Non-JW seeking help

mamaof3

I've got a Jw meeting with me every week. She's been coming for 4 months. She is hard-core but so am I (Christ-follower). I don't want to give up on her. I just presented some material that she had never seen before and she explained it away saying they no longer follow some of the teachings of the founders. We mostly stray from the material when I ask questions about hot topics so we've only gotten to the third chapter in the What Does the Bible Really Teach? But today, I asked if we could not go off the material anymore. I told her I just wanted to read the BIBLE. She first plugged getting me into one of the bible studies, but then agreed to starting in Matthew next week.

We also discussed questioning our beliefs. I told her that if she was going to ask me to put my faith through the wringer then she should do the same. She agreed that truth is truth and it will stand up through any investigation.

I really need to hear from some ex-jws how you came out of the org and what lead you to question it. I know there is only so much I can do, but I'm inside right now and want to do the best I can before I get labeled "do not call".

Flowerpetal

mama,

You might be beating your head against the wall. Why don't you challenge her to just stick to the Bible and no book or brochure to study out of...after all the witnesses call it a Bible study. Pick a subject and make her find scriptures to support it; make her prepare for the study.

SPAZnik

I found this interesting:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/137075/1.ashx

AlphaOmega

I just presented some material that she had never seen before and she explained it away saying they no longer follow some of the teachings of the founders.

A good thing to say would be that you are examining the teachings that were taught when "Jesus inspected them and approved them in 1919" !

So, it would be good and fair to examine exactly what Jesus saw in 1919.

When you get to the depeer into the "BIble Teach" book, it will say that Jesus is Michael the archangel (excellent to debate as it is full of flaws), and it will also say that "Baptism is NOT to an organisation"... then ask her what the two questions are that JWs have to answer at the baptismal pool.

The second is "Do you understand that your Baptism identifies you as one of Jehovah's Witness in association with his Spirit Directed Organisation" !!!

I hope that some of that helps.

AO

bigdreaux

ask her, well, your religion teaches not to celebrate holidays that have questionable origins, but, by your own admission, your own religion had some questionable teachings early on. doesn't this mean you should not be in this religion, even though you've made changes?

MeneMene

You might also want to use a variety of Bibles and not let her rely solely on her New World Translation.

Supposedly the JWs were picked/chosen in 1919 by Jesus as the one true religion. Therefore you would think that everything in their literature at that time he approved of as truth. It is interesting to read the old literature from back then to see what it was Jesus thought was so "right" about their religion. If it was good enough for Jesus back then why is it not good enough today?

esw1966

I strongly thank you for your fine efforts! I wish more would do that.

I was a jw for 30 years and I pioneered for 3 years which meant I went out 1000 hours a year. I always felt that I must have the truth since no one else was able to give me theres. I felt I had all the answers.

I never would have gotten out if it was left up to me. I was too into it.

I got df'd for a second time, my marriage was now ended and I went out into the world to learn for myself what truth was and why I was messing up so much and how could I straighten out all the curves in my life course.

One thing I never realized as a jw was the whole GRACE theory. I think that is a very good place to start. I always remember thinking after talking to born againers that it made sense to know you were saved and why didn't I have that same convicition. That was one thing I was going to figure out as I was now out of the hall.

Jw's do not apply any of grace teaching to them because they see it as pointing only to the 144,000. The 'other' sheep mentioned in Matthew DOES NOT refer to the great crowd, but to THE GENTILES! That REALLY changes how I started to view the Bible. NOW all the stuff that applied to grace could apply to me.

I have to leave, if you have any questions, you can email me at [email protected] or leave an im. I have a great desire to help others out as I'm sure most of the other people here do too.

I hope you are able to help your jw friend.

Ethan

Nathan Natas

Here's the situation as I see it:

She doesn't believe in your version of Jesus

and you don't believe in her Jehovah.

The simplest solution for both of you is to simply increase the number of Gods you don't believe in by one, and become an atheist.

Bible believers like to quote The Psalmist, " The fool has said in his heart 'there is no god'" to which I reply, "So, what's YOUR excuse? If a fool can discern reality, why can't you?"

greendawn

It was the dictatorial nature of the leadership they claimed total monopoly on authority and inspiration and even tried to argue that it was the same way in the early church a small group, the apostles in Jerusalem, had the same monopoly.

Not true, that is in fact a preposterous lie and a distortion of the history of the early church. It was a good reason to leave.

Inquisitor

I concur with what NathanN is getting at.

If a JW needs any sort of help, it is to learn to think critically, not embrace a different flavour of Christianity. I'd love to help you with the questions but you probably won't like how they challenge your own religious beliefs.

INQ

Non-JW seeking help

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