WHAT DID YOU THINK OF APOSTATES ?????????+ (page 2)

wanderlustguy

I used to think they were pure evil. Hateful people who just wanted to take as many people with them to death as they could out of sheer spite.

Now I think they're pretty cool!

Cordelia

just the same as ggg i thought they were obviously on satans side and actually felt sorry for them coz their eyes were closed to the 'truth'

i remember when i was younger my dad got a big brown envelope through the door (anoymously off an apostate) and they got the gloves out picked it up with a pair of tweezers threw it in the outside bin and then we had to pray as a family that it wouldnt happen again!

not much chance of me being able to talk to them about this site now is there

Cygnus

I and my friends thought apostates were funny. It was a joke. The last night I spent at the bar with my best friend of 20 years as a JW, I mentioned I was researching the 607 "thing" and he jokingly called me an apostate. He's shunned me for over 8 years now because I in fact became one.

KAYTEE

If the JWs can prove to me from the bible that they are in fact God's chosen people, then I will accept I may be considered apostate (as I resigned from the Organisation). But ask yourself this - Are they truly God's people when they have got so much scripturally wrong, how therefore, can anyone be apostate when it is obvious that the witnesses are purely a man-made cult.

Like others have said, when we went to the conventions, we saw so-called apostates, standing outside. I was warned by the JWs not to speak or even look at them. Now I feel like painting my own banner and joining in with them, because the witnesses have a platform, but the so-called apostates do not, and this might be the only way that they can have a say.

It would be interesting to know if anyone on this forum, had taken part in standing outside the conventions as "apostates"

Kaytee

luna2

...my dad got a big brown envelope through the door (anoymously off an apostate) and they got the gloves out picked it up with a pair of tweezers; threw it in the outside bin...

Cordy, I laughed and laughed at this. Like the envelope was contaminated with infectious apostate cooties. LMAO! That's priceless.

Yah, your folks sound pretty closed-minded about the apostate thing.

Terry

When I was an active JW they were referred to as EVIL SLAVES!

You could see them picketing at conventions and we were warned about them. The cautions were to not even "speak one word to them"!

I remember thinking that was silly. IF WE JW'S had the Truth--then how could any propaganda stand up to our messege? It didn't make sense not to talk to them!

I frequently did.

Here is something important, I think.

The fact that the EVIL SLAVE was obnoxious made them appear clown-like and nutty. Had they been courteous and friendly; I would have had a serious earful of their messege.

How you confront active JW's leaves an impression. The simply WANT to see apostates as slavering minions of satanic insanity.

It might make a big difference in somebody's life if you present the objections to the Watchtower in the same lucid, friendly and straitforward manner you'd reason with a child.

Just my thought for the day.

T.

NeonMadman

The term "apostate" really came into vogue in the org after the purge of 1980. Before that, you never heard very much about anyone leaving the organization voluntarily. It was more or less assumed that no one would ever leave the "truth" willingly, only that some people had to be df'ed because they didn't live up to the moral standards. The one exception was the "evil slave" class, and they had become rather antiquated too by the time I became a JW in 1969. However, the "evil slave" was pretty much restricted to the Bible Student groups that had separated from the WTS, and you hardly ever saw them anywhere. Once in a while they would show up and hand out tracts at a big convention, but that was about it.

By the late 1970's, though, a rather large contingent of "apostates" was developing. Many were non-anointed, thus could not be properly lumped with the "evil slave" class, and they were going off in a number of directions religiously, not just signing up with the Bible Students. In particular, a large number were embracing evangelical Christianity, thanks largely to the work of Bill and Joan Cetnar. So the Society couldn't just rumble about the "evil slave" anymore. That was a great term for Freddie Franz to use in his convoluted explanations of prophecy, but as I mentioned, you almost never actually saw an "evil slave". This new batch of ex-Witnesses was all over the place, though - virtually every congregation had a few, after the failure of the 1975 predictions. So they started tossing around the term "apostates," and it became the new buzzword that we all know and love.

NeonMadman

The fact that the EVIL SLAVE was obnoxious made them appear clown-like and nutty. Had they been courteous and friendly; I would have had a serious earful of their messege.

Good point. Though, in fact, I think they were just carrying over the clown-like, nutty behavior that characterized the JW's, particularly during the Rutherford era. When we saw them and thought they were looney, we were really just seeing a parody of ourselves.

jeeprube

Having been born into "the truth" in '76, my reality began in the early '80's. For my entire life I've heard about the "evil Apostates". We always thought that they had been "sent" as a test. We had the "truth" and whenever we saw or heard anything contrary Satan was trying to draw us away. Naturaly, we would pass such test. It's important to understand that anytime someone speaks out against the Organization to a JW, you are actually VALIDATING what the WTS has taught them. In effect they have created their own self fullfilling prophecy.

It's been a real shock for me to learn about the Bethel purge of 1980. Also to read Ray Franze's account of what happened is an eye opener. But the rank and file JW is so programmed that they will never know such things. Thus they will go on in darkness.

What do I think now of Apostates? I feel that it is the WTS that is in apostasy! It is they who have violated the word and commands of Jesus Christ. It is they who have inserted themselves into the role Jesus placed upon himself, that of mediator. It is the WTS who has created a new Pharasiac Law Code. I cannot imagine that heaven could smile upon them.

rebel8

The only "apostates" I ever saw did do outlandish things....picketing the conventions and shouting bizarre stuff...trying to go up on the platform during convention talks and shouting....one shouting stuff at us in a restaurant once. All that just reinforced in my mind that they were crazy and demonized.

Once heard from an elder relative about "apostafests" and was told people were having orgies etc. Was told about a Bethelite that wrote a book claiming he was a wt slave and it was emphasized that he was being led by Satan because he was fulfilling the persecution prophecies. At the time, I believed it.

they got the gloves out picked it up with a pair of tweezers

LOL!!!!! Why? Did they think it was poisoned or something? Surely they don't believe demons are impervious to tweezers and gloves.

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF APOSTATES ?????????+

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