Did you read the whole Bible when you were a JW?

by outofthebox 40 Replies latest jw friends

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  steve2

  I read the Bible several times when I was a JW so that was several years ago.

  I must say, the Bible is one long and difficult read. The Mosaic books are soooooooo heavy going and make for disturbing reading. When I read some of the pronouncements of the prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel come to mind- I was astonished at the sanctioned cruelty of their message. Passages about destroying everyone, inlcuding babies and older men and women haunted me.

  It's only after I stopped reading the Bible that the true negative impact of its horrifyingly genocidal and maniacal message hit home.
• 

  Honesty

  Did you read the whole Bible when you were a JW? YES, once.

  If so, what happened after you did? I left the Jehovah's Witness cult as soon as I got to the 8th chapter of Romans and read it.

  Did it open your eyes? Yes, that the JW's and the Watchtower Society are false prophets destined to eternal separation from God.

  How about them apples.
• 

  5go

  Yeah and it was the begining of the end.
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  nvrgnbk

  Yes.

  And I thank God for it.

  Now I'm an atheist.

  But I have to say that Jesus had some cool ideas.
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  free2beme

  Yes, at least a couple times. In the end, just seemed like something far less Holy then people claim and no more the word of a God then Moby Dick.
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  esw1966

  Read it through twice on my work lunch break.

  It felt great. I felt all spiritual and all....

  No eyes opened though. Some questions MAYBE, but really I viewed everything through the Society's eyes and couldn't see it as applying to me.
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  stillajwexelder

  I read the whole bible before I got baptized. I did the bible reading every week for 14 years. I read the entire bible again after I became an MS and then again after becoming an elder
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  thepackage

  I read it 6 times in 20 years. Fisrt couple of times I was on a JW High by the fourth time I knew the JW's did not have the Truth. By the sixth time i was not sure there was a God.
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  Frank75

  I faithfully followed the scheduled reading through the bible many times as a JW.

  Inexperience along with propaganda that I could not understand it on my own made me treat it like a chore and exercise.

  After selling my business, with more time, I started reading the context of cited scriptures with an eye on what it could teach me about being a better person. That's when I started to see a gap forming with the bible and WT theology. Pretty soon I found myself reading the bible all the way through the meetings. My right arm would be black and blue from my wife elbowing me to "pay attention". Soon I was ordering CofC and Gentile Times and then when my wife gave the word, we just left!

  I recommend bible reading to all JW's. It is nothing short of pulling back the curtain to reveal the old man in the Wizard of Oz.

  Uzzah who was once in the Canada Bethel told me (I am paraphrasing) "Bethels requirement to read the bible straight through in one year, helped more people to leave the Watchtower Bethels than anything else, Most Bethelites read it so fast nothing stuck, and others didn't read it at all, just said they did".

  I also recommend it for some XJW's who although they are happy to have left, still may carry some doubt or hold on to some of the teachings. Regardless of what your religious, theological or philosophical disposition is at the end of it, the result should be closure and liberation.

  Frank75
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  parakeet

  I read as little of it as possible as a dub. Nowadays, instead of reading the bloodthirsty rantings of men dead for thousands of years, I read works by authors who live in and at least partly understand the modern world.