Posts by The Marvster

59

What does your baptism mean to you now?

by GiftsinMen in

i was baptised on 1st sept 1990, 25years ago today.

it is still a date with deep meaning for me.

i never dedicated my life to serving any man or any organisation, this was my choice - as a grown adult - to serve my god through jesus christ.

The Marvster

When I was 14, I wanted to get baptised as my best friend was getting dunked, but I got told, 'not enough return visits'.... so it got dropped, then eventually at 21 years old and 'under pressure' from an elder I got baptised.. I was reluctant because of that age old reason, I thought I would 'sin' after dedicating my life and not be able to live the 'strict' lifestyle, I never even made a proper dedication, that's how doubtful I was.

Just 1 month after baptism, the secret sin restarted.... and I fought with it for 20 years and never won the battle.... so here I am 22 years after getting baptised and after a very long losing battle I'm out of the congregation... why didn't I listen to the gut feelings of that 21 year old?

4

Acts of God & accidents

by Diogenesister in

exodus 21.12 whoever strikes a person mortally shall be put to death.

if it was not premeditated, but came about by an act of god?

then i will appoint for you a place to which the killer may flee.

The Marvster

two things came to mind...

1. god who is 'omnipresent' is there watching every accident, and 'could' prevent, but instead allows it.

or worse

2. seeing as the ACCIDENT was an ACT OF GOD, God is actually responsible, and if so, why would the person need to flee to the city of refuge when;

A) God could have prevented the accident happening, but stood by and did nothing.

B) Being an act of god, it is GOD who is responsible, perhaps God should have been running to the cities of refuge?

I heard some Apostate quoting that Isaiah scripture just yesterday, I hadn't heard it before... The Old Testament is an indictment. A loving god? This is why I ended my relationship with god approximately 4 months ago...

16

The social institution of the Kingdom Hall.

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

it is a warm sunny day, blue skies and i am excited by the prospect this sunday holds.

will i dismantle a motorbike?

paint a picture?

The Marvster

Oh, what a crazy day... this morning while hanging out clothes to dry, stood there thinking 'I'm so glad I left the 'truth'... I was so happy, it just came from nowhere... I think it's because I realised I don't need to go on field service EVER AGAIN..

then went for a bus ride and to have a full-English breakfast at the Asda supermarket.. from there moved across the square to Starbucks, got a Medium Caramel Latte, and sat reading for an hour and a half while watching all the shoppers, lazily walking around or hurrying somewhere, I just love to watch people from the window, it was one of my first hobbies as a toddler...

then took a couple of buses back home passing the low flying airplanes near the airport (I'm obsessed with airplanes), then sat down at my electric Piano and worked on some tunes for about 4 hours....

watched a few 'why I left the watchtower' videos on youtube, and now while I'm reading off this forum, have the Oscar Peterson trio Jazz concert from Brussels 1957 in the background... I had no idea the day would turn out this way...

There was a part of the day when I felt 'very lonely' and in pain, but just sat with it, without feeling something's wrong..... feeling much better now....

7

Old brainwashing/blood

by rebel8 in

jw
friends

as you probably know, this is me and you can imagine that the old brainwashing sucks for me sometimes.

i don't believe anything wts says about medical care, i don't agree, and i have seen the proof they are wrong.

i've been out for a long time.

The Marvster

Melodramatic bastards with their cheap tactics... they always have to use outlandish examples to try to manipulate through fear,.... for F**k sake; is that how blood is collected these days, did medical organisations 'ever' collect blood that way?

how is there any similarity with a situation where a man or woman out of their love for life goes to donate blood, which is then used to save a person's life, and the situation mentioned by Tertullian?

I've never donated blood before, because I guess the indoctrination is still inside somewhere but those GB A*** holes make me wanna donate just to go against everything they said.

I think it's terrible for those little ideas to be sown into your brain, and to be still stuck there years later, even when they have no power over you, they still have control.... !£!$%%^

34

Hebrew Was The First Language

by Bloody Hotdogs! in

according to the newest watchtower:.

jehovah communicated with adam in the garden of eden, using human language.

god likely did so in an ancient form of hebrew.

The Marvster

I guess the borg's policy of 'if anybody disagrees with the GB (aka G.O.D) disfellowship them immediately' helps to ensure that ANYTHING that is written in the botchtower is always believed and never challenged...

Credulity or total shunning by everyone in your life; take your pick.

34

Hebrew Was The First Language

by Bloody Hotdogs! in

according to the newest watchtower:.

jehovah communicated with adam in the garden of eden, using human language.

god likely did so in an ancient form of hebrew.

The Marvster

God likely did so in an ancient form of Hebrew.

"Likely" = We have no F***ing clue what language was used,

let's just make shit up as we speculate...

14

The Watchtower says: The Septuagint became God's Word

by opusdei1972 in

the last edition of the watchtower (study edition) says the following:.

alexander the great later conquered much of the ancient world, and common, or koine, greek became an international language.

so, in this verse the septuagint was not god's word according to matthew.

The Marvster

Opusdei1972....

Here's the problem I have with this sort of thing... While being in the org I was given the impression that the 'truth' as found in the bible was correct, the bible was actually infallible and any inconsistencies could be explained away, it was god's word and there was no reason to doubt anything in it... and that's what made JW's know they had the 'truth'.. THE PROBLEM?.... I, and many other people, sacrificed big portions of a life, with the guarantee that the sacrifices we made would be rewarded at some future time, as promised in the infallible word of god.... and now as DATA-DOG pointed out:

Saying that human imperfection, via translation, became part of the inspired word of God is equal to saying the bible is not infallible.

more and more of this stuff is coming out of the woodwork and I tell you what, the anger I feel learning these things is 'all consuming', they lied to us, over and over and over and over again... but thanks for posting this, it just reinforces the hunch I had that leaving the 'truth' was the absolutely right thing to do.... Just wish I had awoken earlier..

2

Child Sex Abuse in The Jesus people cult

by LisaRose in

jw
friends

interesting article about a small religious cult in chicago.

a man who grew up in the cult and suffered abuse set about to make a documentary about the religion.

he didn't set out to make it about sex abuse, but in interviewing people he found out a lot of people had been molested as well.

The Marvster

Just happened to read one line ..

“Guys would stand up and confess to masturbation, or a visit to the porn shop,” says Chris Harold, a former member who joined the commune in 1986. “It was so humiliating. You would just sit there and think, I never want to have to do that.”

This was my number one terror - getting caught at this....

anyway, no wonder the watchtower didn't want JW's investigating anything outside... with information like this, I'm starting to learn that the life we were living as JW's was not a unique one.. there was a particular format to a cult, claiming to be the happiest people, only us having the truth, the end of the world soon, and lots of other minor details, I thought we were right because our way of life was 'different' but it turns out it wasn't so different at all, we just weren't allowed to know what was going on in the real world, but i bet the GB knew..

thanks for posting LisaRose

....

11

Cognitive Dissonance Runs Deep

by vinman in

while it is true that maybe 1 or 2 things woke you up (like myself), it is interesting to reflect on the reality of what you did not believe, even if you were a true believer and would of died for the organization.

here is my list (not a complete list, i'm sure their is more).

what is your list like?.

The Marvster

Ones I struggled with (similar to lots already said):

Michael the Archangel = Jesus

Resurrected can't remarry - a person being resurrected and having to watch her kids with ex husband happy with a new woman FOR ETERNITY - that's a bit cruel.

The Little Flock being The 144,000 and the 'Other Sheep' being the non-anointed great crowd- I had real difficulty with this, It seemed more rational to me that the little flock Jesus spoke of were his Israelite/Jewish brothers who converted to Christianity and the 'other sheep' was people of all other nations that became his followers, starting from Pentecost of 33CE..

Revelation book - they tried to make every single detail in John's vision fit every single detail they could find in 20th Century history, with no possible way to verify 'any of it'

I never had the guts to speak those doubts;

39

Let’s Speculate!!!

by John Aquila in

you know the organization is slowly going down.

not as fast as we would wish, but nevertheless it is crumbling.

five (5) year old child baptisms, smaller magazines, child sexual abuse exposed, smaller annual growth, no one wants to reach out, young ones leaving.

The Marvster

John Aquila... yep, me being a bit slow, and not knowing anything about the borg for the last 3 years since being DF'd, and then hearing about all the 'new light' stuff, which seemed to be an attempt to bury watchtower's historical gaffs, and then learning that the website is now called JW.org instead of Watchtower.org, I immediately smelled a rat and just having a hunch I wondered if that's what they were trying to do, slowly minimise the term 'watchtower' and distance themselves from it.