What were the reasons you would say it was "the truth"?

by DannyBloem 15 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  DannyBloem

  Just a question, because I'm trying to find out how to bring up good arguments to people still in the borg...

  A) What were the reasons when you were (or are) still a JW that you would SAY that "you were in the truth"?

  B) And what would you say now, that were the reasons that you thought it was the troof?

  For me:

  A) 1) The prophecies come truth
  2) The love in the organisation, and everywhere in the world people believed the same
  3) How bible and archeology, and bible and science seemed to match

  B) 1) because I was born into it
  2) etc.

  It is funy that the think that I hated most deep in my heart, ÿou have to think and say like they do"was just one of the reasons that I thought it was the troof: that everyone believed the same...
  Isn't that ironic?

  Danny
• 

  PoppyR

  A) What were the reasons when you were (or are) still a JW that you would SAY that "you were in the truth"?

  B) And what would you say now, that were the reasons that you thought it was the troof?

  For me these were one and the same! I would never have done the JW thing unless I believed it. I thought it was the truth because I had been brainwashed totally to accept the bible, and the JWs interpretation of it. Now I find it hard to believe I believed it! I accepted the NWT therefore I accepted that all other religions were wrong, therefore JWs must be right. Also I was convinced by the fact JWs did not fight in the war, where most of the other organised religions did. And clearly how could they if they were christian!

  You know.. now I'm struggling to find believable things that made me believe!, and I feel stupid for ever believing it! And I'm going for the record of how many times I can say the word believe in one post!

  Poppy
• 

  Van Gogh

  
  Sorry, Word messes everything up...
• 

  Van Gogh

  A) Restoration of the earth, including ending the violation of the ecosystem, resulting in world peace and the righting of all the wrongs and unspeakable injustices committed against all the faceless ones and all those who died in infancy who are all lost in history not to be remembered by anyone. This seemed to make sense to me. Going to heaven never seemed to - and still doesn't - make sense to me. If those guys in Brooklyn managed to figure out what they managed to, somehow, make so many millions of us believe, then they couldn't all be wrong. Besides, they were anointed. This was supposed to be something so evident to them that, surely, they would not all make this all up, especially considering that everybody after 1935 seemed to suddenly believe in having the - in my eyes at least - better option of living on earth. They couldn't all be all wrong either. Now, if those of the FD&S were so thrilled about going to somewhere that seemed so unattractive to me, they surely must have had a good reason for it. Also, I believed that the world was heading for a catastrophe (and still do...). I also believed that, despite the obvious lack of love - in my opinion unavoidable in any hierarchical organization - the fact that they were at least politically neutral and did not serve in the military, was a sure sign that they heeded Christ's foremost command to a level that was IMO realistically attainable. I still believe that someone who serves in the military cannot be a true Christian. I believed that the lack of love was nothing special. I just couldn't understand why they always had to cover up (=lie about) the facts. Biblical Israel wasn't such a pretty picture either - the bible didn't hide this - but despite this they still managed to be anointed/The Chosen. My family was inside since the early forties. When I was a kid in my old cong, I used to call all the older ones "uncle" or "aunt." There seemed to be a special bond. All my early life I heard stories about the beginnings of the troof. All the old timers seemed such sincere and devout God fearing Christians. I still somehow think that most of them really were. Also, over the years I met some really special people. Some are still my most valuable and treasured friends. B) I was brainwashed in a cultish religion that - I realize now - my parents did not survive. Over the years I learned to despise almost everything about the bOrganization. Reading a short and simple analytical expose on how the boys from Brooklyn could never have been the real deal is all that was needed to make a hollow dead tree come crashing down for me. I now realize that there was never a strong healthy tree to begin with. It turned out to have been a house of cards all along...
• 

  wombat

  It all just made so much sense mathematically. It all added up to 1975. That was when the 7th 1,000 year period was to begin. Even the arguments about how there was no year "zero". 1975 was the precise date for Armageddon.

  My older sister got straight A's all her life but left school at 16 to go pioneering. She now tells her children that she had to leave school as our Mum couldn't afford to keep her there. Such a lie, but her dumb JW kids believe it.

  Mum insisted that an older brother do a university course before he went pioneering so he chose the shortest course available - teaching. Now he's got his Phd and is a noted and respected and well paid teacher. Good on you Mum.

  When I was about 22, nearly 40 years ago, I approached my oldest brother for help with a drinking problem. Next thing I knew I was in front of a bunch of serious suits who told me that I was on probation and to sit in the back seat of the hall for six moinths. Thanks for the help big brother.

  But when I mentioned this to him a little while back he completely denied it ever happened.

  Denial....denial....denail....denial...(But as the JWs would say "So what..Denial is just a river in Egypt.)
• 

  wombat

  Sorry Dannybloem....I got right off the thread. Got carried away. Forget it.
• 

  greendawn

  The reasons for being in the troof were based on naivity and ignorance as became obvious later on and probably the real unconscious reason for joining the borg was in order to have a sense of belonging somewhere.
  
  I thought they were good in a moral way, they strove to keep a high moral standard and their prophecies and doctrine appeared to be sound. However the gross lack of brotherly love I soon noticed in itself rendered everything pointless, then an objective examination of doctrine and prophesy soon showed that this was all a spider web of deceit to catch the naive.
  
  As Wombat mentioned 1975 looked like the date of the end but after examining things we see that it was based on the Masoretic text which is less reliable that the Septuagint text and according to which the 6000 years ended in 500 BC.
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  wombat

  Yeah Greendawn...try explaining that to all the folk that stopped their education, took out big loans and the rest. It ruined their lives. What a damned, lying, hypocritical, smug organization. They don't give a sh*t about their followers - they just come up with smug reasons, like the one you just gave, without apologising for the harm that they caused.
• 

  wombat

  I do apologise. I will start another thread maybe. It's been a bad day and I got carried away.
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  DannyBloem

  Sorry Dannybloem....I got right off the thread. Got carried away. Forget it.

  no problem. I understand this whole thing. I was luckly to be allowed an education by my parents, even though they were almost put on restrictions for it. Then started pioneering also, and could have done a lot better if I did not try to study and pioneer at the same time...