BEFORE YOU LEFT...... (page 2)

An interesting thread. The thing that first made me doubt the org. was when I read a book on volcanoes and earthquakes and to my surprise I found out that there has been a decrease in earthquakes since 1960, with the 60s, 70s and 80s having an unusually low number of major earthquakes around the world. This to me did not fit in with the teaching of the last days and there being an increase in the number of quakes.

The second thing was when I was reading a world history book and I looked up the date of the destruction of Jerusalem and found out that it said 587 and not 607 as the society teaches. I thought that the history book was in error and so I looked it up in every encyclopedia that I could find in my library and they all agreed with 587. I seriously questioned the society on this when I asked the visiting CO why there was a discrepancy in the dates and all he could say was that at least 'our' date was not later than 587 or we would all be in real trouble (as he laughed!) He offered no explanation whatsoever and when I found out that the evidence for 587 is overwhelming even from the scriptures the society for me had lost its credibility, its power over me was severely dented.

It still took me years to leave but the final straw was realising that they do not rely on Christs free gift but instead teach that you earn your salvation. This is exactly what the Pharisees taught and therefore were so berated by Christ. The new CO was very forceful in teaching this, saying that unless you did more hours you would not be saved, he gave several talks on this theme, hammering the congregation. He was the final straw for me, I left. Even when I left I still was worried that they might just be right but now, after having spent the last year studying the scriptures for myself, I realise just how wrong they were about almost everything.

I would advise anybody who doubts the society, but still thinks that they might just have some bible knowledge that other religious groups do not possess, to go along to a Christian book store and pick up some books, i.e bible commentaries, and see for themselves that there are truths in the bible that the JWs haven't seen and will never see.

I find now that I feel sorry for witnesses whom I see as spiritually blind and know how shocked they would feel if they went into a Christian book store and picked up a book on prophecy, opened it and saw a picture of the statue depicted in Daniel with the same world powers shown as they have found in the Watchtower publications. Like them I used to think that this understanding of Daniel was unique to the society and therefore they had the truth. We were led to believe that other religions had no understanding of Daniel whereas now I find that their understanding is far greater than the societies.

Carmel

Well not the most important issue, but I recall as a wee lad being told that saluting the flag was worshiping the cloth. I knew that all my worldly acquaintences didn't believe the flag actually had supernatural powers so it kind of gnawed at me that I was told this was the case. I recall asking why this was taught when it was intuitively incorrect and confirmed by those I had asked about it. Boy did I get scolded...

Again, not a big issue, but one more chink in the amor that eventually brought the whole thing to a head.

carmel

Matty

BEFORE YOU LEFT......

Well, I haven't left yet, but give me time.

The first doubt I had as a child was looking at the bible, particularly the Hebrew Scriptures and how brutal it was. Jehovah was supposed to be a loving God, why does he get his kicks doing so much killing? When the "My Book of Horror Stories" came out, I read it from cover to cover in about a week, and it kinda made me scared of God - he was a bit like a larger, more powerful version of my dad, with an equally bad temper. I just got used to the fact that brutality was acceptable to God. If I was naughty, it was quite right that my dad should beat me, that's God's way. As I got older, my resentment grew. Now I am really pissed off with God, for making my life so miserable while I was growing up.

Backlash

Some of the things already mentioned were problems for me too. The 1914 generation thing was driven into the ground. I grew to hate even the reference. Another big problem I had was having a mindset that influenced my every thought, especially in a crowd: Walking into a store or mall and thinking "everyone in here will soon be dead...everyone but me." I despised that mentality. The clincher for me involved the resurrection of Christ. The WT teaches that only Jesus' spirit was raised, and that his fleshly body disintegrated into fumes or gases. That teaching is a direct contradiction of scripture. I chose to believe scripture.

LB

I think the things that bothered me were how they had an answer to everything. Of course the answers kept changing yet they were as certain about the new light as the old light.

But for me the thing I liked the least was the thought that my parents were actually dead in a grave. No soul to move on. That just seemed so bleak.

Never Squat With Yer Spurs On

TheRedPill

Two things gave me a lot of trouble...The first was the 144,000 teaching. It struck me as odd that everything else in the scriptures around the "supporting" verses was figurative, and yet the number was literal. I also couldn't find the asterisk to indicate the exception to the rule the those who put faith in Christ would be his "brothers." I assume there is an asterisk since only the 144,000 are his brothers. (sigh)
The second thing was more personal. I found abuse of power by some of the elders in every congregation I went to. I wondered how abusive men were "appointed by holy spirit." Doubting their authority on a local level led to doubting the GB's authority on every level.

In_between_days

Thanks so much everyone for your replys, they are very helpful to me.

I also had a problem with the 144,000, I discussed this recently with a JW and they had absloutely no way to explain why the scriptures said that the ones were "Virgins, undefiled by women".

Does anyone actually have a theory about what this scripture actually means? Perhaps we are not supposed to know, it is quite cryptic, I really would'nt try to dissect it at all, if I were a JW.Their interpretaion is too easily refuted, dont you think?

Simon and a few others stated that they did not agree with the dinosaur theory, forgive my ignorance but I forget totally what JW's used to say about the dinosaurs, can someone fill me in?

Thanks

gumby

I'll let someone else do the dinosour one.

I had doubts about Elders and servants being appointed by Holy Spirit when many that were appointed, were later deleted because of some 'secret problem" they had, was found out about.

The question was......how were they appointed by 'Holy Spirit'?

LDH

Mine had NOTHING to do with doctrinal issues.

I was a true blue believer. If they'd told me the earth was square, I would've believed it.

The thing that got me was how *stupid* most JW are, and how the religion encourages stupidity.

I mean, the last meeting I went to in Fresno was a some dumb-ass giving the talk saying, "It's ok if you don't have an RV (Recreational Vehicle/Winnebago) in this system! Let the worldly people have their fun now. We will be driving their RVs around in the New System."

I walked out.

It was only after I stumbled on Witnet I found discrepancies like 607 vs. 587, etc.

Lisa