hi guys,.
i might go to the meeting.
i stopped going in my heart properly in nov 2013, but i went to a couple of meetings to support a love one that was df'd and tried to teach them a little ttatt.. now another df'd loved one is coming to see me today and will likely encourage me to try and get ri'd, and i want to support her.
I agree with fikelstein, it reinforces to them 'see, people are miserable who leave, and she wants to come back in her heart!'
You are meeting with your friend for lunch. I would be totally honest with your friend (but gently. Not brutally honest.) tell her gently that you have done research, and the truth should be able to stand up to research if it's the truth.
'this old bulb is about to go out, let's just unscrew this old light, screw this fresh one in, new light, we have new light!'.
it's always bugged me how you only see big doctrinal changes, "new light," happen right around the same time the "old light," is about to blow out.. this "over-lapping generation," teaching is the perfect example, "old light" was about to be extinguished as being impossible to maintain, "new light brothers, we have new light!
" and everyone is amazed, when all it is is a stop-gap fix.. "new light," is synonymous with, "buying time.
i was just a teenager and have a vivid memory of sitting in a chair doing a microphone for the sunday meeting.
everyone was commenting that it didn't mean the end was far off, and it didn't change the condition of the dead, or the 144,000, or the trinity so we should still remain faithful.
this is my first memory as a kid being just a teen that i ever had a single doubt.
Like someone said earlier on this thread.....fumbling idiots.
who here have suffer from vertigo?
if so how did you combat it?
how long.
found this interestinga week ago...recently i had a brother who does life insurance for a living call me to see if i was interested in a offering, since i was keen on taking up a insurance policy for my 1 year old daughter for her education purpose 20 years down the line i told him that he can come over,fast forward todayhe comes over with his manager (not a jdub) and we have a long chat about the various long term insurance plans... i found it very strange that a guy who believes that the world end is imminent would be so keen on selling me a policy with a tenure of 20 to 25 years .. in my mind , i'm thinking " is he serious ??
"well after i agree to buy a policy for my child and specifically stating that its for her future education to pursue whatever higher education she likes, the manager encourages me saying " that's amazing , cos of education will increase in the future so on etc "... btw i live in a developing country when education is not free...so i'm done with all the paper works and the manager leaves, so its just me and the brother ( who is a ms by the way )i asked him, doe she really think i made a good choice paying for a expensive insurance plan for 20 years with good returns considering the end was so near..he was dumbstruck i aksed the question, he took a moment and hesitated and said this !!!
!he was like "i don't ever think the world will end anytime soon "do i sense another dissenter .... perhaps a fellow man.... i'm excited :)
i was just a teenager and have a vivid memory of sitting in a chair doing a microphone for the sunday meeting.
everyone was commenting that it didn't mean the end was far off, and it didn't change the condition of the dead, or the 144,000, or the trinity so we should still remain faithful.
this is my first memory as a kid being just a teen that i ever had a single doubt.
I remember a few things about the generation change in 1995.
first, this teaching was a huge deal. It was always used whenever 1914 was mentioned as the start of the last days, and it was particularly popular in the late 80's early 90's. My brother had a stock presentation he would use at the doors as a pioneer, and the generation scripture was always the clincher.
however I do remember when I was younger and we were in a meeting and this scripture was used. I read the context of the scripture and leaned over to my mother and whispered 'couldn't this generation just mean a nonspecific group of people?' She sort of nodded, suggesting it was too deep to discuss then. I never brought it up again, but decided that the witnesses were applying it too specifically (as with so many things). I generally was never a true believer and took many of their teachings with a grain of salt.
so the generation change came along and I felt vindicated somewhat. I was like 'of course they changed it. They had to, time was running out, and unless they wanted the religion to fizzle away, they had to change it.'
It seemed like people didn't want to talk about it. Maybe they were scared of what they would say. They didn't want to sound negative. But I was surprised one day in a car group in service, a big SUV that was packed, this older sister with health problems and a loud voice said 'Can you believe this new Watchtower? It sounds like this old system can just go on and on, now! I can't believe it, I SOO wanted to live to see the paradise!!!' She was so discouraged. I felt bad for her, but also enjoyed that someone was being honest about how they felt.
Shortly after this, I was in an airport shop with my husband and father waiting for a flight, and I picked up Time magazine. There was a weekly short religious column at that time (Jojo I loved that Newsweek article by the way, thanks for finding it!) The Time column was about the generation change, and it mentioned 1975, and the end comment was 'It remains to be seen how witnesses will respond to this disappointment and if their numbers will significantly decline.' That comment made me slightly mad, because even if I wasnt a true believer, I was a loyalist. I tried to show the article to my father, he wasn't interested. My husband barely acknowledged it either. frustrating for me, because I always liked to discuss controversial stuff.
But with a swift pitch, that scripture stopped being used at the door and was rarely used at meetings. The absence of it seemed strange, like something was missing, The train of reasoning they had used for so long was missing the last stop.
sometime ago i wrote here in this forum about the case of my sister, who decided to stop attending the meetings because she realised that the watchtower society is an evil organization.
this happened more than one year ago.
i am not living in the same country of my sister, so i learn about her case when she calls me or when she write me through whatsapp.
well another big bad elder here just wanting to say sorry.. i'm sorry that so many were treated like crap, and shown that god's love is not to be found around jehovah's witnesses.
i'm sorry that inadvertently i've likely taught many to judge and as such see that racism permeates every corner of the jw world, else why else would someone be of the world, or even inactive.
i'm sorry i sat in on a jc, and voted to df.
soliciting any and all opinions.
as some of you may know, wife is full in pioneer.
my fade has gone from us fighting.
Jwdaughter I'm really sorry you felt that way here and hope I didn't contribute to that too much. generally when we speak of Muslims here we are speaking of extreme Muslims and dont mean most Muslims that are moderate or even liberal. i definitely feel it too, my own brand of Christianity is quite liberal, we even allow same sex marriages within our church. But here people often say 'Christian' and mean born again extremist judgmental types, not considering the very large variety.
bu2b, my heart is completely aching for you. I know what you mean about the anxiety about your kids being indoctrinated. You feel stuck, in a miserable place. I wish there was something I could say.
'this old bulb is about to go out, let's just unscrew this old light, screw this fresh one in, new light, we have new light!'.
it's always bugged me how you only see big doctrinal changes, "new light," happen right around the same time the "old light," is about to blow out.. this "over-lapping generation," teaching is the perfect example, "old light" was about to be extinguished as being impossible to maintain, "new light brothers, we have new light!
" and everyone is amazed, when all it is is a stop-gap fix.. "new light," is synonymous with, "buying time.
1914 being an invisible presence and not exactly the end of the world...but it was the START of the end times. This revelation came in 1915. :)
they've strung people along a hundred years with that one. Serious skills.
