the demons will hear them!.
told me yesterday.
she got this little gem of wisdom from my mother while visiting my parents.. she said, "mom, i'm only gonna tell you this if you don't criticise grammy.".
*LOL* LDH! Lizards in your nose???? Now that you have said that out loud, you'd better go check the mirror for a lizard tail hangin' from a nostril! Wait, not unless that was a GOOD dream!
I love that you and your daughter have such a comfortable, open relationship. My daughter is 5 months old and I look forward to that one day!
i have been searching the net for some excellent sites on the masons.
this past weekend we went down to nc for a wedding and my wife and i broke the news to our nonjw family that we were no longer involved with jw.
i could not believe the open arm welcome my uncle and aunt were almost in tears- they told us we have seen you come home each yr from the main office in ny and then you got married and you would come home and we wanted to say something about the jw but you seemed to be so well respected by the local jw - whenever we would tell folks that our newphew was up in ny- the jw would get all excited- they told us they thought it was so sad for i only made $90 a month.
Well, Susan, the things I've read on the Mason's are the same things that are being posted here--I mean, it's factual, so there is really nothing to argue. Though I know it's hard to accept it if you are apart of it, but if it's a fact, it's a fact.
I was surprised also when I read about the Eastern Star and Mason background when I left the JWs. I didn't know they dealt with the occult until I read up on it.
the above phrase has been bandied about in the past and present, often as a form of insult when the poster disagrees with something another poster has said.. but what exactly do they mean?.
how do you think like a jw?
is there a certain code of synapses that distinguish a jw from a non-jw?.
GodRules:
I understand how you feel about your faith, but until you are ready to take an honest, factual and biblical look at the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses versus Christianity, then discussions such as these go no where. Rex had mentioned some good points.
Think about it, logically: If Jehovah's Witnesses are the only true witnesses for God, and if the Jehovah's Witnesses as an organization came into being in the late 19th century (which is a historical fact), does that mean that mean God was without a witness for over 18 centuries of church history? That can't be, because that goes against what Jesus said, "I am with you always, until the end of the age."
So keeping with this logic, if one cannot understand the Bible without WT literature as they claim, then apparently people could not understand the Bible for 19 centuries--not true. God would not give His people a Bible with no means of understanding it. People had an understanding of the Bible PRIOR to the existance of the WT, so therefore you have to acknowledge that WT beliefs, doctrines and theology sprang from one man who strayed from the normal beliefs of Christainity. He started his own belief system that was not passed down from the days of Christ on earth. My point being, you owe it to yourself to investigate what the differances are between JW and Christianity in light of the Bible.
Do you believe the Bereans were right to test the apostle Pauls teachings by Scripture?
Do you believe followers of God should obey the instruction in 1 Thel. 5:21 to test all things?
Do you you believe followers of God should obey the instruction in 2 Cor. 13:5 and test whether they are "in the faith"?
the above phrase has been bandied about in the past and present, often as a form of insult when the poster disagrees with something another poster has said.. but what exactly do they mean?.
how do you think like a jw?
is there a certain code of synapses that distinguish a jw from a non-jw?.
My husband and I have talked about this...I believe after your baptised as a JW, the brainwashing is in full affect and you train your life around the organization. Therefore, everything you do is thinking like a JW.
"I shouldn't see fireworks on the 4th of July because the Society doesn't think it's a good idea."
"The religious music on the radio is a complete hoax--only we have the truth."
On so on...crazy. It is total mind control.
i know there are lots of atheists on the board, so i'm curious what attracted you to becoming a jw in the beginning.
personally, i feel a bond with all ex-jws (and to those of you doubting) since we have gone through the same things.
so my question is not being sarastic, but i'm curious as to why you are where you are.
Thanks all for your responses! I love reading all of these posts.
JT:
I can understand your point, but in the cases you gave
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"a your store catches on fire- the firemen and ladder truck are across the street at Burger King for lunch- they do nothing" .
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and the others you list in saying God let's things happen, I came to view God in a way I never have after leaving the JWs. My old pastor helped me to see how much the JWs make their God so one-sided.
God is bigger than just seeing the past, present and future. He can see the whole entire picture at once, kinda of like looking down from the top of the highest mountain. In His love he created man, in seeing they would sin, he created a way for that creation to be redeemed and gain life, he saw the future when heaven and earth will become one and thousands upon thousands that He has created, who accepted His son and Savior Jesus, will live for eternity.
For God to stop everything bad, he would of had to take away one of the basis of human happiness--freedom. In love He gives us our freedom, and in love He gives us a way to be forgiven of the sin we were born into.
So in using your illustration, God saw that the store was going to be set on fire by a careless clerk who left a cigarette burning near a magazine on the counter. God could of stopped that clerk from even learning how to smoke by keeping her from the people who taught her, etc., etc. But we have freedom in life. So the journeys we take in life play out. The firemen and ladder don't come right away, they come later to fix the damage. The end result is a rebuilt store that's even better than the last one.
God gave our first parents free will, and in a show of more love Jesus came to repair the damage, and in the end we will be in heaven in a place far better than any earthly life can even hold a candle to. As my current paster says when talking about the greatness of heaven "When he get to heaven, this life now will seem like a bad night in a cheap motel." (It still feels weird saying "my pastor" after years of saying "elder" as a JW! *LOL*)
I just saw it with this amazement that Sunday in church, how much I tried to see God as thinking so small when I was a JW (oh, God will be mad if I miss a meeting) when in reality His thoughts are so much higher, so far reaching than my human brain can comprehend.
does anyone out there have a clue to why all of brooklyn's latest books are paperbacks?
it can't be that aggradizement, property acquisition and construction are superceding book publishing, can it?
whatever happened to the oft-quoted scripture about offering the almighty ``lame sacrifices'' on the altar?
Well, I think the Society is getting a lot less money since the donation arrangement (I mean, I was broke and never put much in the box for the amount of literature I got after that). They are used to a certain "quality" of living, so to speak, and I figure they need to make up for it in as many ways as possible.
Today it's cheaper books, tomorrow it's Bethel food with the WT spin:
Brother 1: "Hey, why aren't they giving us milk anymore with our breakfast cereal?"
Brother 2: "We don't need it! The Society says we can speed up the work and start our daily assignments eariler by eating the cereal right out of these little boxes! It's our new, simplified arrangement!"
i know there are lots of atheists on the board, so i'm curious what attracted you to becoming a jw in the beginning.
personally, i feel a bond with all ex-jws (and to those of you doubting) since we have gone through the same things.
so my question is not being sarastic, but i'm curious as to why you are where you are.
I know there are lots of atheists on the board, so I'm curious what attracted you to becoming a JW in the beginning. Personally, I feel a bond with all ex-JWs (and to those of you doubting) since we have gone through the same things.
So my question is not being sarastic, but I'm curious as to why you are where you are. Since we left a religion where we devoted our lives to God (or felt like we were doing so), I'm wondering if you deep down know that God exists (I mean, you had to believe that as a JW) and now you're just to hurt to find Him after the WT lies, or if you never really believed in Him in the first place.
After being in the JWs, I knew there had to be an opposite to the lies and never felt right until I found it. So, again, my question is curiosity about then and now beliefs/never belief in God.
I hope the question isn't confusing...share your thoughts please!
"peace and security"
freak a dub out - send them this link!.
http://www.un.org/peace/index.html.
Well, I don't know how many Christains are on the board (not JWs), but I am and I know that Jesus is returning. Just as he left, he'll return. 1 Cor. 15:51-54 among other scriptures are clear. Check out the book 'Left Behind', it's based on scripture. :)
It's so funny that JWs don't realize every year their are in contraction of their own beliefs when they observe the Memorial!!! Jesus says in Luke 22:19 that you eat the bread and drink the wine "in remembrance of me". You don't need to remember someone who is already here. Why are they having a memorial? Since they believe He has ALREADY come, they should not be observing it. And all of that "invisible" second coming stuff is total scripture twisting, since one scripture in Matt. 24:29, 30 says when Christ returns "immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon not give light" and other big signs. That didn't happen in 1914 or 1874 (when the first predicted it was supposed to happen). They twist the "coming in the clouds" scripture...so many other scriptures, but no need to go in depth, but any JW can e-mail me because I'm ready for a debate.
Sorry to get started....grrrr...but the Jesus I serve is not the wishy washy Jesus of the WT. Is he here...is he not...JWs in charge made up that "invisible" thing in order to cover for the fact that the end didn't occur on the dates they predicted, so to save face Jesus came "invisibly". We weren't wrong, really!!!!!!! But true Christains know Christ will return with a visible manifestation of the glory of God just as he left.
Geez...I'm stopping! *LOL*
jesus further related in the 15th chapter of john: "nevertheless, i have spoken these things to you that, when the hour for them arrives, you may remember i told them to you.
these things, however, i did not tell you at first, because i was with you.
so, the point is that jesus has not told his anointed ones certain things yet because the hour for them has not arrived.
You Know has made me seen the error of my ways! I will now go back to the Watchtower Society!!!
Thanks You Know!!!
You're always welcome on this board to save others! YEAH!! :)
"all things are continuing exactly the same as from creation's beginning" is the thinking attributed to those ridiculers of christ's presence.
because the sign of christ's invisible presence must be accepted on faith and faith is not a possession of all people, faithless ones are willfully blinded to the evidence that the system is nearing its hour of judgment.
in this the 2nd week of august 2001, the evidence steadily mounts that apostate ridiculers of jehovah's word are very badly mistaken and about to be spanked with a very large paddle.
Quote from You Know:
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Just because the Watchtower hasn't told you who the king of the north is doesn't mean he is not now identifiable by those with insight into these things. But, since the Watchtower hasn't seen fit to tell you, and since Jehovah obviosuly hasn't revealed his secret to you, neither am I going to explain to you the enigma of the king of the north. But when the time comes we'll let you know. LOL / You Know
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This is on record as one of the wackiest things I've ever read--including that loopy laughter typed in at the end. It's coming from someone who has no clue what they are talking about, but they are trying to make a point. My step-mother suffered from various problems and would talk like this--like riddles that only she would get. We all would just nod and smile.
