Posts by maksym

39

Hey Christians

by free2beme in

jw
friends

does it bother you thinking that you are saved and others are damned?.

maksym

Not all Christains are saved and neither are all those that don't claim to be Christian are thereby condemned.

61

What made you leave "The Truth"?

by Chemical Emotions in

for me it was many things.

most concerned certain teachings that invloved genders, children, sex, sexuality and sexual orientations, disfellowshipping, apostates, blood, rape, and few other things, as well as the jw's unloving attitude toward so many people..

maksym

There is a question you can ask Jehovah's Witnesses..(but I like to call them watchtowers).

What would Jehovah have to do to make you understand that the Watchtower religion is false.

I answered that question some 4 years ago.

Jehovah God spoke to me and told me to leave. He said you are in Babylon the Great. Go to my true religion and seek refuge.

What else can I say. When Jehovah speaks, I listen.

peace

Maksym

9

Another story you won't see in "Watching the World" - Poverty is being rapidly & radically eliminated

by sir82 in

jw
friends

"oh woe oh woe, how bad the world is getting!".

that's the theme of the first 5 pages of every issue of the watchtower and awake for the past 80 years, and the opening 5-10 minutes of every "public" sunday talk for the past 80 years.. but is it really true?

are things just continually getting worse and worse?.

maksym

I disagree with the opening post.

I've studied sociology in the University. Actual factual records for the country of the United States says that for the past 30 years poverty has remained the same.

I don't have any source material to spout from but from 1970 until now poverty in the U.S. has hovered around 12 to 15 percent. The influx of poverty is offest by those coming out of poverty. Unfortunately it is hidden and is labeled an individual problem from a social perspective in the U.S.

As for the rest of the world it is hard to say. I don't have any facts on that.

Neutral therefore....niether is it diminishing or gaining...well at least from the country of the U.S.

Also articles from the source above don't take into account how poverty is labeled. They generally label poverty in the official level sense. What that means is purely subjective from governmental and cultural understanding.

Maksym

15

BEST POST OF THE MONTH CONTEST (JUNE 2011) VOTE AND START HERE

by maksym in

i thought to start a place where we can reflect on some really great posts throughout the month.

paste the topic, opening post if necessary, and the posted reply below it.

read the posts here first.

maksym

@Farkel and Paralipomenon,

A prayer;

May God grant you mercy and peace in your lives. May He shine His light on you so that you may be strengthened by His grace in order to heal from the persecution you have been made to bear in the past by the Watchtower or otherwise.

Lord have mercy on me. Lord have mercy on us all.

Peace

+++ Maksym

15

BEST POST OF THE MONTH CONTEST (JUNE 2011) VOTE AND START HERE

by maksym in

i thought to start a place where we can reflect on some really great posts throughout the month.

paste the topic, opening post if necessary, and the posted reply below it.

read the posts here first.

maksym

Here is my vote for the month of (June), for one of the best posts I have read in a long time to deal with Jehovah's Witnesses. Clear cut and to the point.

Topic:

Info for Newbies Lurkers here on the forum

Post: Opening Post Posted by Mentallyfree31

(Last week, this was a post I made on another person's thread. I tweaked it a bit, and am giving it it's own thread. Hope you enjoy!)

Are you a newbie to the forum? Perhaps you have been reading, but haven't jumped in yet and started posting. Are you convinced that your beliefs as a Jehovah's Witness are right and the rest of the world is wrong? I invite you to consider the following:

Realize that you will not be destroyed at Armageddon for researching your religion. Move past the fear. Things are either true or false. If something is true, you can lay all the evidence on the table and consider all of it. It will still be true. If, upon closer observation, the evidence does not support the fact that something is true, then it can't be true. It's just that simple. Examinations are not to be feared when something is true. Example: Gravity is real. We can do all the research that we like on the subject of gravity. We could even read books that attempt to disprove gravity or that ridiculously claim that gravity is not real. When we finish the research - gravity is still real. Hold your mobile phone up and let go of it - it WILL fall to the floor.

(1) When was Jerusalem destroyed? Either Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 BCE or 587 BCE. It has to be one or the other. It cannot be both. You need to know the truth. Because if 607 BCE is wrong, then so is 1914 and 1918 and 1919. Very simple.

Some have claimed that we cannot trust secular dates and research because they are not inspired by God. Let me point out this fact: WITHOUT secular reserach, there is NO POSSIBLE WAY that we can determine the date of the destruction of Jerusalem, because the Bible does not give a date. So if we cannot trust secular research, then we can DEFINITELY discard the date of 607 BCE. And without secular research, we also cannot determine when the United States established independence, because it happened in the 1700's and none of us were alive then.

If you have the one and only true religion, looking at hard facts will not change the one and only true religion. Let me remind you that if Jehovah's Witnesses have the only true religion, honest research will only convince more fully that you are right. If you are right, research will only reveal MORE things that will prove that you are right. Go to the library and look up these terms: Jerusalem, Israel, Jews, Zedekiah & Nebechadnezzar. Scan the articles until you see the section talking about the destruction of Jerusalem. What does it say? When did it happen? Look through every encyclopedia they have if you have time. If you can, go to a large library in a larger city. Check it out for youself. Check EVERY encyclopedia they have. Facts are facts. The destruction of Jerusalem was a pretty big deal in history. It is WELL DOCUMENTED. I know when the Civil War happened in my country. Similarly, the Jews know when their city of Jerusalem was destroyed. Case closed.

(2) Either Jesus chose this organization in 1919 or he didn't. Why would Jesus have chosen this organization? If Jesus chose an organization, would its members have to be following the scriptures, and spreading the truth with others? Or could they be believing things that weren't true, and preaching false prophecies and beliefs to others? If christams and birthdays are so wrong, how could Jesus approve of them in 1919 and consider these people so righteous that he would appoint them over all his affairs on earth? With Jehovah, there is not the variation of a turning of a shadow - so how could something be okay in 1919 but a disfellowshipping offense in 2010? Why would Jehovah approve of it then, but destroy a person at Armageddon for doing it now?

(3) Next - what was this organization teaching in 1919? Do you know? Can you make a list of the 40 or so common teachings that they were preaching to others? Are you aware that if people believed today what those brothers believed in 1919, they would be disfellowshipped and destroyed at Armageddon? How did Charles Taze Russel rise to heaven in 1918 if most of the things he believed were false? Very simple. Think about it.

(4) 7 million Witnesses, wow that's a lot. That's impressive. But there are 12 million mormons, who are ready to die for their belief just like you are because they are convinced they have the only truth. There are over 1 billion muslims, some estimate as many as 1.5 billion. To them Allah is REAL. They are ready to die for him. Does this mean he is real? Of course not.

(5) If you think that you are "in the truth" presently, then what was Charles Taze Russell in? What was Rutherford in? They certainly didn't believe the same things that you believe. If what you have is the truth, then Russell and Rutherford died and never knew the truth. Did you know that Russell never knew anything about Jesus becoming king in 1914. Even though he died in 1916. Russell wrote many things about people of the world "being in darkness". He also said that one would be a fool not to accept his "so called truths". But his "truths" were merely the imaginations of somebody's mind. They all failed and every prediction he made never came true. After spending much time reading Russell's writings - I can assure you that the person who was in darkness was Charles Taze Russell himself.

(6) Is God really going to destroy millions of Chinese children any day now at this "Armageddon"? What did these children do? All they did was being born on the other side of the world, a long way from Brooklyn. They have never heard of a Watchtower organization. They have never heard of Jehovah. Is God really going to slaughter them and leave thier bodies in the streets for the birds to eat? Some suggest that God will not destroy all of these chinese children, because he will read people's hearts. If this is true, then we arrive at a new fact: It is NOT necessary to be a Jehovah's Witness to survive Armageddon. Now there is a dilema: Either a person has to be a Jehovah's Witness to survive Armageddon, or they don't. Which is it? It can only be one way or the other! If Jehovah is gonna read hearts, then we can throw out the "have to be a witness" teaching. Think about it.

(7) How many people in the bible had to commit to a 6 to 12 month bible study of some book before they could get baptized and accept Jesus? How many of those in the first century in the book of Acts had to join an organization in order to have Jesus' approval? How many in the first century had to shave their beard in order to get baptized? How many in the book of Acts turned in a field service report every month?

Here's a little humor to ponder: Why did we as JW's shake our heads in wonder when Pentacostals in the south could not wear jeans - but only skirts and dresses. Why did we think that was crazy, but yet at the same time we as JW's were running around clean shaven and couldn't have a beard, even though Jesus had a beard and there is NOTHING in the bible about a christian not being able to have a bible? Does that make sense to you?

(8) At what point did this organization become the true religion? When did the switch flip so to speak, so that people now needed to leave their church and come join the Watchtower Organization? Was it during Charles Russell's time? This would have been the time when the Bible Students were smoking, celebrating christamas and birthdays, believing and preaching that Jesus returned in 1874, believing and preaching that the anointed were sealed in the late 1800's, teaching that the last days started in 1799, teaching that the battle of armageddon would end in 1914, etc.. Was this when it became the true religion? Or was it later when we discovered that organ transplants were actually cannibalism, and that women should be disfellowshipped if they were raped and didn't scream, and when the organization joined up and became a NGO member of the United Nations? When did it become the truth?

(9) After considering the above things, it really comes down to this one question: If you were wrong, would you change? Or would you prefer to believe things that are not true?

People live in fantasy worlds every day. I lived in a fantasy world for many years. I was knocking on people's doors and telling them that Armageddon would be here any day now, because "this generation" that Jesus mentioned was almost up. Then the Society threw out that teaching and completely changed the meaning of that term. So, I was clearly living in a fantasy world, along with everybody that was a Jehovah's Witness from 1951 to 1995. That teaching was never correct. Sure, millions of people taught it all over the world for decades - but it was NEVER true. People at the doors were very smart not to respond and fall for that, because it was a hoax. The joke was truly on us as JWs.

The subsequent teaching about "this generation" that replaced this one in 1995 was that Jesus meant the "wicked and twisted generation". This was presented as truth, and we had to accept it. But it was false too, because in 2008 this teaching was thrown out as well. What about the new generation teaching in 2008? It too was wrong, because it changed in April 2010. ALL these understandings were actually misunderstandings. They were NEVER true, and God did not reveal these things to anybody. The Holy Spirit did not reveals these wrong teachings to anybody. Some man at a desk in Brooklyn picked up a pen and put this in writing. It had nothing to do with God. That's why the meaning of "this generation" has already changed completely 6 different times. Yes, six times. So that means we were beating on people's doors at 10 AM on Saturday mornings and waking them up sometimes, to tell them that the generation of 1914 is almost up and that they need to come to the kingdom hall so they can get saved..and that they have to believe this because this because this is God's only organization on earth and he reveals the truth to mankind only through this organization. Correct? Go ahead and laugh. It's okay. Honestly, I'm laughing as I write this. :-) But it happened, because I remember doing it..and I did it for many years.

I love the expression Judge Judy uses here on American TV: If something doesn't make sense, it's probably not true.

It can be very difficult to admit that one is wrong. I decided that whatever the cost, I want to know THE TRUTH. I decided that even if I didn't like what I discovered, I would rather know the truth than go on believing things that are false. Life is short, and I don't want to spend one more day chasing fairy tales.

Let go of your fear, if you are lurking out there. If something is true, it will never fear an examination.

Best of luck to you. And if you are new, welcome to the forum.

15

BEST POST OF THE MONTH CONTEST (JUNE 2011) VOTE AND START HERE

by maksym in

i thought to start a place where we can reflect on some really great posts throughout the month.

paste the topic, opening post if necessary, and the posted reply below it.

read the posts here first.

maksym

I thought to start a place where we can reflect on some really great posts throughout the month. Paste the topic, opening post if necessary, and the posted reply below it. Read the posts here first. If there is one already posted then copy it and paste it again to give it another vote. At the end of the month it will be tallied. What do you all say? Anyone can start the first vote for June.

The following topic and reply serves as an example but was posted in May. This start is for June 2011

Example:

Topic: If you love a man/woman...

Opening post by loubelle

I wondered about this as the song by Brian Adams played....what do you do/say/act if you really love someone. Edited to add: - I ask because some are so idealistic about it and think it's all fairytale stuff. Others are cynical.

My vote for great response and post of the month

My vote for response by Mad Sweeny Post 5613

When you really love a woman you try to put up with her alcoholism. You cry with her when she has a relapse. You hold her hair and rub her back when she's vomiting. You tell her that she's right, "I don't really understand, but I love you anyway and I'm staying right here no matter how much you hate yourself right now." You curl up beside her and hold her as she falls asleep. In the morning you get up and make her breakfast and kiss her, and tell her you love her, and just try to be thankful this period of sobriety was longer than the previous one. Then you reset the counter. Again.

Man that really is a great post. I wish you the best Mad Sweeny. You have no idea how your post touched me. It is a great example of pure love. Thank you.

19

I've invited the Witnesses to my house

by maksym in

jw
friends

im recent here and thought i would properly introduce myself.

i have posted a few times but mostly i like to read because i gather good insight into reaching the hearts of jehovahs witnesses.

the short of it is i was born into a large family of jehovahs witnesses.

maksym

I just had a thought. Even though I filled out a form and had a situation that I stumbled on to bring the witnesses to my house, I'm wondering if that actual idea is good for others. I'm referring to requesting a visit.

Has anyone ever tried calling the local congregation and asked for a visit just to preach to them. If you can remain anonymous then I think maybe getting someone out may be a possibility. At the least they would have some things to think about.

We need good apostates to break the mind control. Those that are good at rhetoric and finding fallacies and know the history, are prone to work into the minds of the JW's.

19

I've invited the Witnesses to my house

by maksym in

jw
friends

im recent here and thought i would properly introduce myself.

i have posted a few times but mostly i like to read because i gather good insight into reaching the hearts of jehovahs witnesses.

the short of it is i was born into a large family of jehovahs witnesses.

maksym

Oh yeah,

Tim Kilgore you are one of my heros.

I love your videos. I have watched heaps of them. Thanks for the input.

You're welcome to plug here.

19

I've invited the Witnesses to my house

by maksym in

jw
friends

im recent here and thought i would properly introduce myself.

i have posted a few times but mostly i like to read because i gather good insight into reaching the hearts of jehovahs witnesses.

the short of it is i was born into a large family of jehovahs witnesses.

maksym

Thanks for the suggestions.

@jwfacts,

I noticed that they had a professional banner in front as well. The whole thing really looked done up. I wonder also if this is normal here in Australia. I have not seen to much of that back in the United States.

What next....will they set up island booths in the middle of the shopping malls?

I think the Steve Hassan approach is a pretty good route. I just don't have the book.

19

I've invited the Witnesses to my house

by maksym in

jw
friends

im recent here and thought i would properly introduce myself.

i have posted a few times but mostly i like to read because i gather good insight into reaching the hearts of jehovahs witnesses.

the short of it is i was born into a large family of jehovahs witnesses.

maksym

Hello everyone,

I’m recent here and thought I would properly introduce myself. I have posted a few times but mostly I like to read because I gather good insight into reaching the hearts of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Here is a little about me. The short of it is I was born into a large family of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Both my parents are alive but are not attending. My grandparents have died and passed on at death as a Jehovahs Witness. At present my brother and some family that are uncles and cousins are still deeply deceived. Out of all my immediate family only my brother is currently a participant in the cult. I was a member of the Watchtower religion for about 40 years until doubts starting to creep in. Reading the Gospels alone gave me a new understanding and this led to a path into religious studies. After several years I came across the Eastern Orthodox Church and fell in love with it. This is to also say that I came to know Christ also in a more profound way than before. Currently I am studying an Liberty University. My majors are Psychology and a minor in historical Christianity.

My devotion to my church then led me to have an impact on my daughter. When she left home at 19 to move closer to me, she made the decision to leave the Watchtower religion. I also believe that my love of Christ and my dedication to Orthodoxy created a stir in my sister. She was just recently baptised into the Roman Catholic Church this last Holy Saturday before Easter. Both of them were JW born-ins, as they say. Glory be to God and the Holy Spirit for using me to help others.

I have recently told my parents that I’m Orthodox Christian and it went well. They had a few questions. I don’t mean to steer them to my church but only to plant seeds of Christ in them so they may be guided as they see fit. I think anything is practically better than being inactive and just staying home not doing anything. I pray that one day they will understand the deeper things of the Bible and the real Gospel.

Anyway, I don’t take credit for these advances of Christ but only that the Holy Spirit will work through me and change the heart of people blinded by Satan’s Organisation (Watchtower Corporations), which leads me to the present.

I am an American currently living in Melbourne Australia. Yesterday the JW’s were on the sidewalk next to the bus stop. There were three of them and they had a table with books and Bibles on it. A long conversation ensued and I seemed to create quite a stir in them. My questions were thought provoking. Many times they did not have an answer. One woman got nervous and starting feel the pressure of me. Mind you, I remained calm and was not attacking them nor did I lead on that I was a former member. I used non JW code words when talking about the Bible. They seemed inept at getting to any scripture to try and refute me. They were presenting the, “What does the Bible Really Teach” book, and the NWT Bible.

My attack came from the approach of them being a modern day religion and they were no different than the Mormons, Seventh day Adventist, or Church of Scientology.

Here is some questions that stumped them and they could not answer without wiggling into another topic.

“If the year is 1800 where would you go this coming Sunday to worship God?”

“There are 30 000 different Christian denominations and counting. What makes yours the correct one?”
“Everyone has different interpretations of the Bible. What makes yours correct?”
They answered that they take the Bible in context and that they let the Bible speak and interpret itself. I then replied, “If the Bible can interpret itself, why are you printing other books to understand the Bible. All churches should just print Bibles and hand them out. If the Bible interprets itself, why do people misinterpret it?” No answer.

The one lady JW said, “We follow the first century church only”. I replied, “ That is a subjective statement. Every other church says the same thing.” I then added, “ if this is true then your Bible was compiled by heretics that lived after that.” Again no answer.

I then told them about Matthew 16:18 and said I believe the Church did not corrupt itself but throughout the centuries people just decided to believe other things and start another religion over and over.

I then said, “How do you know that your church is not corrupt now?” They snickered but could not answer again.

This went on for about an hour and was a very respectable dialogue. My girlfriend was with me at the time and she placed a small card in front of the one woman that just contained the information to an invite to our church. I could clearly see the woman pushing it back and we took it. Their comfort level was seriously inflicted. It was as if they thought it might be a demonised piece of paper.

They said they would like to talk with me more and I gave them my house address so they could come by. I don’t intend to have them start a study with me but I would like to have another chance to preach to them how wrong they are and how damaging the religion they are in.

Our topics varied greatly from Russell to the Millerites to Mormonism, the Soul, hellfire, and God’s kingdom. As usual they squirmed from topic to topic.

I really nailed the one guy on Eccles. 9: 5 that they use for teaching about the soul. I asked him, while pointing to a building in the distance if he was conscience of what was going on in there. He said, “no”. I then said that is the way the context reads in that verse. The dead are not conscience of anything on earth because they are in Hades (at the time of the writing). He was shocked. He did not have a comeback. And I said they have no reward either, meaning they do not gain no more on earth.

I thought about talking on the subject of mind control. Steve Hassan says talk about another group then relate it to them. For example I could talk about how Scientology is a mind control program and then ask if they know if they are being mind controlled. That might be too direct but I think you get the idea.

Would like to have some questions to ask them. Something subtle and thought provoking so they don’t feel attacked but I want to leave them thinking when it’s over, if you know what I mean. I know they are under mind control so I thought perhaps a few Hassan style approach might work, but anything will give me fuel for thought.

Give me some good questions. They are coming soon I suspect. I’ll post the results in more detail for later if they actually show.

Thanks for your help

Maksym