By the way, if it came to that, keep in mind that, as I understand it, you could use this incident in court to show how shunning policies—and how the organisation in general—are badly affecting your daughter.
Saename
JoinedPosts by Saename
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17
Low Day For Me Today
by pale.emperor inhi guys.
it's been about 4 or 5 weeks since i was disfellowshipped.
so far it's been easy, i enjoyed being left alone, no one bothering me, no one telling me i need to do more, need to reach out, questioning why i didnt go on the ministry, and the fact that my ex-wifes family cant talk to me even if they wanted to.
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17
Low Day For Me Today
by pale.emperor inhi guys.
it's been about 4 or 5 weeks since i was disfellowshipped.
so far it's been easy, i enjoyed being left alone, no one bothering me, no one telling me i need to do more, need to reach out, questioning why i didnt go on the ministry, and the fact that my ex-wifes family cant talk to me even if they wanted to.
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Saename
It's unbelievable of your ex-wife to be so... well, you know the rest. You were obviously caring for your daughter. She's your daughter, too... Does she not care about that at all? (Sorry, I'm forgetting that people are not rational beings...)
When it comes to not having friends... I'd argue that you do have friends here. Of course, we're not real friends since we've never met, but we do care about each other's lives after leaving the cult. If you disappeared from the forum, I can guarantee you that some of us would notice that you stopped being involved here. Still, having no actual contact besides the Internet, we wouldn't assume you were dead. :D
Anyway, keep in mind that it's not worth joining them back. You see what they're doing. The elders whispering about you...? What right do they have? Do they not see that what just happened was a parent caring for his daughter? Well, Jehovah's Witnesses are that way. They don't see things until they are told.
If you want to be reinstated, many ex-Jehovah's Witnesses do it as well for the sake of having contact with family. But try not to forget in the meantime that this cult is... just a cult. A cult that has no power over you. Show them that you are a confident, thinking and well-meaning individual.
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37
Just realized they changed maybe the most important scripture in the bible.
by Crazyguy ini just read the scripture then went and checked in thier older bible and it read the same so i check the greek interlinear and yes they changed john 3:16 .
the verse reads "all who believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life" the cult version says "exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life".. so not only do they say one must exercise faith meaning having to work for it but also they changed should not perish but having everlasting life to might not be destroyed again making a caveat where one does not exist.
just to add to the point verse 18 in both bibles says the one having faith is not judged, totally blowing up thier version of 16 but of course they change 18 to say exercising faith too but it makes little difference, since it says not judged.
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Saename
Crazyguy - Saename, we shouldn't argue over the merits of the gospels and which ones are more reliable because they can all be easily shown to be in error.
Well, yeah, I agree. I was just pointing out that the gospel of John is the least reliable one if one wants to see what Jesus believed. But I guess it was pretty much off the topic, so I'm sorry about that :D
DATA-DOG, scholars generally agree that both Jesus and Paul *likely* existed.
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Any Reviews or Feedback from the District Convention??
by daringhart13 ini stopped in to see if that are any overwhelming statistics, stories or feedback from people regarding the 2016 district convention.....haven't seen much...... any stories or threads?.
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Saename
steve2 - The GB know very well the organization is in extremely hot water over its shocking policies on and procedures for responding to child sexual abuse in the local congregations. How many rank and file Witnesses know that?
I would assume that not many know of it. I remember, when I was still active, hearing a comment made by one sister during a meeting. She criticised other religions for child sexual abuse—mainly the Roman Catholic church—and then said that Jehovah's Witnesses don't have that problem. She said that "we" don't have to worry about it because, allegedly, Jehovah takes care of his organisation. I still didn't know about the issue at the time, so I was willing to believe it. The problem is that none of us checked the news to see whether that's the case. She was really making an uninformed statement based on her research which... well... was based on what the Governing Body said. (Remember Stephen Lett calling child sexual abuse "apostate-driven lies"?)
I'm glad I checked the issue myself later on when I heard Anders Andersen talking about it on another website. I heard of it even before that, but I refused to believe it since the "apostates" that were saying it were really aggressive about it. That attitude just confirmed my "conviction." But then I read Anders Andersen's posts about child sexual abuse, and I saw that he was just stating the facts while not being aggressive or insulting. Then I searched the news and watched the Australian Royal Commission.
So... based on my experience, not many know of the child sexual abuse. Unfortunately.
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37
Just realized they changed maybe the most important scripture in the bible.
by Crazyguy ini just read the scripture then went and checked in thier older bible and it read the same so i check the greek interlinear and yes they changed john 3:16 .
the verse reads "all who believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life" the cult version says "exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life".. so not only do they say one must exercise faith meaning having to work for it but also they changed should not perish but having everlasting life to might not be destroyed again making a caveat where one does not exist.
just to add to the point verse 18 in both bibles says the one having faith is not judged, totally blowing up thier version of 16 but of course they change 18 to say exercising faith too but it makes little difference, since it says not judged.
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Saename
Robo Bobo - Difference between perished and destroyed:
You perish. Someone doesn't "perish you." You pass away.
Destroyed means someone kills you.
Well, yes, but we need to remember that, from the historical perspective, Jesus was an apocalyptic Jewish preacher. He did believe that if you didn't have (not "exercise") faith in God, you'd die. You'd be killed in the upcoming Armageddon. He did believe that—except that he believed the Armageddon would come in his lifetime or shortly after his death. The same goes for Paul. Therefore, in the context of Jesus' being an apocalyptic preacher who believed that God would establish his own kingdom on earth and destroy all other kingdoms, he would probably mean "perish" as in... "God will kill you if you don't believe in him."
Additionally, keep in mind that gJohn is the least reliable of the gospels in the New Testament.
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37
Just realized they changed maybe the most important scripture in the bible.
by Crazyguy ini just read the scripture then went and checked in thier older bible and it read the same so i check the greek interlinear and yes they changed john 3:16 .
the verse reads "all who believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life" the cult version says "exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life".. so not only do they say one must exercise faith meaning having to work for it but also they changed should not perish but having everlasting life to might not be destroyed again making a caveat where one does not exist.
just to add to the point verse 18 in both bibles says the one having faith is not judged, totally blowing up thier version of 16 but of course they change 18 to say exercising faith too but it makes little difference, since it says not judged.
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Saename
steve2 - Is there even one other translation in existence besides the NWT that renders the word into an active verb?
Out of the 25 translations I checked besides the NWT, no. I have not seen a single translation that would render the Greek the same as do the Jehovah's Witnesses. Some—very few, though—use "trust in . . ." but this is still an acceptable rendering of the Greek "πιστεύων."
Robo Bobo - This deviates from all other versions translated by ACTUAL SCHOLARS.
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Any Reviews or Feedback from the District Convention??
by daringhart13 ini stopped in to see if that are any overwhelming statistics, stories or feedback from people regarding the 2016 district convention.....haven't seen much...... any stories or threads?.
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Saename
millie210 - And the third was the most pitiable of all, an older, widowed, faithful woman. Her comment was concerning the infamous "bunker" video - "I heard from a friend who knows someone up at Bethel that they are trying to prepare us for the persecution that is coming....they must know something we dont!"
When I was watching the "bunker" video I felt ashamed—ashamed of ever having been involved with the cult. I barely could watch it until the end; it was so embarrassing.
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37
Just realized they changed maybe the most important scripture in the bible.
by Crazyguy ini just read the scripture then went and checked in thier older bible and it read the same so i check the greek interlinear and yes they changed john 3:16 .
the verse reads "all who believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life" the cult version says "exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life".. so not only do they say one must exercise faith meaning having to work for it but also they changed should not perish but having everlasting life to might not be destroyed again making a caveat where one does not exist.
just to add to the point verse 18 in both bibles says the one having faith is not judged, totally blowing up thier version of 16 but of course they change 18 to say exercising faith too but it makes little difference, since it says not judged.
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Saename
I don't see much of a difference when it comes to "perish" vs. "destroyed." But I would agree about "believe" vs. "exercise faith in . . ." Koine Greek uses the word "πιστεύων" which means "to believe in" as in "to have confidence in something" or "to think something to be true." They changed it to "exercising faith in . . ." probably because of the disfellowshipping practice. If someone does not want to be a Jehovah's Witness anymore but still believes in God and Jesus, is s/he to be disfellowshipped and thus destroyed in the upcoming Armageddon? Or would s/he still be saved? Jehovah's Witnesses believe that such one would be destroyed, so I assume this is why they changed it.
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12
Do they prepare for preaching or do they socialize?
by never a jw inmy brother (a jw for 30 years) and i purchased a duplex.
he lives in one house, i live in the other, our common area separating both houses is the backyard.
we both can see each other's house across our common backyard.
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Saename
When I was still active in my congregation, we met on Saturdays for field service in groups. I noticed that it had always been this way as you describe it. We would socialise for most of the time. We'd talk for 10 minutes, then have the 5-minute meeting, and then socialise for 10 more minutes. I always hated it because when I moved to a new congregation, I didn't know that many people. I would usually be left alone, and they would talk about people that I have never met. It also bothered me because a few months ago, maybe even a year ago now, there was a part in the Kingdom Ministry which informed us of a new arrangement for Saturday field service meetings. The part also encouraged everyone not to spend time socialising, but I noticed that nobody cared about that. They'd still socialise. And socialise. And then preach. This was also true of the elders—quite hypocritical, eh?
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9
What the Org Teaches #7 Birthdays
by The Searcher in#7 birthdays.
what the org teaches: .
"the bible never refers to a servant of god celebrating a birthday.
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Saename
Finkelstein - The WTS. leaders/ GB associate the originating pagan practice of celebrating birthdays of pagan gods , which was true in ancient times as a form of imposing idolatry .
Now days in are modern times its a more of practice of love, appreciation and respect.
ie. a child's first birthday or a celebration of someone turning 100 years old.
This really isn't idolatry or idol worship in premise.
The problem with Jehovah's Witnesses—as with most Christian denominations—is that they think that the Bible is still applicable today. It's true that some teachings are; however, that is not true of most of what you can find in the Bible—or in the early Christianity, for that matter.
The authors of the Bible books were simply men who adhered to the cultural norms of their time. For instance, when Origen and Tertullian wrote against birthdays, it was because the early Christians (their culture) were scared—even terrified—of paganism. This goes back to the fourth, third, and second centuries BCE when the Jews began to see what influence the Greek culture had upon the Jewish customs. The Jews became scared of paganism—including the Hellenization—and that also affected the first Christians who were Jewish. And so the early Christians were afraid of anything even remotely pagan. This is why you have Paul saying that men should not have long hair: fear of paganism. It's simple culture affecting religion, and people can't see that.
Today our culture is not afraid of paganism. This is why churches that apply modern standards to their policies and rules are not scared of birthdays, Christmas, Easter, etc. They don't read the Bible and see it as a guide for all eternity. Some Christians, though not many, have learned how to differentiate between God and culture. Jehovah's Witnesses still have a long way to go.
