Hello Everyone

by Mozzie 20 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  FreeGirl2006

  It is heartbreaking to realize the religion you devoted your life to is a facade and that cherished beliefs are false. It takes time to come to terms with the reality of JWs. People have to find their own destination whether it is agnostic/atheist, another religion, or just being a spiritual person (this means different things to different people).

  Why sacrifice your family on the JW altar of falsehood? Truly if there is a god (and I don't know that there is), would that type of sacrifice make a loving god happy?

  You are on a journey and you should research and explore. Read books on many subjects related to religion for and against. Open your mind to the possibility that this life is all the gift we have and we should make the most of it. Life apart from religion can be rich, loving, fulfilling. It is what you make of it and you don't need an old book (Bible, Koran, etc) to be your guidebook. You don't need to attend a Kingdom Hall or Church for your life to have meaning. You may want those things and if that is the case, there are religions that are less harmful than JWs.

  Another important consideration--what does your partner say? Sounds like she has no use for the JWs. She is right about it being misogynistic and add to that I am sure she would not want her children exposed to the lack of love for children through their nonexistent child abuse policies and blood doctrine.

  Just remember you are not alone. Pioneers into the truth about the "Truth" are on this forum and other websites--they paved the way for us to look behind the curtain to see the man who made himself a wizard. We all can empathize with your pain because we have been in your shoes to one degree or another. Some are still in pain and bitter, some have found the resources they needed to adapt to a happy, adjusted life on the outside. We can share our thoughts, suggestions, experiences, love or lack of love for bible/religion, but at the end of the day you have to decide what is best for you and your family. What is right for me may not be right for you.

  Just breathe, relax and take your time. Armageddon is not right around the corner.
• 

  Mozzie

  Thank you all for the kind advice, it all has been taken in. A lot of the times i talk to this pioneer, he talks about getting baptized later down the track, but just a note i am not looking to read books for self pity i have been reading a lot of books to help me see what the WT hasn't shown me in their articles.

  I have started to study the scriptures more and more only because i am seeing that what the GB are saying isn't all that correct in their interpretations which started me wondering.

  But yes i m with you on listening more to what Jesus said as before and now he is hardly mentioned in any of the publications as the way of salvation and is more directed to the big O.

  I am happy to be here and i am sure by reading threads on here i will be learning more new light so to speak.
  
• 

  FayeDunaway

  Mozzie, I am an ex JW who now goes to a liberal protestant church. Stop letting the high control group Jehovah's witnesses make you feel guilty. They don't really have anything to offer, they just always make you feel like you are not enough, and they take take take. 20 faithful years with your partner IS a marriage. I wish your mate would come around because there are financial and security benefits to being legal, but dont feel guilty if she doesn't. You are not living in sin if you have been faithful 20 years!! If I were you I would try other churches. Most will not love bomb you like a cult will but don't let that put you off. Get involved with some of their community efforts such as helping the poor and you will feel a part of their family quickly. And yes, keep reading the Bible from different perspectives, try getting a reference bible. This will help you read scriptures without the twists witnesses give to them, but with a different view. Drop the guilt and just be a happy father and husband and try to help others. You are a good man!!!
• 

  JWdaughter

  • I am not an atheist. I read Bart Ehrman and Reza Aslan and Christian writers and Jewish and Muslim thinkers. I don't think it is disloyal to God to 1. read them or 2. Call them BS when that's what it is. I can agree and disagree with them on many different points based on the information and their reasoning about it-and I do!
  • The Watchtower organization, Jehovah's Witnesses are not allowed to READ anything that opposes THE ORGANIZATION.(notice, I didn't say Jehovah God, or God,most are not leaving the borg ranting about God-their gripe is with the org) That can be directly or otherwise-just not agreeing with them is opposing them.

  Jehovah's Witnesses are not allowed to QUESTION (openly or to any JW but an elder which will land them in a JC if they persist) ANY of the WT teachings. Now, maybe you can question the validity of the Bible to them and they will just try to "reason" with you, but question the WT LEADERSHIP??? THAT IS APOSTACY!!! You can call Ehrman or Aslan or Osteen or billy graham sloppy scholars TO THEIR FACE, or that they make ridiculous arguments or are just plain wrong or say how you disagree with their conclusions and NONE of them are going to have you exiled from their company/friends/family.None are going to declare you a mentally diseased person with a poor heart condition. Every last one of them would enjoy having the discussion over a cup of coffee and a peace of pie, so long as you are not coming off as a threat to them physically. The WT and JWs are a cult that despises and actually forbids independent thinking.They won't sit down at a table with anyone who disagrees with them.

  • You have a strong family and are with a strong partner. Twenty years is for all intents and purposes a marriage as we think of it and how your family functions-without, presumably, stereotypical roles being required. Adam and Eve didn't have a ceremony, they just landed in Eden together for all we know. But they stayed, they built a (disfunctional, but STILL) family of their own. That is what your partnership is-you built a family together and THAT is what its about, so don't let anyone put you down because of a label or piece of paper.
  • DO put your legal affairs in order so that your partner and children are protected. You and your partner should do that.
  • I'd keep asking the pioneer hard questions until they chicken out and end the study. Don't go to the meetings. They don't have "the truth". It is a manipulative, high control religion and you have let it make you feel bad about yourself for TOO long.
• 

  LisaRose

  Mozzie,

  Welcome! I am sorry you are so stressed out by all of this right now. First of all, take a deep breath and relax. The Watchtower has been saying Armageddon is coming for over a hundred years now. They originally thought Armageddon was going to be in 1897, then 1914, 1935, 1975. They have a 100% failure rate in date predictions, so why believe them now?

  The world is not as horrible as they paint it, in fact there has never been a better time to be alive. You have a better chance of living a long healthy life than you have ever had. So don't panic, OK?

  You only keep thinking about this religion because of your early experience with it, it's not based on logic, it's based on the mind control techniques they used. They use fear, obligation and guilt to control people, that is why you have a hard time letting go of it. The more logical part of your brain tells you that an organization that does the things they do could not be approved by God. Do you think God want you to make decisions based on fear, or decisions based on truth and logic? Investigate the religion some more and trust yourself to make the right decisions. Look at JWfacts.com for the truth about "the truth".

  You obviously have a good heart, you know it would be wrong to leave your family, so trust that. After twenty years I am sure in your heart you are married, so who cares that you don't have a piece of paper? Your wife sounds like a really good woman, so why would you hurt her by leaving? No religion is good if it tells you to do something that would hurt others, and leaving would hurt your family.

  Don't jump into anything, take the time you need to make the right decisions.

  Lisa🌹

  
  
• 

  cha ching

  Hi Mozzie, welcome!

  I guess I will put my 2 cents in also... I was raised in this religion, never thought it was a cult, because there weren't "four walls keeping me in" and then, after 50+ years I saw them for who they were.

  Our family has seen the things WT does in court cases, the way they change the words to keep the upper hand, and how numbers have always been a part of the game.... numerologists is what they have been... changing the numbers to keep you playing their game, right?

  607 BCE was it for us. When the 2011 WT articles were written about 607, and we looked up all references (finally they actually had page numbers, titles, authors, etc) and read that tiny little caveat footnote (November 1, 2011 page 24 in tiny print) that said,

  "Business tablets exist for all the years traditionally attributed to the Neo-Babylonian kings. When the years that these kings ruled are totaled, and a calculation is made back from the last Neo-Babylonian king, Naabonidus, the date reached for the destruction of Jerusalem is 587 BCE"

  that was it for us!
  

  These business tablets always start with "In the eight month of King So and so, when the moon is here, venus is there..."

  These two articles, October 1, 2011 and November 1, 2011 spend a lot of time asking questions, raising doubts, conjecturing, but when it all boils down to it, there IS evidence out of their own mouths that 607 is not the date. If 607is wrong, 1914 is wrong, and in turn 1919 "when the slave was appointed" is wrong.

  The WT is very good at magician like tactics: wave your hands, twirl the scarves, play the music (make charts, graphs, show pictures, underline words)..... "maybe they won't see what we are doing."

  Why do you think they make these WT articles so long and mind numbing? Why does your head hurt if you try to understand?

  They are word magicians, "now you see it, now you don't!"

  Do not fall for their tactics, see behind the mirror, be free!

  cha ching!
  
• 

  smiddy

  Mozzie , ask yourself these questions . If God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son....etc.etc. John 3:16

  Why did Jesus only speak to the Jewish people ? His ministry , starting at 30 years of age mind you was only to Jews.

  What was the Son of God doing for the first 29 years of his life ?

  He certainly wasn`t concerned about the religious or otherwise state of mankind. ( nothing to worry about here )

  { Jehovah`s Witness children are taken door to door in strollers before they can even walk and are expected to continue going D2D when they can walk and talk giving a witness }

  Jesus Christ obviously didn`t think he had anything worthy to say to the rest of mankind for future prosperity simply because he never recorded anything down himself.

  At least Moses supposedly wrote the first five books of the Bible , Jesus ? None , Zilch ,.

  Doesn`t that make us wonder ?
• 

  Mozzie

  Yeah i have often and still do think about these things, i am convinced they do not have the truth, i have been looking deep into their history,, looking up their translations, Hebrew and Greek and how they change everything, so as for as i am concerned, i am free from them now, i can spend my time looking at other thing rather than worry about the crap they told me.
  
• 

  nugget

  This religion is demanding a huge amount from you. You have to ask if they have the right to make these demands. You have seen the evidence which suggests that they are not perfect and their doctrine is based on their own interpretation of scripture rather than anything divine. You would be a selfish fool to abandon your relationship and break up your family based on their instructions.

  This is not a religion that will bring anything positive to your family as it drives a wedge between believers and unbelievers. They are masters at distancing people from family members who may disagree with their point of view. They do break up families and then deny that this happens. Your partner and children deserve better from you. Rather than searching for spiritual fulfilment outside try investing the same amount of time in your relationships they have been loyal to you it is time you stopped focusing on yourself. How is this studying affecting those around you?

  Just because JWs called on your house it doesn't mean they were sent by god. Everyone gets called on, everyone is on a map. In truth the postman called on you more frequently are you sure he wasn't the messenger from god.

  Don't waste any more time on this religion.

  
  
• 

  redpilltwice

  Welcome Mozzie,

  what a story, good to let off some steam!

  Your wrote:
  

  i believe in God, Jesus and the Bible
  

  Why not leave it that way? I respect your religious feelings, but don't let organised religion, which is about power, money and indoctrination, become a millstone around your neck and dictate your life. There is no proof the last days started in 1914 (see jwfacts.com and ad1914.com), but if you still believe in some judgement/the big A etc., just wait for God himself to send a true prophet or prophets who will never, ever have to use such constant flow of unfathomable new light that contradicts the old light and even the bible.

  That pioneer probably thinks he has all the answers, but he probably will not be prepared for someone that dares to question the answers. Give him hell!