Carla: I left JWs last September feeling very grateful for the many years that I had spent in their company. I had come to the realization that the Bible isn't from god, and so I had no choice but to leave Christianity. I would have left whatever Christian group I had been a part of.
One of the first things that eroded my faith is the gospel writers taking liberties with the Hebrew Scriptures. At Matthew 2:6, for instance, a quotation is made from Micah 5:2, and presented as a Messianic prophecy that was fulfilled by Jesus. However, the context of Micah 5:2 shows clearly that the 'ruler' foretold in that verse could not have been Jesus. In verse 6 it foretells that the 'ruler' of verse 2, would: "Deliver us ( the Israelites ) from the Assyrian." History shows that the Assyrians disappeared centuries before Jesus was born, and so the 'ruler' of Micah 5:2 simply could not have been Jesus, as Matthew claims.
This, and many other examples like it, show how Bible writers are quite prepared to use 'spin' in order to support their pre-suppositions. The above 'Messianic' prophecy is cited by Christians as one of the 'jewels in the crown' of Messianic prophecies, and yet it is simply a blatant misrepresentaion of Micah's words.
Jesus' early followers believed that he had fulfilled Micah 5:2, and many other supposed Messianic prophecies. If they hadn't have believed that he had fulfilled those 'prophecies' Christianity would have never got started. What a shame that Christianity has, at its root, such obvious distortion of the Hebrew Scriptures.