Statements like this are why I'm done with the GB. They've placed themselves in the seat of Christ as our deliverers. Matt 24 and 1 Thes 4 clearly show Christ will deliver his chosen ones. Salvation is by him alone. We don't need to follow imperfect men. He never said anywhere in the scriptures that we need to rely on men for salvation. Once again we resort to some OT pprophecy to give the GB legitimacy as our saviors.
kneehighmiah
JoinedPosts by kneehighmiah
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47
The most disturbing Watchtower quote in 2013.
by never a jw ini am trying to put together the worst of 2013. the first quote that comes to mind is possibly your "favorite" too.
do you have any other disturbing quotes from the publications in the wt?.
elders who are reading this article can draw some useful conclusions from the account we have just considered: (1) the most practical step that we can take to prepare for the coming attack of the assyrian is that of strengthening our faith in god and helping our brothers to do the same.
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Planning to voice dissesnt next year
by kneehighmiah ini plan to voice my dissent after our next discussion of the generation teaching coming in april.
obviously i will avoid incriminating myself.
but, i feel it's a perfect time for me to question the credibility of the gb considering most people at our hall are old enough to remember the 1995 flip flop.
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kneehighmiah
I plan to spend my remaining time helping family and friends. I don't plan to ever officially leave so that things won't be awkward at family events. Its sad how conditional our live is and how judgemental we are. I feel terrible for the times I judged people on stupid stuff. I pray for forgiveness because it's so unchristian. Once you wake up, you enjoy life more. Everything isn't evil. I don't look down on worldly people. I still love God and Jesus. I'm happier now than ever.
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Planning to voice dissesnt next year
by kneehighmiah ini plan to voice my dissent after our next discussion of the generation teaching coming in april.
obviously i will avoid incriminating myself.
but, i feel it's a perfect time for me to question the credibility of the gb considering most people at our hall are old enough to remember the 1995 flip flop.
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kneehighmiah
I plan to voice my dissent after our next discussion of the generation teaching coming in April. Obviously I will avoid incriminating myself. But, I feel it's a perfect time for me to question the credibility of the GB considering most people at our hall are old enough to remember the 1995 flip flop. It's shocking how people can't admit the GB is wrong and just guessing. They continue to repeat the same wait on Jehovah meme. The GB knows people are going to be upset with the new teachings they have coming up. That's why they call all who have doubts "false apostles" and encourage us to avoid association with them in the December 15 WT.
Btw I have told non JW family and friends that I no longer believe our teachings. Waiting to fade. Have to be careful though. So badly want to destroy our 1914 teaching with scriptures. Interestingly a friend told me he no longer teaches 1914 in service but he still believes in the organization.
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Thorough Scriptural Destruction of the Practice of Judicial Committees
by kneehighmiah ini'm sure this has already been discussed.
but here are my thoughts on why jcs are unscriptural.. .
elders are instructed to look for works that befit repentance (acts 26:20).
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kneehighmiah
I'm sure this has already been discussed. But here are my thoughts on why JCs are unscriptural.
- Elders are instructed to look for “works that befit repentance (Acts 26:20).” First of all this scripture was talking about the repentance of sins and turning toward God needed to become a baptized follower of Jesus. The context shows that Paul is talking about the message he preached to unbelievers. This message is similar to the one preached by John the Baptist at Matthew 3:8 and Peter in Acts 3:19. So if this is a scripture used to justify judicial committee activities, I believe it’s woefully misapplied.
- Jesus instructed us to forgive (Matt 21:22; Luke 17:3,4). If a wrongdoer goes to the elders with a problem or confession and repents, then he should be forgiven according to scripture. He may even need to receive a “rebuke,” as mentioned in Luke, but he should still be forgiven if he repents. Verse 4 goes on to further mention that we must take the wrongdoers word, since we cannot read hearts. “Even if he sins seven times a day against you and he comes back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” Therefore, I don’t believe it belongs to the elders to determine genuine heartfelt repentance. That belongs to Jehovah.
- Jesus helps us understand how to deal with more stubborn individuals. Matt 18:15-17 shows that the wrongdoer should be confronted first. Then if they do not repent, further steps must be taken including removal from the congregation. The idea is to gain your brother and not rely on a formula to determine repentance or discipline.
- People who are not practicing sin, but have not approached the elders about a past sin should not be disfellowshiped (see above reasoning). Additionally King David committed sin and covered it up, but was forgiven by Jehovah. God reads hearts and forgives by means of Jesus and it is not up to men to judge that someone has a bad attitude.
- Fear of being expelled prevents those with problems from seeking help. Instead elders are instructed to act as loving spiritual shepherds, doctors, helpers and friends. James 5:13-16 clearly demonstrates this point. James doesn’t say “let the sinner seek the elders help and then let there be a judicial committee to see if they should be disfellowshipped or if they’re repentant.” Instead it’s clearly telling elders “if someone is sick or needs help, help them.” Why would anyone be moved to openly confess sins if they knew that they were going to be subject to a judicial committee with their entire relationship with friends and family hanging in the balance? How is that helpful or even healthy? It only adds to stress and guilt. Sadly I know many who have decide to fade away or hide addictions rather than seek help because of fear.
- Judicial restrictions (punishment) are unscriptural. After Peter publicly denied Christ, was he put on judicial restrictions? No. Shortly after his resurrection he visited Peter and encouraged him and entrusted him with responsibility (John 21:15-19). He had forgiven Peter despite his serious error. Shortly thereafter Peter would be used during Pentecost to help many get baptized. Therefore, not allowing repentant ones to comment at meetings is punitive and unscriptural.
Sadly as one of JW my entire life I can see the organization becoming Pharisaical and corporate with its endless rules. Following rules, going in service, attending meetings does nothing to change our sinful nature. Brothers are realizing this and becoming deeply depressed because they still feel they don’t measure up. Many live in fear of the elders and are afraid to express themselves for fear of condemnation. Thus many witnesses live fake lives and are not their authentic selves. Jesus knew just how sinful man is and helped us appreciate just how awesome and far reaching God’s undeserved kindness is for those who have faith and know God. I believe we’ve completely overlooked this and instead base righteousness on outward appearances, works and compliance to endless rules.
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JW Instagram Bragging
by kneehighmiah inbrowsing social media and all the pictures of jw friends out in the freezing cold this morning.
the captions read "service despite the snow.
" others take pictures of the temperature display on their car showing single digit temps.
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kneehighmiah
Browsing social media and all the pictures of JW friends out in the freezing cold this morning. The captions read "service despite the snow." Others take pictures of the temperature display on their car showing single digit temps. I love how they need to remind everyone how spiritual they are battling the cold. These same people also post their spiritual "resume"on their profile. #JW, reg pioneer, MS, Bethelite, RBC. The girls who post their impressive resumes and service pics always have profiles full of gratuitous selfies. And of course a "spiritual person" needs to include pics of them reading the daily text, WT or bible and letting all their followers know how much the message moved them. I always laugh because I know what these people are really like. They fall into two categories. Those who prefer to have their praise before men, or those who are insecure and need to prove their spirituality. It's sad that this is how young JWs view spirituality. The focus continues to be on works and outward appearances and not on love.
spiritually insecure and never feel good enough. Hence they need to prove their spirituality.
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Depression amongst JWs
by tornapart inhas anyone seen this post on facebook?
the comments below it are staggering!
so many suffering from depression... along with the few judgementalists.
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kneehighmiah
I read through some of the thread on the facebook page. One elder in paticualr a Richard Lawson stood out. What a judgemental douche. His Pharisiacal thinking is what burdens the friends with guilt. The Bible never tells us how many meetings we should have each week or what our meeting attendence % needs to be. (Jehovah only made the Jews attend one meeting a week) It simply instructs us that we should not make a habit of missing meetings or avoiding Christian fellowship. Once again an elder attempting to quantify spirituality. No wonder people are depressed. All that guilt heaped upon them. Once I stopped trying to please men I became free. A load was lifted.
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JW morale reaching new low
by kneehighmiah inmany friends i've spoken with are becoming discouraged.
because of this it's becoming tempting to privately share my views with friends, but i know this is still too dangerous.
most witnesses in my circle are intelligent free thinkers.
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kneehighmiah
Low morale is one of the reasons I finally decided to post here. I was being beaten down by the endless time contraints and rules. Pointless extra elders and MS meetings in addition to the mid week meetings that I show up to dog tired. I cut back on "secular things" like entertainment expecting to feel refreshed. I only felt more empty. I wondered how I used to even have energy another mid week meeting. Why does a week of "special activity" and encouragement mean more draining meetings? There's also the guilt trip you go through for missing a meeting or service. You need to almost provide a doctors note.Your expected to go out on holidays too, even if it's your only day off. Morale is drained when you feel under constant scrutiny from men. Some elders will even go tattle to the CO if they think you need to be doing something better instead of just talking with you. Ever since I stopped caring about these man made rules I've felt 100% better. I go for now to keep the peace, but my outlook is no longer grim or guilt filled. My mind is free.
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JW morale reaching new low
by kneehighmiah inmany friends i've spoken with are becoming discouraged.
because of this it's becoming tempting to privately share my views with friends, but i know this is still too dangerous.
most witnesses in my circle are intelligent free thinkers.
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kneehighmiah
Even right now I'm thinking about how proud the congregation was of some that got baptized from our congregation in recent times, and they were all what you would label as, weird. People with obvious mental and social issues.
We were joking about this amongst a group of born-in JWs. Everyone new seems to have serious mental problems. I compare the new ones to the stories of older converts. It's completely different. Older ones may have been searching for God or just returned from war with many questions. In contrast many new ones are on welfare, fresh out of jail, extremely f'ed up family situation or have severe mental illness. This puts a severe strain on the elders who are not trained to handle these new ones. Ultimately it leaves the elders burned out and contributes to the plunging morale. Also these new ones will never qualify for "special privileges" due to their instability.
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JW morale reaching new low
by kneehighmiah inmany friends i've spoken with are becoming discouraged.
because of this it's becoming tempting to privately share my views with friends, but i know this is still too dangerous.
most witnesses in my circle are intelligent free thinkers.
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kneehighmiah
I think foreign language fields have better morale. I've also visited several poorer foreign contries and they have better morale as well. To be honest, they don't really seem to be caught up in the WT corporate nonsense with its endless rules. The elders are not as controlling because they haven't inherited years/generations of "oral tradition" to enforce in addition to the scriptures. They seem to focus more on love and being a good person and are less concerned with obscure non-sensical doctrine. Also older WTs are not in their language, so they cannot go back and research certain flip flops. This is why I believe new growth is almost exclusively in these fields.
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JW morale reaching new low
by kneehighmiah inmany friends i've spoken with are becoming discouraged.
because of this it's becoming tempting to privately share my views with friends, but i know this is still too dangerous.
most witnesses in my circle are intelligent free thinkers.
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kneehighmiah
The GB must have their wires crossed in the Heavenly T1 connection, since they're apparently being "spirit-guided" NOT by Jehovah, but by Irving Fisher, an economist who introduced the term "overlapping generations" in the 1920's in his book:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overlapping_generations_model
Adam
Thanks for taking me back to economics class. You must be the reincarnated Adam Smith.