How/Why were the Jehovah Witnesses chosen?

by Hondo 17 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Hondo

  I am not a JW, never have been, but lost my wife (a Japanese National) to them in 2003. I have been in and out of some of these forums trying to learn as much as possible about what drove my ex-wife to, for the most part, reject me and take her JW congragation as her new family, her new counselors, her new best friends, etc. A JW doctrine that has always bugged me is the belief that Jesus came to earth in 1918/19, or there-a-bouts, and chose them as his one and only representative orgainization on earth (I think I have it right).

  Some may take this the wrong way, as it may sound a bit glib, and I apologise in advance if this is the case and I offend anyone, but my ex-wife truely believes, no matter that she can't explain why (and maybe this is my answer. she believes "just because" she was told to believe), that Jesus did come to earth and chose her new found group as "the group." We would argue this topic and I would raise what I though were some pretty valid points, such as, how do JW's justify this? How do they know that Jesus came invisibly (if he was invisible how does anyone know he came) and just happened to choose them? What do JW's think the process was? Did Jesus go check out the Catholics first, then the Lutheran's, then maybe the Baptist, so forth and so on? Did he check out every established religion on earth? As most religions at that time were probably more well established; more well organized than the JW's, it would seem if Jesus were going to pick an organization to represent him it would have been one of these. After all, the JW's (they weren't even known as JW's till 1931 I think), at this time, had just come out of a couple of failed end-of-time prediction dates (1914, 1915), and should have been condemed according to the bible, were in a good deal of disarray with Russel recently passing away in 1916 (I think), and Rutherford (when he wasn't drunk and rablerousing) running ruffshod over the remaining members of an apparent broken organization. What do present day JW's think Jesus saw in all this mess 85 years ago. Maybe he felt sorry for an organization as screwed up as it was ans would give them a chance? Maybe he though that they were still a young group and would get better with time (new light)? What???

  Note. I am not trying to imply that only the JW's have stange doctrinal thoughts and ideas. Other groups certainly have their share of stange beliefs. I am specifically addressing the JW's however because I want to learn about what makes them tick. I believe they were primarily responsible for the breakup of my 20 year marriage.

  Thoughts/comments

  Thanks
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  love2Bworldly

  "Note. I am not trying to imply that only the JW's have stange doctrinal thoughts and ideas."

  The JWs do have strange beliefs so no need for apology. This forum is mostly made up of previous JWs, and JWs who are or have been in the process of exiting this Cult religion. Many hang onto the religion for years due to family ties. The JWs have changed their stand on many things since this religion began evolving in the 1800's. The most disturbing fact about this religion, is that it is the cause of many many family breakups, marriage breakups and miserable children who are forced to participate in all the strange beliefs.

  My heart goes out to you, and you will find people on this board who are in a similar situation as yourself. Welcome!
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  Doubtfully Yours

  I feel pretty sure the JWs were not solely responsible for the break up of your marriage. No way!

  I've never heard them say to break up the marriage to any sister/brother. If anything, I've heard them teach for the sister (mainly) to hang in there, praying to Jehovah, in hopes that she'll gain the husband's approval and he'll become a JW himself.

  However, having said that, some women/men are abused in some way or are extremelly unhappy, but lack the network/strength to leave a bad relationship to begin with and they find this strength and the network to finally leave a mate once they join the WBTS.

  These are the cases that I've seen.

  Unless you were married to a nut case, like so many I see joining the R&F of the WBTS, perhaps a sincere self-exam will reveal the real motives for your mate leaving you.

  DY
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  stopthepain

  please DY----------You can't control someone who wants to join a cult.And if she joined a cult to lose a 20 year marriage,she is immature in doing so.She should have confronted him about the real issues.IMO,your way of thougfht is way off.

  good luck hondo,you'll find many answers to your questions here.

  They are a buisness masquerading as gods sole channel to humans,claiming jesesus invisible prensence came in 1914.They have been deceptive with there followers,and have outright lied about speculating on aremegeddon.

  Could your wife be going thru some kind of mid-life crisis?

  Does she live with any guilt about things in her life?

  Is she generally gullible?

  These could all be reasons why.There are many charasmatic individuals in the cult.They have a way of making you think they have all the answers.If you scratchy below the surface,you'll see what this manipulative cult has done to many families.You are not alone.Good luck.STP
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  Qcmbr

  There is an inbuilt desire in all of us to be part of a gang - an inner group where we are valued and validated. Religion is one of teh ways that people find that and in many ways the feeling is the same as being a sports fan. After you've got an allegiance to a group its very very hard to not think like it and reject what it rejects and love what it loves. There are many groups where people will fight tooth and nail to defend it even when it is proven wrong / not very good / not of much worth:
  
  Religions, Political Groups , Sports Teams , Fashion Movements , Food Fadists and so on...
  
  This desire to be validated and treasured means many are willing to suspend belief and common sense in return for emotional acceptance and belonging - I know I baptised plenty of people who didn't ask half the questions I'd make them confront nowadays just becasue we offered a group who would love them.
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  luna2

  I'm sorry that your wife got sucked into the quicksand of Jehovah's Witnesses....and that your marriage suffered enough from her conversion that it ended. There are more than a couple of people here that have dealt with this or are dealing with it now.

  When I was first contacted (via the door to door work), I had just moved to a new home, in a new town with my two young children. My husband (soon to be ex-husband) was not with us as he was finishing out his remaining few months at Ft. Wainwright, Alaska, and would soon head down to Ft. Benning, GA for more training. Our marriage, never strong, was wobbling again, and I was worried about that and stressed about all the changes.

  I been doing a lot of thinking about the future, the Bible, what our ultimate destiny was, Armegeddon, and other things of a spiritual nature. The question the "sister" who knocked on my door first asked was what I thought Armegeddon was and if I thought it was going to happen soon!!! OMG! Here I was just pondering this very thing. Could God have sent this person to my door?! (yes, I was that pathetic)

  I invited her in and we started talking. She had answers for everything. She seemed to understand the Bible as a whole, both old and new Testaments. This was very different from what I was used to. The church I attended growing up had always seemed puzzled by the Bible and didn't quite know how to teach it. I was so excited to be getting so much information about God and Jesus, why we were here on Earth, why there was so much evil in the world...blah, blah, blah. It gave me a purpose. Something to study, a future that I could control based upon my own actions. Wow! Heady stuff.

  We did not discuss much about JW history. Sister S would mention some things in passing...some things I didn't even understand the importance of at the time, like that Charles T. Russell (who is credited as the founder of the organization, though it has changed so completely from his time that I doubt he would recognize it now) celebrated Christmas and had a fascination with pyramids (among other things, but those things we didn't go into) that had come to be understood as incorrect thinking. It was impressed upon me almost from that very first discussion on, that what set JW's apart was their willingness to see the errors in their doctrine and to correct such...eventually. This was and is called "new light" and is a rather clever way of diffusing criticism from the members when a change is made. I thought that this made JW's the neatest religion on the face of the earth. Oh, the honesty! *snort*

  Unfortunately, I accepted this version of Watchtower history, accepted the explanations for why some things had changed over time, and did no further research on my own. I was enamored of the promise of living forever on a paradise earth with the majority of human kind. Inconsistancies or nagging doubts about how this would be possible were easily disbursed by the all-encompassing mantle of "Jehovah will make it work even if we can't quite understand how at the present time".

  One of the lynch-pins of JW chronology and that which they say points to them as God's chosen people and his organization here on earth, is the 1914 doctrine. Somehow, C.T. Russell, through his connections to 2nd Day Adventists and some mathmatical gymnastics using prophecies in Daniel, eventually (they had a couple of obvious misses in dating) came up with the year 1914 as being a pivotal year in history...and they got lucky. WWI began that year and could be pointed to as prophecy fulfilled. More in depth discussion on 1914 to be found here:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/78776/1.ashx

  For more in-depth discussions on a number of topics check out the Best of series of threads from this board: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/32/default.ashx

  People have different reasons for finding the promises of Jehovah's Witnesses enticing. Mostly its very exciting to think you've stumbled upon the TRUTH (like, OMG, I must have some special quality that Jehovah is looking for!!!) and to join this exclusive little club with this important worldwide mission. Makes a body feel pretty dang important and that's hard to beat.
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  Doubtfully Yours

  Hondo,

  If your spouse has no biblical reason for leaving/divorcing you, demand your rights. Go to the local congregation and expose your case.

  I'd love to hear the other side of the story when posters come up with these type of cases.

  So unfair that we're left here just speculating based on one side of the story.

  DY
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  Check_Your_Premises

  Hondo,

  No matter how much you come to understand about the Witnesses, what will it really matter? You know I feel for you. You know I love you brotha. I just wonder why you still hang out here? You divorced your wife. You have moved on. Why not move on?

  I am not trying to be an a-hole. I just want you to be happy. You have been through enough. Maybe you need to understand what happened to you. Maybe you need some rational explanation. I just am not sure there is one.

  All I am saying is that If I wasn't married to my wife anymore, I wouldn't ever want to think about the witnesses ever again!!! This is an extremely boring subject!!!

  CYP

  Censer Watchtower esse delendam

  slow-steady-deliberate-relentless
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  AllAlongTheWatchtower

  I empathize with you on the loss of your relationship with your wife, as it is one of the fears I have with my current situation. I find it a bit unusual that you describe your ex as Japanese though...I had thought they would be beyond this sort of thing...not that I'm being racist or elitist or anything like that, just that I have been to Japan and dated a Japanese woman for a couple years. Most of the Japanese people I knew were Shintoists (ancestor worship, primarily), though there is a trend among the younger ones of christianity, it just never occurred to me to think of Japanese people getting involved with a group like the JWs.
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  A Paduan

  Dear Hondo,

  I also have never been a jw and I would have to agree that, from the outside perspective this particular belief is so bizarre to comprehend - an utter absurdity when you think about it - with the strength of belief in this, it really is the stuff of an anthropological paper.

  As to why she would believe it, I can only think that there is something that she wants, so she is willing to subject herself to it regardless. Pragmatically, it is only one of many strange mind states they are willing to foster as being "the truth" - they really want it to be - so the question is 'why' - not really 'why that particular one'.

  I'm sorry about your loss

  Paduan