Do Majority of exJWs remain Christians? (page 2)

qwerty

Interesting topic.
I thought I'd bring this topic back to the top for the U.S friends.
(Because of the time diff. )

I was raised JW, and left at age 18 after heavily researching and deprogramming myself for over a year. After leaving I was still christian, but plauqed by the same questions and desire to find out what is true I began to research the bible as literature, figuring that it would therefore be free of theological interpretation. WHat I found out amazed me, I thought I knew the bible well from my JW training, but in reality i knew nothing. One of the more facinating things you can do is research the dead sea scrolls. My idea of them from my JW days was that they found some very old scrolls in the middle east that verified that the bible had remained unchanged for thousands of years. Boy was I wrong!!! The dead sea scrolls are absolutley revolutionary. THey contain many missing links between the evolution of judaism into christian thought. After all, what religion exactly did john the baptists belong to? Jesus was a disciple of john. Jesus spoke very very highly of john, saying the one that came before me is greater. Theres tons of controversial stuff, stuff that raises many doubtsa on the cannonized bibles being an accurate representation of the religious beleifs of ancient jews and ancient christians. Read the gospel of thomas, one of the few published works found among the dead sea scrolls. THis lost gospel, written in aramaic, the language of jesus and his disciples while on earth, is a insightful read. There was even a major hollywood movie based on it called stigmata. Only a very small of the works found within the caves of the scrolls have been published..even now, more than 50 years later they are still trying to translate everything.

My standing right now is I am not christian..after all I researched i cocnluded the bible is a very flawed book, tainted by centuries of peoples medling with it and molding it into what they wish. It;s just another book to me, no holier than the ingredient list on my box of kellog's corn pops. Jesus lived, but to me he is just a man, a follower of another man, john the baptist. I am not arrogant enough to say there is no god, but if there is one he or she or they certainly don't gicve a damn about us. Read the darwin awards website to see how people die everyday doing stupid things or making a little mistake that cists them their lives.

Among the x-jw friends in my area, they are all agnostic like me. We have written offf christianity :) But I wont condem others for being christian. Just when the beleifs get pushed on me. Like that damn bush administration here in US.
-Dan

freddi

hi there,
i haven't been in a church since i stopped attending the k.h. since i stlll do believe in the messiah and the almighty, whatever his name is, i still consider myself a christian.
peace

slipnslidemaster

Welcome to the board. I'm glad that you're here.

I couldn't agree with JT more or have said it any better.

after a combined 60+ yrs between my wife and i we have decided to take a break for religion, bible and god
after yrs of arguing over this Greek word and that greek word we feel we need a break

I need a break too.

Slipnslidemaster: "In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. "
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Lindy

I think that felix a/David P summed it up for me. I, as he, started out still believing in the Bible and the God of the Bible upon leaving. But after years of research I remain, although open to discussion, an agnostic. I also found, as has bboyneko, that there is to much left out of the Scriptures and that there is a lot more to be discovered before the facts and real truth are known. As far as I am concerned, "God" came, "God" created, "God" left.
Who "God" is/was, and how many were involved, are more questions. The more research you do the more questions you have. I have learned to live with the fact that the answers might be out there but they may never be discovered and believed by all.
If that were true, then what kind of high almighty being would do this to his "creation"? One who created for his or her, for their purposes, was unintentionally proposed as a God to the created and then left, never even knowing that they were perceived as Gods as they departed. But then the question follows...who created them?
So that about sums it up as to where I have gotten to so far...

Lindy

manicmama

Christian or not I don't know. I do know that I have questioned everything and most I have found I no longer believe in. I do know that I am a very spiritual person, but I don't believe that has anything to do with religion, just that I am much more comfortable with myself and expressing my own personal views and viewpoints with others including my husband who is also an ex-dub, something we could NEVER discuss before.

JeffT

I became a Christian a year before I became a dub. Had I done some research first, I would have realized I was going up a blind alley. When my wife and I left our principal complaint was the the Watchtower distorts the Bible and Christianity. We now attend a non-denominational Christian church, but our believes our what we determine for ourselves, not what is spoon fed to us by some one else.

I think our pastors would die if they thought somebody was leaving the church on Sunday morning saying to themselves "Well, I don't agree with what he said, but I have to believe it."

qwerty

bboyneko said

My standing right now is I am not christian..after all I researched i cocnluded the bible is a very flawed book, tainted by centuries of peoples medling with it and molding it into what they wish. It;s just another book to me, no holier than the ingredient list on my box of kellog's corn pops. Jesus lived, but to me he is just a man, a follower of another man, john the baptist.

I respect that you have done your research, the dead sea scrolls study sound interesting, is there a web site you used?
However it's a shame (to me) that you did not remain a Christian, because at the same time many men and women have done the same in deapth study, which rather then it weaken their faith it as had the opposite effect.

Then there are ones become born again Christian's. They have a personnel relationship with Jesus, they know him like a close friend. This is the type thing that can not be studied, because we can not experience a persons feelings for them.

slipnslidemaster said......

I couldn't agree with JT more or have said it any better.
after a combined 60+ yrs between my wife and i we have decided to take a break for religion, bible and god
after yrs of arguing over this Greek word and that greek word we feel we need a break

Again there are one's who have studied Hebrew and Greek. This as served to strengthen their faith in the Bible, their religion and God.

In the end I feel there is more to this life then meets the eye. I am a Christian so I believe in the creator. When I sit back I can not see how the intricate design of all things can possibly come about by chance. There are always arguments and counter arguments. For every answer there is always someone there with a counter-answer. In fact you can get to the stage where you feel like this.........

qwerty

"I have an existential map; it has 'you are here' written all over it. "
- Steven Wright

bboyneko

Qwerty Said:

I respect that you have done your research, the dead sea scrolls study sound interesting, is there a web site you used?

No, I went to the library. I can't recall all the books used but some titles come to mind, [i]The Dead Sea Scroll Deception, The Gospel of Thomas, The Lost Gospel Of Q[i]

When I sit back I can not see how the intricate design of all things can possibly come about by chance.

Life couldn't possibly come to be by chance because it is too complicated? What about God, isn't he much more complicated than a mere human? How did he come about? He has always been? No beginning and no end? So if he, a complicated form of life could just 'always be' why can't the same be said of humans?
-Dan

Do Majority of exJWs remain Christians?

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