Was it EX JW literature / WT's or the BIBLE which woke you up? Post scriptures if any.... (page 4)

blondie

ACTIONS ARE LOUDER THAN WORDS.

I did not see the love in the congregations I attended and heard numerous credible accounts from others. The numerous and constant lies and mistreatment finally made me wake up.

JimmyPage, He quit coming to the meetings because he said 1914 was a lie. Well, I was going to prove to him the Society was right. So done LOTS of research and found out it was a lie. The Elders came to talk to me when I tried to tell my Daughter what I found. I told them I refused to believe a lie. Right after that my Son and his Wife were labeled APOSTATES. The Elders never came back again. But another one called and wanted to talk to me but I told him, "I wasn't bothering anyone and I didn't want to be bothered." IT as been about 7 years now and no one has came by. The only reason I didn't want to be DF is because my Daughter has 2 Children and she lets me see and keep them 3-4 hours sometime. The grandson is almost 13 and we are close. I have talking to him and he is listening.

dogon

For me I have always had questions and was told I thought too much. When in 1995 they changed the meaning of generation after all those years of the people alive in 1914 and after seeing 1975 come and go, it was time to exit stage left. It gave me the courage to look at and examin the bible that I was told not to question all those years. It was like as darwin put it, the scales falling off my eyes. I could no more go back to that garbage or any version there of religion nor more than I would chase a turd down the toilet, good ridens.

LongHairGal

It was a combination of ex-JW literature plus what I encountered in the congregation that made me wake up. I saw lack of love, hypocrisy and exploitation. I had to run from users who imagined they could get away with targeting single women. A single woman has to be twice as careful or be many times more victimized.

I had several rude awakenings along the way but it wasn't until the end of 2000 when I learned on the internet about the religion's hidden past plus current scandals they managed to hide or play-down that I started my 'fade'.

Cadellin

What a great thread!

For me, it was the intellectual dishonesty. Once I actually started thinking about it, I couldn't reconcile the differences between the WT's version of history and the secular, scholarly version. There had to be a reason, a reason rooted in something real (not just doctrine). So I started researching various things--the 607v.586 issue, radiometric dating, historical evidence for asserting that we were currently experiencing the worst famines, wars and pestilence in all of human history. And you can figure the rest of the story. What made me so mad was how the WT glibly manipulates and misuses secular quotes. But I wasn't ready to leave yet. For that, it took the Creation book. The gross deception of that book and its representation of evolution broke this camel's (mermaid's) back.

Lozhasleft

It was the elders for me...years and years of seeing their cruel treatment of others but I kept believing that they couldnt be unjust...it wasnt possible...then it was my turn and they treated my family and me so dreadfully and played such a part in destroying our family unit and I took them to task...fatal...they waited and when I was on the floor they kicked me and kept kicking...truly thats how it felt....

Years before I'd read the chapter in Ezekiel about the bad shepherds in Israel...and finally I saw that they fitted the description...and I couldnt deny it any longer.

I didnt read or even look at anything considered 'apostate' for 3+ years...and have only in the last 3 months done any research online....what an absolute revelation it has been...

Loz x

serenitynow!

November 15, 2009 WT "Treasure your place in the congregation." That's where I finally saw the manipulation, completely going against the scriptures by insisting that you don't question the channel. When I read that I said to myself, "OMG I'm in a cult!" At that point they met all the criteria for a cult. It's so funny because as JWs we were taught to guard against apostates- against their material, but if you really read the JW literature, that is enough to condemn and expose the religion.

etna

This is a great thread. For me it was, that I couldn't understand how the WT could possibly write things like the "child abuse" in all other religions and they themselves were as guilty as all of them. It was all the hypocricy from the top to alot of the publishers.

Etna

Crisis of Conscience

BUMP for newbies

00DAD

Neither, it was the hypocrisy of the WTBTS leadership regarding the UN/NGO scandal that made me move from having a number of "nagging doubts" to realizing that the whole religion/theology is messed up.

Also as I saw them change doctrines that were supposedly "Truth" and call it "New Light" I realized that it was all just a word game that was in fact not really concerned about "Truth" or honesty or any of the values that initially attracted me to the religion in the first place.

For context, I was baptized in 1984 and left in 2009, 25 years.

Concurrent with the two points above was the growing awareness that 1914 had to be wrong as we approached the 100 year mark.

I left before the stupid "Overlapping Generations" nonsense was "revealed". I'd like to think that if I'd still been in when they published that ridiculous concept I'd have gotten up during the WT study, grabbed my stuff, my kids and said, "OK, this is just too stupid. We're done!"

But then I had already left because I'd already had enough stupid, illogical, incoherent, inconsistent, unscriptural, un-Christian bullshit ... in fact, it was more than enough!

Was it EX JW literature / WT's or the BIBLE which woke you up? Post scriptures if any....