That God controlled things by a group of men.
What first gave you doubts ?
by rick1199 63 Replies latest jw experiences
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LittleToe
After decades in, and spending years as an Elder, it was finally the bible itself that caused me to doubt.
I looked at the 144k / heaven thing with fresh eyes.
The final straw was in reading John 20:28. -
Undaunted Danny
The cataclysm of the imploding 1914 generations supernova. Im 3rd generation JW going back to the....zeal of the "Truth" book crusades of the late 1960's.My uncles my dad and my grand-dads all were devout disciples of the Watchtower. They use to quote Jesus:["Matthew 24:35
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. ] My 'elders' would make attribution of Jesus solemn oath to the 1914 'profitcy'.When it turned out that the 1914 anachronism was a mutation of the William Miller movement,and a demonic lie. That clinched it for me! It took 5 years to accept and resolve in my heart that they are a man made false,'fraud in the name of God' ripoff religious racket. My exit date was January 5th 1992 I'm still rebuilding. Q: After a lifetime of Jehovah's Witness, how did you move beyond those teachings? A: I figured out that their teachings were just so much, convoluted cult trappings. The thing that really save me was this: When you get disengaged from a cult, you're brainwashed that you're doomed. They brainwashed me that I was like Judas Iscariot - Judas betrayed his master, and now there's only one thing for you to do and that's to go off and hang yourself. For three years I was so shackled and chained to them I was afraid to tell the mental health people why I was depressed and suicidal. Then I looked up a cult support group, and I walked into the meeting and there were all these ex-Jehovah's Witnesses, ex-Scientologists, ex-Moonies, and I realized I identified with them. We're all cut from the same cloth, all come from the same pedigree. And it opened up my eyes. You can't attack any cult because they're brainwashed to not listen to anything negative. Jehovah's Witnesses will take all the bashing they can hear about Moonies and Scientologists because "Oh, they're a cult" - but then when you think about their fundamental dynamics and how they operate, you realize Jehovah's Witnesses are just like that............ -
Freedom Fighter
One of the first things that always disturbed me was the way one particular woman was treated at the KH. I was a young child at the time and couldn't understand why no -one spoke to this lady at the hall. I didn't realise that she had been disfellowshipped and part of her so called upstanding Christian family ignored her. Despite this treatment she still attended meetings without fail. Her terrible crime? She couldn't quit smoking!
The hypocrisy regarding materialism was also a major factor. There were quite a few brothers who owned their own businesses and they could drive around in flash cars and live in big houses without reproach, whilst FF the pleb was frowned upon for expressing a desire to get a university education. New brothers who had money quickly accelerated through the ranks even though they had not been JWs for very long.
Finally, the poor repressed teenagers! Nearly all the JW teens that I knew were desperate to drink, get laid and behave like normal kids instead of being placed in the JW moral strait jacket. They had one face for the KH and another for the outside world. So much hypocrisy, gossipping and back biting. All the pieces in the jig saw all began to fit and I am so glad I fitted them together fairly quickly!