i just wanted to intoroduce myself.
i have been lurking for some time and finally decided to register and hopefully contribute to this great forum.. i am in my mid 30s and have never been in the truth.
my wife became a jw several years ago and since she is a (mostly) stay at home mom my two boys are also jws.
redvip2000 - Yes you could say that escaping from that cult, has made us be very cautious about believing in things for which there is no evidence.
Perfect way of putting it. My experience with Jehovah's Witnesses has taught me to go where the evidence leads me.
i just wanted to intoroduce myself.
i have been lurking for some time and finally decided to register and hopefully contribute to this great forum.. i am in my mid 30s and have never been in the truth.
my wife became a jw several years ago and since she is a (mostly) stay at home mom my two boys are also jws.
Hello there. Glad to have a new member here. By the way, it's kind of weird to see you refer to Jehovah's Witnesses as "the truth" since you have never been a Jehovah's Witness yourself. Sort of interesting. Maybe became a habit because of your wife?
When it comes to atheism... You'll be surprised to see that many of the atheists on this forum don't believe in god anymore because some of them have considered all evidence for and against god, including history of Christianity, which was triggered by their urge to first learn about their own faith. From there, it usually spreads to learning about mainstream Christianity as well, sometimes even other religions.
I personally first started learning about my own religion (which now I usually call a cult), and then I began to study the history of Christianity from its very beginning. The reason why I don't believe in god anymore isn't because of Jehovah's Witnesses. It's because of what I learned about Jesus and the first Christians from the historical point of view and how it agrees or disagrees with the Bible.
so that was a "shocker".
i was not able to attend the meeting.
i had a more important one with my other apostate friends in the area.
Thought it was obvious. It's always been this way that some people prefer to come to the meetings only on special days.
the past few months i've been feeling really depressed and kind of hopeless.
the few people that actually were a little bit friendly to me at the hall recently moved away, and i'm feeling like more of an outcast than i already was.
every meeting i just stand by myself by the wall and nobody cares, i feel really lonely and unloved.
It's not really the stress of JW life. It's just being human. We tend to focus on the worst parts of our lives, though rather subconsciously—until one day we decide to focus on the better moments.
If you still need some friends, though, we're still here for you. Rebelfighter lives in Florida as well, so all you need is just ask to meet her. You also have my Skype and Facebook, just in case you ever want to talk to somebody your age. I assume it probably feels uncomfortable for you right now when so many people responded to your topic about feeling lonely. But don't ignore your first instincts that convinced you to create this topic.
well i just got back from 3 days in hell, and geez was this convention strange or what?
im sure someone's probably made a topic about this already but i can't believe that there weren't any new releases besides the movies.
has that ever happened before?
pale.emperor - I live on the 4th floor in an apartment block, im screwed. Where am i gonna hide?
In some kind of container made of iron. For some reason, Jehovah seems to be scared of iron.
Judges 1.19: "The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had chariots fitted with iron" (NIV).
ok, this probably applies to most faith systems that believe in any sort of afterlife, but i would like to know what sort of explanation the jw's would come up with for this little problem, you know, after armageddon on earthly paradise.
sorry if i sound dumb, but it's been nagging at me for a few weeks and have to ask.. so, what if a young married jw couple are living their life, waiting for the big a, knowing they will be together in the earthly paradise, then very sadly one of them dies.
from what i know, if a jw dies, that's it.
Ding - Jesus didn't distinguish between "anointed" and "other sheep" in his remarks.
You're of course right. But Jehovah's Witnesses disagree for some reason, and this question, I assume, is strictly about the Jehovah's Witness theology. According to them, this scripture is either about the anointed or the other sheep (for some reason.)
But if there's no marriage (romantic relationships?) in the paradise, then I don't know who would want to be there...
the past few months i've been feeling really depressed and kind of hopeless.
the few people that actually were a little bit friendly to me at the hall recently moved away, and i'm feeling like more of an outcast than i already was.
every meeting i just stand by myself by the wall and nobody cares, i feel really lonely and unloved.
I know your feeling when you stand by the wall in the Kingdom Hall. I've been there before I left. I was feeling alone. However, the problem wasn't that other people weren't interested in associating with me; it's just that I didn't take the initiative to talk to them.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend making friends with Jehovah's Witnesses. You're planning to fade, so they will shun you (even though you're not baptised.) You can go out and meet some non-JW people. As Simon mentioned, it's tough, but it is like a muscle.
Also, in your first post you mentioned you were 15, which would make you around 16 now. I'm not exactly your age, but I'm still young—only 18. I just finished high school in June. If you need a friend in your age range, I'm here. I'll send you a PM with my contact information.
By the way, your dad can't track your Internet history by using the router. That's not what routers are for at all. He could track you by installing a program on your computer, which in turn would save your Internet history. However, considering the fact he was threatening your brothers with the router, I'm guessing he doesn't know anything about tracking. I bet he has no idea how to install a tracking program on your computer, so I'd say you're completely safe.
ok, this probably applies to most faith systems that believe in any sort of afterlife, but i would like to know what sort of explanation the jw's would come up with for this little problem, you know, after armageddon on earthly paradise.
sorry if i sound dumb, but it's been nagging at me for a few weeks and have to ask.. so, what if a young married jw couple are living their life, waiting for the big a, knowing they will be together in the earthly paradise, then very sadly one of them dies.
from what i know, if a jw dies, that's it.
According to JW teaching, death is the end of marriage. If one spouse dies, their marriage is "legally" ended. If, say, the wife remarried and survived into the paradise with her new husband, they would have to remain married unless death or adultery occurs. The resurrected spouse would not have the "right" to be with her, so technically, yes, he would have to pretend to be happy with this.
Right now, there is an ongoing debate among Jehovah's Witnesses whether resurrected people would be able to marry, or remarry, in the paradise. As FreeGirl2006 said, it is possible the resurrected spouse would not be able to marry. However, the contrary is also possible as Jehovah's Witnesses have not yet decided. They are not yet sure as to what one verse, I believe from Matthew, means. In this verse, Jesus speaks of the earthly paradise, heaven, and marriage. Therefore, they don't know whether the rule against being married after Armageddon is in regards to the earthly paradise or heaven.
I had this exactly same conversation with the elders from my area some time ago. All I said above is true for the Jehovah's Witnesses in my city. I'm not sure whether they would have other interpretations in other countries. I live in ON, Canada.
ok, slight exaggeration: specifically, an official recording of the july 25th, 2016 midweek meeting in german sign language downloaded from stream.jw.org, (log-in required), includes a brother with a beard giving one of the talks:.
.
Yes, double standards are practiced. I also wanted to grow a beard but was told I'd look like a Muslim. (Wth?) They argue that in the Western culture (North America, for instance) beards are not appropriate, which is complete bullsh**. All you need to do in Canada is go outside, and you'll see dozens of people with beards, and nobody bothers them in any way. When I was in high school, there were also plenty of Canadian students with beards. Nobody cared. Our culture does accept beards, so I have no idea what the hell is wrong with Jehovah's Witnesses and their brains.
while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.
because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".
i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.
Brokeback Watchtower - You imaginary friend is pretty untouchable how are you supposed to get him to go to court? Will he just voluntarily go or do we have to send the police after him?Hopefully he isn't black. A dead god isn't of much use, is he now?
By the way, when did this conversation about the purpose of life became a fight about whether god is a murderer? There are too many pages of comments here, so I didn't really feel like reading it all... (Maybe tomorrow?)
