It ONLY matters if you are in a cult.
:-)
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mentallyfree31
JoinedPosts by mentallyfree31
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dos it really matter if it was a cross or a stake???
by highdose inwhat does it matter?
i belive its been found that the romans used both, so what does it matter?.
what does it matter that the roman word for cross sounds also like a word for another god?.
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Out of the cult? You ARE Lucky!
by mentallyfree31 injust wanted to share an experience i had yesterday, that made me realize just how lucky i am to be out of this cult.
brief background: when i graduated high school in 1995, i started doing janitorial worker (shocker!!
) while pioneering.
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mentallyfree31
Just wanted to share an experience I had yesterday, that made me realize just how lucky I am to be out of this cult.
Brief background: When I graduated high school in 1995, i started doing janitorial worker (shocker!!) while pioneering. I worked for a 72 year old special pioneer, who had been a special pioneer for decades. I worked for him three years, until 1998.
As you know, I left the cult in December 2009. Yesterday, I was passing the Kingdom Hall on the highway, and saw this "brother" that I used to work for in 1995. He is almost 90 years old now, and has been special pioneering for 40 to 50 years. He could barely walk, but had his bookbag in hand, waking up the steps to the Kingdom Hall to go in service.
It really hit me hard. I am lucky to be out of this. I wanted to stop the car and get out and kiss the ground. I felt like the luckiest man alive. It doesn't matter what I lost to leave this organization. I am free. And I can't think of anything better than being free.
For those who remember my family's story, you will remember that it was a routine mistake on a blood test (of my brother leavingwt's second unborn child) that is responsible for us leaving the cult. If that test hadn't come back with a false positive, my whole family would still be in this, going strong, at every meeting.
Not a day passes, that I don't smile and remember just how lucky I am to be out!
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"Top 10 Grievances Against the Bible"
by leavingwt inlady atheist.
my top ten grievances against the bible .
1. authority -- not -- it was compiled, copied, edited, codified and translated by men.
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mentallyfree31
I suggest the following books on this topic:
Who Wrote the Bible - Richard Elliot Friedman
The Bible - Karen Armstrong
And I think OTWO will agree with me.
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Facebook: Local Ruling By Elders in Nearby Congregation
by mentallyfree31 injust heard from a friend that a nearby body of elders in their congregation have decided that anybody who is on facebook will not be able to have privleges in their congregation.. hilarious!.
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mentallyfree31
What's funny is about 3 years ago, the website Ringo became popular in Mississippi. It was a photo sharing site, that allowed comments on photos. Very simple. The hardcore witnesses joined up in droves and were all over it. It was like the alternative to myspace and it was "okay". Then a SAD speaker mentioned it in his talk. It broke their hearts. They all went home and deleted their accounts.
LOL
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Are there any Watchtower prophesies that came true?
by TTWSYF ini know that the failed predictions of amageddon for 1914, 1918, 1925, during wwii, and 1975 have been well documented here and other places, but are there any [documented] 'prophesies' that actually came true?.
dc.
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mentallyfree31
The only prophecies that I know of that came true are the series of conventions way back in the early 1900's, that were foreshadowed by the seven bowls of Revelation.
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LURKERS: Is JW the only true religion? Here is my personal research!
by mentallyfree31 inare jehovah's witnesses the only religion teaching the truth?.
the statement that only jehovah's witnesses are teaching the truth is an extraordinary claim.
such a claim would require extraordinary evidence.
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mentallyfree31
Thanks everybody for your kind words. I hope this will help somebody along the way.
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Facebook: Local Ruling By Elders in Nearby Congregation
by mentallyfree31 injust heard from a friend that a nearby body of elders in their congregation have decided that anybody who is on facebook will not be able to have privleges in their congregation.. hilarious!.
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mentallyfree31
Sherah - heehee! Thanks for having my back there.
Your buddy,
Steve
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LURKERS: Is JW the only true religion? Here is my personal research!
by mentallyfree31 inare jehovah's witnesses the only religion teaching the truth?.
the statement that only jehovah's witnesses are teaching the truth is an extraordinary claim.
such a claim would require extraordinary evidence.
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mentallyfree31
Are Jehovah's Witnesses the ONLY religion teaching the truth?
The statement that ONLY Jehovah's Witnesses are teaching the truth is an extraordinary claim. Such a claim would require extraordinary evidence. When I was a Jehovah's Witnesses, I firmly believed that ONLY this religion was teaching the truth, and thus only JW's would be saved at Armageddon. In my self-confidence, I had failed to consider sobering truths:
- There are over 10,000 religions in the world
- When given a pen and paper, I could not identify the correct names of even 50 religions.
- I couldn't explain the complete belief system of any other religion in the world, other than Jehovah's Witnesses.
- For the thousands of religions of which I knew nothing about, not even it's name - how could I possibly classify that religion as false?
- The idea of a "one and only true religion" was suggested to me by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, not the Bible.
- Other groups that teach that their religion is the only church which teaches "the truth" include the following: Mormons, Worldwide Church of God, Unification Church, and many others. Members of these other groups are taught to detest all other religions. Members are taught that all other religions are false, and are under the control of Satan. These members are taught that God will only save their church.
- I was proclaiming other religions as promoters of lies and false prophecies, when in fact my own religion had likely promoted more false prophecies than any other church in the world. Every time a prophecy was created by WT leaders, it was printed in millions of books, and Witnesses spent over a billion hours each year distributing these books and teaching these false prophecies.
- I believed that other religions were blood guilty for teaching lies and false doctrines. I had failed to consider how would God view my religion, which had aggressively spread more false information than any other religion, insisting that people must accept it or else be destroyed by God.
- I was forbidden by the organization to read literature produced by any other religion. How could I ever accurately know what other religions taught? Many of the senior members who write the Watchtower magazine have been Jehovah's Witnesses their entire lives, thus they have never read other religious literature either. Therefore, there is no possible way that they can know the truth of whether other religions teach truth or lies.
- If other churches speak things that aren't true, I classified them as "Babylon the Great", false prophets, disgusting and blood guilty organizations, and deserving of God's wrath. When my religion spoke false prophecies and spread false information, I was supposed to consider it to be acceptable. It was simply "over eagerness" on the part of some brothers. Or it was considered "old light".
Eventually, I had to admit that I was completely ignorant on the subject of Religion. The only thing I knew about religion was information that I obtained from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. And their stance was, and still is: "All other religions are false, and ours is the only true one". One thing that really helped me was when I discovered Deuteronomy 18: 21-22:
And in case you should say in your heart: “How shall we know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?” 22 when the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word does not occur or come true, that is the word that Jehovah did not speak. With presumptuousness the prophet spoke it. You must not get frightened at him.’
I was delighted to find out that all those false prophecies I had spread to others had NOTHING to do with God. I was simply promoting the literature of a large religious organization based in Brooklyn. If God was behind this religion, all the prophecies and predictions would have been fulfilled, exactly as predicted. If God was not behind it, then all the prophecies would fail.
What does the evidence show? All the prophecies have failed.
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Facebook: Local Ruling By Elders in Nearby Congregation
by mentallyfree31 injust heard from a friend that a nearby body of elders in their congregation have decided that anybody who is on facebook will not be able to have privleges in their congregation.. hilarious!.
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mentallyfree31
Hairyhegoat - this is a local decision made in this congregation. I live in the US.
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Facebook: Local Ruling By Elders in Nearby Congregation
by mentallyfree31 injust heard from a friend that a nearby body of elders in their congregation have decided that anybody who is on facebook will not be able to have privleges in their congregation.. hilarious!.
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mentallyfree31
Just heard from a friend that a nearby body of elders in their congregation have decided that anybody who is on facebook will not be able to have privleges in their congregation.
Hilarious!
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