Posts by confusedjw

13

My brother is a JW, and I love him.

by earpick18 in

jw
friends

my name is sara, and my older brother is a jehovah's witness.

i stumbled this website when i was feeling upset about my brother's association with jws.

i just wanted to thank you so much for creating a website like this.

confusedjw

I became a witness due to my older brother talking to me. Surely your brother has witnessed to you so tell him this. You were looking into things and every encyclopedia or other reference (especially see www.607v587.com, but don't tell him the source) says the date for the destruction of jerusalem is 587bce and not 607. That would mean that 1914 could not be the end of the gentile times and most importantly then 1919 could not be the date God picked the WT to be his organization on earth.

Gently ask him if he can show anyone other that Jehovah's Witnesses that point to 607 as Jerusalems fall. This could prove to be a very important moment. (FYI two of the five brothers who wrote the Aid to Bible Understanding were disfellowshipped over this issue of 587 vs. 607.)

It's like the Catholic church burning people for saying the world is round (I don't know if they really did that.

The 587 date is rock solid, as you will see as you do some reading. He will read up and tell you that witnesses use the date 539 as their touchstone date. They add two to get to 537 and then because Jerusalem was supposes to be desolate, (they say 70 years when the scriptures really say the nations around not just Jerusalem), they will subtract 70 from 537 to get to 607. They then us a scripture that talks of 7 times, which is extrapolated to be 2520 years which when added to 607 takes you to 1914.

Likely I've either bored you to tears or confused you. Sorry, but here is the point. The date 587 is a very solid historical date with over 10,000 table records pointing to it. That means that the WT is teaching 1.) a falsehood that they know about as hundreds or thousands of witnesses have left over this issue and written them in minute detail. 2). they couldn't have been picked by God in 1919.

You have to be very gentle as you talk to him as you can scare him off with "apostate" phrases. Don't tell him you have been on the internet. That is forbidden almost to them. Just go with neutal sources and ask innocent questions and let him stumble over the answers.

We'll help you if you get stuck

Let us know.

Confusedjw

22

Finding serenity after leaving the JWs

by NaruNaruChan in

tonight was such an interesting and profound night for me.

i went to class... well, specifically a class that i enjoy a great deal... with a professor who has inspired me since i began college...

so i'm sitting there, listening to him lecture, watching him walk back and forth across the stage with this huge projection of the u.s. territories in the background... and for the first time in what seems like ages, my soul spoke to me.

confusedjw

Okay - hold on - I'm checking THE CD to find out if sitting in the rain talking to worldly people is okay....I'll get back to you.

(Okay who just felt their a**h*** pucker?)

I'm glad you had a monumental evening. I'm pondering the thought right now. If the friends I've lost were ever really friends. Thanks

29

We were invited to The Memorial......

by Nan in

jw
friends

our daughter-in-law (who is a witness) has invited us (via email) to the memorial on april 4. she says it's not just for jws.

is this true??

i thought this gathering was exclusively for witnesses; and to partake....er....not partake of the bread and wine?

confusedjw

Tell her you will go if she can show you someone other than the WT who dates 607bce as the fall of Jerusalem.

Really do that. That could put her into a tail spin if she starts down that road of research. It did me.

50

Who Is Your American Idol Pick?

by wednesday in

i am crazy about the red headed john.

he is so cute and just has such a cool way about him.

he's a frank sinatra dean martin type singer.

confusedjw

That girl with fake red hair does it for me. Wonderful singer and has some sizzle

17

GREAT CROWD GIVEN NEW STATUS?

by Hunyadi in

the march 1, 2004 wt, p9 pp6 states:"the only reasonable conclusion, then, is that jesus was referring to a group of chiristians as "the faithful and discreet slave.

" can there be such a thing as a composite slave?

seven hundred years before christ, jehovah referred to the entire nation of israel as "my witnesses" and "my servant whom i have chosen.

confusedjw

No I don't think has any reference to the great crowd. The great crowd has no reference point in the nation of Israel. If you recall the interpertation of the position of the great crowd is of being one of the 10 who graps onto the skirt of a Jew.

This is just reinforcement of the FDS being a Class of humans I believe

20

Facing my family.....

by Evesapple in

although i have not really shared my story here, i have one thing i'd like to share now that makes me very nervous.

i'm going to visit some friends of mine in arizona for a week.

they are friends i had made on my own way after jw's, great, supportive, loving friends....i'm proud of them in that they truely have become my family and have re-defined the true meaning of friendship.

confusedjw

As I read some of these posts I'm so grateful that there was one thing I always held back from the WT.

I recall once a few years ago my son and I were have a row and as it ended I was talking to him and making apologies and told him that I couldn't help it, that even though I knew it was wrong I loved him more than Jehovah. It's true and I wanted him to know how much I loved him. He cried and he never cries. He knew just how big a thing I was saying.

When I started uncovering all the problems with dates and the past predictions and coverups I thought long and hard. I took my son to work with me on a Sunday and had a heart to heart with him that no matter what he ever did that he would always be my son and that I would always be his father and a grandfather to his children. That he would never have to concern or worry himself about that. He said that no matter what ever happened with me or his mom he would never shun us.

That was a very relieving day and promise.

20

Facing my family.....

by Evesapple in

although i have not really shared my story here, i have one thing i'd like to share now that makes me very nervous.

i'm going to visit some friends of mine in arizona for a week.

they are friends i had made on my own way after jw's, great, supportive, loving friends....i'm proud of them in that they truely have become my family and have re-defined the true meaning of friendship.

confusedjw

My I suggest dogmaticlly that the very best way to always handle any tough situation like this, is...

1. Write down or mentally catalog the different ways you could handle it.

2. Separately look ahead 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, 1 decade, 1 lifetime - with the manner chosen in step one.

3. Chose the way that will leave you with the fewest and mildest regrets as that will be the most positive way out of the potentially negative choices.

Then you can truly say "I did my best".

Confused

26

Old Friends from the hall invited us over to their house.....

by NoBorg in

ok, so we get a call from some friends who looked up to us as "who to be like".

we have been on the fade for, well, a long time now, which is quite a contrast because we were the never miss type.

the last conversation i had with the husband he kind of opened up about how he was having trouble going anymore.

confusedjw

Fear - Fear - Fear

Odd how we all are / were in a christian cong with so much fear. How the FDS promote the fear that goes along with being a witness.

Thank goodness religions can't burn at the stake exposers and bible readers anymore. That's what DF'ing and especially labling as apostates is - a modern day burning at the stake. Kills the person, efectively, and serves as a warning to the rest.

What should be learned is that by keeping such a tight fist the WT forces those with doubts to seek out "opposers" to talk. Those with doubts certainly can't talk to anyone in the hall or the elders, well that's not true. If you have doubts about the existance of Jehovah you could, but to doubt the validity of the FDS is of course the unpardonable sin.

I wonder if the first century christians lived in fear?

14

e-watchman, thoughts from past topic

by confusedjw in

i was looking back and a month ago there was a topic about e-watchman and who he was and why he would expose the wt with one side of his mouth and encourage loyalty with the other side.

i wonder if these might be the reasons.... 1. he himself claims to be of the anointed and truly believes he is helping to expose the "evil slave" amongst jehovah's people.. 2. by encouraging loyalty to the wt he doesn't scare away the numberous active witnesses who read his columns and send in questions.

they read and stay in the congregations.

confusedjw

Well I got my wish and haven't gotten flamed.

Right - as you said "still trying to figure out what to do." Me too really.

I have often been in between decisions and needing to make a choice. If it's not clear I often just wait and finally the better decision becomes obvious rather than forcing one.

5

Congregation is building a new KH

by dustyb in

jw
friends

up front at the weekly tcs meeting they are commenting about how much money they've rose for the new kingdom hall.

but i was thinking about how they get all the money, and if i understand it correctly, they raise money and sell the old kh property and give all that money back to the society.

then from there, the society gives out a loan w/ like a 3% interest rate, and on top of that, takes the title to the kh and puts the kh in their names.

confusedjw

No that isn't the way it happened at our hall. The money from the sale went into an account and we used it to buy the land, get the ground work going etc. Money was borrowed from the society for the actual difference in what we had and the extra cost of the new hall. Plus other local congregations sent us money.

I myself haven't heard of the scenario that you laid out, but then again I hadn't heard of 587b.c.e. until fairly recently.