My mother knows that I've read from "apostate sites" however the websites in specific she has no idea - nor does she know that it wasn't like a one-off occurrence.
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Do they know that you are here?
by Iamallcool inhave you ever admitted to your jw family and "friends" that you read apostate sites?.
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"Apostate" brother gives talk in Kingdom Hall and gets removed
by StoneWall inthis guy has to have the most courage of anyone i've ever seen or balls the size of basketballs.he actually gives a good talk and has tidbits scattered about throughout his public talk with hints,suggestions,innuendos of the wt organization.i never want to go in another kingdom hall again in my life but would have made an exception just to be in this audience.
lolnotice what's going on in the audience when they realize somethings up.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqqt0y1peuu.
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I'm honestly very impressed by his talk. He used the scriptures to back up what he was saying, and not once did he say anything disrespectful towards the organization.
When I heard the Elder state that this was a "bad interpretation" I wish I had actually been at that meeting, I would have stood up and demanded to know what was so "bad" or "wrong" about it. He simply reiterated what the Bible has been saying all along, that Jesus is our King, Lord & Savior.
Jesus preformed miracles so that he could prove he was the Son of God. He knew and valued the importance of proof, especially to those who had doubts, but had good hearts as well. He didn't tell Thomas "Well if you don't believe me then tough, guess you ain't getting into heaven."
Though that seems to be the message that the WTS wants drilled into peoples heads more and more.
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How to convince someone to leave.
by Smiruk inhey everyone, long time lurker, first time poster.
i'm currently in a jehovah's witnesses household, which is very deep into the "truth".
i woke up a few months ago, and i haven't told my parents yet.
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Searching
Hello! Welcome officially to the forums!
One mistake I made with my Mother, was that in my eagerness and hope that she'd see things as I did - was to overload her with all different facts, my mother isn't an active Witness, but she is a born-in and has been for 40+ years. While I still pray & have hope that she will come to see the truth about things in time, I'll admit I made a big mistake doing what I did. Don't overload them with facts all at once!
Honestly you could approach this in a few different ways, a single topic to kind of break the ice, depending on what you think matters the most to THEM
- The Child Abuse/Sexual Assault
-The discrepancy of 607 BCE - 1914
-The false end time predictions
-Discrepancies within what the Watchtower teaches vs the Scriptures (two big ones for me was the context of the "light getting brighter" & the partakers of the Passover)
You know your parents the best. Any of these could really create a lightbulb effect and get them to either question and examine the scriptures, or if its more about the scandals, look up news articles.
We all have different things that "woke us up" so to speak. Mine was more of an emotional "no loving God could destroy 99.9% of earth due to a technicality of not being part of a man made org."
Find theirs and try to gently slide it into a conversation, you really don't want to make it seem like you are attacking their beliefs, because that will only cause them to close up.
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Russian Ban upheld - JWs lose appeal
by OrphanCrow inthe supreme court of russia has rejected the jehovah's witnesses' appeal.. https://jw-russia.org/news/17071719-195.html.
july 17, 2017 the supreme court of russia has missed the last chance to restore law and justice for the 175,000 russian citizens professing the religion of jehovah's witnesses.
it took less than an hour of the meeting a panel of three supreme court judges, to leave unchanged the decision taken earlier by the judge yuri ivanenko, the liquidation and ban any and all registered organizations of the religion.since there is no more effective domestic remedies, the believers will appeal to the european court of human rights and other international organizations.. *note: as reported by the jworg source, jw-russia.org.
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Taken from RT (though you could double check this anywhere on any news site)
A powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka region may trigger tsunami waves within a 300km radius, the US Pacific tsunami warning center said.
According to the US Geological Survey, the quake hit at a 11.7km depth in the Pacific some 200km from Nikolskoe, a village located on the Bering Island off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Three other less powerful quakes were registered in the same region by the USGS in the past 24 hours.
The Kamchatka unit of the Russian emergencies ministry said it expected the tsunami wave to be no bigger than 0.5 meters. It told Interfax that Nikolskoe residents reported feeling tremors as did some people living in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the provincial capital.
The forecasted wave, however, failed to materialize, local authorities reported two hours later after revoking the tsunami alert. The quake itself did no more damage in Kamchatka than rattling some items off shelves, according to TASS.
The quake comes shortly after a powerful spewing of ash from the Klyuchevskoy volcano in Kamchatka. The ash plume rose to a height of 6 kilometers above sea level, prompting an advisory for planes flying in the region, local media reported.
Honestly - you got me, I'll admit, my heart clenched and I got a little afraid, I'm less then a full year out; and fear was probably the main reason I hung on.
But it is an evil and vicious cycle that you cannot let consume you. Once you allow yourself to think that God is using now in modern times, natural disasters as a means to punish those who are persecuting "his organization" then you open up a whole new can of worms thats best not to open in the first place.
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why jw's commit suicide?
by notalone inwe all know the rate of suicide is high among jw's.
my question is this- was there some subliminal messages that encourage this.
i was a born in and my entire life i would have these thoughts that could come out of nowhere,"kill yourself.
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Searching
Honestly, I believe various things could push one to contemplate and ultimately commit, suicide.
As LevelThePlayingField pointed out, there is an incredible amount of pressure for each and every one to do more, every single convention isn't Love or Kindness, its about how YOU can improve your ministry or how YOU better stay obedient or else you will get shunned by your family while you're alive & then get killed at Armageddon (which is probably tomorrow so you'd better stick with US.)
I also think that, if someone IS shunned or disfellowshipped - the worst (and sadly, most likely) scenario is that they will be cut off from everyone that they've ever known, friends and family alike will treat them as if they have the plague or are dead and it is very hard once on the outside to actually know how to function on the outside and form bond.
Also - perhaps if one is disfellowshipped, and comes to the conclusion that God does not exist, and that there is no real meaning for us even being alive - that could be incredibly hard on someone, especially one whose been told their entire life that they were going to live forever on a paradise earth.
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How does the WTS explain away THIS scripture?
by Searching ini'm honestly in awe about this particular scripture (and honestly i can't keep thanking jwfacts enough for providing biblical contradictions to the jw doctrine!).
"john said to him: "teacher, we saw a certain man expelling demons by the use of your name and we tried to prevent him, because he was not accompanying us.
" but jesus said: "do not try to prevent him, for there is no one that will do a powerful work on the basis of my name that will quickly be able to revile me; for he that is not against us is for us.
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@ Joe Grundy
I 100% agree with this! I think that Christ had many followers, from many different places and walks of life, and that they did not always communicate or talk with one another, that they were all not in one place at one time, did not matter to him. He knew each of them were HIS followers, and the nature of their hearts, and I don't believe for one second he, or His Father would cast any of them aside just because they did not follow instructions that were never even given by THEM in the first place. Or that he would abandon those individuals. There are so many things that the JW preach as "in accordance with God's Law" that aren't even laws?? Like no-beards?? Thats ridiculous???
@ eyeuse2badub
Sad as I am to say, I agree, I was actually shocked when I learned how drastically different the Org. was under Russell vs. Rutherford. Really, if feels like it just morphed into an almost completely unrecognizable religion in the transition of Russell --> Rutherford.
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Why Are More JWs Claiming to be Anointed?
by Ding inmost jws i know claim they are happy being in the great crowd.
they'd rather live on a paradise earth and pet lions than go to heaven.. heaven is a place they can't relate to, a place where they don't expect their friends and loved ones to be.. so why are more and more jws claiming to be of the anointed?.
aren't they looked down upon as if they are crazy, proud, ignorant, or engaging in apostate thinking?.
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Searching
I believe another factor might be that people are kind of calling to question the validity of the statement that "Jesus is solely the mediator of the 144000" so if one believes Jesus is THEIR mediator, then of course that means following his words and partaking in the Passover.
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Some Good News About Me (Although Anthony Morris Will Be Furious)
by pale.emperor injust wanted to share with you some good news i'm really excited about.
i have been accepted for university to study psychology and counseling.
my goal is to become a counselor and, in time, to specialize on treating those who have left high control relationships/groups like we all did.. it'll take a few years before im qualified but studying in university has been a dream of mine since i was 12, which was systematically dashed to pieces by watchtower.. .
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I'm so happy for you! I'm really glad to hear that you've managed to do this, you're well on the road to accomplishing your dream & helping many other folk who are just as lost and confused as we all were!
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How does the WTS explain away THIS scripture?
by Searching ini'm honestly in awe about this particular scripture (and honestly i can't keep thanking jwfacts enough for providing biblical contradictions to the jw doctrine!).
"john said to him: "teacher, we saw a certain man expelling demons by the use of your name and we tried to prevent him, because he was not accompanying us.
" but jesus said: "do not try to prevent him, for there is no one that will do a powerful work on the basis of my name that will quickly be able to revile me; for he that is not against us is for us.
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Thank you guys! I suppose at a glance, I too could probably accept that and move on. (Until the next thing I question comes up)
I just don't really understand, and I suppose since I no longer see it that way I never will, that if Jesus & God wanted, or demanded that we in the future form one small exclusive group - who were the only ones that could be saved from destruction, why did they not make that more explicitly clear? Why was nothing laid out in the bible, but instead had to be stumbled upon? Instead Jesus said that the way to gain salvation was through him and him alone.
Guess its in the fine print somewhere
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How does the WTS explain away THIS scripture?
by Searching ini'm honestly in awe about this particular scripture (and honestly i can't keep thanking jwfacts enough for providing biblical contradictions to the jw doctrine!).
"john said to him: "teacher, we saw a certain man expelling demons by the use of your name and we tried to prevent him, because he was not accompanying us.
" but jesus said: "do not try to prevent him, for there is no one that will do a powerful work on the basis of my name that will quickly be able to revile me; for he that is not against us is for us.
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I'm honestly in awe about this particular scripture (and honestly I can't keep thanking jwfacts enough for providing biblical contradictions to the jw doctrine!)
"John said to him: "Teacher, we saw a certain man expelling demons by the use of your name and we tried to prevent him, because he was not accompanying us." But Jesus said: "Do not try to prevent him, for there is no one that will do a powerful work on the basis of my name that will quickly be able to revile me; for he that is not against us is for us. For whoever gives YOU a cup of water to drink on the ground that YOU belong to Christ, I truly tell YOU, he will by no means lose his reward. But whoever stumbles one of these little ones that believe, it would be finer for him if a millstone such as is turned by an ass were put around his neck and he were actually pitched into the sea." Mark 9:38-42
To me this really is a clear as day statement from Jesus that we need not be part of any organization, I do know that in my Congregations we were given the whole "don't try to stumble one another" speech, but looking at it in full, taking a step back and reading the context - he (in my opinion I suppose!) clearly means not to stumble one another on the basis of whether or not we are a part of this church or that church, we are all his followers!
honestly im learning more about jesus and actual scriptures as a whole NOW then i ever did as a kid in the kingdom hall