by hubert 41 Replies latest jw friends
I realize many (or all) of the ex-j.w.'s in this forum have either gotten out of the org., faded, or in some way have come to the conclusion that the Watchtower is not the "Faithful and Discreet slave", and is not the "true" religion that they claim to be. I am curious to know....
"What made you see the light"?
What caused you to start doubting the org.?
(Thanks, Mulan, for the idea for this post).
Hubert
I was starving to death. Spirituality is totally absent from the practice of JW religion. Plus, what they teach contradicts what the scriptures were saying to me.
PB
For years I couldn't understand the WT sidelining of Jesus. But put it down to me not understanding.
Then when something happened to me and I needed help, love and support from "Jehovah's loving organisation" , I got the complete opposite. Which led to the breakup of my family.
This pushed me into looking at the WT its teachings and doctrines etc. After spending a couple of years doing that I could no longer attend meetings etc. because I no longer believed.
That was 1999 now after being on forums like this and others and read what others have gone through and If I knew back in 1971 what I know now about the JW's, I wouldn't have touched them with a barge pole.
I didn't consider the doctrinal errors when I quit, it had controlled my every minute for so many years I just got tired of it all. I married a worldly woman with two kids and never wanted to go back into all that controll. At first I didn't want to let my daughter attend her church but we just sort of reached an agreement and didn't let religion be an important part of our lives. We let my daughter make her own decision about religion. She went at times to my wifes church but wasn't too concerned about religion. She was a perfect daughter and my step-children turned out to be loving also.
It was years later that I saw a reference to Crisis of Conscience and I ordered the book. After reading that I was enlightened about the Org. I also read the comments on H2O and later this board and found out so many things that put me at ease with leaving the organization.
I now think all religion is just the imagination of some person who needs to feel like he knows what God wants us to believe.
Ken P.
For me, the first flash of light was at the Watchtower study in 1995, I think. Being only a mediocre witness, I hadn't studied, so was unprepared for the change in the "this generation" interpretation.
I sat reading the paragraph over and over, and wondering if I was understanding this correctly. I was shocked! As I looked around the room, every smiling nodding head seemed less moved by the change than if they just switched our bookstudy from Tuesday to Monday.
In one Sunday lesson, God's undeniable truth that was taught for decades was turned upside down, and all of a sudden was untrue. Now this other "truth" takes its place, and everyone in the room seemed to accept it without question.
I didn't leave until a few years later, but that one meeting shook me up, and my loyalty was no longer unquestioning. Of course, I thought I was the only one who had a problem with the change.
A few years later, when I fell in love with my "worldly" husband, I had to make a choice. He was okay with me being a witness, except for the blood issue, especially if we had any children. If I was going to risk being disfellowshipped for marrying out of "the truth" and possibly risking future children's lives by the no-blood policy, I had to confirm to myself that I was making the correct choice by staying in the organisation, and to me the way to do that was to verify the authority of the WTS. That was based on being chosen by Christ in 1918, based on Christ's presence in 1914, based on Jerusalem's destruction in 607 BCE. So 607 was where I started and I spent an entire year trying to find some way to validate 607, which just couldn't be done.
I had to admit the WTS was self-appointed instead of God-appointed, started grieving and then healing.
P.S. I'm happily married to my soulmate, have three beautiful children, and no "no blood cards" in sight.
That Light himself, after being revealed to me by the Father.
John 1:7-13; 6:44; 8:11; 6:44
The greatest of peace to you.
A slave of Christ,
SJ
Hello Hubert,
For me it was the Watchtower's unreasonableness in matters of science and logic that pushed me over the edge. They pretend to be rational, but actually, they are very intellectually dishonest.
SNG
For me, it was the complete lack of sympathy I got from elders in two congregations when I decided to divorce my abusive (not physically) husband, and then when the revelations came out about my father sexually abusing me. I needed someplace to talk about it, so I talked online. I got more sympathy and support from "worldly" people I'd never met in person than from the elders or my family.
I decided then that I was going to do what made me happy. But I still thought that their beliefs were pretty much on-target. I didn't really investigate much; just didn't go or read anything. I had been disfellowshipped for *gasp* having a sexual relationship with a man I wasn't married to. (I am now married to him.)
Then one day, out of the blue, I got an email from my long-lost aunt, who had been disfellowshipped over 25 years ago. She had been searching for me. She directed me to this site, and helped me discover more information. I never looked back; devoured everything I could. Ordered Crisis of Conscience. Now I know how seriously messed up that "religion" is.
I've been free and happy for nearly 4 years now, and no amount of emotional blackmail will ever get me to go back.
A combination of the above, I felt spiritually stagnant and also it was the Society's "New Light". I read all their major publications from the beginning and saw the flip flopping of views passed off as new light. I started off with Russell, then Rutherford and the rest. I thought things were better under the Russell administration, made much more sense and felt closer to the Lord because of his emphasis of Jesus.
RR
a friend of mine mentioned to me that the JW's had joined the UN... i asked my mother about it, and she thought it was the silliest thing she had ever heard! so i started to research this "silliness", and found the origional UK Guardian article, then was completely satisfied after reading it directly from the UN's website... in the meantime i had started reading CoC and found this site, among many, many others... all i can say is, THANK GOD FOR GIVING ME SOME "APOSTATE" FRIENDS!!!
bethel
P.S. it also helped being very close to Vicki Boer, and watching what she went through.
