Things in the past that show you that your doubts started earlier than you thought

by sabastious 65 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  wobble

  Yup. Leo is something else ! I feel sorry for the conductor of that study, boy must he have waffled !

  As I look back, I realise how much seemed so very wrong, but as a born-in I soldiered on, believing that God had his name on the Borg, so despite its faults, He was using it.

  I was always embarrassed to say I was a JW, realising what a wacky religion it seemed to normal people.

  I guess I always had doubts, they just took a long time to grow to the point where I walked away. A lot of wasted years.
• 

  Twitch

  When I was 10, I had appendicitus and was rushed to the hospital. Amidst the excrutiating pain, I recall my parents discussing the blood issue with the doctors and I thought that if I needed blood, I wouldn't get it and die. I don't exactly recall what they said to me but I do know they towed the dub line on it. Though born and raised in dubland and a believer, I recall thinking this could be it; I was going to die here and didn't feel anything but scared. Of course, it turned out not to be an issue however something didn't compute at the time though I couldn't put my finger on it.

  It was an early seed of doubt.
• 

  tenyearsafter

  As long as I can remember back into my early childhood, I hated field service or talking to others about my "faith"...if it were the most important thing that God wanted us to do, why did I feel that way? It just took 40 more years for it to actually sink in and make me act on it.
• 

  sabastious

  Interesting and heavy story Twitch. The blood thing is the highest form of evil within the society. I know the high ups, deep down, know there is something terribly wrong with it, but they have tread WAY past the point of no return because so many people have died.

  They turned those deaths into martyrs, therefore they will never overturn the blood doctrine.

  And more people will die.

  -Sab
• 

  sabastious

  As long as I can remember back into my early childhood, I hated field service or talking to others about my "faith"...if it were the most important thing that God wanted us to do, why did I feel that way? It just took 40 more years for it to actually sink in and make me act on it.

  I had this too, and so did my wife. We were embarrassed by our wacky beliefs, we'd rather people NOT know.

  Our faith was so wacky that if we ever got into a discussion with a stranger about it the stranger would undoubtably ask questions since it makes no sense.

  They would try to make sense of it, but it would always just end with the description getting more and more wacky.

  -Sab
• 

  FreeAtLast1914

  I can't remember when certain flags began to fly, but I know it was early in my teen years. And not that I didn't believe I was in the true religion. I did. I thought I had won Life's Lottery and was among the only group of people that would never have to die.

  But one of the things that stands out in my memory was eating meat in the New Order. Everyone around me said we wouldn't, that it's wrong to kill cows or something like that. But it didn't make sense. Meat tastes awesome. Even as a child I knew that was no accident. So anytime I was in a group of JWs and someone would bring up dietary situations in Paradise, I would throw out the fact that I was pretty sure we would be carnivores in that wonderful land to come.

  Another thing was female homosexuality. I read plenty about how it was a great sin against God for two men to lie together. But I never saw that type of judgment against women laying with women, which made perfect sense to me as the thought of it was never a bad one. So once again, I would throw that idea out there for JWs to appear shocked that I even mentioned it.

  I also doubted the typical JW position on violent entertainment. On and on they would hammer violent movies, sports, and games from the podium. And every time I would roll my eyes at the sheer lack of consistency in their arguments. If violence is so contrary to God's nature, why in the Bible did He resort to it so often to solve a problem? In fact, it was a study of the Bible that assured me there was nothing wrong either with violent or immoral entertainment, including demons and ghosts in movies and games. If these things were so bad to watch or read, why is the Bible full to overflowing with stories about graphic violence (burning children in fire, driving tent pegs through heads, shoving spears through genitalia), demonism, dragons, war, adultery, incest, human sacrifice, etc. Don't they encourage reading the Bible, one of the most violent, immoral books on the planet?

  These were some of the earliest things I remember doubting the WT on.
• 

  Mickey mouse

  OK, so it's an old thread but since it's been bumped I thought I'd add my 2 cents.

  When I was a young child, maybe 5 or 6 years old, I wondered whether my life was an experiment to see how a child would react to certain things, kind of like The Truman Show. The things I thought I was being tested for were always JW related. When The Truman Show was released and I saw it, it really resonated with me. My mum told me she always felt the same way as a child, she was also raised as a JW. Another poster on this forum experienced a similar thing and yet I've never come across it in a non-JW (and I have spoken of it to a fair few people).
• 

  Crisis of Conscience

  BTTT
• 

  d

  Yes the issue of the anointed use to bother me and the issue of abortion.
• 

  tornapart

  Great thread! I remember in my teens in the 70's we were doing all those 'prophecy' books in the book study and I could never get my head round the way all the bad stuff applied to Christendom and all the good stuff to the 'anointed'.. the 'Jeremiah' class, the 'Elijah' class, and the Revelation book, how the angels 7 trumpets applied to 7 conventions in the 20's.... just never made any sense at all to me! I used to hate going to those studies...