Hey everybody im pretty new on this site, but i need help.I just got into a 30 minute debate about religion, Jehovah's witnesses mostly. Now i was in the trooth for 20 years, but ive been dissed twice. The last time i was dissed for five years. never had any intention on coming back, but was guilted with my parents being in their sixties and maybe not having much time left to spend with them. When i did come back it wasnt the same, i realized that i learned to live with the shunning, and really didnt miss or need the fake friendship. So anyway that was two years ago, so im fading out, and dont plan on ever returning. But ive told my family that i dont plan on coming back to the hall, but yet they try to pull me back in. The problem is that i need to know how to show them scriptually that their in a false religion, and ya'll know thats hard to do with a witness. And i know in their blinded way, they think their helping me! I was just wondering if anyone could assist me in showing them what i knew for a long time, that the society is just a BULLSHIT publishing corporation trying to leech off of their followers! But my nephewand parents really believe they have the trooth! im just finding it hard to get my point across, Please Help!!!!
Need help showing a family member the real truth behind the Society
by screwface 24 Replies latest forum tech-support
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Ding
Are they willing to read Crisis of Conscience by Ray Franz? It's "apostate literature," but it's opened a lot of eyes.
If not, do you have access to older WT literature such as the Studies in the Scriptures, Millions Now Living Will Never Die, etc.? Those WT books contain so much nonsense that it's hard for JWs to read it and still have the same view of the WTS they did before.
Whatever you do, asking questions is usually better than arguing with JWs. Show them what troubles you from those publications and ask the JWs to explain how "God's organization" could have taught such things. A good book for you to study here would be Don Cameron's "Captives of a Concept" or David Reed's "How to Rescue Your Loved Ones from the Watchtower." The more factual and less confrontational you can be, the more effective you are likely to be.
If you are looking for doctrinal points you could make from the Bible, consider getting Walter Martin's book "Jehovah of the Watchtower" or David Reed's "Jehovah's Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse".
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ABibleStudent
Welcome screwface to JWN and I am sorry about your dilema with your family. Have you read Steve Hassan's books (i.e., Combatting Cult Mind Control and Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves), visited Steve Hassan's website (www.freedomofmind.com), read books by other psychologists about cults, read Raymond Franz's books (i.e., Crisis of Conscience and In Search of Christian Freedom) about the WTBTS, and read other books about the WTBTS by former JWs? Realistically your only option is to live your life to the fulliest and send emails/notes to your family with plenty of pictures of you having fun and occasionally planting a seed of doubt. To debate doctrine with JWs would only make them raise their shields and shun you. Good-luck!!
If you want to take a chance on getting shunned by your JW family, you can also send anonymous emails to your JW family like I wrote about in http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/211893/1/Youe28099ve-Got-Mail-TM, you can write Letters to Editors like I wrote about in http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/218368/3/The-Ideas-Thread-all-are-welcome, and write to politicians to prevent cults like the WTBTS from being exempt from paying income taxes or receiving government assistance like I wrote about in http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/members/politics/215126/1/Ive-Been-Sooo-Bad-Hopefully-Something-Good-will-Happen.
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
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steve2
The problem is that i need to know how to show them scriptually that their in a false religion
Oh dear, you're still pretty much at their mercy, aren't you? That's understandable but kind of sad. So what will you do if they don't agree with your reasoning? Lose sleep and try even harder and harder to persuade them? Keep a good supply of paracetamol on hand for your tension headaches!
Or follow this radical idea: Accept these two "truths": 1) You've finally realized you can live without the religion and 2) others believing the religion is their business, not yours.
If you keep getting hooked into the insidious need to persuade them they're false, you continue to be as much a slave to the religion as you ever were; only now your goals have changed (persuading them their religion is false). The best part of growing up is setting your sights on your own meaningful goals and allowing others to set their sights on their own goals. Go to it!
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DesirousOfChange
The only way to do that is to appear stumbled yourself. Ask questions. Expect (demand) valid explanations. Perhaps when they realize that they CANNOT provide the satisfying answer, their eye will be opened. YOU cannot show them. THEY must discover it on their own.
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InterestedOne
i need to know how to show them scriptually that their in a false religion
I don't know if that is possible because of the various ways people interpret the scriptures. Personally, I have taken a step back, before assuming the scriptures to be true, and decided to consider what is true and false in general. I think all religions and their associated scriptures contain some falsehood, so I don't see why one should bother attempting to show that one conforms more or less to scriptures. Even if the JW's conform most closely to the scriptures (although I am not convinced they do), they are not necessarily conforming to something that is true. I wonder what would happen if you discussed with them how they go about determining what is true and false.
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ShadesofGrey
Here is a start: http://www.quotes-watchtower.co.uk/1914.htm
If you are serious about this, get some help. Contact the missionary at JWinfo.net, or someone similar. They can show you specifically how the JW reasoning is in error. For example, King David is called a first-born, even though he is the youngest son, so obviously, Colossians referring to Christ as the firstborn over all creation is not necessarily referring to order of creation.
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designs
screw-
With +1800 Christian denominations all having different interpretations exactly whose views are you trying to convince your family to accept.
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ShadesofGrey
Even if all of them are wrong, that doesn't matter as God never commanded us to join a denomination. Most Christian denominations agree on all important points... points that the JW org disagrees on.
I focus on gettting the salvational points covered. Romans 10:9-- If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
1 John 5:1, 13 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
After that, the details take care of themselves as long as the person receives Holy Spirit before being bamboozled by another sect. 1 John 2:27-- 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.