Fear of the big "A"

by Chia 41 Replies latest jw friends

  • Dogpatch
    Dogpatch

    Zeal said it right: "this is a real fear that all of us have to overcome at some point or it will drive you nuts. i think the only thing that will help you is knowledge about the real wtbs and not image they have given us about them. the more you read and examin the more you will put to rest the doubts and fears."

    It is really a matter of 1) set aside your fears so as to be objective, and then 2) study the organization, its past, and 3) understand how mind control works by studying how other cults use it. Your fears can melt away in a matter of weeks. That little time bomb of fear will pass away. Gary Busselman said it right:

    The Truth (as I seen it)

    According to Jehovah's Witnesses

    by Gary Busselman

    GOD is the creator, but since he only created Michael,
    and Michael created everything else, ("all other things")
    that would seem to make Michael the real creator,
    but only in a sense, since Michael is Jesus and Michael said to Satan,
    "the Lord rebuke you" makes the Lord powerful over Satan,
    however when Michael had to throw Satan out of heaven in 1914
    he had to do battle with his own creations, Satan and His Angels,
    and in 1918 when he selected Joe Rutherford to be his earthly channel
    and had to put the truth in the mind of Joe
    so Joe could write the truth in the Watch Tower
    and build Beth Sarim.

    All this would be hard to understand if it were not for the "salvation" doctrine,
    which is easy to understand since the living evildoers
    will all be made dead at Armageddon
    and the dead evildoers will be made alive at Armageddon,
    thus the living sinners will die and the dead sinners will live,
    except the dead who are made alive will not really be made alive again
    but when they die God kinda makes a sort of computer chip, in a sense,
    of all the information in their brains,
    like their memories, thoughts, and personality
    and keeps this stored in heaven
    and the Angels that don't join up with Satan help
    and then after Armageddon, God makes a perfect replica body,
    and somehow inserts this memory chip in the perfect replica body
    and then he will judge that new creation of the old person
    who was dead but is now alive, sort of,
    by how he treats the anointed who are mostly dead
    but are represented by the Governing Body, who are not inspired
    but only receive Divine direction,
    and by how well he follows the directions of the Organization
    and if he sins he dies.

    To survive Armageddon, the only way is to be serving God
    in the only Organization that has the truth, Jehovah's Witnesses.
    The truth is defined as the current teachings of the Governing Body
    which largely consist of denying their own past teachings
    and condemning views that are held by other groups
    that the Governing Body will someday adopt as their "new light"
    and "the truth". Serving God is defined as attending the five weekly meetings
    of Jehovah's Witnesses, reading all of the weeks lessons before the meetings,
    including underlining the answer to the questions at the bottom of the pages
    in the paragraphs with a red marker, (yellow highlighter is optional
    as long as it is used in moderation) answering any questions you may come up
    with by yourself, while you keep those questions secret and to yourself,
    by looking up the proper subject headings in the Index published by the Society
    and referencing to the proper Watchtower article
    while attending meetings for field service
    and going out in cars to try to recruit new members into the group
    and to solicit contributions to be turned into the group leaders
    in exchange for Watchtower publications that members paid for
    at the Kingdom Hall using the voluntary donation arrangement
    that was adopted after the Society failed in their attempt to defend Jimmy Swaggert
    in the Supreme Court of California
    after the Superior Authorities fell out of love with him
    and charged him with avoiding sales tax on literature sales
    and all Witnesses must do this or they die.

    Loyalty to "Jehovah's Organization" is important
    since surviving Armageddon is contingent on how well
    we vindicate Jehovah's name which is really YHWH
    and pronounced Yahweh by most Biblical scholars
    only since that was changed to sanctify
    and it now is to exalt Jehovah's Name, not to vindicate anymore,
    and to announce the kingdom that was set up in heaven in 1914 after Jesus
    returned invisibly in 1874
    and again in 1914 for the separating of the sheep and the goats
    by selling Watchtower publications door to door
    and then in 1995 this was changed to
    not separating the sheep from the goats
    but to require all Jehovah's Witnesses to believe
    that the separating of the sheep and the goats will be a future event
    to begin after the start of the Great Tribulation
    except that Jesus had to actually start his judging of the sheep and the goats in 33 AD
    and that he only picked 144,000 Jehovah's Witnesses
    and the number was filled in 1935
    and then the earth was going to be used for the testing ground
    for all the re-created dead sinners and Jehovah's Witnesses for 1000 years
    because this all ties into the date of 1914
    which was arrived at by Nelson Barbour by adding 30 years to William Miller's
    failed Apocalypse expectation date of 1844 which was arrived at by adding a
    year to the previously failed date of 1843, to arrive at 1874, which when
    the end didn't come, he added 40 more years to come up with 1914 which
    Charles Taze Russell adopted and changed to 1915 when the Apocalypse didn't
    come in 1914 then to 1918 when it didn't come in 1915, then he died.

    This is all so simple that a child could understand
    especially in view of the fact that the seven trumpets of Revelation
    were the seven Jehovah's Witness District assemblies from 1922 to 1928,
    starting with Cedar Point, Ohio and ending with Detroit, Michigan,
    only they weren't called Jehovah's Witnesses then
    but since Jehovah picked them in 1918 he waited until 1931
    to give them his name while the generation living in 1914
    and of the age of understanding, about 12 or 15, when World War One broke out,
    except it had been breaking out for a number of years before 1914,
    meaning that the generation that saw 1914 would by no means pass away
    before Armageddon started and "by no means"
    indicates that the majority would be living and never die
    since Jesus told Joe Rutherford that "Millions Now Living Will Never Die"
    by an angel and Joe wrote a book about the dead Princes,
    Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and others would be resurrected to the earth in 1925
    and live in a house he built for them in 1929 in San Diego, California
    except he lived in it himself
    because he thought the start of World War Two would be the beginning of Armageddon
    and then he died.

    Usually this is best understood by believing the truth as Nathan Knorr and Fred Franz
    wrote about it in the Watchtower since they knew that service was the answer
    and that six thousand years since Adam and Eve ended in 1975
    and that maybe, might, could, should be the start of Armageddon
    but they don't remember writing anything about 1975
    and they couldn't say for sure when Eve was created
    and besides so many were going to prison because they were loyal to God
    by refusing alternative service to active military duty
    and no one was taking organ transplants or buying Girl Scout Cookies
    and then they died.

    Sometimes the truth comes as flashes of light and the vaccinations,
    and organ transplants are now all okay and the drafted boys don't go to prison
    but stay at home to be elders and pioneers instead of going to jail
    and the sheep are waiting and the goats are waiting too
    and the generation of 1914 waited too,
    then they died.

    http://www.freeminds.org/buss/truth.htm

    Randy

  • Hecklerboy
    Hecklerboy

    If God does bring an Armagedon someday I don't think your status in an organization will matter to him. He will read the heart condition of the individual and decide. We all know that there are good, loving people throughout the world. In different religions and some that don't even believe in God. People have different trials and tribulations in their life and can change their thinking about religion, life, and even God. But I believe that God can look at a person and see if he/she is a good person. All these rules and regulations have been made up by man to keep people in line. God doesn't care if your disfellowshiped or about your meeting attendance. He knows you and see you for the person you are. Live your life and enjoy it.

    Just my $.02 worth.

  • dh
    dh

    Well, like chief morlock here, I have to say 'You're a (wo)man who's haunted by those two most terrible words.... What If?'

    All I can say is; w hy waste this life which you know is real, hoping for another which may not be.

    The way I look at it is simple, even if they are right, or if any religion is right, it doesn't mean you should do what they say just so you can live in their little paradise, that is like prostitution. No thanks, it's my life, my way, my death. Even if JW paradise was real (which it is not), would you want to be there, knowing how many men women & children were slaughtered to satisfy their God's ego just to put you in paradise? Not on my watch.

    Best advice I can give to anyone who 'isn't sure'... Free Your Mind

  • tetrapod.sapien
    tetrapod.sapien

    it seems to me like you have a pretty good friend there Chia. and some excellent advice in this thread too. if i may just add two things:

    1. ironically, "words" in the form of books will probably be what helps you the most in this growth. remember that gut instincts are not always the best to follow. i would say read a lot. from both sides of the arguement, and yes, talk with smart friends like the one you describe.

    2. try to determine early on what it is that you do not trust from the org. what i mean is, that if your issues lie in thinking that the bible itself is total rubbish, then there is no need dwelling long and hard on JW doctrinal issues. but if you want to remain a christian, and believe the bible, then focus on the JW doctrinal issues.

  • rebel8
    rebel8

    How will having no "judicial" action taken against you protect you from the big A, if it were to really happen? According to dubs, J reads people's hearts too. He doesn't just kill the people that are DFd and DAd.

  • Chia
    Chia
    How will having no "judicial" action taken against you protect you from the big A, if it were to really happen? According to dubs, J reads people's hearts too. He doesn't just kill the people that are DFd and DAd.

    Good point Rebel. I have thought about this point in the past, and it only makes me feel like, "Well, damn, it's all worthless then, isn't it?" And I just suppress it more. I really need to actually OVERCOME the fear.

  • zen nudist
    zen nudist

    I guess most of my fears vanished when I tried to find the historical Jesus and watched him vanish into a puff

    of mythological smoke....

  • BrendaCloutier
    BrendaCloutier

    Several years ago my dad, a long-time elder, confronted me with the What If of Armageddon. I was able to tell him straight on that I will stand before Jehovah and Jesus and the 144,000 on judgement day and own everything I have done, good and bad, and allow them to decide. One of the only two times I have seen my dad speechless! (and both in the same conversation!)

    The redemption Jesus brought was for all mankind. NOT Jehovah's Witnesses. The first-century christians understood this, and practiced Jesus' philosophies, very probably while continuing Jewish celebrations.

    Jesus did not disfellowship those of his following. Those who chose not to follow simply left. It was later, after Jesus death that Paul brough in a form of excommunication or shunning.

    So. What If?

    IMO Armageddon came on June 7, 1975 (4 months early) on the date that I married that good JW man. It was the beginning of the end for me in JW-dom. First was the shunning in his congregation because of who I married and the family I married into, then the rampant alcoholism and domestic violence and suicide attemps. Armageddon ended in October of 1982 when my divorce was final. I survived. Barely. And today I thrive.

    If the Big A happens today, I have no problem with that as there is abosolutely NOTHING I can do about it except what I've done: Live the best life I can inspite of it all.

    Good luck on your search.

  • Chia
    Chia

    Wow, Brenda, that's powerful. You went through your own personal Armageddon. That's an interesting way of looking at it. Thank you for sharing that. That left a powerful impression on me.

  • BrendaCloutier
    BrendaCloutier

    Hee hee, yeah, and it started in 1975 as "they" predicted! And it lasted 7 years 25 days as I walked out on him on July 2, 1982 - Friday night of the Independence Day Weekend. It took until October for the legal paperwork to be finalized. I bet y'all didn't know that Armageddon came with paperwork, eh?

    Chia. You will find your own answers, no one else will give them to you. And you'll be O.K.

    Hugs

    Brenda

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