@Mrs Jones (I sing my usual song)
I think folks make threads like this to get talked out of making a bad move.
Let's hope it validates them and works!
i think i might return to the WTS
by dm6 44 Replies latest forum suggestions
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punkofnice
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keyser soze
The JWs either have the one true religion or they don't. It's really that simple. That's what it came down to for me. If you believe they do, then you should go back. If you believe they don't, then none of the sacrifices you'll be expected to make are worth it. There are those on this forum who invested far more of their lives to the WTS, than studying for one year, as you did.
If you don't believe they have, as they put it, "the truth", you need to ask yourself, "what is the point?"
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MrFreeze
If you arent good at taking orders, you wont last very long as a JW.
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blondie
They believe the GB has control over who gets everlasting life (like they have God's ear), the attendants don't. I saw a brother give the finger to a parking attendant at a DC (I knew both brothers).
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BluesBrother
Unless you state your willingness to be obedient to Gov. Body and the Cong Elders, they would never let you be baptized. That is fundamental to the J W way.
J W's do not have the luxury of independent thinking. Submission to their authority in everything that they have said or will say in the future is required ..It is not called 'dedication' for nothing.
If that is what you want to do, so be it. After 40 years and more I quit (not without difficulty) It was the best thing I ever did
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diamondiiz
If you don't like control it might take you some time to adjust and give up your thinking abilities as you assimilate into a JW drone but after a while your personality will eventually come out and you will get DF and loose all the false friends that you made.
Many had your personality and changed into what wts wanted them but many didn't have the opportunity to know the real truth about this cult which puts you in a good place right now to examine the teaching and their history. Doing so, you will heal the disease they've infected you and your fear that they might be right will fade away.
Going back is bad idea but it's your life and your decision, I suggest spend good deal of time researching wts and then make an informed decision to go back to the cult or not.
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The Quiet One
If you really felt that going back was the best thing for you to do, if you knew it deep down, why would you want anyone else to validate your decision? If you are looking for reminders of why you aren't a Borg and don't want to be, here's a few.. http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/wrong-with-being-jehovahs-witness.php "Legislative-- Jesus message was that his followers were to be freed from the burdens of the Mosaic Law, condemning the Pharisees for their petty rule making. He promised "my yoke is kindly and my load is light." (Matthew 11:30)Individuals were to base their behaviour on principles of love. Paul repeatedly showed that the Law was superseded (Romans 7:6) and at Acts 15:28 the older men stated that "the holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to YOU,except these necessary things." The Watchtower Society however has built a preponderance of rules. The Branch Organization Procedure book has over 1,100 rules and regulations. There are over 30 reasons to be disfellowshipped. In addition to the rules already discussed, there is a plethora of regulation written and unwritten, compulsory or recommended, stated directly or implied regarding dress codes, beards, entertainment, the size of gatherings, uncleanness and so forth." "Ability to reason-- In an effort to create unwavering unity Jehovah's Witnesses are forced to suppress questioning and reasoning abilities. This creates unity based, not on truth, but on the mindless following of everything within the pages of Watchtower publications. On leaving it is disconcerting to become aware of how much you once wholeheartedly believed that was quite senseless. It takes time to trust your own thinking ability and to learn how to evaluate information on its merits." "Destruction of all Non Witnesses-- Jehovah's Witnesses long for the time when they are unencumbered by worldly people. As previously discussed in detail, the Watchtower teachesthat shortly the "billions of people who do not know Jehovah [will] ? perish during the great tribulation." (w93 10/1 p.19) The billions of rotting cadavers will be left as "Birds and beasts ? gorge themselves on the unburied bodies of Gog's crowd." (w88 9/15 p.26) This inhumane picture invalidates the existence of virtually every one of a Witnesses neighbors, school friends and workmates. In the following picture Jehovah's Witnesses are shown smiling as the world and its billions of inhabitants are destroyed at Armageddon."
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Band on the Run
Presently, I am a lay member of a very mainstream Protestant church - well, what that straddles Roman Catholciism and Lutheranism and other Reformed Churches. Priests must give lip service to certain creeds such as the Trinity but no standard is imposed on laypeople.
I considered almost all Witness beliefs absolute stupidity, arrogance, and just plain bizarre. Yet to be honest, the Anglican Community, while a big tent encompassing many viewpoints, also has crazy beliefs. The Episcopal church has status and history legitimizing it as a world power. Both are crazy in many respects.
Objectively, studying the NT as an acadmic topic, the Anglicans are much more on board with certainty of scripture and embracing a gestalt view of the enitre Bible rather than random, sure fire verses, hopping all over a universal expanse. My intellect rejects Witness doctrine. I do acknowledge the Witness may be correct about some very minor details. College gave me thinking skills to analyze items for my self. I purposely do not read any commentary when I first read a Bible book. Private salvation is important to me.
Paul repeatedly speaks of grace, that God's love and salvation cannot be earned. We can never do enough good works or be obedient enough to approach God, the transcedent. His love is a free gift. Jesus said to sin no more but he freely offered grace. It is the main thrust of Paul's letters. The Witnesses preach salvation through an earthly agent, the WTBTS. It is Christian heresy. Most Christians embrace the belief that Jesus is Christ is God. One person of a unified God.
My disgust is not with doctrine but with eartlhy tactics. The mind control and authoritarianism boggle the mind. No one at Bethel or any other place has a closer connection to God than you. Mind control is the hallmark. Overreaching is endemic. Personal matters, including sex between married couples, is made public and ordered by very ignorant men.
Besides the mind control, as a woman and feminist, I must raise their absolute hatred of women. Women are human, too. Women are as fully human as men. Certainly, men have upper body strength. Women have lower body strength. Men and women compliment each other. Eve is blamed in the silly Gensis account but Adam could have simply said no. Strong abnormal psychology is at work for any woman to subject herself to the Witnesses. I could write volumes about the depiction of women. Very few churches hate women as much. It is innocent or merely a doctrinal matter. Something about women scares the living daylights out of the men. Only wimpy, very unmanly men want this type of overloard relationship. Eve was a helpmate and Adam was her helpmate. It was never a master/slave relationship. If a Down's Syndrome man were present, I could not teach what I knew so well. Why can't we co-teach? Paul's view are severely misconstrued.
I don't know how much you know of current scholarship concerning Paul. If you read his acknowledged letters and then quickly read a dispute letter, it is easy to see the letters do not share the same author or even doctrines. Paul never wrote all the nasty prohibitions against women and children. In fact, his closest aides were women. Women were bishops in the early church. It makes snesne that God's church can use the combined assets of men and women to flourish.
Elaine Pagels, the Gnostic expert and my former teacher, wrote that some of the earliest writings sabout early Christians are glowing. NonChristians are astonished how Christians stay in plague towns at their own peril to nurse everyone to health and to bury the dead. No other group stayed. This is the essence of Jesus' teaching about love. The Witnesses do nothing for their own, let alone the strangers Jesus charged them to love. By their works you will know them. When I've volunteered for the homeless and poor, raised money for refugees and disasters- I follow Jesus' orders. If anything, I feel Jesus ordered me to even more radical in my love and giving. Jesus never said a measure of a follower was knocking on doors.
Where are the Witness soup kitchens? Where is JW Charities similar to Catholic Charities? Jesus said to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, aid widows and oprhans? Selling WTs was never even an implicit command.
This is my view. You have to decide your won view. May I suggest you follow your gut, your hunch after research rather than your fear of the new? I can tell you that the transition is usually very difficult b/c of our isolation. We were purposefully isolated so it would be hard to leave. Losing family and friends cuts to the core. Too often people post how easy it is. It was not easy for me. Once you join the world that God said was very good, the feelings and expereince are wonderful beyond mere words. I can breathe today.
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Bella15
What are you looking for in ANY religion? The meaning of life? Is it about YOU YOU YOU? Or are you really interested in HIM? Are you interested in the Christian faith or in the Watchtower CORPORATION?
The Christian Gospel is very simple ... The Christian Gospel or 'Good News' is that God has provided - by the life, death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ - a way for human kind, all of whom by nature have rebelled against Him by refusing to acknowledge His right to rule us, to be restored individually into a forgiven relationship with Him through personal faith in Jesus Christ.
and the only question there is to become a follower of JESUS CHRIST is: Do you believe???? True Christian Faith is not commitment to a system of rules and observances, but a PERSONAL relationship of each individual with God through Jesus Christ.
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dm6
thanks everyone for all your answers so far, i havent been able to go through them all im a bit rushed right now but i will go through them all later as soon as im back from the gym.
I woke up this morning wondering why on earth i put this post on here. DOnt really know what was going through my mind, i do NOT want to go back there at ALL.
I just get these times sometimes where i wonder if they really honestly are truth? DO anyu of you get that sometimes?
Possible side effect of indoctrination and love bombing perhaps.
Anyway, woke up today and thats the last thing on my mind!
Will explain a lot more later and answer a lot of your answers/Q's later, sorry for this pointless post! i think im going mad!!!
PS Sizemik thanks for your input man.