by Shamms 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
The question to ask is:
If a bible study becomes a JW from another religion, will their family shun them?
If a JW wants to be another religion will their family shun them?
Also, people should look into the past history of their teachings indepth and compare to current. (newcomers always have the energy for this) Have them make an observation about differences in new ones and those who have been around for years.
The problem 1914 is they will say yes. THey will cite all those jws in asia, middle east, and africa that are beaten or tourtured by their families for changing to jws. And all the people at their hall whos family disowned them for become jws.
Aaron...I do indeed understand and thankyou for those words. I know that I should be understanding and non-confrontational.....but I feel like the more I wait the worse it'll become, until there's no helping her. It's like we can't even discuss religion anymore without her having this smug expression on her face like she's got it and I don't. And I'm like...."do you hear the crazy things you're saying??" It's frustrating....I guess what I need is a place where people understand my issue and allow me to vent.
Shamms.
Greetings Shamms,
I can understand how you feel and I can understand you feel you need a place to vent. It can be very frustrating to the flesh to watch someone you love being misled and you feel powerless to do anything. Please try to understand, that if her is in it, it will be MORE frustrating to you trying to convince her than it is for you to simply watch her and let her be. If you truly love her, do what is best for her and be kind to her in OTHER ways. Let her have her religion but you continue loving her as the Christ would. If she is in need, try to be there for her. Avoid confrontation unless she is trying to convert you. If that happens (and you did NOTHING to either encourage it or instigate it), then with mildness avoid what you "know" to tell her or "want" to tell her and just let the Spirit speak to her. If she hears, she will hear. If she refrains she will refrain. The Spirit will say to her only what she "needs to hear" but she may not wish to obey after hearing it. However, she could be willing to hear it later. Do not expect her to listen, and do not expect her not to listen. Just put it entirely in our Lord's hands.. he will do for her what he will do.. if she is willing.
Take care,
Aaron
I think what Kes152 said makes sense... you need to let her do this for herself. Dont coerce her into anything, you can let her know you disapprove but dont bug her and dont force it onto her. If she rejects it, then its her decision and you need to respect that. I know it will be hard but as Kes said, it will be better for her and for you if you just support her and let her be "happy" in whatever she wants. If you force "apostate" material on her and try and drag her out that will just reinforce the WTS stuff about "apostates" and she will end up moving further away from you.
I encourage you to introduce your friend to the historical foundation of JWs, especially Russel and Rutherford. Any casual browsing on JW sites will open the doors to this info.
You will find that: Russel the founder of the group now known as JWs derived his end time dates from Egyptian pyramids; his seven volumes Studies in the Scriptures featured an embossed Egyptian motif on the cover.
Rutherford was a classic cult leader who had a luxury compound built for an expected resurrection of Biblical characters in San Diego (though he lived there himself) and enjoyed travelling by private limosine.
Both would be denouced "apostates" by JWs if they were alive today.
JWs have whitewashed this history in their own publications and the current organization has streamlined away from its embarrassing past. Be prepared to back up your facts with proof. But don't fail to ask these questions: Do JWs believe that these men had the truth? (Yes, Russel established 1914 as a pivitol date; Rutherford introduced the "great crowd" group with an earthly hope, isolating 144,000 for heaven only.) And Does the truth change?
No matter what JWs build up as their organization, the entire foundation of their religion is pure crackpot and cult.
"Be on the watch for the false prophets that come to YOU in sheep?s covering, but inside they are ravenous wolves. 16
By their fruits YOU will recognize them. Never do people gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, do they? 17 Likewise every good tree produces fine fruit, but every rotten tree produces worthless fruit; 18 a good tree cannot bear worthless fruit, neither can a rotten tree produce fine fruit. -Mat 7:15-18
Forget the scriptural stuff - go straight for the obvious - a person can do personal mental gymnastics if they want to delude themself - but, they can't deny that jws don't have charities and don't give impartially. Their only charity is talk - talk is cheap. As for "best people in the world" type of stuff, they barely rate a mention in the legend of their own lunchtime.
And tell her that you don't need to nail him down before you lift him up.
