Did you ever have a discussion with an apostate that helped your journey out.

by jwfacts 51 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  jwfacts

  There seems to be a number of different ways that apostates try to get Jehovah's Witnesses realise they do not have the truth, ranging from subtle comments to aggressive attacks. Do you have any that looking back helped you finally leave.

  Some of the methods include:

  • Picketing conventions
  • Ads in newspapers and on billboards
  • ExJW's on the radio and TV
  • ExJW's approaching carts
  • Conversations or emails with an old exJW friend
  • Conversations when JWs come to the door of an exJW
  • ExJW's going up to JWs whilst they are at a door in the territory
  • Kingdom Hall talks where the speaker uses it as the disassociation talk
  • ExJW's answering at a meeting
    
  • ExJW's causing a scene at a Kingdom Hall
  • ExJW's hiding their previous association when speaking with JWs
  • ExJW's hosting websites and posting on forums

  Whilst I am not a fan of the more aggressive approaches, I accept that different things work for different people, and am interested what may have had an affect on people here that have left. Did convention pickets or conversations help you, or some of the other scenarios, or did you make you mind up to leave prior to becoming aware of any "apostate" information?

  I was approached once at the age of about 16 when I was street witnessing and had an interesting talk about Crisis of Conscience. The person raised how Watchtower made a profit from selling publications. That always stuck with me even though it did cause me to leave.

  Another time an exJW came up to a person's door whilst I was doing my presentation to tell the householder that I was part of a cult. Quite confusing for both me and the householder, and I quickly left. I'm not sure that had any affect, except make me realise apostates have a lot of anger.

  A non-JW householder once told me a lot about the early history of Watchtower, which did have quite an affect on me, though my parents told me it was lies and I never looked into it further.

  Looking back, none of those experiences prompted me to leave, but they did remain with me and made me understand that people do have intelligent reasons for not believing it was the truth. That seed of doubt always remained.

  Some conversations that had the most affect were with believers that raised their own internal doubts, even though they were not trying to affect my faith.
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  TTaTT4U

  No EXJW helped me in person waking up. Awake for 5 years .

  JWfacts.com helped me . Also activists on YouTube , especially

  JWstruggle and AnonDude2 Ethan Hatcher
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  Chook

  This forum sealed it for me ,Terry and Farkel writings helped heaps ,you naughty apostates lead me astray.
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  Rainbow_Troll

  I never spoke with an apostate before leaving, but I did have some interesting discussions with evangelical Christians as a teen; some of whom knew more about the Bible and "Jehovah's Organization" than I did.

  I remember one day a guy with a KJ Bible accosted me on my way out of the market and asked point blank if I was a Christian. It would have been so simple to just answer in the affirmative, but, troll that I was even at that tender age, I instead said I was a JW. I still remember the expression on his face. Next he asked me who I thought Jesus was. I replied that he's Jehovah's son. Then he breaks out his Bible...

  Midway through his sermon my mom comes along: "What are you doing with my son?!" She exclaims as if she caught us both with our pants down; though of course she had seen his Bible and knew the answer to that. While they start debating over the trinity, I stand by and enjoy the show. I don't think my mom was prepared for this guy. She was expecting John 1:1, but the evangelical had a few more scriptures up his sleeve.

  Eventually, my mom retreated into her car and urged me to get in the other side. "You people will say anything to deny Christ!" the guy yelled as my mom rolled up the window and started the engine. I don't think she could have been more anxious to leave if our new friend had been wielding a chainsaw instead of a Bible.
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  jookbeard

  I was directed to a local apostate who supplied we with a lot of reading material which I was very grateful for, plenty of books and back editions of Comments From the Friends and Free Minds, we'd speak very regularly although we never really had any common religious standpoint, we was a member of a Bible Student group, I hear he is now a Mormon, we did't keep in contact though but I'm eternally grateful to him for his vast resource collection, my mind was 99% made up when I began my fade and I'd never spoke to anyone.
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  pale.emperor

  For me it was JWs themselves. I got sick and tired of having to report myself to the elders, watching my back, hiding mundane things from my family and friends that were no big deal. I could see a lot of hypocrisy and i wanted no part of it.

  Then it was JWFacts and this website.

  Crises of Conscience just sealed the deal. There was no going back after that.
  
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  tepidpoultry

  I went through 1975 and decided to listen to their "explanations" and continued to buy into God's Kingdom (meaning the Kingdom of JWs) as mankind's only hope,

  Everyone was terribly sure the end was coming before all the old folks died,

  To better answer your question: in 1977 I was reading about JWs in the Encyclopedia Brittanica about Russell and Pyramidology!

  At this point I started to raise a family and didn't want to make my "doubts" known and maybe "stumble" them so,

  I kept my thoughts to myself,

  What floored me was the 1995 shelving of the generation end time (weasels!!)

  What I also couldn't get was how everything went on business as usual,

  I wanted out at this point but I couldn't figure out how,

  Over time my circumstances changed,

  I told my wife I did not believe this religion,

  I stopped dead,

  I spent many many hours reading, sneaking CofC at the library,

  Many more hours daily at Starbucks,

  Your site was most helpful Paul,

  A lot of pieces fell into place once I allowed myself to read EVERYTHING,

  There was no one to talk to I did this on my own,

  Everthing is out there today but most won't look because they're scared,

  They fear Armageddon loss of Everlasting LifeTM,

  They, in most cases believe that they exclusively have the "truth"

  These are not rational concepts which makes them so hard to break,

  In any event, in some cases such as mine, they'll realize that they do have a mind that they can use, that they don't need the 'sons' of Pyramidologists telling them what to do! Lol

  The Truth is out there!

  Tepidpoultry

  :0)
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  jwfacts

  Thanks for the replies.

  Interesting that in each case it was not being approached by apostates. Rather there were doubts to start with, and the stealth research.

  Rainbow_Troll - Midway through his sermon my mom comes along: "What are you doing with my son?!"

  Interesting how if a person approaches a teenager to discuss the Bible, a JW gets all concerned, yet think there is nothing wrong with going uninvited to strangers houses and speaking about their beliefs.
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  LoveUniHateExams

  Did you ever have a discussion with an apostate that helped your journey out - no but I read lots of what 'apostates' have to say. I read your excellent site, JWFacts, I read lots of threads on this forum before I joined.

  I also had one or two conversations with fully-in JWs who had visited me after I faded. This also helped me make up my mind.
  

  Apostate 'lies' actually turned out to be well-thought out arguments based on evidence, with a focus being put on critical analysis and higher education. Who'da thunk it?
  
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  carla

  Was it David Reed (name correct?) that was at a convention and some apostates had signs that said, "Read the Bible not the watchtower" and he and his wife thought they had a point and the rest is history! Once they actually read the Bible they could no longer be jw's. (I think that's how the story went)