by Beth Sarim 31 Replies latest jw experiences
''After seeing the contradictions in the bible and Jwism and years of their bullshit. I came to the conclusion that Gee-hovah is not real and that Watchtower is nothing more then a real estate business that hided as a religion.''
That's what it all boils down to in the end. Almost sickening.
wt inc itself. the doctrines , starting with the 'Superior Authority' debacle, Their wt appointed "elders" , many very good caricatures of what it means to be "Christian"
jehovah did..when i stopped believing in it.
I was watching some videos by a bible scholar named Michael Heiser about Jesus in the Old Testament.
I didn’t know throughout the Old Testament the phrase “ the word of the lord appeared “. Kind of a physical manifestation of god.
“ in the beginning was the word “.
“ my one has ever seen god only the son”.
tetragramation being quoted applies to Christ .
It appears Jesus was jehovah of the Old Testament and or jehovah was more than one thing or Jesus become the equal of calling on the name of god.
Who knows. All I know for sure Is WTS theology requires ignoring what is happening in the Old Testament and editing the New Testament.
It just occurred to me how ridiculously uneducated it all was.
I also read the book of romans and acts chapter by chapter first in an NIV and then in the NWT and realized they basically created a new religion.
Especially Romans, there is basically no understanding of the basic Christian message.
I was a Ministerial servant giving public talks and all. I would use the watchtower library often since I wanted to make my talks interesting. My younger brother who had just been appointed as a Ministerial Servant very badly wanted to follow in my steps and asked how he could make his Theocratic Ministry School and Service meeting talks interesting too. I directed him to the Watchtower Library. One day he gave what was a very well researched talk. After the meetings the elders called him aside, they were giving him counsel him and he looked confused. One of the elders saw me and called me, and his exact words were; "You should have advised your brother here that when preparing for a talk using the WL he should use the current material and not the old stuff since there has been a lot of new light in the years". That evening I started researching on the New light datin back to the very beginning of the organization. To cut a long story short, my doubts increased, I found myself asking elders questions, one of them said the questions sounded like apostate questions and when I refered him to the WL he said that was an old light(sic). I decided to fade away. I culdn't keep up with the new light and old lights.
welcome to the site Moran.
Well spotted Moran ! "new light" and "old light" is total rubbish.
I bet those pompous Elders would be aghast to read what Charles Taze Russell said about it ! he said that there is NO SUCH THING as Old Light, he said that if a new understanding of Scripture totally wipes out a teaching, then it NEVER WAS light !
But of course, now you could be DF'd for teaching the "old light", and probably for teaching what later becomes " New light". Preposterous !
I strode a similar path to you, Min. Serv. giving public Talks, in other Congregations too, popular because those Talks were interesting, due to research, in my case, research quite often out side the W.T library, naughty boy wasn't I ? and eventually I decided the Governing Body and the Writing Committee did not have a CLUE about the Bible !!
A few different sources combined. A work colleague told me something he thought the JWs believed that sounded nuts, so I looked it up to prove him wrong, and of course he was right.
Other things like animals being vegetarian and learning to kill from man when some are perfectly adapted killing machines and would never see a human being kill anyone (living remote or under water for instance) made me question things.
Ultimately, the elders response to questioning was the final convincer - they didn't have answers, only threats not to ask questions.
Sites like freeminds and others were useful sources of information once I'd started questioning things and looking for what was wrong, and of course books like Crisis of Conscience and just general learning about history and the many myths and fanciful stories in the bible itself and the practicality / stupidity of some of the stories (Noah, Sampson, Jonah et al)
Oh, and I didn't want my children to have the upbringing I had.
A lot. This website ( thanks Simon! ) then called jw.net. On the JW Wikipedia page there used to be live references to a few chapters in Ray Franz's books which I then purchased and downloaded. JW Facts. The references proving the Society had copied pictures from booze adverts and even Christendom's books https://www.watchtowerlies.com/plagiarism_by_the_watchtower.html . The Atheist's Book of Bible Stories.
https://www.box.com/shared/uclytd91jd
But really above all it was the Society with its numerous flip flops , a particular Kingdom Ministry article in 2007 ( approx ) that told JWs not to research Hebrew & Greek and the rampant hypocrisy and nepotism that I observed in the Organisation that killed it for me.
