The Problem with the problem

by Terry 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Terry
    Terry

    Jehovah's Witnesses have an invisible problem which is as unseen as Jesus. The Problem with their problem is that it is unseen.

    What do I mean by this?

    No Future.

    The Future Jehovah's Witnesses prepare for is not THEIR FUTURE at all.

    The JW future is Armageddon (very soon!) followed by paradise.

    The invisible problem is the REAL future. Education, earning a decent living, investment, savings, aging, ill health, infirmity, retirement, funeral costs and burial.

    These ugly truths are the REAL future. Invisible to JW's they cannot and will not take steps to prepare ahead of time to deal with these facts of life.

    The Problem with the problem is a crime against their humanity committed by the leaders governing the body of leadership in charge of education.

    The IRONY is the official magazine is called WATCHTOWER!

    In ancient times every city had a tall tower to warn of impending attack which allowed some measure of advance notice.

    The JW Watchtower avails no actual advance warning in a real way for real life in the practical here and now.

    Case in point: I was once a young Jehovah's Witness. The Watchtower (speaking directly FOR Jehovah) assured me I would not grow old in this system. 1975 would be the significant year in human history which would usher in the Millennium and the restoration of perfection. Higher education would, consequently, be a DISTRACTION rather than a benefit.

    Those of my generation who went to college earned at least twice as much as I would have thanks to my "advance warning" from the Watchtower!

    I worked for a janitorial service while my high school chums went off to college.

    I served time in Federal Prison while others were beginning a career.

    I was Pioneering while others were buying a house, putting money into savings, planning for the future.

    Who was right and who was wrong?

    Obivously the Watchtower willfully and authoritatively blinded me to my own REAL FUTURE while lying to me about the make-believe future.

    The Watchtower cannot restore my youth. I cannot get those years back.

    Millions of people from 1879 until now, cumulatively, had their future stolen and security snatched from them for themselves and their families. Generations have been robbed and damaged.

    My 21st birthday was not a celebration for me as it was for my non-Witness contemporaries. I was in prison my entire 21st year of life!

    Interestingly and maddeningly, the legal requirement of the Superior Athorities (Federal Government) was that I serve alternate time in service to my community by working in a hospital!

    The U.S. Government did NOT demand I go kill. They asked for hospital work.

    The Watchtower religion, however, turned those 2 years into empty months of non-education that became religious indoctrination.

    I didn't help myself. I didn't help others. I ignored a real future in favor of a make-believe future.

    THAT IS AN AWFUL WASTE. I lay the blame on Watchtower leadership partly and the other blame on my own ignorance and naive devotion to their authority.

    They SECRETLY advised me not to mention I was being urged by their leadership to take the steps I was taking. Get the point here? They expected heroism from me while demonstrating their own cowardice!

    Yet, I was not a hero to them, my family or myself. I was a puppet.

    The Problem with the problem is REALITY is the natural right of every human being. Decisions (important decisions) MUST BE BASED ON REALITY.

    The leadership in the Watchtower Society STEALS REALITY and hides it!

    This makes every JW member's decisions based on non-real alternatives. This makes those decisions COUNTERFEIT CHOICES.

    Having your own life BE your own life means when you make choices they have to be REAL ones.

    For almost twenty years of my life I honestly thought I was making real choices about my real future.

    I was not. Millions of others were not.

    We had FALSE choices before us and our decisions were NOT our own.

    Our lives were not our own.

    They were stolen. They were hijacked.

    They were ransacked and abandoned by intruders RUNNING the Governing leadership at Watchtower headquarters who broke in and carried off whatever was of value.

    Every Jehovah's Witness alive today is blind---totally blind--to their own future just as I once was.

    They have their real future hidden. They will age. They will need money for retirement. They will likely get sick and end up in a hospital. They will die and their family will have to

    come up with enough money to bury them.

    The lie continues.

    The Watchtower LIE is that REAL LIFE doesn't exist----only the make believe one.

    The Problem with the problem is that so many people cannot even see what is INVISIBLE: their own future!

  • journey-on
    journey-on

    Terry, I used to have that victim mentality, too:

    "I had what it took to become something more. I should have had my talents and drives encouraged as a child, rather than nipped in the bud. Rather than marry a nice witness boy, I should have grown into womanhood first and experienced REAL Life. I should have climbed that corporate ladder to the very top, but I was being held back because of the religious mindset inculcated in me by my parents and the Watchtower Society."

    I'm glad I got out fairly early and was able to overcome the indoctrination, but it was not without scars and a lot of determination.

    But, even among the witnesses of your era, there were those like my fanatical JW sister and her husband that DID plan for two futures. One was the unseen future you described so well. They believe in it whole heartedly. My BIL is a big-deal elder and more (I forget what it is he does within the circuit). They do all the JW things they are supposed to do and look forward to the New World. He is around the same age as you, Terry, and he, too, was a conscientious objector. He didn't go to prison, but would have if that had been given him. My sister is about as big a fanatic as they come. Her JW shell is unbreakable. Yet, she is a career woman. She has saved and provided for her retirement years very very well. They have paid off their home, made investments, created wills to disperse their wealth when they pass on, and laid out their burial wishes.

    Go figure?!

  • sizemik
    sizemik

    I invested in their invisible future for 30 years . . . but I guess it could have been 40 or 50 or more . . .

    They've stopped stealing from me now and can't take any more. Will I save enough for retirement? . . . probably not.

    The thing is . . . the time that has passed with this never-to-be-realised deception continuing to be drawn out . . . is that THEY should know it by now also.

  • AllTimeJeff
    AllTimeJeff

    Nice post Terry. I can relate to this.

    I actually got to go to college for a bit until my Dad reneged on helping to pay for it. I then pioneered, which led to my ultimately going to Cameroon.

    For 12 years, my future was to be determined.

    I still have time to do something great with my life, thankfully. But I shudder to think of those I care about and what they will do when the GB cynically changes a teaching (again) that so many hung their hats on.

    JW's waste their lives. 'No, this isn't your time. THEY are having their reward in full. YOU will have a better future, even if you die.'

    Part of what woke me up was being at Gilead and seeing all the legal forms I had to sign. It was all my decision to go to be a missionary. The WTBTS just made it possible. At any time, the GB could change their mind and send me home. Or another country. I saw plenty of spiritual people with decades invested in the WTBTS cast off like so much dust.

    They were hurt, angry, and still had to pretend that it was all for Jehovah. Their future was now before them, special pioneers (or as I like to call many of these castaways, special charity cases)

    No skills, no savings, just memories. They get to watch their "mother organization" change the rules as they ruin more lives.

    It pays to not be naive.

    JW's have a real problem, it's over 100 years in the making. They are so willing and want to believe, instead of just cultivating the ability to accept the world as it is and do your best within it. Instead, they chase a mirage of the GB's making.

  • VM44
    VM44

    "I was a puppet."

    Even Jehovah is a puppet to The Watchtower!

  • Nickolas
    Nickolas

    Excellent post, Terry, and how very true. And very sad for all those who have wasted their lives or, as in your case, the best years of their lives.

  • breakfast of champions
    breakfast of champions

    Very well put. I've expressed similar sentiments to my wife over certain situations we see and she really cannot disagree.

    Liked your post so much I'm going to read it again!

  • cptkirk
    cptkirk

    terry you forgot one thing...they have a wonderful spiritural paradise amongst eachother which compensates for all these silly little set backs you mention. you know at my hall right before i stopped going, they kept saying the wealthier witnesses should be financially helping the poorer witnesses...yea that went over well.

  • watson
    watson

    Man, brings back a lot of memories.

    I to look at those that seemed to have wealth in the Congregation, trying to figure out how they did it. Even elders! How'd they find the time?!?

    Of course many had means because of previous generations in their family that did not know "the truth". Many were very good at the Network Marketing craze. Some started businesses, and hired low wage bros and sisters to cary the biz. Some were two faced, double lifers, that really never "made the truth their own", but knew how to use the congregational structure for networking.

    Now, I have set my mind on making up for lost time. Don't have a lot of time left, but I figure I'll do the best I can. Maybe I'll be able to help my loyal JW parents when the need me, and be able to pass a little something on to the kids.

    We shall see.

    As always Terry, a good topic.

  • Terry
    Terry

    They do all the JW things they are supposed to do and look forward to the New World. He is around the same age as you, Terry, and he, too, was a conscientious objector. He didn't go to prison, but would have if that had been given him. My sister is about as big a fanatic as they come. Her JW shell is unbreakable. Yet, she is a career woman. She has saved and provided for her retirement years very very well. They have paid off their home, made investments, created wills to disperse their wealth when they pass on, and laid out their burial wishes.

    Go figure?!

    Some people are smarter than to serve only one master! I wasn't.

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