-agape love/brotherly love
-spiritual food at the right time
-encouraging expressions
-our most treasured hope for the future
i was browsing through stuff on jw.org recently and ran across some expressions that really grate on my nerves: loyal love, loving-care, and loving-kindness, as in: "please exercise loving-kindness toward your servant.
" who talks like that?
they must be relics of the fred franz era.
-agape love/brotherly love
-spiritual food at the right time
-encouraging expressions
-our most treasured hope for the future
i've seen it mentioned by a few on the forum that at some point there was a realization that had they not been born a jw, they never would've converted no matter how many times the jws tried to study with them.
this was my experience too, and i'm wondering how universal it is for those that were born-in but eventually left.
i think i started having this thought (more specifically that if i were not born a jw, i would surely have become an atheist by now) in my late teens.
For those that were born-in, did you ever realize that you never would've joined if not for the circumstances of your birth? If you did, how long did you live with that knowledge before finally and fully waking up?
I made a fairly similar statement when I first joined this forum. I think it common among born-ins to feel this way. For me it probably started popping up when I went to college. I was open to many of the new ideas presented but found that JWs wouldn't even consider information other than what the WT pushes. I'm not even talking about evolution. Things like the big bang, formation of the universe, and artificial intelligence are all dismissed by JWs because they raise too many questions. I'd also find many of the statements from the "hardcore JWS" to be absolutely nuts.
nope sorry i got nothing.. wouldn't it be really interesting though if somewhere there was a theist who could challenge unbelievers with facts and evidence?.
i've always found it amazing that people can say with such conviction that jehovah is their friend.. we are talking about a "friend" who perhaps daily "tests" us to see if we are his friends.
all of us have dealt with some form of hardship such as the death of a loved one, chronic illness or whatever.
it is in these cases that the brothers will tell a person that perhaps it is a test, or that "jehovah knows you're not ready" or some other lame excuse.. do our real friends "test" us to see if we will be loyal to them?
so i was thinking the other day that the wt corp has produced thousands of books over the years.
although the writers have changed the style is almost always the same.
however, some books are just worse than others.
it's amazing how the expression "the truth" has become such an ingrained term used by witnesses.. "we have 'the truth'".
"is he 'in the truth'?".
most here have found out so many facts about the organisation, and felt the effects of being "gut-punched" as we realised these facts.. so how do you feel about the expression "the truth" now?.
it's amazing how the expression "the truth" has become such an ingrained term used by witnesses.. "we have 'the truth'".
"is he 'in the truth'?".
most here have found out so many facts about the organisation, and felt the effects of being "gut-punched" as we realised these facts.. so how do you feel about the expression "the truth" now?.
I hear it all the time from family members and I secretly can't stand it! I never ever call it that anymore. I say the religion or the organization.
And I'm sure that they notice that, it's another way to mark those who no longer believe. Once you know what's going on it becomes hard to call it "the truth".
so i was thinking the other day that the wt corp has produced thousands of books over the years.
although the writers have changed the style is almost always the same.
however, some books are just worse than others.
The "Isaiah" books were, bar none, the absolute most boring books ever written, not just by the WTS, but by anyone, anywhere, any time.
Yeah, who's idea was it to make it a verse by verse study? And some of the parallels they tried to draw really didn't make sense. Who are the modern day Tyre and Sidon? LOL Nobody that's who it's ancient history! Now they want to get rid of types and anti-types except they can't because the whole religion is built around them.
so i was thinking the other day that the wt corp has produced thousands of books over the years.
although the writers have changed the style is almost always the same.
however, some books are just worse than others.
I laugh every time I try to read the "Imitate their Faith" book.
After I read the section on Abel and Noah I realized it was going to be a book of speculation and nonsense. The bible accounts are there but they need to drive home their own message. I did find the section on Ruth disturbing, no explanation was given for why Boaz felt the need to tell his men "Not to touch her". This supposed to be God's chosen nation right? Sounds like a great place to be a woman.
i mean this with all due respect, i would like to hear from genuine people who think jw have it wrong and then what is the truth?.
im not talking about silly little quibbles here and there.. is jehovah real?
the the bible is word?