I have been a JW for thirty years, attending meetings at the SAME kh all this time. About seven years ago, I began to wonder to myself if the JW’s were the only religion that god approves of. Six years ago, a very good childhood friend of mine died from a long illness, ( he was not a JW) and I was quite bothered by his death. I was a little surprised by my reaction to this, and thought that if I applied myself a little more to spiritual matters, I would understand why I felt so bad. Bam, one week later a very close associate of mine (who was a JW) out of the blue suddenly left his wife, filed for a divorce, and got DF’ed. I then decided that I would apply myself more seriously to applying bible principals, and start paying more than the usual attention to the meetings, and work at improving my service time and quality. I need to interject this one thought before continuing: During my early years of studying, I remember a WT article that explained how as long as you pray to God silently Satan cannot hear you. But if you verbalize your prayers he can hear what you are saying and possibly throw a wrench into your plans,. Is this still true? Anyway the week goes on and I pray, pray, pray, ( silently of course) Thursday book study, Saturday FS, OK, I started to feel a little more in control. Sunday PT and WT study, going great. After this Sunday meeting an elder and his wife whom I had known for all 30 years approached my wife and I in the back of the KH. Now the hall is shared by three different congregations, so as one is leaving, people for the next meeting are coming in, and these two Spiritual mature people started to yell, yes yell at us for not giving their daughter the “correct information” regarding her decision to go out to dinner with a worldly co-worker. My wife and another sister told this girl (who was 25 yrs old at the time) that she is old enough to make her own decisions, but to respect and consider her fathers opinion. Well, we were told as many people continually walked by that we did not have “spiritual maturity” and we were working against the Holy Spirit by telling a 25 yr. old girl to think for herself!!! As this was going on, I was absolutely mortified, I had expected some opposition to my decision to apply myself spiritually from the “world”, but from within the congregation had never crossed my mind.. After we went home, my wife decided to call this guy, and apologize, he is the type who will fall on a sword regarding any situation that makes him look bad. He accepted, and was grateful that we had realized the error of our ways and hoped that we had learned something from this episode. Well, I gave up right there, so much for praying for support to do more. He shortly thereafter moved to another hall, and we have not spoken for six years. The elders asked my why I was not going out in FS, attending all the meetings, etc and I told them the entire story, their reply was that I needed to have a bible study with someone. Excuse me, when a situation arises the bible clearly states to 1) Approach the person, lay out the problem, and work out a solution together. 2) if this does not work approach the older men and get them involved in a solution. My wife and I did follow this advice, and the only thing that comes out is that we need to have a bible study. What is missing here ?
what is this about ??
by memphisbelle 9 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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journey-on
First of all...WELCOME. Glad you've come on board to discuss your concerns. It's a great place to seek answers and find support.
To answer your question: What is this about??--- Many many JWs with the right heart who are seriously seeking guidance and have
done as you did (pray deeply) are finding that their prayers are being answered. They are being led out of this organization of men and
they are confused because they didn't think this is the way they would be answered. I would say another prayer: THANK YOU, FATHER.
To answer your question: What does this mean?--- It means they DON'T HAVE A CLUE! It's their answer for everything because the
spirit of truth is not in them.
Keep posting. Let us hear your thoughts and let us share ours.
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jwfacts
Welcome. Did that happen 6 years ago or recently? Do you still go to meetings?
The reason elders always recommend that you need to do more study (even if you have a problem with a person) is that the Watchtower Society relies heavily on mind control. see http://www.jwfacts.com/index_files/mindcontrol.htm. I am reading a new book on brainwashing and need to add additional information to the article on the biological aspects of mind control, as the more I research the more I am finding that the Watchtower Society is strongly reliant on these methods. In order to keep a person believing something, it is important to make them keep thinking the same things, as this strengthens the neural pathways. By studying Watchtower publications you strengthen the belief it is the truth and avoid thinking about the problem you have, which allows the problem to be overshadowed by the stronger belief that JWs are the only truth.
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cultswatter
Welcome Memphis
There are more newbies flocking here than the Watchtower Corp (12 old farts)
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Maddie
Memphisbelle - Welcome to JWD and to freedom
Maddie
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TheDoctor
I was recently told i need a bible study as well...
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Eliveleth
Memphisbelle,
Welcome to the group!!!
My husband and I found ourselves in this same predicament in 1983. We had been reading the Bible with a single sister and her two daughters (the New World Translation, of course) when we came across the scripture in Luke 11:11-13 which said that we could ask for Holy Spirit. When I prayed for Holy Spirit in a situation where exJWs were questioning whether the "great crowd" in Revelation were in heaven or on earth. I was expecting that I would find that the WT Society was right!!!, Imagine my surprise after reading the Kingdom Interlinear Translation and checking the Greek, that I found that they were in heaven. I fully expected to find out that the WT was right, esp. after praying for HS to guide me. I found out the truth. God is the hearer and answerer of prayer. The more you ask, the more you will receive.
May God bless you in your quest for truth.
Love and hugs,
Velta
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orangefatcat
That is what it is alright good old brainwashing. How could you possibly be held accountable if your daughter is 25, she is her own person. For you to be raked over the coals is propostirest.
I would have told those loving shepherds and with words of kindess oozing from their mouths that they have no right to interfere and to yell at you., Isn't that just Christian Like. Could you imagine Jesus taking you into another room and then start yelling at you so everyone can here and ream you out. I doubt that very much. It is rudeness and frankly none of their business, If they need to address this issue it shoud be with your daughter they speak with. She is no longer a child and they aren't her parents. Whats it all about CONTROL and then some.
If you have been feeling doubts, don't put them on a back burner and hope that it will work out, because it won't you are now seeing how ridiculous the elders are. Perhap a more indepth look at the organizaiton my give you a better prespective of their constant changes and let me tell you the t hings that you will learn will seem to good to be true, but they are true. You will see so many things in this discussion board that will show and prove to you that the witnesses do not have the rights to be sole surviviours of Armeggadon. There are many good links that people post here to back up the veracity of what is being said. Please for your sake and that of your family stay in touch in here and ask what ever you want and be assured we have all done our research. I welcome you to the board and hope you stay for quite awhile. If I may, I would like to recomment a good book to read it was written by Raymond Franz former GBmember, his book is entitled. "Crisis of Conscience", It is a wonderful and enlightening book. You will find that we recommend it to everyone who visits the site.
all the best and keep us posted
Orangefatcat.
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proplog2
You're not going to hear this from anyone else BUT...
What you have experienced is in the normal range of idiotic human behavior. It happens in the work place. It happened in the first century congregation of Christians. It happens in troops of chimps even in the chicken coop.
The closer people are to each other the more frequent these episodes. Families are a cesspool of bad behavior. Small towns are notorious.
Go to a Catholic Church where people won't bother you. In fact they won't even know that you exist. (There are probably small parishes where you have the same kind of problems.)
Love does not keep account of injury.
Now that I've said that----keep studying but with a critical mind so that you can discover that JW doctrine like all religion is screwed up. -
jesbrown
Memphis Belle, I used to live in Memphis & was treated very similiarly. I was married to the city overseer's son & when he became abusive toward me (mentally & physically) I spoke with the elders... Their answer? Well at first, because he didn't show up on time for the "elders meeting", they told me how they were gonna read such & such scriptures & threaten "public reproof" & how I needed to be patient & lett them handle it. Well when he did finally show up(over 30 mins late), they turned around & read me scriptures on how to be a good wife. I was the VICTIM of abuse. Once all of this happened, all my "friends" now had to chose me, or him & his family.... as far as whose side they were on... guess who lost? Yep, me. I decided then & there that if they were going to protect "wife beaters" then I didn't want to be a part of that organization. I really haven't been back since, and that was in 1998. Alas my own parents turned on me in 2002 when I wouldn't teach my child about the JW's.... Don't feel alone. I wonder if we know any of the same people. If you have been in that long, you probably know most if not all of my family as well as my ex husbands family. I'd love to chat with you.
Jessica