I grew up not fearing old age

by Sour Grapes 43 Replies latest jw experiences

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  LongHairGal

  JOE PUBLISHER:

  Wow, do I ever relate to your post! And, by the way, I considered the Paradise teaching to be a "nice idea" which is to say, I took it with a grain of salt!

  You are absolutely right about everything going downhill after that 1995 changed teaching on generation. This was a turning point for me and my faith in the Jehovah's Witness religion went out the window. It was OVER. They should have packed it in because they lost ALL credibility as far as I was concerned. It took another five years and I did a "fade". Like you, I also wondered if they knew it was BS but were just stringing all the suckers along.

  I am sorry for all the gullible people there. My experience has turned me totally OFF religion forever and I am sick of evangelicals and anybody rattling off scriptures. I am not impressed. Be spiritual in a quiet way: help your neighbor.

  What a learning experience!
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  LisaRose

  Like many of you I thought I would never grow old. I didn't go to college because I "wouldn't have time for a career in this system of things". I am 58 now, that was a lie, obviously. Still I cant complain too much. I had a pretty good job for someone with no college - systems analyst. I realized the value of a 401k, even while a JW. Unfortunately much of that was in company stock, in a company that cooked the books and all that stock became worthless, plus I lost my job. Fortunately when I left the JWs I was contacted by the "worldly" guy I wouldn't date in high school. We fell in love and got married. He is very good with money, so I don't have to worry about finances. At the end of the day, I have a pretty good life. I think whether you grew up a JW or not, you probably have both good and bad things happen. The trick is to rise above the bad and appreciate the good. While I regret becoming a JW, I am happy now, and I intend to enjoy every minute of my remaining life.
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  Joepublisher1

  LongHairGal:

  I, too, have read so many comments on internet boards about exJW’s true feelings about the 1995 “generation” change. I started to realize that many other JWs were bothered by that sudden/shocking change and as you said, “They [the WTS leaders] lost ALL credibility as far as I was concerned.” Boy, I can relate to your assessment completely - I felt exactly as you!

  When I started to research 1975, I found out that I was virtually lied to regarding what really happened back then! That didn’t go over well with me either, even though it predates my involvement starting in 1980. Further research revealed another end-date 1925 – and it continued to get worse the more I researched the WTS’s white-washed history!!! (NO WONDER THEY ALWAYS TOLD US NOT TO READ OR LISTEN TO EX-JWs!) Indeed, there is such a thing as “The-Truth-About-The-Truth” [TTATT] and many JWs are totally unaware of it because they are forbidden to learn about it!

  Then you said something that sounds EXACTLY how I sound – I mean EXACTLY!!! I’ll quote what you said, but these could have been my words [exactly as they appear in your quote]:

  “I am sorry for all the gullible people there. My experience has turned me totally OFF [to] religion forever and I am sick of evangelicals and anybody rattling off scriptures. I am not impressed. Be spiritual in a quiet way: help your neighbor. What a learning experience.”

  These days - regarding religion or any other influential/controlling man-made organization - I live by the credo: “Fool me once, shame on YOU, fool me twice, shame on ME!”
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  Joepublisher1

  This is an excerpt from that 1995 Watchtower, November 1 p. 20 (thankz to the JWFACTS web-site for making it so easy to find these quotes):

  "Does our more precise viewpoint on "this generation" mean that Armageddon is further away than we had thought? Not at all! Though we at no time have known the "day and hour," Jehovah God has always known it, and he does not change. (Malachi 3:6) Obviously, the world is sinking further and further toward terminal ruination. The need to keep awake is more critical than it has ever been. Jehovah has revealed to us "the things that must shortly take place," and we should respond with an absorbing sense of urgency."

  I remember commenting on this paragraph, emphazing the point that this change - which I just learned in this Watchtower study article - 'does not mean we are further away from Armageddon then we thought.' Boy, I was so brain-washed. For some reason, I was standing up for the WTS, even though this change deeply effected me. However, it was a little like a delayed re-action for me. In short-time, I realized that I could NOT trust this organization anymore! (See my above comments.)

  What's interesting - as everyone knows - is that the WTS would change their understanding again AND [yet] again! I feel sorry for people who became a JW after 1995, because they have NO IDEA just how much we believed that the generation of 1914 would NOT DIE OFF THE EARTHLY scene before the end comes - the Live Forever book said it was "a certainty". I used to think that any responsible organization would NEVER print things using such absolute terms IF it wasn't correct. Well, they weren't correct and this proved to me that the WTS leaders are wreckless and careless with so many people's lives and futures! Shame on them, each and every one of them!

  Thankfully, the internet provides the vehicle for every JW to learn TTATT! And, so many people around the world have contributed to exposing this religion - that claims to be the only true religion - as the hoax that it is! Nothing has shot the WTS more in the foot then all of their printed literature. Their printed literature proves to be the "smoking gun" for most of us exJWs because we can see the plethora of printed statements from the WTS leaders that PROVE TTATT! (The WTS leaders would love for its followers to believe that exJWs are making this stuff up, but their own literature hangs them everytime.)
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  Joepublisher1

  If you're new to what this discussion is all about concerning "the generation" changes by the WTS over the decades, you will find this well-researched topic to be an eye-opener in this link:

  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/generation.php#1995
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  Joepublisher1

  Another thing to keep in mind is how EVEN in recent months, the WTS prints expressions like this: Armegeddon, the new system, paradise, etc. is coming "very soon now". Look it up in their Watchtower CD if you don't believe me. How irresponsible is that? If they don't know the day or the hour, how can they use that phrase to indicate when the new system is coming?

  Yes, I know, the faithful JW will dance around this question, but it still doesn't change the fact that most people understand "very soon now" to mean what it says - VERY SOON NOW! If a JW is going to insist that this represents how Jehovah views time the WTS should put a disclaimer on that statement, such as, "The new system is coming *very soon now. *This is time as represented in God's view not humans so don't take this expression literally or from a human's understanding of time." Is you head spinning? Of course it is. As someone once said, being a JW requires your brain to do a lot of mental gymnastics in order to sanitize all the non-sense found in the WTS religion. That's why it can take years [or even decades] for a JW to untangle their mind and see that they have been brain-washed!

  Please JWs, use your head and your brain without the WTS filters!
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  mamochan13

  My mother believed I would not make it to grade school. Then I believed I would not live to have children. Now my life is more than half over. I lost a big chunk of it, but I"m working hard to ensure I can enjoy what is left of my "old age"
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  brokethechain

  Sometimes I wonder how the JWs deal with growing old. Do they really actually keep believing that the end is right around the corner, or do they just accept that the GB doesn't have a clue, but that the end will still come... eventually?

  I remember spotting my first sign of aging and getting that sinking feeling that it had all been one big fairytale....
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  Berengaria

  Hey Sour, do you ever get to the end of a long day, just lusting for that soft bed with the cushy pillows and the complete freedom to sink in to self indulgant sleep? Knowing it's the weekend and you don't have to get up to an alarm? That's how death will be.
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  wasblind

  Genesis 3:4 " The serpent said to the woman: " You positivley will not die"

  And the WTBS said to it's followers " Millions now living will never die "