by sandy 46 Replies latest watchtower bible
Re...Prayer. It can help to focus your mind....akin to meditation etc. I would say you did not receive any divine help there. Thats not say 'prayer' does no good! As I said, it can help..........as could other things!
Re leaving 'Jehovah's True Organisation'.........you did. But so what!? J'ehovah' and 'Jehovah's True Organisation' are all man made!
ISP
Sandy, it is wonderful watching you grow and question and learn on your own. Continue on the path you have started. I see God everywhere in the beauty of my world and the kindness of ordinary people.
And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams: Act 2:17 ASV
@#$% a society that would tell you that apart from them, you cannot know Him. Oops. I can't believe I just swore. Don't tell, OK?
Farkel, I am with you, I know what you mean. I appreciate your honesty and use of the freedom of speech and thought, something not allowed inside the WTS.
christopherceo
dear sandy,
i feel for you so much. i totally understand your doubts and confusion, questions and fears. i wish we could just sit down together and talk. after 9ll i was so much also in the place you describe. i wondered if i had made a mistake and turned my back on god so many years before. i wondered if i started to look again for the truth, whether i would have to go back to the kh, sit in silence with no one talking to me, be ashamed, and grovel to get back in their good graces. the doubts were so nagging and troubling.
then one night i told god i was looking for him, and if he were really there, why not come and find me. literally within minutes, and totally out of the blue, someone gave me the book, "mere christianity" by c.s.lewis. reading this was just the start, but it definitely was a start and it made a compelling case for the existence of God and of the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ. it was only much later when i looked back on it that i realized my prayer had been answered (i can be a bit dense at times).
in the beginning of my search i had really forgotten how to pray. my prayers seemed forced and not quite sincere to me, as though i was praying what i thought sounded right (sort of like the prayers heard at kh). so what i did was i just kept praying the Lord's prayer over and over - sometimes dozens of times in a row. as i started to study on my own i always prayed for guidance, clarity and understanding of what i was reading, and always for direction.
i had really come to doubt the existence of god and had to go back to basics, but didn't really know where to go. one night as i was driving, radio surfing, i stumbled across hank hanigraff, the bible answer man. in tristate area he is on wmca, 570am, 6-7pm, also runs the christian research inst. he had on ralph muncaster who wrote "a skeptic's search for god". i got this book, read it, and when i was finished i knew that God does indeed exist. on the net www.equip.org.
i can only tell you my own story. i kept praying and asking, searching, seeking, knocking. there were many times when issues got muddy and i got confused, but i did not give up. some of the books that helped me were:
"answering jehovah's witnesses subject by subject" - david reed; "crisis of conscience" - raymond franz; "approaching jehovah's witnesses in love" - wilbur lingle; "the orwellian world of jehovah's witnesses" - heather and gary botting; "witnessing to the witnesses" - jerry and marion bodine
i also simultaneously began going around to various churches, dismissing all (lutheran, methodist, quakers, spiritualist, salvation army, catholic, etc etc until i found a small church loosely affiliated with presbyterian, but what attracted me to it and what kept me there was that they studied the bible. (i also found out then that jw propaganda that they are the only ones who read the bible is totally false). this church has probably a dozen bible studies throughout the week and you can attend any or all or none. but once i started i found that i was being fed by this, it was real food and i accepted it hungrily. many of my questions have been resolved at these studies as i discovered that jws had taken many of the scriptures they use to prove various points out of context. i dont consider myself to be presbyterian, i consider myself now to be "christian". the more time went on the more intimate i became with the Lord and his infinite and boundless love and mercy, through prayer, through study, through learning to trust Him (psalm ll8:8) and through, i am sure, the working of the Holy Spirit.
a couple of booklets that i recently received were, "does god work through an organization", and "where is the body of Christ", both by tom cabeen (a former bethelite elder). you can write to tom cabeen, l new haven ave., ste. l3, milford, ct 06460-3398. this can help to readjust the thinking that we must affiliate with a particular organization.
you did not turn your back on god or his organization when you left jws. trust me on this, but do more. do the work yourself, do the study, pray, put in the time. it doesn't happen by magic. you must do your part. but know that our Father truly is there to help and He WILL answer you.
"ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. for everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? if you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"
sandy, He's not going to give you a stone or a snake. go to Him. trust Him.
my very best to you, nowisee
Hi sandy,
"Did I turn my back on God and am I wrong for turning my back on the Organization?"
I think there are many people with this question when they first separate from the WTS.
My answer is NO.
You are not wrong for turning your back on the Orginization because the Orginization has proven beyond a doubt that they are not Gods spokesmen.
They have proven by their fruitage what kind of Orginization they are.
The WTS is blood guilty due to people dying following their teachings.
The WTS is bloodguilty for setting dates and people giving up their lives because of this.
The WTS is proving itself to be nothing more than a book publishing company that is using GOD to enslave their followers into performing free labor.
Pure and simple.
The WTS has proven beyond a doubt that they are nothing more than a cult like so many others out there.
Why else do you think they don't want their followers to find out the TRUTH about the'truth'?
neyank
The very fact you are aware enough to even ask these types of thought provoking questions is a good sign. I am not comfortable using Gods name like a good luck charm as the J-duds do. For years I had a hard time reconciling the actions of the J-dud masters and the God they claimed to represent. You will get more honest hearted people here than in all of dudland! Only you can build a relationship with the True God. We, collectively can help with the WT deprogramming and when your heart is clear so will your mind. Then you will 'know' what you need to about who or what God is. May you have peace, Maverick
Dear Sandy,
But part of me just doesn't want to let go for fear that they really are God's people.
I do sympathise . The mindset of the Org is so strongly entrenched that it can seem impossible to think of looking elsewhere for enlightenment. Personally, I have never doubted the falsehood of the "Truth" since the penney dropped for me one day, and in a moment of clear thinking ,"Its just not true" went through my mind.
That does not stop the tremendous pull that it all has , particularly when in the company of witness family and they talk of such things, I find it quite easy to get back into J W mode of thinking . Frankly there are times when I would like to have the association, the activity and the purpose of it all. But I know now, Its just not true, I could not do it .
Fear is no way to cultivate a relationship that needs to be one of love. Could you love a concept of God that plans to slaughter the better part of six thousand million people ? I could not.
Now that you know so much more , could you go back to offering magazines that teach utter rubbish ? I could not
Now that you know better , could you go back to a group study and comment about the prophecies that supposedly referred to this one organisation in 1918, or 1919? I could not
I guess it would be nice to believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy , but we know better now, and so we cannot believe in them
In your heart you know that they do not have real truth. Perhaps, as Fox Mulder said "The truth is out there" . Keep looking . You and I have exhausted one source , let's look elsewhere now - and have fun on the journey.
Sandy
If YOU feel that God was answering your prayers and *comforting*you
when you were crying out to him then he WAS and dont let anyone put*doubts* in your
mind that he was not!.
You were *alone* in a room.
There were no other people with you.
No one was holding you or talking to you.
God WAS comforting you which goes to show that you do NOT
have to be in the organization for God to listen to your prayers
and help you.
I,ve had that same *unexplained* *omi-present feeling come over me
when I was crying and at witts end and I KNOW that he was with me and no one could tell me
otherwise!
I just had to get that off my chest.
God was with you.
All the best!
OK lots of people are saying here that god answered their prayers. BUT what about the people that pray fervantly to god and the next minute Jehovahs Witnesses knock on the door and so they accept a study???? Hmmm what about that....
Thank you again everyone! All of you are so kind and thoughtfull for sharing your beliefs and experiences to help comfort me.
Blackout said:
OK lots of people are saying here that god answered their prayers. BUT what about the people that pray fervantly to god and the next minute Jehovahs Witnesses knock on the door and so they accept a study???? Hmmm what about that....
I think about this very often Blackout. All those times we heard "true life experiences" at conventions and meetings. What is that all about?
Any thoughts?
I AM STARTED TO BELIEVE THIS MORE AND MORE EACH DAY.The WTS is proving itself to be nothing more than a book publishing company that is using GOD to enslave their followers into performing free labor.
