by Star tiger 41 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Greetings,
After such a traumatic experience in the Jehovah's Witness religion and reasoning on all other versions of religion, why do so many just jump ship into another religion offering the world but still delivering nothing!
Appreciate your comments,
S tar Tiger
You go looking for awhile, I did anyway. Went to a bunch of them just to check it all out and evaluate on my own terms.
Then I was satisfied and done.
Well said Star Tiger. Some people go through religions like they go through relationships. No sooner is the ex-partner out the door than they've got their eye on a new one. It's almost as if people don't know how to "just" be with themeselves in the interim rather than feel driven to "find" something or someone.
There's a lot to be said for using the time after leaving to become clearer about personal goals and plans and develop some personal responsibility rather than finding another "god" or lover to turn oneself over to. Unfortunately, religious groups capitalize on the urgent need to "get right" with the Creator. They peddle salvation the way dating sites peddle partners. They both foster the same need to avoid taking responsibility for oneself in the first instance.
Most people do not hate marriage, just the person they are with. Remarriage can lead to a satisfying relationship.
The problem is not religion, but false, cultic, destructive religion. We are created for relationship with God and will be restless and lost until we find Him. Just because someone had a bad experience with a clueless doctor is not a reason to never seek medical help again from someone else.
Many former cultists now have the love, joy, peace, power of God found in Christ alone that they never knew in manmade religion. The issue is if there is a God and true faith/beliefs. If there is, it will satisfy and set free and be the source of abundant and eternal life. If it is an illusion, one religion may be as good as the next.
The sad danger is to think that a negative experience means it is not possible to have a positive one. I can have a bad work experience with a bad employer, but that is not a reason to never pursue a good work experience with a good employer.
There is a difference between a reason and an excuse. Those who leave cults leave to a vacuum and can end up no better or worse off. Joining another false group is worthless. Finding a true relationship with God means everything. We are all in the same boat as condemned sinners. We need the gospel, the power of God, which is centered on a person, not an organization.
I am keeping an open mind.
However, each religion I have looked in to has been a dissapointment.
Most are cults, if not cult-like. Most are not as extreme a cult as the JWs or other more over the top belief systems, however sometimes the more subtle religions/cults can be even more dangerous than the obviously absurd.
The Oracle
Just think, you could be like godrulz and worship the Happy Jesus of Eternal Hell Fire.
Now there's a step in the Buffalo pile
Having been JW was a spring board for me. It has helped in many ways because I now have a reference point from where I can see more clearly. The Word of God is true, despite JW's bending and twisting of the scriptures to formulate their own theology. I am not hostile towards God, though I do have issues with the organisation. Jehovah is not the problem, but those who claim to speak in behalf of his name, are.
We are encouraged to keep ourselves among a body of believers. It can't be done in a vacuum. It is not part of God's design that we walk alone in our quest to do his will. Being JW has actually assisted me in wiping away a huge portion of other religions that I will not associate myself with. What the word of God says is true, despite the fact that those who speak for Him communicate the voice of God in error. The messenger may be flawed, the Word of God, however, is still the truth, and for me must still be adhered to. It remains my responsibility to seek for God, regardless. The more I concern myself with His Word and His will for my life, the better chance I have of discerning truth, for falsehood.
Art
I stopped attending churches around 1993 (quit the JWs in 1988) and finally admitted to myself a few years later that I no longer believed that Jesus was my personal savior or the messiah. I thought I was done with religion.
Then I married a Jewish lady in 2000 (we had known each other for 5 years) and started attending Synagogue with her. I found out how little I knew about what Jews believe and what I did believe was wrong. I took Jewish history classes, Jewish cooking, and learned to read Hebrew at adult Temple classes. I met others who were contemplating converting and it seemed like the natural thing to do. I met converts and they were all enjoying life. It took about 9 months of study with a Rabbi to prepare for conversion. I have never regretted becoming a member of the tribe. My Rabbi explained that the only requirement for me was I had to accept the One G-d of the Jews for myself. I was not required to believe that G-d performed miracles in the past or today or answered prayers. I am expected to live an honorable life, support my family and help the Jewish community. I identify most closely with Humanist Judaism- we are members of a Reform Temple. . My sister ( a Lutheran) said I make a better Jew than I ever did a Christian- meaning, I think, a better human being.
Shalom
There is behavioral truth in Judaism, but it no longer provides redemptive truth. You are a better religious person (Judaism is true, but the shadow/type of reality in Christ. Heb. 1:1-3 progressive revelation). The Jews of Jesus' day and modern JWs are in the same boat. They reject the true Messiah (Deity) and have a form of godliness/religion without the power of God that comes through relationship with Him. One cannot have eternal life in the Church Age by trusting Judaism (see Romans/Hebrews). One cannot reject Jesus as Messiah/God and be saved. He is the only way to the Father (Jn. 14:6; Acts 4:12). I commend you for freedom from the WT, but remind you that you are no better off as a rejector of Christ, the Messiah. Perhaps Messianic Judaism would be palatable (Jews for Jesus)? Reformed Judaism is also more liberal than orthodox/conservative Judaism.
The issue is who is Jesus and what are you going to do with Him? Why trust animal sacrifices when the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world has come. Jesus and Paul were ultimate Jews. Follow him as he follows Christ. Rejecting NT is like staying in grade school vs university.
We are indoctrinated from infancy to believe the only way to be spiritual - especially to be Christian - is to belong to a religion and adopt all of its beliefs. Truth isn't a building or a group. Truth doesn't change unless the reality changes or "get brighter" to match human understanding. Despite how many times a "generation" might change to a JW, when Jesus said it, he only meant one thing. Despite how many times Catholicism>Protestantism>modern Fundamentalism has changed understanding, the truth was always the same.
Humans' attempts at grasping at the mind of God are futile. Humans' attempts to force other humans to conform to it are evil. Religion can't bring you truth or salvation. It can only bring you human error and man-made rules. When the rubber hits the road, everybody is going to have to decide between his God and his group. No church has it right and no church can. The 1st-century church didn't have it right before or after Jesus died.
Nothing in the Bible indicates things are going to get any better for truth, either. All prophecies about religion are bad. But things started out bad; so they're just going to get worse. What group did you go to when your "brothers" were making a golden calf? Where did you go when your "brothers" were stoning Stephen? Where did you go when your "brothers" were setting up a pope? Where did you go when your "brothers" were burning Bibles and torturing people? Where did you go when your "brothers" were putting church dogma before Scripture? Where do you go when your "brothers" worship the Governing Body and the Watchtower literature?
Do you have to go anywhere? We are to be no part of the world, but do we have to become astronauts? We can mentally, emotionally, and spiritually separate ourselves from Satan's system, so what prevents us from doing the same with false worshipers around us? If they hate us because our faith in Christ doesn't allow us to follow "those who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and venerated and rendered sacred service to the creation rather than the One who created" (Rom 1:24), that was foretold. Jesus tells us to be happy because to suffer at the hands of false worshipers over pure worship is a noble thing.
