"it's ok, I was brought up as a witness. I know it's all bullshit"
Love it !!
You made them think but at the same time were kind and gave them an out....brilliant !
Pete Zahut
JoinedPosts by Pete Zahut
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19
Why did Jesus come to earth? Invite to a DC
by Simon ini just had an invite to a district convention later this month in calgary (i guess they get to clean up the saddledome before the stampede, lol).. they gave me a leaflet asking "why did jesus come to earth?
" so i asked them "so why did he come?".
"well, he came to save us".
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Scottish Humour
by The Searcher ina scotsman's cell-phone rings when he's sitting in a cafe with his wife.
when he answers, he says, "aye", and for the next few minutes he just keeps responding to everything the caller is apparently asking, by saying "aye".
the other customers are puzzled by the conversation taking place.. when he ends the call, his wife stares at him inquisitively.. "what's wrong?
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Pete Zahut
What's wrong?", he says, it's an "Aye 'phone!".
If that's what happens when he uses an iphone , I wonder what happens when he uses a Wii ?
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76
OMG, I’m gonna get Old and Die.
by John Aquila inwhen it finally clicked,.
and you realized there was no 1914, there was no generation that would see the end of a wicked system, there was no paradise around the corner, .
what went through you mind?.
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Pete Zahut
I could have been born into many different families. Each child must grow up, learn, and decide what to do with their life.
I hear what you're saying but in this thread, we are talking about our own experience within the JW framework . There are worse things that could happen to us of course, but there are also better things that could have happened as well. To compare ones unfavorable experience to someone who has or had it worse is a way of rationalizing things and was what many here did and as a result they prolonged the inevitable. It's sort of like pointing out the much more difficult plight of a blind and deaf person, to teenager with a missing arm who is angry at his parents for not telling him that he could have had a prosthesis all these years. "see....you could have had it worse"
So many people in the past are gone, and that's one thing I wanted to do in the new order, meet EVERY one who had ever lived, ask them about their lives, find out what REALLY happened in history. Now? I can't.
Who say's you can't...if there are good things in store for mankind in the future, there's no reason you or I won't be part of it !
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76
OMG, I’m gonna get Old and Die.
by John Aquila inwhen it finally clicked,.
and you realized there was no 1914, there was no generation that would see the end of a wicked system, there was no paradise around the corner, .
what went through you mind?.
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Pete Zahut
Matt 16:25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
As I began awakening I went through all the stages of grief. It started out with waking up at night with slight panic attacks and the feeling of OMG I'm X years old and I've got a wife and kids and a mortgage, I've stuck with a boring job because I thought the end was so close and here I am still thinking I'm not going to die in this system...but it looks like it's probably going to happen. Weren't we supposed to be perfect by now???
I'd pull myself together and press on, thinking that if I built up my faith more, I would see things differently. I turned to the literature for guidance and comfort only to find that the subject matter, horrific pictures and ridiculous logic contained within their pages, only made things worse. I followed the advice one elder gave me, to read the book of Job and find comfort in how Job was tested and how Jehovah rewarded him in the end. In my mental state, this was the worst thing I could have done. To think that Jehovah's solution to Job losing all of his children, was to simply replace them with new ones, was even more horrible that I had remembered. How could a loving father to whom I was desperately praying to for help, think that this would be enough to make up for the horror of having all of your children crushed under a collapsed house?
Then I began having panic and anxiety attacks at meetings and assemblies to the point that certain Kingdom songs would start me blubbering like a big baby (so embarrassing). It got to the point that I couldn't go out at night, watch the news, or see a movie that had any kind of violence and especially one that had any kind of religious or futuristic theme. I was a wreck....barely able to go to work. Out of sheer determination, I'd make it through the day but would go straight to bed as soon as I got home at 4 pm. I couldn't bear to be awake one minute longer than absolutely necessary. No one could figure out what was wrong with me. I had a lovely wife and kids, a nice home, good job no dept, etc,but I was acting like someone who had the weight of the world on my shoulders.
This went on for years. I had good medical benefits at work but spent thousands out of my own pocket on medical Dr's and Professional Counselors and different medications. Nothing worked....I couldn't tell them what exactly was wrong with me because A: I was still in denial and B: I didn't want to bring reproach on the Organization or Jehovah's name. More than one professional told me that I had the symptoms of someone who had been raised in an abusive or alcoholic family or had been through some sort of psychological abuse as a child.They told me that I should commend myself for being so strong because most people who were suffering at the level I was for this long, would be divorced, drug or alcohol addicted and jobless. Somehow I managed to keep it together for the most part but it took everything I had. At this point, I sort of attributed my strength to "the truth" and Jehovah but I was beginning to question that too.
As I said, this went on for years. I managed to eke out some fun times and have a happy family life and I managed to keep the show on the road, but inside I was sick at heart and my stomach was in knots, even though on the outside I was able to mask it.
Long story short...a series of back to back JW related disasters happened to several family members that became a perfect storm of undeniable proof the what my body had been telling me all along, was in fact true. I received an email from a long time JW friend that was meant to be encouraging. That email was about Beth Sarim and how interesting it was to see the early history of the Organization and how much the Society has progressed since then. I was shocked....how could I have been a lifelong JW and a former Bethelite without having heard of this before?? I suddenly realized that I was up to my ears in a huge and cruel HOAX and my body had been telling me so for years.
It took a few more months, but I finally stopped going to meetings and having anything to do with JW's and JW related activities. I admitted out loud to my wife that I no longer was a JW. She, thankfully was reaching the same point herself. A week after my last meeting, the anxiety was gone....vanished like snow off a ditch and hasn't returned since. I realized that what was happening these past few years was that I was coming to grips with my own mortality. I had been deceived into thinking that I was never going to die and that I had all the answers to life's big picture questions. What a rude awakening I had...instead of coming to grips with my own mortality over a lifetime, I had done it all at once ! The scripture quoted above started to make sense to me. I had come to a point where although I didn't want to die anytime soon, I was no longer dreading it. I had more peace of mind than I've ever had. I realized had gained my life back because I was no longer afraid of losing it, which is a very freeing thing to happen to a person.
I stopped going to those weekly funerals called meetings, at the Kingdom Hall and immediately improved. I still had some residual JW worries and wondered if my life would fall apart without Jehovah's favor. Instead, within a short time, I got (and still have) the best job of my life. I even sort of wondered if maybe Satan was helping me but thanks to this site, I've seen behind the curtain that was intentionally kept in place to keep trusting people like me, shielded from the real truth.
There is much much more to this story but I hope the part I've shared here will help anyone who is going through what I did. I'm living proof that one can survive the desperate upheaval one often goes through when leaving Jehovah's Witnesses. I have no social network or friends with whom I share a history with and I miss that but I'd never go back to the living hell that I was once in.
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Newspaper article: 'Rise of ISIS and earthquakes are WARNINGS before ARMAGEDDON destroys Earth'
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/581439/rise-isis-earthquakes-warnings-before-armageddon-apocalypse-end-destroys-volcanoes-earth.
the "end" of mankind, which has been long predicted by jehovah's witnesses, could happen as soon as this year - according to latest announcement from the christian religion.. in the latest edition of jehovah's witnesses monthly publication watchtower, an article translated into 700 languages - urges people to join the religion or face certain death when god sends his forces from the heavens to "remove all world leaders," "exterminate his enemies" and "rid the world of satan".. critics have lambasted the warning of a coming armageddon as yet another "failed prediction" by the religion, which has previously delivered similar alerts such as a foretold apocalypse in 1975.. indeed, jehovah's witnesses have been warning people of the need to recognise jehovah or face certain death when the "end" comes for more than 100 years.. the christian-based religion was founded in the 1870s by charles taze russell in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, us, as an offshoot from the bible studies movement.. today, there are 8.2million jehovah's witness evangelists, while 19.9 million celebrated their annual memorial festival marking christ's death - worldwide in 2014.. followers do not believe in military service and will not accept blood transfusions.. in a new eight-page article, watchtower said jehovah's witness leaders are now "convinced" humans are in their "final days" before the armageddon.. they cite an increase in global armed conflict, such as the rise of the islamic state terror group, as well as natural disasters such as volcanoes and earthquakes.. the lengthy article, written by an unnamed author, said: "will god let humans continue to dominate one another and threaten the future of mankind?
no, as we have seen, he will step in and bring an end to centuries of misery and oppression.
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Pete Zahut
Witnesses think these two who have been preaching about the end of the world for decades, are raving lunatics but do you see the similarities to these people, their message, dress, odd speech patterns and studio set up, and what we're seeing on JW.org ?
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Suggested comment to add when answering at the meetings
by stuckinarut2 ininspired by the humour in cappytan's thread, i thought of a way those who are still forced to attend meetings can have some fun.... especially with the increase in articles with topics about "listen, obey and be blessed", a subtle method of having fun would be to substitute the expression "the governing body" wherever "jehovah" "jesus" is said.. imagine an answer such as this:.
"yes, this paragraph helps us to see how vital it is to listen and obey the governing body".
"yes, our strict obedience to the governing body is a way to show how much we love them".
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Pete Zahut
"Even though we've seen that much of what was once taught by the faithful and discreet slave as the truth, has been changed, such as the now acceptable use of life saving blood fractions, this paragraph helps us to see how vital it is to Listen and Obey the governing body anyway, even if it could cost us our lives."
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Preparing for Governing Body 3.0? Making older GB step down? (New September Watchtower)
by FusionTheism inwatchtower, study edition, september 2015, "are you reaching the stature that belongs to christ?":.
paragraph 6: the mature christian shows humility in that he recognizes that jehovahs ways and standards are always better than his own.
[footnote: for example, older, experienced brothers may be asked to step aside from certain responsibilities and to lend support to younger brothers as they take on those responsibilities.].
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Pete Zahut
Where did this new "high standard" regarding age, suddenly come from? "Jehovah" didn't seem to have an age limit for the last 100 years of the "organization".... why does he suddenly have one now.
Seems to me since the very beginning, even the old GB members died in office.
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Big eyes- jw's all excited about the movie
by purrpurr infor those still attending.
have you seen an excitement go through the dubs about the tim burton film big eyes?
they reckon it will give a "fine witness".. i've seen it and found it really irritating, basically margaret keane is such a timid mouse that she allows her husband to take all the credit for her work.
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Pete Zahut
I remember when I was a kid back in the mid 60's and my Mom had some of her prints framed and hung them in my younger sisters room but took them down because people at the Hall were saying they were supposedly demonic....the eyes were creepy etc. It was hilarious to find out years later she was a JW. By then everyone had turned their sites on Smurfs and other more current horrors.
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Disfellowship, Disassociate, or fade. What would you do different.
by John Aquila inhindsight: .
many times because of the shock of learning ttatt, a person loses it.
you want to scream and tell the whole world that the watchtower is a big lie.
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Pete Zahut
We faded, the only thing I'd do differently is I would have done it sooner, I wouldn't explain to, argue with or show anyone the reasons I decided to leave. They don't care or want to know and it can make you crazy trying to make them understand.
The one other thing I might have liked to have done, is to make subtle comments at the meeting that show the irony of what is being said now compared to what was once called "the truth". It would have also been fun to leave copies of old magazine covers (see below) lying around at the Kingdom Hall, on car windshields, in the restroom etc...showing some of the past issues that made life changing claims that everybody trusted but ended being totally incorrect. Then sit back and watch the ensuing drama as the tried to ferret out the wicked apostate who is using their own literature against them.
