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[endif]the watchtower society and jehovah's witnesses worldwide are under the power and influence of a governing body of leaders.. compliance with the directions of this governing body is mandatory because of their claim to supreme authority.. the source of the authority of the governing body of jehovah's witnesses is claimed to be the currently reigning king jesus who personally selected.
What was your first thought crime? I'd say before my first official encounter with "apostasy", it was doubting about the anointed.
I felt, as a kid, that there was no way we could prove the anointed claimed to be what they were. We were just taking their word for it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/opinion/sunday/americans-and-god.html.
By that measure, there is very little “good religion” out there. Put bluntly: God is not a lot of fun these days. Many of us don’t view religion so generously. All we see is an angry God. He is constantly judging and smiting, and so are his followers. No wonder so many Americans are enamored of the Dalai Lama. He laughs, often and well.
i miss some of my old watchtower friendships.
usually i can just put the people out of my mind but when a big event comes up like me expecting my first child, i did reach out a bit.
this one friend in particular was kind of like an older brother to me.
Geez louise, what a reply..... Eiben, you've been outed man. What do you plan on doing now?
It's incredible, but as I think back to my talks with JW's I had about not believing in the org, it's the exact same argument over and over.
"If it isn't this one, which is it?" "To whom shall we go to?"
i always wondered why jw's were always so afraid of ouija(pronounced as "wee-yaw" not "wee-gee") boards.
does anyone have any speculation about who started these jw myths?.
anyone who has actually tried the board and would like to give their opinions are welcome.
You guys might also want to read this experience. Coincidence? Maybe...
funny the way our minds unwind and refocus after leaving a high control religion.. when i first left the jdubs i saw them more closely to what the entire world sees them i suppose, but not truly clearly at those early stages.
they still looked to me to be 'good people' but misguided.
as time went on, though the misguided feature remained, the 'good people' supposition faded.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/180750/1/Ouija-Board-Hysteria
Jeff, do you still believe in this?
first of all let me say that dreams fascinate me and i really think that they can mean something, anyway, i am still living the jw life (doubts and all).
i have this friend who is not a jw and he told me that he had this really wired dream about me.
he said they shunned you, and i was like who shunned me and he said your people.
Something that always sticks out in my mind is when my mother told me that prior to being a JW, she had had dreams of the future, and that they happened just as she had dreamed.
She dreamed my sister (whom she hadn't seen for a couple of months) in a very specific dress(one she had never seen) in the train. Lo and behold, when she goes the next day to meet up with my sister, it was as if she were seeing the dream come true. Mind you, this is rather insignificant. Seeing a specific dress doesn't mean anything, but I always thought it was cool.
I don't really think dreams have anymore meaning than the random jumbles our subconscious mind produces (our fears, worries, hopes, etc.)
hi,.
i am making a list of fail end of times prophecies, but some of this information is hard to find.. i know about rutherford and russell, i know about the dates from moon (the last one is 12/2012 lol), i know about the may and last one.
i am just after end dates predicted during the last 20 to 30 years.
Jwfacts has so more info. Obviously JW specific.
i think it's a given that most of us who have left, have had dreams about still being jw's or doing jw related things, even years after we left.
i had one of those last night.
it involved getting a hotel for the next district convention and then it skipped ahead to when i was attending.
@fadeaway, what publication is that avatar pic in? It's hilarious!
it has taken me almost 2 years to get to the bottom of the watchtower society rabbit hole.
being fully convinced that i was duped....i am still a little ashamed of myself for being so narrow minded.
i have vowed never to close off my mind like that again.
@Newchapter, I am aware of the possibilites, frames of minds, what have you, that exist out there (deist, theist, agnostic, atheist, and any variations of these, along with a few more obscure ones like pan-deists and pan-theists)
To me, and this might be owed to my upbringing, but also to where my mind naturally leads me with evidence thus far, is that it couldn't have happened at random. For get about "purpose for human life", etc., the mere intricacies you have to deal with in order to get life to function.....
I sometimes would like for God to be Bible God, but after examining the Bible critically, that doesn't hold up to well. At least I would know he interacts with us, or did so as some point. That's the comforting portion of it.
For now, the only thing that points me to God is our mere existence. I understand that's not enough for everyone, and even I myself like to ask, "well, where are ya, God? What the heck r ya doing? Where have you been all this time?".
Its like this, the evidence for abiogenesis is inconclusive, and IMO, inconceivable, so I reach the conclusion that for life to form, someone, something had to set it in motion. Otherwise, its just logistically impossible. That's not to say I don't have trouble reconciling God, his supposed morality, or things like. It's just that so far, everything points to intervention (at some point), whether I like it or not.
I would very much like to be an atheist, but it honestly doesn't convince me. It doesn't mean I don't see your points either. Trust me, I'm on the fence about it myself.
here is a premise: the anointed are a faithful and discreet slave class who channel jehovah's truth.. here is a conclusion based on the above premise: the governing body print and publish the truth because jehovah directs them to do so.. .
considering the above premise and conclusion i now ask the following question:.
if what the governing body has published is the truth directly from jehovah---why does the watchtower society allow it to go out of print?.
Terry, the only answers I have heard for this were the usual.
Acts 1
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
John 21
22 Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” 23 Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”
2 Samuel 7
1 After the king was settled in his palace and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, 2 he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”
3 Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you.”
4 But that night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying:
5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in?
12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
These accounts don't even come close to being prophesy, yet one has to ask, is the Bible guilty of revisionism, just like the Watchtower for its failed expectations?
