Greetings RF,
I also am new here, but old in the truth. I was baptized in 1963 at the age of 12. Ah, the good old days.
I remember when I was young and omnipotent and I thought that one of the differences between Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religions was that we had no “dogma”. The truth was the Truth (capital intended).
My favorite web site is http://www.quotes-watchtower.co.uk/ where you can get a really good laugh—and it is quite informative. But if any of the information there makes you want to leave Jehovah’s Organization you’ve got your head up your wazoo.
This just in: The Society has changed their position over the course of the last century! Wow! Hey folks it’s more like Yawn! Seriously, are you just discovering this? And you were baptized?
So you’ve got some questions. Good! It’s about time. Folks shouldn’t get baptized before 30; after your done a fair amount of living and know what you want and had your questions up for review and answered. But that, as they say, is neither here nor there.
First let me review the wealth of information we have in this thread so far.
Gopher makes a good point about thinking. You need independent thinking based on facts. Dependent thinking is what children do and your dedication and baptism takes you out of that classification.
AuseSapere’s three things to consider are also worthy of note, and Arthur is correct in his scriptural citations although his use of “uninspired religious leaders” may lead you to think that some are inspired. They are not.
Monkeyironfoot seems to take the whole “question” of the truth to be based on some word games and moon phases, which it is not.
Snowbird thinks that information gathering is the path to enlightenment. It is not.
LeslieV left the Truth because she wanted her girls “to experience life, have an education, not be treated as unequals to men”. So hows that going? The world on my TV set here in Reno, NV indicates not so well, I suspect. She also would like more Jesus in Jehovah’s Witnesses. Sorry the “J” in JW is already taken. Maybe start a new religion, Jesus’ Witnesses. Sheesh, even Jesus said to worship God.
Now, dear brother R.F., that guy jwfacts makes a good point and one to remember. ““It is important, then, that you "keep testing whether you are in the faith," as Paul declared.” However he looses it in his bullet points. Upset about the changes, he is. Who was Jehovah using in the first century before Jesus? The archaic and doomed Jewish system that Jesus denounced, that’s who. But did Jesus disassociate himself from the Jews, their religion and their way of worship. (insert rhetorical answer here) And of course the horror of horrors when he found out the branch office in Brooklyn was “run by quite average men”. :-0
The truth is, RF, everyone here, save me and you have left the organization to go where? Not an answer in the lot of them. Just left. And wondering why there is anyone left in the organization. Grumbling about not enough Jesus and fine word points, the length of the last days and why CT Russell got (or didn’t get) divorced. And what about that Xmas at Bethel!
Jesus said that the greatest commandment is love. Paul, that habitual lawyer, also argues for that great emotion and dominate facet of Jehovah’s personality.
Im not going to tell you the organization is perfect. As the membership has grown it has become like a bloated ship, hard to steer, leaden. Full of unhappy people who wonder where this “so called presence is”. Where is my “everlasting life”? Can I get a paradise to go and an order of fries?
No, the organization is far from perfect. But it used to be better. And will be again.
Ask yourself this: Is god real? Alive? Caring? Did he write the Bible? If he did, is he desirous of communication with us then, eh? If he is, then he will, nay, must make it possible. And if he does, how? Who? When? Where?
Oh, and wait, there’s more! You got bent outa shape by some of your “loving brothers and sisters” (quotes all mine) that have been ‘dis ing you and your mom and your girlfriend and they don’t pat you on the back all that much and the MS thing isn’t getting you enough kudos and the pioneering gig is turning into monkey dung and my head hurts. Oh, RF, if only...
Ok, first all that pioneering and servant stuff is EXTRA burden you have put upon yourself. It’s just like credit card debt but much easier to get rid of. Three little words: Just say NO! Quit. Bale. You cannot earn everlasting life no matter how much you do. Don’t even try. Taking care of your mom then will be much easier for YOU, the primary responsible person. And you will be happier, and your fiance will be thrilled, or not. But do it for yourself. Like Chevy Chase said in Caddyshack “Be the publisher”.
So there you have it. You wanna leave? Jumping from the frying pan into the fire? To quote, red letter edition:
Owing to this many of his disciples went off to the things behind and would no longer walk with him. Therefore Jesus said to the twelve: “YOU do not want to go also, do YOU?” Simon Peter answered him: “Lord, whom shall we go away to? You have sayings of everlasting life; and we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Serve this guy, Jesus, RF, not the slave, not the society, not your self and not this bunch.
((sated))
