Posts by DeWandelaar

i was researching the history of the jews and in wikipedia it is said that in origin the jews were polytheists by default and became monotheist in a later period of time.

i was not aware of this (neither do many others) and am therefore putting some of my findings here:.

first of all the obvious things.

DeWandelaar

Quote from one post before: Although the origin of Yahweh is controversial, the evidence best seems to indicate that Yahweh started out as a local Midianite or north Arabian god.

According to one of the (false?) books of Jasjer Moses was not only a sherpherd in Midian but was also a very wise King in Midian and one with a magical staff/stick... I do not know about the story in detail or willing to look into it NOW but it is worthwhile to read these chapters as well. It makes clear to me that the Yahweh religion had to come from somewhere. Please note that the Israelites were not familiar with him! Why do I say that? Because Moses had to show them that Yahweh was God... Did they not worship God? Yes they did but they probably did worship "El" and not YHWH!

What is interesting (as I posted briefly before) is the fact that the israelites made a golden calf. Since Moses was a very interesting figure who had been on a mountain it probably was the best time to change the worshipping part as well by finishing off "El" and starting to worship YHWH. That is actually what I see. Thing is that the "execution" of the worshippers was NOT done by YHWH but by levites (from the tribe of Moses AND Aaron). You would think that since it was a sin against God, God himself would have slain them. But no... humans did it.

What is also strange is the fact that many years later Rehobeam wanted to have the Israelites favoritism and started to place two of these calves on strategic places in the region of Israel. This lead even more to a contrast between the YHWH followers and the "El" followers (or am I incorrect about this?).

I never understood the "seperation" as logical since all sons of Israel (Jacob) seemed to follow the one and only God YHWH?!

28

Where Do I Go Now?

by individual in

jw
friends

with all the problems in the 'truth' and all the things that we know are wrong with it there seems to be aspects of their theology (i.e the sequences of the world powers, statue in daniel, the promise of world restoration again found in daniel) that to me still make sense.

although i cannot follow a religion that believes in the destruction of all humanity barring those that respond to their own preaching work i still believe in a creator and cannot accept the teachings of other religions that have no purpose for the earth and believe that mankinds only destiny is in heaven.

my mind keeps telling me that if god was behind a religion it would be so much better than that of the jws.

DeWandelaar

First you will enter the unavoidable void... then it becomes time to fill in the void... it is a shitty process which noone who has been a cult can totally avoid :( ... it is inevitable i'm a affraid.

On the plusside... you are not alone on this journey ;)

15

Why I can never escape abuse

by KariOtt in

i have been abused in some way or another my entire life.

my dad started molesting me when i was 3 years old.

he physically molested me until i was 16 and we moved into a new house where i had a lock on my door.

DeWandelaar

I am so wtf-ed that I do not know a way to answer properly... I feel so sorry for you

23

FOLLOW THE MONEY to the Revised NWT

by Terry in

lawsuits with big $$$ awards attached lead to schemes for raising instant revenue to offset losses.. what is the best bet?.

read the nytimes and make a guess.. .

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html....

DeWandelaar

When I was still in we sometimes had the PO stating that normally these books cost a lot if you have to buy them in a store and that was WORLDY literature... how happy and full of joy we should be and we should absolutely show it by donating! He would even stated the amount that certain books would cost in the stores. Now if I hear the figures of manufacturing these books it is big money flooting in (1$ vs 50$)... boomshakalaka

7

Has the organization changed their policy toward inactive ones?

by TweetieBird in

jw
friends

for the past few years, family members and long time friends have pretty much ignored us because we don't go to meetings.

recently, my sister (a regular pioneer) asked me to friend her on facebook, my mother-in-law (a regular pioneer) actually visited us and stayed in our home and another friend that i haven't heard from in years just asked me to friend her on facebook.

just curious..

DeWandelaar

@Tweetie... that is most of the time the way it goes... just give everyone the time to swallow the new situation. In my situation I was very harshly because I was very upset about all the things I found out but now I am more quietly with it and I swallow critisism when I think it would not help my cause. I am coping with it quite well and most JW's are still nice to me (one even came by for a drink while in service).

3

BubbelBal Bubble Football

by VM44 in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rof5m8jouku#t=48.

DeWandelaar

Hey dude... are you dutch? ;)

15

"God's Word Is Beneficial..." 2013/14 Circuit Assembly "Highlights"

by 88JM in

jw
friends

just had the circuit assembly this weekend here:.

surprisingly not much fuss over the new bible considering that this was the first meeting for most here to use it (the annual meeting was "invite only" for a select few here, and there was no thursday meeting because of this assembly) and having a new bible was only referred to fairly briefly in a comment about how "wonderful" it is (and in the closing prayer).

i think i was the only one there with an old maroon nwt - i got a confused look from one of the elders - haha!

DeWandelaar

We had an assembly recently with NO baptisms... now that was a first for me... I was snickering hehehe