of me. I did not say even one word. I knew if I did it would make it worse. He then went upstairs and packed his bags, got in the family car and left. I thought he would never come back but he returned the next day. And then he forbade me from speaking about "spiritual" things with him or the kids.

It took 3 months of patience and prayer until he finally came around. He read my letter but I think he needed time to digest it. I told him if he wanted to stay a JW then I would fully support that decision and not interfere in any way. He really didn't care about the kids sprituality because I always handled that anyway.

I can look back now and see he reacted out of total fear. For me, I still had a relationship with God intact but he had no idea what he would do or where to go after life in the WT. I think his ego was hurt too. He finally started to realize he had been duped and had trouble handling it.

Anyway, some advice to anyone wanting to leave and having a believing spouse still in, I think it is important to have some type of support system set up to help you deal with the stress of it all, BEFORE you actually make your exit. If I had to do it over again, I would have gotten family more involved in my decision (none of them were witnesses) so I would have felt safer telling my husband. Like maybe if one of my brothers was there for instance.

Your support could be your new faith, family, friends, or any others you can trust, but again you need something else to replace the WT, and you need it right away. Looking back I may have left too fast because I just could not take being there any longer. I was in total fear that something would happen to my kids. I knew it was a cult and just had to leave. I was emotionally and spiritually dying a little more each day I stayed there.

But leaving so fast did affect my kids initially. They were confused and upset, especially seeing their dad get so angry and even they were afraid Jehovah was going to kill them. I do not really recomend leaving like I did to anyone else but it did eventually work out and we are doing great, the kids are thriving in High School and hubby and I are still married. We rarely if ever think about our JW experiences.

Peace to all having doubts, Lilly

12

Strong Meteor Showers tonight

by lovelylil2 in

jw
friends

anyone planning on staying up till crack of dawn for this?

http://english.cri.cn/6909/2009/11/16/2001s529680.htm.

i am going to try to see some of it from my rooftop.

lovelylil2

Anyone planning on staying up till crack of dawn for this? http://english.cri.cn/6909/2009/11/16/2001s529680.htm

I am going to try to see some of it from my rooftop. I worked overnight last night and did not sleep much today so I am not sure how long I can stay up . But will give it a shot anyway. I am trying to find my camera as we speak.

Good luck to anyone watching, hope you have a good show. Lilly

66

Did you Exit the Witnesses Gradually - Or Exit Suddenly - Your Reasons ?

by flipper in

jw
friends

i thought it would be good to discuss it to understand what caused some of us to exit suddenly, or some to exit gradually .. myself , i had been in 44 years , had mentally had doubts for years before exiting - but injustices by the elders and my doubts about the " generation " doctrine led me to exit suddenly one night before a meeting.

the elders pissed me off , i went to my seat, picked my books up and walked out - never going back.

so what is your story and reasons ?

lovelylil2

Quandry,

I feel so sorry that your family and especially your daughter had to go through that awful experience.

My good friend who was in for 20 years was treated in a similar way by the elders. It was stuff like this that started to really weigh on my mind. The elders used to brag to my hubby who was a ms about how they brow beat people and what sinners they were. They even told their wives what went on it JC meetings. I kept thinking, is this religion was really from God, then where is the Christ like love ?

I am glad I got out when my kids were still young. My daughter is 17 now. I cannot imagine what I would have done if anyone dared to refer to my child as "filth" or a "dog". I am sure I would have had to be pulled off the brothers.

How is your daughter doing now?

66

Did you Exit the Witnesses Gradually - Or Exit Suddenly - Your Reasons ?

by flipper in

jw
friends

i thought it would be good to discuss it to understand what caused some of us to exit suddenly, or some to exit gradually .. myself , i had been in 44 years , had mentally had doubts for years before exiting - but injustices by the elders and my doubts about the " generation " doctrine led me to exit suddenly one night before a meeting.

the elders pissed me off , i went to my seat, picked my books up and walked out - never going back.

so what is your story and reasons ?

lovelylil2

I made a very quick exit.

True story;

I had been questioning the WT teachings for a few months and was confused about whether I wanted to leave or not. My husband and I were in almost 12 years and raised two kids up in it. He was a MS and me a pioneer.

I had been praying to God to help me make the right decision about what to do. If I was in the true religion I wanted him to reveal it to me. And if not, I wanted to know as well. However, I knew if I tried to leave my husband may walk out on me and leave me with two kids to support and no job at the time. Needless to say I was under a lot of stress. I literally prayed the same prayer once in the morning and once at night and that was asking, no pleading, to know if this religion was true or not. I even asked Jehovah to forgive me if I was wrong but I wanted to ask Jesus directly for help. I was so scared when I did this I was completely shaking.

Anyway, still not knowing what to do after a few weeks of prayer, I went to the hall one sunday with hubby and the kids for the meeting. During the WT study I had an experience I can only call a spiritual epiphany of sorts. I looked around at the group there and had an overwelming feeling that I did not belong there. I knew instantly I was in a cult and I became fearful! All my confusion cleared up and I knew I had to get myself and my kids out of the witnesses no matter what.

It was such a profound experience I still cannot really explain it. I came sooo close to standing up and announcing to the whole congregation that we are all in a cult. My husband turned and saw I was getting totally anxious. I felt like I had to RUN out of the hall, I was so overwelmed by emotions I got up and left. I went and sat in the car for the hour.

When my husband came out with the kids, he got in the car and I told him I made a decision and that was not to attend any more meetings at the kingdom hall.

That night I wrote my DA letter and dropped it off a few days later. I simply placed it in the mailbox of the KH. It was 10 pages long with lots of scriptures. I told the elders not to bother coming by unless it was to prove to me scripturally that my position was incorrect. They never came by.

My husband thought for sure I had a breakdown. But you know what? I felt great as soon as I handed in my letter. I never looked back, it was that swift. I was very sure I made the right decision.

It was hard for a few months, my hubby tried everything to get me to change my mind including pleading, begging and threatening to leave me. I stood my ground even when he would not listen to me at all. I stayed calm even when he was yelling and did not let him persuade me to go back.

He did read my letter and look up the scriptures but didn't do anything right away. He did finally leave a few months later. His reason? He said that although he kept attending meetings and the elders knew I Da'd and the kids weren't there, they seemed afraid to approach him in any way. They never called him in the back to ask him what happened or asked how he was doing, etc. He felt in his heart that scripturally they probably did not have a leg to stand on and were afraid to even try so they just totally ignored him, even though He hadn't done anything wrong. That sealed it for him, and he came home one thursday night from the meeting and told me he was never going back.

This happened almost 7 years ago. Peace, Lilly

70

Does anyone here believe that Jesus never existed?

by Newborn in

jw
friends

if so...why?.

i don't know what i believe so i'm just curious.

/newborn.

lovelylil2

Nathan,

Hi. I agree with you there were probably many Jesus' back then. It was a common name for the time.

The thing is though that Josephus mentions that this Jesus was a doer of great works and was condemed by Pilate to the cross. So if you believe the Josephus account, this is the Jesus Christians worship. Lilly