Posts by Pete Zahut

22

This Is It...

by JW_Rogue in

just finished watching the talk by tony morris on john cedars channel.

sounded to me that he was hedging his bets.

on the one hand he says "this is it" and out of the other he says prophecies are best understood after they are fulfilled.

What stood out to me was the way they kept dragging things out to make it seem as if there was some big revelation to come at the end of the program. It was if they were trying to keep people on the edge of their seat. Stephen Left even told them to hold off going to the bathroom lest they miss out on what was coming.

In the end, they pretty much said " yes, isn't it exciting? This is it but it doesn't necessarily mean anything right now". The audience seemed to be quite ready to giggle at the most feeble attempts at silly humor on the part of the G.B. even though they were talking about something that was of earth wide significance to mankind.

I thought it was odd when David Splane began speaking to the audience, he started off by saying that he was there to cheer them up after all the bad news they had heard in the previous talks. I thought the nearness of "The End" was supposed to be good news because it meant that the end of wickedness and mankind suffering was at hand. After all, isn't going from door to door supposed to be about delivering the Good News of Gods Kingdom to the world.

The whole thing was further evidence to me that these folks have become even more out of touch with reality than they were when I was attending 10 years ago.

21

Is this how you saw your Armageddon? I sure did :(

by Diogenesister in

i think most of our imaginations of the new world was probably nothing like the watchtower reality.

after all, we jws are very good at avoiding uncomfortable truths!

you can tell micheal jackson was a certain type of jehovahs witness.

Pete Zahut

I think most JW's have vague abstract notions about Armageddon, Paradise and what living forever would be like. I think the main concern for them is not growing old and dying and or not being destroyed at Armageddon. I don't think they think about it in any real detail, they just fill in the blanks with whatever soothes their own personal fears and makes them stop thinking about reality in general...especially the reality of what they say they believe. On some level they know that thinking about it too much will be the death of the magical illusion that keeps them buoyed psychologically.

For me, I was more concerned about the "GREAT TRIBULATION" and how I could possibly remain "faithful" while being tortured, which we were assured would happen. One of my big childhood fears was that during the tribulation "THEY" would threaten to injure my little sisters if I didn't "renounce my faith. How could a 10 year old boy possibly stand firm while witnessing his little sisters being tortured and why would anyone care if I lied and said I didn't believe in Jehovah anymore, just to keep save them. Then I'd hear them talk about Shadrach Meshach and Abednego the Hebrew boys who stood firm and were thrown into the fiery furnace. I always wondered what happened to them after that. Surely they went on to live noteworthy lives after having survived being thrown into a furnace. What was this furnace for and how come those boys were never mentioned again in the Bible. Was that the highlight of their life?

Anyway, I figured that if I could get through the TRIBULATION, the rest was up to Jehovah and there was nothing I could do about that part of it. I only hoped that I wouldn't die from being tortured or at the hand of Jehovah at Armageddon because not only would it be really painful but it would also mean I could never get married and have a family. This was a pretty sick way for a child to grow up but that's how it was and there's nothing I can do to undo the damage it has caused me.

20

36 years old today!

by Joliette in

jw
friends

can't believe how fast time has gone by.

my mom taught me that the world was gonna end by the time i was 25..

Pete Zahut

My mom taught me that the world was gonna end by the time I was 25.

That would have been in the year 2008. How did she come up with that date and what does she say now that 11 years has gone by since then?

23

My Bible Study Conductor's Letter to Me

by ohnightdivine in

jw
friends

recently, i wrote a sister, my bible study conductor, an email just telling her that i thought of her, and i thanked her for being a part of some milestones in my life many many years ago.

(for those who are reading my post for the first time, i was a very impressionable teenager at that time and i had the chance to live in their country for a while, spent much time with her, got to know her way of living, and essentially she became my life's mentor.

closer to me than family.

Pete Zahut

I disagree with some who have said that Friendship and or Love is unconditional. We all place conditions, large and small, on our friends and loved ones. If I had a friend or loved one who became disagreeable, or was late or didn't show up most of the time, became a slob, wasn't honest or who started doing things or supporting something I though was wrong, I might choose not to associate with him anymore until he changed.

Your friend wants you to be what she wants you to be. You knew her via the JW's and she wants you to be like you were back then, however you have grown up and are not the idealistic and easily impressed 19 year old you once were and that's normal, you're not supposed to be.

She has every right to place her own conditions on her side of the friendship but you don't have to buy into the idea that just because this woman that you're viewing with your 19 year old eyes doesn't agree with your choices, you re the problem in this situation.

I think her letter was condescending, manipulative and full of those odd JW catch phrases designed to make the user (her) sound and feel as if they are on a higher more virtuous plane than the the recipient (you). She liked you better back in the day when using them on you had the desired effect.

27

Hidden Spaces

by mann377 in

well my son (he's pimi) came to me the other day and asked if i could make a bookcase with hidden spaces built into it.

i asked him what for?

he said that they were encouraged to start thinking of and preparing for persecution and hide literature.

Pete Zahut

Back in the 75 days, we were encouraged to hide literature (namely Watchtowers) inside plastic liquid detergent bottles and bury them in our gardens for use when the work was under ban (any day now) so that we would be able to get "spiritual sustenance" on a regular basis. The fear was that we'd give up our faith or forget our beliefs if we were put under persecution unless we had the literature there to remind up what we were supposed to think.

At first glance, it seemed like it made sense but then one had to wonder what they were supposed to do if they were driven away from their home (as they said we would be) or if there was new light that came out after you buried your literature bottles. Would you still be let into the new system if you had held firm to the wrong version of the "Truth"?

I wonder where all those bottles full of "old light" are these 44 years later ? I always expected to hear an experience at the assembly where someone dug up one of those old bottles and immediately contacted JW's for a bible study which of course was followed up with baptism of the individual and their entire family.

14

"They are so keen, they need to be locked up for the first 6 months!"

by stuckinarut2 in

do we all remember that expression when we were jws?.

someone new would "come into the truth", and be so enthusiastic and keen, that we would all joke about "locking them up for the first 6 months because they would preach to everyone".

jws thought that the passion for "learning the truth" was the issue.

Pete Zahut

Someone new would "come into the Truth", and be SO enthusiastic and keen, that we would all joke about "locking them up for the first 6 months because they would preach to everyone"

The same can sometimes be said of someone who has just become a vegetarian for example and it can at times be said of those who become X-JW's. They sometimes drive otherwise interested or agreeable ones off, with all of their carrying on.

15

It's time

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

we got a call from close jw family, that it is now time to visit the kingdom hall again because armagedon is a question of a few months.

now it will happen in a very close time, the brothers say so, was the message.. i had earlier the feeling that jw's think the time has arrived because what they say and what they do, work like mad men with their chart every weekend.. so the expetations are high.. gorby's wife replied "how do you know, you should not know day and hour".

stay alert was the reaction.. so sad and so stupid.. g. .

Pete Zahut

5

"That is going to be the last..." feeling

by paradiseseeker in

jw
friends

it's been a long time since i last kept you up to date with leaving process.

well, i got another teaching job, i started to work in october and my contract will expire in july.

that's is almost a year of financial security and i have the certainty that i will be called in a different school in september until i eventually get a fixed post - this is how it works in state schools in spain.

Pete Zahut

It isn't an emergency...you don't have to do anything. If you find there are benefits to keeping things the same for a time or for however long you want....why change? Especially since you are making some big transitions in your life. It might be good to have a stable platform on which to fall back on.

You can keep your thoughts about the religion to yourself and refrain from indoctrinating others and simply look at it as a social outlet. They like you ...you like them...nobody gets hurt. I suspect there are many JW's doing the same thing.

16

Why do Jehovah's Witness members incriminate themselves in judicial meeting?

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

why do jehovah's witness members incriminate themselves to any judicial process?

how can three elders conduct a judicial meeting with a 15-year-old teenage girl who supposedly was rumored to fornicate, took drugs or was drunk from drinking alcohol?

can she or the parents refuse to answer any questions?.

Pete Zahut

Why do Jehovah's Witness members incriminate themselves to any judicial process?

For the same reason they let themselves or their children die rather than take a blood transfusion. They're indoctrinated to do as they are directed.

8

Awake magazine: "Help for those who grieve" ?? Appalling omission!

by stuckinarut2 in

i have just had the opportunity to read a hard copy of the awake no3 2018 entitled "help for those who grieve".

wtf?.

it really is appalling in its glaring omission of any recommendation to see a professional grief counselor!

Pete Zahut

I remember turning to those articles in times of need only to find them sorely lacking in any real advice or guidance. Knowing that the religion I had grown up counting on, had noting to offer, only added to the grief I was already suffering. Sometimes it's better to have no hope or expectations rather than to find out in your time of need that ones you thought you had, are false.