by sabastious 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Thanks for posting this letter! It came off very positive and warm. I do agree that some might not read the entire letter resulting from your early statements. But in my opinion, not informing them of this is could be considered just as deceitful as what the WT does. You sound very happy and I hope all is well!
CG
Dude, they ain't gonna read it.
Better idea: send them a photograph that suggests your happy, successful life.
I find it perplexing that you feel you can speak for the people I sent this message to. I don't think you enough reason to make the absolute claim. A photo is a good idea, I will admit (of which I tried first, btw and it fell on blind eyes), but it's not THAT great an idea since it would have about as much chance of causing something to happen as the letter.
Besides the letter has a chance of helping others on this site (which is why I posted it). I don't think you believe that this letter is completely void of any purpose because an idea like that would be just silly.
-Sab
I feel like too many of us become naysayers simply because people don't flock out of the Borg en masse over our efforts.
If something resonates with just one person then I think that's great.
Even if it doesn't, it was probably cathartic for you to write it.
As a bonus, you have shared it with JWN for posterity. So not only those you sent it to have the opportunity, future visitors to this site do, as well.
But in my opinion, not informing them of this is could be considered just as deceitful as what the WT does. You sound very happy and I hope all is well!
All is well, thank you for asking.
I'm glad you brought up that point. I don't want to be conniving or purposefully misleading that's the Watchtower does and I refuse to use such tactics. For me it's not worth doing unless it's genuine and honest.
-Sab
Even if it doesn't, it was probably cathartic for you to write it.
Writing has always been a means of venting for me and it is the core reason for all my writings.
-Sab
Or that Pastor Russell predicted the end of the world for 1914 and then when it didn’t come called Christ’s “invisible return”?
I agree that most of the JWs know very little about Charles Taze Russell, and often many things are being said by Jehovah's Witnesses as well as by others about Russell that are not true.
Russell was not expecting the end of the world in 1914, and when what he was not expecting didn't come, Russell did not call it Christ's invisible return. From 1904 onward, Russell was expecting that the time of trouble was to begin in 1914; he most definitely was not expecting the "end of the world" in 1914, and he stated such.
Russell did not say anything at all about an invisible return of Jesus in 1914; indeed, he never said anything at all Christ returning in 1914 at all, invisible or visible.
In 1876, two years after 1874, Russell accepted Barbour's conclusion that Christ had already returned in 1874; he never changed from the belief. He died in 1916 still believing that Christ had returned in 1874.
Russell also believed that his expectation that the time of trouble was to begin in 1914 had come true; he died in 1916 still believing that the Gentile Times had ended in 1914, and the time of trouble had begun in 1914. He did not change from that belief, not did he have any reason to do so.
I have a prepared a collection of quotes from Russell regarding his expectations regarding 1914, if any wish to examine them:
Regarding Russell's change of viewpoint in 1904:
In 1876, two years after 1874, Russell accepted Barbour's conclusion that Christ had already returned in 1874; he never changed from the belief. He died in 1916 still believing that Christ had returned in 1874.
He believed that the end of the world was EXTREMELY close to 1914 if not happening within the 1 year span. He didn't speak of an instant cataclysm, no, but rather many unfolding events leading quickly to the ultimate show down of God and Satan in Armagddon. In no way did he ever allude to a great lapse in time (coming up on 100 years now) after the "time of the trouble" began. The war ended and there was a time called the roaring twenties. Leaving the Watchtower and it's now leader Judge Rutherford to conclude that "something happened" in 1914 so they moved the original failed "invisible return" date from 1874 to 1914 because it made more sense since WWI and all. Much easier of an idea to sell unless it's 100 years later.
All lot more stuff happened after WWI too and the Witnesses have always been there stupidly grinning and boasting to their peers of why they "were so right all along and they, and their grand fathers didn't waste their time."
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein
-Sab
I wanted to put an update on this thread. Nine months ago I emailed the letter in the OP to certain people in my family that I knew would spread it around and I made the correct choices. One cousin emailed me back and asked why I broke the pact he imposed on me to never speak with him again, and then told me to stop "waxing poetic". The letter was printed out and distributed among my family. Most of my family read it, but some abstained because they didn't want to remember me as an apostate, but the true believer that they wanted home. The general consensus was that it was an appalling document, but they read it and that's more than I could have hoped for (you don't have all the answers metatron, you have a lot, but not all).
As I look back the reason I wrote the letter is because I had heard through the grapevine that the family was feeling sentimental about me. This was because they chose to break all contact with me when I merely told them I was becoming an agnostic and was starting to look at the Society critically. While they waited in faithful anticipation of my eventual return to the faith I joined the EX JW communities and further opened my eyes. The letter was designed to pull the wool from over their eyes that had developed over time. I was WORSE association now and they needed to know the truth about me. If they were going show up at my door one day, it would be best if they had read the letter. It makes that day less culty, because it's all out in the open. So, I now I'm waiting at my house they are waiting at the Kingdom Hall of which I will never return. A game of JW Chicken. I'm hoping that maybe in a decade or two someone will show up.
In the short term however this letter resulted in a net loss of JW family association. My mother was still associating with me at the time, but once this letter came out the family put heat on her to cut me off entirely. She would call me every few months and tell me that if I stopped posting on ex jw online forums that the family woulud take me back immediately like nothing ever happened. They said it was just too painful for them to know that I was saying critical things about their organization online. My mother still associates with me, but she has to deal with the rat pack telling her I am scum unless I stop posting bad thoughts about the precious organization.
My older brother, the family bad boy with 3 disfellowshippings, stopped association with me as well due to the letter. After I sent it, I went over to their house and had a talk with them and told them that the letter was not meant for them. It was only meant for people who didn't know my position and had chosen to use the grapevine to get their information about me. My brother and sister in law had allowed me in the past to speak about my feelings. I asked them not to read the letter because it would probably just be confusing. The next day my brother was handed the printed out letter by a member of my family and he and his wife read it. That was the last I saw of my brother and his wife and their children which I had become accustomed to. He would still hang out with me if it were not for his wife. She had a conniption of sorts. Her father had recently left the organization as well and she said my arguments were too recminiscent of his. She hurt too much over her father and his wrong arguments that led him out of the truth. Every day she had to live with the fact that he will likely not be in paradise with her. I was now lumped in with that pain and just looking at me was too much for her. I had my suspicions about their true feelings about my defection from the organization. They said they didn't care, but this letter exposed all that. I told them not to read it, but they did and now the relationship has ended, for now.
I recommend making these types of letters. Sometimes the Witness pot can use to be stirred up, in fact it can always use stirring.
-Sab
Thanks Sab, for the original letter, and the update.
It is so sad that the JW's are forced by the cult to act in this irrational and illogical way, what is the point of cutting off contact with someone like you, or me, who will never step into a K.H again unless forced to, say a family funeral or something ?
My family has done exactly the same, though limited and strained "contact" occurs sometimes ,but it is so silly.
If they really had the truth, they could show me and I would accept it, they know I am not proud or unwilling to change, I showed that by leaving the W.T
It took a great deal of humility to say that I had been duped, was a fool, for decades. But none of them, all in for decades, some Pioneers, others Elders, none of them, will come and show me it is the truth.
If the boot was on the other foot, if you Sab, were convinced you had the truth, and they had left it, you would be visiting them and showing them their mistake , right ?
How they can fool themselves is amazing, but I did for years, so I understand, it is still sad, and unecessary.
It is so sad that the JW's are forced by the cult to act in this irrational and illogical way, what is the point of cutting off contact with someone like you, or me, who will never step into a K.H again unless forced to, say a family funeral or something ?
Hey Phizzy, thanks for the comment. It's been an long and strange trip for me. I have tried to explain to my JW family that I was pressured into getting baptised and it was never truly in my heart. They live in a false reality where they are never to blame for any pressure they put on their kids. I am very sad that after all I have done they still haven't given me a word since.
Just a few days ago a Witness I used to know showed up at my door out in service. She said that my family was dysfunctional and that Jehovah will accept me back with open arms so as long as I am repentant. I asked her if she'd come all this way to tell me I am deficient. She replied that that was correct. I could not return without saying sorry for what I have done. I explained that in reality I have done nothing wrong. Even per the laws of the Watchtower I have not been approached by the people who acused me of apostasy before I was an apostate. Many opposers are driven to stronger opposition that they would have normally given because they were tagged so early in their exit from the high control group. It's like we say, "Oh you want an apostate? I'll give you a real apostate." Witnesses are jumpy about anyone who says anything bad about the Organization because they are told such words are being created by Satan himself through his celestial demons. Never again will I live in fear of what I was taught.
It seems like a lost cause trying to get to my family and in the end it may well be. But that's not the point from my perspective. My story can help others who read it and who knows an old Witness friend might show up at my door one day, or a neice or nephew who is tired of the crap as well. I will be there for them and I will have all my writings to look back and refresh my memory. What has been done to me truly is shameful and should be fought against at all costs.
Still I hear through my little brother that the family still feels that one day I will come around and come back to the truth. This is a large reason why I don't sever all connections with them. Because I don't want them to get the wrong idea because they notoriously act on their wrong ideas very often. I don't want what happened to to even touch my son in the most remote of way. I have grown to hate the act of holding ones love over another, so I don't want my family to love my son. Frankly I am frightened by my family's love especially decisions based off it. To me, love is simply and mysterious at the same time. To them it's a definition expanded into an article from a Watchtower.
My mother in law sent me an email a few months back. It was a transcript of a talk a Governing Body member gave in the last few years. When I read it I was disgusted with how the Witnesses are taught that they are the only ones that have a chance to save anybody, here is the transcript:
This is why we preach. This experience was given by Brother Splane of the Governing Body at an assembly on Oahu. They said everyone at the assembly was tearing up. "In an eastern European country in 1989 there was a huge 8.9 earthquake. 30,000 people died in 4 minutes. It happened in the morning and a man had just returned from taking his small son to school. After he made sure his wife was alright, he went straight back to the school to find his son. When he got there he saw that the school was completely flattened, like a pancake. Just rubble.
He stood there devastated, completely destroyed. Then he remembered a promise he had made to his son some time back. He had told him that as long as there was life and breath in his body, he would always be there for him.
So with that promise in his mind he went around to the northeast side of the rubble where his son's classroom had been and started digging through the debris.Soon the neighbor came out and said, Sir, I know youre distraught but you have to accept that your child is dead. There's nothing you can do. The man didn't stop digging; he just looked at the neighbor and said, Are you going to help me now?
Later, the fire chief came and told the man he had to stop, there was no one left alive and he was putting himself in danger. Again, the father simply asked, Are you going to help me now? After many more hours of digging the chief of police came and told him he was putting other people in danger, and ordered him to go home and leave it to the professionals. The man again said nothing but, Are you going to help me now?
Brother Splane paused, and then he said, The faithful slave is engaged in a massive search and rescue mission. It is an enormous task, and what they are asking from you and me is, Are you going to help me now?
Finally, after 38 hours of digging through concrete and twisted metal, the man moved a final boulder and found a small space where several children had been protected. His son was among them. The first thing he said to his father was, Daddy, I told them not to be scared. I told them you would come.
Then he walked off the stage.You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFBZ_uAbxS0
Time index 1:06-1:17 has Tom Cruise, a renowned Scientologist, explaining that when he passes a wreck on the side of the road he "knows he's really the only one that can help" as a Scientologist. This is a very similar thinking of the devout Jehovah's Witness. That's how they go about their life, believing that they are the only ones that make any real difference. Both the Watchtower and Scientology are blights on the world of reason.
When, in the end, it's people like Tom Cruise and David Splane that are actually the ones covered in the rubble of their own delusional bigotry. Highly ironic indeed.
-Sab
