Your belief after leaving JW (page 5)

lilybird

When I first escaped the org 20 years ago, I felt there really was no God. This is the only life. I know that a loving God as the bible protrays him would not allow all the horrible and devasting things that go on. What God could really sit back and watch and wait if he really cared? AS for the one true religion, there are good and bad in all religions. I personally don't need an organized religion to help my thru life or comfort me. Some ppl need this structure in their lives and that is great for them. That is why religion exists and so many types of beliefs. But the worst attrocities in history have been committed in the name of religion and god. Most of them by radical off the wall forms of religion. I don't believe in a God as his own entity. I believe God is the the spirit and force of the universe. That is...the energy of people alive and people formerly living. I do believe in an afterlife. There is so much energy generated by a human being ,, the energy can't just disperse and no longer exist when they die. Anyways,, just how I feel about life matters. I don't need a belief in God. As another poster said( sorry can't remember who) llife is about caring for others looking after yourself and family,, and treating others kindly as you would like them to treat you. The world would be a better place.

RevFrank

Basically I never left my faith. I was studying under my ex-inlaws. When armageddon never came by 1976 my ex was already Df'd and we went our own ways. But then again I never gave up. I just began to study harder.....not on my own faith, but the watchtower. I needed to find out who gave these people such authority.

For one thing they, watchtower, told us that if we left the originaztion we'd be leaving Jehovah. I knew that was in error, but plenty actually believed it so. Many who left became these so called atheists, because they were bombarded with watchtower theology so what could they do? Many in the wt had family in it...sad. I was never a JW, but I did come close to be baptised as one.

So I made it my business to find out all I could on the watchtower. So I studied hermeneutics....the study of translation. the principals of thought of exegesis on Christ. and interprecation. I studied koen greek, more latin, and aramaic. I used many bibles including the nwths,(new worlds translation of the holy scriptures).

I discovered that the watchtower had no scholars when they printed the nwths. So how would they know what a direct article was? Or how to place a valve in the right grammer? They planned big....yet so did I.

I became saved in 1993. So by 1999 I became a reverend. And I established as being a Born-Again-Christian-Apologetic-Minister for Christ.

Why wasn't I burnt out by 1976? Because I had faith knowing that one day the Holy Spirit would show me the way.

"Jesus said to them, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."---(John 14:6)

So if you believe John 14:6, that means not even the Watchtower can come to Jehovah, except through Christ. And since the watchtower doesn't press emphasis on Christ..I wonder where the watchtower gets it's authority? Can't be from the truth Jehovah God.

Matthew in chapter 5 does tell us that the meek, will inherit the earth. I believe it. So does the jehovah witnesses. But one thing they over look. They all seem to love the persecution because they are jehovah witnesses.. yet if we read Matthew 5:11, it reads, " Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake." Who's sake? Jesus' sake.

As for Jehovah Witnesses.....did not Christ tell us that we are to be His Witnesses? "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me, in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of earth."

rwagoner

I still consider myself religious...or perhaps I should phrase it differently....

I never stopped believing in "GOD"...I just stopped believing in a commercial publishing company.

I consider myself a Christian and in fact I am a commissioned Chaplain but I don't believe in the JW teachings and for that matter don't believe many of the teachings of some organized religions.

I believe in God and His Word as I understand it. Which means that my beliefs may not match yours or anyone elses but they are my personal beliefs. I don't push them on others not do I expect others to push their beliefs on me.

Even in my role as a Chaplain I am there to merely represent God's presence I do not "preach" a certain denomination. I merely identify myself as a Christian Chaplain and offer comfort and support.

sass_my_frass

Not even thinking about it yet; still getting my head sorted out. If he's out there, I hope he's more of a Christian Greek Scriptures god than an Old Testament god - Yahweh was described with such vengeance. How about the guy who was struck down because he dared to touch the Ark of the Covenant when it was falling off it's perch, he tried to catch it? (And how did they get it back up again, is what I want to know... I can't imagine there would be any volunteers to approach it without a lead apron and thick rubber gloves...)

The stuff I've held onto is that he's forgiving, and understands that we're just this tiny thing with only so much time to sort ourselves out, and if we get through life without hurting anybody too badly, and maybe helping somebody else, that's good for him. I'm going with that for now.

I'll back this belief system up by quoting some scripture; nah I've got nothing. Oh yeah - 'God is love'. That's all the god I want.

Anyway, who are you, and what do you think?

hibiscusfire

If all religions are the same, then why do they teach so differently, and in many places, contradictory to one another?

itsallgoodnow

I believe life is a miracle that can't be explained in some ancient book of BS. I believe this is the only life I get and the only thing I need to do with it is appreciate it every day. That's my "religion".

hibiscusfire

To Itsall:

All religions may teach us to do good but no one can do good perfectly no matter how much or hard we try.

Sooner or later, all religious leaders and their followers will, like Paul, discover to their utter confusion and disillusion at their sincere but futile attempts to be perfectly good - "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I... O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" ( Rom 7:15-24 )

hibiscusfire

To Lilybird:

The problem is not with the religions but with us - our fallen, sinful and depraved nature can never keep the laws of God or of any religion perfectly. We can suppress our wicked desires for a while but we cannot annihilate them - like a spring, they will bounce back to life again when temptations avail themselves anew to us.

hibiscusfire

To Sass:

I am a believer of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour - mighty God.

The belief of Christianity will exclude all other religions: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. - Jn 14:6

The belief of Hinduism will embrace practically all kinds of deities.

The belief of Buddhism denies the existence of a personal, supreme God.

The belief of Islam will preclude the belief and worship of all the other deities and "isms".

hibiscusfire

To rwagoner:

... I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. - Isa 44:6

If there is someone who made God, then by necessity, there must also be a "someone" who made that "someone" who made God

Your belief after leaving JW

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