Perry

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Posts by Perry

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  29

  The true cost of being raised as a witness

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  how do you view your upbringing as a witness?.

  most of us who were raised as witnesses would appreciate that some aspects of our upbringing were ok. a foundation and measure of stability came with it.. but, it struck me too, that we also lost so very much!

  and we lost a lot of potential.. by this i mean, we need to look at not just what we lost, or what was deprived of us, but what that ended up costing us as adults into the future.. if i take $10 from you, you have lost just $10.. but, if you were going to use that $10 to buy something that would end up earning you $1000, then i actually took $1000 from you!.

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  Perry

  The JW lifestyle is all about placing on hold literally everything because everyone is hunkered down for the Big A. ......A siege mentality.

  As a result of this fear, most JW parents are emotionally unavailable to varying degrees. It is this emotional unavailability that takes the largest toll in my opinion, aside from the obvious spiritual abuse. It has consequences on the family even after a person leaves.

  This is an excerpt from a relevant article"

  1. Loss of hope, faith, and joy: For many adults who were raised under an emotionally void parent there is a deep feeling of loss and grief. The “loss” of a parent who is still living and breathing can seem like the most tragic experience. To look at a parent in the eyes or hear their voice and yet feel so far away, is tragic. The inability to connect to the very person who brought you into this world is tragic. It is like a tease. It is like a distant fantasy. Sadly, the adult child begins to feel a sense of grief and loss of hope, faith, and joy. Sometimes adult children internalize their emotions and begin to feel depressed, suicidal, or self-injurious. This is often when substance abuse begins.

  Article
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  19

  Back again to say hi! Life update after walking away from the cult.

  by Darkknight757 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i hope all is well.

  my last post over a month ago was going to be the last considering i wanted to get away from all things jw but this place is much harder to ignore than previously thought.

  life has taken some very interesting turns since late last year.

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  Perry

  Well done!

  That's moving pretty fast.
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  36

  In Your Opinion Do Today's Elders Recognize That The Religion Is BS?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i always wondered that while i was in especially when i was an elder.

  i recognize that some people,elders included are brain-dead.

  but do you think that the average older today knows it's all nonsense?

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  Perry

  I once shared some information with an elder and his wife (both who happened to work for me) of a pretty benign nature illustrating how the WT counseling methods might not be the best. I presented some Awake articles and quotes to illustrate my points. The response?

  I was told to be careful, because they once knew of a person who started questioning small things and now they are out of the "truth". They even agreed with my assessment, but that was irrelevant !

  For life-long elders, "the club" is all that matters. The club is their idol, their object of worship, and they are its priests.

  Knowing TTATT isn't nearly as important as protecting their idol. They don't want to to see their idol fall. So, most will go along with just about anything.

  That is what I saw. They are having their reward in full. Judgement is coming. They need a Savior like everyone else.
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  26

  Does Paul preach a fundamentally different religion than Jesus?

  by Yesu Kristo Bwana Wangu in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  controversy has arisen regarding jesus versus paul as scholars debate the different emphases and messages of jesus and paul.1 jesus preached the kingdom of heaven.

  paul did not.

  paul preached justification by faith alone.

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  Perry

  Jesus also warns His disciples, “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves”

  In Luke 6: 37; Jesus obviously wasn't stating that we throw out discernment along with hyper-judgementalism.
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  12

  I was manning a cart

  by closed in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was manning a cart not long ago.

  o, aye:) .

  a man, who i suspect is familiar with this site comes to me.

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  Perry

  Yes, the pattern is overlapping circularity, but it is still bovine excrement, a whole heap of it.

  It stinks the same no matter how you arrange it.
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  26

  I feel like I'm losing my religion/faith

  by christina1111 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i'm a baptized jw...been baptized for 8 years...and throughout the years i've been baptized i see "hypocrisy" so to speak in the religion...when you're new and not baptized that's when the jws want to invite you to every gathering they have, they want to appear like they're your best friend...they want to help you out when needed and so forth...however, once you're baptized you go to the elders for help they don't help you....all they do is gather you around the office...have bibles in hand and so forth...they give you articles as well, instead of physically helping you out....but yet when you weren't baptized they would physically help you out and not throw scriptures and articles in your face.

  also when you ask for help and so forth with the bros/sisters they want to throw the "each one must carry his/her own load" scripture at you.....but yet what happened to the scripture of taking care of widows and people who are orphans?.

  it's not just one congregation...throughout the 8 years i've been baptized i've been through many kingdom halls...many towns...many states...when i was inactive for awhile i even pretended to not be baptized and just play dumb when the witnesses came to my door...they're much nicer to you when you're not baptized then when you are baptized...why is that?.

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  Perry

  He said "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple".

  
  

  Jesus also demonstrated things like, that there were in reality only two laws: Love God and Love your Neighbor as Yourself. He also said his yoke was easy and his load was light - unlike other pursuits.

  Man-Centered religion & ideologies on the other hand, (including and maybe especially bible cults) are deeply works based. They bind up heavy loads on adherents that they themselves are unwilling to bear.

  The scripture you cited has special meaning for me. I left the Watchtower willingly, but I was unwilling for years to stand up to my family and state to them my desire to be a Christian apart from the Watchtower.

  Until I did that, they just viewed me as "weak". The funny thing is, they were right. Jesus words, are incredibly liberating.
  
  
  
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  26

  I feel like I'm losing my religion/faith

  by christina1111 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i'm a baptized jw...been baptized for 8 years...and throughout the years i've been baptized i see "hypocrisy" so to speak in the religion...when you're new and not baptized that's when the jws want to invite you to every gathering they have, they want to appear like they're your best friend...they want to help you out when needed and so forth...however, once you're baptized you go to the elders for help they don't help you....all they do is gather you around the office...have bibles in hand and so forth...they give you articles as well, instead of physically helping you out....but yet when you weren't baptized they would physically help you out and not throw scriptures and articles in your face.

  also when you ask for help and so forth with the bros/sisters they want to throw the "each one must carry his/her own load" scripture at you.....but yet what happened to the scripture of taking care of widows and people who are orphans?.

  it's not just one congregation...throughout the 8 years i've been baptized i've been through many kingdom halls...many towns...many states...when i was inactive for awhile i even pretended to not be baptized and just play dumb when the witnesses came to my door...they're much nicer to you when you're not baptized then when you are baptized...why is that?.

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  Perry

  Now I see why people say they don't want to be a part of an organized religion.

  I think vast numbers of Christians today get this.

  Jesus had little good to say about most of religious people he met. He emphasized relationship over religion.

  
  

  
  
  
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  26

  Does Paul preach a fundamentally different religion than Jesus?

  by Yesu Kristo Bwana Wangu in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  controversy has arisen regarding jesus versus paul as scholars debate the different emphases and messages of jesus and paul.1 jesus preached the kingdom of heaven.

  paul did not.

  paul preached justification by faith alone.

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  Perry

  Understanding Dispensations (God's progressive modes of relating to man) clears up any seeming difference between Jesus & Paul. Jesus was sent to the lost sheep of Israel, but Paul was an Apostle to the gentiles.

  Israel got to keep their beloved LAW (as they wished), and believing Gentiles were grafted into the family of God and inherited the gift of GRACE.

  The appearance of Jesus, the long promised Messiah represented a major transitional event from one dispensation to another. Each dispensation (mode in which God deals with man), always ends with 1. The Failure of Man 2. Judgement & 3. A New Beginning.

  Using a dispensational template, to "rightly divide the word of God", it becomes apparent that many of Jesus words were spoken to the Jews that were living then (before the age of Grace) AND to the Jews that will be alive during the Great Tribulation (after the age of Grace but before the Millennium). Whereas Paul's message was mainly directed to those living during the age of Grace.

  
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  12

  I was manning a cart

  by closed in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was manning a cart not long ago.

  o, aye:) .

  a man, who i suspect is familiar with this site comes to me.

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  Perry

  I believe that if a person studies this image closely enough, they will be able to come to a true understanding of the overlapping generation doctrine:

  
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  10

  Finding Peace in Older Age

  by compound complex in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a cool sense of tranquility overtakes my troubled spirit.. i emerge slowly from a deeply entrenched, lifelong nightmare and proceed into gentle reverie, into quiet wakefulness.

  youthful ideals, embodied in vaporous form before me, are a black reminiscence, threatening to return as an untold want having neither name nor substance, only a niggling dig that skewers my soul.. i shut it out, shut out all the noise in the head: irrational thought, excessive thinking that leads to depression, to insanity.

  yet, i am hopeful that devils of the past are blocked approach to me by a portcullis that guards both heart and mind.. i see but darkly my amorphous reflection and sense it is a phantom, not the real me.

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  Perry

  I suffered a turbulent youth and truly do welcome the slow and spiraling descent into older age; I am not afraid . .

  Ditto that