Posts by Newly Enlightened

11

Faith with out FEARS is dead....

by Fed-up in

isn't that the way the scripture goes?

it's more accurate, i think.. one of the comments on one of the threads (sorry, i'd give due credit, but can't find it again) mentions someone finally being able to size up jw's as one would any other religion.

indeed, he that is under fear has not been made perfect in love.

Newly Enlightened

Welcome to the newly enlightened! I was raised a JW [49 yrs] and as my post name says I am newly enlightened also. You're right! I just watched an interesting documentary called 'Marks of a cult:Bibical analysis' by Eric Holmberg. JW's were the first cult they discussed. It's funny tho, how each one of the cults ALL say they are the channel thru God and you cannot understand the bible without THEM! BS! I'm reading the bible anew in a different light [without WTS blinders] and I got myself several other translations and I'm seeing things for what they really say.

May God bless you on your journey. [I personally don't use the name Jehovah anymore since it is an invented name by a Catholic monk]

http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/is-gods-name-yahweh-or-jehovah

25

WTBTS and the Red Cross?

by The Song Remains The Same in

hi all, i'm new but have read an awful lot here plus jwfacts and jwsurvey over the past months, also the coc book.. i'm not a jw (and never will be) but have a wife who is a 'want-to-be' jw.

this is quite a challenge for me as i already had an idea on some of the points jws stick to, but now with everything i have learned about the high-control methods, the changing doctrines, and the cover-ups, it's a real concern.... anyway, i was putting forward the notion that jw's don't help anyone in disaster zones, except jws, or by giving out wt tracts or magazines (which would be really useful to homeless, hungry and cold families).

she didn't know, and doubted it, so i told her to ask an elder if the wt provides assistance at all anywhere.. she reported back that the elder said the wt does contribute to the red cross.

Newly Enlightened

I've been a JW my entire life [49 yrs] and the only information I can find is that they donate only to their OWN organizations and corporations. They do absolutely nothing to help others in the world. After Katrina, down South. I had a friend of mine donate his time to go down and help fellow JW's clean and fix their homes. He was working on a JW crew that would clean mold out of JW's homes. He heard personally on several occasions that when the crews were done with the brother's homes. The supervisor would tell the homeowner. "Now if we were a 'worldly' business we would have charged you $XX,XXX for the work we did. But since the WTB$ is doing this voluntarily and free of charge, all we ask is that when you get your insurance money, consider donating it to the organization." He also said that almost ALL material was donated by someone ELSE and brothers like him had to pay for all their own expenses. He ended up with a horrible lung fungus that almost killed him. He had to go back home and the elders critisized HIM for missing meetings!

13

When Did You Stop Attending The Memorial At the Hall? Celebrate L.E.M. With Friends Online?

by ÁrbolesdeArabia in

i am still new to the business of fading and once i stop attending the memorial with all the dubs around me, my former friends will definitly put my shepherding call on hold.

i am sure some of the friends faded quick and never turn their back toward the kingdom hall again.

i am curious if others took a longer approach to fading and dropping off completly.

Newly Enlightened

Gojira is correct. After 'observing' only, for 45 years, and after thorough research, Her father & I have come to the conclusion that ALL of Christ disciples should partake. So we will quietly be celebrating at home.

Unleaven Bread recipe:

1 cup Whole wheat flour, 2 Tbls Ex-Virgin Olive Oil, 1/2 cup Water. Mix well. Roll out to 1/8 inch thick. Bake at 350* for 20 minutes

30

Should Jehovah's Witnesses be added to the Wikipedia article on Doomsday Cults?

by jwfacts in

there is discussion of doomsday cults at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/doomsday_cult, and much of it aligns closely with watchtower predictions and behaviour, so i was wondering why jehovah's witnesses are not mentioned.

here are some quotes from the article:.

doomsday cult is an expression used to describe groups who believe in apocalypticism and millenarianism, and can refer both to groups that prophesy catastrophe and destruction, and to those that attempt to bring it about.

Newly Enlightened

Entirely Possible- Just get a Strong's Concordance and look on page 32 of the Hebrew & Chaldee Dictionary towards the back Item/Line # 1942 & 1943 then go to this link:

http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/is-gods-name-yahweh-or-jehovah

And read where the Name Jehovah came from. IT IS AN INVENTED NAME BY A CATHOLIC MONK IN THE 13TH CENTURY

52

One experience in our old Kingdom Hall that still HAUNTS me

by Newly Enlightened in

the following is a true experience and my daughter gojira101 will verify that it happened to her.

an experience from our family's past that still haunts me and started my questioning whether this is the true organization of god or not.. my daughter, who has always been a good kid, never gave us any problems [she's an adult now] started regular pioneering.

within a few weeks of her starting, she fell on a steep hill and tore open her knee and had to have several stitches.

Newly Enlightened

WOW! That's terrible. I just got done watching a documentary about 'Cults' which helps explain why the elders & higher ups treat people the way they do.

If you can over look their pro-trinity part, its called 'The Marks of a Cult: Bibical analysis" by Eric Holmberg

6

JW Comic Books, eh, "Illustrated Bible Stories"--Seen 'Em?

by sd-7 in

jw
friends

http://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/family/children/illustrated-bible-stories/.

my mom was showing these to my wife--kind of interesting.

haven't had any chance to look over them myself, though.

Newly Enlightened

A friend of my daughter, a pioneer sister, sent pictures to her showing the great success they're having with the barely illiterate foreign groups on the east coast. I seen the pictures from the pages of these 'comic book' and thought, scratching my head, OMG!

New all time low for WTS

42

I am new here and need help...or just a listening ear

by Fallingaway in

my husband and i have two small children, one of which recently became an unbaptised publisher and joined the school.

my husband is an elder and firmly committed to our family and loves me deeply as i love him.

i would like to find a way for all of us to fade away as we have family in the organization that we do not want to lose.

Newly Enlightened

Welcome dear sister Falling Away. I'm so sorry to hear about your victimization from others in the cong. I would tell the authorities about your molesting. Almost everyone on here hopes that the WTS would be exposed for the damage their child abuse policies have caused.

Our family feels for you because this is the exact same thing we have been going thru ourselves since this past summer. It's difficult because we always have this niggling doubt 'What if I'm wrong?" But the more we research, pray and read our bibles for what it says [without WTS literature telling us what it says] the more our minds get clear and the more we know that we're doing the right thing by 'fading away'. Not that I'm encouraging anyone to do so, that's just where OUR journey took us.

2 Th 2: 1-12 But pay close attention to vs 11 God allows the operation of error to go, so they will believe the lie." Ask your elder husband to read that scripture with you, then ask him if he knows where the lie is? If this is the true religion then we should not be operating under a lie? Here's one lie exposed, go to your Reasoning book pg 89 under subheading 'Cross' in that first paragraph you will see the [...] then the reference they quote. 'The Imperial Bible Dictionary" you can go to http://archive.org/stream/theimperialbible01unknuoft#page/377/mode/1up and you will see that the missing [...] from our Reasoning Book is saying something entirely different. Then as you start your journey of discover you will find, as we did, that 1 lie leads to another.

This past district convention there was a part entitled 'Motivating right-hearted ones to love their spiritual mother" In that demonstration the CO, says and I quote "The bible by itself does not shine thru as life-giving truths just by itself." Publisher "That's why Jehovah provides us with the organizaton." [Youtube has the audio of that demo] After hearing that, it raised a big red flag. To me that was an apostate saying. Since when does the bible NOT shine thru as life-giving truth?

Our recent 4/15 2013 WT http:/jw.org pg 29 A picture is worth a thousand words. If Jesus is Head of the congregation then where is he in this picture and organization? Cedars started a thread on this same website about this picture that you might find interesting.

Welcome again sister and if I could only relay 1 piece of advice do not be afraid of what MEN can do to you! Do not be afraid of exploring these website because the truth can stand up to scrutiny the lie cannot. also check out http:/jwfacts

86

2+2=5 cited this fact about the shrinking amount of elders. Perhaps the coming implosion?

by wha happened? in

at the last elders school i heard from a few different attendees that the average age was easily 60+.

there will be a lot of elders gone within the next 10yrs.

there is nowhere near enough young brothers to replace these ageing elders.

Newly Enlightened

Don't know for sure, but this is what happened to my husband. He was a regular pioneer and a MS, but had an elder use him in a lie [ without us knowing at the time] to get our cong P.O removed. My husband spoke up and exposed the lie. It's very interesting that within a year, this same strategy was applied again to get the same P.O removed. Finally a new CO came in, removed the PO himself, moved a service overseer elder over from a neighboring cong. then announced to the cong. that HE had made some changes and for us as a cong to pray that it works and the cong gets Jehovah's blessing. Then the new service overseer [who was now in the 'Boy's club' of the new CO] attempted to use my husband in another lie to get the book study out of the now removed PO's home. When my husband challenged their lies, we were hauled in front of 12+ elders, who encircled us with their chairs and accused US of apostasy because we dared to challenge authority and shortly after they tried several attempts to remove my husband from his position. [It's interesting that we walked away from this meeting without even private reproof]

Point I'm trying to make is that: Maybe they only want YES men, spiritual qualifications and hours don't matter unless you're a 'Brown noser';

Does any one know the difference between a 'Brown Noser' & a "Butt kisser" ?????........Depth perception

37

BOE call MS for meeting - anything to do with Elders School?

by konceptual99 in

jw
friends

last night all us servants were called to an important and critical meeting next week.

no one would give me a heads up on it.

our boe went to their secret squirrel school on boxing day last week so i can only assume its related to that.

Newly Enlightened

Or, could you write it out, without any specifics to where a lurker could guess which cong/circuit and PM it to someone you know on here that has already been 'outted' and have them post it for you? Just a thought.

52

One experience in our old Kingdom Hall that still HAUNTS me

by Newly Enlightened in

the following is a true experience and my daughter gojira101 will verify that it happened to her.

an experience from our family's past that still haunts me and started my questioning whether this is the true organization of god or not.. my daughter, who has always been a good kid, never gave us any problems [she's an adult now] started regular pioneering.

within a few weeks of her starting, she fell on a steep hill and tore open her knee and had to have several stitches.

Newly Enlightened

Oh my goodness. How unloving and RUDE. I know there are thousands out there just like us that have these horrible traumatic things happen to them. I know now that it is not just our family that they were 'picking' on. It's ALL who are critical thinkers, that they know they cannot control!

I feel for all of you dear brothers and sisters and thank you for making us all feel welcome to this site. I pray that Jehovah and Jesus help you all in your struggle.